Chapter 1 begins by continuing the conversation about the threat that Leadership represents. People do not resist Change per se, people resist loss. (P.11) Leading and organization into the future means that the past must be left behind. That "leaving behind" represent loss and people don't generally react well to loss. When people experience loss in their lives they go through a process we know as "grief".
Grief is both predictable and as varied as the people who experience it. However, there are certain stages of grief that have been identified and are revealing to the leader who effects change. Being aware of the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance helps a person to lead a group through the difficult changes and into a healthy transition.
During these stages of grief people will use certain methods (the author calls them dangers) to try to take the leader's ability to lead away. Again, awareness of these methods is vital. Two of the dangers are obvious and will be experienced overtly. These are marginalization and attack. The other two are more subtle. Diversion disquises the problem by prentending there is another, more imporatant issue at hand. Seduction is worse, it plays on personal ego to distract. Too often it is welcomed by the leader and it isn't until it is too late that the danger is realized and the leader is discredited.
Another important concept introduced in this first chapter is the division of problems into two groups. Those are "technical" and "adaptive" problems. The author describes them in this way, "Every day, people have problems for which they do, in fact, have the necessary know-how and procedures. We call these technical problems. But there is a whole host of problems that are not amenable to authoritative expertise or standard operating procedures. They cannot be solved by someone who provides answers from on high. We call these adaptive challenges because they require experiments, new discoveries, and adjustments from numerous places in the organization or community. "(p.13)
2 comments:
I found this interesting today. I have found some difficulties in being in a leadership position and being a woman. I didn't realize that being a woman would marginalize me in some people's opinions whether they think they are doing it or not. It's been an interesting and frustrating experience. Good thing I am a little firecracker when I need to be!
I'm reminded here of what a great place Good Shepherd UMC is to serve as a pastor simply because of the openness of the members/attenders in looking at adaptive challenges. Almost any other church you go to, local church traditions are so entrenched that to make changes represents a threat or a "loss," and yet Good Shepherd remains very open to new ideas.
In thinking through this chapter, I have tried to think of the areas where Good Shepherd has experienced grief because of the result of a transition. I believe that here at Good Shepherd, it's not the loss/change of a particular church program or change in the physical structure, but the loss is more acutely felt by the loss (by death, moving, etc.) of certain folks who shared of themselves. That may seem obvious, but, in a way, I believe Good Shepherd is unique in how loss of people affects the church as an organization.
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