Leading Questions

I’ve been involved in working with missional communities and evangelism with marginalised and disadvantaged groups for over 25 years. This experience shaped my starting point for developing LEAD our new learning resources for growing leaders;

1. What do I wish my 25 year old self had known about leadership?
2. How am I going to engage busy leaders in a way that is relational, empowering, accountable and practical and helps them to see progress in their leadership?
3. How can we design something that will work for evangelists who are naturally activist, and at whatever their level of leadership experience?

I have always been impressed with how Jesus took his motley crew of disciples and over the course of 3 years trained them to continue his ministry after him. As I re-read the accounts of Jesus’ ministry in the gospels I was struck by how often he asked people questions instead of giving them answers. For example when the rich young ruler asks what he must do to inherit eternal life Jesus’ response recorded in Mark’s gospel is “Why do you call me good?” (Mark 10: 18 ESV)

That’s what inspired the idea of using a form of action learning which we’ve adapted to suit the LEAD learning environment because Action learning is rooted in asking questions, reflecting on our experiences and identifying the actions that we want to take. LEAD action learning goes hand in hand with weekly learning content which is organised into five core modules under the themes – Authentic, Healthy, Team, Collaborative and Enabling leadership.

LEAD offers participants the opportunity to explore a current challenge, question or reflection they have related to that week’s leadership topic. Other members of the action learning group are then to ask them questions to help them to gain a fresh perspective or new insight, with the aim of identifying an action they are going to take in the following weeks.

Each week that the action learning group meets there will be an opportunity to check in with each other’s progress and present the next insight they want to explore. Each member of the group will get the opportunity to present something, and the pilot has shown that there is something very powerful for people in being listened to. At the end of each session we allow time to celebrate and review the action learning process together; learning about the types of questions that are helpful and challenging.

For a limited period we’re offering 2hr online LEAD Bitesize taster sessions so that people can sign up and give LEAD a try before committing to a module or the LEAD programme. Simply fill out the form below to register!