Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

by Tod Bolsinger

the best decisions come out of the Blue Zone. Blue Zone is about serving the mission. Blue Zone decisions are marked by consistency and are focused on effectiveness. In the Blue Zone the mission trumps. But most of the time, when the heat is on, if we are not deliberately conscious to do otherwise, we will operate out of the Red Zone of high emotional reactivity based on one or more of four core issues: survival, acceptance, competence and control. Each person is different, and each person must negotiate different Red Zone issues. Red Zone issues come from our life experiences and brain wiring, they come out of the reactivity that assumes a system should focus more on how people feel than what we are called to do.10 In the Red Zone, people expect the organization to operate like a family; they often assume family roles and replicate the unresolved issues from their family of origin. When a conflict or challenge we are facing triggers one of these issues, instead of making decisions based on what is best for the mission, we tend to make decisions based on what is best for me.11