EXPLORER…field notes for the emerging church An e-publication of Leadership Network

Number 58, March 25, 2002

The ad in the magazine caught my eye. The photograph was of a crowd of people with only one man holding a picket sign that said, “Collaborate or die!” The new skill set required for leadership in the 21st century includes the ability to lead collaboratively and to shape collaborative organizations.

Tom McGehee has spent much of his adult life engaged in collaborative leadership. As an officer in the Marine Corps, he learned the necessity of collaboration in accomplishing mission. As a Vice-President with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, he facilitated the use of collaborative processes in problem solving for major corporate clients. Recently, he has joined a new initiative of Leadership Network called Leadership Coach and last week, Tom and I spent some time talking about collaboration. What follows are excerpts of our conversation.

TM: True collaboration is working together to accomplish more than any one person can do alone. It takes open, candid conversation about real, high-impact issues. Collaboration isn’t about what a group has in common. It is about bringing out the best in a group. A continuum of group work moves from connection to coordination, then to cooperation and finally to collaboration.

TM: Connection is the ability to share information. It doesn’t mean you will share it. If you equip everyone in your organization with computers and e-mail, that’s connection. If you bring everyone together for an off-site meeting, you have created connection. The fact that you bring them together for a meeting, you go around the table and everyone briefs the group on their thing and then you leave, is merely connection. You feel like you’ve collaborated but all you’ve really done is allow potential connection based on the amount of information someone was willing to share.

TM: That’s right. It is not collaborating because everybody is going to go off and do something on their own. Maybe they now have information that is or is not valuable to them, but it is still just a connection. We show up at a staff meeting and I tell you about what I did last week, but what you really need to know is what I’m going to do next week.

TM: It’s coordination or the “ability to act in concert with one another.” This usually accompanies an agreement to share information. How much is actually shared is dependent upon the relationship and the circumstances of the moment. Lots of reports are generated when organizations coordinate. A lot of times in a staff meeting, people are coordinated in that they know what’s going on around them, but the focus is on “I want to know what’s going on around me so I can know if it affects me.” Usually it’s taken that way versus concern that what I’m doing may affect somebody else.

no conflict.”

TM: That’s exactly right. And if there is a conflict, it is up to the person that’s being impacted to say something. Most coordination is done to prevent problems rather than to enable successes. We coordinate so we don’t all get jammed up at one door. We coordinate our church calendar but each ministry is really doing its own thing.

TM: Cooperation is marked by the desire for mutual gain. It is just a little better than coordination and says, “Pretty much we all stand alone, but you know what, I’m willing to not do my event that week so you can do yours. Or, I’m willing to do this event now so that your event next month will go better.” I may even help out with your event, but at the end of the day, the impact it has is on the shoulders of the person who is doing it.

fact, they do all three of these well.

TM: One of the differences between coordination and cooperation is that cooperation becomes more proactive. “By the way, I know you’re going to do this event next week. Did you see this article in the paper about our community?” I’m trying to help you be successful, whereas with coordination, I may or may not share that. I might just read the article and simply not think about it because that’s your job. In cooperation, people begin to look out for each other a little bit.

TM: It is the ability to multiply each other’s strengths to produce a result that no one could achieve alone. Collaboration requires several different steps. We recognize a potential success that none of us can do alone. The only way we’re going to succeed is to have everybody work together. For example, having an Easter service is an example of cooperation. You know it’s got to have all the music, presentation, preaching and people in the parking lot to make it happen. But if, after 9/11 you had said, “There is a huge need for people to connect and we have an opportunity that none of us can do by ourselves. How are we going to reach these thousands of people?” To do that requires collaboration. If the pastor walks in and says, “We’re doing a third service on Sunday, make it happen,” everybody’s going to cooperate to make it happen. If the pastor walks in and says, “I think we’re going to have thousands of more people, how do we make sure they have the most spiritual experience of their life?” and everybody begins to work on that, that’s a sign that we’re collaborating. Companies or organizations that are collaborative have both an ability to put out ideas and to listen to input from others.

you have to have a collaborative leader to build a culture of collaboration?

TM: Yes, and there are three elements to it—the individual, the way teams function, and the system. If you’re dealing with the government or an organization that has extensive policies and procedures, no matter how collaborative or entrepreneurial you try to be, new ideas will get squelched a lot. If the system is one where you are ready to change based on what happens, then when a new idea comes up, it doesn’t throw you and you can adapt or take advantage of the new opportunity.

