Empowerment Leadership Model for Small Groups, Teams, & Families
Course 2, Lesson 16
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Minimizing the Negative Influence of Outside Systems
Note: Whenever "group" or "team" is used, it can mean "group", "team", or "family".
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To be successful, a group needs to minimize the negative influence of outside systems. Outside systems can range from cold temperatures outside of the church which requires a good church heating system to the teenage girls group that might take the boys’ attention off of the Bible study. Let me list some outside systems just so you will know how to think of their possible negative effect on a group.
For a Bible study, some of the outside systems that could negatively affect the group’s accomplishment of its purpose might be the social needs of its lonely members, the dessert time, the city’s transportation system that makes it difficult for people to arrive on time, hard economic times that require members to work extra hours or worry excessively, the children of group members who might need to go to other events or get sick, the doctrines of various denominations from which Bible study group members come, and the schedule of television shows during the group’s meeting time.
For a church council or board, some of the outside systems that might negatively affect the group’s accomplishment of its purpose unless dealt with wisely might be the congregation itself, the deacon board, a group that has gone off on its own doctrinal path, difficult economic times, business travel of its members, etc.
For a group meeting for Christian community, a Spiritual Obedience Group, some of the outside systems that might negatively affect the group’s accomplishment of its purpose might be the attractiveness of worldly pleasures, good economic times, each member’s extended group, the larger society’s non-biblical values such as absolute privacy, the rights of the individual over that of the social group, watching out for Number One, etc.
And for a teenage group, let’s add the body’s hormonal changes as an outside system (outside to the group, even though internal for each teen) that must be dealt with.
Do you get the idea? I hope so. A successful group identifies where outside systems are posing problems for the group. Then the group deals with them.
Next, let's talk about how the successful group constantly evaluates its own performance as well as that of every group member.
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Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA