Limit Your Limitations – 3 Essentials for Creating a Movement
In this fourth post on Take Seth Godin to Church I want to focus on Tribal Movement. Consider using the questions in these posts for staff or volunteer meetings in the month of December. Use the Advent season to see Jesus as the coming founder of a redemptive tribe called The Church. The previous two posts dealt with tribal passion and tribal leadership.
In Tribes, Godin references Senator Bill Bradley who unpacks the anatomy of a movement with three essentials:
- A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we are trying to build.
- A connection between and among the leader and the tribe
- Something to do- the fewer limits the better
Here are some questions for each essential:
Future-building Narratives
- Every church has a creation story. How clear and developed is yours? Can your team cast a shared, compelling vision based on your creation story?
- What is your most important priority right now as a church? What are one or two signature stories that help people understand and own that priority?
Note: Creation stories and signature stories are discussed further in Church Unique.
Leader-Follower Connections
- Where are lines of communication being blocked right now? Who is suffering the most from broken lines of communication?
- Is our greater barrier right now about tools and supports systems or about our attitudes as leaders? How would our volunteers answer this question?
- Are we leaning into social media, or creating excuses and making jokes about why we don’t engage it more?
Doing Without Limits
- What limits have we created that are unnecessary for connecting and releasing our people?
- Where have limits have been imposed or created that where never intended?
- Where does our desire for control, lead to limits that really aren’t necessary?
Missed the first parts of this series? Read them here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3. Read Part 5 here.
Tags: Leadership Engine, Movement, Seth Godin, Tribes, Will Mancini
