Archives For change

The Three Steps to Leading Successful Change

June 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

Leading change is one of the most important things leaders do. Author and business expert John Kotter devoted an entire book on How to Lead Change. Pastor Brad Powell wrote a book on the Art of Sacred Cow Tipping called Changing Your Church for Good. It’s one of the greatest challenges in leadership today.

Recently I was reflecting on the change process that leaders navigate in organizational settings. While there are many elements in the change process, three steps are always necessary: Seeking Insight, Selling Ideas, and Securing Involvement.

  • Seeking Insight is all about gaining perspective, counsel, advice, and wisdom from other leaders. This is the research side of leading change. Without it, change initiatives usually fall short of their full potential and often result in diminished outcomes.
  • Selling Ideas is the vision-casting side of leading change. It focuses on painting a clear picture of a bright future and usually involves speeches, small group meetings, and one-on-one conversations to help people see the possibilities of the new change. The goal is to do more than push your agenda…it’s to inspire a shared vision.
  • Securing Involvement is where people accept your new idea and throw their time, energy, emotions, and resources behind the vision. This is the buy-in side of leading change.

There are four observations I’d like to make about this three-step process to leading successful change.

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Church, Leadership, Organizations, Vision, Vision Casting
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The Opportunity Matrix

February 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

We live in an unprecedented time in history where opportunities are everywhere. And because opportunity abounds (often hidden as problems), leaders in particular wrestle with which opportunities are the best opportunities. How do you choose?

Opportunity typically works in tandem with two forces: Focus and Risk. Without focus, we tend to pursue every opportunity. But without a willingness to risk, we tend to avoid every opportunity. The following “Opportunity Matrix” illustrates four opportunity quadrants and what happens when focus and risk are at play.

High Focus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low Focus

Low Risk                                                             High Risk

Immovable Complacency (Low Focus/Low Risk) – This type of opportunity really isn’t an opportunity at all. It’s like a giant magnet preventing any forward traction. Churches in this corner are typically disengaged, unmotivated, and on a comfortable plateau, or worse, coasting in a downward direction. Their lack of focus has made them complacent and their low risk tolerance has made them immovable.

Strategic Irrelevance (High Focus/Low Risk) – Leaders and churches in this quadrant are highly focused and deeply committed. The problem is, they’re highly focused and deeply committed to pursuing “safe” opportunities that keep them closely tied to outdated and irrelevant traditions. They resist change. These churches have tunnel vision…they’re so focused on what they are doing that they can’t see what they could do…and so they miss their greatest opportunities. They’re so married to their strategies that they’ve become strategically irrelevant.

Visionless Change (Low Focus/High Risk) – This corner of the quadrant is a bit of a paradox. The idea of taking risks while lacking focus doesn’t seem to fit together. This reality is usually nothing more than short-term infatuation. It could easily be described as vision-jumping, splash-in-the-pan leadership, or addiction to the latest fad. The problem is that nothing sticks. Churches in this scenario experience vision whiplash. You could say their infatuation with change overrides their clarity and commitment to vision, ultimately producing a high-risk, low-focus environment of “vision-less change.” They change for the sake of change without any understand of their True North. Leaders and volunteers are often worn out in this environment.

Vision-Centric Courage (High Focus/High Risk) – The top right box in the opportunity matrix is where high levels of focus intersect with high levels of risk with the greatest potential to produce high levels of impact. This doesn’t mean the risk is unwise or untested. Precisely the opposite. Leaders and churches in this corner have defined a clear vision and courageously execute tested, calculated, risk-taking strategies to see that vision fulfilled. Courage is only needed in the face of fear, and thus courage implies change. When the change is vision-centric, it keeps the organization on track.

So where are you (and your church) in the Opportunity Matrix? And what does it take to move to the top right quadrant? Consider the following as a launching point to embrace “Vision-Centric Courage”:

1. Moving from “Immovable Complacency” - Cultivate a learning posture while creating an appropriate sense of urgency. Most teams get stuck when they stop listening and learning. How can you expose your team to new voices, quality books, and fresh strategies. Do you need to acquire coaching or consulting? Before you can unlock the church, you have to unlock your leadership. And to get a sense of urgency in play, consider reading John Kotter’s book, A Sense of Urgency. Here’s a post I shared from Kotter’s book on urgency.

