About
About Brian
I have worked for decades in a wide variety of industries and roles. The industries were as diverse as manufacturing, non-profits, philanthropy, Christian ministries, healthcare, and transportation. My job titles were equally as diverse, including consultant, director, manager, facilitator, or lead. But the theme that ran consistently through all of this diversity was that my roles always called for me to participate in “development” of some sort (e.g., learning & development, organizational development, talent development, leadership development, program development, and training development, etc.).
My favorite role – and job title – of all time was the “Director of Learning and Renewal” for a hospital. In that role, I could apply all my talents to the full. I loved the work of facilitating, teaching, developing, coaching, and renewing. 
I even captured some of the best practices from those days in a book titled, The Learner’s Path. I spent 13 years in that role. When that role ended due to a merger, I spent the next 13 years trying to reproduce the invigoration I felt in that role. But, I never found it.
Until now, that is. I now call my new role with Hinken Renewal the “Principal Learning & Renewal Coach” (Ha! Since I am the only employee, I can choose any title I want). In this role, I am back in my sweet spot of facilitating, teaching, developing, coaching, and renewing.
Those second 13 years “in the wilderness,” were invaluable, however, in teaching me what teams needed in order to thrive and be effective. In each of those five “wilderness organizations,” I attempted to apply my particular approach to leadership – one that I am now calling “facilitative leadership.” In settings where this approach was welcomed, teams thrived, and in the settings where it was dismissed, teams stagnated.
I forged the Hinken Renewal Model out of the 13 years in the “promised land” and the 13 years in “the wilderness.” I am convinced that, when leaders experience stagnation in their teams, they can renew them back to thriving using my particular team renewal practices. It is now my privilege to share what I have learned, and equip leaders to experience the “promised land” of effectiveness with their teams.
About the Hinken Renewal Model
The Hinken Renewal Model, or the facilitative leadership approach, is based on the principle that teams will thrive when the leader skillfully practices a sufficient, but not excessive, level of engagement with their team.
Leaders need to stay between the extremes of “enmeshed leadership” (i.e. continuous togetherness, shoulder-to-shoulder, essentially doing the same work) and “autocratic leadership” (i.e., leader is isolated, seeks no input, makes decisions from afar). In each extreme, there is no space created for learning – which is the essence of renewal. Enmeshed leaders are too close to see the need for learning (“we are all doing fine… aren’t we?”), and autocratic leaders expect perfection so have no patience for learning (“just go be an expert… like me”).
The Hinken Renewal Model makes mutual learning (for both the leader and the team members) a priority. That is why facilitative leadership emphasizes four areas where the leader’s engagement with their team must be sufficient and skillful:
- Team Communication: Expect team members to talk directly with others about the important, challenging things, and keep the indirect conversations to a minimum.
- Team Accountability: Focus the team on using learning to improve results, instead of resorting to blame, excuses, or justifications.
- Team Engagement: Facilitate team participation in decision-making, and operate like all results are team results.
- Individual Development: Coach team members to apply their new knowledge, and not just accumulate more information.
About Hinken Renewal
