Practicing Change Series

Tod Bolsinger
InterVarsity Press, 2024

Good leaders work hard, attend to the multiplicity of an organization’s stakeholders, stand up to resistance, and earn the trust of those they lead. The problem, according to Tod Bolsinger, the author of Practicing Change Series (InterVarsity Press, 2024) is that those strengths often become weaknesses for leaders who are steering an organization through periods of great change.

Bolsinger, senior congregational strategist and affiliate associate professor of leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary, set out to help leaders at seminaries, churches, and other faith-based institutions avoid that conundrum. His four-part book series delivers practical and battle-tested insights.

Each slim volume – How Not to Waste a Crisis, The Mission Always Wins, Leading Through Resistance, and Invest in Transformation – provides dishy and relatable case studies, a process for individuals and teams approaching similar situations, reflection questions, and sage advice grounded in research and Bolsinger’s own extensive experience of coaching and advising leaders.

The author is an evangelist for “adaptive leadership,” an approach developed by leadership experts and Harvard professors Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. In the series introduction, Bolsinger explains the approach as what’s needed “when your old best practices no longer work.” In short, adaptive change is the approach for leaders today.

Each volume tackles the perils of a particular mindset that, while formerly helpful, can eventually challenge leaders. Crisis focuses on trying harder at what has been successful in the past; Mission on pleasing historical stakeholders; Resistance on doing everything possible to eliminate resistance; and Transformation on confusing trust with transformation. Bolsinger encourages readers to start with the “old mindset” that they struggle with most.

The series addresses what is ultimately a complex function of leadership: “disrupting our older thinking processes by developing the capacity to have new perceptions and learn through new discoveries – in real time, while we are leading.” Breezy illustrations by Mark Demel help communicate Bolsinger’s teachings and highlight key takeaways for readers short on time.

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