2. Moving from “Strategic Irrelevance” - Build momentum with small wins. You don’t have to turn the entire ship overnight, but you do need to start turning the rudder and introducing change. Small wins will give you the momentum, confidence, and trust to go after bigger opportunities.

3. Moving from “Visionless Change” - Solidify your vision and adopt the right perspective of opportunities. Solidifying your vision will be the toughest step, but it is essential if you want to keep your team energized and focused.  Once you solidify your vision, you need to take a new attitude toward opportunities. Andy Stanley framed it well when he said, ”Opportunity does not equal obligation.” Let this statement set you free from your infatuation with the latest, greatest idea.

Question: Which quadrant are you (and your church) in? What’s your next step?

In Leadership change, Courage, Focus, Opportunity, Risk, Vision
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The Law of the Boomerang Effect

January 29, 2011 — 1 Comment

Ichak Adizes once wrote, “It is difficult to change organizations. It is like tending the gardens. When you relax, the culture goes back to the weeds.” That statement describes what Hans Finzel calls “The Law of the Boomerang Effect.”  It’s the idea that everything tends to revert back to the old way…systems, habits, and people. The status quo is what the boomerang of change so often returns to. 

Why does this happen? One reason is, as Harvard author and professor John Kotter observes, that the change is not anchored in the organization’s culture. And because leaders and followers are organizational culture creators, understanding where each person is in relation to change is important. Hans Finzel’s captures this reality best when he writes about the “Eight Levels of the Boomerang Effect” in his book, Change is Like a Slinky. Finzel’s eight levels include:

1.  Ritualist - “Whatever. I am not really here in spirit anyway. Just in body, so let them do what they want.”

2.  Retreatist - “I will do what I can to prove that they are wrong with quiet resistance.” This is the passive-aggressive employee.

3.  Rebel - “I will actively do what I can to prove that they are wrong with aggressive sabotage.”

4.  Conformer – The compliant one. “I will do whatever I am told. Never rock the boat.”

5.  Complainer – “Those people in management are nuts! I will let them know it at every turn.”

6.  Early Adopter - “I see what they are proposing and it makes sense. I will push the boomerang in the right direction and try to keep it from going back home.”

7.  Late Bloomers – Those who eventually come along when they have warmed up to the new ideas and had their minds and hearts convinced. They are from Missouri: “Show me.”

8.  Innovator – Those wonderful people who say, “I can improve what they are talking about and make it even better. I’ll help throw the boomerang!”

Understanding where everybody on your team is will help you immediately get a feel for receptivity to your next change effort. You’ll know who will be with you early on, who you  need to meet with one-on-one before making any kind of big announcement, who needs time to process ideas, and who will likely be the last to get on board. This is valuable insight to have when going into a change initiative. Ignore it at your own peril.

Question: Where do members of your team fall in the eight levels of the boomerang effect. What do you have to do to make sure your next change initiative doesn’t boomerang back to the status quo?


In Leadership, Organizations change, Organizational Culture
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Steering Through Chaos

July 6, 2010 — Leave a comment

Just finished reading Scott Wilson’s book, Steering Through Chaos: Mapping a Clear Direction for Your Church in the Midst of Transition and Change. Pastor Scott shares the story of how he helped The Oaks Fellowship successfully navigate a series of significant ministry transitions including a major relocation effort.  The book is full of great insight and practical ideas to help you through your own transitions. 


Here are just two of many valuable insights:

1.  The Sigmoid Curve - While this concept isn’t new, Scott does a great job unpacking the natural cycles of growth and decline experienced by churches and organizations.  The life cycles begin with vision, then growth, then decline, followed by nostalgia. Scott makes a great observation that most leaders create changes when they reach the “decline” stage of the cycle. However, he observes that wise leaders make changes during the growth season so that the decline can be avoided. It’s during the growth seasons that leaders must infuse fresh vision and strategy. Wilson observes, “Waiting until the church begins to decline may be safer, but it forfeits time and momentum.” Where is your church or organization in the sigmoid curve?

