Structure

People

Politics

Symbol

Reframing Presbytery

• Structural Frame• Human Resources

Frame• Political Frame• Symbolic Frame

Reframing Presbytery

Using Multiple Frames

• “It can be enormously liberating to realize there is always more than one way to respond to any problem or dilemma.

• “Frames serve multiple functions

• “Collectively, they make it possible to reframe, viewing the same thing from multiple perspectives. When the word seems hopelessly confusing and nothing is working, reframing is a powerful tool for gaining clarity, generating new options, and finding strategies that work.”

Consider Your Operative Frame(s)

• Each of us tends toward preferred frames

• Organizationally, the same or different frames may dominate or have dominating usage

• Can you see how the use of different frames impacts your presbytery as an organization?

1. Structural Frame• Work Allocation –

differentiation

• Coordination – integration

Reframing Presbytery

The Presbytery(Manual of

Administrative Operations

Introduction))

Council

Ministry Division

Administrative Division

Mission CoordinationCommittee

Church DevelopmentCommittee

Committee On Ministry

Budget Committee

StewardshipCommittee

Administrative Commission

Congregational Property

PersonnelCommittee

InvestmentCommittee

Bills and Overtures

Nominating Committee

Com on Preparation

forMinistry

Permanent Judicial

Commission

Session Records Review

Committee

Committee on Representatio

n

AssociatedMinistry Groups

Work Allocation – differentiation• Function of Committee, staff,

etc.

• Time –deadlines,

• Product – what is it?

• Process – flow of work

Structural Frame

Lateral Coordination• Meetings

• Task Forces

• Coordinating roles

• Matrix structures

• Networks

Structural FrameVertical Coordination• Authority

• Rules

• Planning

• Control

• Differentiation vs Integration

• Gap vs overlap

• Underuse vs overload

• Lack of clarity vs Lack of creativity

• Excessive autonomy vs Excessive interdependence

• Too loose vs too tight

• Goalless vs Goalbound

• Irresponsible vs unresponsive

Structural Frame-Polarities

Structural Frame Assumptions• Presbyteries exist to achieve established goals and

objectives

• Presbyteries increase efficiency and enhance performance through division of labor

• Appropriate forms of coordination and control ensure that diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh

• Presbyteries work best when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures

• Structures must be designed to fit church circumstances

• Problems and performance gaps arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring

Adapted from Bolman and Deal

2. Human Resources Frame • Build and Implement Personnel Philosophy

• Hire Right People

• Keep them

• Invest in them

• Empower them

• BE the boss when you need to be the boss!

• Manage staff and volunteers differently

Reframing Presbytery

• Manage volunteers• Invite the skill you need• Invite the new “view” to challenge

groupthink• Danger of the mass invitation• Insulating Presbytery system from the

troublesome “exported” elders• Accountability• Thanks, praise, commendation, recognition• The relational economy – a different bottom

line

Human Resources Frame

Sty

le o

f Le

ader

Sup

port

ive

Beh

avio

r

(Low)

(Hig

h)

Directive Behavior (High)

D4 D2D3 D1

High CompetenceHigh Commitment

Low to Some CompetenceLow Commitment

Low CompetenceHigh Commitment

High Supportive and

Low Directive

High DirectiveAnd

High Supportive

Low Supportive and

Low Directive

High Directiveand

Low Supportive

S4

S2S3

S1

Moderate to HighCompetenceVariable Commitment

Developed Developing

Directin

g

CoachingSu

ppor

ting

Del

egat

ing

Follo

wers

Human Resource Frame Assumptions

• Presbyteries exist to serve congregations of disciples/apostles serving the Mission of God (i.e. congregations do not serve the Presbytery)

• Presbyteries need ideas, energy, and talent; people need ministries congregations provide

• When the fit between those serving and presbytery system is poor, one or both suffer. When people are exploited or exploit the presbytery, both become victims

• A good fit benefits both. Those serving find meaning and satisfying ministry; presbyteries get the talent and energy they need to succeed in serving congregations

3. Political Frame“Interdependence, divergent interests, scarcity, and power relations inevitably spawn political activity.” p 194

Reframing Presbytery

• Presbyteries are coalitions of assorted individuals and interest groups.

• Coalition members have enduring differences in values, beliefs, information, interests and perceptions of reality.

• Most important decisions involve allocating scarce resources – who gets what.

• Scarce resources and enduring differences put conflict at the center of day-to-day dynamics and make power the most important asset.

• Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining and negotiation among competing stakeholders jockeying for their own interests.

Political Frame

Toxic• Narcissistic

• Corrupt

• Callous

• “evil”

• Unprincipled

• Lack self-awareness

• Unresponsive to feedback

• Break the rules

Warrior RolesRelentless• Passionate and

Pragmatic• Bend the rules• Grudge

keepers• Persistence• Courage• Often Polarizing• Stubborn• Constricted

field of view

Principled• “Very poor

hater”• Aspirational• Conviction• Commitment to

overarching purpose

• Combat in perspective

• Self-Sacrifice• Big Picture

perspective

• High Context Cultures• Relationally oriented• “Rules” direct you to the person who

decides• Usually hierarchical in authority practice

• Low Context Cultures

• Task/ Results oriented

• “Rules” are rules everyone follows

• Usually more egalitarian in authority practice

Political Frame

• Low versus High Context Cultures - “mores” around political activity differ

• Church is a high context pocket within a low context North American environment

• Unlike most high context culture, church leadership is egalitarian not hierarchical

• Low Context – no holds bared, anything goes• LBJ in contrast to Jimmy Carter

• High Context – fraught with secret taboos• Double standard: leaders and followers• “Not”-the-bishop leadership?

Political Frame

• Distinguishing more and less emotional systems and subsystems

• Corresponds with more or less measureable results

• Creative management of anxiety in system

• How stretch a system (ie “lead”) in a minefield of taboos?

