A friend of ours served on the board of directors of a Unity church. The board and congregation were having problems getting things done. The board made decisions and set policies, but no action resulted.
For example, the board noticed that, although many new members had joined the church, they often drifted away after a few months. Board members decided to create a program that would help new members integrate themselves quickly into the church community so that they would feel part of the congregation and be motivated to stay. They instituted a volunteer program to help members, especially new ones, identify their talents and find places where they could make their talents available to the church. However, this program never got off the ground, and although new members continued to join, they also continued to leave.
About this time, a representative from the Association of Unity Churches came to conduct a board/congregation seminar based on the Myers-Briggs^® classifications. Of the seven board members, six were identified as intuitive feelers and one as an intuitive thinker.
1. What relationship do you see between the classification of board members and the kinds of problems the church was experiencing?
2. What classifications do you think would be most helpful in supplying balance to this board?
3. If you were the board president, what would you do with this information? For instance, would you ask potential board members to construct their profile before endorsing them to run for the board?
What ethical problems might this create?