2. Coaching Through the Leadership Gap - A second valuable truth is the need for coaching. Scott shared his own journey to finding a great coach to help him successfully navigate change, improve his leadership, and cultivate health in his personal life.  He unapologetically states that the chapter on finding a coach is the most important in the book. Wilson observes that a great coach is an accurate mirror, a vision stretcher, a gifted strategist, a trusted confidant, a pace setter, and a wise counselor. Who is your coach?

Steering Through Chaos is loaded with helpful advice on vision, motivating people, timing your change, prayer, celebration, endurance and much more. Check it out today.

Question: What’s the most valuable advice you would give a leader who is navigating a transition?

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Leadership, Organizations, Transitions
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Bold Moves and Why Incrementalism Seldom Works

May 19, 2010 — Leave a comment

If you’ve led for any length of time, you know how rocky things can get when you start making changes. That unsettled, even chaotic, process drives many leaders to take the slow, methodical, baby-step road.  They argue, “If you change too fast, you just might destroy the organization and drive people away.” While there’s a nugget of truth in that statement, there’s also a bucketful of danger: Incrementalism seldom works.


In his book, Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs, Bill Hybels promotes “Bold Move” as an essential leadership axiom.  He says:

You will never take big hills without making bold moves. The alternative is incrementalism, which is dangerous and often deadly to organizations. Incrementalism says, “Hey, let’s increase the effectiveness of our current efforts by 2 percent a year but then expect a huge increase in effectiveness to occur sometime in the future!”  That seldom works. Incrementalism and innovation make terrible bedfellows.  Make a few bold moves, or you’ll breathe your last leadership breath far too soon.

Leadership pace isn’t always easy to figure out.  Here’s a few questions to ask yourself before making a bold move:

  • Communication: Have I clearly explained the problem our bold move will solve?
  • Buy-In: Are our key leaders bought-in to the bold move?
  • Alignment: Is the bold move driving us toward our vision?
  • Wisdom: Have I sought counsel from a wise and seasoned leader?
  • Timing: Is the timing right for the move?
  • Benefit: How will the organization/church and its people benefit from the bold move?
  • Finances: What’s our plan to fund the bold move?
  • Execution: Who is responsible for the bold move’s implementation?
  • Reality: What facts am I ignoring?
  • Motives: Do I have a personal, self-serving agenda?

Question: What bold move do you need to take? 

In Leadership change, Innovation, Leadership
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Breakout Churches

April 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

One of the leadership books that has played a big role in businesses over the last few years is Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great.  What you may not be aware of is a similar book written by Thom Rainer several years ago called, Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap.  Inspired by Collins’ book, Rainer decided to write a similar book for churches modeled after the Good to Great framework.  Rainer’s criteria for identifying “Breakout Churches” included:

  • Number of conversions
  • Ratio of conversions (how many members it takes to reach one person for Christ)
  • The church was plateaued or in decline for several years prior to its breakout year
  • The church experienced sustained new growth for several years after breaking out of its slump
  • The slump, reversal, and breakout all took place under the same pastor
  • Since the breakout point, the church has made a clear and positive impact on the community
Rainer and his research team received data on 50,000 churches but found only 13 churches that met their criteria.  These 13 churches experienced what Rainer calls a “Chrysalis Factor” (analogous to the “black box” in Jim Collins’ Good to Great), the factors that led to the transformation of the churches in their study.  Based on Rainer’s research, there are six components of the Chrysalis Factor in Breakout Churches:

1.  Acts 6/7 Legacy Leadership - Rainer states that the breakout pastors all displayed Acts 6/7 leadership, a form of leadership seen in Acts 6 and 7 where leaders “seek to equip others for the work of ministry while deflecting recognition for themselves.”  

