Leadership as Learning and Meaning-Making

I preface this post with the caveat that this one is more of me just offering some random thoughts which come into my brain while process what Cormode writes about. 

Scott Cormode cites Peter Senge, when saying that Senge calls the process of communal understanding "'the development of collective meaning' and argues that it 'is an essential characteristic of the learning organization.'" (Cormode, 96)

Cormode takes this idea and then creates his conception of the "gardener," as a leader or person who can evoke learning and the process of making meaning.  He writes, that "the gardener tills the soil and prepares the environment.  But the growing itself is often beyond the gardener to control.  Thus to evoke learning is like cultivating a garden.  It comes when the environment is right.  Cultivating these learning environments becomes the principal work of ministry." (97)  WOW!  Now, not only is cultivating learning and knowledge an act of leadership, it is a part of one's vocation and ministry! 

This builds off his explanation which he offers of Symbolic Leadership.  He refers to the work of Bolman and Deal who explain this form of leadership as centering "on the concepts of meaning, belief, and faith." (94)  During situations of challenge and uncertainty, then it is up to the symbolic leader to create meaning.  Cormode writes, "During periods of significant social change, society looks to such symbolic leaders to weave troublesome events into a coherent narrative of hope." (94)  If you are looking for some historical examples, consider the way Martin Luther King Jr. worked for Civil Rights by weaving together the narrative of Moses leading God's people out of Egypt.