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. 

Multi-Layered Leadership

Reading this 2002 article, "Multi-Layered Leadership:  The Christian Leader as Builder, Shepherd, and Gardener," almost convinces me that its author must have been in conversation with Peter Drucker.  It's not that hard to believe that this would be possible, since Scott Cormode, its author was the chair in Church Adminstration and Finance at the Claremont School of Theology, about a 5 minute walk to the Peter F. Drucker School of Management.  Plus, it would explain the references to Peter Senge, Max DePree, and Ron Heifetz. 

But outside of this pondering, a number of things have been going through my head.  This model which Cormode proposes of the "Gardener," is what other leadership people would seemingly call connective leaders.  In that, they recognize that there are different leadership skills requied for different situations, and that they are able to meet these situations with the appropriate skills or know how to let another person with the certain required skills, frames, or training take the lead.  It's an example of shared and empowering leadership, which is able to make meaning.  When Cormode writes that "the good pastor will begin to acquire skills to work with each of the models.  At this point, the models stop being styles and become 'frames'" I wonder, if he was aware of the connective model?  (If you click that link, you will be taken to an explanation of it, and to its diagram showing the interdependence and interrelationship of the different areas of leadership.)  They seem to compliment each other well.  If I had known about this article a year ago, I might have referenced it in my masters work on developing a leadership model for cultivating leadership in Haiti. 

The case study which is discussed about a congregation facing a difficult situation would be a useful example of how to implement my tweaks to the Connective Leadership model below.  When there is a situation or challenge, an organization, group, or person will be faced with needing to respond.  When there is no challenge, and life is in a state of "status quo," this might be a state of "routine."  When ideas or assumptions are challenged, rebuilding or remaking one's approach or understanding might be called for.  This is where leadership as a way to cultivate meaning is so important.  Recovery then, is a way of responding to a challenge, and restoring order.  The extent of the challenges might categorize them as "simple, chaotic, complicated, or complex."  I, with the help of the work done by Jean Lipman-Blumen and David Snowden and Mary Boone, hypothesize that these states of challenges might require different leadership skills or sets. [1]  [2]

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A direct approach (what Cormode would likely call the "builder" approach); an instrumental approach (what he terms the Shepherd approach); and a relational apporach (closely resembling his conception of the gardener).  I could say much more here, but for now, I will leave it with this background.  If there is more interest by you, the reader, I would be hapy to continue to explain the model or even provide you with my paper from last year where this model comes from.

 

[1]  David J. Snowden & Mary E. Boone, “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making,” Harvard Business Review, November 2007, pages 68-76. 

[2] Jean Lipman-Blumen, The Connective Edge:  Leading in an Interdependent World, (San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996), page 112.