Tag Archives: Tod Bolsinger

Attunement in Leadership: Converting Resistance into Collective Commitment

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One of the most challenging aspects of leadership isn’t dealing with external obstacles – it’s managing internal resistance from your own team. While leaders generally prepare themselves for external challenges, the emotional toll of facing opposition from within can be particularly devastating, often leaving them feeling betrayed and discouraged.

 Every leader knows the stormy seas of resistance. When faced with change, even the most dedicated teams can push back, especially when there’s something to lose. How do you guide your team through these turbulent times without losing sight of the mission? Leading Through Resistance by Tod Bolsinger is a beacon for leaders navigating the choppy waters of organizational change.

Leading Through Resistance offers more than just strategies; it delivers a mindset shift. With wisdom woven through every page, Tod Bolsinger teaches you unexpected skills to not only face resistance but to transform it into a mission-driving force.

Leading Through Resistance is a roadmap to resilient leadership. Equip yourself with the tools to lead with confidence, adapt with grace, and inspire transformation. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just starting your leadership journey, Leading Through Resistance is your essential guide to turning resistance into resilience.

Understanding Internal Resistance

Internal resistance emerges when we introduce new ideas or attempt to implement significant organizational changes. As leaders, we often take this resistance personally, allowing our egos to become overinvolved until any disagreement feels like a direct challenge to our professional identity. This emotional response can lead to either passive avoidance or counterproductive pushback.

However, it’s crucial to understand that resistance to change isn’t malicious – it’s natural. As Edwin Friedman noted, sabotage isn’t “the bad things that evil people do,” but rather “the human things that anxious people do.” In fact, resistance is so inherently linked to the leadership process that it should be expected whenever significant change is initiated.

The Path Forward: From Pushback to Pull-Together

Instead of trying to eliminate resistance, successful leaders learn to lead through it. The key is to implement an emotionally intelligent process that transforms pushback into buy-in. Rather than meeting resistance with force, invite your team to lock arms and channel their energy toward collective progress.

Core Principles for Managing Resistance

Start with Dual Convictions

  • The Preservation Conviction: Ensure all changes protect and maintain the organization’s core purpose and values
  • The Change Conviction: Acknowledge that adaptation is necessary to preserve and advance the organization’s mission

Stay Calm, Curious, and Connected

  • Maintain emotional equilibrium without becoming detached
  • Create psychologically safe spaces for honest dialogue
  • Move closer to resistance rather than away from it
  • Transform heated emails into personal conversations
  • Convert formal complaints into opportunities for coffee meetings

Practice Attunement

Research shows that nearly 90% of what distinguishes outstanding leaders comes down to emotional intelligence rather than cognitive abilities. This emotional intelligence manifests through four core competencies:

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-management
  • Social awareness
  • Relationship management

Practical Strategies for Implementation

Slow Down the Process – While crisis often provides the urgency needed for change, resist the temptation to rush. Frenetic action rarely leads to sustainable transformation.

Give the Work Back – Engage key stakeholders early in the process. As Patrick Lencioni wisely noted, “If people don’t weigh in, they can’t buy in.” Create a guiding coalition that includes even those likely to push back— – heir perspective is valuable.

Conduct an Accusation Audit – Begin by acknowledging potential objections and fears. People are typically twice as motivated by fear of loss as they are by potential gains. Creating this psychological safety helps lower defensive barriers.

Practice Active Mirroring – Listen intently enough to repeat key phrases and emotions expressed by others. The goal isn’t to get them to say “You’re right,” but rather to hear them say “That’s right” when you reflect their concerns back to them.

Embrace the Power of “No” – Counter-intuitively, a genuine “no” is more valuable than a “counterfeit yes.” When people feel safe expressing disagreement, it builds trust and opens the door to authentic commitment later.

For those of us trained in the old “command and control” mindset,  it is natural to assume that we have to stand our ground for things to go our way. Don’t eliminate resistance – lead through it.

Tod Bolsinger

The Adaptive Reset

The traditional leadership model of meeting resistance with resistance is outdated. Today’s effective leaders understand that attunement accelerates change. When clarity and empathy combine, they become powerful tools for reducing resistance and fostering genuine buy-in.

Remember that emotional connection precedes rational agreement. In the words of moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, “Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.” By focusing on building trust and lowering defensiveness through genuine connection, leaders can create the conditions for meaningful transformation.

