Leadership in Complex Times
What sort of leadership is needed in this time of complexity and uncertainty? I want to explore some implications of Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) for congregational life. This theory sounds, well, complex!
However, for this conversation, I think we can sum it up rather easily. CLT assumes that the environment we inhabit has so many variables and possibilities that a person cannot discern a specific path forward with any degree of certitude. Not only do we not know things; we are aware that there are unknown things that we don’t know!
In such a space where we can’t simply gain a cause-and-effect clarity for our decision-making, a different kind of work is needed for leaders. Rather than simply gaining (or hiring!) expertise and implementing some “best practice,” leaders in complex environments experiment in their contexts and observe what happens. Rather than developing elaborate five-year strategic plans, these leaders engage in well-conceived probes – learning and adjusting based on what we learn.
CLT’s suggestions align well with the reality that many of us face in congregational contexts. So many factors are in play that tried-and-true practices from a generation ago no longer are effective. Multiple dilemmas stack up on each other, making things complex! From a theological frame, CLT can remind us that the world and our congregation are actually in God’s hands. We can’t figure out everything in order to lead well. It will not be adequate to lead from knowledge or experience from some other time. And that is perfectly okay! God is the one who is leading, and our leadership will need to take a different look.
CLT is also helpful in that it asserts three dimensions for the practice of leadership. Those three dimensions find resonance with ideas that I have expressed before. Yet I believe they need to be named again, this time using the insight of CLT.
Vision Leadership – CLT refers to this as adaptive leadership. Within non-faith-based organizations, leaders seek to adapt by paying close attention to the multiple emerging dynamics in play. For those of us leading in congregations, our adaptive attention is focused on God’s activity and work in our environment. “What are we seeing through our time with Scripture, prayer, and our context?” Leaders are looking for glimpses of God’s presence in our world, identifying that presence, and declaring it to others.
Pastoral Leadership – CLT would call this enabling leadership. However, for our purposes, I much prefer the language of empowering. Churches have always needed leaders who empower believers to grow and mature in the faith. So pastoral leadership is indispensable to our work. Sadly, pastoral work is often reduced to hospital visits or sitting with folk who are in rocky places in their lives. Certainly, such care is needful and important! Yet what we often neglect is the hard pastoral work of teaching and forming Christian people. The best pastors are those who empower others to pastor! Perhaps the old phrase might be useful here: “Are we making disciples, or are we making disciple-makers?”
Administrative Leadership – CLT uses this term, and I’m going to stay with it. Our communities of faith need structure and support. Rather than run from this sort of work, leaders need to embrace it and then delegate appropriately. Often leaders can get stuck in this space, and leadership teams need to avoid this dilemma at all costs. However, churches need administration! If this makes you a little bit sick to your stomach, simply look at the word administration for a moment. It has the word ministry right in the middle. Simply put, administration is “bringing people to ministry.” So, is your leadership team inviting and empowering others to take up the work of ministry? And is your leadership team allowing others to attend to structural and support matters so that you can attend to the two other dimensions of leadership?
More could be said about all of this. And I will take another run at CLT soon. But for now, may I suggest that you embrace the complexity of our time? Then, let faith and paying attention to God’s presence in your ministry context be the starting place for imagining what experiment might be useful.
