Leaders Make the Future (BK Business) by Bob Johansen

Author:Bob Johansen [Johansen, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2012-05-06T14:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 17. Modified Foresight to Insight to Action cycle for The Book of Provocation. Source: IFTF, The Book of Provocation: Faith in the Future Conversations, 2008. SR# 1123.

I believe that forecasting has the power to bring people together for dialogue across polarities, if they can step back as they look ahead. It is necessary, however, to find an internal logic for this dialogue.

In the Anglican Communion, there is a great history of openness and engagement. If participants start from their own scripture, reason, and tradition, a Ten-Year Forecast of external future forces can provide a context to provoke constructive conversations. A forecast, however, is not a prediction of the future. That future, we hope, will be shaped by people in the local congregations who become inspired by “Faith in the Future Conversations,” as we are calling them.

Every ten years, the global Anglican Communion holds a nineteen-day summit for bishops. In the summer of 2008 the Lambeth Conference was held at the University of Kent in Canterbury. The polarizing issue on everyone’s mind was the ordination of gay bishops. The one openly gay bishop, Bishop Gene Robinson from New Hampshire, was not invited to attend, but he was given space to meet with bishops from around the world as part of what was known as the “fringe” event. One hundred and fifty bishops decided not to attend the conference out of protest against the ordination of gay bishops.

This conference focused on person-to-person engagement and constructive depolarization. While the threat of a split church loomed, the goal of the conference was to honor the participants and their varied approaches to faith, so that the bishops from around the world could get to know each other as people—not polarities. They were trying to lay the groundwork for engagement with diversity, following principles that were not only Anglican, but also good for anyone trying to constructively depolarize a conflict.

The conference employed an African Zulu method called Indaba, used to allow villagers to meet and discuss problems in the community. In hopes that the Bible could provide a common starting ground, the conference began with Bible study groups of eight randomly assigned people reading the “I am” statements in the Gospel of John, as chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Then groups of eight joined together to create assemblages of forty bishops, with an “animateur” to get things started and facilitate, a “rapporteur” to take notes, and a listener, who summarized.

These evolving groups put an emphasis on personal contact among the participants, rather than pushing through ideas or positions. While the Indaba methods seem similar to Western approaches, I expect that its African origin contributed to the sense of constructive engagement between developed and emerging economies. The African bishops were the apparent outsiders going in, but the use of a process that was familiar to them perhaps gave them a sense of trust that they would not have had otherwise. Canon Gregory Cameron, one of the chief mediators, summarized the challenges:

No organization exists without internal conflict—not even the church.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.