Poor Organizational Culture Kills Innovation and long term sustainability

There is a direct correlation between a healthy culture and the organization's ability to innovate, remain sustainable in an ever-changing marketplace environment, and continue to be profitable. If nothing else grabs our attention around culture, this one should.

Innovation is the lifeblood of any enterprise. It is the ability to find new ways to accomplish your mission. This includes identifying cost savings, developing new products or solutions, forming internal and external partnerships, addressing the threats and opportunities presented by new technologies (such as AI), and leveraging the expertise and abilities of your staff to stay ahead of competitors in your market. 

This will not happen if the culture is not healthy. An unhealthy culture kills the environment that stimulates innovation, sustainability, and ultimately profitability. The damage may not be immediately apparent, but an unhealthy culture slowly erodes an organization's ability to adapt as needed and remain profitable in the long term. What are some of the barriers to innovation? While it may take time, the lack of innovation due to an unhealthy culture will catch up and hurt the organization.

I had conducted a culture audit in an organization with a very controlling leader. This leader was slow to listen, quick to criticize and demean others, arrogant in his abilities, and blind to his shadow side. I knew all of this because I had interviewed all of his present and recently departed staff. And now, I was in a room with all his staff to debrief them on my work with the organization. In the middle of the room sat the number two organizational leader, who was not supposed to be present, so I could have a candid conversation with the staff - all this arranged by the board. 

You could cut the air with a knife. No one was going to say anything with the "enforcer" in the room. I already had his agreement that he would not be present, so I respectfully asked him to leave so that I could interact with the staff. He made no effort to move. There was a tense exchange between myself and him before he relectantly stood up to go.

An organization that desperately needed new ideas would not receive them due to the insecurity and micromanagement of its leaders. Where fear rules the day, innovation that is needed takes a back seat and rarely happens.

When fear rules the day, innovation takes a back seat and rarely happens. The problem is that innovation is tied directly to the sustainability of the business, which is tied directly to its profitability. When you styfle innocation, you put sustainability and profitability at risk. And if you think it does not matter, your environment can change almost overnight, putting your organizaiton at risk.

Here are some of the barriers to innovation which directly impacts sustainability and profitability.

Lack of organizational clarity. If we don't know what we are about and what our focus is, we cannot get better because we are unable to focus on the most important.

Micromanagenent of staff. This sends a message to staff that they are unable to make key decisions (or even small decisions) without permission and oversight from above. In this environment, few staff members will take the initiative to share innovative ideas.

Lack of a culture where honest dialogue is encouraged. This kind of culture is absent from many organizations. I champion a concept called Robust Dialogue, where any issue can be put on the table with the exception of a hidden agenda or a personal attack. Insecure leaders won’t allow this. They don’t like to be challenged, are threatened when suggestions are made that they take exception to, tell people what to do rather than engage them in dialogue, and silence anything they don’t want to hear.

Organizational structures that hinder change and innovation due to multiple layers of sign-off and the need to obtain permission from multiple groups.  Our very organizational structure can discourage innovation and change, making it difficult for new ideas to be tried. Bureaucracy is often designed to control rather than unleash ideas. We are frequently so scared of failing at something that we put in place multiple layers to ensure we don’t fail – and in the process, we end up not trying new methods or strategies.

Cultures where it is not OK to fail. If you cannot fail at something, you are not trying very much. Fear of failure is the wrong fear. What we need to fear is not failing at a few things, but rather finding strategies that will get us to where we want to go. Without failure, there is no innovation; without innovation, there is no sustainability or profitability. Healthy organizations don’t punish failure. They learn from it and go back and try again. They understand that failure is an integral part of the innovation and forward movement process.

Cultures where key information is not shared with the staff. Some leaders are secretive and don’t share key information except with those they choose to. It is often a form of control because the one who has the information has power. However, to improve, innovate, and address issues that impact the business, the lack of information becomes a barrier to new ideas and candid conversations.

Cultures characterized by politics, silos, and turf wars (to quote Mr. Lencioni). Why does this hurt innovation? Most innovations require the cooperation, participation, and energy of multiple teams. Where such collaboration is absent, it is difficult to champion new ideas. If people and divisions are competing rather than cooperating, it is difficult to get everyone on the same page.

Cultures where a senior leader changes course often creating instability. If staff don’t know where the organization is going because the direction changes whenever the senior leader has a new idea, change is often seen through a cynical lens. A healthy culture requires a clear, long-term vision, along with values and practices that support it. It is in this environment that new ideas flourish because you are clear on the ultimate objective of your work and your commitment to be as effective as possible.

Cultures where people are not treated with respect and dignity. We share our ideas when we know we are respected and know that our views will be taken seriously. Ideas are shared when there is trust, and trust is formed through relationships, dialogue, and a healthy culture.

Cultures where staff are not actively encouraged to bring their ideas to the table. Staff bring their ideas to the table when they are encouraged to do so and when they work in a trusting environment. Where that is not true, it is too risky to go out on a limb with new ideas.

All of this illustrates the absolute necessity of a healthy organizational culture if you desire innovation to flourish and achieve true sustainability and profitability. These will not happen unless the cultural barriers are removed and replaced by healthier practices.

 

The whiplash effect of leaders who easily change their minds and strategies

 

One of the most difficult challenges many staff teams face is a leader who has new ideas on a frequent basis. Those new ideas can set off a chain of changes that reverberate through the staff and organization as there is a scramble to implement the newest version of the leader's vision or strategy.

Any change that comes from the top impacts the organization. And changes are absolutely necessary from time to time. 

The challenge comes when a leader frequently tries new ideas as they seek the holy grail of organizational success without understanding the disorienting nature of what they think are simple (and brilliant) ideas. 

