I have been entrusted with a role in leading transformation and change in my diocese over the past six years. We’ve journeyed through a huge cultural shift, from being a strategy averse organisation to one which largely accepts the need for prioritising and understands why it’s important to think differently and plan well for change.
However, I have been challenged by a conundrum. Having relentlessly advocated for the necessity of strategic organisational change, I’ve become convinced that change leadership in the environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in needs to be more nuanced than simply forming a long-term plan and motivating people to follow it.
I’ve realised that churches can be viewed as part of a complex adaptive system in which change is continuous, uncontrollable and locally contextualised. I have therefore been exploring how the relatively new field of emergent change better enables effective leadership.
Change is changing!
What is Emergent Change?
Historically, organisational change has been viewed as linear, planned, led from the top and doomed to failure. (1) (2). Many of us will have learned hierarchical change models based on using influence and authority to encourage our followers towards a changed future we have envisioned.
In contrast, emergent change is incremental, unplanned, self-correcting and self-organising. Multiple people and groups spontaneously relate in an unstable environment, causing systems to evolve in a non-linear fashion. The role of a leader in emergent change becomes more about being a relational sense-maker who contains what emerges from ground roots.
I have found the work of Deborah Rowland which explores emergence and leading mindful change really helpful. (3). For change leadership in a church setting, drawing out the impact of the leader’s inner life on their practice, making space for personal reflection, and ‘being’ as well as doing, resonates strongly.
Emergent change requires a few hard rules and a loose direction. This can for example be your diocesan strategy/priorities or church vision, but can be initiated at any organisational level, with the leader’s approach focussed on framing rather than shaping change and building capacity.
Emergent change is often messy, and those who are engaged in it often aren’t aware of following a structure, and do not name it as emergent change. Instead, they find their way towards it when other methods fail.
Rowland’s research shows that the most successful change leaders are self-aware, attentive, fully present and able to work in the moment, and in tune with the bigger picture and the systems at play. Giving attention to both inner capacities and external practices takes leadership to a different level and avoids being stuck in habitual responses.
Why is Emergent Change a Good Model for Church Leaders?
For leaders to enable emergent change involves understanding not just organisational development, but also complex adaptive systems theory. We need to draw on elements of psychology, behavioural change, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience, management studies and wider chaos theory. No wonder it’s complicated!
In churches, people share an identity but not always an understanding of the system in which they operate. In congregations, people belong at many levels, with different degrees of buy-in to church, benefice, diocese and national institution.
A church leader, as one player amongst many, will be better able to frame change if they understand what drives behaviour and are able to interact responsively to change patterns. An effective leader balances their responsibility for the process of change, with non-anxious delegation to others. They are secure enough in themselves to recognise, empower and develop the gifts, knowledge and competency of others.
In a complex adaptive system like the Church, the future is unclear and chaotic, so informed planning is difficult. Complex challenges require voluntary engagement at all levels and a shared acknowledgment that the status quo is unworkable, change is needed, and the options are multiple.
The role of the leader changes from that of one who shows people the way forward to one who shows that the current way is no longer tenable and must be abandoned. Instead of imposing a new vision to address the challenge, the leader disrupts the system sufficiently to encourage it to re-form through collective inquiry and processes of self-organisation and emergence. Complexity theorists champion the bottom-up principle whereby innovations arise when leaders foster conditions for others to network, catalysing creativity.
However, we all know that naming problems and actively encouraging dissatisfaction presents particular issues when working with church volunteers. Congregation members can perceive criticism to be disloyal, faithless or sacrilegious, and often take it personally. An emergent change leader needs to nurture self-awareness and emotional intelligence, so that they can stay in positive relationships with others through times of conflict.
They need these character traits to be able to hold people in the midst of ambiguity and uncertainty, which can lead to defensiveness, fear and blame.
Skills for Leading Emergent Change
When we look through an adaptive system lens, we see that we need to develop those leadership skills which will catalyse and empower a wide group of stakeholders and give them agency. In order to lead emergent change, many leaders will benefit from coaching as they build the capacity to perceive and interpret through a different lens.
Stepping back to understand how the inter-relating systems within a church effect each other brings a different perspective. We can be more effective leaders when we develop the skills and confidence to adapt processes through trial and error; when we have the confidence to devolve decision making and engage with those on the edge; when we embrace difficulty and notice and harness the natural energy of others.
