Transcript Wilson Gunn--Reframing Presbytery

Reframing Presbytery
Structure
People
Politics
Symbol
Reframing Presbytery
•
•
•
•
Structural Frame
Human Resources Frame
Political Frame
Symbolic Frame
Using Multiple Frames
• “It can be enormously liberating to realize there is
always more than one way to respond to any
problem or dilemma.
• “Frames serve multiple functions
• “Collectively, they make it possible to reframe,
viewing the same thing from multiple perspectives.
When the word seems hopelessly confusing and
nothing is working, reframing is a powerful tool for
gaining clarity, generating new options, and finding
strategies that work.”
Consider Your Operative Frame(s)
• Each of us tends toward preferred
frames
• Organizationally, the same or different
frames may dominate or have
dominating usage
• Can you see how the use of different
frames impacts your presbytery as an
organization?
Reframing Presbytery
1. Structural Frame
• Work Allocation – differentiation
• Coordination – integration
Bills and
Overtures
Committee on
Representation
The Presbytery
(Manual of Administrative
Operations Introduction))
Com on
Preparation for
Ministry
Permanent
Judicial
Commission
Session Records
Review
Committee
Nominating
Committee
Council
Investment
Committee
Mission
Coordination
Committee
Administrative
Division
Ministry
Division
Church
Development
Committee
Personnel
Committee
Associated
Ministry
Groups
Committee On
Ministry
Stewardship
Committee
Administrative
Commission
Congregational
Property
Budget
Committee
Structural Frame
Work Allocation – differentiation
•
Function of Committee, staff, etc.
•
Time –deadlines,
•
Product – what is it?
•
Process – flow of work
Structural Frame
Vertical Coordination
Lateral Coordination
• Authority
• Meetings
• Rules
• Task Forces
• Planning
• Coordinating roles
• Control
• Matrix structures
• Networks
Structural Frame-Polarities
• Differentiation vs Integration
• Gap vs overlap
• Underuse vs overload
• Lack of clarity vs Lack of creativity
• Excessive autonomy vs Excessive interdependence
• Too loose vs too tight
• Goalless vs Goalbound
• Irresponsible vs unresponsive
Structural Frame Assumptions
•
Presbyteries exist to achieve established goals and objectives
•
Presbyteries increase efficiency and enhance performance
through division of labor
•
Appropriate forms of coordination and control ensure that
diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh
•
Presbyteries work best when rationality prevails over personal
preferences and extraneous pressures
•
Structures must be designed to fit church circumstances
•
Problems and performance gaps arise from structural
deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and
restructuring
Adapted from Bolman and Deal
Reframing Presbytery
2. Human Resources Frame
• Build and Implement Personnel Philosophy
• Hire Right People
• Keep them
• Invest in them
• Empower them
• BE the boss when you need to be the boss!
• Manage staff and volunteers differently
Human Resources Frame
• Manage volunteers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Invite the skill you need
Invite the new “view” to challenge groupthink
Danger of the mass invitation
Insulating Presbytery system from the
troublesome “exported” elders
Accountability
Thanks, praise, commendation, recognition
The relational economy – a different bottom line
S2
S4
S1
Low Supportive
and
Low Directive
(Low)
High Directive
and
Low Supportive
Directive Behavior
D4
High Competence
High Commitment
Developed
Style of Leader
Supportive Behavior
S3
(High)
D3
D2
D1
Moderate to High
Competence
Variable Commitment
Low to Some
Competence
Low Commitment
Low Competence
High Commitment
Developing
Followers
(High)
High Directive
And
High Supportive
High Supportive
and
Low Directive
Human Resource Frame Assumptions
• Presbyteries exist to serve congregations of
disciples/apostles serving the Mission of God (i.e.
congregations do not serve the Presbytery)
• Presbyteries need ideas, energy, and talent; people need
ministries congregations provide
• When the fit between those serving and presbytery system
is poor, one or both suffer. When people are exploited or
exploit the presbytery, both become victims
• A good fit benefits both. Those serving find meaning and
satisfying ministry; presbyteries get the talent and energy
they need to succeed in serving congregations
Reframing Presbytery
3. Political Frame
“Interdependence, divergent
interests, scarcity, and power
relations inevitably spawn
political activity.” p 194
Political Frame
•
Presbyteries are coalitions of assorted individuals
and interest groups.