For the leader, the new solution seems obvious and simple. For staff, the new solution often creates frustration as their prior efforts to implement the last great idea are now supplanted by the need to scrap that work and work on a new strategy. This can create cynicism among staff who scramble to keep up with the latest strategy. Sometimes those new ideas are called the "flavor of the month" as staff knows there will be a new idea soon.

Resisting this temptation is part of the maturity growth of a leader.

This is not about resisting change. It is about being wise and managing change properly. How one does change management matters because many are impacted. Frequent changes indicate that the leader himself/herself is not clear as to where they are going. Lack of clarity in the mind of a leader is problematic!

A leader who frequently changes their mind or strategies often has not done the hard work of clarifying the organization's direction. Clarity of the organization's identity and what they are about must always precede strategies. When strategies come without organizational clarity, you simply get chaos as leaders throw ideas at the wall to see what may or may not stick. 

Wise leaders are clear on who the organization is and where it is going. In addition, they vet any proposed changes with other leaders to ensure that they have considered the unintended consequences of their decisions. And, they talk candidly with those who will be affected by the new direction so that staff is not taken by surprise. 

In my leadership history, I have waited up to a year to make a proposed change until I knew I had the support and understanding of the leadership team. I learned that I could not make unilateral changes but needed the wisdom and support of those around me to negotiate change successfully. That helped ensure I didn't act precipitously and create organizational whiplash. The counsel of others kept me from making changes too quickly, but I had to learn to work with my senior team rather than make unilateral decisions.

Clarity and care in the change process are part of a leader's maturity growth. Guided change based on clear objectives can keep leaders from creating whiplash with their staff. 

Don't miss these three significant lessons that Covid taught the church

 

Nothing happens in this world

 that does not first pass by the hand of God

 and which He does not use to build His church!

There are three lessons that Covid taught the church that should not be missed. In fact, if your church misses these three lessons you will be poorer for it and may see your ministry decline. If you are waiting for things to come back to normal and assume that this normal is what was, I suspect you will be deeply disappointed. The new normal will not look like the past normal. 

Covid has brought home lessons and has accelerated change. We need to learn the lessons it has taught us. If we learn these lessons we will see greater ministry impact. If not, not.

The first lesson is that the church is not our campus or our building but God's people. Don't miss that. For years in the west, we have taught our people that church is the building and the campus, and we built some great facilities. There is nothing wrong with these facilities. What is wrong is the concept that the church is the facility. Having not been able to be in that facility for almost a year, we have had to find new ways of doing ministry. God has taught us that the facility is not the church, but that God's people are the church.

In fact, this definition of the church, which is the New Testament definition, is the church distributed throughout the community, which is how God designed the church. In this season we have told our people to be the church where they live and work. That is different than the concept that to be the church you need to be at the physical church location. 

This cannot change! Jesus gave us the opportunity to learn this lesson and our people should not be allowed to unlearn it. The church is not the building. The church is God's people. This is one of the most fundamental realignments of the church that Covid has brought us. It is a gift and needs to be reinforced. 

The corollary to this, and the second lesson, is that ministry is not the purview of church staff but of all of God's people. This is after all the theology of the New Testament. but in the west we often hire staff to do ministry rather than releasing everyone in ministry. In this season, we have had to encourage everyone to be the church in their place of work and in their neighborhood. 

Again, this is a lesson that we must capitalize on. The reason the church has so little influence in society is that God's people have not seen themselves as the ultimate owners of ministry (that is what paid staff do). In many cases, post Covid, church staffs will be smaller and that is perhaps a good thing as it forces ministry back to those who were to originally carry it out - all of God's people.

A third lesson is that in this season we have had to find innovative and new ways to do ministry, engage people and share the Good News. This cannot change moving forward. Covid has sped up changes that were already happening and our ministry environment is very different than it was previously. Traditional paradigms will not reach many of the younger generations so we must innovate if we are going to engage them with the gospel. Those who resist innovation and change and new ways of engaging people with the gospel will see their Gospel influence decline.

In some respects, Covid was a gift to the church. Don't waste the gift.

Why church boards should welcome and encourage innovation

 

Church boards can be a major inhibitor of innovation in the church. Boards tend to be cautious when it comes to change, see their role as guarding the status quo and in many cases don't like to take ministry risks. This is a major mistake and it eventually leads to missional ineffectiveness. Innovation in ministry strategy is a critical factor in ministry success. Churches that plateau or go into decline can often trace their loss of effectiveness to an unwillingness to change. 

The best boards encourage rather than discourage innovation. They are willing to take risks and even allow ideas to fail because what matters is the mission God gave the church. They empower the senior leader and staff to try new things in order to meet their missional ends. Rather than stand in the way, they champion change and new ways to meet the needs of new generations.

Perhaps at no other time in recent memory, innovation in the church is going to be a critical factor as congregations rebuild after the Corona Virus. Studies show that a significant number of individuals will not return to church after the hiatus during this season. This falloff in church attendance is not new but the Covid season has simply accelerated it. 

In addition, as individuals worshipped at home, they realized that they could access almost any teaching they desired. This is going to be an excuse for those questioning the necessity of church attendance to stay home. After all, they can get the teaching they desire at any time via the internet.

Post Covid, all churches are again church plants. And, they have an opportunity to recast their ministries around what really counts. Don't ignore this gift! If you always do what you always did you always get what you always got. 

