The industrial age is over, and with it treating organizations like an impersonal machine. This is the “quantum” era, where groups of people working together need to be treated as the living organisms that they are.
Mark Youngblood is a consultant who has been developing an effective way to renew organizations. Here at the Congregational Life Centre we are excited by it, because it captures with so much clarity so many of the principles we have found to be true as congregations deal with change. We are also excited because it is a business book that includes the church as a place to learn what it means to be a thriving organization.
At the heart of his message is what he calls “the quantum organization.” What he says is that “Quantum Organizations—which operate based on the principles of living systems—are characterized by openness, flexibility, responsiveness, resilience, creativity, vitality, balance, and caring.” Quite a list. What it means in effect is that they are designed to respond quickly to change, something traditional bureaucratic organizations are not designed to do.
He illustrates with the image that reminds me of so many efforts in congregations I have known, trying to push a huge block of stone up a hill. How much was your last effort at change reminiscent of the scenes in The Ten Commandments of pharoah’s guards coercing teams of sweating slaves to assemble the pyramids. What happens? “When we muster our forces to shove this massive stone around,” says Youngblood, “we find a workforce that is already exhausted. And workers are cynical: Because the changes take so long employees never get through with one change before the next one is ordered.” Sound familiar. We hear about exhausted volunteers from almost every congregation we encounter.
Youngbood offers a different picture. Try this one on for size:
Since the need to change is constant and unavoidable, [volunteers] decide to transform the shape—the fundamental nature—of the organization to make future changes easier. A massive block of stone is disaster to a change effort. What if they rounded its corners so it would roll instead of slide? What if they lessened its weight by making it smaller? Small groups would have no trouble rolling these lighter balls from place to place. Not only that, they would not need managers [read clergy] to force them to do so. Instead, the people in the organization could collectively determine a direction, and then empower the leaders to point the way.
The Leader’s Roll
All this creates a new role for a congregation’s leadership, that of coordinating activity and holding up the vision. This sounds like good news, especially when one considers how many church staff have tried to assume responsibility for everything that happens and as a result have had to take stress leave.
Leadership is less about telling, more about showing. Youngbood reminds us it was Francis of Assissi who said, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
Many leaders today complain that they are losing their power. Youngblood has a neat definition of power that amplifies, for me, what Paul Tillich said many years ago in his book Love, Power and Justice. “For each measure of power that a person takes, he or she should take two of responsibility, three of accountability, four of humility, and five of caring.” A good recipie.
Vision and Core Values
The big picture has an important role in business, and in the church. Youngbood cites the church as an example of an organization that points people toward a higher overarching vision. He makes the point very strongly, that it is the vision that is common to all those in an organization that holds them together. “Politics, bickering, in-fighting and selfishness are less an indication of character flaws than they are an absence of a shared vision that transcends individual concerns.”
Most of us have been part of a team or a group that have worked very hard for a common cause. We look back to those times with nostalgic longing. “Set your mind on God’s Dominion and God’s justice,” Jesus told his followers, “and all the rest will be yours as well.” It was true in Jesus time, and it is true today.
Vision is where a congregation is going. Core values summarize the way people deal with each other on the way there. Youngblood prefers the terms purpose and principles. Other words often used are mission and objectives. The words are not as important as having these two clearly articulated, not just on paper, but in the minds and hearts of everyone involved. Only then will it actually serve to guide Boards and committees as they go about the business of decision making.
The Transformation Team
Youngblood’s conclusion after leading many organizations through change is that people do not resist change. What they resist is being changed. If it is their own idea, that makes all the difference. The challenge is how to involve people in a process that gives them the ability to make what happens their idea.
There are a number of roles that bring about transformation. Youngblood defines five:
A Sponsor is the one who kindles the process, sometimes initially pushing, but eventually inviting and attacting people into the transformation process. It is usually someone in a position of formal leadership— the chair of the Board or Vestry, the staff—or preferably both working together.
A Champion who is someone widely respected and influencial, who legitimizes the whole process and encourages everyone to become involved.
A Steering Committee whose role is to coordinate the planning process, provide resources, remove obstacles, monitor progress, enable communications, and encourage, encourage, encourage.
Once a plan is in place, the real work of putting it into action takes place. Each project identified in the plan needs to have a Project Leader whose passion for the particular task and leadership ability combine to attract people, and a Project Team make of core members who see the whole project through, and virtual members whose expertise can be drawn on at key points.
It is no use assigning tasks to existing committees. They have their agendas full. A new task needs a new task group. It is old wisdom. “New wine requires new wine skins.” It was true in Jesus’ day. It is true today.
“Leading change is an exercise in creating the fertile ground out of which the organization can evolve a new way of operating.” That, according to Youngblood, is the task of a transformation team.
This is a book with endless wisdom. Transferring its insights to a congregation’s situation I find is relatively straight forward. It is evident that the author appreciates the fact that congregations are organizations in the full sense of the word.
Mark D. Youngblood, Life at the Edge of Chaos: Creating the Quantum Organization. Dallas: Perceval Publishing, 1997. $37.50 CDN.
Congregational Life Vol. 7 No. 3 August 2001