Crockpot Leadership
In his fine book, Canoeing the Mountains, Tod Bolsinger describes the outstanding leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they led their Corps of Discovery in search of a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean between the years of 1804 and 1806.
The title of the book has to do with the fact that the captains assumed they would be able to make it to the coast using nothing but canoes on the Missouri River and its tributaries.
That worked…for a while.
Then the morning dawned when Lewis and Clark realized that the river system had ended. And the Rocky Mountains loomed. All that had been familiar was now different.
They had to totally adjust their strategy. That meant ditching their canoes and buying horses in order to continue their mission. Hence the title, Canoeing the Mountains.
Calibrating Urgency
One of the key characteristics demonstrated by the two captains was the ability to continue to lead their men forward without pushing them too far too fast.
Regarding that, Bolsinger writes, “A leader’s job is to regulate the heat. The leader is like the thermostat on the Crock-Pot, keeping enough heat in the system so things begin to change, but not enough that individual parts get scorched.”
“The leader is like the thermostat on the Crock-Pot, keeping enough heat in the system so things begin to change, but not enough that individual parts get scorched.” – Tod Bolsinger
There are two forms of heat that can be brought to bear on a community: urgency and anxiety. The former catalyzes. The latter paralyzes.
Urgency catalyzes. Anxiety paralyzes.
Great leaders lean into well-calibrated urgency, calling their people to move forward, even into uncharted territory because the mission is worth it. While not ignoring the possibility of anxiety, they don’t cave in to it.
Great leaders lean into well-calibrated urgency, calling their people to move forward, even into uncharted territory because the mission is worth it.
This was the genius of Lewis and Clark. Though the landscape had changed…and though to move forward meant a radical rethink of their strategy…they were able to cast the vision that discovering a northwest passage was worth the sacrifice.
According to leadership expert John Kotter, 50% of organizational transformation endeavors that fail do so because the leaders did not create an appropriate sense of urgency. It’s only when such urgency is proclaimed that complacency can be overcome.
Tony Robbins put it so well: “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”
“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” – Tony Robbins
Healthy urgency is created when there is a heartfelt sense of the importance, opportunity, and necessity to address the challenges that lie before an organization.
It is the urgency of seeing both the reality of the moment and the opportunity God has given. As well, it offers hope that such an opportunity can be grasped.
For example, here are some grim realities: “We are not seeing young families coming to our church” or “We are losing the next generation” or “We haven’t had an adult baptism in five years.”
Church leaders should not shield their congregation from such facts. This is the necessary turning up of the heat.
The balance comes when those same leaders offer hope. “We don’t have to sit idly by and see this happen. I think our best days are before us if only we will look at things a bit differently. Here are some steps that we can take…”
According to John Maxwell, “People change when they hurt enough that they have to change, learn enough that they want to change, and receive enough that they are able to change.”
“People change when they hurt enough that they have to change, learn enough that they want to change, and receive enough that they are able to change.” – John Maxwell
The key to success here is a proper calibration of comfort and challenge. It’s being a Crock-Pot leader who knows just how much heat to apply to allow for the desired change without burning folks out…or burning folks up.
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