Churches that thrive in the new environment will have some common characteristics:

• They will focus on being a church for anyone and everyone
• They will find new ways to build authentic community
• They will focus on all individuals using their spiritual gifts inside and outside of the church
• They will be far more focused on making disciples of Jesus rather than focusing on the size of the church
• They will demonstrate a greater commitment to being agents of Jesus and goodness in their communities
• They will be more open to the work of the Holy Spirit and committed to prayer
• They will move from a focus on size to a focus on spiritual depth
• They will use technology to reach those who are outside the church and focus on evangelism in everything they do
• They will focus on being places of goodness with a Jesus culture 

This will require change, innovation, new ideas and a willingness to take risks for the sake of Jesus and His mission for the church. Church boards can either encourage needed progress or stand in its way. Don't allow your board to inhibit what God wants and needs to do in His church. One of the responsibilities of boards is to ensure that the congregation is being led well. Empower your leaders to lead, innovate and chase after the kinds of things listed above. 

The enemy of innovation is inertia

 

In a changing world, innovation (reexamining our practices for a changing environment) is a necessity for a healthy organization. When we live with what was rather than adapting to what is, we quickly lose our edge and ability to respond in an environment that has changed. Many organizations and ministries are in that very spot because of the changes brought by Covid 19.

This stagnation affects even very smart people because we tend to think as we always have. Jonah Berger, author of The Catalyst puts it this way: "Rather than thinking about which candidate represents their values, voters tend to pick whoever represents the party they voted for in the past. Rather than starting fresh and thinking about which projects deserve attention, companies take last year's budget and use that as a starting point. Rather than rebalancing financial portfolios, investors tend to look at how they've been investing and stay the course. Inertia explains why families go back to the same vacation spot every year and why organizations are wary of starting new initiatives but loath to kill off old ones." (The Catalyst, page 5).

Inertia is a comfortable place to be because we know it well. Innovation means that we need to think differently and look for new solutions and ways of doing things. It is an uncomfortable but necessary place to explore and live. 

Covid has forced organizations to think differently. REI is selling its massive corporate campus in Seattle because they now realize that they can do without it. Instead, many will work from home or from small hubs. I suspect there will soon be a great deal of empty office space in our cities. The need to use tools like zoom has taught us that there is not always a need to travel in person to meet others. Parents are having to become teachers like in days past as schools open part time if at all.

Organizations that will flourish in the future will have leaders who question everything: Their current practices, assumptions, financial models, and priorities in order to meet needs of constituents in a changing environment. It is the choice between innovation and inertia.

Good leaders ask good questions:

• Why do we do it that way?
• Is there a different and better way?
• What should we stop doing?
• What should we start doing?
• How do the changes around us impact our priorities?
• Does our budget reflect our true priorities?
• If we were organizing today, how would we do it?
• Do we need to organize as if we were starting over?
• How are others addressing problems we address?
• Can we do more with less staff?
• Are we clear today on what our mission is?
• What staff have lost their edge and are living in inertia?
• What programs need to be killed?
• Do I have the time to reflect on my organization rather than just doing what we have always done?

Ask yourself the question. Is your organization, church, non-profit living more in the world of inertia or regular innovation? Remember always that the enemy of innovation is inertia.

The eight hurdles to innovation in the church

Most churches that are seeing significant growth and ministry effectiveness are also churches that practice regular innovation. They have a culture of looking for new and better ways of accomplishing their mission and pursue those opportunities regularly.

However, developing a culture of innovation is not as easy as it sounds. There are always significant hurdles to moving from a culture of status quo to a culture of innovation in a church. Obviously those churches who see regular growth have overcome these hurdles but understanding what they are is an important step in overcoming them.

Hurdle One: You have to want a culture of innovation
Do you embrace innovation, seek it and value it? If this is not a value at the leadership level it will not happen. If your leaders operate out of fear (what if something goes wrong? We've never done it before! Someone might object) innovation will not happen. Organizations that see regular innovation do so because they want it to happen and know how it helps them move forward and stay fresh.

Hurdle Two: You must be willing to fail and even celebrate failure
Truth be told, most leaders won't go toward innovation for the simple reason that it may fail. They would rather be safe than suffer the embarrassment of failure. Here is a simple truth: Innovation requires risk. That risk pays off in multiple ways but not all ideas work. Ministries that make innovation a part of their culture know this and will celebrate that people tried a new idea even if it failed. In fact, it is often after the learnings of a few failures that the right solution is found.

Hurdle Three: You must focus on the future rather than the present or past
If one wants to focus on the past or present, innovation is not for you. If your focus is on the future, innovation is the key to that future. Times change, opportunities around you change, generations change and unless we also change we become irrelevant and stale. If you are happy where you are, doing things differently will not be a value. If you live in fear of failure, innovation will not be a value. If you want to reach the next generation or new opportunities, innovation is your friend.

Hurdle Four: You must be willing to push through the naysayers
It is a sad reality that the majority of church leaders (staff and boards) live in fear of those that object when new ideas are suggested. Think about that: The most conservative and change unfriendly folks in your congregation hold the congregation hostage from moving forward because their voices are loud and intimidating and leaders are unwilling to challenge those voices. Lets be candid. New ideas face opposition. We have the choice of allowing naysayers to run our ministries or for us to lead well and push through the opposition. Every good idea that is different will face opposition.

Hurdle Five: You need to we willing to spend money when necessary
Innovation does not mean that it must be expensive but there are times when investments need to be made in order to try new things. If your leadership is unwilling to spend money to try something new you will never have a culture of innovation. No business prospers long term without making investments in R & D and nor do ministries. Such investments are investments in the future success of your ministry. Make no investments and you live with what is and not what could be. 

Hurdle Six. You cannot be too proud to steal good ideas
Cultures of pride say, "I won't do what others are doing, it has to be my idea." Cultures of humility say, "I am willing to learn from others any time I can and keep my "dumb tax" to a minimum. Proud leaders don't value learnings from others but humble leaders do. Learn from others and rip off their ideas. This is not about you but about maximizing the impact of your ministry.

