Leading Through Disagreement

If you are a leader then you have had to negotiate between people on your team who disagree. When there are two people together in a room there will always be moments of disagreement. Very few leaders handle these situations well. In fact, over the years some of the biggest complaints I have heard about leaders is their handling of conflict.

Well, conflict has a lot to do with your Truth Lens (the concept from our book Through the River). The way you understand truth defines how you will negotiate between two people who claim they have the truth on their side. In our book we have three communities along a river. The Rock Dwellers believe that all truth is knowable and that there is one way to view everything. The Island Dwellers believe that truth is personal and they do not try to impose their understanding on people from other islands because their are no bridges. The Valley Dwellers live in community and believe there is truth we can know and truth we are learning. That learning requires humble dialogue.

As you can imagine leaders from these three communities will approach conflict in very different ways:

• Rock Dwellers will assess the two warring factions, weigh the information, side with the one they think is right and negotiate a surrender from the other side. This always leaves the other group defeated and disempowered.
• Island Dwellers will look for a pragmatic solution that gets people working together again without being too concerned about trying to get to the bottom of the situation - since they don't believe that one answer is attainable.
• Valley Dwellers will look for the piece of truth that is known and affirmed in Scripture and then build from there to have those in disagreement process their struggles and learn together. They will sacrificially stand in the middle and create an environment of humble learning because the process is just as important as the resolution.

We believe that Leading from the Valley represents a way forward for leaders who have been beat up and torn down by conflict in their organizations. What do you think of the way your Truth Lens might impact your ability to lead in conflict?

The Truth about Healthcare Reform

Wow, what a debate. We have seen discussions, research, lobbying, arguments, protesting, spitting, name calling, and on and on. And in all of the posturing and sharing of ideas from one side to the other, the question you have to ask yourself is “Where is the truth?”

In this issue, that question is loaded and very challenging to grapple with. If ever there was a time when understanding and apply our truth lens (epistemology) would come in handy this seems to be it. In our book Through the River, we talk about three ways of viewing truth that we call truth lenses that exist and influence us today.

So why don’t we walk through the three lenses and how people in each camp might try to derive truth about the healthcare debate. It should be an interesting journey and I’m sure it will garner some dynamic responses! So strap on your seat belt and let’s go….

Positivists:
If you are a positivist (a rock dweller in our river analogy) you believe that your job every day is to add truth and subtract untruth. You also believe that truth is a picture puzzle and your job (along with those around you) is to uncover the pieces and put them in their place.

A rock dweller approaches the healthcare debate with a specific idea about the truth in this matter. Their job is to take every new piece of information about the bill, the players and the ramifications and hold it up to what they believe and either add it or subtract it. Because they understand truth as a picture puzzle, they believe there is one right answer about healthcare reform and that they must uncover it and champion it at all costs.

In essence they agree to agree or they break relationship. We have plenty of rock dwellers in this debate don’t we? In fact, entrenched positions and understandings of truth have been part of the very contentious nature of the debate.
Instrumentalists:

If you are an instrumentalist (an island dweller in our river analogy) you understand truth personally. You believe that truth exists, however you are not convinced that your truth can be shared with others. Instead of a picture puzzle, you view truth as a collage where everyone’s understanding and personal experience are summed up into this big dynamic picture that ends up looking a lot like modern art – interesting but not particularly like anything you can point to in life.

An island dweller approaches the healthcare debate in a very pragmatic way. They inventory their personal experiences, their understanding, their perspectives and the facts and come up with the truth that they know and believe. They may believe their position very strongly and speak adamantly about the healthcare issue, but deep down they don’t expect anyone to reach the same particular conclusion as they have reached. The truth is personal. In the end their perspective will be based on their healthcare experience and needs. It may also be based on their passion for the cause of either side of the argument. The key is that island dwellers have no bridges so in the end their view and perspective is their own and they must live with it as individuals.

The island dwellers agree to disagree, knowing that consensus is impossible. There are many people who hold personal perspectives about this issue but don’t pretend that others will agree; aren’t there?

Critical Realist:
If you are a critical realist (a valley dweller in our river analogy) you believe that there is absolute truth that can be shared and can serve as a platform but you also believe there is much truth that is unknown and can only be learned in community. Another way of saying it is that there is truth you know and truth you are learning. You promote the idea of objective truth but you insist that it is understood subjectively. That looks like a montage of many small pictures that come together to make a clear and powerful picture.

A valley dweller approaches the healthcare debate by working to establish the truth that they know…about the government’s past performance in similar programs, the specific elements of the bill, the potential implications and so on. Once there is a clear understanding of what is known within the valley dweller’s community (and validated by other sources), then that person begins to challenge his/her community to humbly learn together. They discuss the subjective reality, process the personal experiences, and look for new perspectives on the issue that could help them expand what they know.

