A key feature of the Maestro-level leader experience is figuring out what future value is for your organization rather than having it figured out for you. Keep that in mind as you read what comes next.
Sermon subscription services have been traced back to as early as the 1500s*, not long after the invention of the printing press and the rise of Reformation preaching. Famed preachers' sermons were collected into postules (essentially a published collection of postulations) which were then re-preached by clergy who were less talented in writing and preparing such rhetorical masterpieces.
Today, clergy can subscribe to online services that provide previously preached sermons from favorite preachers/teachers. One need never chase their own original line of thought! Even better - why not just show the video of another preacher rather than prepare one's own message that is specific to a congregation's unique context and moment?
It is much the same in the world of business strategy methodology. Experts try to become content mills, churning out content built around:
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what they know - and you can, too, if you just purchase their system or put one of their people on retainer.
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offers to be your demigod-like avatar with staged, polished, and edited authenticity that holds people in thrall.
They have figured it out so that you can shorten up the process simply by buying and doing what they did; you don't have to do the work.
The result, of course, is that the impact is diluted, just as those re-hashed sermons written for a different place and time. What was once powerful and memorable becomes forgettable or irrelevant in the hands of another who has not done the work to learn and who has outsourced their heart. That "subscription service" becomes just another expensive disposable.
Developing future value out of foresight and with succession and legacy in mind for a specific organization in a specific context, and with specific individuals at the helm, requires your own figuring it out. Yes, with companions and guides who accompany you, but not as your servants to do the bidding of the work only you can do. And this work you must do is good! Sweaty, satisfying, joyful, heartfelt, and hard - and good.
Future value for you is more of the mission through the organization you steward. No one knows this better than you. The content mills do not know what your future balance sheet needs to look like. They cannot write the unwritten job description of the Third Turn you need to develop out of the mist in front of you. They cannot map where no one has yet journeyed and where you are becoming certain you must go.
We can look at what others have done as part of the guardrails for our journeys, and perhaps we will find a useful piece of equipment from their stories. There are, however, no proxies or products that do this work for us.
* Frank C. Senn, The People's Work: A social history of the liturgy, 2010, p.102
My colleague, Kristin Evenson, is recruiting the next Maestro-level leaders cohort. She is ready to launch in October 2021. Start your journey here
I walk alongside leaders, listening to understand their challenges, and helping them lead healthy organizations that flourish.
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