Hurdle Seven. You must have a leader who promotes innovation
If the senior leader does not value innovation and you are an idea person, you may be on the wrong team. A senior leader must champion innovation and new ways of doing things if there is going to be a culture of innovation. Otherwise you are pushing a boulder uphill and it is likely to come back down and flatten you.

Hurdle Eight. The church board must value innovation
It is unfortunate that church boards can be the largest impediment to innovation in the church. I have watched this happen time and time again. This is where the influence and skill of the senior leader is important. Can they convince the board to take the same risk for the future that the staff is willing to take? 

Think about the level of innovation in your church or ministry. Which of these hurdles are keeping you from embracing a culture of innovation and what can you do about it?

Why regular innovation is so important to an organization

Innovation is absolutely critical for a healthy organization. Without it, decline will set in but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. 

Innovation is first and foremost a means of helping people think outside of their current paradigms. It is our paradigms of the way life is and the way we do things that gives us a sense of stability. It is also what keeps us from growing because things don't stay the way they are, our world changes around us and there is always someone who is bent on doing what we do better than we do it. 

General Motors learned this well after Toyota had eaten their lunch. Churches learn this when they lag behind and find that their people have moved on. Non-profits learn this when others find better and more cost effective ways of doing what they do and their donors move to the more efficient way. 

Those left behind have many ways of explaining their loss but usually their explanation points to external forces rather than where the true reason lies - themselves and their old paradigms that have been eclipsed. 

How do you keep this from happening? You create a culture of innovation where new ways of doing old things can keep your staff from becoming rigid, inflexible and content with what was but not what will be. 

Innovation fosters thinking that is outside the traditional box. It fosters better and new and less costly ways of accomplishing what your mission says you are about. It literally changes the mindset and thinking of your staff. They become more flexible, ask better questions, never assume that the way they have done things is the way to do them today and continuously create new ways of doing what they do. It fosters better and more strategic thinking!

Organizations that don't innovate regularly become lazy and their paradigms stultified. Those that do stay on the edge of opportunity and and success.

Time as a unit of measurement (but not the way you think)

A recent comment from a CEO client of mine caught my attention and I have been thinking about it since. He said to me, "Your help has saved me 18 to 24 months that it would have taken me to get to this place without you. I had never heard anyone express time as a unit of measurement quite like that. But the more I thought about it the more it made sense.

I have often challenged organizations not just to tweak what they do but to actively look for the game changers that would allow them to take a giant step forward. Game changers are strategic decisions, ways of doing things and paradigm shifts that allow you to take a quantum leap in the direction you want to go. Essentially they are helping you get to your destination far faster than you would otherwise. You are, as my CEO client said, shaving off months or years that it would have taken you to get to your destination otherwise.

In a world where time is our most precious commodity that makes perfect sense. Why twiddle and tweak when we might be able to find solutions that propel us forward quickly. Not because we are that much better but because we are thinking that much smarter. Ordinary organizations seeing far greater results simply because we are doing what we do in a smarter way. This is not about peddling faster with the same methodology. It is about changing the methodology in order to get further faster.

This is why we hire consultants! They are not smarter than we are. But looking at your processes and methodologies from the outside give them a perspective that you don't have. Their solutions are not revolutionary except they may shave months or years off of the time to reach your desired outcome. That is revolutionary - not the methodology itself.

I tell the story of how this happened in the organization I led in the past in the blog Looking away from the lamppost.  We didn't get smarter but we did change the paradigm which changed everything.

What holds us back? The methodologies that we are used to and which hold our minds hostage. What we are used to keeps us from discovering innovation - the game changers. Try this exercise. Ask yourself the question: "Where do I want my organization to be in five years?" Then ask, "If I were designing it today, how would I organize to get there on time or earlier?" "What could I change to speed up the process?" Don't twiddle and tweak but look at changing your methodology to achieve a faster and perhaps even a better result. Think of time saved as your unit of measurement. How much time can you save in the journey so you get further faster?

Is your ministry perfectly designed for who is there rather than for who is not yet there?

Organizations develop cultures that too often focus on who is already in the organization rather than who is not yet in. Think of that in a church situation where we often resist change or innovation because "what we do has worked well for us." That is a true statement, perhaps in that, it has worked well for those who are already in the church. But, it does not take into account those who are not in the church and are not likely to get there without addressing their needs.

Many denominations, for instance, are not seeing growth today, even Evangelical groups. Is it possible that their ethos and policies are keeping young, entrepreneurial leaders from joining them because they are looking for more flexibility? Those in the denomination could argue that their culture works without realizing that it works for those who are in but not for those who could be in.

The mission I lead used to devalue leadership as a value that had the unintended consequence of keeping many leaders from applying and joining. Those inside thought things worked well, but it did not work well for many who chose not to join. 

One of the important jobs of a leader is to understand that they may well have barriers to others joining them and then deal with those barriers. One way to find this out is to ask those outside the organization or church why they might not join. I am not suggesting violating key values but that the culture or strategies that worked in one day may not work in another. As insiders, we may not see that our ministry is perfectly designed for those who are already there and not for those who are not there.

At Addington Consulting,

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Great article on the costs of constant ministry innovation

There are leaders who love to innovate and do it all the time. Often they are simply imitating others. This is a great article on the subject. If you are addicted to innovation it will give you pause.

Link: 3 Costs to constant ministry innovation

Thanks to the Vision Room for the article

Looking away from the lamppost

"If you want to understand why some companies lack innovative ideas, think about the man who can't find his car keys. His friend asks him why he's looking for the keys under the lamppost when he dropped them over on the lawn. 'Because there's more light over here,' the man explains.

