“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!'“
We don’t yell a lot in our house. Neither my wife nor I are wired that way. And since our boys haven’t seen it modeled, they aren’t particular loud, volatile kids.
But they are teenaged boys and, occasionally, the anger has to get out.
Right now, almost all of that anger is reserved for a video game.
College Football ‘25, to be exact.
One of my boys is playing as the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. And after a furious comeback to tie the game with under a minute left, he’s just trying to get to overtime.
There’s time for two plays, if the Florida International Panthers (sponsored by Pitbull) decide to use their last timeout between plays. But they’re deep in their own territory, so they’ll probably run one play and take the game to overtime.
Not taking any chances, however, my son calls a defense that divides the deep part of the field into quarters, with one player responsible for a particular part of the field. It’s a good strategy.
Unless one of those players doesn’t do their part.
You can guess what happens next, right?
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!”
A completed deep pass. Time out. Field goal.
Game over.
Florida International 45. Western Kentucky 42.
All because one (AI-powered) player didn’t do their part.
Football games - and organizational challenges - can never be reduced to one person’s actions on one particular play.
But sometimes, one person’s failure to live up to expectations results in catastrophic consequences.
That’s why we talk about the PART that leaders play within their organization.
The work of guiding people into their own transformation for the sake of a collective purpose requires a leader to develop:
(P)ERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
(A)DAPTIVE RESILIENCE
(R)ELATIONAL CONNECTION
(T)ECHNICAL COMPETENCE
A leader grows and matures as they develop the capacity to consistently live out each of these guiding principles. That type of formation does not happen accidentally or without effort. Leaders need curriculum and coaching to become who they want to be.
That’s why I’m excited about this week’s release of the Practicing Change series by Tod Bolsinger (Canoeing the Mountains, Tempered Resilience). The four books in this series are a terrific way for you and others to grow as a leader, particularly in the area of ADAPTIVE RESILIENCE.
In each book, you’ll evaluate how much of your leadership is captive to:
Trying harder at what has been successful in the past
Focusing on pleasing historical stakeholders
Doing whatever is possible to eliminate resistance
Confusing trust with transformation
This is the prevailing mindset of organizational leadership and it distracts leaders from their primary work of developing their own capacity to guide people through change (which is always painful and resisted because it requires good things to be left behind) so the church can be who God intends the church to be in this cultural moment.
Filled with case studies and reflective exercises that invite leadership teams to work together, the Practicing Change series is a curriculum that I’ll be recommending and using with coaching clients often.
Next Right Thing
I’ll pass along Tod’s advice: Choose the book that addresses the challenge that is most challenging to you right now.
You may want to read it for yourself first or jump in with your team. Either way, I hope you’ll read slowly and take time to develop the skills that Tod invites you to work on.
And if it would help, I’ve opened up some spots in my calendar for us to have a conversation about how to further develop your adaptive resilience in this season. Here’s all that you need to do:
Buy the book from the series you need most right now
Read the book (they’re around 100 pages) before we meet
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