wk4 reading - Chapter 12. Telling the WE Story Reflection

Chapter 12. Telling the WE Story: I told you it wasn't about you. Have you been able to tap into the power of combining your expertise and passions with someone equally gifted? Have you had the pleasure of lifting a teammate, student, stranger up enabling them to realize their dreams and exceed anything that you could have imagined?

My action research is a perfect example of passions combining toward creating something new. I was having such a hard time getting the folks at my job enrolled in collaborating on my AR project. Believe me, there were many opportunities available to research how technology could impact Christian education there because I was, in fact, the assistant to the director of Education for the whole Episcopal Diocese of Chicago – that’s 127 churches with 40,000 members. We created or ran programs for every age group and the professional level too. But, being that I was new to this job and field in general, I didn’t have the expertise or the connections personally to ignite a spark ‘out there’ in the community to get hit for collaboration. The director (my boss) didn’t offer any assistance or advice, not even 10 minutes of discussion on my project. It felt like I had to poll some teeth and that didn't seem right. So, I did the best I could to formulate a plan, cobbling together ideas with my own resources and changed my mind three times!

In this process, I would talk to critical friends, and they in fact became more excited and engaged more and more as I described to them what I really had passion for and that was digital story telling in ministry. They finally saw the light I was seeing and bingo, that emergent moment happened, and it started coming together. There was no stopping us. Her student’s caught that passion too and went on to create amazing stories and will hopefully find others to ignite as they develop their careers.

I have had this experience many times, banging my head against a wall, seemingly doing all the right things, with scant results, only to find that when I least expected it, a casual conversation or interaction turns my world sideways and things start happening with no effort – abundance is right – it just keeps coming. This is a phenomenon, some people call it God, some emergence, some luck, some a mystery. I can say that even though the head banging seemed like a waste and at times heart breaking – if I had not actually gone through that time, 'practicing' so to speak, I would not have been prepared when the tipping point did arrive. So, we have to do our homework and continue to be alive in our process. You never know when the birth will come. This is what faith really is, believing in something even when you have no evidence. Did anyone ever tell you the opposite of faith is not doubt? Actually, the opposite of faith is certainty!

I have had the great and rich pleasure of inspiring and mentoring many young women in my past career. (Guys didn't seem to care, because I wan't a role model for them). This mentoring didn't happen because I tried or planned it; it happened because I was a kind of quirky individual, keeping my own train on the track so to speak, in my own sort of way. Occasionally a younger colleague would catch a spark and want to know more and be more. There were at least three that I can recall that went back to grad school because they saw that I was doing it – and at a much older age than they were, and they became encouraged to start school and the next phase of their development. Others were inspired to take on more responsibility or leave for more opportunity. One of the best was a college graduate who was my assistant. She became one of the first dot-com millionaires - she followed me to my new job and made new connections there. I encouraged her to catch the spark offered at a crazy new job before long, working on a new business that at the time had not opened, had no customers, no precedent and almost made no sense…”What? Name your own price?!!”

Priceline went public 8 months later and she worked there for 4 more years.