"For too many companies, that describes their search for new ideas, and it pretty much guarantees they won't go anywhere fast. While a company can marginally improve what it's already good at, it misses out on the breakthroughs - those eureka moments when a new concept pops up, as if from nowhere, and changes a company's fortunes forever.

"Those ideas, however, don't really come from nowhere. Instead they are typically at the edge of a company's radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond.....In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost." (In Search of Innovation, John Bessant, Katherin Moslein,and Bettina von Stamm, The Wall Street Journal, Monday, June 22, 2009, R4.

I could not agree more with this observation. I find that ministry organizations want to improve - but they are in large part so cautious of change or major new ideas that they tweak endlessly and see very little change in outcomes. Those that look away from the lamppost and are willing to take major risks in a new way of thinking, are the ones that see the major rewards.

The organization I lead, ReachGlobal - the international mission of the EFCA has been seeking to look away from the lamppost in order to seek quantum leaps in our effectiveness. It has been a stretch for some but it is paying off. Some examples....

Instead of focusing our efforts on only partnering with other Free Church movements globally (the old way) or planting new Free church movements (the old way) we now will partner with anyone who has the same theology, ethos and missional goals regardless of the denominational name over the door (the new way). That is a big shift and it has opened up numerous partnerships for us with groups that are healthy, indigenous, self supporting, interdependent and reproducing (the new goal).

We are no longer focused on what we can do by ourselves as missionaries (the old way) but rather on how we can come alongside other healthy movements and leaders, find out what their needs are and serve their needs in order for them to be as effective as possible in the planting of healthy churches (the new way). We are no longer in the drivers seat in many ways (the old way) but are now the servants of those we serve (the new way).

All of that creates another seismic shift. Because we are serving others, we do not control anything, own anything or count anything as "ours." That was the old way. The new way is giving ministry away freely, developing, empowering and releasing others in meaningful, missional ministry without needing to control, to count or own. Interestingly enough, because we are no longer perceived to be about control, ownership or counting as ours, indigenous partners are knocking on our door asking if we can work with them. They know that we will serve them but not control them.

Rather than relying on our expertise as American missionaries (the old way), we are actively inviting into our leadership ranks nationals from other cultures and nations (the new way) who bring with them expertise, knowledge, ideas and insights we could never have imagined. Sure, it rocks the boat and causes waves at times but we are far better off for taking the risk and allowing them to take us out of our comfort zone.

The point is that tweaking our ministries by looking under the lamppost will not give us the innovative ideas and leverage points that are possible if we will take larger risks for greater rewards. But to do that you have to be looking away from the lamppost not under it. Where are you looking?

Helping individuals and organizations go to the next level of effectiveness. TJ Addington can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

We either innovate or stagnate

Autopilot is wonderful for our car but dangerous for our ministries!

We are on autopilot in our ministries when we become comfortable with what is rather than constantly asking what could be. As a ministry leader I am amazed at how quickly we become comfortable with where we are and stop asking the important questions about our strategies, effectiveness and how well we are accomplishing our mission.

It is human nature to crave the stable and comfortable. However, the more comfortable we become, the less missional we become. The words comfortable and stagnation are synonymous words for good leaders, and not good words..

There is a poster that says, "If you always do what you always did you always get what you always got." Here is the danger: The longer you remain comfortable the harder it is to get out of the comfort zone and do something different.

One of the significant contributors to stagnation is the pace at which we live which robs us of time to think, to evaluate, to ask critical questions and to explore what others might be doing that is seeing success. The busier we are the more likely it is that we do not have the time or energy to think and evaluate  Ironically, our ministry pace may well rob us of ministry effectiveness!

Avoiding the comfortable and stagnation is one of the responsibilities of every leader - whether of a team, a division, a ministry or an organization. Even if you are not naturally an innovator!

Leaders who keep their organizations from the comfortable and stagnation have some common characteristics.

First, they take time to think, to read, to pray and to strategize. This is the "do less to accomplish more" principle. Wise leaders actually build time into their schedules when they are unavailable to others so they can think about the ministry they lead.

Second, they always ask the question: "Is there a way to do what we do differently that would increase our effectiveness?" As a mission leader, I am convinced that many mission agencies are doing the same thing today that they did fifty years ago, good work, but not very effective work given the way the world has changed.

The problem is that they have been comfortable for too long and neither leaders or ministry personnel are asking the effectiveness questions. The same is true for many churches that cruise along without much change year after year.

Three, they are never satisfied with the status quo. The status quo is a danger zone. Good leaders know that there are always better ways to leverage effectiveness  They keep gently pushing their team or organization to keep looking for ways to see better results for their time, energy and resources.

Four, they are always looking at what others are doing for better ways to do what they are doing. We don't need to be innovators to innovate. What we do need is both a radar and relationships that keep us informed as to what others are doing - and where appropriate - what we might be doing.

Fifth, they are deeply missional and keep the mission in front of their team or ministry all the time. Instilling a deeply missional mindset among everyone in our ministry will go a long way in helping them avoid the comfortable. People who are driven by mission are never satisfied with the status quo.

One of the ways to know how comfortable you are is to ask the question, how many significant changes have we made in the past five years? The smaller the number, the more likely it is that you are living in the comfort zone. This is not change for change sake. It is innovation for the sake of greater effectiveness.

We either innovate or we stagnate.

All of T.J. Addington's books including his latest, Deep Influence,  are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 per book discount on orders of ten or more.

The value of outside input into our ministries

This week I spent four days with key staff and an outside consultant probing areas of necessary growth and development for our organization. As one who does a fair amount of consulting I know the value of an outside voice that asks good questions, challenges the status quo and can help a ministry team think outside their usual parameters. They also bring the dimension of knowledge of what others are doing.


