Catalyst: Nurturing A Leadership Culture

The second lab I made it to today was Tim Elmore speaking about creating a culture of leadership. There was actually a middle lab but I had serious contact problems since my flight and spent that session over at the optometrist and Kroger’s to get some relief. I was so looking forward to hearing Craig Groeschel since I’ve come to love his book Chazown (and I’m still only halfway through it).

In any case, here are the key points I got from Tim. His notes are at growingleaders.com in case mine aren’t good enough.

• How do you build an environment that naturally causes leadership to grow?
• Most employees aren’t even aware that there’s a culture in their organization. They can join up and say they do or don’t like this place, but can’t say why. It’s because of culture.
• Programmatic changes
• Most churches make programmatic changes from the outside in. We want to modify behavior so we add a new program. Not necessarily modifying the heart, and may be artificial.
• Finding enough leaders to fill spots
• Programs come and go.
• Organic changes
• Authentic changes in the relationship and fiber of your environment. Hard changes from within that actually change the way people think and act from the inside out.
• Build an environment where all people are leaders in different areas. Where all plants in the garden are leaders.
• Not an overnight change
• Are you really a leadership cult or a leadership culture?
• A cult is a rudimentary group of followers devoted to a person whose organization and authority seem to fade when that person that created it departs.
• A culture is an environment where people chare a common language, values, qualities and behaviors and set them apart from others and which grows of itself.
• Kenyans don’t need to be told how to act like a Kenyan. Kenyans naturally grow Kenyans.
• Ingredients of a Culture
• Common Values - Not just posted on a wall but they live them out.
• Common Language
• Common Qualities
• Common Customs and Behaviors
• A leadership culture emerges when someone champions the cause of leadership and works a plan to create that environment.
• Programs usually start very big and shrink to something small.  Movements start small (like 12 disciples) and grow very, very large.
• Movements that lasted more than one generation had the following ingredients.
1. Central Man or Woman (God brings up one individual, not a committee or large group) in the beginning catches a vision
2. Compelling Mission - Central statement that says what we're about
3. Creative Model - See a tangible example of how it's been done and how it should be done
4. Catalytic Meeting - Leader brings people together from one area
5. Critical Mass - Not everyone buys in, but a percentage does.  Becomes the body of people that say they want to do something about this (often doesn't take very many, just a few with reckless abandon)
6. Community Materials - Original leader or others commits the words of this mission, vision and leadership to print.  Leader realizes they'll be gone someday and want to keep the ideas going forward after the original leader is gone
7. Contagious Movement
• People need events and process in their life
• Event
1. Encourages decisions
• At a one day conference or event people make decisions
2. Motivates people
3. Calendar issue
4. Usually about a big group
5. Challenges people
6. Becomes a catalyst for change
7. Easy
• Process
1. Encourages development
• Cannot develop the event without process
2. Matures people
• Mature in the weeks and months following the event if you apply the lessons learned from the event
3. Consistency issue
4. Usually about a small group
5. Changes people
6. Becomes a culture
• Building leadership culture means I do process really well.
7. Difficult
• Life change happens in small groups. "There is no life change without life exchange."
• An event will spike growth.  after the event the interest will drop, but with process it won't drop back to the level where you began
• Youth camps are an event.  Two days devoted to the change and the last four devoted to living the process once you get home
• Never again plan an event for the church until a process has been developed to go with it
• In New York in the early 90's fixing all the windows changed the culture of the city.  A tiny change can make a huge change in the culture
• We had a Sunday School of 60 students.  I knew I could preach some of them in, but instead began changing the culture.  We began building leaders and grew from 60 to 600.  I don't think I preached any better, but at least one out of every 10 of our people were in a position of leadership and giving responsibility of a leader.
• When you first get started there's no momentum.  Once you get going, you're not as good a leader as people think you are.
• A Leadership culture is an environment of shared values and behaviors that contagiously affect people to think and act like authentic leaders.  It's an environment that gets people to think like people.
• Plan to implement a leadership culture
1. Criteria
• Sit with a key group of influencers and ask what criteria God wants us to go after
• What's the criteria of the qualities of people you're going to look for of the people to get in the movement.  (Jesus didn't ask anyone he ants to come come to be disciples.  He had a definite criteria)
• Example: GIFTS - Gifted people (in front of groups, organizing, planning, strategizing, connecting with people, something makes them influential), Influential (have influence in a circle), Fruitful (want to see them already bearing fruit, even if having a team to sweep floor), Trustworthy (can't train for integrity), Serving (already serving in some capacity, even if it's a minor thing, don't want someone who's just "praying for a mentor to come along")
2. Catalyst
• come up with some catalytic event
• Example: Had two catalytic events every year where we'd talk about and wrestle with the idea that god wants us to raise up leader.
• Not everyone is a leader as someone who has a position.  But the following definition, "Leadership is simply using my influence for a god given cause"; everyone has this.
• We have the capacity as human beings to lead a group.
3. Communities
• Had event now have critical mass.  Step up and say "Now many of you really identified with principles this weekend.  If you really want to continue on this journey sign-up and we'll match you in a group to continue to build on this journey
• Clusters of people that are going to do the process
4. Challenge
• Every community should be given a real problem to solve in he church or in the community.  Over the next 6 months have them work together to solve that problem.
• Leaders solve problems
5. Coaches
• Ideally every one of the communities aught to be led or facilitated by a coach.
• The coach does not need to be an expert, just needs to be a facilitator to make sure the group does not get of topic.  Keeps them moving forward even if they're only one step ahead of the group
6. Consultants
• On the way the problem may seem large even the coach doesn't have answers.  Bring in a consultant from the community outside the church one time to get some expertise on that area.
7. Curriculum
• Found that it was helpful to give the groups some sort of guide to go through finding leadership principles that helped them keep on track.
• Becomes a discussion point in addition to the problem
8. Champion
• Someone will have to be the champion for the process.
• Habitudes - How to change culture
1. the Joshua Problem
• The problem is that Joshua never found someone to pour into and never trained another Joshua.  This lead to the worst period of history for Israel
• Can't neglect the idea of apprenticing
• Must have apprentices for every leader you have in church
2. Critical Mass
• Who are you going to implode on in a small group before you're going to explode on the whole congregation
• Get some key influencers, get the small community so that the buzz begins in them and explodes in the community.  then make an announcement so it sticks
3. Hollywood Effect
• Assume the character.  Act on the character you want to be like
• When an organization wants to change and you post the cultures on the wall it takes at least 10 years for the change to happen
• If the key influencers simply act on the key values (even if it feels like they're acting) the effects can be seen within three years
4. Family Virus
• to build culture need to have people work in teams (close proximity) and have them fit the culture (Similarity)
• Charles Simeon's Leadership Culture
• Mentor said if you want to change the culture of an organization you need to stay within the organization.
• Circles
1. Chapel - outer circle
1. Said after talk, now some of you resonated what I had to say, if so meet me Tuesday for conversation
2. Conversation Groups
1. Take it deeper and hand pick the ones who he saw as potential leaders.  Invited to supper club Sunday nights to go deeper
3. Supper clubs
1. amounted to about 15.  Challenged about leading and making a difference.
2. Made a group of 3 or 4 that were seniors and he called his inner circle.  Worked as vision casters and as a movement maker within the church.
• Became a fundraiser to get the money to get the 3 or 4 leaders he wanted to be leaders within the church instead of letting the rich of the church decide
• Not a great speaker and had a kind of crusty personality.  But changed the culture of the Anglican church

posted by Tom at 10:25 PM