One of the key points Block made during his engaging presentation was how community transformation requires a different type of leader. Instead of a focus on personality, style, or role modeling this new leadership is about intention, convening, valuing relatedness, and presenting choices. Our current business models often elevate leaders in a way that creates a level of isolation and entitlement. What is needed instead are leaders who know how to encourage citizen engagement in a way that produces accountability and commitment.
Block maintains that leaders who master the art of convening have three tasks:
- To create a context that nurtures a future based on gifts and generosity.
- To initiate conversations that shift the way people are brought together and the questions used to engage them.
- To listen and pay attention.
My first-hand knowledge of convening grows out of a community engagement project I have been part of over the past four years with our local United Way. During a series of community-wide events and hundreds of smaller volunteer-driven gatherings, we have convened, named the key questions, and then listened to participants. The results have been stunning as new ideas and energy have emerged around three distinct community goals that are currently being implemented.
It is likely that not every leader will be willing to give up control or shift their thinking from solving problems to exploring possibilities. We have many centuries of teaching and practice to overcome. But Peter Block’s advice is prescriptive for a world that is desperately seeking solutions to some very pressing problems. Let the convening begin!