What happens when organizations forget the reason for their existence?
Margaret Wheatley wrote in "A Simpler Way,"
Most people have a desire to love their organizations. They fall in love with the identity that is trying to be expressed. They connect to the founding vision. But then we take this vital passion and institutionalize it. We create an organization.
"The people who loved the purpose grow to disdain the institution that was created to fulfill it. Passion mutates into procedures, rules and roles.
Instead of purpose, we have policies. Instead of being free to create, we impose constraints that squeeze the life out of us. The organization is frozen in time. We see its dead and bloated form and resent it for what it prevents us from doing."
When we lose sight of the end point, we get lost in the present means. In effect, we forget who we are when we forget where we are going. As Wheatley put it, we retain procedures, but lose our passion.
In theological terms, our telos ought to determine our ethos. The ends we envision form us as a people. The culture we create is really determined by how we imagine our future, the future that is really God's gift to us of Jesus’ kingdom.
What kinds of questions push us toward telos, toward imagining God's future?
Questions like this: Where is God taking us? What is God's end point? What does it mean that all things will be summed up in Christ? What will it look like for the kingdom to come?
All kingdom leadership should be eschatological. We lead from the future in order to live in the presence of the kingdom. In this sense all our leadership is secondary. It is God's kingdom and he determines the end. Our role is more about where we direct our gaze than particular actions. The kingdom, after all, is among us. Are we looking for it?
Len Hjalmarson is a teacher, writer, and software developer living among the orchards and vineyards of Kelowna, BC. He blogs at http://www.nextreformation.com
