“Modern leadership needs integrative thinking. Integrative thinkers embrace complexity, tolerate uncertainty, and manage in searching for creative solutions to problems. “

       

Roger Martin and Hilary Austen

I often get asked “where are you now?” when on phone, zoom, or team calls. And while, more often than not, I am in my office in Banyo, Queensland, Australia, it is also true that my work also takes me across the globe at times. The reason for this is that any theological work is catholic in nature (towards the universal/whole), and therefore to connect with and explore other perspectives, working things out with people from across the globe is an important aspect of that. So this summer, I have two of these international connection points in Rome – our Catholic centre – covering three themes: how might the synodal call to involve all the baptised as collaborators in the oversight and governance of the Church writ-large look like, an exploration of theologies of priesthood for a synodal Church, and Catholicism and Music. It is the first two I have something to say about here.

At the Seminary in which I work, the street connecting the houses in which the seminarians live in small communities is called the “Via Media” ( Middle Way). The name was given by the rector at the time – now Archbishop Anthony Randazzo, Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts – and inspired by the position of Paul VI in relation to Church Tradition and teaching. The Via Media is not a compromised “in-between” polarised opposites, but a much harder to achieve “both-and” of the truths both (or many) sides hold. I think there is no other way to move forward in this mad and increasingly “deaf-to-the-other” world.

How might we think about this? My interaction with Catholic leaders from the Health sector opened an interesting space for me. (And a thankful recognition of John Ruetz from Canada for this insight!) The “Opposable Mind” is how Martin and Austen call the capacity to hold complex problems in need of creative thinking. The quote above speaks of integrative thinking and tolerating uncertainty in the search rsolutions to the problems we face, which are new at each stage of history. It’s a “go slow to move forward well” approach, in the quest for solid and perhaps as yet undiscovered answers for the specific problems facing leaders in every now the Church. I love this. It’s drawn from organisational management, of course, and therefore needs testing and complementing with insights from Catholic theology and spirituality. However, Catholic thought has always taken the best of philosophy and the humanities…and “for just such a time as this (Est 4:14), we need tools and pathways of slow but solid creative fidelity. It resonates with Christian understandings of discernment, synodal listening to everyone, those I agree with and those I do not, and creative fidelity.

One final insight that I am holding in prayer (and sometimes concern, if I’m honest, as I feel it’s often overlooked or neglected): leadership is always also personal. While we can and should move beyond personalities, cultures, and temperaments,  the building of trust and friendships seems central to me, and for this, honest and ongoing dialogue seems key. Opening to another person, or group’s perspective is not easy. It challenges us not only to rethink our understandings, but also our very way of being. People have the capacity to change my mind.  They can help open me to a change of heart the Spirit wants of me. That can be scary, but fear is a bad advisor in things Spirit-related. My point is the building of relationships that enable trust is an essential element of ecclesial trust. We are individuals, but never solitary. Being part of the body of Christ is a thing. I pray we are up to the dialogical challenge.