Do Teams Need Freedom or Vision?

The Key to Becoming a Collaborative Church

How do healthy teams operate in relation to freedom and vision?

In the lower left quadrant are teams with low freedom and low vision in which everyone is going crazy. No one knows what they’re supposed to be doing or why, and no one has the power to change it or to act differently.

In the lower right quadrant are teams with high freedom but low vision, which produces chaos. There is a freedom to do as you please, but no one knows if they are working toward any particular goal or for any particular purpose.

In the upper left quadrant are teams with high vision but low freedom. In keeping with my alliterative goals, this results in a culture of clones. But the truth is, there are many teams that should function this way. Collaboration does not mean every team member gets equal measures of freedom and vision. Newer staff members and services in which the stakes are higher are both reasons to limit the amount of freedom each team member might have. So high-vision/low-freedom models are not automatically the marks of an unhealthy team.

However, the highest levels of an organization should operate in the upper right quadrant: high vision and high freedom. This is where collaboration happens at its best.

— Adapted excerpt from “The Resilient Pastor: Leading Your Church in a Rapidly Changing World”