Thoughtful about Work and Leadership!!

I was reminded in recent days of a few instances of seeking to collaborate with various leaders, keen brainstormers and/or colleagues from around various networks....

The instances I was reminded of roughly follow the line that a group has been invited to come together willingly to dream, plan or think out a future for some event or program and after some 'small talk' and an opening reflection the question framing our discussion is.... 'if you were part of the organising group for a Camp focused on high schoolers, running for 5 days annually around the winter time.... what would you plan, include, ask, wonder....?

On the ocassions I'm thinking of.... someone in the initial hubub... usually says "what, you mean do your job for you??????"

As a person working in the state and territory wide sphere of the Uniting Church this indicates what an unhelpful view some people have of such roles.... it's your job to do all this stuff!!

So while I could easily acknowledge:

If you don't do everything by collaboration it takes getting used to

The invitation may not have been clear

There is a real skill to igniting people's enthusiasm for plans and ideas...

But essentially, I'm wanting to advocate for and encourage and continue to embrace collective efforts... to ask people for their ideas... and to seek the gifts and skills of younger people whose voices are so often unheard in the church!!

My leadership style is to be an encourager, to try to create spaces for people to exercise their leadership and to run interference for them, to encourage good ideas and to listen hard. On top of this I have learnt more and more over the years about what does and doesn't need to happen in ministry with young people and how marginalised people would prefer us to be... the prophetic voice, the agitator for change and anyone genuinely wanting space, permission and validity for young people will eventually be 'banging their head against the wall.' It's really just a matter of how hard.... collaboration could break that down and be a force to knock over some walls!!