We continue the series on basic concepts in Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST). Today’s question: What suggestions do you have for pastoral leaders for seeing triangles more clearly? What about how they manage themselves in the inevitable triangles?
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A story is told of legendary Packers football coach Vince Lombardi, whose toughness and demand for excellence turned the losing Green Bay football team into a championship organization. The story goes that after a particularly dismal practice he halted the drills and called the players together. He announced that they needed to start from the beginning, by paying attention to the fundamentals. At which point he held up the ball and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
One fundamental of Bowen Systems Theory (BFST) is the triangle. Sometimes we tell struggling novices to the theory, “If you understand triangles you’ve got 90% of the theory.” Recently I was interviewed by author and consultant Margaret Marcuson on the topic of triangles. It afforded me an opportunity to go back to basics and think about this fundamental concept. In the next few blogs I’ll share portions of that interview and the prompting questions from Margaret. Here’s the first:
How would you define a triangle?
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I enjoy those leadership books that revisit the basics. While some books on leadership are better than others, I always find it helpful to be reminded of the fundamentals. Whenever I’ve managed to get myself in trouble it’s because I’ve forgotten or ignored a basic rule. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of Leadership Rules 101 that are worth remembering.
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I was listening to an author speak about his experiences in the inner workings of a major financial firm—one of the several notorious players in the current financial crisis. I was struck at how familiar the company culture, and the speaker’s experiences in it, were to other corporate contexts. It reminded me of those conversations about how universal the Dilbert cartoons are in hitting the mark regardless of where people work—from a large corporate firm to a small business, from a for-profit conglomerate to a non-profit. It begs the question, “Why are all systems so similar?”
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We are please to announce that BTSR student Lori Strickland is the recipient of the 2009 GRACE award. Congratulations, Lori! The G.R.A.C.E. Award is given to a student enrolled in the M.Div./Christian Education Formation concentration who shows the most promise of exemplary contribution to the profession of the pastoral educator.
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I’m pleased to announce the release of a new resource for children’s missions education: Ready! Set! Go! Children on Mission Throughout the Church Year. The book was written by the students in my Teaching Children course, co-taught by Barbara Massey, Minister to Children at the River Road Church, Richmond, VA.
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