The path forward isn’t about domination or control – it’s about the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal. When leaders make the conscious choice to resist pushing back against pushback and instead attune with those who resist, they create the possibility for collective movement forward.

This approach isn’t manipulation; it’s a process of genuine mutual transformation rooted in deep values and full engagement. By combining clear purpose with emotional intelligence, leaders can turn opponents into allies and resistance into momentum for positive change.

Clarity in Chaos: How Mission-Focused Leadership Drives Organizational Success

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In a world where change is the only constant, leadership demands courage and clarity.

Every organization faces pivotal moments that can either blur their vision or strengthen their resolve. Through insightful storytelling, engaging illustrations, and practical exercises, Bolsinger helps you cut through the noise to hone in on what truly matters―your mission. 

The Mission Always Wins isn’t just about theory; it’s packed with real-life case studies and actionable advice, so you can foster alignment and purpose within your team. The Mission Always Wins is your go-to guide for learning to navigate the choppy waters of organizational change with precision and purpose.

Are you ready to align your team with a mission that matters? The Mission Always Wins will help you to lead with clarity and conviction in times of change.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations face unprecedented challenges that demand more than traditional problem-solving approaches. These challenges require adaptive change, a transformational process that goes beyond surface-level solutions. As Tod Bolsinger, an expert in leadership and organizational change, emphasizes in his book The Mission Always Wins, adaptive leadership is crucial for guiding organizations through complex, evolving landscapes.

Understanding Adaptive Change

Adaptive change is not about a great leader solving a hard problem with resolve and a clear plan. Instead, it’s a process where a group takes responsibility for their own transformation, altering behaviors, attitudes, and sometimes even cherished values. As leadership experts Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky observe, “To meet adaptive challenges, people must change their hearts as well as their behaviors.”

The goal of an adaptive change leader is not to please stakeholders by solving their problems. Rather, it’s to guide the organization through personal and shared transformation to accomplish its mission in a changing and often disruptive world. The leader’s primary task is to help the organization make necessary adaptations that bring about transformation for the sake of the mission.

The Mission Always Wins

In the face of adaptive challenges, leaders often find themselves negotiating multiple, sometimes competing, values. One of the most painful realities is that they can no longer rely on win-win solutions. In fact, when facing adaptive challenges, win-win often becomes lose-lose.

So, how do we lead a team through this disappointing leadership challenge? The answer lies in a simple yet difficult-to-implement mantra: The mission always wins. Always. Every time. In every conflict. This means that the focused, shared, missional purpose of the organization takes precedence over every other competing value. It’s more important than personal preferences, leadership styles, or past successes.

Building a First Team

To ensure that the mission always wins, leaders must develop a “first team” as described by Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Advantage.” This concept refers to an executive leadership team that considers each other the most important team, sharing one common mission. For many executive team members, this requires a difficult shift in mindset. They may have to prioritize their loyalty to the mission over their loyalty to their departments or personal interests.

Crafting a Clear Mission Statement

A clear, concise mission statement is crucial for adaptive leadership. Drawing inspiration from the military concept of “commander’s intent,” a good mission statement should provide clarity on the purpose, goal, and desired end state of the organization. An effective approach is to craft an 8-word mission statement. This brevity forces leaders to distill the essence of their organization’s purpose, making it easily communicable and actionable for all team members.

Facing the Reality of Casualties

When organizations prioritize their mission in the face of adaptive challenges, there will inevitably be casualties. These can manifest as changes in roles, reworking of budgets and resources, or even people leaving the organization. As a leader, it’s crucial to acknowledge these losses and pay extra attention to those who will experience the changes most personally and dramatically.

Naming and Navigating Competing Values

Adaptive leadership requires the ability to name and navigate competing values with missional clarity. This process involves:

  1. Putting all organizational values on the table
  2. Naming them explicitly
  3. Identifying which values are in competition
  4. Prioritizing values based on the organization’s mission

By going through this process, leaders can make tough decisions that align with the organization’s core purpose, even when it means disappointing some stakeholders.

The Importance of Adaptation

While preserving core values is crucial, healthy adaptation of these values is equally important for organizational thriving in a changing environment. As Jerry Porras and Jim Collins suggest, “Once you have determined what will never change, then you must be prepared to change everything else.” This delicate balance between preservation and adaptation is at the heart of effective adaptive leadership.

