HARVEST THE POWER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 9: FACING DANGER
BY GAIL TITTLE, MATT TITTLE, GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL
© Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 9:17:13 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th-century Unitarian poet
Participants explore and articulate some of the risks and dangers that come with leading a congregation or organization through adaptive change. Through the ancient, familiar story of Moses, participants consider the challenges leaders face and identify strengths and strategies that can help. Participants express creatively their identity as congregational leaders and share resources and understandings that help them when they face danger in a leadership role.
In Activity 3, participants paint masks. Some may work quite carefully on and take great pride in their efforts; expect this activity to take at least as long as the time allotted here (55 minutes). Arrange a place to leave masks to dry.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 3 |
Activity 1: Dangers Leaders Face | 10 |
Activity 2: Moses — An Ancient Leadership Story | 40 |
Break | 10 |
Activity 3: Creating a Leader's Mask | 55 |
Faith in Action: Good Leaders, Good Followers | |
Closing | 2 |
Alternate Activity 1: Favorite Hymns | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Our Leadership Stories — Going Deeper | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Read Handout 1. Consider your own leadership story in the light of Heifetz and Linsky's work on the dangers leaders face. Where have you faced danger? Did you anticipate danger, or did it surprise you? How did you meet it? What did you learn from the experience?
Express yourself artistically as a leader. Write a poem, create a mask, paint, sing or play favorite hymns or write in your journal. How has facilitating Harvest the Power workshops deepened your understanding of yourself as a leader? Built your leadership skills and confidence?
Reflect on your experiences as a follower. When, and under what circumstances have your followed someone else's lead? Are you more anxious as a leader or as a follower? What experiences as a follower have enriched your understanding of what it means to lead?
To strengthen your leadership skills and confidence, explore the leadership development resources recommended at the end of the workshop, as well as Workshop 1, Leader Resource 1, Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite any participant who needs a name tag to create one now.
OPENING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group in a circle. Ask a participant to light the chalice as you or another participant read the opening words from the UUA's online Worship Web (at www.uua.org/spirituallife/worshipweb/readings/submissions/5888.shtml), by the Rev. Kendyl R. Gibbons:
We are here because we are people of faith. Within each of us lives the conviction of a saving faith that could restore our broken planet and illuminate the lives of our sisters and brothers.
Ancient wisdom teaches that we who would save the world must first save ourselves. We who would restore the planet must learn to restore the broken structures of the institutions closest to hand; to illuminate the lives of our companions and friends.
To this end let us center ourselves, acknowledging the trouble of mind and vexation of spirit that accompany us even here.
Let us open ourselves to that creative mystery which is at work in our striving, whose servants we are and seek to be.
ACTIVITY 1: DANGERS LEADERS FACE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Point out that Harvest the Power workshops have emphasized individual integrity, spiritual practice and understanding of faith. Invite participants to take a moment and reflect on how spiritual and emotional health can help a leader deal with challenges. Then invite volunteers to share some of their reflections with the group. If no participant expresses the idea that leaders face risks during times of change in a congregation, raise it yourself.
Distribute Handout 1 and pens/pencils. Ask participants to read the handout and mark any form of "danger" that rings true for them. Perhaps they can imagine examples of those dangers or have faced them in the course of their own leadership. Invite them to place a question mark next to any danger for which they cannot imagine an example or a scenario. Allow five minutes.
Invite participants to comment on the list and raise questions they have about it. Explain that this workshop will explore some of the ways leaders face risk and will help them identify resources, both internal and external, to help them manage their own anxiety and uncertainty in the leadership role.
ACTIVITY 2: MOSES — AN ANCIENT LEADERSHIP STORY (40 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The Moses story is an ancient one, generally familiar to adults in our congregations. Explain that you will explore the Moses story using a new lens. Say, in your own words:
Moses will be a case study. We will examine how Moses led through an adaptive challenge. An adaptive challenge is one that demands a community develop organizational, structural and spiritual capacities to meet a problem successfully, according to its values and purposes.
Tell them they will hear the story in four sections. After each section, they will be invited to examine how Moses is doing as a leader and what wisdom the story offers to contemporary Unitarian Universalist congregational leaders.
Invite prearranged volunteers to read aloud the first section of the story, Moses is Called to Leadership. Then, ask participants to reflect silently on these questions:
After two minutes, invite participants to turn to a partner and to share as much as they are comfortable sharing about their story. Tell participants they have four minutes for the conversation. After two minutes, remind pairs to switch speakers.