In terms of the way teams are formed, some places you’re on a committee and you’ve been on that committee for ten years. In other places, committees form and disband based on events. Do you have longstanding committees, or are they formed around specific actions? And when a team forms to do something, what are the dynamics of the team? Does everybody respect each other? Do they rotate the team leadership?

The final piece is that you still have to have a decision maker… someone who is the point. Collaboration isn’t touchy-feely nor is it the point leader saying, “I’ve lost control.” It is more about giving guidance and letting people work together to achieve the goal than it is about telling people what to do.

environment, the leader and the team. What happens if one of them is not aligned?

TM: Your ability to accomplish your goals deteriorates and it sets you up for either failure or frustration at best.

move to a new church and find that you have inherited a fairly rigid culture, yet your style as a leader is to be more collaborative. How do you lead them to be more collaborative?

TM: The first step is realizing where they are on this continuum from connection to collaboration. They may be so rigid that they’re connected, but no one’s really sharing information. Somebody says, “I put that in my report, but nobody does anything with it.” They may be coordinated so that they know what the calendar is, but they still never see each other. If people are in the cooperative mode, they honestly want to see the overall initiative be successful. A staff member of one ministry area, for example, isn’t intimated by a very strong staff member of another area. To get them to collaborate, it’s a matter of giving them permission to do that and then casting a larger vision. You get everyone to work on something that affects the whole rather than their individual part, something that cuts across all the boundaries.

marker points along the way?

TM: There’s a sense that you’re doing more than you ever thought you could. There’s so much going on that I can’t make it happen by myself and I’m OK with that. You have absolute trust that the people are going to be there, that things are going to happen and then you’re focused on moving forward.

like this is the way we all ought to operate.

TM: I believe it’s the way, more and more, that life and business are going to operate for several reasons. One, everything has become so complex that nobody can control it. It’s probably very much the same in ministry. Most churches are finding if they’re going to reach out into their community, they will do it by collaborating with other agencies. Why is it hard? One has to do with western thought, sort of a macho, “ride in on the horse hero” mentality or, “All we’ve got to do is find that right CEO or that Senior Pastor and they’ll make it happen.” It’s an old pattern that’s been successful for a long time and it appears to be easier. If my mindset is that I only have to be concerned about my role, that appears to be a lot easier than having to be concerned about the whole. The shift that has to occur is for me to be concerned about the whole.

the “beginner’s mind.” What is the difference?

TM: If I’m seen as an expert, whether it’s a consultant, a pastor, or whatever, often I don’t want to ask questions because then I don’t look like the expert. As an expert, my value is in the information I dole out. I’m an expert and I give good advice, and then you put me up on a pedestal. I get higher and higher on the pedestal and suddenly I may be scared to death, but I don’t want to show my vulnerability when I stop asking questions. I also begin to believe that I have become unquestionable. But if I have a “beginner’s mind” that says I’m not afraid to ask questions or be questioned, then there’s an honest dialogue that happens.

in order to be a lifelong learner.

TM: I agree. Often, the biggest barrier to learning is that you get beaten down by the immediate. You don’t create time to learn. What you have to do is embed learning in everything you do rather than saying, for example, “Every year I take two weeks out of my schedule for learning.” One of my favorite phrases is that learning gives you the gift of new eyes. You go out and see the way somebody else is doing something, like the upcoming Harley-Davidson Learning Adventure, for example, and you come back and look at your situation with new eyes.

For more of Tom’s insights on collaboration, take a look at his book, WHOOSH: BUSINESS IN THE FAST LANE, UNLEASHING THE POWER OF A CREATION COMPANY, published by Perseus Books, 2001.

LN RECOMMENDS

Lyle Schaller is like the Energizer bunny…he keeps going and going and going…and church leaders and congregations are the better for it! His latest book, THE NEW CONTEXT FOR MINISTRY: COMPETING FOR THE CHARITABLE DOLLAR (Abingdon Press, 2002), is an analysis of the impact of the new American economy on financing ministry in the 21st century. As with most of Schaller’s books, however, you get a lot more than the stated intent of the volume. Within the 333 pages, you also get a mini- history of the changing American religious landscape over the past forty years, descriptions of a culture rampant with choices, and observations on the new face of philanthropy. This is a “must read” book for anyone who wants to be an effective leader in a 21st century church.

Copyright 2002 Leadership Network

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