Leading with Missional Clarity

Remember, in the face of adaptive challenges, the mission always wins. This principle should be the north star guiding all decisions and actions. It may lead to difficult choices and disappointments in the short term, but it ensures the long-term health and success of the organization.

As we navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, the ability to lead adaptive change will become ever more crucial. By embracing these principles and practices, leaders can transform their organizations, enabling them to not just survive, but thrive in the face of unprecedented challenges.

The path of adaptive leadership may be difficult, but for organizations committed to making a lasting impact, it’s the only way forward. In the end, it’s not about winning every battle or pleasing every stakeholder – it’s about fulfilling the mission that drives your organization’s very existence.

As Bolsinger reminds us, “There are always stakeholders who are deeply committed to keeping things the way they have always been. Every time, in every decision, the key question is: Does it further our missions? The mission always wins. Always. Every. Time.”

The Mission Always Wins isn’t just a catchy phrase; it’s a powerful guiding principle for leaders navigating the choppy waters of organizational change. By focusing on the mission, building a strong first team, crafting a clear mission statement, and courageously facing the challenges of adaptive change, leaders can guide their organizations toward a future of purpose, resilience, and lasting impact.

How to Rethink and Redefine Your Approach to Leadership in Times of Upheaval

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Crises are inevitable, but your response to them can shape your legacy.

In a world where crises seem to be the new normal, leadership that adapts is more vital than ever. In his new book How Not to Waste a Crisis, bestselling author Tod Bolsinger offers a refreshing perspective on turning chaos into opportunity. 

Unlike a typical leadership book, How Not to Waste a Crisis is an invitation to rethink and redefine your approach to leadership in times of upheaval. What sets the book apart is its vibrant storytelling, engaging illustrations, and practical exercises. Each chapter brings to life real-world examples and transforms complex concepts into digestible insights.

Whether you’re leading a church, nonprofit, or any mission-driven organization, How Not to Waste a Crisis provides:

Wisdom for Navigating Crises: Learn to lead with adaptability, not sheer effort.

Practical Advice: Enjoy insights from bestselling leadership author Tod Bolsinger.

Engaging and Digestible Chapters: Experience storytelling at its best.

Exercises and Case Studies: Apply what you learn immediately with team exercises and real-life examples.

Discover how to turn challenges into opportunities for growth. Don’t just read about leadership – experience transformation through the pages of How Not to Waste a Crisis.


In a world where predicting the future is increasingly difficult, adaptive leadership offers a powerful alternative: Don’t predict. Prototype. By embracing diverse perspectives, asking powerful questions, and engaging in thoughtful experimentation, leaders can guide their organizations through even the most turbulent times.

In today’s rapidly changing world, traditional leadership approaches often fall short when faced with complex, adaptive challenges. To thrive in this environment, leaders must embrace a new paradigm: adaptive leadership. This article explores the key components of adaptive leadership and how they can be applied to navigate uncertainty and drive meaningful change.

The Power of Diverse Interpretations

One of the cornerstones of adaptive leadership is the ability to gather and synthesize diverse interpretations of a situation. While it’s tempting for leaders to rely on their own perspectives or create echo chambers of like-minded individuals, true insight comes from embracing a variety of viewpoints.

Consider these examples:

  • A decline in donations to a non-profit organization could be seen as a failure in fundraising skills or an opportunity to explore new investment models.
  • Decreased church attendance might indicate a lack of commitment from members or a chance to reach a younger, digitally-savvy audience.
  • Students who seem “glad to be together” may actually be masking deeper issues of belonging and inclusivity.

By actively seeking out and listening to diverse interpretations, leaders can uncover hidden patterns and themes that might otherwise go unnoticed. This process allows for a deeper understanding of the challenges at hand and opens up new possibilities for action.

From Observation to Interpretation

The journey from observation to interpretation is a critical one in adaptive leadership. While the observation stage focuses on gathering as much data as possible, the interpretation stage is about making sense of that data through multiple lenses. This shift requires leaders to:

  1. Look for recurring themes across different perspectives.
  2. Consider whether certain voices are dominating the conversation or if important viewpoints are being overlooked.
  3. Identify the underlying emotions and energy behind the words being spoken.