Resume the reading. After the second section, Out of Egypt, lead a whole-group conversation for about five minutes, using these questions as a guide:
Now have volunteers read aloud the third section, In the Wilderness. When they are done, invite participants to move into groups of three and take five minutes to explore this section of the story using these questions:
Re-gather the group and have volunteers read aloud the fourth section, Forming a New Society. Invite participants to reflect and comment on the way Moses leads the people through an adaptive challenge. You may wish to remind the group of the definition of an adaptive challenge by asking, "What organizational, structural and spiritual capacities did Moses' people need to develop, in order to move forward as a people?" Ask, "Why must a generation die off before the people can enter the Promised Land?"
Indicate the information found in Handout 1 and invite participants to name the dangers Moses faced. Use these questions:
Be sure to save a few minutes for these concluding discussion questions:
Including All Participants
Ask for volunteer readers ahead of time; do not put anyone on the spot. If possible, provide the story to pre-arranged readers before the workshop.
ACTIVITY 3: CREATING A LEADER'S MASK (55 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group they will each paint and decorate a mask to express themselves as congregational leaders, after a brief, guided meditation.
Invite participants to sit comfortably and close their eyes as they are comfortable. Read the meditation, pausing to allow reflection after each question:
We are going to envision our roles as congregational leaders through a brief guided meditation. Please sit comfortably. Either close your eyes or focus on an object in the room. Take three, slow, deep breaths, counting silently to four on each inhale and exhale.
Think about your role as a leader in your congregation. What or who first recognized your potential to be a leader?
When did you realize that you were a leader?
Think about the leadership positions you have held, events you've planned, programs or groups you have led or times you have been part leading worship. What dangers or challenges have you faced along the way?
What is it that grounds you and helps you to maintain your own integrity in the face of dangers and challenges?
How has your becoming a leader been connected with your spiritual growth?
Bring your attention back to the room as you are ready, and finish with three more slow, deep breaths.
When everyone has returned their attention to the group, invite them to depict themselves in their role as a congregational leader by painting a face mask. Their mask can be either concrete or abstract, whichever expresses them best. Show them the materials you have assembled and invite them to begin working. Point out that some may choose to work silently and others may prefer to converse and share with others as they work.
Once all masks are complete, invite participants to share them either with the entire group or in small groups, depending on the overall group size and the time available. Ask participants to explain each element of the mask and how it represents them as a congregational leader.
Including All Participants
If a participant expresses a lack of confidence in their artistic abilities, encourage them to use their fear or concern as part of their mask.
If any participants are unable to paint or decorate, you may choose to use Alternate Activity 1, Favorite Hymns, or Alternate Activity 2, Our Leadership Stories — Going Deeper.
CLOSING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Thank participants for sharing of themselves in the workshop today. Tell them they may take their masks home (or, leave them to dry before bringing them home).
Close with "Let Religion Be to Us Life and Joy" by Vincent Silliman, Reading 466 in Singing the Living Tradition.
FAITH IN ACTION: GOOD LEADERS, GOOD FOLLOWERS
Description of Activity
Encourage participants to reflect on this question: Are there times in your life when you have been among the people complaining, because of anxiety or uncertainty, in a congregation or organization (or even your family or workplace)? In remembering those times, consider how you might react differently if you were to encounter a similar situation today. What have you learned from your experiences as a leader about the ways people respond to change?
Leaders Need Followers
Make a commitment to be a follower in some area of your life. You might volunteer to be part of a congregational or community project where others are in the leadership roles. You might volunteer to work with youth in a situation where they hold the leadership position. What are the qualities of a "good follower"? How does it feel to work in a situation where someone other than you determines the vision and priorities?
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
TAKING IT HOME
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th-century Unitarian poet
Explore biographies and stories of leaders you admire. How did they face danger as they led a community or organization through adaptive change? Where were they successful? When they were less successful, how do you think they could have done things differently?
Find Out More
Read or watch the 1882 Heinrich Ibsen play, An Enemy of the People. You can order a DVD of a 1966, black-and-white television production of Arthur Miller's adaptation (at movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808401855/info) of the play. Pay attention to the kinds of danger the main character faces as he tries to warn his town about a potential environmental catastrophe.
Resources that informed this workshop may enhance your congregation's leadership library:
Benefiel, Margaret, Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations, ( New York : Seabury, 2005)
Congregational Handbook (at www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/congregationalhandbook/index.shtml), Unitarian Universalist Association, 2005
Friedman, Edwin H., A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix ( New York : Seabury Books, 2007)
Heifetz, Ronald A., Leadership Without Easy Answers (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994)
Heifetz, Ronald A. and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002)
Wills, Gary , Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: FAVORITE HYMNS (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants share with one another hymns and readings which inspire them, comfort them, challenge them or are for some other reason personal favorites. Distribute hymnals, paper and pens/pencils. Invite participants to find their favorite hymns or readings and jot down the numbers. Tell them as they search the hymnbook for their favorites, they may discover other gems.
