CO-STAR Blog - Sharing insights about synagogue life

One of my passions at STAR is to connect Torah (in its broadest sense) with ideas and tools from the organizational world. I’ve learned that each world can enrich the other.

While recently preparing for a UJA-Federation of New York conference on synagogue change, I had one of those bridging insights. That insight generated four questions which volunteer and professional leaders can ask at staff and board meetings as a way to assess how to extend the impact of the good work of their congregation.

1. At what organizational stage (e.g., mature, renewing) is your congregation and is it time to plan for the next one?
2. How often do you explicitly ask if your core activities are really helping fulfill your temple’s mission?
3. Is your temple’s style of leadership appropriate for its stage?
4. How can you channel periods of disorientation that happen throughout the life of a synagogue into creativity and not chaos?
    

An explanation of how I arrived at these questions….

Life Stages of Organizations

Like all organizations, congregations go through different stages of growth, maturity, and renewal (depending upon a little mazel and lots of planning) or decline. Each stage requires a different leadership style and often a change in leadership. And knowing about them can help organizations proactively prepare for their future, instead of being taken aback by it. An excellent book about this subject is The 5 Life Stages of Nonprofit Organizations, by Judith Sharken Simon.

The Torah as Reflecting Life Stages and Organizational Change

I was then struck by how we might think of the Torah as the story of the Jewish People, Inc. The corporation begins as a family-run business for several generations (think the Patriarchs and Matriarchs), with an informal governance structure. But because opportunities look like they might be drying up (famine in the land), the grandson (Jacob) of the founder, who is now leading the company, sends his children into new territory. The family prospers there, opens up 12 different business units (the 12 tribes), really thrives and matures.  

But unexpectedly, there’s a hostile takeover (really hostile—Egyptian enslavement of the Jews), which almost destroys the memory of the founders’ dreams. They can no longer fulfill their mission. Eventually, a few descendents become restless (Moses, Aaron). They remember the founders’ stories and accomplishments, become nostalgic and realize that they must reclaim the dream for the sake of the family.

A humble but resolute leader (Moses) arises to renew the dream. He paints an inspiring vision of the future (a land flowing with milk and honey), and easily rallies the troops behind it at first. But, when they encounter resistance (Pharoah), they become reluctant followers. So, with an appeal to a higher authority (God), and a tenacious hold on the dream, they plot a strategy to return them to corporate headquarters.

On their way back home, the founding family, which has now grown, acts out in dysfunctional ways, causing great havoc with the leaders (routine rebellions). Sometimes, this dysfunction becomes very personal (attacks on the leaders by family members). Chaos threatens the organization. But an outside organizational consultant (Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses) is brought in and recommends a new and broader leadership and governance structure (a system of judges). The leader agrees that it’s a great idea to empower those on the front lines to make operational decisions. He also hires a COO (Joshua), perhaps unconsciously thinking of succession planning.

Following a thunderous annual meeting (the revelation at Sinai), the shareholders direct the leaders to develop a 10 point plan (the Ten Commandments), which they unanimously ratify, along with an operational plan (the rest of the commandments). While progress toward reaching corporate headquarters is uneven, with periodic shareholder and director rebellions, the new leadership team remains resolute in pursuing the vision, and cultivating a younger generation of leaders who will be ready to lead the corporation into its next stage (okay—so it takes a little long—40 years!)

By the time the old guard passes on, they have successfully transferred leadership to the new generation. This generation has internalized the mission but will need a different kind of leader (Joshua) and leadership structure (the Judges) to battle for ownership, with other competitors firmly entrenched in their old territory (for example, the Canaanites). While adapting the family values to their place and time, they renew the dream and begin the second cycle of organizational development.

Torah Can Yield Fresh Insights and Questions for Synagogues

So, why was I excited to discover this analogy? Because it reminds me looking at Torah through the lens of organizations can shine a light on key insights into congregational life that can become obscured, as in this case, that:

• Big ideas remain dreams until they find the right leaders and the right structures.
• Using outside help at key transitions is valuable.
• Plan for leadership succession.

These kinds of analogies between the Torah and the organization world also help us realize how much we are still living out the dreams of the founders! And, they can generate questions to keep the work of synagogues vibrant.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Hayim Herring