Education Innovation

Literate Church vs. Transliterate Church

Literate Church vs. Transliterate Church

Literate Church helps people read and understand God's word- the text

Transliterate Church helps people read and understand God's word- the text--AND--connect and collaborate with God's word-the text- across multiple social media and technology platforms.

ART of Learning

A Learning Organization or a Learning Church is...ARTful

Audio 

Retinal

Thought-provoking

Learning Organizations and Churches Can Tolerate Failure

What do you get when you combine organizational learning with the books Here Comes Everybody and Wikinomics, with Lego, Saddleback Church, a website for solving problems, and a mining corporation? Let's put them in the Education Innovation blender and see?

Why are open source models and movements so powerful? Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, discussed the advantages of open models. In this case, open source movements. Open source movements have several powerful advantages that learning organizations and churches could leverage. 

One advantage of the open learning system is that it highly tolerant of failure. Open source reduces the cost of failure because so many ideas are brought to the table.

“…open source relies on the ‘publish-then-filter’ pattern. In traditional organizations, trying anything is expensive, even if just in staff time to discuss the idea, so someone must make some attempt to filter the successes from the failures in advance. In open systems, the cost of trying something is so low that handicapping the likelihood of success is often an unnecessary distraction.”

The typical organization is limited because the number of ideas that an organization or church can consider can come from only a limited number of sources, usually the bosses, managers, and consultants.

A great deal of thought must be put into the consideration of ideas because the time and cost of failure are so high. Time spent with meetings, staff training, and materials, has a cost. This means the filter for ideas is very high. Only those ideas that seem to have the most benefit will be implemented, though there is no way to know in advance that one of the ideas picked will bring the desired benefit, and one of the ideas left on the table could be the most effective and beneficial.

The Open Learning Organization draws ideas from a greater number of sources, including the people it serves. A wider net is cast for ideas, more ideas are implemented, and the ones that work will receive more resources, while the ones that fail can be quickly dropped. Because resources are only directed at proven ideas, this model essentially allows failure to cost nothing. Failure for free. But the chance of coming upon a better idea is increased due to the shear number of sources and ideas to be learned from.

“Open system, by reducing the cost of failure, enable their participants to fail like crazy, building on the successes as they go.” 

The open system has the advantage of exploring multiple possibilities.

“…the idea is that for any problem or goal, there is a vast area of possibilities to explore but few valuable spots within that environment to discover. When a company or indeed any organization finds a strategy that works, the drive to adopt it and stick with it is strong. Even if there is a better strategy out there, finding is can be prohibitively expensive.”

The Open Learning System, or Clay Shirky’s open system, allow for many more participants, lowers the filtering of ideas, and is much more tolerant of failure because of the flexibility of the system. Ideas that fail are dropped instantly, and new ones adopted. It would be hard to say that failed ideas are dropped as quickly in education. Usually failed ideas have personnel attached to them, resources that have been purchased, and possibly even capital costs. This makes ideas difficult to drop on a dime.

Further because the Open Learning Model allows participants from many areas to participate, the chances of great ideas and solutions are increased.

In the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collboration Changes Everything, the authors describe in detail how organizations from Lego to mining corporation Goldcorp have opened their systems to the public and reaped the learning benefits that come from this openness.

Websites like Innocentive.com open problems up to others learn from each other to help solve and give cash rewards. Saddleback Church says to its member, if you have an idea, let’s do it. They offer help where they can, but they allow the member to come up with and implement the idea. Learning from it’s own members. One member had an idea for a ministry from people struggling with addictions. That ministry has become a worldwide ministry called Celebrate Recovery. Other ideas went nowhere and failed. But in learning from many sources of ideas and having a low filter, they hit upon one of the most successful and powerful ministry ideas ever.

The Closed System does not tolerate failure, therefore restricting the quality and quantity of ideas and the chance for a superior idea. The Open Learning System is much more tolerant of failure because the organization or church learns from a greater number of ideas which enables a greater chance of finding the superior idea. It's at the heart of a learning organization and a learning church. 

 

Let's MOOC Together

If you have never heard of a MOOC is stands for Massive Open Online Course. Watch the video below and ask yourself, "Could this be the next wave of church and organizational collaborative learning? Could a MOOC generate Lateral Wisdom among churches, organizations, and teams distributed, but connected across the globe?

 

No Leaders Left Behind

No Leaders Left Behind

If the Church is to reach the world, we are going to need thousands of new churches. In the United States alone, reports suggest that we will need 2500-3000 new churches a year to keep up with population growth. 

This creates a resulting need for thousands of new leaders who can lead these churches and the ministries that serve them. But, are we limiting our leadership search to a small leadership pool? With the demand for new leaders so clear, can we afford to leave any leaders behind? 

Typically, the approach is to look for seminary graduates and those with high leadership experience and high ministerial training. 

What Saddleback Church has realized is that this approach limits the potential pool of leadership talent. 

What about all the rest? Could not effective church and ministry leaders be found in these other pools?

We are ignoring sea of potential leaders, who, with the right training, mentoring, and experiences, could be developed into strong ministry leaders. 

