More than 100 senior leaders from several South Pacific Division (SPD) entities and territories recently participated in the second of a series of quarterly SPD leadership development workshops.
The workshop was available both in person and via live-streaming, and was facilitated by Dr Stephen Brown, an international leadership and change expert, and Simon Banks, director of creativity for innovation company Visual Funk.
The theme, “Tangling with your temple cats”, was a metaphor used to talk about dealing with change in the church organisation. It compared the different types of individuals in organisations to cats seen wandering around ancient temples. Participants were asked to identify the types of “cats” in the SPD that thwart change, as well as outdated policies, ideas and beliefs.
“Our director team really related to the cat network notion,” said Clare Lumley, nursing and operations executive for Adventist HealthCare. “In fact, we even used the analogy in a recent change initiative communication.”
Participants were also challenged to think about what type of cat they represented, basic instincts that make them resist change, and personal values that influence how they deal with change and relate to others.
“The workshop was really engaging, inviting us to live and work with authenticity,” said Dr Carolyn Rickett, associate dean of research at Avondale College. “It enabled deep reflection into human motivation and behaviour, and the way these intersections affect teams.”
“It’s great to see so many leaders across our diverse entities commit to ongoing development, networking and sharing their wealth of leadership experience together,” said SPD leadership development manager Dean Banks.
