Quietly Courageous

the current

Heclo argues that “our moral polestar amounts to this central idea: the correct way to get on with life is to recognize that each of us has the right to live as he or she pleases so long as we do not interfere with the right of other people to do likewise.”[26]

of people with different interests and needs based on their parts of the work of the institution and based on their statuses and access to resources within the institution.

Organizational leadership, setting vision, and the negotiation of decisions was less of a pastoral responsibility because in a convergent time people knew what to do; it is what they already did in the past, and leadership did not have to cut new paths into divergent territory.

Congregational and denominational leaders increasingly must face the reality that they no longer have a problem because problems, by definition, have a known solution. This is truly an adaptive situation that requires not the loud assurance that comes with leaders with known solutions but the quiet, courageous resolve of leaders willing to enter th

Linear models of change work well when the leader is faced with a problem. In chapter 2 we began with the distinction between technical and adaptive work, a critical difference described by Ron Heifetz in his work on leadership. Technical work is the application of known solutions to known problems.

language to be applied to the efforts.

courageous leadership begins with a focus on ideas, assumptions, and temptations rather than with a focus on action or on what to do. Until we see things in new ways we will be constrained to act in old ways, despite our efforts to change.

Robert Quinn, professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Michigan, describes an organization as a coalition of coalitions.[4]