This article was written by Bob Machamer who is a new member of the A.R.E. team. He is full of energy and ideas and we think you will get some great things from his article as you get to know him. Welcome Bob! Here's what Bob wrote:
One of my favorite meals which my ninety-seven year old mother-in-law enjoys preparing for me on special occasions is eye of sirloin marinated in a magnificent blend of spices. I am not a culinary expert, yet, even I know that this is really good. If you are a leader then you probably already know that the ‘marinade’ you choose to soak in will influence you and those around you.
A few weeks ago the A.R.E team met for a staff retreat. In this face-to-face meeting of staff from around the country, I experienced a shift in my thinking. Already a believer in the renewable practices, I felt an additional ingredient was added to the mix of my training and life experience because of the exciting and creative work in which we were participating.
Living and doing the renewable practices, for me, led to a confirmation of what Dr. Howard Friend writes in his latest book, Gifts of an Uncommon Life, “Hope that cannot look fully and courageously into the face of reality is not worthy to be called hope.” Courageous hope mandates choosing.
Friend doesn’t talk about hope as logic – thinking our way to a new living. He believes hope isn’t a feeling or a place to arrive. He doen't believe that the presence of hope will ensure the outcomes we see. In fact, hope doesn’t depend on outcomes at all. The kind of hope we talk about is experienced in doing. Hope begins where we choose to look. It appears in where we choose to act. Marinating in this hope is an attitude that shapes behavior.
It sure seems to me as though this compliments the renewable practices like a family recipe that has that ’special’ ingredient that brings out the richest of flavors, each equally important for the meal to be at its finest. I don’t know about you but that’s what I want soaking through my thoughts, behavior and being. The commitment of the A.R.E team to encouraging and developing leaders is resolute and determined. Their hope is large, deep and courageous. What they teach is worth soaking in.
After twenty years of developing and leading congregational systems as a pastor and systemically trained therapist, I discovered in ‘working playfully' with the other on the A.R.E. team to be one of the keys to authentic empowerment of organizations, communities and leaders.
The key to becoming a Renewable Organization, Community, or Leader is learning to let these six Renewable Practices shape everything you see and do: • Asking Purposeful Questions • Using Participative Processes • Working Playfully • Taking Place Seriously • Being [Re]Productive • Seeing Possibilities. It has been for me a conscious choice to think and do and be according to these practices.
While all are important, lately I have been thinking a lot about the first practice - asking purposeful questions. The art of question asking is foundational for leaders working in profit and non-profit organizations. The goal of a question is not so much to give information to others, but rather, to draw information from others. The goal of the process is not so much to discern the desires of others, but rather, to help others discern their desires and their dreams. Purposeful questions lead others to clarity and a deeper understanding of those desires and dreams. And they create opportunities for fulfilling basic human needs such as achievement, influence, and vitality. In fact, they help people make dreams come true.
Hope in the face of reality strikes a cord as my newly engaged son and his fiancee face the possibility of a return of her cancer. In continuing to offer these 24-year-olds the hope of our faith, I find that I am struggling with my own hope for them. Sounds like a good read.
Posted by: vesparev | February 16, 2009 at 09:57 AM