After about ten minutes, invite participants, one at a time, to explain why one they have chosen is a particular favorite. Sing favorite hymns as a group, accompanied by keyboard or led by an experienced vocalist.
Note common favorites among those in the group; one may suit the closing for this workshop or an opening for a subsequent workshop.
Including All Participants
A song leader or accompanist can encourage those in your group who may be reluctant to sing.
Have large print and/or braille hymnbooks available as needed by your group.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: OUR LEADERSHIP STORIES — GOING DEEPER (25 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
If the group has done Workshop 1 of Harvest the Power, participants had an opportunity to tell one another their leadership stories. Now, participants re-examine (or, consider for the first time) their own leadership journeys through the lens of "dangers leaders face."
Begin with a guided meditation, pausing to allow reflection after each question:
We are going to envision our roles as congregational leaders through a brief guided meditation. Please sit comfortably. Either close your eyes or focus on an object in the room. Take three slow, deep breaths, counting silently to four on each inhale and exhale.
Think about your role as a leader in your congregation. What or who first recognized your potential to be a leader?
When did you realize that you were a leader?
Think about the leadership positions you have held, events you've planned, programs or groups you have led, or times you have been part leading worship. What dangers or challenges have you faced along the way?
What is it that grounds you and helps you to maintain your own integrity in the face of dangers and challenges?
How has being a leader helped you to grow spiritually?
Bring your attention back to the room as you are ready, and finish with three more slow, deep breaths.
Invite participants to move into groups of three or four and share their leadership stories, with a focus on dangers they have faced along the way. Ask small groups, after each person has shared, to reflect together on the dangers and risks they currently face as congregational leaders, particularly if they are leading in a time of change.
HARVEST THE POWER: WORKSHOP 9:
STORY: MOSES — AN ANCIENT LEADERSHIP STORY
This story has four sections. Stop the reading after each section to share reflection as guided in Activity 2, Description of Activity.
1. Moses Is Called to Leadership
"Today," Moses thought, "I'll take the flock to the base of the Holy Mountain . I know there is some green pasture over there." As Moses walked, he daydreamed, remembering how it was that he came to be in Midian, in the land of the Kennites. He vaguely recalled his childhood in the court of Egypt, and his long-ago discovery that he was not Egyptian, but had instead been born to a Hebrew woman, one of the slaves who labored on the Pharaoh's pyramids. He remembered that awful day when he had killed an Egyptian soldier, and then had run and run and run until he came to this land. He wondered what had become of his people, still enslaved in the land of Egypt . He thought about how lucky he was to have escaped and come to Midian. He smiled as he remembered his wife and two sons, and thought about how contented he was to spend his days tending his father-in-law Jethro's flock.
Soon Moses and the flock reached the base of the mountain, where they would surely find good pasture. As Moses walked, something caught his eye and pulled him abruptly from his reverie. A single bush was on fire, an odd occurrence. As Moses approached the bush, he heard a voice calling to him, "Moses! Moses!"
"Here I am," he replied. And the voice ordered him to put off his sandals, for the place where he was standing was holy ground.
"Who are you?" asked Moses, trembling with fright.
"I am the God of your fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I have heard my people call out to me as they suffer in slavery. I want you to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go!"
"Who, me? I can't do that! Why would they believe me? Whom shall I say sent me?"
"Tell them that 'I AM' sent you! I will give you a sign. Cast your staff upon the ground." When Moses threw his staff to the ground, it began to move. It became a snake! "Take the snake by the tail," commanded the voice. When Moses grabbed the snake, it became once more his staff.
Convinced that the voice was indeed God's, a reluctant Moses pointed out that he was a poor choice to go and make demands of Pharaoh: "I have never been eloquent," he said, "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
"Go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go! Your brother Aaron can serve as a mouthpiece for you if you need help."
"Will you please send someone else? There must be others who can do this."
"Go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go!"
And reluctantly Moses made preparations to leave for Egypt .
2. Out of Egypt
Moses was glad to meet his brother Aaron on the edge of the wilderness outside of Egypt . Aaron told him of the difficulty the Hebrew people had under the yoke of slavery. Moses told Aaron of the strange vision at the burning bush and of his understanding that he and Aaron were to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Hebrew people go.
A few days later, Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh, saying, "The God of our fathers demands that we hold a feast for him in the wilderness at a place three days' journey from here. If we do not go, then he has promised that terrible events will befall us and also the people of Egypt ."
