What Am I Reading?
Book reviewed: Deep Change, by Robert Quinn; Josey-Bass, 1996, 229 pages.
Reviewed by: Greg Coulter
Date read: August 2010
Recommended for: Pastors, educators, elders, strategic planning teams
Synopsis:
Consider the following: "Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of thinking and behaving. It is change that is major in scope, discontinuous with the past and generally irreversible. The deep change effort distorts existing patterns of action and involves taking risks. Deep change means surrendering control.
"Most of us build our certainty around knowledge and competence in employing certain know techniques or abilities. Making a deep change involves abandoning both and 'walking naked into the land of uncertainty.' " (pg 3)
It's a scary place out there and it's not going to get any better! Being a good manager is no longer good enough. What we need today are transformational leaders - mythic heroes in the truest sense.
Written more for business executives and planners, this book nevertheless has much to say to the Church about living in a world in which the status quo is little more than a polite title for (in the author's own words) "a slow death." How does an organization approach (or even face) the prospect of real change? How does a leader of that organization prepare to lead a process of change? How does a system moved from a transactional paradigm to a transformational paradigm? How does a participant in that system move from an individual contributor to a manager and, ultimately, to being a leader?
While the book has much to say about organizations and how to stay permanently flexible and effective, it has much more to say to those who would lead effective, vital systems. How would our congregations and denomination benefit if pastors took seriously the call to be more than just managers? What are the fears and the pressures which prevent you from being an effective leader? While our congregations must never be reduced to ordinary organizations, there is much we a faithful leaders could learn from this book about the continuing "transformation cycle." Our congregations would benefit as well from the diagnosis Robert Quinn offers: the status quo is nothing more than a slow death. There are many prescriptions as well for leaders and for governing boards, including discussion and reflection questions at the end of every chapter for both personal and organizational change. Short, understandable chapters and discussion questions make this a good book for Session study.
"Traveling naked into the land of uncertainty' allows for another kind of learning, a learning that helps us forget what we know and discover what we need."