Adaptive Leadership: Rooted, Not Rigid

Hey, this is Tim, and welcome to the Student Life Podcast, where we explore the everyday challenges and big questions of life through a biblical lens while navigating the realities of a secular world. Enjoy. Yo, what up, family? So this is Tim Pratt Jr., um, and I'm not— I don't, I don't have my traditional podcast equipment with me, but I wanted to get this episode out, man, because it's the energy of Ometha Global Leadership Conference. Here in Chicago, a suburb of Chicago, at Willow Creek Community Church. Listen, I have just been blessed, and I might do a bonus track just on some of the, the things that are going on, the people that I'm meeting and all of that. But I did want to talk about adaptive leadership today. Rooted, not rigid. Adaptive leadership. Now this one is going to be very close to what I do and what I often talk about as a senior agile coach. But a lot of you that has rocked with me, you know, I live in what I call integration. So in my associate pastor or minister role, whatever you want to call it, I do shepherding on my job as well as I bring my senior agile coaching hat within the local church. But ultimately I'm submitted to Christ. Also, it's nothing wrong with developing those skills because I believe that biblical leadership, the things that we learn, long as it doesn't conflict with God, we can use these things at our disposal because he's graced us and he's called us and we have responsibility. So that being said, why do I want to talk to you about adaptive leadership? So this is probably by far my favorite thing to talk about, being adaptive. You've probably heard of situational leadership, flexible leadership. A few years ago, I talked a lot about contextual leadership. So a lot of similarities, like a lot of people are writing on this, rebranding it. They're a lot of common sense to a degree, but what's common sense is not often common practice. So that being said, I just want to share a few thoughts. So this was— this won't be a super long episode, but I just ask you to rock with me because I believe that you can take this, this type of framework, per se, and apply it within— if you're in a family dynamic or on your job, whether you're ministry context, nonprofit context, just leading yourself, leading yourself, especially in a world with so much disruption and AI accelerating it. Again, you've heard me say this often, at rates that we can't even understand and keep up with. So, so why, why is it important, important to think of adaptive leadership? Well, one of the things is, is that leadership often gets pulled into one of two extremes. Some leaders refuse change because they believe consistency means doing the same thing over and over forever, and that's not good. And then on the other side of that extreme, others change so much, they change so quickly that they lose sight of the vision, the value that, that they should be anchored in, that should anchor them. And so what I love about, again, adaptive leadership is that it actually lives between the two extremes. It's a tension. Like, for example, Mature leaders, especially mature adaptive leaders and managers, know what— mature leaders and managers know what should never change and what we must continually evolve. In other words, Andy Stanley said it like this at the conference. He said, marry the mission, date the model. Don't date the mission and marry the model. Some of us, we do do that, and that wouldn't be wise. But we want to marry the mission and date the model. So in other words is that I know that change is constant. You've probably heard this statement before. Two things are certain: death and taxes. We all going to die one day on this side of humanity, and taxes— well, you should pay taxes. But I would throw another one in there, and change. Change is constant. I've been in technology my entire adult life for the most part. And if things aren't changing, I get nervous. But at the same time, when things change, I still kind of get nervous because again, it's a constant. And so although I have my deep convictions about things, my conviction shouldn't lead to me being rigid. I want to be rooted. But again, here we go. Not rigid. And one of the things I love to adapt out of is 1 Corinthians 9 with Paul. He talks about, I become all things to all men. And that's not to sin by any means, because that verse is often hijacked out of context. But it's just, hey man, long as I don't violate the law of Christ in my heart, I'm willing to adapt. I'm willing to be flexible in my approach without compromising. So in other words, is that I want to stay rooted in my principles, stay rooted in my convictions, but flexible in practice. Let me say that again. I want to stay rooted in principle, rooted in values, but flexible in practice. And so when we sit in the middle of all of this, we have to understand that this matters so much. And it matters to me, like I said, even more so in this, this, this AI space is because every leader, every person will face disruption. Again, you see market changes moving at a rate, you see organizational changes moving at a rate that's, that's unprecedented. You see team changes, generation changes. Your ministry context is consistently changing. And the question isn't whether you have to adapt. That's the wrong— if you're like, that's the thing what I see with a lot of leaders, they're asking like, well, will I? No, the question is— that's not the question. The question is whether you'll know how to protect while everything else is changing. What will you protect while everything else is changing? Because again, disruption is inevitable and leadership today more than ever, man. Let me tell you, yes, it requires character. It requires skill. It requires competence. It requires capacity. But man, it requires discernment, wisdom, discernment. Like, we— it is very important today because there's no shortage of knowledge. There's no shortage of information. There's just no shortage of people just consistently pumping things at us. Even at the conference I was at, a lot of voices, a lot of expertise. But now, how do you take those things and contextualize them