ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this mini episode of Collaborative Conversations, Joanna sits down with Tod Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains and co-founder and principal of AE Sloan Leadership. He previews what he'll share at The Collaborative's November 12 EdLeader Event, Leadership in a Constantly Changing World. Tod explains how his own church's numbers kept climbing while morale kept sinking, which led him to adaptive leadership and to Lewis and Clark's moment at Lemhi Pass, where the canoes that got them there were useless against the mountains ahead. He names the traps that good leaders fall into: trying to outwork the problem, trying to keep everyone happy, and trying to win every argument. He also describes adaptive leadership as a practice of discernment, where a school asks what is so central to its calling that it must be preserved, and what it can let go to protect it. Tod closes with a practice leaders can start right away, called "getting on the balcony," and he makes the case with a middle school dance chaperone.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory by Tod Bolsinger
- How Not to Waste a Crisis: Quit Trying Harder by Tod Bolsinger, from the Practicing Change Series. It runs about 70 pages and is also available as an audiobook.
- AE Sloan Leadership
- Register for the November 12 EdLeader Collaborative Event featuring Tod Bolsinger
- beacollaborator.com/events
Before November 12: Download the Collaborative Book Club Guide to start thinking through the ideas ahead of the event. Tod also suggests naming the one problem at your school that keeps coming back no matter how hard you try.
