by Mark Thorpe

From Health Challenge to Life Challenge

I became the leader of my men’s organization Momentum, a role we call Chief, in Autumn of 2002 and completed in early 2004. I had been very active in Momentum before that, taking on many roles where I largely carried on what other men had previously done.

While performing in these roles, I became aware of many aspects of Momentum that weren’t working well. I had some definite ideas to improve on them, but at that time I did not see myself empowered or entitled to upset the status quo.

My decision to take on the Chief role came on the heels of my chemotherapy and stem cell transplant for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a life-threatening form of cancer. For the year and a half I was in treatment, my entire focus was to stay alive and see my two boys graduate and grow into strong and capable men.

Finally having recovered enough to attend Momentum’s annual fall weekend retreat, I came to realize that I wanted to live more aggressively and take on some real challenges. With that realization came another – it was my time to lead. 

At Momentum’s next leadership selection, I stepped out declaring my vision to shake things up, pursue my long-simmering ideas for improvement and bring Momentum closer to alignment with my values. This resonated enough with the men of Momentum that they resoundingly affirmed me as Chief. 

Stepping Into the Fire

Once having assumed the Chief role, I wasted no time tackling the aspects of Momentum I saw as ripe for a shake-up. Three of those stand out as most needy for improvement and of which I am most proud.

• Broaden men’s relationships: I’d observed that most Momentum men deeply knew and valued only the men on their men’s team – a small circle of men who met regularly for fellowship and support – and had rather limited contact with the many other men of Momentum. My solution, which I called the “Edge Process” because it was decidedly edgy, involved having men shuffle themselves and meet as “Edge” teams where the members all came from different teams. This delivered the result I sought: the men developed much broader and deeper relationships throughout Momentum.

• Accelerate enculturation: For years Momentum had been rather haphazard in integrating newcomers into our culture and practices, resulting in confusion, disaffection, and attrition for many of those new men. Realizing the need for something more organized and effective, I convened a group of men to brainstorm what became the “Strokes Program”. Conducted as a series of interactive tutorial sessions following our monthly meetings, it allowed newcomers to begin their enculturation as soon as their first introduction to Momentum and resulted in a much higher degree of engagement and retention.

• Help newcomers get the “juice”: Momentum’s long experience acknowledges that being on a men’s team delivers the greatest value to men. However, since the mutual vetting process to join a team is involved and time-consuming, too many newcomers never got that experience and dropped away disillusioned. My vision was for newcomers to quickly have a men’s team experience without going through that vetting. The result was the Rotation Program that paired newcomers with receptive teams to be quasi-members for month-long stints. This exposure to the men’s team experience conveyed a deeper sense of that value to the newcomers, incenting more of them to stay with Momentum and become fully-integrated members of a men’s team.

My Big Leadership Lesson: Declare Vision and Let Go

I received a big slug of leadership growth at the behest of my Chief’s Council, the group of men who had come forward to support me as Chief. In one of our early meetings, they firmly coached me to clearly articulate my vision of what I wanted to accomplish, and leave the implementation to them.

By then I’d been vigorous and effective as an individual performer and hadn’t much experience entrusting others with responsibility. But these were sincere, capable men and they were telling me to trust them to get the job done. It was challenging for me to loosen the reins like that, but in retrospect, I realize how wise the Council’s coaching was.

The Council worked hard to implement my vision. Not only did my vision get realized, but the Council got to do it in a way that made it their accomplishment as well as mine. Furthermore, having been relieved of the implementation details, I could remain the vision keeper and make sure the train stayed on the tracks.

Creative Destruction Can Be a Good Thing

Like many other organizations that have lasted 30 years and more, Momentum has fallen into ruts that at the time just seemed to be business as usual. Every now and then, we need to blow up the status quo and try something new. Not all such tries result in improvement; sometimes they fail. But as long as we are willing to challenge and change what’s broken, and keep and refine what’s working, we can continue to keep Momentum vital and deliver value to our members and the community.

Key Take-aways:

• Recovering from my life-threatening illness propelled me to live more fully and tackle bigger challenges including stepping into leadership.

• I used my leadership to make changes to Momentum that brought it into closer alignment with my values.

• Holding onto my vision and letting go of its implementation was a win-win-win for me, my Council, and Momentum.

• Sometimes you have to blow up the status quo in the pursuit of better results for the organization and its members.