Tag Archives: Change

If Only Things Were Like They Used To Be

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Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before.

It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now.

That quote is from Fast Company Editor Robert Safian, writing the cover story “Generation Flux” for the February 2012 issue. He goes on to add:

When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seemed simpler, and we have the urge to recreate them. This impulse is as true for organizations  as for people. But when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and always-on global hypernetwork, beloved best practices may well be useless.

ChurchWorld, to a great extent, finds itself in that situation right now.

There are huge shifts occurring in the economic, social, cultural, and spiritual fabric of our lives right now. That’s not new – change has always been a part of who we as humans are. But what’s different is the pace of change. It’s not just getting faster – it’s accelerating along an exponential curve.

And the response of ChurchWorld?

Put a fence around your facility and charge admission to a museum dedicated to the 1990s – or 1980s – or 1970s – or 1960s – or 1950s – or…

Oh, it’s not that blatant – but it is obvious.

It’s time to change.

My absolute favorite quote about change is from Will Rogers:

Will Rogers quote

To survive THRIVE in this age of flux, you have to claim what makes your church unique, what sets you apart from 10,000 other churches, what God has uniquely gifted your people to be and do.  Hold onto that – and change any and every thing else that needs to be changed in order to live out God’s calling.

Generation Flux

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In our hypernetworked, mobile, social, global world, the rules and plans of yesterday are increasingly under pressure; the enterprises and individuals that will thrive will be those willing to adapt and iterate, in a disciplined, unsentimental way.

The above quote by Fast Company magazine editor Robert Safian is the introduction to the cover story on Generation Flux. That cover story, plus several other articles, are a great primer to introduce you to Generation Flux.

Generation Flux is less a demographic designation than a psychographic one: What defines GenFlux is a mindset that embraces instability, that tolerates – and even enjoys – recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. Not everyone will join Generation Flux, but to be successful, organizations and individuals will have to work at it.

Clarity evangelist Will Mancini, in a recent post, described five “tweaks” that ChurchWorld leaders need to practice in order to keep their ministry. They are just the kind of actions that Generation Flux can pull off.

Another powerful quote from Safian: “The vast bulk of our institutions – educational, corporate, political – are not built for flux. Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills.”

To his list above, add ChurchWorld. Then ask yourself, “What am I going to do about it?”

 

 

The Irony of Change

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It’s actually pretty ironic.

All week long I have been writing and speaking about “change.” I’m in Dallas for the NACDB annual meeting and the 2011 Worship Facilities Conference & Expo.

Late Thursday afternoon, just as the Expo was closing, my bag with laptop, Kindle, some books, and project files was stolen from our display booth. 5 minutes before it was there; I turned around from talking to someone and it was gone.

It was just a “thing,” not a person. In the grand scheme of things I’ve heard this week and the life stories I’m a part of, it should be no big deal.

But in a whole lot of ways, it was my “life” – certainly my professional life for the last 7 1/2 years, and a majority of my other life – writings, projects, research, church stuff, and a whole lot of things I’m even now trying to remember.

Gone.

I’ve always been a pragmatic, bridge-under-the-water guy. Long a student of history, I’ve thought & told others that what’s happened can’t be changed, that you must live in the present and create your own future.

Sounds good till the only past you have resides in a spotty memory, your present is filled with sleepless anxiety, and the future is dark.

So it’s 4:30 AM, sleep has eluded me, reading just isn’t working, and TV is dreary infomercials and bad news. I’m writing a lot and posting a little via my cell phone to see if I can begin to process what’s going on.

I don’t know – and am having difficulty expressing – what’s going through my head.

But change is here.

Change and What You Do

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Change is important.

But it’s also important to cling to core values. Paul experienced that tension, and God helped him to facilitate change while not abandoning his core values. In Acts 16:6-10, Paul is all set to carry the Gospel message to Bithynia – but the Spirit of God redirected him to Macedonia. Change – new direction. But it was only a new direction, not a new message. Paul’s core value was not Bithynia; it was fulfilling God’s desire to expand His kingdom. Because he didn’t confuse his desire (to go to Bithynia) with his core value (to follow God’s call), Paul sailed straight for Macedonia.

In the great book Built to Last, Jim Collins notes that once a visionary company identifies its core ideology, it preserves it almost religiously – changing it seldom, if ever. Collins concluded that:

Core values in a visionary company form a rock-solid foundation and do not drift with the trends and fashions of the day. In some cases, these core
values have remained in place for over one hundred years. Yet, while keeping their core ideologies tightly fixed, visionary companies display a powerful desire for progress that enables them to change and adapt without compromising their cherished core ideals.

The point? Capable leaders who recognize their core values can change practices and procedures to enable their organizations to move forward while preserving those same core values.

Like Paul, all godly leaders need the ability to hold on to core values while making those changes necessary to advance their cause.

 

Change and How It Works as a Leader

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Change is tough enough when we’re the only ones involved. But the role of a leader is to bring about change in others and in an organization. All of a sudden, there are more people involved, and this change business just got a lot tougher!

God modeled some powerful principles of organizational change when He urged the exclusively Jewish church in Jerusalem to embrace Gentiles (Acts 10:9-23). This passage shows how God led Peter from being an opponent of change to becoming its champion. Take a look at these 7 principles of change God led Peter to
model.