With such a high need for future leaders, we cannot afford to ignore this vast pool of potential leaders. 

With this in mind, Saddleback Church created the Saddleback Church Leadership Academy to reach out to those with a calling, heart, and potential to lead ministries and churches.  Their goal is to expand the potential pool of leadership talent by creating unique leadership development paths that equip, encourage, and mentor these future leaders. 

Their method is to provide an opportunity for participants to engage and learn in the context of “doing the work”, not more classes. Tacit learning in context.

So many future church and ministry leaders have a mistaken perception that they are not qualified for ministry and do not pursue their calling. But this is a mistaken perception and one that is limiting the potential pool of future leaders to those who attended certain colleges, received degrees in certain majors, or who have been working in ministry.

By expanding the view of who has the potential to become a church planter or ministry leader, what Saddleback Church has found is that students of all majors and degrees bring unique leadership skills, insight, energy, and knowledge that is invaluable to ministries and churches.

For instance, current Leadership Academy participants have backgrounds or majors in:

Communications	Music	Psychology
Art	Finance	Public Relations
English Literature	Culinary Arts	Biology
Business	Physical Education	Accounting
Political Science	Graphic Design	Film
Liberal Studies	Journalism	Education

It’s not about having a certain degree or even graduating from a certain college. It’s about calling. 

Future leaders need a calling to lead a ministry at an existing church, plant a church, or a new campus of an existing church.

If one wants to learn how to lead a church or a ministry, the best way to accomplish that is to be in residency or as an apprentice with current church or ministry leaders. Learning in context and in community with other learners.

Over the course of a year, using a “gradual release” method, “Leadership-Mentor Faculty” walk alongside residents and apprentices; gradually releasing them to greater leadership roles, responsibilities, and opportunities. Embedded in this experience is a weekly gathering where students get "nuts-and-bolts" strategies, methods, and systems instruction.

While not discounting the role of seminary, in fact they encourage it, they don’t see it as a pre-requisite to leadership.  The goal is to open the opportunity to become a church or ministry leader to a greater pool of potential leaders to meet the leadership needs for thousands of new churches. 

Some recent lifewayresearch.com seems to support the view that experience is viewed as more important than seminary education in hiring decisions of churches. 

 
The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy believes they can harness the gifts, talents, and abilities of these future leaders through a very intentional and practical “hands-on” ministry leader apprenticeship experience. 

Their apprenticeship utilizes a “Leading-Learning-Mentoring” paradigm. 

• Developing leadership skills while learning to lead one of Saddleback Church’s ministries. 
• Learning methods and strategies directly from Saddleback pastors and staff while “doing the work.” 
• Mentoring by Saddleback pastors.
• Avenue and opportunities to get hands-on ministry leadership training and development in context. 
• Blending their explicit learning with contextual tacit learning. 
• Growing in a community of fellow future leaders. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy seeks to equip, empower, and encourage individuals to pursue their ministry leadership calling. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy believes that when people combine their education, experience, and God given potential with the practicum and mentoring that their ACCELERATE Ministry Leadership Apprenticeship or ELEVATE Church Planter/Multi-Site Residency provides, they will be uniquely equipped and empowered to take on leadership roles as church planters, multi-site campus leaders, or ministry leaders. 

The Saddleback Church Leadership Academy intends to...Leave No Leaders Behind. 

Also See: Saddleback Church Harnesses Social Learning

Thin Walled Church

Thin Walls..

In the Thin Walled church- Learning takes place in multiple locations, venues, and times- Real Space and Digital Space- on-demand and “just-in-time.”

A Thin Walled church designs with Mobile, Global, and Local in mind at all times. 

A Thin Walled church increases choice of- time, location, delivery, and content.

Thinning the walls is developing an Internet campus and going to the Cloud. Thin Walled churches enable services MON-SUN, anytime, and delivered anywhere.

Thin Walled churches make it easy to share knowledge, wisdom, and insight among teams inside AND among other churches, fields, and professions outside.

A Thin Walled church gets new ideas from internal and external sources. These ideas are free to be explored and lead to organic innovation due to a loose organizational structure—thin walls between teams, departments, staff, and leaders. 

Thin Walled churches leverages networks—especially learning networks.

They know learning networks increase opportunities for collaborative learning—learning things only collaboration through Thin Walls can bring. Networks increase range of learning projects for Thin Walled churches to participate in. 

Thin Walled churches value social learning values and reciprocity. Thin Walled churches share through the network. The network remembers if you helped someone learn. The thin walls in networks know...If you didn't they remember that too.  

Thin Walled church values low bureaucracy and high empowerment. Thin Walled churches remove barriers for learners to network, pursue ideas, extend knowledge, and create new possibilities. 

In a Thin Walled church teaching is not locked to pulpit. Teaching is done peer-to-peer, in groups, and through Personal Learning Networks.  All teach and all learn. 

A Thin Walled church creates systems and programs to push those inside out into community and pull those out in the community inside. 

Thin Walled church- church develops networked communities inside and outside. In Touch-space and Cyberspace.  

Thin Walled church is participatory, networked, connected, transparent, internally and external focused. 