Too often in ministry we isolate ourselves out of fear (what if others discover what I don't know) or out of hubris (we don't need outside help). In either case we and our ministry loses. Humility and a commitment to learn is the attitude of healthy leaders and  they welcome the voices of others who can challenge prevailing thinking, ask the hard why questions, clarify issues that are not truly clear and help develop new ways of thinking, new tools for success and in doing so bring new insights to the table.


A consultant can be a fellow pastor or ministry leader that you respect and who has obvious expertise. It can be someone who you pay for their services. In my case, it is someone who normally consults for large businesses  in lean manufacturing and lean management who is helping us with what we call a Ministry Excellence initiative. We pay the going rate for his services and have over the past two years of relationship benefited immensely.


Humble leaders and organizations are committed to continuous learning, regular evaluation, ministry results, clarity of purpose, healthy teams and culture - all for the sake of seeing a maximum return on mission for Jesus and the mission He has called us to. 


To those who have never had an outside voice speak into your ministry I would say, overcome your fear or pride and try it. You will be surprised by the insights you gain and the ideas that are generated. All of us get stuck in our own ruts, habits, and assumptions. An outside voice can help you find new paths.

Five reasons we don't confront needed changes

Because of the work I do, I am surrounded by ministries - churches, mission agencies and Christian non-profits who need to make major changes or face significant issues if not decline and death. Here is what they need to know:

If you don't like change

you're going to like irrelevance even less

What keeps so many leaders and ministries from confronting the need for significant change in order to grow, take advantage of new opportunities and re-envision for the next run? There seem to be some common factors.

First, we become comfortable and change is uncomfortable. I am amazed at the ability of comfort to cause people to ignore even major risks they face by choosing comfort over change. Comfortable is the nemesis of faith, vision and new ideas. 

Second, we don't want to confront the idea that major change is needed. This is simply intellectual laziness that does not want to put in the hard work of figuring out what needs to change in order to go to the next level or simply avoid falling to a new low. 

Third, we resist the idea of getting outside help when it is most needed. In our self sufficiency and pride, we choose to keep the discussion in house with the limited knowledge that got us to where we are today (in need of change) rather than reaching out to someone who can look with fresh eyes at the challenges you face and suggest fresh ideas.

Fourth, we underestimate the pace of change around us, thinking that we have plenty of time to address it. You don't! Change is rapid and our turtle pace responses often overwhelm us leaving us with few choices when we could have had more choices. 

Fifth, we lack the courage to name our current reality in honest, candid, stark terms which would create a crisis among thinking people. In not naming the true nature of the threat we allow ourselves and others to minimize the need for change.

What is your reason for not confronting the need for change? 


See also:
When ministries need to change
Paradigm shifts and the job of leaders
Bringing change to your organization
Convincing the unconvincible

Increase collaboration and innovation by eliminating unnecessary silos

Recently I had a great day moderating a discussion with a ministry about how to increase collaboration and innovation. They had been a highly compartmentalized (think silos) ministry where it was almost impossible to cross departmental lines to work synergistically. 


The irony is that when one got the right people around the table ideas flowed quickly for a full day. And, individuals who had not been able to collaborate freely in the past actually had skills that complemented one another. They are in the process of removing the roadblocks that had kept them siloed and are very excited about the prospects.


In a world that ought to be flat it is unfortunate that there are still many organizations which do not encourage, or even mandate synergistic collaboration regardless of the department they reside in. There may well be good reasons for different departments but there is no good reason for a paradigm that prevents or does not encourage collaboration across those departmental lines.


Here is the rule. The more compartmentalized an organization is the less synergistic collaboration they will have and the less innovation they will experience. Neither are preferred outcomes.


This is especially important today in a day when financial resources are less available meaning that effeciencies are more critical. Those effeciencies are often found in finding ways to maximize the intellectual capital of the organization, regardless of where it resides.


Another factor is that departments and people get into ruts in their thinking. When you bring in new talent from the outside (another department) you bring in someone who can look at problems and options with new eyes. 


Innovation and solutions are always better when done with the best intellectual talent possible. But that means collaboration and every organization either affirms and encourages it or does not. Hint: when leaders model it, others often follow suit.

Are you beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists?

Eric Hoffer puts his finger on a critical truth when the world in which we live is in significant change.  “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” 

One of the central jobs of a leader is not to specialize in what is today but to anticipate what will be tomorrow. It is to live in the present and the future at the same time knowing that the present will soon be history and the future will soon be today.

Take the US Postal Service which is hemorrhaging red ink as people send far fewer letters. The day the first fax was sent was the day that the Postal Service became obsolete. But no one noticed. Today they are begging junk mailers to send more stuff because the rest of us are using email. They are beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Or think of the evangelism strategies of most local churches which assume that people who don't know Christ will come to our church and find Him through some program. For the most part that world no longer exists but the church has not yet noticed. While we are beautifully equipped to put on programs that share the gospel at church the people we want to reach are less and less likely to come to church! The future is going to where people are who need Jesus, not expecting them to come to us - but the church continues to be blissfully unaware that it is bringing the gospel to every sector of life and work that is the key to evangelism.

The most beautifully equipped institutions to deal with a world that no longer exists are seminaries who continue to sell us on the idea that one cannot minister effectively without their education which entails sitting at the feet of the professors for four years. In the meantime many of the most effective workers today are being raised up in the context of ministry, are getting their education on the job and are not infected with the traditional ministry paradigms that still drive the church world. But try to get ordained in most denominations without a seminary education! We have professionalized ministry but the future is the releasing of people into ministry who are called, creative and equipped but not necessary in traditional ways. It almost sounds like the New Testament church!