  • God started where Peter was
  • God allowed Peter to challenge the idea
  • God gave Peter time to work through his resistance
  • God permitted Peter to experiment with small changes first
  • The change proposal was well-prepared
  • God didn’t ask Peter to “change”; He invited Peter to participate in what Peter already loved
  • God convinced a key leader and allowed that leader himself to champion the change

Can you think of a situation today that these principles would be of help to you?

If so, then Change Away!

Change and Who You Are

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Change and innovation are integral components of both biological and spiritual growth. In the medical world, a clinical definition of death is a body that does not change. Change is life. Stagnation is death.

  • If you don’t change, you die.
  • It’s that simple. It’s that scary.

Spiritual growth is more about process than product, because all believers are in a process (whether we resist it or not) of becoming the people
God meant us to be. In the same way as biological growth, without change, spiritual growth is impossible.

Consider Abram and the immense change through his encounters with God. This was not simply a shifting of external elements in his life, and adjustment to his schedule. God asked for a complete overhaul of Abram’s career, dreams, and destiny. God even changed his name to Abraham to signify the depth of the change.

When leaders contemplate change, their first consideration must be the anchors that provide stability in a changing environment. Abraham believed in the Lord, and that security allowed him to pursue revolutionary change. Similarly, the Christian life is an ongoing process of change and internal revolution, grounded in the belief that this process is reforming us to become more Christ-like.

How do you find yourself resisting the changes God brings into your life? Do you focus more on process or on product?

Change and Who God Is

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Most of us have an aversion to change – especially when things are going relatively well. But we serve a God who says “Behold I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5). God is not interested in preserving the status quo; He is committed to nothing less than an entirely new order of creation. It started with the incarnation of His son into our world, and it continues in each of us who become “new” in Him. We are a new creation in Jesus  Christ, and should be exhibiting this “newness” each day in different ways.

How are you changing today?

The Hardest Work There Is

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It’s the work of making far-reaching change in long-established organizations.

One of my dream jobs would be a change architect. I’ve been fortunate to be able to practice change in several different venues – from family life to church staff positions to my current consultant role. Each one brings something different to the table, and each one has been instructive for the next one.

As I’ve often said to churches I work with, change is a constant reality. It’s not meant to be an oxymoron, but some would see it that way. Change is a matter of life – biological (while you are reading this tens of thousands of cells have been created in your body) to our physical world (the season of fall is here) to organizational (restructuring, new plans, etc).

We are constantly undergoing transformation in all areas of our existence.  To that end, a few comments from William Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine and author of the book “Practically Radical” are worth repeating.

Five Truths of Organizational Transformation

  1. Most organizations in most fields suffer from a kind of tunnel vision, which makes it hard to envision a more positive future. The first challenge of change is originality – for leaders to see their organization and its problems as if they’ve never seen them before. with new eyes, to develop a distinctive point of view on how to solve them.
  2. Most leaders see things the same way everyone else sees them because they look for ideas in the same places everyone else looks for them. Why do you want to look at your competition and develop benchmarks for comparison? Instead, learn from innovators outside your field as a way to shake things up.
  3. In troubled organizations rich with tradition and success, history can be a curse – and a blessing. The challenge is to break from the past without disavowing it. The most effective leaders don’t disavow the past – they reinterpret what’s come before to develop a line of sight into what comes next.
  4. The job of the change agent is not just to surface high-minded ideas. It is to summon a sense of urgency inside and outside the organization, and to turn that urgency into action. The opposite of urgency is complacency, and complacent individuals, unfortunately, see themselves as behaving quite rationally.
  5. In an environment that never stops changing, change agents can never stop learning. The best leaders, regardless of their field, experience, or personal style, are insatiable learners.

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.

 – Albert Einstein

If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you’ve every got.

– Unknown Texas Genius

Are you ready to roll up your sleeves for the hard work of change in front of you?

Who Killed Change?

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Every day organizations around the world launch change initiatives – often big, expensive ones – designed to improve the status quo. According to leadership expert Ken Blanchard, 50 to 70 percent of these change efforts fail. A few perish suddenly, but many die painful, protracted deaths that drain the organization’s resources, energy, and morale.

In his book “Who Killed Change?” Blanchard offers a murder mystery setting investigating the death of another change. One by one, a list of thirteen suspects are interviewed, with the startling conclusion: they all contribute to the change process.

  • Culture-the predominate attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize change
  • Commitment-a person’s motivation and confidence to engage in new behavior required by the change initiative
  • Sponsorship-senior leader who has formal authority to deploy resources toward change initiative
  • Change Leadership Team-group of leaders with day-to-day responsibilities for executing change leadership strategies
  • Communication-effective communication is critical
  • Urgency-why change is needed and how quickly people must change
  • Vision-clear and compelling vision allows people to see themselves succeeding
  • Plan-a plan is important, but the process of planning is even more so
  • Budget-analyze change from financial perspective, allocating limited resources to ensure healthy return on investment
  • Trainer-provides learning experiences to develop skills needed to lead change
  • Incentive-reinforces the desired behaviors and results that enable change
  • Performance management-process that sets goals and expectations regarding behavior and results
  • Accountability-process of following through with people to ensure behaviors and results are in line with agreed upon goals and expectations

Blanchard’s bottom line: Change can be successful only when the usual characters in an organization combine their unique talents and consistently involve others in initiating, implementing, and sustaining change.

 Change is a very present reality in today’s culture – and in churches just like yours. How are you dealing with change in your church? Are you part of the process that will make change succeed? Or are you one of the suspects that will contribute to its death?