2.  The ABC Moment - The A stands for “Awareness.”  The breakout pastors came to an awareness that something was not right in the church.  The B stands for “Belief” and is demonstrated when the leader is willing to “seek out and confront the brutal facts about the church’s inadequacies.”  The C is for the “Crisis” that takes place within the leader’s heart because of the gap that exists between what the church is and what God intends.  This stage in the process typically implies some “cost to the leader.”

3.  The Who/What Simultrack - Pastors of breakout churches addressed what the purpose of the church is and who the right people were to help move the church toward it’s real purpose.

4.  The VIP Factor - The VIP factor (modeled after Collin’s Hedgehog Concept) represented vision discovered in the intersection of three circles:  The passion of the leader, the needs of the community, and the gifts, abilities, talents, and passions of the congregation.  

5.  Culture of Excellence - Working hard to make sure gains have not been lost, breakout leaders measure everything in the church against “a barometer of excellence.”

6.  Innovation Accelerators - Breakout pastors had a balanced approach to innovation.  ”On the one hand, they were not carried away by the latest concept or church fad.  On the other hand, they did not reject innovation outright just because it was something new.”  Breakout leaders view innovation as a “tool that could enhance an already healthy transition.  In other words, innovations were accelerators but not the solutions to all of the church’s needs.”

Questions:  What’s the status of your church right now: growing, plateaued, or in decline?  How well is your church embracing Rainer’s six components above? 
In Church change, Growth, Models
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McManus & Kotter on "Change"

November 10, 2009 — Leave a comment

Our culture is experiencing an unprecedented rate of change. And to influence our culture with the Gospel will require appropriate, often radical change. The following are a few of my favorite quotes that imply the need for change or the process of change from two respected authors–Pastor and Cultural Architect, Erwin McManus and Harvard Business Professor, John Kotter:


  • “The Gospel, as presented in our time, has been crafted in a way that would only win Christians to Christ.” Erwin McManus

  • A good rule of thumb in a major change effort is: Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce complacency and that help maintain the status quo. John Kotter

  • “The life cycle of a church is just like a bell curve. Decline begins right after the highest point. In a church’s peak moment, she has the most people and the most money. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but churches begin to decline when things are going well. We are in grave danger when we have the most people and the most money in our history.” Erwin McManus

  • “Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.” John Kotter

  • “The real tragedy is not that churches are dying but that churches have lost their reason to live!” Erwin McManus

Can you share some of your favorite quotes on “change” and what they have meant to you?
In Leadership change
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How to Lead Change

August 11, 2009 — 1 Comment

Leading change is one of the true tests of leadership. Harvard Business professor, John Kotter, is perhaps one of the best thinkers in this area and presents a great process for creating change in his classic book, Leading Change. Kotter’s 8-stage process includes:

Stage 1: Establish a Sense of Urgency - The first stage involves understanding reality and identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, and major opportunities. If a leader cannot create a sense of urgency that change must happen, they will never go any further. See my post on “Urgency” for more details.

Stage 2: Create the Guiding Coalition - With a sense of urgency established, leaders must then assemble a group of people with enough influence to lead change. This group must work together to become a team. It’s my belief that the best teams have a mix of influencers, innovators, investors, and initiators.

Stage 3: Develop a Vision and Strategy - Next, a clear vision needs to be articulated along with executable strategies that will generate progress toward the vision.

Stage 4: Communicate the Change Vision - Using every communication strategy possible, the new vision and strategies must be shared with the entire organization. Furthermore, the guiding coalition must take the lead by modeling the behaviors expected by employees.

Stage 5: Empower Broad-Based Action - This stage involves the removal of obstacles, making changes in systems or structures that undermine the vision, and employing risk-taking and innovative ideas.

Stage 6: Generate Short-Term Wins - Making progress is essential and therefore planning for improvements and recognizing and rewarding those who generate wins is essential. Small wins open the door for greater change. By celebrating the small wins you make the big wins possible.

Stage 7: Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change - The credibility gained from positive change should fuel the pursuit of more change as well as the hiring of people who can implement more change.

Stage 8: Anchor New Approaches in the Culture - Finally, the culture should reflect better performance, an orientation toward productivity, connections between new behaviors and organizational success, and appropriate succession planning.

