Stewardship

Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest
Peter Block
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (1993)
Many organizations, as well as the people working within them, are struggling from a lack of purpose and fragmentation. This book presents stewardship as the means to moving past these issues. The author argues that individuals within an organization should learn how to be stewards of resources for the common good of society. Stewardship combats the compartmentalization process that is so rampant in American culture by moving individuals toward reconciliation, and the distribution of power that naturally follows. Through the application of stewardship principles, the leaders in an organization are strengthened and the organization itself is strengthened.
The author presents the concepts of this book in three sections. In the first section, the author describes the process by which leadership is replaced by stewardship, patriarchy is replaced by partnership, adventure and risk-taking replace safety, and service replaces self-interest. Block argues that “the principles of stewardship bring accountability into each act of governance, while partnership balances responsibility.” (27)
In the second section of the book, the author describes the process of redistribution of power, purpose, and wealth. Block opens this section with the concept that “stewardship is a way to use power to serve through the practice of partnership and empowerment. This is the alternative to the conventional notions of ‘strong leadership’ for implementing changes.” (63) A stewardship contract is clearly outlined, and the ramifications for the organizational structure including management, staff, accounting, human resources, compensation, and evaluation are described in detail. This is the logistical part of the author’s ideas for stewardship principles.
Part three presents the triumph of hope over experience. One of the major obstacles to stewardship is “cosmetic reform.” Patriarchy tends to regenerate itself when stewardship principles are implemented in an organization at a surface level. Through cosmetic change, “in a shifting, customer-driven environment, improvement efforts that produce no redistribution of power, purpose, or privilege will produce no real improvement.” (189) Stewardship principles provide an alternative to this approach. Instead of patriarchy, each step in the change process “needs to foster ownership and responsibility with all who touch it.” (204) Each person must own the vision of the organization. In the end, Block views true democracy as the means to implementing stewardship principles in order to change organizations more effectively.
This book applies to my current context in that I need to view myself as a steward of the resources God has entrusted to me. A transformational leader is able to build relationships up to the powerful and down to the powerless, in order to give themselves away through the redistribution of resources.
A major part of my role in LAMP involves the redistribution of power and resources, whether they involve people, money, or leadership, on behalf of the students and the families who live in the Homewood and East Hills section of the city of Pittsburgh. From this book, I learned it is important for leaders of initiatives to take care that the principles and changes being implemented in a project move beyond the programmatic level.