Pharaoh mocked the request, angrily saying, "Why do you want to take your people away from their work? They must not have enough to do." And then he ordered his taskmasters to force the Hebrews to find their own straw to make bricks. The people were forced to gather stubble for straw, doubling the work expected of them.
And the foremen came to Moses and Aaron to complain: "Why did you ever go and talk to Pharaoh? You have made things worse; he has doubled our work and increased our suffering." And Moses told them of the freedom that awaited them and they kept before them the hope and the vision of the land God had promised would be theirs.
And again God said to Moses and Aaron, "Go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go." And Moses responded, "The people of Israel are not listening to me. Why would Pharaoh listen to a person like me?" But God repeated his demand.
When they went to Pharaoh, they showed him the many wonderful and terrible things that God could do. The waters of the Nile turned to blood. There was a plague of frogs in the land. Gnats invaded the land and flies swarmed throughout Egypt . And Pharaoh said, "Go and sacrifice to your God within the land of Egypt ." Moses replied, "It would not be right for us to sacrifice within the land of Egypt . We must travel three days into the wilderness for our feast."
And God demanded again that Moses go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go. God threatened that a sickness would come upon the cattle and a pestilence upon the people of Egypt if Pharaoh did not let the Hebrews go. There would be thunder and lightening and hail that would ruin crops and cause famine in the land. And Pharaoh did not listen, and those plagues came to pass. When the hail came upon the land, Pharaoh said to Moses, "Go and sacrifice to your God, but take only your men. Women and children and flocks and herds you must leave behind in Egypt ." And Moses said, "We must go with our young and our old; we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds three days' journey into the wilderness to hold a feast for our God." And Pharaoh refused, driving Moses and Aaron from his presence.
And when they went again to Pharaoh to demand that he let the people go, Moses and Aaron threatened that their God would bring a plague of locusts and a plague of darkness upon the land of Egypt . And so it was that the plague of locusts was followed by a plague of darkness. And Pharaoh called Moses in to him and said, "Go and sacrifice to your God. You may bring your men, women and children, but your herds and flocks you must leave behind." And Moses said, "We must have animals to sacrifice. Not one hoof will we leave behind!" And Pharaoh said, "NO! Get out of here! If I ever see your face again, I will have you killed!"
Moses spoke to the people of Egypt and not to Pharaoh when he told of the last plague to come: All the first-born in the land of Egypt would die if Pharaoh would not let the Hebrews go. Moses and Aaron called the people of Israel together and gave them instructions, "You shall slaughter a lamb and take some of the blood and put it on your door and your doorposts so that the plague will pass over your abode." And so it was that all the first-born of the land of Egypt died that night and the first-born of the Hebrews were spared. Pharaoh heard the great cry in all of Egypt . He summoned Moses and Aaron in the dead of night and told them, "Go! Take your men, your women, your children, your flocks and your herds. Go out of Egypt now!" And the people of Israel left so quickly that they could not allow their bread to rise; they ate unleavened bread as they journeyed.
When they reached the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army was in pursuit. As Pharaoh drew near, the people cried out to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us? Why didn't you leave well enough alone? In Egypt we would have lived and here we will be slaughtered." And Moses said to them, "Fear not! Stand firm!" And he stretched out his staff over the waters of the Red Sea and a great east wind blew and the waters were divided. The people passed across the Red Sea on dry land, and when they reached the other side, they watched as the waters closed in, drowning Pharaoh's pursuing army.
There was great celebration in the land, songs and dancing and the sound of tambourines. And the freed people prepared for their journey into the wilderness toward the land that God had promised them.
3. In the Wilderness
The journey through the wilderness was difficult. Moses was called on to do many things, and he sought advice from God to figure out what to do.
After three days; journey, the only water they could find was bitter and undrinkable. The people complained, demanding something to drink. Moses threw a piece of wood into the water and it became sweet. The people drank eagerly, and then continued their journey until they reached Elim, where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees.
After they departed Elim, some weeks after leaving Egypt , they ran short of food. The people complained against Moses and Aaron: "If only we had died by the hand of God in the land of Egypt , when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger." And Moses told the people that God had promised manna would reign down from heaven in the night, and at daybreak they could gather and eat their fill. And so it was that manna, looking white like coriander seed with a taste like that of wafers and honey, was found everywhere as the sun rose. And the people ate their fill, and continued to gather and eat manna each morning through their journey.
And when they camped at Rephidum, there was again no water to drink. And the people complained, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" Moses cried out to God, "What shall I do? They are ready to stone me!" And God instructed him to take his staff, and in the presence of the elders, to strike a rock. Moses did so, and water came out of the rock so the people could drink.
