Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change

Chapter 8. Synergist Level: Evoke Unexpected Possibilities

Christine grew up in the South and went to Emory University in Atlanta, where she became very active in the civil rights and peace movements. After college, she earned a master's in theology and became a vocal member of the women's movement. During the mid-1970s, she became director of a center for women and religion that was funded by a consortium of theology schools. She and her colleagues singled out those seminaries in the consortium whose policies and practices were most sexist and racist. They confronted their presidents, publicized their shortcomings, organized protests, and tried to embarrass them into doing the right thing.

The confrontational strategies didn't work. In fact, they ...