•
Coalition members have enduring differences in
values, beliefs, information, interests and
perceptions of reality.
•
Most important decisions involve allocating
scarce resources – who gets what.
•
Scarce resources and enduring differences put
conflict at the center of day-to-day dynamics and
make power the most important asset.
•
Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining and
negotiation among competing stakeholders
jockeying for their own interests.
Warrior Roles
Toxic
• Narcissistic
• Corrupt
• Callous
• “evil”
• Unprincipled
• Lack self-awareness
• Unresponsive to
feedback
• Break the rules
Relentless
Principled
• Passionate and
Pragmatic
• Bend the rules
• Grudge keepers
• Persistence
• Courage
• Often Polarizing
• Stubborn
• Constricted field
of view
•
•
•
•
“Very poor hater”
Aspirational
Conviction
Commitment to
overarching
purpose
• Combat in
perspective
• Self-Sacrifice
• Big Picture
perspective
Political Frame
• High Context Cultures
•
•
•
Relationally oriented
“Rules” direct you to the person who decides
Usually hierarchical in authority practice
• Low Context Cultures
•
Task/ Results oriented
•
“Rules” are rules everyone follows
•
Usually more egalitarian in authority practice
Political Frame
•
Low versus High Context Cultures - “mores”
around political activity differ
Church is a high context pocket within a low
context North American environment
Unlike most high context culture, church
leadership is egalitarian not hierarchical
Low Context – no holds bared, anything goes
•
•
•
•
•
LBJ in contrast to Jimmy Carter
High Context – fraught with secret taboos
•
•
Double standard: leaders and followers
“Not”-the-bishop leadership?
Political Frame
• Distinguishing more and less emotional
systems and subsystems
•
Corresponds with more or less measureable
results
• Creative management of anxiety in system
• How stretch a system (ie “lead”) in a minefield
of taboos?
• Executive as “Alice” , Presbytery as the “Queen
of Hearts”
Political Frame
Warrior
Qualities
Elements
Heart
Passion
Courage
Persistence
Mind
Knowing What You Want
Mapping the Terrain and developing a game plan
Responding adroitly to threats and opportunities
Aligning Passion to Purpose
Choosing Your Battles
Skill
Knowing the psyche/soul
Making friends and enlisting allies
Rallying the troops
Enlisting friends and buying off enemies
Weapons
Position
Organization
Allies
Resources
Warrior Roles
Position
Toxic
Relentless
Principled
CEO
Al Dunlap
Bill Gates
Warren Buffett
Military
Hermann Goering
Ulysses S Grant
George Marshall
Robert E Lee
National Leaders
Richard Nixon
Adolph Hitler
Idi Amin
George W Bush
Lyndon Johnson
Abraham Lincoln
Barack Obama
Nelson Mandela
Coaches
Bobby Knight
Mike Krzyzewski
John Wooden
Personal Work
Therapy, Coaching
Spiritual refreshment
Dysfunctional Propensities
Familiar Misery Magnified/ Projected
Ego, Anger, Vengeance
Political Frame
Then…..
High
Camps
CDC
Mission
Power
COM
Staff
Planning
Low
PW
Exec
Pro Change
Council
Personnel
Interests
BPU
Opposed to Change
Political Frame
High
Now…..
