When vision is perfectly designed to take you nowhere

Vision is a funny thing. Lots of people (and leaders) have vision but many cannot deliver on that vision because they cannot develop a realistic strategy that will allow them to accomplish the vision. That is why a vision without a workable strategy is hallucination: an unfulfilled dream, a false hope and an empty promise. Many so called visions for the future are perfectly designed to get you nowhere except in the mind of a leader. 

The problem with this is that vision usually comes from leaders and leaders have followers and staff. It is staff who have to live with the unmet dreams of their leaders and the implications of chasing a vision that they know is a foolish dream. I remember a leader I once worked for who hired a staff member to accomplish a specific task that was vital to the organization. 

As I listened to the vision of that new staff member and his strategy for how he would accomplish it I knew in my heart that "this dog won't hunt" but I was not in a position to do or say much as I was lower in the organizational chain and this was a senior level hire of a senior level executive. Nor was I asked my opinion.

In this case we wasted three years of effort, built a staff we had to eventually let go and lost one million dollars in the process. And I had to pick up the pieces when it fell apart and the staff member was let go. Not only did we pay huge "dumb tax" for the foolish expectations and their results but the senior leader lost great credibility in the eyes of his staff for leading us down a path that resulted in organizational damage and could have been avoided. The Walter Mitty vision of the senior leader was an hallucination.

It is not that this leader (the one who hired) and the staff member (the one who was hired) did not have a strategy to reach their vision. Their problem was that it was not a workable strategy. It was built on false assumptions, optimistic rather than realistic thinking which did not even move the ball down the field a bit but rather went the wrong direction entirely.

How does one avoid moving mistaking vision for dreams or hallucinations? A key is not to develop vision by oneself. Senior leaders should work the visioning process with other senior staff who must help deliver on the vision. That includes a reasonable, workable strategy for how the organization will accomplish its vision. Usually that will mean changes in the current paradigm or strategy that the organization is using. After all, the current paradigm got you to where you are but was not designed to get you to where you need to go next. 

That raises the question of whether the organization and its leaders are ready and willing to refocus their efforts, personnel and resources toward the accomplishing of the new vision? Adopting a new vision without refocusing the organization toward that new vision is also an hallucination. Refocusing may well mean that some staff who were key in the past will need to be let go in order to accomplish the new. It may well mean that other staff will need to be refocused and even organizational structures changed to meet the needs of a new vision and a new day. It is a grave mistake to assume that your current ministry paradigm will get you to a new vision and the next level.

Here are the kinds of questions that need to be addressed if a vision is going to be more than a dream:

• Is this a realistic vision and is it the right vision for us as an organization?
• Do we have buy in from senior staff toward a new vision and what is our plan to create a guiding coalition within the organization to move in a new direction?
• Do we have a realistic and workable plan to accomplish the vision?
• What are the unintended consequences of moving in our new direction?
• How do we need to restructure staff, budgets or organizational structure to focus on the new vision?
• How will we know if we are being successful and how do we monitor progress?

Vision is a wonderful and necessary element of leadership. But, a vision without a workable strategy is simply a hallucination.

Creating cultures of excellence
AddingtonConsulting.org

Why many churches are unsuccessful in finding and retaining high quality volunteers

All churches talk about volunteers and what they can contribute to ministry but many find it difficult to find and retain high quality volunteer staff. The following factors contribute to this problem but all of these can be overcome if we take them seriously.

When we treat volunteers as “second rate staff” rather then treating them like staff we send a message  that they are not as appreciated or important as paid staff. When you think about that you realize how crazy that is when these volunteers are willing to contribute their gifts and talents for free. If we truly want their expertise and involvement we need to give them the same appreciation, information and asking for the same input as they do staff.

When we are not willing to invest the same energy into helping volunteer staff grow and flourish in their ministries as we do paid staff we also send an unwanted message. I would argue that we ought to offer a level of growth and building into their lives that they would greatly value the opportunity to serve Jesus and be thankful that they are being built into. Just as we want to help staff understand their wiring and gifts and grow in faith and EQ, we ought to want the same for our volunteers who will often be the future leaders of the church.

When we are not willing to give volunteers responsibility commensurate with their gifting and experience - as we would with paid staff we desensitize them from continuing with us. After all, if they carry significant responsibility in their non church life and we ask them to fill slots that are below their interest or experience they may become easily bored. Of course some volunteers just want to help and they don’t care much where they end up. Others want to lead or contribute their knowledge and skill in a ministry setting and we should get as close to their heart passions as we can.
After all we are about releasing people into ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12) in light of their God given gifts (Ephesians 2:10-11).

When we don’t listen to our volunteers the way we would listen to staff we lose their trust. Volunteers bring a unique perspective to staff because they can see ministry from the outside in rather than the inside out. Both are important perspectives but too many church leaders are more interested in their own perspective rather than the perspective of the outside in. Listening to only one perspective limits our understanding of reality. Listening to both perspectives not only gives better perspective but it values both groups equally.

Finally many churches lose volunteers when they only focus on ministries inside the church. There are many believers who long to see the gospel penetrate their communities but find little interest on the part of church leaders to do so. When this happens mission driven individuals will follow their passions. And the church loses!

TJ Addington of Addington Consulting has a passion to help individuals and organizations maximize their impact and go to the next level of effectiveness. He can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

Creating cultures of organizational excellence