Courageous Conversations


	Tools Pure Heart Vision • Leadership Circle • Conflict Dynamics Profile • Custom Surveys Working session with people who became dear friends. Here is my friend, Randy. So, you have big Randy and little Randy. My leadership students will recognize the exercise! Several assessment tools are available. The 360 instruments provide a comparison of your self-perception with the way others experience you. The benefits can be tremendous but so are the challenges. Not everyone is willing to take a courageous look at themselves . . . even if what is at stake is our Kingdom effectiveness. Pure Heart Vision Now we have a tool that facilitates a deep conversation engaging biblical theology, variables contributing to healthy spiritual influence, our perception of ourselves, and the ways others experience us! Over more than 20 years I have been helping churches and motivated Christians struggle with joining God's mission in the world. Much of that work has come together in the Pure Heart Vision profile. I began developing the tool when I was first introduced to the concept of 360 degree instruments a number of years ago. Initially, I received certification for using such instruments as The Leadership Circle Profile, The Leadership Culture Profile, The Conflict Dynamics Profile, etc. I quickly discovered the huge inadequacies of applying these instruments to the church with a predominately spiritual focus. These wonderful tools were created for business and primarily by people trained in business from a business perspective. The need existed for a biblical theological understanding developed by a churchman for the church with the church's history, current mission, and future in mind. The result of that work is the Pure Heart Vision Profile based upon the intersection of biblical theology, Christian experience, and theoretical insights from leadership research. Theoretical insights are not rejected. Current theoretical insights are critiqued and filtered by a biblical theological focus. Insights from research are put to work under the authority of biblical revelation. Jesus taught that leadership in the Kingdom should NOT be "like the Gentiles." Clearly, the models of leadership to just get things done is not adequate for the spiritual leadership of Jesus' followers. Prominent authors define leadership as simply and only influence. I couldn't disagree more. A search for an experiential understanding of the essence of Jesus' leadership drives my work. My book shelves are filled more than most theologians with books like David Gergen's Eyewitness to Power, Flawless Execution by James Murphy, Leadership without Easy Answers by Ron Heifetz, etc. Failure to learn from this literature is foolish. Confusing insight from leadership literature with Christian leadership, however, is to confuse the secular and sacred. To do so is to simply be converted to "Gentilic leadership" while using biblical language. For that reason, the underlying model of leadership for the Pure Heart Vision Profile is currently being tested by various faculty members of a Bible department, church consultants, and spiritual counselors. Click here to request the instrument. Leadership Circle The Leadership Circle is a tool developed by Bob Anderson over nearly 30 years. Bob was mentored by Peter Block and has worked with large corporations, government, and educational institutions. The tool provides an understanding of leader behavior and the underlying thinking in the business context. Metrics are determined based upon years of leadership research. You can learn more about the profile by clicking the link entitled "The Leadership Circle." The instrument is an extremely impressive, rich, and multi-faceted view of you as a leader. The profile compares the way you see yourself with the way others experience you and to several thousand business leaders in the database. We also provide The Leadership Culture Survey which evaluates the culture where you work compared to the way workers wish the culture to be. The tool also compares your work culture to the responses of other companies. Bob has given a special discount for the use of this instrument for church and educational use. The profile is provided at my cost of $50 for undergraduate students, $100 for graduate students and church leaders, and $250 for business leaders. Call Randy Willingham at 501-279-4614 for more information regarding the use of this profile. Conflict Dynamics Profile The Conflict Dynamics Profile is produced by the The Center for Conflict Dynamics at Eckerd College. A number of unique dimensions make this tool useful. First, the CDP distinguishes between constructive and destructive conflict. Second, the profile makes a distinction between the dynamics of a conflict as you are about to enter the conflict, as you are currently involved in it, and after it is over. Third, the profile provides a list of hot buttons that tend to pull your trigger. Fourth, the tool provides a descriptions of how detrimental particular behaviors might be for you given your particular work culture. And, fifth, the tool distinguishes between feedback from people who know you very well vs not very well and according to your work relationships. The tool can be taken as a 360 or as an individual survey. The 360 cost $185 and the single survey is $39. Click here for instructions on ordering either version of the CDP. Call Randy Willingham at 501-279-4614 for more information regarding the use of this profile. Custom Surveys We have also done custom surveys to meet the particular needs of congregations. In all of our survey work, we seek to connect the formal leadership of a church with the informal leadership of the congregation in a way that facilitates communication, deepens leadership capacity, and contributes to creative thinking. A sample process for this work is as follows. Determine people to include in the survey development Brainstorm relevant questions to be pursued Develop a list of initial questions We provide sample surveys from other congregations Edit initial list of questions Get feedback from an external statistician regarding the draft of questions and desired outcomes Make adjustments based upon external statistician feedback and narrow questions to manageable number Finalize survey Decide on distribution strategy Distribute and gather from church Click here for access to materials on managing church conflict. You will need your password. Call Randy Willingham at 501-279-4614 for more information about custom survey options or samples.