Pendulums and Fire

Most change in organizations is 1st order change, the change of the pendulum. We seek 2nd order change, the transformation of fire. Peter Berquist, The Postmodern Organization

Growth, life development and organizational change have at least one thing in common; they all face the potential rubber band cycles of movement to the new and then reversion to the old. Each time a change forward happens it has to fight the gravitational pull backward of the old. This back and forth pendulum-like motion is labeled 1st order change. You look at almost anything in life and this initial change forward can only ‘stick’ if it gets out of the gravitational field of the old orbit. Pendulums are predictable, cyclical, and pictures of entropy. Pendulum change is essentially system tweaking, members of the system doing more or less of something they have always done before, as a result 1st order change is reversible and threatened by the pull of yesterday.

The change of fire however is quite different. This 2nd order change is transformation that occurs through being forced to do something new that has never been done before. This is the exact opposite of more of the same.  This is an effort to intentionally do something of a totally different sort.  The problem? Fire is unpredictable, chaotic, gravity defying, linear and irreversible. What is the point of this paradigm of change?

In any transformation, we are usually working with 1st order change tools when we actually need 2nd order change. We almost always prefer pendulums to fire.  Pendulums are clean, elegant, predictable and listen carefully…hypnotic.  They makes us think something is happening but slowly bring us back to a hypnotized stupor.

Evaluate how much change you make in your area of ministry or life that is 1st or 2nd order change. You will probably find the greatest changes made were almost always by fire, but most solutions you’ve explored are pendulums.

New Discourse for Our Day

Realize that old communication patterns are less and less effective in the new (postmodern) world, and discover new, appropriate models of discourse.
Brian McLaren
The tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet are not only signs of subterranean movement but of a new emerging landscape that will require new maps. Every quadrant on both sides of the sacred/secular line, a line that shouldn’t even exist,  tells us “story” is THE postmodern way to communicate. Points and principles aren’t as effective as they used to be. Experience wins the day and story is experience.

Of course, Jesus is the master storyteller captivating the masses with parables, allegories, and illustrations. Here are five pointers toward a new rhetoric for post modernity:

1.    Words will have to be authenticated with a life-story. Authenticity is necessary in the crucible of the experiential 21st century. Practical transformation is “story” proof.
2.    Truth will be just as important but it will be clean, simple and with an earthiness often illusive in today’s cumber-some techno-babble and christianese.
3.    Our new narrative will allow others to enter in and tell their own story and see how they are part of God’s overarching story. This will allow a left brain/right brain balance and be more inclusive, compelling and creative.
4.    We will seek to move away from the propositionalizing tendency that reduces the biblical story to a bunch of biblical stories with the same weight as Bill Bennett’s Book of Virtues or Aesop’s Fables.
5.    We will recognize the power of the biblical narrative is to invite us to constantly reinterpret our life story, with all it’s brokenness, pain and incompleteness against the wholeness and hope bringing narrative of the biblical story.  It is this that makes Christianity unique.

The Fine Balance of Life’s Ecosystems

The main ecosystem threat is inevitable entropy.
John Lyons
An ecosystem is the balanced harmony of outputs and inputs that provide a healthy environment for life to flourish. As with all ecosystems, an imbalance in the output/input ration and you are looking at trouble. The tendency of all systems to move to lower energy and greater disorder is called entropy. Look at your office, your kids bedrooms, your staff leadership team, or your vocational context. The law is universal, that is why it is called the second law of thermodynamcis

I continue to hold up Robert Quinn as the most insightful guy on all this entropy stuff. He says all humans, like all systems, have two and only two choices, slow death (entropy) or deep change. The problem is we want easy change. But that isn’t on the menu of options. It is slow death or DEEP change.