This group agrees to learn together and does not break relationship even if they are not on the same page yet. This is a relatively new approach in our world and we don’t see a lot of people naturally taking this tactic yet. But what would the debate have looked like if they did?

Challenge
Ok, we quickly explored how people with different truth lenses might respond to the healthcare debate. Now here is your challenge:
1. What truth lens did you use when dealing with this issue?
2. As you reflect on each one, which one represents a Biblical approach and why?
3. Which one reflects the character of God incarnate – Jesus – as he interacted with challenging issues during his time on earth?
4. What will you do the same or differently when the next big truth issue comes up in your world?

Is God bigger than your village?

In Tom Steffen's book "Reconnecting God's Story to Ministry," he shares about the "blinders" that we can have when our worldview shapes our theology.

"Worldviews influence the development of theological categories of convenience; they also automatically create blinders to other themes of the Storybook. All theologies are local theologies, but Western theologies tend to conceive of themselves as containing the fullness of the truth. In fact, many Westerners don't believe that culture impacts ones's questions and interpretations of theology. They argue that one is able to remain cultureless while interpreting Scripture." (pg 87)

This idea of blinders is a significant one. Each worldview has a truth lens, as we talk about in our book, and many times those who hold a certain worldview believe that their understanding of truth is the only acceptable way to view it.

Tom does a wonderful job here jolting us out of that understanding and daring us to think that there could be more than one way to view something as deep and intricate as theology - the study of God. Paul Borthwick described this so well in the introduction to our book when he speaks of an encounter with an Ethiopian Christian and their disagreement. Here is what Paul said,

"We disagreed, but as we walked towards our next meeting, he (the Ethiopian believer) turned and said, "We must have these conversations, for if we do not, we will each end up with our own village God." (pg 4, Through the River)

That is powerful! Because many of us have the tendency to focus on our own beliefs and understandings of truth as the only way to view the world, we become isolated and we make God as small as our understanding and our reality. God is much bigger than a village, but for our comfort and security we confine Him to a space that we understand.

Now the opposite is no option either. Many people swing open the gates of their village and say that God is whatever you want Him to be. This is the prevalent way of viewing truth in our culture today. And those who have a village God fight it with all their might. But the tide is too strong. Why would you ever believe that God is as small as a village when you could set God free to be whatever anyone wants?

So that is where we (and Dr. Paul Hiebert) present a third way. We call it "the truth you know and the truth you are learning." In our book we share how those who have liberated their village God and have now found that a God without any absolutes is no God at all, have another truth lens to consider.

This truth lens we share as an third way is simply that there are absolute truths that we have identified throughout Christian history and can be confirmed within our setting. These are the undeniable truths of the faith. But there is also a huge amount of truth about God that we have not yet understood. That "truth we are learning" is slowly uncovered through our experience with God, through other cultures and through the unfolding of history. Slowly God is revealing more and more of Himself as we engage with other believers and humbly learn together in community.

So what truth lens do you have? Do you believe that all truth is knowable and that your village represents all of what God is? Do you believe that God is everything to all people and that personal experience defines who God is? Or do you believe that there is truth we can know and truth we are learning in community?

What you believe about truth matters? It colors your faith, your relationships and your outreach. Pray about it and share where you are in your journey of truth.

Useful Fictions and Silos

We recently ran into another wonderful review of the book. Dan shares how creating useful fictions and silos for ideas were very powerful ideas for him. Do you know what he means? Take some time to pick up the book and check it out. We will be blogging more about those topics in coming months as well. Here is Dan's review.

30 Days of Truth Teasers

Since we have launched our book, we have been tweeting about truth under the name #TruthTeaser. You can see them all on twitter, but we wanted to share them on the blog as well. These 30 ideas are short but have a lot of kick to them. We have tried to sythesize many of the biggest most critical ideas in the book into these short tweets. We pray that they are helpful in your truth journey.