I work in the world of missions where the whitewater of change is huge. As a group, western missions are beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Today it belongs to those who are equippers of indigenous workers, rather than those who are still doing what nationals could be doing better than they. 

If you lead anything, one needs to be living in the present and the future simultaneously or run the real risk of becoming museum pieces beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Learners inherit the earth. Learners are those who are paying close attention to the changing environment and are adapting to that change. Learners know that the status quo is not static for long and that tomorrows realities will be different than today's. There are plenty of people who are beautifully equipped to deal with today's realities. Leaders are learners who are equipped to anticipate the needs of tomorrow which will be today all too soon.

Leaders and critical thinking

One of the unique roles leaders play for their team or organization is the discipline of critical thinking: Where are we going? How will we get there? What are we going after? What spells success? Do I have the right people? Are they situated in the right "lane"? Is there absolute clarity around our mission? What are the priorities for this coming year? Who will take over if I am taken out of the picture? Are we maximizing our spiritual influence? and the list could go on. 

Taking the time to reflect on the most important questions that help a ministry flourish is one of the key jobs of a leader. Because it is a hidden practice (it is not up front) and because it is not a physical activity, it is often lost in the busyness of all the other things leaders must do. Yet this basic discipline is the most critical thing a leader should be doing on an ongoing basis. 

If a leader does not pay attention to this area of their leadership role, someone else in the organization who thinks deeply often will. They will be the ones asking the right questions and trying to help the team define clarity and success. Ironically, people will gravitate to and often follow the individual who can help the organization think critically whether they have the title of leader or not. While many do not have the skill for critical thinking (they are primarily doers), most desire to have clarity about what they are about, where they are going and how they will get there.

As the leader of an organization, I actually build into my schedule, thinking and writing days or weeks. They are intentionally kept clear for the discipline of thinking, and then clarifying through writing. I also have some key members of my staff who are great critical thinkers and regularly we will call a meeting in a room full of white boards to tackle a significant issue. In fact, the majority of my meetings are designed to do problem solving, get to clarity on an important issue, rethink how we are doing what we do and maximize our impact. 

The discipline of critical thinking extends to hires that we make as well. There are few decisions that are more critical than the people one hires. They will either help drive the ministry forward or keep it back. The higher the level the hire, the more true this is. Thus, investing significant time in evaluating, dialoguing with, listening to and thinking through the strengths and weaknesses they bring to the ministry is crucial. 


There are consequences to every decision we make. Part of critical thinking is to ask the question: What are the unintended consequences of the decision we are considering. All decisions have consequences, it is the unintended consequences that we need to identify because they can compromise the very thing we are trying to accomplish. Knowing them becomes part of the critical thinking equation.


In a complex world, critical thinking is often a group activity. While I do a great deal of thinking about organizational issues alone, I never pull the trigger on a major decision without involving my key ministry colleagues. The power of combined thinking and wisdom is far higher than the wisdom of any one of us by ourselves. This is also why I often call meetings of key individuals to together tackle an important issue.

This requires a spirit of humility and collaboration on the part of leaders. Lone ranger leaders, no matter how great their critical thinking skills are will not maximize their organization's potential by themselves. We need other critical thinkers around us as well as their buy in - and if we together are part of the solution, we will all buy into that solution.

Good thinkers are also people who seek the wisdom of colleagues from other ministries to find out what they are experiencing, how they are tackling like problems and what "dumb tax" they have paid that you should avoid. If ministry leaders talked more often and with greater candor we would together raise the bar for all of our ministries.


Critical thinking is a hallmark of leaders who stay in front of those they are leading, always asking the right (and hard) questions, and always looking for better solutions to maximize the spiritual influence of their organization. It is also the route to innovation!

Bigger is often not better

As one who works with ministries and ministry leaders I often hear rather dramatic plans for income expansion along with a tendency to believe that more ministry requires more people. I would offer some suggestions to think about coming out of many years of ministry leadership.

One: Bigger is not necessarily better. Bigger does not necessarily translate into greater ministry impact but what it does do is add a tremendous burden financially, administratively and in management. Because budgets and staff are things we can count, we often use them to define success - at least in the west. 

Success, however, is ministry impact and some ministries would be far better served to contract down to a core purpose, do that core purpose well and refuse to get sucked into ancillary things that are good but not core to who they are. A lean, nimble, "right sized" organization is better positioned for ministry impact than a bureaucratic, slow, undexterous large one. There are ministry organizations who have become so large that it is nearly impossible to change their direction and DNA. Don't assume larger is better.

Two: More money does not necessarily allow you to accomplish more ministry. I have a very good ministry friend whose plans always cost an amazing amount of money. I jokingly tell him that the right number is to divide his number by ten. He is never able to raise his large sums anyway. Resources are necessary for ministry. However, the thinking that "if I had more I could do more is often not true."

What is more important than how much money we have is how much we leverage the money we have for ministry impact. The issue is not the amount of money but the amount of leverage that the dollars we have can make. Often, there are ways of doing ministry that are far less expensive than we assume - if we are willing to rethink how we do what we do.

The positive thing about limited resources is that it forces us to prioritize those resources. Not everything we do has equal weight, importance or value. It is not a bad thing to evaluate and reallocate resources toward those things that will give us greatest ministry impact. Don't assume more money is the answer to your ministry's future.

Third: More ministries do not necessarily help you get where you want to go. Ministries often tend to add ancillary ministries in good times because they can. Ancillary ministries are things that are good but not central and core to who you are, what you have been called to do or where your expertise lies. Ministries can be like magnets picking up good things to do which actually detract from the central thing they do.

