This week is a good design week for me.
Thursday, flights willing, I’ll find my way to Phoenix. And there, I’ll team up with my friend and colleague Travis, to host 15 pastors in five days of learning about Relational Leadership. The program is NGLI (Next Generation Leadership Initiative).
Exciting. I love the way the basic title points to something simple, yet important — we lead in relationship with others. The subtitle is also important — “Building Heart and Skill in Team-Building and Community Engagement.” I love the way it points to skill and heart, and in a few domains that pastors know is at the core of so much. So, here we go.
When I’m designing programs — that is, creating agenda — I rely on a couple of things.
One is the schedule. Travis and I are now hosting in our third year together. We have stuff we did last year and the year before. It’s good to pull up that document and remember a few important things to include.
Two, I also rely on design elements to show up spontaneously. There’s spontaneously in the moment, but here I’m naming what happens the week before. Ah, an impression to do an exercise on how inner meets outer. Ah, an intuition to ask a question on joy, and another on challenge.
It matters that designs and agendas have coherence. It also matters that they have real-time adaptiveness together.
I love feeling the fixed stuff. I love feeling the flow stuff. Both matter. Both are at the heart of my 30 ish years of facilitating groups in leadership and learning.
So, here we go. What an alive moment and opportunity to be with smart and caring people, getting on with the work they care about getting on with. A good design week.
