Spare Change: And Introduction to Systems Thinking

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Spare Change And Introduction to Systems
Thinking Congregational Change
Rev. Joan Van Becelaere Ohio-Meadville District
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Overview

• This time is to acquaint you with a few basic
  introductory elements of systems thinking and
  congregational change process.
• We wont have enough time for in-depth
  discussions. (But more is offered at UULTI)
• The primary focus is to help shift the way we
  perceive change and reactions to change in the
  congregation.

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Spare Change

• The rate of paradigm shift (technical
  innovation) is accelerating, right now doubling
  every decade. We will see more change in the next
  20 years than we saw in the last 100. And then
  things will really speed up from there.
  Ray Kurzweil

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Spare Change

• How is your congregational currently changing?
• How does this transition influence members and
  staff?
• How is this change influencing me?

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Spare Change

• SYSTEM THINKING
• To think System is to think in a unique way.
• focus on the relationships that exist among
  discrete parts
• things do not exist independently, only in
  relationships to something else
• the whole cannot be understood by simply
  understanding each part
• things only function as they do because of the
  presence of one another

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Spare Change

• SYSTEM THINKING
• nothing is influenced in one direction
• each part contributes to what is happening
• change in one part produces change in other parts
• the mutual maintenance of behavior, system
  stability
• the interactions between different people affect
  the whole
• relationships are not merely interesting-thats
  all there is!!!

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Spare Change

• Even more important, he said, is the way
  complex systems seem to strike a balance between
  the need for order and the imperative to change.
  Complex systems tend to locate themselves at a
  pace we call the edge of chaos. We imagine the
  edge of chaos as a place where there is enough
  innovation to keep a living system vibrant and
  enough stability to keep it from collapsing into
  anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval,
  where the old and the new are constantly at war.
  Finding the balance must be a delicate
  matterOnly at the edge of chaos can complex
  systems flourish. Michael Crichton

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Spare Change

• When chaos strikes, transformation begins. The
  Spirit of a people enters a critical process with
  possible end results ranging from dissolution to
  the emergence of a radically new, more complex,
  adaptive organization. The process itself is that
  of grief working, enabling us to let go of what
  was in preparation for what is yet to be.
  Harrison Owen

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Spare Change

• GRIEF REACTION TO CHANGE
• Shock and Anger
• Denial
• Memories
• Open Space - Despair
• Open Space - Silence
• Questioning/Imagining
• New Vision

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Spare Change

• Recall a time of great change in your life. It
  does not matter whether the change was positive
  and exciting (the birth of a child) or negative
  and difficult (a divorce or the loss of a job).
• Begin at the point where you first received news
  of this change and recall the feelings you had as
  you lived through the change.
• Think about the sequence in which you felt those
  reactions.

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Spare Change

• Ronald Heifetz
• Leadership Without Easy Answers
• Leaders do not need to know all the answers.
  They do need to ask the right questions.

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Spare Change

• know that our congregations are interdependent
  systems.
• face the reality of change ourselves, know the
  stages and signs of grief and where we are
  located in our own personal process.
• realize that people go through the grief process
  at different rates.
• work to make our congregations truly safe places
  where people learn to accept change, work with
  it, and create a new vision of the future.

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Spare Change

• One of the biggest flaws in the common
  conception of the future is that the future is
  something that happens to us, not something we
  create. Michael Anissimov
• What does it mean to believe that we create our
  future?
• What would it mean for our lives if we lived as
  if this statement were true?

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Warning

• Blatant Advertising to Follow!

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UULTI 2008 Live the Promise Turn Outward in
Faith

• July 28 Aug 3, 2008
• Juniata College, Huntingdon PA
• UULTI (Unitarian Universalist Leadership Team
  Institute) is a week-long residential learning
  experience.
• Its practical tools and powerful ideas will help
  renew faith, embrace congregational growth and
  change, welcome and nurture all, and fulfill the
  hopeful loving promise of Unitarian Universalism
  in the wider world.

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• Who should attend?
• Board members, ministers, committee chairs,
  religious education professionals, treasurers,
  administrators, musicians, and other current or
  emerging leaders.
• In particular Individuals from smaller
  congregations, encouraged (by discounts!) to form
  geographically-based learning teams. Teams from
  larger congregations that include lay leaders,
  part-time or full-time ministers, and all other
  congregational staff.
• WWW.UULTI.ORG

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Spare Change

• Thank you for being here today!

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Bibliography

• Leading Change in the Congregation Spiritual and
  Organizational Tools for Leaders by Gilbert R.
  Rendle. Alban Institute.
• The Power of Spirit How Organizations Transform
  by Harrison Owen. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
• Memories, Hope and Conversations Appreciative
  Inquiry and Congregational Change by Mark Lau
  Branson. Alban Institute.

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