Icebergs are about 90 per cent underwater. Among other things, this means it takes considerable effort to change their course. Because these facts are commonly known, people who help organizations change direction sometimes describe the resistance and other pressures an organization may expect as the “change management iceberg.”
The change management iceberg identifies the “underwater” promoters and opponents of change, and describes other pressures that will be applied beneath the surface of the organization, so to speak, to the visible, articulated vision of the leadership.
Once part of the massive glaciers that shaped the social landscape, most of society’s institutions have broken off and been set adrift under the ferocious glare of postmodernism.
Which is where churches find themselves today; adrift, numbers melting away, uncertain of where the currents are moving and even more uncertain of which direction to head. And the resultant pressures are threatening to break apart some of the larger bergs into smaller ones.
Which is where we find our church leaders today. As one minister in our cover story on leadership says: “As the church loses its place, clergy lose their relevance or importance. There is a diminished sense of identity.”
Scared, lonely and untrained for this, clergy are trying desperately to plot the currents, hoping to avoid the whirlpools – and praying to stay afloat. “We graduate from college or seminary without any leadership skills. Theology does not mess up relationships as much as leadership style.”
Which is where Rev. Chuck Congram and the Leadership Roundtable come in. Recognizing that clergy are inadequately prepared for the challenges they face and having spent his ministry working through these challenges, Congram has begun a leadership program for clergy in the Windsor, Ont., area where he recently retired from leading one of the denomination’s largest churches for more than 30 years.
Leaders can be made. In fact, a recent business survey of business leaders in the United States discovered that born leaders (identified and self-identified as leaders from an early age) ran their businesses no more successfully than those who trained to be leaders by working up through the system.
But the mere concept of clergy as leaders has been taboo in the church for several decades. It tends to rub against the concept of being pastoral. And it certainly rubs against the time constraints of being pastoral – too many hospital visits means too little time to prepare for leadership meetings and too little energy to communicate the vision effectively.
Which is why the notion of giving ministry away is especially important. For too long, the church has sniffed at business practices with a haughty air. It’s unfortunate, because as we’ve argued on this page and shown in numerous stories, the best of business has much to offer the church in effective visioning, teaching, training, communicating and caring for employees.
In terms of leadership, effective business leaders know they can’t do it all. They delegate. If your bank manager is working as a teller, she simply won’t be able to make sure other workers are able to provide the best level of service to the most clients.
Business people also know you need a plan to function let alone change. That requires thoughtful planning and engaging key people in the organization so as to lessen the underwater drag when a new course for the iceberg is proposed.
Congram’s program is clearly trying to change all that. It’s a huge task. Because it is changing the direction of the institution’s inherited belief about what its clergy are supposed to do.
All this is mostly to do with process. What of the iceberg’s content?
Here too, the underlying pressure is steadily building. Theology may not mess up relationships as much as leadership style, but it’s certainly risky exploring the edge, as reader reaction to the Theology 101 series has revealed.
Drifting about, some people will seek the certainty of a faith that is a rock in the midst of the swirl. That’s OK. But it’s not for everyone, as next month’s cover story suggests when we look at what Presbyterians themselves think about their church and its direction in a major national survey.
