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Do you want to build community?
Do you want to regenerate community development?
Do you want to help communities survive difficult times?
Building Community & Community Leaders
Community leadership entails complex, cooperative learned behavior
...
and in a rapidly changing world, the consequences of error can be extreme.
Effective leadership is always in demand and community leadship
coaching is rarely available.
Developing Community Leadership
Community Leadership
A human community is a group of people that attempt to accomplish
community goals together. Common community goals include: Survival, Respect, Stability, Success,
Relationships, Evolution and Influence.
Many communities include people who strive to achieve
their own goals at the expense of the community. (E.g.: too close a relationship
between a leader and an assistant may alienate other members). Some members may
sacrifice themselves in the service of important goals - while
others may condemn or ignore important goals to preserve a status quo.
Systemic goalwork will help you perceive communities in terms of hierarchies,
boundaries and sub-groups. You can also assess communities in a hierarchy
of leadership goals and survival ... community leaders must have or learn skills appropriate
to the community hierarchies, boundaries and sub-groups!
|
Community |
Survival of ... |
Leadership Goals |
| Individual |
Physical Body |
Create and protect children |
| Family |
Genetic Bloodline |
Provide children with skills for
mature parenthood |
| School |
Knowledge & Skills |
Provide children with essential
skills for adult life |
| Community |
Mutual Support |
Provide families with security and
safety |
| City |
Municipal Services |
Provide communities with life support |
| Region |
Regional Character |
Provide communities with traditions |
| Religion |
Religious Doctrine |
Provide communities with doctrinal support |
| Military |
Military Power |
Provide communities with
protection |
| Political Party |
Political Power |
Provide communities with leadership
and authority |
| Country |
National Traditions |
Provide regions with national culture |
| Humanity |
Human Species |
Provide humanity with genetic diversity |
Changing Communities
Systems thinking can help you look at human communities with a
wider perspective than individual behavior. Systems theory can identify and
interpret repeated patterns (habits) and predict the consequences to individuals,
couples and families in communities.
A community may include people who operate well by themselves but
do not integrate, and a community may suffer from any lack of integration. You can
learn to recognize the functions of a community, and their interrelations, and diagnose
problems by recognizing the patterns of interaction. Then focus on determining future
goals rather than reacting to past trauma or disappointments.
You may know less about your
community than about any other community that you observe!
Systemic Community Coaching
Community behavior depends on its entire relationship structure (not
the sum of its parts). A community structure determines member's behavior,
which determine family and community events. Too often, we only notice and respond
to events. We may miss the broader scheme - the
systemic scheme exposed by systemic diagnosis.
Too often in communities (and in training programs), we think
we can break up a community and only deal with its parts; or that we can
focus on certain topics (e.g. performance) independent from other topics (e.g.
children).
There seem to be optimum sizes for each type of community, from
friends to countries. Larger communities may break themselves up into smaller
communities to achieve a new stability. Pre-systemic thinking (e.g. esoteric,
egotistic or statistical
models) used to fix people may hasten the disintegration of community.
Some communities sacrifice their members to achieve important goals -
others may ignore important goals to preserve their members .Some systemic principles
that apply to communities are:
- A community seeks balance with its environment
- A community is greater than the sum of its members
- A community is a sub-system of many larger systems
- A community has sub-systems, borders and limits to growth
- A community has an optimum size (in balance
with the environment)
A community may experience the same problems repeatedly -
many problems seem to recycle over time. Community members typically recognize the
patterns of behaviors, rather than the underlying dynamics. After children mature, they
can recognize the phases their own children pass through.
Systemic Community Behavior
Communities have predictable patterns of interactions
(cultural and community traditions) that are passed across generations.
Community interactions can modify but rarely end these cross-generational
entanglements. We offer external observation and assistance with our systemic coaching.
While all community members affect other members, the leader's moods and actions affect all members
directly. Community members respond to
each other's emotions in predictable ways. Many solutions create new problems -
and many solutions are worse than the problems. Our community coaching
seeks solutions to benefit all members. We help set standards for quality as well as
priorities for action.
Violation of systemic rules in human communities can lead to
dysfunctional behavior - and tragedy in subsequent generations. Cross-generational
entanglements underlie many personal and
professional problems. Restoring balance and harmony to a community can resolve
emotional, physical and systemic symptoms of its members. See
quantum coaching.
Do problems exist independently of an observer who defines
them? While community systems create problems - problems also help create community.
We coach communities to change their structure, rather than attempting
to change individual behavior.
When community systems are honored; when guilt is healed
and duties clarified; members feel enormous relief. They can
move forward with a sense of life instead of burdens of depression
and guilt.
Community Respect
Do you want a respected role in your community? If so,
take the next step to successful community coaching,
and read about our Systemic Coach Training.
We do not solve your problems - that's for social workers. Nor are we
authorities about statistical causes of problems - that's for psychologists. Nor do we
suggest controlling emotions with drugs -
that's psychiatry. We can help you resolve
whatever stops you solving problems.
Online Coaching & Mentorship
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2005-2012 All rights
reserved. |
