Get Off the Dance Floor

Hello Beloveds,

Though I have never been tested, I am pretty sure I have Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD).  Over the years I’ve thought about getting myself a sun lamp to help alleviate the symptoms, but as winter approaches each year, I tend to convince myself that “It won’t be that bad.”  And, though I may struggle from time to time over those long winter months, I honestly never truly feel it is “that bad.”  Until, that is, the first warm week of spring.  Then, suddenly, I have executive functioning skills to spare, and an underlying sense of contentment.  “Oh” I go, “It was ‘that bad.’”

In adaptive leadership there is a saying, “Get off the dance floor and onto the balcony.”  It’s this idea that we can never fully see what’s ‘really going on’ until we take a step back from the action, and view it from a distance.  This is what happens to me every year, that first warm week of spring.  I am thrust off the dance floor, and onto the balcony, at which point I can finally see the toll winter has taken on me.

Sometimes, life is like this.  We are thrust out of a job, a relationship, a pattern of behavior, and suddenly we see things with a whole new level of clarity.  But, sometimes, life is not so generous with its disruption, and we must make our own way off the dance floor. 

As the church year winds down, and we enter the slower summer months, may I suggest you take this time to make your way off the dance floor and onto the balcony?  I wonder what you’ll discover from there, if you do… will you discover old patterns of operation that no longer serve your ministry today?  Will you realize another ministry within the congregation would be better served by your time and talent?  Will you grow in your understanding of Unitarian Universalism?  The possibilities are endless.

Learn more about what adaptive leadership can look like in UU Congregations with these slightly amusing articles:

Adaptive Leadership: A Slightly Snarky Introduction by Jan Gartner

Dog Poop and Congregational Adaptive Change by Tandi Rogers

In faith and service,

Meredith