Movement Catalysts Are Surprisingly Agreeable

Greetings from a Tour de US that I am on! With speaking engagements, a visit to my alma mater Columbia International University, and my son Daniel’s wedding in Harrisburg, PA. I especially treasured spending time with my fatherly friends and mentors Bill Smith - known to many as the father of movements - and Ralph Enlow - my Doktorvater and former president of ABHE.

This issue is on the catalytic quality of Agreeableness: Movements Catalysts Are Surprisingly Agreeable. This “soft factor” played a more significant role in movement catalyzing than we assumed. Effective catalysts exhibit and practice Agreeableness, the wisdom of creating relational glue, remarkably consistently. This blog unpacks the essence of this catalytic quality and its impact for ministry. You will learn criteria for applying Agreeableness in the right measure and in the right moment. At the end I will offer you a growth path with practical steps on how you can hone your Agreeableness.

Who in your network would benefit from this? I’d love for you to forward (or restack) it to them!

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I was recently a guest on The Praxeis Podcast—listen to Part 1 here.

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We’re Hiring – Join Our Platform Team! We’re building a digital training platform with a bold vision: to equip thousands of leaders in movement ministry. We’re looking for a contract-based E-Learning Instructional Designer / Learning Experience Designer to co-create engaging, movement-focused training content. If you have experience designing digital courses —or know someone who does—we’d love to hear from you! Email Emanuel directly at emanuel.prinz@gmx.net

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What if this “soft factor” played a more significant role in movement catalyzing than we assume? Effective catalyst exhibit and practice Agreeableness, the wisdom of creating relational glue, remarkably consistently. This blog unpacks the essence of this catalytic quality and its impact for ministry. It will show you the consequences of too much and too little of it: with too much Agreeableness an emerging movement comes to a screeching halt. With too little Agreeableness a movement will burst at its seams. You will learn criteria for applying Agreeableness in the right measure in the right moment. At the end I will offer you a growth path with practical steps how you can hone your Agreeableness.

The dynamism of an emerging movement can be strong and impulsive. Frictions and conflicts occur. An emerging movement can easily be torn apart---before it even becomes a movement.

Especially at its early stages an emerging movement requires a strong sense of cohesion that holds it together. It is unlike an organization that is held together by power, authority lines, standard operating procedures, or rules and regulations. The cohesion of a movement is way less tangible. Other than the shared vision and values and relationships, it lies in the movement catalyst’s personality and leadership behaviors to provide much of the necessary glue. The source of this glue has a name: Agreeableness.

Effective movement catalysts are, somewhat surprisingly, very agreeable people. They exhibit this trait strongly. On a 1-5 Likert scale, their self-rating is 4.68 – the seventh highest rating of all 21 catalytic qualities. Effective catalysts also exhibit this quality more strongly than non-catalysts. See the table for a comparison.

Table: Agreeableness for Catalysts and Non-Catalysts

The definition I used in my research of effective movement catalysts worldwide is a bit of a mouthful, best to read it slowly: Effective catalysts have a concern for social harmony that motivates them to seek out and maintain close, social relationships, to be considerate, kind, generous, trusting and trustworthy, helpful, characterized by pleasant companionship, and willing to compromise own interests with others.

Let us highlight a few key aspects of Agreeableness:

Concern for harmony: Effective catalysts desire to maintain social harmony and unity among their team, partners, and the emerging movement. When harmony is undermined, unity is threatened, and the very movement is at stake.

Maintaining relationships: Close personal relationships form the grid of a movement. Therefore catalysts put premium effort into seeking them out and maintaining them. Beyond this pragmatic purpose, they build relationships merely out of love, and not only for utilitarian reasons.

Being considerate: Every relationship involves elements of consideration and being helpful to all involved. The effective catalyst initiates developing this from his side, by being considerate, kind, generous, extending trust and being trustworthy themselves, and by being helpful to the others, so they experience tangible benefits from the relationship. By initiating this, the catalysts creates a climate where it becomes likely that others will reciprocate what the catalyst has begun building on his end.

Pleasant companionship: To be with an effective catalysts makes for a pleasant encounter. What this looks like, depends on the needs of the moment, but catalysts’ companions walk away from time spent with them having had a pleasant experience.

Willing to compromise: In order to preserve harmony and unity, at times effective catalysts, depending on the issue, are ready to compromise. They are willing to make short-term concessions for the sake of long-term gains. They wisely choose the appropriate measures of assertiveness and Agreeableness.

A movement catalyst can err on both sides – too much Agreeableness, and too little.

