The Spiritually and Developmentally Mature Leader

Abstract

Participants in the Delbecq Retreat came together to explore a heuristic. A heuristic is a broad concept, theory, or notion that lacks empirical content (Kenny 2012, p. 6). Though we did not follow a heuristic methodology, we wanted to be open to the wisdom, experience, and intuitions of all present. This stands in sharp contrast to the search for causal links embedded in theoretical constructs that can be tested through carefully controlled empirical measures. Consistent with Moustakas (Heuristic research: design, methodology and applications. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2011), participants sought “to obtain qualitative depictions that are at the heart and depths of a person’s experience—depictions of situations, events, conversations, relationships, feelings, thoughts, values, and beliefs” (p. 38). Participants worked toward the creation of constructs, such as descriptions and definitions, which could then be elaborated by a research team. The methodology is described in Chap. 4.