• Executive as “Alice” , Presbytery as the “Queen of Hearts”

Political Frame

WarriorQualities

Elements

Heart PassionCouragePersistence

Mind Knowing What You WantMapping the Terrain and developing a game planResponding adroitly to threats and opportunitiesAligning Passion to PurposeChoosing Your Battles

Skill Knowing the psyche/soulMaking friends and enlisting alliesRallying the troopsEnlisting friends and buying off enemies

Weapons PositionOrganizationAlliesResources

Political Frame

Position Toxic Relentless Principled

CEO Al Dunlap Bill Gates Warren Buffett

Military Hermann Goering

Ulysses S Grant George MarshallRobert E Lee

National Leaders

Richard NixonAdolph HitlerIdi Amin

George W BushLyndon Johnson

Abraham LincolnBarack ObamaNelson Mandela

Coaches Bobby Knight Mike Krzyzewski

John Wooden

Warrior Roles

Personal WorkTherapy, CoachingSpiritual refreshment

Dysfunctional PropensitiesFamiliar Misery Magnified/ ProjectedEgo, Anger, Vengeance

Political FrameP

ow

er

High

Low

Pro Change Opposed to Change

Council

PW

CDC

Planning

Camps

Staff

Mission

Interests

BPU

COM

Personnel

Then…..

Exec

Political FrameP

ow

er

High

Low

Pro Change Opposed to Change

Council

PW

CDC

Camps

Staff

Mission

Interests

BPU

COM

Personnel

Now…..

Exec

Political Frame Assumptions• Presbyteries are coalitions of diverse individuals

and interest groups

• There are enduring differences among coalition members in values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of reality

• Most important decisions involve allocating scarce resources-who gets what

• Scarce resources and enduring differences make conflict central to church dynamics and underline power as the most important asset

• Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among competing stakeholders

Your Political FrameP

ow

er

High

Low

Pro Change Opposed to ChangeInterests

4. Symbolic Frame• Metaphor

• Myth

• Stories with Power

• Secrets, Taboos

• Meaning

Reframing Presbytery

Our “product” is symbolic, thus we are a community of “wizards”

• Wizards are wise

• Importance of Symbolic/ Sacramental Events

• Link between word and deed

• Passionate

• Transformational, not just transactional

• Connect familiar past with new possibility

Symbolic Frame

Wannabe• Underestimating influence of the environment

on organizational values and practices

• Discounting the significance of symbols/ cultural values in change

• Discounting importance of heroes and heroines

• Getting caught up in your own image and neglecting purpose/goals/vision

• Overpromising and raising unrealistic expectations

• Surrounds self with like-minded loyalists

Symbolic Frame

Harmful• Both Villain and Victim

• Flourish in isolation and ethical vacuums

• Never alone in their plots, always co-conspirators

• Narrow field of view

• Alternative reality with seeds of their own destruction

Symbolic Frame

Authentic• Seeks, embraces and dispenses Wisdom

through questions asked, metaphors employed, stories told, (parables!). (not specific advice)

• Embrace foibles and folly (“God is in the interruptions” Carl Jung)

• Intimately connected with own soul

• Reveals sacramental, poetic in everyday duty

• Available to each of us with personal spiritual work

Symbolic Frame

Symbolic FramePosition Harmful Wannabe Authentic

CEO Frank LorenzoBernie Ebbers

Ken Lay Liz ClaybourneMary Kay

Military Hermann Goering Westmoreland Swarzkopf

National Warren HardingSlobodan MilosevicJoseph Stalin

Woodrow WilsonGeorge W Bush

Ronald ReaganBarack ObamaNelson Mandela

Coaches Dave Bliss Tomjanovich Phil Jackson

Religious Jim JonesDavid Koresh

Most fired pastors

Desmond TutuMLK, Jr.Many vital pastors

Presbytery LeaderAdministrator (not so symbolic)

Overseer (not so symbolic)

Boundary Maintainer (not so symbolic)

Sentinel (more symbolic)

NOT the Bishop (Not the leader? Not the symbolic presence? Not the voice of oversight?)

Role ambiguity

How do we cast the Vision?

How can a Presbytery Leader work symbolically? What is the space for such in your system

Congregation LeaderMythic role of the Pastor

The meta story teller

The priest

Every Sunday opportunity to shape the Symbolic

Clarity of Role

Symbolic Frame

AEPS meeting

Symbolic Frame Assumptions• What is most important is not what happens but

what it means

• Activity and meaning are loosely coupled; events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently

• In the face of widespread uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, find direction, and anchor hope and faith

• Many events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced

• Culture is the glue that holds an organization together and unites people around shared values and beliefs

Bolman and Deal (2003), Table 18.1. 372.

(Re)Framing Organizational Change

Frame Barriers to Change Essential Strategies

Structural Loss of clarity and stabilityconfusion, chaos

Communicating, realigning, and renegotiating formal patterns and policies

Human Resource

Anxiety, uncertainty; people feel incompetent and needy

Training to develop new skills; participation and improvement; psychological support

Political Disempowerment; conflict between winners and losers

Create arenas where issues can be renegotiated and new coalitions formed

Symbolic Loss of meaning and purpose; clinging to the past

Create transition rituals; mourn the past; celebrate the future

• Structural Frame• Human Resources

Frame• Political Frame• Symbolic Frame

Reframing Presbytery

• Lee G. Bolman, Terrance E. Deal, Reframing Organizations, 4th ed., Jossey-Bass, 2008.

• Lee G. Bolman, Terrance E. Deal, The Wizard and the Warrior; Leading with Passion and Power. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Resources

Your Political FrameP

ow

er

High

Low

Pro Change Opposed to ChangeInterests