Description

One big takeaway about the Five Muscles (Grieving Well, Discerning Purpose, Walking Alongside, Distributing Power, Expanding Imagination) is that they are all connected. Shannon Hopkins, co-founder and lead cultivator of RootedGood, profoundly understands that grieving well makes discerning purpose and expanding imagination possible. Shannon shares the origin story of her organization RootedGood. She and her colleagues discerned that Matryoshka Haus, the 15-year-old organization she founded and that was by many accounts thriving, could no longer continue in the same way. They decided to let go of what was so that they could step into the new dreams God had for them and RootedGood and two other organizations were born. This conversation with Shannon is rich with insight about grieving as a leader, leading an organization through loss, and living and leading out of the reality and great gift of the Christian tradition that there is life, death, and life after death. 

QUOTES

• “If we don’t do the work of grief, it will come out another way, and I think whether that leads us to toxic, unhealthy organizations and communities, we don’t need more of that.” -Shannon Hopkins [29:49]
• “There’s going to be some pain, and it’s going to take and require some bold leadership. And it’s going to look like death before it looks like life, but I think that’s where it’s exciting.” -Shannon Hopkins [46:52]

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00] Intro
• [00:52] The theme for Season 4
• [03:38] A story about muscles from Scott
• [05:29] The changing spiritual landscape
• [07:52] About Shannon Hopkins
• [10:11] Hosts’ observations
• [14:28] Matryoshka Haus and RootedGood
• [22:07] How purpose ties with needing to grieve and move on
• [23:36] Recognize the need to grieve
• [30:57] Difference between leader’s grief and corporate grief
• [35:02] How God’s imagination has taken off
• [38:52] How this has changed Shannon personally
• [43:13] The hope Shannon has to offer to the church
• [48:58] Outro

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

RootedGood’s Tools and Games

Explore RootedGood’s website to find tools and games to help you implement design thinking, produce creative ideas, launch new ventures, generate revenue consistent with mission, measure your impact, and more. Membership in RootedGood’s Mycelium Network allows access to all of the content and a dynamic network of social impact leaders.

How to Lead When Things Fall Apart

Shannon Hopkins names and explains the five stages of a healthy pivot when the structures you have built no longer work. This is an important read and a helpful conversation starter for leadership teams as we continue to navigate disruption, change, and the feelings of loss that come when things do not go as we had hoped and planned. (5 min read)

Read Lisa Greenwood’s monograph about God’s Mixed Ecology: The Changing Spiritual Landscape here.

New Feature: Transcripts for this Season’s Episodes

We will have transcripts for each of our episodes this season.