1. Your assumptions about truth are like glasses that affect everything you see.
2. Some people spend their lives adding truth and subtracting untruth.
3. Some people see truth as a personal matter. They live on islands with no bridges.
4. Some find truth they know and recognize that they are learning the rest in community.
5. If you insist that all truth is knowable then experts are essential.
6. Many arguments have more to do with your truth lens than the truth itself.
7. Personal truth seems freeing but ends in isolation.
8. Humility changes how you interact about truth.
9. Culture wars rise out of a fear that our understanding of truth is losing influence.
10. Personal experience brings new perspectives on the truth we know.
11. Tolerance raises love to the highest position at the expense of truth.
12. Our understanding of truth directly affects our approach to outreach.
13. Math is the language of those who seek to completely understand truth.
14. Relationships are the language of those who believe truth is learned in community.
15. Faith represents what we know, hope what we’re learning and love how truth is lived out.
16. Personal truth is convenient until someone else’s truth collides with mine.
17. We experience a great disturbance when our assumptions about truth fall short.
18. Many of us make certainty the focus of our truth search when clarity would serve us better.
19. When we say “ham sandwich” what do you imagine? What is a true ham sandwich like?
20. When objectivity is the goal, the richness of truth is lost.
21. On the island of personal truth you are one misstep away from the river of relativism.
22. Knowing feels safe, learning feels dangerous. Its easy to settle for some knowledge and give up learning more.
23. Living in community creates the opportunity to see truth as a journey
24. Every new idea can be seen as a threat, as someone else’s or as a new perspective to discover.
25. A picture is an exact image of reality.
26. A collage is thousands of ideas about reality.
27. A montage is thousands of ideas brought together into a whole.
28. Do you view truth as a picture a collage or a montage?
29. Your truth lens is a key part of your worldview.
30. Your view of truth will impact your faith, relationship and outreach.

How you can be a Christian and use any of the truth lenses

Each of the three truth lenses we have been talking about has its benefits and drawbacks. The Rock Dwellers have confidence and security, but at the same time deal with fear, as they are always in danger of losing their position as being right. The Island Dwellers can live in harmony with the people around them, but they become increasingly isolated from each other. They do not have to endure the argumentativeness of the Rocky shore, but they cannot make headway on any topic either. The Far Shore offers the security of knowing truth, but the humility that says that we are still learning. Still, the Far Shore is not in line with our language, and has some challenges communicating without sounding wishy-washy.

The important thing to know about the truth lenses is that you can be a Christian and use any of them. Your truth lens is part of your worldview. It does not define your relationship with God. It may affect it, but it does not define it. So, a person on the Rocky Shore can view truth in the solid, uncompromising way and still have a relationship with God. So, can the person on the sandy islands know God, even though they don’t believe their knowledge can be given to anyone else. Hopefully, as we know God more and more, our truth lens will become more Biblical. That is the hope for the Far Shore and the Valley Dwellers. With the solid foundation of truth coupled with the humility that recognizes individual perspectives, we hope to be pointing to a more Biblical truth lens.

Now that you understand truth lenses a little better. Try them on. Like glasses, see what the world looks like through each pair. Take them off and have a good look at them. Are your assumptions Biblical? What truth lens will help you further your relationship with God? What truth lens will help you to obey what God asks of us in the Bible? What truth lens will help you to reach out to others around you?

Prime Time America Interview

If you want a 15 minute introduction to our book, our interview on Prime Time America is a great way to take a first step into understanding your Truth Lens.

Here are the instructions on how to download it:
Go to: http://www.moodyradio.org/brd_programarchive.aspx?id=31100 and scroll down to September 17. Listen to the "part 1" audio at minute 20 and you will be there.

Why Foundations Are Important

"We recognize that the taller and more expansive a leader's dream,

the deeper the foundation must be."

- Kouzes and Posner in "Credibility"

In a world that lives from minute to minute on cable news, your appearance and ability to act like you are in control are of huge value. But as Kouze and Posner so powerfully share in their book on credibility, the true measure of your impact and effectiveness does not come from your ability to put on a good performance. It comes from deep within.

The problem with "deep within" is that it is messy, complicated and hard to sell in a 5 minute news segment. But that doesn't really matter does it? In the end the foundational things in your life are much more critical to your faith, relationships and outreach than your ability to put on a good show.

Our book "Through the River" is about some of those deeper things. It is about a part of your worldview that defines how you understand truth. It is not easy to put in a box and you can't explain it in a 50 second elevator speech, but it changes everything about how you view the world. These assumptions about truth are called your epistemology - we use the term "truth lens" to bring it down to earth.

Your truth lens is what you use to define truth in every part of your life. It is foundational. How you view truth will shape your faith, the way you view other people and the way that you act out your faith in evangelism and service.

Now your truth lens isn't the only foundational thing you need to be finding out about . . . but it is a very important one. As you explore your truth lens, you will begin to understand why you struggle to get along with Uncle Joe, why you believe the way you do about a certain social issue and why you approach outreach a certain way.

Our effort in this book is to help you be aware of the truth lenses that are most prevalent in the Western world today and to help you decide which one will help you serve God most effectively.

I know you are too busy to learn about your truth lens . . . that's ok. Take time anyway. You will find that as you invest in the foundations, other things make much more sense. Your life can be lived much more on purpose and your impact is exponentially increased. Lets build some foundations together!