Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.
—Margaret J. Wheatley, author, management consultant, and leadership expert

This workshop serves as an introduction to the Harvest the Power program, presenting key concepts and inviting participants to share their own leadership stories. The workshop contains alternate activities for getting to know one another and for exploring individual notions of faith, but do not substitute these for Activity 4, Five Smooth Stones, or Activity 5, Power. These two activities, in the order written, are essential gateways to the workshops that follow.

Goals

This workshop will:

• Facilitate introductions and build rapport among the group
• Help participants develop their identities and skills as Unitarian Universalist leaders
• Offer theological grounding for faithful leadership, based on the work of the 20th-century Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Begin making connections with one another
• Explore their experiences with becoming leaders and learning how to exercise leadership
• Explore their understanding of faith
• Become familiar with Five Smooth Stones, a metaphor drawn from the work of James Luther Adams
• Investigate power and its role in faithful leadership.

Workshop-at-a-glance

Spiritual Preparation

Respond to the questions in Activity 2, Sharing Our Leadership Stories. Create your own What Is My Faith? artwork to help you reflect on your own identity as a Unitarian Universalist leader. Share your reflections with your co-facilitator.