based on what you need. And then some things you might not even tap into until later on down the road. So ask yourself, pause and ask yourself, you can pause this recording. What is the principle? What are your principles? What are your values? Then check this out. What is your preference? What is your preference that you might be confusing with a principle? And then simply ask, what is the method? What is the— what are the methods that I'm using here? Again, don't compromise your principle and your values, but you have to be a little bit flexible in the latter two, the preference and the methods. Again, marry the mission, but date the model. Date the methods that we use. Date the preferences that we use. But stay married to your principles and your values, your convictions. So one of the biggest misconceptions, as we talked about this just not too long ago, as I was stating this about flexibility doesn't mean compromise, is because when it comes to adaptive leadership, a lot of people think that it does require, require compromise in our convictions. But in reality, the opposite is often true. I would even go as far as to say the stronger my convictions are, the more freedom I have to adjust my methods. I'm gonna say that again. The strongest my convictions are, the more freedom I have to adjust my methods. Because here it is, my identity isn't tied to a particular process. I'm like this when I work with teams. I'm like this at home. This, this can kind of frustrate a lot of people because if I go like the traditional project management route and where everything has to be planned and something changes and people freak out again, that's not to throw that away because we do plan. We just, we plan with, what's the word I'm looking for? A lot of people don't like the word buffer, but we plan with adaptation. Like we expect things to change. So in actuality, I would say is that we're planning more throughout the process than we are upfront, because we know that a lot of times clarity is gonna come in degrees. We're gonna get punched in the mouth. We're gonna get hit. Again, with my kids, I could plan the whole week out, but I guarantee you something is gonna come up, whether ministry call, me, something with work, something with my kids, like my wife, something is going to come up. So I just have to have enough space and capacity to reserve to say, okay, how do I stay flexible here? Because I want to focus on the outcome, not the task itself. The tasks are important, but what is the outcome? Because I might have to mix and match some tasks, but if I can achieve the outcome, And stay adaptive within that range, then I can still meet the outcome. So again, adapting isn't compromising. Deep convictions truthfully, again, create that flexibility and then just on and on. And so another thing I love about this, and I know I'm naturally talking fast in this one, but I think that one of the things is that I've seen, especially as a senior agile coach, being a technical project manager, senior technical project manager, being a delivery and delivery management in the agile space, working with software teams. I've seen organization— organizations forced to pivot because of market disruption. Again, think of AI, think of some of the products and the latest and greatest technologies come— that has come out, uh, the changes in customer expectations, uh, again, new products, new technologies. And check— like, hear me on this one— the leaders who navigated those moments well They weren't the ones that refused to change. Even in ministry leaders, they weren't the ones that refused to change. They were the ones who stayed committed to the mission while adjusting how they deliver value. I'ma say that again. They were the ones committed to the mission while adjusting how they deliver value. Value, the outcome, it remains the goal. Same thing again with ministry. I've seen these similar challenges in some of the churches I work with. Sometimes churches become attached to the methods. You know, for example, once served people, the methods that once served people but no longer fit the current context because we're dealing with a different generation now. A lot of us, well, I want to get back to the church and how we used to. I'm not saying throw it all away, but we don't live there anymore. Things consistently evolve. So faithfulness doesn't require preserving every tradition. It's not that tradition is bad and we shouldn't throw out everything, but it doesn't require us to preserve every tradition. It requires faithfully carrying out God's mission while wisely considering the people we're called to serve. Jesus said, I will be with you until the end of age. Now, I don't want to hijack the text, but it could be a lot of things to change. Whether it's the manufacturing age, the digital age, whatever, AI age, he will be with us till the end of age. And so our mission is to continue to serve, to continue to make disciples, and no matter what it looks like. Again, you've heard me say this consistently with Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, all things to all people. Here it is. I have to kind of beat this one down. He did not lack conviction. He just refused to let uncertainty— like, he refused to let barriers stand in the way of the gospel. In other words, I like to say it like this. If I was a jean and t-shirt with Jordan type of person that always wore that and communicated, and you told me, hey, well, at my place, or what we do over here, you have to wear a three-piece suit or a robe. I don't care if I hate those three-piece suits and a robe with a passion. If the Lord is leading me in that area, and I— or not that, or just I know God has opened his door, I'm gonna put on that robe and that three-piece suit and let that thing fly. Like, because I'm going to adapt to fit the context, because that's not gonna— that doesn't convict me. Those are just clothes. And long as it doesn't violate my principles, my deep convictions, I'm willing to do it. And so this is what I believe again, what Paul was doing. His methods were flexible because his allegiance was who? To Christ and Christ alone. His allegiance was to Christ and