Each stage to leading change can also be flipped to reflect the errors to creating change. For example, allowing too much complacency is the opposite of creating a sense of urgency. Declaring victory too soon is the opposite of consolidating gains and producing more change. Kotter asserts that a successful change transformation is 70%-90% leadership and only 10%-30% management.

Again, the ability to successfully create change is the true test of leadership. While the book is a classic, the principles in Leading Change are very relevant today. This book is a must read for any leader.

Question: Which stage of change do you need to give attention to right now?

 

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Leadership, Strategy, Vision
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How Church Leaders Deny Reality in Turbulent Times

July 2, 2009 — 1 Comment

The great management legend, Peter Drucker, once wrote, “A time of turbulence is a dangerous time, but its greatest danger is a temptation to deny reality.” Consider that quote carefully. I find it particularly disturbing as it relates to the local church. What would cause a leader to deny reality in turbulent times. Although the reasons could be endless, let me share two ways I’ve seen the denial of reality play out in the church world:

1. A Church Denies Reality Until They Encounter Financial Turbulence – Have you ever noticed that churches can be completely content not reaching people far from God, not seeing life-change, and not seeing growth? But the moment the money starts to run out, everybody becomes very discontent. What does this say about us? Is the turbulence of money more important than the turbulence of mission? Why was the reality of mission turbulence ignored for so long? For some churches, a financially turbulent season could actually be the best thing that could ever happen to them. It might actually wake them up, and bring the church back to a mission-centered focus.

2. A Leader Denies Reality When External Opportunities Overshadow Internal Turbulence – How many times have you seen a leader become so preoccupied with the outside speaking invitations, networking opportunities, and external ego boosts that they conveniently lose the pulse on the church’s health? As a result, internal turbulence goes unchecked until its ugly head surfaces in such undeniable force that the leader has no option but to hit the brakes and look under the hood. Does the turbulence have to turn into a full-blown crisis before it gets our attention? How long can a leader deny reality as he travels the country sharing his success? Jim Collins calls this, “Hubris born of success.”

In both cases, turbulence and denial of reality peacefully co-existed until one of two things happened: either the turbulence gave the ADD leader whip lash or the turbulence touched a raw nerve in the church that could no longer be ignored. So how do you ensure the denial of reality won’t infiltrate your church or organization? Consider five things:

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership change, Evaluations, Leadership, Measurements, Personal Growth
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The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping

June 25, 2009 — 1 Comment

Change! Every ministry, church, and organization faces the challenges associated with creating change. The big question is HOW. Brad Powell articulates some good thoughts in his book, Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping. Rather than giving you a roadmap on how to change, I want to give you three valuable “change thoughts” from Powell’s book that are especially helpful for more traditional settings:

1. “You’ve got to kill what’s killing you, but you can let what isn’t killing you die of natural causes.” This is a great insight. Sometimes the best strategy for creating change is to step back and watch the “program” die on its own. Powell says, “If something’s hurting the church, it must be removed. On the other hand, if something’s not helping the church, it doesn’t need to be so aggressively eliminated. It can be left to die on its own.” Change the things that are killing the church or creating a negative impact.

2. “While it’s true that the church must establish points of relevance for outsiders, it is not true that every point of relevance for insiders should be removed.” In the midst of change, insiders need a certain level of security. Not changing everything at one time can facilitate a sense of safety. At the same time, some areas don’t need to be changed because they are not off-mission or irrelevant. Change what must be changed. One example Powell gave–they changed their Sunday morning service but left their adult classes alone.

3. “Change doesn’t happen when you announce it. Change grows.” Leaders must always be thinking ahead by planting “seeds in the present for future change.” Powell planted many of these seeds when he was being interviewed for the job. And when he became pastor, he continued planting seeds for years. Powell states, “Though not always possible, the general rule is that the bigger and more difficult the change, the further ahead the seed should be planted.”

Questions: Which of these three thoughts is most helpful to you? Why? What other change strategies have proven beneficial in your leadership journey?

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Leadership, Organizations
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