Page 60 - The Church of Ireland Apologetic for Mission?
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not only about change, but also about what needs to continue. “People and human systems resist loss, not change. Adaptive challenges are complex because the change will inevitably involve a sense of losing something. Leadership requires an ability to diagnose what losses will be experienced in any change initiative”.88
e. That the ability of an organisation to adapt is enhanced by diversity and occurs as a result of experimentation.
f. That the process of leadership begins with an understanding of your own organisation’s culture, structures, and ways of thinking.
g. That it is important to understand that the “status quo can be seen as solutions that were put in place to solve yesterday’s problems”,89 with familiar and comfortable behaviors, ways of thinking and acting which rest on beliefs and assumptions that may have been useful for solving problems in the past. These may or may not be useful for the challenges of the present.
h. That the Church of Ireland is like any organisation, with its own distinctive mindset and characteristics that can limit its ability to adapt to new realities.
i. That it is important to identify any contradictions between strategy, mission, goals and the values and mission of the Church of Ireland?
j. Thattheintuitiveskilldescribedby Heifetz as being able to listen to the song beneath the words is important. Essentially it is being able to look beyond what people say by their body language, energy and emotion, paying attention to what is not being said.
Effective leadership at any level in the Church of Ireland is about interventions that mobilise people to address worthy challenges. It is about keeping this work at the centre of attention. Mostly out of fear of
p 2 Ibid
p 4 Ibid
p 4 Book Summary: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
loss the difficulty arises because it is human to avoid the discomfort of challenging questions such as:
• Whereisitthatwetrulywanttobe?
• Aretheregapsbetweenwhereweareand
where we say we want to be?
• Howwillweknowthatwearesuccessful?
• Whatchallengemightjustbeonthe horizon?
It is a type of leadership that “requires new skills and competencies, including spirit, guts, heart and head. It requires the courage to bring your whole self to the engagement. It requires that you connect to a compelling larger sense of purpose”.90
This leadership is required at denominational, diocesan and parish level. Elements are required in every part of
the structure of the Church of Ireland. If
this is the case then comments, directly quoting a range of interviewees encapsulate challenges that immediately arise:
Where does the spark come from? How do you fan that flame?
Help people to be hopeful – rekindle hope (What is needed is) Mission orientated
leadership
Can the Church equip leadership to create a mission focus?
5. Episcopal Leadership
The Commission on Episcopal Ministry & Structures report to the 2014 General Synod stated:
The Commission is mindful of two priorities: firstly, the requirement in the 2012 Statute that the mission
of the Church should be the focus of its work, and secondly, the emphasis placed by General Synod members taking part in the break-out session last year on episcopal leadership. Here in the Commission’s Vision those two
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