it was fixed. It was settled. And so again, even in the ministry context, it evolves. The mission remains. We have to make sure that we aren't letting barriers and preferences and methods get in the way of the ultimate value that we're trying to create in the marketplace or souls that we're trying to reach in a ministry context. We can't. So one of the dangers, man, in this leadership and management thing again is when we treat preferences like principles. And over time, hear me, we can become more committed to the way we always done something. Hear me, we can become more committed to the way we've always done something than to the reason we started doing it in the be first place. Just sit with that. So adaptive leaders, adaptive managers, I would challenge you and lean in just a little bit, or humbly suggest that whether you're leading your family, leading your organization, your nonprofit, your ministry, ask yourself, am I protecting truth or am I protecting familiarity? Am I protecting truth Or am I protecting familiar lottery? Because again, principles endure. Our preferences will change. Being familiar feels safe. But in this way, in the way that we're doing things now, faithfulness requires discernment. Faithfulness requires discernment. So adaptability always has boundaries. It's not that you're just out here in a free fall in the wild, wild west. I see a lot of people say, well, this is just flexible leadership, or we're agile, or we're adaptive, or— but this is no. Adaptive leadership is looking at the situation at hand. It's looking at the person. It's looking at the behaviors, looking at the impact, and looking at competency. It's looking at capacity. It's looking at load. Like, it's looking at all of these things. This is why leadership is challenging and stretches, because like nothing is the same. Nothing. Even when we get up day to day, we might have the same routine, but we might not always be feeling the same. Our temperament might not be the same. We might be going through different things mental, as well as the people that we're trying to reach. Nothing is the same. People are always evolving. Environments are always evolving. And that's what makes adaptive leadership so beautiful. We all are wired and have natural things, but sometimes we have to actually step into another area, or what I'm going to say, might have to step into another way of leading that's more conducive and a bridge to where we're trying to go and reach and bring people alongside us. And that's challenging, that stretches us. And then we have to know other leaders that are better than us that can challenge us. We have to know— we have to study other great leaders. We have to know when to pass things off, where we're strong at and where we're weak at, and, and, and on and on there. Like, we have to think about this, build and cultivate high-performing and sustainable teams. This is going to be very, very key. It is becoming more and more prevalent. Like, I have been immersed in this like for years. This is my bread and butter right here. And so I can go on and on about this topic, but I'm not. But I also want you to know that it's in this age I would really start looking up and studying adaptability a lot more, agile leadership context and principles and things of that nature, because for Christians, For me, as a person of faith, those boundaries include scripture. Scripture is always going to be the highest authority. The character of Christ is what I have to model and the mission of God has entrusted me and his people with. But as our understanding matures and evolves, we may refer— we— it's not that we're changing truth, but we may refine how we're applying it. Like, hear me, I'm not saying redefine truth itself. I'm saying, but we might change up or refine how we apply some things that I applied 10 years ago. I was unlearned and it was a misinterpretation of the understanding of the text in this context. So as I challenged and I evolved and God matured me, I'm like, okay, I can apply that like this or apply it like that, all while not violating my deep conviction. And so this is what this is all about. So what, what, what should you do with this? What should you do with this? Well, I would say one of the things is, again, start studying adaptation. Talk with leaders that have a high understanding and model adaptive leadership. Stay curious. Continue to learn. Pay attention to what's changing around you without being controlled by it. It's going to happen. Like, just, like, just pay attention to the things that are going on and know that a lot of leaders in this area They don't adapt because they're uncertain. They adapt because they care deeply about serving well or creating value or reaching outcomes that they know that's going to help advance the things that is on their heart or God has given them vision for. So again, stay teachable. Listen first, learn continuously, study the context and adapt with purpose. So my last thing is this, my people, my family. The leaders who thrive over the long term won't be those who never change. That's not what's going to happen. They will be the ones who know what should never change while remaining flexible enough to faithfully serve people in every season. Rooted people can adapt because their identity isn't built on methods, preferences, and things like that. So we want to be rooted in truth. We want to be flexible in practice. We want to stay married to the mission and date the methods, date the model. In this season and for the rest of life, it's always been important. We're going to need wisdom. We're gonna need sound judgment, faithfulness, and remember that adaptation is stewardship. So I hope this blessed you. I hope this challenged you. I hope that it gets you thinking about just adaptive leadership more. And just again, I wanna encourage you, stay rooted but not rigid. Or as we say in the local church, stay rooted but not dogmatic. Love you all. Thanks for joining me today on the Student Life Podcast. And remember, learning never stops and wisdom grows as we seek truth in both scripture and life. And until next time, keep walking faithfully and thinking deeply. Be blessed.