As leaders engage in this process, they often discover a “song beneath the words” – a unifying theme that ties together seemingly disparate interpretations. This might manifest as:

  • A tension between preserving cherished values and embracing necessary change.
  • A gap between stated organizational values and actual practices.
  • An underlying anxiety or enthusiasm that permeates the entire system.

By tuning into these deeper currents, adaptive leaders can gain invaluable insights into the true nature of the challenges they face.

The Art of Formulating Learning Questions

A key shift in adaptive leadership is moving away from the “expert expectation” – the assumption that leaders should have all the answers. Instead, adaptive leaders become expert questioners, focusing on formulating powerful questions that drive learning and exploration.

Effective learning questions are:

  1. Open-ended (using “how,” “what,” and “why”)
  2. Genuinely engaging (demonstrating care for both the people answering and the answers themselves)
  3. Designed to dig deeper beneath surface-level responses

Some universally useful questions include:

  • “What do you think about this?”
  • “What else?” (Asked repeatedly until all ideas are exhausted)
  • “What life experience shaped you to think, believe, or see the world that way?”

By embracing curiosity and humility, leaders create an environment where complex challenges can be explored more fully, and new insights can emerge.

Playful Interventions: The Power of Prototypes

In a world of constant change, the ability to adapt quickly is crucial. Adaptive leaders embrace a “bias for action” – not by stubbornly repeating past behaviors, but by engaging in thoughtful experimentation. This is where the concept of prototypes comes into play.

Prototypes are safe, modest, and inexpensive experiments designed to test ideas and challenge assumptions. They allow organizations to:

  1. Explore critical questions formulated in earlier stages of the adaptive process.
  2. Challenge default behaviors and mental models.
  3. Learn valuable insights with minimal risk and investment.

The key to effective prototyping is focusing on learning rather than immediate success. Instead of asking, “Does it work?” the primary question becomes, “What will we learn?” This shift in mindset encourages more frequent experimentation and reduces the fear of failure.

Interestingly, research from companies like Google has shown that significant insights can be gained from surprisingly small sample sizes. Their famous Design Sprint process revealed that 80% of necessary information could be gathered from just five respondents. This finding should embolden leaders to embrace prototyping as a low-risk, high-reward strategy for navigating uncertainty.

Principles for Healthy Interventions

As organizations engage in the adaptive process and experiment with prototypes, it’s crucial to keep three key principles in mind:

  1. Solutions must align with the organization’s core values or “DNA.”
  2. There must be clarity on what aspects of the organization will “never change” before initiating transformative efforts.
  3. Leaders must be prepared to leave behind outdated practices, even if they were once effective.

These principles ensure that adaptive efforts strengthen the organization’s identity rather than diluting it. The goal is not to become something entirely new, but to evolve into the healthiest version of the organization in a changing environment.

Embracing the Iterative Nature of Adaptive Leadership

Adaptive leadership is not a linear process but an iterative one. Leaders must be prepared to cycle through observation, interpretation, questioning, and experimentation multiple times as they navigate complex challenges. Each iteration brings new insights and learnings, allowing the organization to continuously adapt and improve.

This ongoing process also serves to prepare the organization for inevitable changes and losses. By engaging in regular experimentation and learning, team members become more comfortable with uncertainty and more resilient in the face of change.


The new mindset of leading through a world of “permanent crisis” is not how to bring your expertise, education, and mastery to bear on the challenges before you, but training differently in how to learn to lead all over again – in real time – in the midst of the crisis.

Tod Bolsinger

The Future Belongs to Those Who Prepare for It, Not Just Those Who Plan It

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It has been said that all leaders live under the same sky, but not all view the same horizon. Some leaders see a wider horizon and keep their eye on the emerging skyline. Continual learning contributes to their sense of adventure and their ability to steer their organization. Others, however, unknowingly wear blinders. The shifting horizons don’t signal new opportunities because they are unanticipated and out of view.

In this sense, strategic planning is often limited because it keeps blinders on leadership. Auxano founder Will Mancini calls this “fallacy of predictability.” The assumption is that the near future will resemble the recent past. But rapid cultural change has meddled with this assumption. Change now happens so fast that the planning processes of yesteryear are obsolete. Unfortunately, not even the future is what it used to be.

If the North American church is going to avoid the slow but sure death guaranteed by “we’ve always done it that way,” it will have to shift its understanding of both the past that was and the future that is not going to be more of the same.