Council
COM
Power
Mission
Exec
CDC
Personnel
PW
BPU
Staff
Camps
Low
Pro Change
Interests
Opposed to Change
Political Frame Assumptions
•
Presbyteries are coalitions of diverse individuals and interest
groups
•
There are enduring differences among coalition members in
values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of
reality
•
Most important decisions involve allocating scarce resourceswho gets what
•
Scarce resources and enduring differences make conflict
central to church dynamics and underline power as the most
important asset
•
Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation,
and jockeying for position among competing
stakeholders
Your Political Frame
Power
High
Low
Pro Change
Interests
Opposed to Change
Reframing Presbytery
4. Symbolic Frame
• Metaphor
• Myth
• Stories with Power
• Secrets, Taboos
• Meaning
Symbolic Frame
Our “product” is symbolic, thus we are a
community of “wizards”
• Wizards are wise
• Importance of Symbolic/ Sacramental Events
• Link between word and deed
• Passionate
• Transformational, not just transactional
• Connect familiar past with new possibility
Symbolic Frame
Wannabe
•
•
•
•
•
•
Underestimating influence of the environment on
organizational values and practices
Discounting the significance of symbols/ cultural
values in change
Discounting importance of heroes and heroines
Getting caught up in your own image and
neglecting purpose/goals/vision
Overpromising and raising unrealistic
expectations
Surrounds self with like-minded loyalists
Symbolic Frame
Harmful
• Both Villain and Victim
• Flourish in isolation and ethical vacuums
• Never alone in their plots, always coconspirators
• Narrow field of view
• Alternative reality with seeds of their own
destruction
Symbolic Frame
Authentic
•
Seeks, embraces and dispenses Wisdom through
questions asked, metaphors employed, stories
told, (parables!). (not specific advice)
•
Embrace foibles and folly (“God is in the
interruptions” Carl Jung)
•
Intimately connected with own soul
•
Reveals sacramental, poetic in everyday duty
•
Available to each of us with personal spiritual
work
Symbolic Frame
Position
Harmful
Wannabe
Authentic
CEO
Frank Lorenzo
Bernie Ebbers
Ken Lay
Liz Claybourne
Mary Kay
Military
Hermann Goering
Westmoreland
Swarzkopf
National
Warren Harding
Slobodan Milosevic
Joseph Stalin
Woodrow Wilson
George W Bush
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama
Nelson Mandela
Coaches
Dave Bliss
Tomjanovich
Phil Jackson
Religious
Jim Jones
David Koresh
Most fired pastors
Desmond Tutu
MLK, Jr.
Many vital pastors
Symbolic Frame
Congregation Leader
Presbytery Leader
Administrator (not so symbolic)
Mythic role of the Pastor
Overseer (not so symbolic)
The meta story teller
Boundary Maintainer (not so
symbolic)
The priest
Every Sunday opportunity to
shape the Symbolic
Clarity of Role
Sentinel (more symbolic)
NOT the Bishop (Not the leader?
Not the symbolic presence? Not
the voice of oversight?)
Role ambiguity
How do we cast the Vision?
How can a Presbytery Leader
work symbolically? What is the
space for such in your system
AEPS meeting
Symbolic Frame Assumptions
• What is most important is not what happens but what it
means
• Activity and meaning are loosely coupled; events have
multiple meanings because people interpret experience
differently
• In the face of widespread uncertainty and ambiguity, people
create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability,
find direction, and anchor hope and faith
• Many events and processes are more important for what is
expressed than what is produced
• Culture is the glue that holds an organization together and
unites people around shared values and beliefs
(Re)Framing Organizational Change
Frame
Barriers to Change
Essential Strategies
Structural
Loss of clarity and stability
confusion, chaos
Communicating, realigning, and
renegotiating formal patterns
and policies
Human Resource
Anxiety, uncertainty; people
feel incompetent and needy
Training to develop new skills;
participation and improvement;
psychological support
Political
Disempowerment; conflict
between winners and losers
Create arenas where issues can
be renegotiated and new
coalitions formed
Symbolic
Loss of meaning and
Create transition rituals; mourn
purpose; clinging to the past the past; celebrate the future
Bolman and Deal (2003), Table 18.1. 372.
Reframing Presbytery
•
•
•
•
Structural Frame
Human Resources Frame
Political Frame
Symbolic Frame
Resources
• Lee G. Bolman, Terrance E. Deal, Reframing
Organizations, 4th ed., Jossey-Bass, 2008.
• Lee G. Bolman, Terrance E. Deal, The Wizard
and the Warrior; Leading with Passion and
Power. Jossey-Bass, 2006.
Your Political Frame
Power
High
Low
Pro Change
Interests
Opposed to Change