As more churches go online, embrace social media, open up, and participate in networks- the church walls will continue to "thin.”

 

Thoughts On A Learning Network

Thoughts on a Learning Network...

In a Learning Network, if you want to get more knowledge then you need to give away more knowledge, share more learning, and help others increase their learning.

In a Learning Network—each person is a node in a massive network of networks.

In the Learning Network-social ties, learning events, learning media, etc. are now organized around the individual (not the group or community).

We have less real face-to-face time with others, but more contract throughout the day via technology and networks. We are now just a likely to learn from someone we see face-to-face during our day, as we are to learn from someone we never see who is in our network.

In the Learning Network- we have moved from place-to-place contact to person-to-person contact through our technology and networks.

The place of connectivity and learning no longer is a physical place. Learning Networks allow for learning outside of the limitations of time and space.

We are members of networks with many loose connections. View connections in terms of reciprocity- we must manage these connections to maximize learning opportunities.

Reciprocity into our networks is not only key...but it leaves a digital trace. People will know if we have helped others learn.

Learning Networks provide for "just-in-time" learning, serendipitous learning. It allows you to leverage your learning with others…but you have to share.

 

Dynamic Learning Alignment

If you want to your organization to be able to adapt and change, then your organization needs to get all people “learning” in the same direction. You need to achieve Dynamic Learning Alignment.

Dynamic Learning Alignment- DLA is reached when the people in your organization are all simultaneously learning what the organization needs to know to succeed in an ever-changing environment.

DLA is learning for the current environmental needs while at the same time learning to prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

DLA requires TriDextrous Learning. Learners prepare for their work, projects, and challenges by learning before directly addressing the work, learning during the work, and learning after the work has been completed. The learner learns about past problems and solutions, current problems and solutions, and also learns about potential future problems and solutions.

When DLA is reached in your organization, all your people will be learning for current and future success in an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment.

DLA enables an organization to become and remain incredibly flexible and adaptable. If your organization is built to change then it is built to learn –

Ability to CHANGE = Ability to LEARN

 

TriDextrous Learning

TriDextrous Learning

Learn Before

Learn During 

Learn After 

and 

Learn about the Past

Learn about the Present

Learn about the Future

TriDextrous Learning is a key to the Learning Organization

Reverse Knowledge Management: Learning What We Already Knew

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously said, …”there are known 'knowns.' There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.”

He was basically describing 3 levels of ignorance—lack of knowledge or information.

The 3 Levels of Ignorance

Level 1-Things you “know.” 

Level 2-Things you “know you don’t know.” 

Level 3- Things you “don’t know you don’t know.” 

But Innovation expert Steven Shapiro in a this post, thinks there might another dimension or level.

Level 4- Things you “don’t know you know.”

Steven explains it this way. “Inside of organizations, there is so much untapped knowledge.  To combat this, over the past two decades, companies have invested millions of dollars in knowledge management systems.  The objective has been to capture the company’s knowledge."

Your organization or church is filled with untapped knowledge.

But as Steven explains there is a problem. “The problem is, the knowledge management databases usually become so large and unwieldy that they are unusable.  I can attest from experience that these systems often end up becoming digital piles of untapped information.  Finding what you want can be like finding a needle in a haystack.  Or, more accurately, it is like finding a specific needle in a stack of needles.”

What’s Steven’s answer to this dilemma you might ask? Reverse Knowledge Management.

“Instead of posting knowledge which sits passively in a database waiting for someone to find it, you post your question to your “community” so that it can be answered at the time of need.”

How much untapped knowledge is in the heads of your staff and teams. We need to become aware of what we know.

AWARRENESS

I use the acronym- AWARRENESS to describe how organizations and churches can think about their knowledge.

• Ambidextrous Thinking
• Lateral Wisdom
• Abilities
• Roles
• Response-ability
• Relationships
• Education
• Networks
• Experience
• Skills
• Scalability

Of those, lets look at Relationships and Networks.

Relationships

Often times we forget just how important the relationships outside of our department and even our organizational walls can be. Each staff member has a network of relationships that pass outside your walls, which they can leverage to provide insight, help, advice, knowledge, and wisdom for their work.

The relationships developed by each person can provide a myriad of useful outsiders to help overcome problems, create, and innovate.

Networks

It’s an inherent advantage of the “network.” These vast arrays of connections and “weak-ties” are combined and blended to create networked churches and organizations. Fluidly moving between physical and virtual networks to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas, collect ideas, data, strategies, and information. Each person being a portal or node to their individual network makes the church or organization exponentially stronger, knowledgeable, and wise.

We are able to maximize individual members’ Relationships and Networks to the advantage of the whole.

Steven says, “Sometimes the solution can be sitting in your knowledge management system…and you don’t even know it because it is too difficult to find.” 

Learning What We Already Knew

The answers we are looking for, the knowledge that we seek, may reside within our relationships, our networks, and ourselves. We may be surprised to find out that we have been dealing with Level 4 Ignorance all this time.

By practicing a little “reverse knowledge management,” we may be surprised to learn what we already knew.