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During my time with YFC in North Staffs we experienced a whole load of "wilderness" time, especially around the transition from one director to another. It seemed to last forever, not really knowing what direction we were headed, but being aware that things were definately going through a change process but not knowing exactly what the change would be, or where it would take us as an organisation.
So starting in this new role at Cov YFC, I've always known there would be a wilderness time in the whole transition process, and although I decided to ask loads of "why" questions about the organisation whilst letting "business" happen as usual (as possible, anyway), I also decided that the "wilderness" needed to be as comfortable and SHORT as possible.
However, just over a month into the role, I'm starting to see similar patterns emerging as happened in North Staffs.
I know that I'm asking a lot of questions about the place, (yet it seems maybe not enough), but there seem to be a certain lack in people with answers. Don't get me wrong - the team, the exec, the people I've met around cov, they're all great, and I absolutely love the role (there really is so much potential and eagerness in people for God to do some cool things), so I guess it must come down to communication.
The team need to know what I'm here for (I think they do, but want to get out of this wilderness thing - or maybe just get used to things being "not the same") and more importantly, I probably need to find out exactly what the exec think I'm here for, cos if there are crossed wires on any of that core stuff, then problems may well be in the near future.
Anyway, hopefully a few meetings tomorrow will shed a bit more light on this whole area.
UNITY has to be the top priority - but unity requires a certain amount of shared sense of purpose.
More soon
Here it is - I finally got round to writing about the book "Lead Like Jesus", but where do I start?The biggest problem is that it's supposed to only be 500 words, but I could easily write that about just one chapter. So, I'll keep it short and precise.
If you can't be bothered to read the whole thing - my "review in a sentence" is...
READ THIS BOOK!! It will tell you what you thought you already knew, and then ask the one question that you really hoped you weren't going to see - one of those questions that makes you think "OUCH"!! And Yes, it IS all about servanthood!!
Click the link below for the full 500 word document!!
I actually recorded the audio of the whole thing, and I was sorely tempted to upload it to this site, as it is actually highly stimulating, but although he gave me permission to record our time, I never actually asked him whether I could make it public, so I guess I probably shouldn't. However, if you really want to hear what he had to say (and if you suggested a question that I should ask, there will be an answer there somewhere), then either drop me an email begging for a copy, or hold on a few days and check back as I need to write up the whole thing as a character study for MLS anyway.
For now, I'll leave you with what I consider to be the best answer to a question that he gave...
Q: Being the leader of a big organisation like YFC, how do you avoid switching into "leader" mode in you personal & social life?
A: I don't!! I'm a leader all the time - that's who I am - it annoys my family a lot, but that's me!!
Absolute Genius!!
While I was there, the MLS group met up for an hour or so, expecting to catch up and have a social experience together. As it turned out, the leaders had other ideas up their sleeves...
Basically, we were set the task of holding two 25 minute "meetings" - one to discuss the future of the national conference, and one to decide on a 5 year plan for the YFC sports teams. That bit sounded quite easy. The hard bit was that we each had to take a turn in Chairing the meeting for 5 minutes.
Now normally I'm quite happy leading meetings, and especially ones where you're discussing big "vision" type ideas, but to chair just a small part of a meeting where the basic line of discussion has already been set by another "chairman", and all that without any pre-thought-through agenda, was quite tough and frustrating.
So, I spent a large part of our time trying to do my "pre-meeting prep" and by the time I actually worked out what the thing was that we REALLY needed to be talking about, my chance at chairman had passed and we we're summing our discussions.
And what did I learn? Well, primarily that knowing what you want to talk about before a meeting is paramount. But I did also come to realise that chairing a meeting isn't about having great ideas - it's about setting an arena for others to have great ideas and encouraging "every-person participation"
So, if YOU have meetings that you attend where your heart is really to think creatively and problem solve, you need to find someone else to be the chairperson. Simple huh?
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