According to Reggie McNeal, the churches that prepare for the new world will ride the wave of the growth that is possible. Those who don’t prepare will continue to plan their way into cultural irrelevance, methodological obsolescence, and missional ineffectiveness in terms of being kingdom outposts.

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger

Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains.

You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along. Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.

If you’re going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Now expanded with a study guide, this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Planning assumes predictability in much the same way that a hiker counts on a map to navigate. There are fixed points in the future that can be anticipated, because the mountain pathways and earth-shaped landmarks marks stay relatively fixed over time. Their presence is predictable.

But happens when you encounter something new, and totally unexpected?

In U.S. history, the story of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Corps of Discovery from 1804-1806 documents their journey across the western United States, recently acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it.

Tod Bolsinger, in his book “Canoeing the Mountains,” uses the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition as a metaphor for leaders today who are planning for the future.

Driven by the belief of explorers over the previous three hundred years, Lewis and Clark knew a water route to the Pacific Ocean was somewhere out there.

They could not have been more disappointed.

What Lewis and Clark actually discovered that three hundred years of experts had been completely and utterly wrong. There was no Northwest Passage. No navigable river. No water route.

The driving assumption of the brightest, most adventurous entrepreneurial and creative leaders regarding this new world had been absolutely mistaken.

Today’s leaders are facing complex challenges that have not clear-cut solutions. These challenges are more systemic in nature and require broad, widespread learning. They can’t be solved through a conference, a video series, or a program. Even more complicated, these problems are very often the result of yesterday’s solutions.

Lewis and Clark’s expedition to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase was built on a completely false expectation. They believed, like everyone before them, that the unexplored west was exactly the same geography as the familiar east. The story of what they did when they discovered that they – and everyone else before them – had been wrong is instructive and inspiring for leaders today.

The story of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery is the driving metaphor for our present moment in history. In every field, in every business, every organization, leaders are rapidly coming to the awareness that the world in front of us is radically different from everything behind.

In the words of futurist Bob Johansen, after centuries of stability and slow, incremental change, in less than a generation our world has become VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. This VUCA world will only become more so in the days ahead and will require all leaders to learn new skills. What we have learned in our schools, through our experience, from our mentors, and by common sense will only take us so far. We now have to use every bit of what we know and become true learners who are ready to adapt to whatever comes before us.

Adaptive challenges (a phrase by Ronald Heifetz in “Leadership on the Line) are the true tests of leadership. They are challenges that go beyond the technical solutions of resident expert or best practices, or even the organization’s current knowledge. They arise when the world around us has changed but we continue to live on the success of the past.

Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains

A NEXT STEP

Author Tod Bolsinger believes that, to live up to their name, local churches must be continually moving out, extending themselves into the world, being the missional, witnessing community we were called into being to be: the manifestation of God’s going into the world, crossing boundaries, proclaiming, teaching, healing, loving, serving, and extending the reign of God.

In short, churches need to keep adventuring or they will die.

Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at the Stanford University School of Engineering, has developed breakthrough thinking – what he calls “weird ideas” – to help organizations foster new ideas while sustaining performance.

Gather your leadership team and work through the following list of his ideas, modified for a ministry setting, to help you think about new ideas and actions.

  • During the early stages of a new ministry idea, don’t study how others have approached it.
  • If you know a lot about a potential problem and how others have solved it in the past, ask people who are ignorant of it to study it and help solve it. Young people, including children, can be especially helpful for this task.
  • Ask new hires (especially those fresh out of school) to solve problems or do tasks that you “know” the answer to or you can’t resolve. Get out of the way for a while to see if they generate some good ideas.
  • Find people working on analogous issues in different organizations, fields, and industries, and ask them how they would solve the problem or do the job.

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 110-1, released January 2019

 

Part of a weekly series on 27gen, entitled Wednesday Weekly Reader

Regular daily reading of books is an important part of my life. It even extends to my vocation, where as Vision Room Curator for Auxano I am responsible for publishing SUMS Remix, a biweekly book “excerpt” for church leaders. Each Wednesday on 27gen I will be taking a look back at previous issues of SUMS Remix and publishing an excerpt.

>>Purchase SUMS Remix here<<

>> Purchase prior issues of SUMS Remix here<<