Every ministry needs to define what their core mission is and focus on being the very best they can be at that core calling. In fact, economic times like the one we are in right now force that conversation because good things many of us have been doing are no longer viable as donation income falters. It is very easy to stray from one's core calling. But it is in that calling, not ancillary callings, that you will have your greatest impact. So don't assume that more ministry is better ministry.
 

What has your ministry learned in the past five to ten years?

I had a great conversation with a ministry this week. They are ten years old and the goal of the conversation was to figure out how they could accomplish in the next two years more than they had in the past ten years. 

Now that may sound like an audacious goal, but not necessarily - because, when one stops and thinks about it, lessons have been learned positive and negative that could change the nature of how the ministry approached its next run and from those lessons extrapolate ministry strategy that is far more successful.

The answers to "what have we learned in the first ten years" filled a huge whiteboard several times over. The dialogue around those lessons started to clarify in these leaders minds, how they needed to shape their strategy for the future.

Once we had done this we moved to a second question. What "game changers" could we think of that would dramatically increase the ministry's impact in the next two years. We put one other thing on the table: as we considered the next two years we wanted to totally ignore how we were currently configured and ask how we would organize the ministry today if we were starting all over - knowing what we know today.

Our goal was to erase from our minds our preconceived conceptions of how things should be done (because we have always done them that way) and ask how we would organize today if we were starting from scratch based on lessons learned. Again, we came up with some significant game changers along with robust dialogue around those potential changes. 

Based on those "game changers" this ministry is moving forward and taking some calculated risks about how they see a quantum leap in their ministry effectiveness - based on the positive and negative lessons learned in their past. 

If you have never tried this exercise I would strongly encourage you to do so. Your team actually has an amazing amount of information as to what has worked well and what has not worked well but until one puts that in black and white and asks one can leverage that valuable information for the future, we continue to do what we always did - out of sheer habit.

Organizational Renewal or Decline

All organizations including businesses, ministries, missions and congregations have a predictable life cycle of missional growth, a plateau and then a slow slide into decline - unless there is direct and intentional intervention by leaders to renew the organization from within on a regular basis. All of us can name churches, for instance, that were once vibrant and missional but are not struggling to simply exist. In the business arena, General Motors is a great example of this life cycle and without the necessary renewal it ended up in bankruptcy. Denominations face the same laws of organizational life cycles as a recent report, for instance, of the Southern Baptist Convention indicates that they are facing the challenge of an aging organization now losing people and seeing fewer conversions.

If you are reading this and your organization does not face the challenge of plateau or decline, don't get too smug. No organization is exempt from this phenomenon unless there is direct intervention to prevent it. 

There are several factors that contribute to plateau or decline in organizations. First, organizations that start out missional can over time slip into institutional where the institution becomes more important than the mission. Here are churches who never change their bylaws or governance structures (which become sacred) even when they are strangling the congregation from responding to the needs of a new day.


Second, they forget the rule that "what got you to here will not get you to there" and become change resistant. Resistance to change will guarantee decline because what worked in one day will not work in another. This is the trap many missions find themselves in, doing ministry like they did in the fifties when the whole ministry context has changed around them. As a rule, the longer an organization has gone without major change the greater their risk of sliding into irrelevancy. Risk adverse ministries will go into decline.


Third, there is a tendency to worship the past and wish that the future could look like the past. I can think of congregations that were considered cutting edge flagship congregations twenty years ago who are in serious decline today but leaders still remember the good old days and just assume that they can make them come back. It won't happen without major change.


Finally, decline comes when the missional commitments of the ministry get lost in preserving the institution. Survival mode is rarely missional. The focus is on survival rather than moving forward and taking territory for Jesus. 


The only way to arrest this tendency toward decline is to continually renew the organization from within. This takes courageous leaders who care more about the effectiveness of their ministry than their own jobs because the only way to create ongoing renewal is to push the organization to take risks and get out of their comfort zone. Many will not like the discomfort of renewal. Here are some keys to such renewal.


First, there must be absolute clarity on the mission of the organization and what spells success. Declining ministries have inevitably lost their sense of clarity and unless a new and compelling clarity can be articulated renewal will not take place (see chapters two, three and four of Leading From The Sandbox). Can everyone in your organization clearly articulate a common compelling mission and vision? If not you are at risk!


Second, you can gauge your ability to renew by how change friendly your organization is because without regular and major change to meet the needs and opportunities of a new day decline is inevitable. Can you identify three to five significant changes that have taken place in your ministry in the past three years? If not, you are at risk!


Third, is there an openness and a strategy for getting new ideas on the table? This will usually happen when new people come on board and see what you don't see, or with younger staff members who are not stuck in the old ways of thinking. If you do not have an intentional strategy to bring new ideas and new people to the table, you are at risk! Long term employees will often work to guard the status quo which is comfortable for them rather than be initiators of new ideas which will stretch them.


Fourth, do you have the courage to move along leaders who are stuck in the past and who will not go with you into the future? Those who have quit growing and who guard the status quo are anchors to your ministry, holding it back. The mission is more important than job security. If you do not regularly evaluate leaders for their ability to lead the organization forward you are at risk! If you are the senior leader and realize that you have taken the ministry as far as you can, the best thing you can do is to step aside and let someone else lead into the future. Far from being a failure, you are opening the door to organizational renewal.


Fifth, are you annually driving a set of ministry initiatives that all can rally around, will help you achieve your mission better and keep improving the ministry results you are after? We call these the "game changers" that change the nature of the results in a significant way. If you cannot identify those annual game changers you are at risk!


The longer a ministry has been in existence, the more difficult it is to keep renewing it from within so that you don't move into the plateau and decline phase of life. In other words, leadership becomes more complex, not easier and the need for risk, new ideas, critical thinking and creating waves greater as the ministry matures. Take a moment and think about where your ministry is against some of these principles.