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<\/p>\nThis year\u2019s leadership conference continued the humanitarian and postmodern message.\u00a0 Plenty to take away, the challenge now is in the application.<\/p>\n
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Each year, the faith-based Willow Creek Association<\/a> gathers leaders from business, humanitarian causes and churches to speak at The Global Leadership Summit<\/a>.\u00a0 The Summit kicked off this year in August at the Chicago headquarters<\/a>, gathering around 120,000 delegates live and via sattelite and clocking in as a top ten Twitter trending topic.\u00a0 The conference is then repeated on screens via DVD across the globe over the following months.<\/p>\n My attendance this year in Toowoomba, Queensland was my third summit<\/a>.\u00a0 I was shaped significantly in 2007 by Marcus Buckingham<\/strong><\/a>, who\u2019s strengths-based message introduced me to the underlying concept of positive psychology<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps it was just my frame of reference at the time, but the 2007 roster which included Buckingham<\/strong>, HP\u2019s Carly Fiorina<\/strong>, military strategist Colin Powell<\/strong>, and business strategist Michael E. Porter<\/strong> felt geared towards leadership development for any leader in any organisation.<\/p>\n The 2008 summit by contrast felt much more focused on changing the world.\u00a0 The likes of International Justice Mission\u2019s<\/a> Gary Haugen<\/strong>, Prison Entrepreneurship Program\u2019s<\/a> Catherine Rohr <\/strong>and ex-Medtronic CEO Bill George<\/strong><\/a>made you question what you were doing with your life.\u00a0 There was also a strong representation from leaders who were looking at church from a different perspective, such as internet-centric Craig Groeschel<\/strong> from Lifechurch.tv<\/a>, Gateway Church<\/a>\u00a0pastor and author of \u201cNo Perfect People Allowed\u201d John Burke<\/strong>, and \u00a0multi-ethnic church proponent Efrem Smith<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s roster continued the two undercurrents of humanitarian focus and postmodernism\u2019s deconstructive and relative conversational approach to church. Even as I took vigorous notes, I felt both frustration and encouragement as I heard sentiments Theresa and I have shared for the past few years.\u00a0 Common language shared across the speakers included terms such as \u201cconversation\u201d, “story”, \u201cdeconstruct\u201d, \u201cdialogue\u201d and \u201cmeta-narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n Gary Hamel<\/a><\/strong>, Director of Management Innovation Lab, focused on organisational change and structure by calling for a change in the way we change.\u00a0 Key points included: 1) authority comes not from position but from the leader\u2019s value-add to the organisation; 2) organisational change is held hostage to the leader\u2019s resistance to change; and 3) organisations must fight denial by facing facts, questioning beliefs and listing to renegades. \u00a0Hamel shared sentiments with Dave Gibbons<\/strong> from Newsong Church<\/a>, who stated: 1) vision starts from the fringe of early adopters and creatives rather than centralised with the leader; 2) relationships trump vision; and 3) a need to support an understanding of personality and strengths with a person\u2019s story.<\/p>\n Other highlights included an interview with the Jessica Jackley<\/strong>, co-founder of micro-lending website www.kiva.org<\/a>, which is scheduled to lend over US$10 million by 2010.\u00a0 Good African Coffee CEO Andrew Rugasira <\/strong>made a case for trade, not aid, based on the negative correlation between aid and African GDP.\u00a0 Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair <\/strong>and U2\u2019s Bono <\/strong>added star power, although clips of pastors sharing practical application of Bono\u2019s humanitarian appeal were the hero of the interview segment.<\/p>\n As presenter Harvey Carey <\/strong>stated, the risk with conferences such as these is that one goes, collects the binders, and has no application.\u00a0 However, this presumption was challenged by Compassion International<\/a> CEO of 16-years Wes Stafford<\/strong>, who stated that his team has doubled in size since starting his annual attendance four years ago.\u00a0 \u00a0From my perspective, can I claim my attendance over the past three years has resulted in the close to tripling of staff at the company for which I am the studio production manager? Probably not directly, but it sure didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n This post was a top-of-mind download of material.\u00a0 Expect more detailed posts as I work to apply individual items through the year.\u00a0 If you attended, I would be interested in continuing the conversation to hear what stuck with you and what changed in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My previous trips up the Summit<\/h2>\n
2009: Save the world, do church different<\/h2>\n