Spiritually speaking our spiritual lives and vocational world are constantly going to lesser energy and higher disorder. Every time that happens we are facing a balance problem – in ecosystem terms the outputs of the system are exceeding the inputs. How do we intercept spiritual entropy? Make a list of outputs and inputs into your ecosystem….then answer these:

1. What are the 3 biggest entropy producers in your life?
2. What 2 things could you being doing that would significantly increase your ecosystem balance?
3. What 2 things could you curb or cease that would make room for your two new high leverage entropy fighters?
4. When will you being your two new things and who will keep you accountable?
5. What current inputs need to be incased? Decreased?
6. What earmarks alert you to imbalance in your ecosystem?

The Bose Speakers in Your Mind

The internal dialogue that goes on inside of our heads is the greatest determiner of our outlook, performance, and expectation level. The silent self-talk floating between our two ears has deafening impact on our self-perception and ability to change what over time, has come to feel like “our fate”. But here is the liberating and powerful truth of it all – all of us control what mental iPod tunes play. Through conditioning from coaches, school teachers, parents, siblings and employers, we have certain sound waves that get lots of repetitive play; some detrimental, others beneficial. The source of these MP3 brain downloads is much less important than the hard work of purging the archives of those “downers”. Here is a prescription:

1. Do a “waking hours” thought audit. Every time you find yourself listening to dialogue you find less than desirable, note it in print. One or two days of this and you get the idea real quick.
2. Identify any patterns that you see emerge. By and large our own thoughts are something less than affirming and bolstering. Are there certain times of the day your thoughts are less or more on target? How impact by moods are they and vice versa, how does that self talk impact your moods?
3. In response create a mental trigger list. These are key thoughts, quotes, biblical references that act as counterpoints to the cycling iTunes that keeps playing.

On a more proactive tact, create a daily quotes list that allows you to pre-program your thinking for the day.

Book Resources: Joan Borysenko-Minding the Body, Mending the Mind. Tara Bennett-Goldman - Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Mend the Heart.

Placing the Catalyzing Question

“There are few things as powerful as a well placed question.”
Bobb Biehl, Founder of the MasterPlanning Group

In his book Jesus Asked, Conrad Gempf notes that of the 67 different story units in Marks Gospel where Jesus is questioned about something, in no less than 50 of those units he responds with a question. Not a particularly new insight but one that nonetheless helps us understand the right question are the tillers or the earth of our soul, they create self exploration, and a sense of journey.

Questions catalyze the questioned one and provoke some real soul searching . Questions reveal our desire to learn from the one questioned, and demonstrate our desire to hear their story and take interest in their space. I challenge you to develop a battery of questions that you have on the tip of your tongue. You will be surprised at the life development happening at subterranean levels. Here are couple gems for starters…

• What is the most important thing you’ve learned this month?

• Best book in the last 6 months?

• Best blog you read ?

• How can I help you most right now?

What are some of the questions you have learned to ask that help you get growth mileage?

making dents

“Great groups (teams) hope to make a dent in the universe”
Steve Jobs, Founder of Macintosh Computers

This quote may be even more significant in light of the announcement of the iPhone and the way Steve framed the announcement. I am sure by now you have seen the actual announcement feed on the Apple site. But let’s reflect a bit on his statement about teams.

Great teams flare like a rocket, are propelled with power toward a previously unexplored destination and leave behind a residue – a residue that bespeaks their synergism and creativity. We too hope to make a dent in the universe; a dent of divine design and immense proportion. Divine because dents not bearing God’s perfect pressure are annoying flaws detracting not adding to a person’s beauty. Immense proportions because any life moved closer to the kingdom has traveled a huge chasm over sin, selfish inertia and enemy enticements.

To build on islands of health and strength we must create healthy environments where experiments can be conducted, fuels tested, maps into space charted and rockets eventually built. This will be as exhausting as it is exhilarating. What new habits of health are you committing to walk out that will make you’re a better dent maker? What kind of dent are you hoping to make? What is its size, shape and on whom are you to make it?

Rockets are designed and built by taking intentional steps in the context of team. Will you commit to facilitating the most exciting rocket building environment possible and to do all you can to make a dent with those teammates you lead and in the lives of those with whom we are called to travel. That is the journey we are called to facilitate, that is the journey we as leaders must consider taking every day.