Becoming a Lifetime Learner

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Becoming a Lifetime Learner

• Strategies for Personal Growth
• Eric Swanson

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The World is Changing

• Greater access to information
• Past proficiencies dont necessarily indicate
  future performance
• We have to take responsibility for our own
  learning / growth

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Leadership Challenges

• Where is the ministry going?
• What are the most strategic thrusts?
• What are the leadership challenges presented by
  these strategic thrusts?
• What will leaders of the future need to be able
  to do if the strategy is to succeed?
• What do you need to learn / experience if you are
  to be one of the people the Crusade will turn to?

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Maslows 4-Stages of Mastery

• Unconscious ignoranceI dont know what I dont
  know
• Conscious ignoranceI know what I dont know
• Conscious competenceI can do this when I think
  about it
• Unconscious competenceI can do this without
  thinking about it

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Ministry effectiveness is found here This is where you create new value for the organization This is where you create your greatest organizational contribution
Most staff reside here or here
Everyone begins here
Experience and Skill Level
Not Competent Competent Highly
Competent
Not Unique Somewhat Unique
Unique
What you know
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Skillful and Wise

• If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more
  strength is needed but skill will bring success.
  Ecclesiastes 1010

Strength Required
Skill level
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We are a Learning Organization

• A learning organization is one where everyone
  takes responsibility for learning, growing and
  contributing
• A learning organization is required when the job
  is so huge, the complexities so mystifying that
  no one person can figure it out
• A learning organization is one where the least
  qualified person can suggest the best idea
  because it is evaluated in light of the mission /
  visionnot by who made it

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Characteristics of Life-long Learners

• They never stop learningthe world is a
  classroom intensely curious
• They never stop growingapplying what they are
  learning
• They never stop achieving and contributing to the
  lives of others--they truly believe that the best
  years of ministry are still ahead of them. The
  best ideas are yet to be discoverd

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They Never Stop Learning

• We learn from
• the Scriptures
• People
• Books
• Experiences
• Set Learning Goals
• My objective is to learn ___________ so I can
  accomplish _____________

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They Never Stop Learning

Knowledge Doing Learning
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CE Sensing
Imaginative Learner Let me watch first
Dynamic Learner Can I play?
RO Watching
AE Doing
Common Sense Learner How do you win?
Analytic Learner What are the rules?
AC Thinking
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Intense Curiosity

• The simplicity of Gods creation. Everything he
  did he used three colors

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Intense Curiosity

• The simplicity of Gods creation. Everything he
  did he usedthree shapes

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Curiosity Leads to Creativity

• Creativity is looking at the same thing as
  everyone else but seeing something different

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They Never Stop Growing

• Without faith it is impossible to please God...
  Hebrews 116

Mystery
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for
and the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews
111
Mastery
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COURAGE AND COMPETENCE
Low Courage/High Competence
High Courage/High Competence
COMPETENCE
High Courage/Low Competence
Low Courage/Low Competence
COURAGE
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They Never Stop Contributing
Reaching Convergence
Where gifting, experience, geography, position,
etc. converge
Operating from strengths and gifts. Says no.
Making unique contribution
Discovering gifts and unique abilities, learning
and retooling
Inner life, skill mastery, faithfulness,
availabilitysay yes to opportunity
Family, intelligence, experiences, Personality,
etc.
Bobby Clinton
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They Never Stop Contributing

• All growth occurs in stages
• Each stage has a ceiling
• We become prisoners of our own successits not
  about returning to the golden years of the past
• To move to the next stage we need new
• Goals
• Relationships
• Organizational structures
• Habits

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Different set of strategies
The Complexity of Competence (Is draining
The Complexity of Simplicity (Is
energizing)
The Complexity of Competence (Is draining)
The Complexity of Simplicity (Is energizing)
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They Never Stop Contributing

• Learners need refinement and delivery systems
• Reflective learning
• Teaching
• Writing

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Take Home

• Using the learning / skills grid write down all
  of the valuable things you do in your ministry in
  the appropriate boxes
• Where are you feeling stuck?
• If we were meeting three years from today, what
  has to have happened during that three-year
  period for you to feel happy about your personal
  progress?
• In this next year, I want to learn _________ so
  that I can _____________.

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Ministry effectiveness is found here This is where you create new value for the organization This is where you create your greatest organizational contribution
Most staff reside here or here
Everyone begins here
Experience and Skill Level
Not Competent Competent Highly
Competent
Not Unique Somewhat Unique
Unique
What you know
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Take Home

• Using the learning / skills grid write down all
  of the valuable things you do in your ministry in
  the appropriate boxes
• Where are you feeling stuck?
• If we were meeting three years from today, what
  has to have happened during that three-year
  period for you to feel happy about your personal
  progress?

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Becoming a Lifetime Learner

• Strategies for Personal Growth
• Eric Swanson

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Who Will You Be in the Future?

• Five years from now, who do you want to be / not
  be
• Physically
• Spiritually
• Mentally
• Socially