Getting the job done

I had a very interesting conversation this afternoon with a colleague from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. We had been talking about coaching - not sports coaching but coaching leaders in Christian ministries. Someone else in the group had just said that in 'relational societies' (as contrasted with task orientated societies) it is impossible to get leaders to set goals and keep to them. Over coffee afterwards, Ruslan (not his real name for security reasons) suggested to me that that was rubbish - relational people have many goals, they just don't look like goals to task orientated people because they are not 'task' goals, they are 'relational' goals. Interesting!

As we talked we came to agree that in some societies we set our task goals, our speadsheets, our outcomes, etc. and then as we get going in the business venture, or whatever it is, we begin to form relationships which in the end can become very strong relationships. In other societies, however, we set relational goals - I really want to get to know that guy, I would love to spend more time with her, I could learn a lot from that person, etc. and then as we begin to work on the relationships we discover things we could do together, a business (or a mission or a church) is born and before we know it all sorts of 'task goals' have been achieved simply because some folks enjoyed spending time together.

So ... tasks that build relationships, or relationships that get tasks done - does it matter? Either way the job gets done. The question we parted on and did not answer was, "Did Jesus have "realtional" or "task" goals in his ministry?"