The Amalekites who lived in the area did not want to share their water with this wandering people, and they attacked. Moses told his commander Joshua to choose some men to fight the Amalekites. They went out to fight, and Moses, Aaron and Hur, one of the elders, went to the top of the hill. The battle unfolded before them. Whenever Moses lifted up his hand, Israel prevailed. Whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. When Moses grew too weary to hold his hand up any longer, they brought a stone and put it under him so he could sit. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side so he was steady until the sun set. Thus Joshua and the Israelites defeated the Amalekites.
When they came to the land of Midian , where Moses' father-in-law, wife and children were living, Moses told Jethro of all that had befallen since he had left Midian. Jethro observed that the people came to Moses with all of their complaints and disputes, and that Moses worked to resolve every one. Moses was exhausted, and had no time for his wife or his children. Jethro said to Moses, "Why are you doing all of this? Why must you solve disputes between people from morning until evening? You need to delegate some of this work. Choose individuals who are trustworthy. Teach them to be judges and preside over the complaints and disputes of the people." Moses listened to his father-in-law and named some judges. After that, the judges brought only the hard cases to Moses; the rest they decided themselves.
4. Forming a New Society
When they reached the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses summoned the elders and told them to instruct the people to wash their clothes and prepare for God to come three days hence. "Do not allow anyone to go up the mountain or to touch it," he said.
On the third day a thick cloud covered the mountain and there was thunder and lightening and the blast of a trumpet. Moses and Aaron approached the mountain, covering their faces. The people were afraid and stood at a distance. After a time, Moses journeyed alone to the top of the mountain, where he received from God two tablets containing the words of the covenant with Israel , the Ten Commandments. On the mountaintop, Moses received many instructions for forming a new society, including prescriptions for behavior, instructions for worship and for construction of a tabernacle and for an ark to hold the tablets of the covenant. And he was gone from the people for a long time.
Meanwhile, the people at the foot of the mountain grew anxious. "Who is this Moses anyway? And why has he been gone so long? What of this God he keeps talking about and the promises of a new land?" They urged Aaron to do something to help them, to make for them a golden calf that they might worship something familiar. Aaron was worried about the people and wanted to reassure them, so he gathered all of their gold jewelry and melted it down and created for them a golden calf to worship.
As Moses came down from the mountain carrying the tablets with the covenant, he heard much singing and dancing, and he became concerned. He knew that the first thing on those tablets was, "I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me." So when Moses came upon the people worshiping the golden calf, singing and celebrating, he grew angry. He broke the tablets. He pulverized the golden calf and put the powder into water which he made the people drink. Then he called out, "Who is on the side of the Lord?" Those who came to him he instructed to take their swords and to kill all those who had worshiped the golden calf, even brothers and cousins and other family members. Three thousand people were slaughtered that day.
Moses pitched a tent apart from the people, outside the camp. There he withdrew to speak with God and to plead on behalf of the people.
After a time, God instructed Moses to once again journey up the mountain to meet God, once again to carve tablets upon which would be written the instructions for a new society. And so Moses went up the mountain for a second time and received the words of the covenant on behalf of the people of Israel . And he came down from Mount Sinai much changed. He looked and sounded calm as he gathered the people around to tell them the laws for a new society. He instructed them on the roles they were to play, the ways they were to worship, and the ways they were to behave with one another. He ordered the construction of the ark and the tabernacle according to the instructions he had received.
And so it was that the Israelites went forth, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, journeying toward the Promised Land. But God told Moses that the people were not ready for a new land. They were to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until a generation had died; the next generation of Israelites would be the one to enter the Promised Land. Moses himself went to the mountaintop and saw the Promised Land, but did not enter it. He died there, and to this day no one knows where he is buried.
HARVEST THE POWER: WORKSHOP 9:
HANDOUT 1: DANGERS LEADERS FACE
The dangers of leadership take many forms. Although each organization and culture has its preferred ways to restore equilibrium when someone upsets the balance, we've noticed four basic forms, with countless ingenious variations. When exercising leadership, you risk getting marginalized, diverted, attacked, or seduced. Regardless of the form, however, the point is the same. When people resist adaptive work, their goal is to shut down those who exercise leadership in order to preserve what they have. — Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky
Heifetz and Linsky name some of the many ways leaders face danger when trying to ask good questions and help an organization face adaptive challenges:
1. Marginalization, which might take these forms:
2. Diversion, which might take these forms:
3. Attack, which might take these forms:
4. Seduction, which might take these forms: