Barnabas File

You’ve heard the old joke: “How many ­­­­­______ (name your denomination) does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: “None. ________ don’t believe in change.”  Funny but points out the biggest challenge for the church—being willing to accept not only change but the necessity of transformation in order to be the church that the world needs today.   In a recent presentation, Peter Hawkins highlighted five keys to organizational transformation in the 21 st century.  Think about them and how they apply to the church.   First, Purpose led.  Purpose is clearly stated, and stakeholders are aligned behind it.  What can we uniquely do that the world of today and tomorrow needs?  Are we spending too much time on peripheral ideas and not addressing the major needs of our time?  We can keep rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or change the course of the ship before it is too late.   Second, Stakeholder-centeric. ...

In a recent webinar, Peter Hawkins presented a new coaching paradigm.  Using the title “From Ego to Eco Coaching:  Creative Value Beyond the Client,” Hawkins challenges coaches to take a broader perspective on their work and their relationship to the client.  Here are his five challenges:  1.     1.   You are never just coaching an individual but coaching with and through an individual. When an individual changes, he or she can change a system. 2.       The person being coached is not simply your coaching partner, and it is the joint purpose that creates the partnership not the partners.     Bob Dale called this relationship “thought partners.” This conveys the same idea.     We join together around an idea that the person being coached identifies and the coach embraces. 3.       The team dynamic, organizational culture, the wider community, and the ecology are not out...

In our coaching and coach training, our focus is usually on the partnership between the coach and the client.  In this process, the coach leads the process with the client providing the agenda—the subject for discussion, resource discovery, action plans, and achievement.    In an online presentation, Professor Peter Hawkins suggested a new perspective for the coaching relationship. His presentation on “From Ego to Eco Coaching:  Creating Value Beyond the Client” offered a challenge to place the coaching relationship in a larger context.  How can the coaching relationship benefit the organization, society and the world? Hawkins outlines the change in perspective in this way:   For the coach it means moving “from facing the person you are coaching as your client, to going shoulder to shoulder with them as your partner, jointly facing what their world of tomorrow is asking them to step up to.”   For the coach and client, the new orientation...

In our coaching and coach training, our focus is usually on the partnership between the coach and the client.     In this process, the coach leads the process with the client providing the agenda—the subject for discussion, resource discovery, action plans, and achievement.    In a recent online presentation, Professor Peter Hawkins suggested a new perspective for the coaching relationship. His presentation on “From Ego to Eco Coaching:  Creating Value Beyond the Client” offered a challenge to place the coaching relationship in a larger context.  How can the coaching relationship benefit the organization, society and the world?   Hawkins outlines the change in perspective in this way:   For the coach it means moving “from facing the person you are coaching as your client, to going shoulder to shoulder with them as your partner, jointly facing what their world of tomorrow is asking them to step up to.”   For the coach and client, the...

As we engage in these volatile times, leaders of organizations--including churches--have struggled to understand their roles.     Most job descriptions were not written for crisis situations.     Leaders have been asking themselves questions like, “What am I supposed to do now?”     “Am I providing what my church/company/team needs?”     “How will I know that I am doing the right thing?”   If one has a clear understanding of their individual purpose as well as that of their organization, then he or she has guidance for action.  This does not guarantee success, but it does provide a sense of momentum.   As Peter Hawkins discusses Purpose Led Organizations, he identifies five disciplines of a purpose led organization.  These apply in times of relative calm as well as times of crisis.  They apply both to the organization and to those who lead it.  Let’s look at each briefly.   First, commissionin...

When times get difficult, culture can both affirm our strengths or magnify our weaknesses.       Unfortunately, we often don’t know what we have to work with until crisis comes.     This should encourage us to try to better understand and assess our cultural norms.     In writing about the Purpose Led Organizations, Peter Hawkins identifies three outcomes of purpose related to culture.   First, it attracts and energizes employees.   In Good to Great , Jim Collins wrote:    The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they  first  got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and  then  figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the...

In defining purpose, the Gallup Organization explained, “A company’s purpose is a bold affirmation of its reason for being in business.     It conveys what the organization stands for in historical, ethical, emotional and practical terms.     No matter how it’s communicated to employees and customers, a company’s purpose is the driving force that enables a company to define its true brand and create its desired culture.”   As water is to fish, culture is to any organization--including the church.   We are immersed in culture with all of its artifacts, values, and assumptions.  Unless something happens to challenge those givens, we rarely think about the culture we find ourselves in.     For the most part, a church creates culture without thought or intention.  Stephen Blandino writes,    Every organization has a unique culture, but not every organization created their culture on purpose.  Most drif...

What drives your organization or church--mission, vision, or purpose?     In the 20 th   century, most companies sought to have a clear mission statement and a clear vision for the future.      Peter Hawkins stated, “A mission captures the company’s ambition, a vision shows what it will be like when success is achieved.”     Hawkins argues, however, that in the 21 st   century, an organization’s purpose is more important.     He defines purpose as “who the company serves and what is of value to them.”    Having a purpose is much more service-oriented and altruistic.   Take, for example, two sporting goods companies.  Adidas states that it “strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle.”  On the other hand, Nike proposes to “bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (If you have a body, you’re an...