Hierarchies Suck

Hierarchies do not work unless you are building pyramids with slave labour, ruling Russia, managing a space launch, sending thousands of soldiers into battle to die needlessly, or running a maximum-security prison.

They also shore up the camouflage of illegitimate oppression, and provide cover for sexual abuse in boarding schools, the police service and Children’s Homes.

In political parties, tribal hierarchies distort the principles of democracy.

Dressing one person in robes and sticking a crown on their head does nothing more than pick them out in a crowd. Which is a useful identification if you invade and want to kill them and take over.

Hierarchies in Multi Academy Macs (MACs) crust over the purpose for which the group was set up.

Catholic schools and hierarchies do not go together.

St. Paul decried hierarchy based on inflated self-worth when he wrote, ‘The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

His take against hierarchies sounds troublesome when it is rewritten as, ‘The teacher cannot say to the SCEL of their MAC, “I have no need of you”, nor again the finance director replacing the expensive A-level physics teacher, “I have no need of you”, nor again the CSEl to the vocal headteacher, “I have no need of you.’

Jesus kicked away the hierarchy model when he intervened in his disciple’s dispute about, “who among them should rank highest” Jesus said, “the highest among you must bear himself like the youngest, the chief among you like a servant”.

You would have thought that by the eve of his death, the disciples might have cottoned on to his message instead of focussing on hierarchy and ranking.

The story sets a high standard for the officers and leaders of each Catholic MAC as they exercise the full range of leadership styles required to be effective.

Being the chief while acting like a servant tests the declared commitment to put Christ at the centre of all they do.

This is an area in which you are judged by what you do rather than say.  

Some argue that this gospel imperative of being a servant is modelled for the MAC leaders by BDES officials in their dealings with school over the years.

It could be pointed out that the exemplary manner in which they consulted and supported schools testifies to their servant attitude while exercising the role of leader in chief.

A few will point to the persistent, evidence-based, well organised, collaborative and comprehensive sharing approach to the introduction of MACs that set a standard for servant leadership. It was at once noble and effective, some would argue.

There are others, also using an evidence-based and experience-rich data, who say that the landscape of cooperation and communication was more like a desert than a flowering oasis.

Who can say?

The thirteen SCELs/CEOs must wake up every morning and devote part of their early morning meditation to prayers of gratitude that they have such an example to follow in how to be a servant in their chieftain's role.

One could even imagine that the ability to exercise such a servant role was critical in the selection process of MAC leaders.

The new style monitoring of MACs will undoubtably do deep dives into the servant style leadership of the chiefs.

The recent consultation paper Strong and Flourishing Catholic Multi-Academy Company Framework (April 2024) is redolent of the servant style approach.

We can only welcome such a public statement of how the Catholic nature of MACs is to be displayed and how it is to be evaluated.

The status of the document is not clear. It can only be assumed that it is a consultative draft because of the weaknesses and the gaps in it. Once they are addressed and the text refined, rewritten and then applied, it will have a considerable impact.

Words and phrases in the document illustrating the servant style approach clearly emphasise that there is no room in the new style MACs for hierarchies based on imagined worth, self-value, or hierarchy. Bullying and deviousness will be outlawed. Instead, all is set in the context of service to the mission of the dioceses, where personal ambitions and egotistical stances are unworthy of those who lead.

Boasting on MAC websites about the size of their population, or numbering the thousands for whom they are responsible, and highlighting the deployment of legions of teachers (someone will soon add ‘staff’ to that list of personnel cohorts) and ambitions to be the best at anything other than serving the needs of the diocesan mission to serve the gospel, were surely instances of oversight or inattention, rather than indicators of attitudes that do not equate with being a servant leader.

Leadership at any level in the church reflects Jesus’s call to serve others, or else it is an example of hierarchical ambition that puts personal ambition first and in line for rebuke. 

Catholic institutions would never tolerate personal promotion anywhere in its ranks.

Would they?

Look at the servant-implying words in Strong and Flourishing Catholic Multi-Academy Company Framework draft docuement.

There is a sense of inclusion, belonging, and togetherness. (1.1)

Trust and shared ownership pops up along with each MAC creating capacity to support other Diocesan MACs/schools (1.1)

Partnership (1.1) is a favourite word. Even dynamic partnership with the diocesan bishop, actively participating in the services offered by the diocese while also putting itself at the service of the diocese in a variety of ways is postulated as a key element in any MACs operation. (1.2)

Who could argue with co-responsibly for building up the mission of the Church? (1.2)

The document reaches for Jesus’s approach to inclusion, which is the benchmark as He welcomed and loved all people from all backgrounds. Stakeholders are therefore treated with the utmost dignity. (2.1) That is a substantial justification for renaming that nebulous group called “stakeholders” and calling them parents, children, parishes, teachers, staff and the local community.

There is even an extension of the work of the local MAC (although ‘local’ will soon be a misleading term if MAC sizes are grown) to working collaboratively with schools, other MACs, local authorities, parishes, deaneries and dioceses, parents and other partners…. for the common good of the local, national and international community…. anchor institutions for the communities they serve. (2.9)

Amazing stuff.  

And what will we see when MAC leaders help to catalyse collective leadership? (3.4)

How exciting it will be to witness them build innovative and vibrant Catholic communities of professionals, collaborating across schools and other Catholic MACs to develop and share expertise and evidence-based practice? (4.7)

It surely is not an accident that ‘collaboration’ is the only heading used twice in the document. (4.7 and 5.8)

And it can’t be for nothing that ‘support’ is mentioned 25 times in the draft document.

Nothing but breath-taking ambition based on the concept and delivery of a servant-based leadership.

Awesome.

The first disciples found the messenger of God after Jesus told them to “come and see” when they had asked him where he lived. They used the same invitation to persuade others to find God’s messenger.

We should soon be able to say we see where Jesus lives in these MACs.

Service is all around us. The Cooperative movement in the UK sounds surprisingly like a Church without a hierarchy with its talk of equal membership and the whole entity being owned by those who work in it. Their decision making is slow when everyone has to be given a hearing. It is surprising they did not come up with Pope Francis’ concept of synodality as a way of growing participatory membership.

The Spanish Mondragon Cooperative Corporation is another example of non-hierarchical society and workplace that functions very effectively.

Pope Francis seems to have similar ambitions for the Church.  That is as good a headline to follow as any.

Note the world of difference in Pope Francis’ pushing for everyone to be given a hearing rather than saying everyone must have a say. Is this what the new Strong and Flourishing Catholic Multi-Academy Company Framework is advocating too, that everyone will be given a hearing?

Pope Francis’ idea of synodality is based on a servant-chief model. Some thought by synodality he meant giving people a voice. They imagined setting up talking shops to allow moaners to let off steam in a controlled environment.

Those talking shops have been going on for year under different names such as ‘parish councils’, ‘diocesan consultations’, ‘surveys’ and ‘satisfaction and user responses’.

He reshaped the process to mean being heard.

We wait to see the BDES and MAC servant leaders implementing that.

Actions not words will tell, even though our words always mean more than they say.

© Ted Dunphy

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Disclaimer

I am not connected in any way with the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service or the Catholic Education Service. The views expressed are my own and are based on experience, research and evidence. 

The experience comes from teaching in and working with Catholic schools around England over many years.

The research is based on the past two years investigating Catholic school websites in countries around the world, but especially in England.

An evidence-based approach challenges and refines the learning from the experience and the research.

I strongly support Pope Francis’ concept of synodality as a way of finding truth. I welcome you to have your say.

Ted Dunphy

edwarddunphy1@mac.com

Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659

Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180

www.schoolwebsitewriting.com