The positive impact of Agreeableness in ministry

The trait of Agreeableness is highly significant in Christian ministry as it fosters relational harmony, trust, and effective collaboration. As Agreeableness encompasses consideration and compromise, it builds harmony and expresses love, it is crucial in a ministry context.

Builds trust: Agreeable leaders form trust with their teams and partners. This trust is built through the leader's cooperative, friendly, and caring nature. Leaders with high Agreeableness are seen as supportive and approachable. They create a positive and inclusive work environment where team members and partners feel valued and understood. This boosts their morale, motivation, commitment, and engagement.

Builds relationships: Based on the trust developed, Agreeableness builds relationships. Agreeable leaders are better equipped to develop trust and rapport with team members and partners, facilitating deeper connections within them.

Facilitates teamwork: Movement ministry involves collaboration on a team and/or partnering with partners and/or networking with other ministries. Agreeable leaders encourage open communication and create environments where all feel valued and are encouraged to make their contribution.

Resolves conflict: Emerging movements often face internal conflicts or challenges in dealing with external communities. Catalysts high in Agreeableness strive to understand different perspectives and find common ground, which helps in de-escalating tensions. They approach these situations with diplomacy and seek solutions that honor God and promote peace. Inserting Agreeableness in their approach, they are willing to be considerate and to compromise, and therefore able mediate differences and resolve conflicts.

Fosters unity: By their willingness to compromise, catalysts foster a sense of unity where every team member and partner feels affirmed in their contributions. By resolving any conflicts, catalysts manage to maintain the unity of the movement endeavor.

Modeling Christlike behavior: The qualities associated with Agreeableness—love, patience, humility, and gentleness—align with biblical principles for leadership. Leaders who exhibit them set an example of a Christlike life.

But: There can be too much Agreeableness, can’t there?

Yes! Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. So with Agreeableness. If a leader becomes too agreeable, they will

• Over-emphasize harmony, at the cost of occasionally needed friction

• Over-emphasize relationships, at the cost of task progress

• Become too considerate, at the cost of healthy assertiveness

• Compromise too much, at the cost of holding steady on critical issues

• Avoid addressing critical issues

• Avoid resolving conflicts

• Avoid crucial conversations needed to be had

As a consequence of such over-emphasis of Agreebleness, the emerging movement

• Loses its focus on the vision

• Loses clear steady direction

• Begins to, at best, meander forward

• And at worst, loses any forward momentum

If a catalyst is not agreeable enough, an emerging movement is threatened to burst at its seams.

What if there is not enough Agreeableness?

A movement catalyst can err on both sides – too much Agreeableness, and too little.

If a catalyst is not agreeable enough, the emerging movement is threatened to burst at its seams.

Why?

• They will emphasize task progress – to the detriment of relationships

• They will emphasize addressing issues – to the detriment of needed harmony

• They will be assertive – to the detriment of necessary consideration

The wisdom of leadership is in weighing the right amounts of Agreeableness and consideration. It can be seen as a scale as in this figure:

When is it wisest for a leader to let the scale tip on the side of agreeable assertiveness? And when on the side of assertive Agreeableness?

In my experience, as a rule thumb, I have found that with minor issues a leader emphasizes Agreeableness.

What qualifies an issue as big is that it is essential for fulfilling the God-given vision. A mature leader questions themselves frequently to probe if the issue is really mission-critical or if it is simply a personal preference. If the issue directly serves the wider vision or merely serves them.

With big, critical issues, a leader is required to step up and apply assertiveness. The wise leader asks themselves: How high are the stakes in this issue? If high, how much assertiveness do I apply? If low, how much Agreeableness?

This however, must not be seen as an either/or issue, either Agreeableness or assertiveness. Rather, sometimes an issue demands more agreeable assertiveness. And sometimes the situation demands more assertive Agreeableness. The best assertiveness, is not a razor-blade sharp rigid kind of assertiveness. Rather, it is assertiveness to seeks to find agreements. And the best Agreeableness does not avoid issues, but addresses them in an agreeable manner.

In my own experience I have found over the years that we fare better even if the approach is only 80% ideal, if that approach has 100% buy-in with everybody involved. The buy-in and commitment will take the approach farther than an approach that may be 100% perfect, but has got only 80% buy-in.

In summary: If a catalyst in an emerging movement exhibits

• Too much agreeableness => the movement comes to a screeching halt

• Too little agreeableness => the movement bursts at its seams

A Growth Path toward productive Agreeableness

These are specific steps you can take in order to grow in Agreeableness, gleaned from the lives of effective movement catalysts and my own experience: