Will Mancini

When I was on staff at Clear Creek Community Church, we brought in some consultants who eventually “dropped the ball” with regard to our expectations. In the midst of dealing with the problem and the disconnect on deliverables  they did an excellent job listening and re-calibrating expectations with us. What I learned that day as a solution to a problem I have embedded proactively and preemptively into most of my own consulting with Auxano.  I call it the “Expectations Exercise.” It’s incredibly simple and profound.

Here’s how it works. Usually in a collaborative environment, there are people with different levels of exposure to me and why we are in the room. In addition, people always have varying opinions. So I never start a long-term relationship without requiring every person around the table to state their expectations- their hopes, their dreams, their fears- for our journey together. (I give them an out if they honestly have no expectations.) I will listen, and then summarize their thoughts on the whiteboard. I then keep these ideas before us during the process. The exercise accomplishes three things:

1) It gives me huge insight into their perspective as we begin together.

2) It provides content to stokes the flames of “why we are here” in the middle of a longer engagement when people might loose perspective.

3) It clarifies the scorecard and allows me to mark progress and celebrate wins through the consulting engagement.

Use this exercise and you’ll be glad you did.

• God still speaks

• If your vision is not stunningly unique, you probably don’t have one 

• However clear the leader is, a surprising gap exists between the leader’s vision and the team’s clarity

• Leaders emotionally substitute two things for real vision: 1) simplistic answers (copycat vision) or 2) busyness (more is more)

• The easiest measure of sustained clarity is the ability to say “no” repeatedly, and feel good about it

• Followers need vision because the future is not here yet and their activity today lacks meaning

• The best way to know “what should be” is to do a better job knowing “what was,” “what is,” and “what could be” 

• Vision moves through people not paper

• With a little training anyone can be an everyday visionary

• Vision dripping is more important than vision casting (#visiondrip)

I couldn’t resist telling this story. A church recently finished a Vision Pathway with Auxano. With the new mission articulation beginning to shift and shape the ministry (1 of the 5 questions discerned through the visioning work), a church staff wrote the following note on a workroom refrigerator:

BECAUSE OF OUR MISSION TO  ____________________ PLEASE KEEP THE COFFEE AREA CLEANED.

This note appears to be an application of what I encourage all of the time: Drip the vision (#visiondrip) into the daily conversation and daily flow of leadership. Tie everything you do back to the mission.

But this time the application went wrong. No, the mission of Christ is not provided for you to anchor your petty workroom rules and enforce it on everyone else. The mission is a reminder of what we are all supposed to be doing, so that I can start with my motives, my heart, my actions and my modeling.

I spent the afternoon with the RightNow team. These guys are dreamers and Brian Mosley, the new president, shared this exhortation from his grandfather who started the ministry decades ago- “Get a dream, do a dream, tell a dream.”

Here is why I love the statement:

GET A DREAM

• Most people never discover the reason they were created
• Most people live out of fears and expectations of others 
• Most people have “healthy” addictions they won’t leave for a real dream

DO A DREAM

• Many people daydream, few stay focused for very long
• Most activity is monotony without meaning
• You can DO so, so much more when you know why and believe big

TELL A DREAM

• Your dream can inspire untold others and birth other dreams
• Many people want to contribute to your dreams
• Most people don’t practice crafting and articulating their dream

The next couple of days I will be working with leaders from the Evangelical Free Church of America. Whenever working with a network or denomination, clarity and vision start with understanding the “founding charism” or group grace of the movement. Steve Addison does a wonderful job of co-opting this term from the Catholics and using it to define all movements. Here are some quotes from his book, Movements that Change the World:

Christianity is a movement of movements- monasticism, evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism, to name a few. These movements can find expression in movement organizations such as mission agencies and denominations.

Each new movement has a unique contribution to make to the kingdom- its “founding charism” or gift of grace.

Three movement factors enable a movement to maintain a strong commitment to its cause: founding charism, alignment and movement tension.

Founding charism: unique identity and calling  To survive, every living thing is both constantly changing and constantly remaining the same. If an organism doesn’t do both, it ceases to exist. Living organisms are constantly seeking self renewal by referring back to their essential identity and adapting to their environment. Likewise, movements must adapt to their changing environment while remaining true to their identity.

Effective movements know who they are. The know their founding charism and safeguard it over time. Their methods may change, but the cause never does. A clear identity and agenda for change create a tension between the ideal promoted by a movement and current reality.

I love the idea of “Founding Charism” – its simple the way of saying Movement Unique instead of Church Unique. 

But here is the challenge. Most leaders who are a part of a network or denomination do not clearly lead from or toward the group’s core identity. If you don’t believe me go ahead and ask someone. Start with yourself. 

I highly recommend Steve’s book!