The development of emergent change leadership builds self-awareness and an ability to tune in to self and system. It creates leaders who are comfortable with amplifying disturbance and containing disequilibrium. It enables a leader to be a non-anxious presence who creates a safe space for innovation.
In my diocese, we are working to create a coaching culture, with bespoke and individualised development plans for leaders. We introduced a pioneering scheme offering churches Mission Accompaniers, a form of situational coaching – coming alongside a church leader and a group of key volunteers. This provided opportunity for holistic leadership development encompassing both skill and capacity building, and attention to inner-life character traits and behaviours. (4)
Some case studies I undertook as part of a recent dissertation (5) showed that skills for leading emergent change are best taught through learning opportunities which are situational, experiential, contextual, bespoke and facilitated by coming alongside and facilitating deep reflection through conversation. As both inner characteristics and practical skills are being nurtured, the longer term and more relational approach of this kind of learning compared to classroom settings provides space for personal growth.
The case studies demonstrated different ways Mission Accompaniers equipped leaders, sometimes consciously, sometimes intuitively, building capacity to recognise, contain and amplify emergent change, often through careful use of feedback and encouragement.
The opportunity for a coach to come alongside a leader and team as a conversation partner provides opportunities for situational reflection and contextual learning, factors identified as necessary to enable emergent change. If you have an opportunity to work with a coach or mentor, it’s worth thinking about how you can get them to observe you in situ to better equip you.
Church leaders working in this way reported:
- An increase in confidence levels and skills.
- Growth in self-awareness through opportunities to reflect on practice.
- A transition from defensiveness to security.
- An increased ability to understand group dynamics and sensitivity to mood.
- Increased willingness to hold silence.
- Comfort with holding tension and harnessing the creativity of disequilibrium.
- An ability to be fully present without anxiety and amplify disturbance to release innovation, which was found to be transformative.
Feedback from our Mission Accompaniers revealed they had coached the leaders to create safe space for innovation, devolve decision making, seek organic solutions, fan into flame new energy, cultivate and celebrate bottom-up engagement and be comfortable with a more responsive and agile approach to planning.
The Place of Prayerful Reflection
Seeing churches through a complex systems lens enables leaders to create movement rather than busy action, from a place of inner stillness, but it means relinquishing control, which is counter-intuitive for most leaders, particularly in times of upheaval and uncertainty.
In an increasingly chaotic world, allowing a new order to emerge is perhaps the only realistic way forwards. Leaders who no longer have clear answers amidst volatility can ultimately be most effective when they have ‘the courage and wisdom… to trust in the transforming power of localised adaptive behaviour.’ (3).
If leaders can be equipped with skills to think systemically and create conditions for innovation, enabling their people to focus on topical issues and notice what is growing organically, often in unexpected places on the edge, those for whom they are responsible can share in co-creating a more future-proof and sustainable church.
When we as leaders create an environment which encourages and facilitates deep personal growth; when we grow in self-awareness; when we are confident in holding tension and staying in the moment; when we engage in undefended ways with others; then we harness continuous change and are able to frame it to great effect.
Change is changing! And if we but have the courage to let it, life – life in all its fullness - will continue to emerge, as God builds the church!
Nikki Groarke is Archdeacon of Dudley in the Diocese of Worcester, and Diocesan Leader for Transformation and Change.
Reflection Questions for Leaders
- What is my role in leading change? Am I responsible for discerning the future and leading people towards it, or helping followers discover it together?
- What questions arise for me in thinking about the church as a complex adaptive system? How might seeing it this way relieve pressure?
- If I struggle with conflict, disequilibrium and disturbance, what might help increase my confidence in this area?
- Might coaching help me grow as a leader, increase my self-awareness and reflective skills, and who could I talk to about this?
- Am I secure enough in my leadership to encourage the emergence of bottom-up ideas? What can I change in my practice or presence to enable others to play their part?
References
1. ‘Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail’, Kotter, J.P. (1995), Harvard Business Review, 73(2), pp. 59–67.
2. ‘Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concept, Method and Reality in Social Science; Social Equilibria and Social Change’, Lewin, K (1947), Human Relations, 1(1), pp. 5–41.
3. Still moving: how to lead mindful change. Rowland, D. (2017) Chichester, West Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
5. If you are interested in reading the dissertation please contact me and I can send you a copy.