Manage Differently NOW
80% of people know Christians personally – barely 25% of those see a difference in the Christian’s lifestyle.
9 out of 10 Americans have a belief in a spiritual being.
82% of young non believers have been to church at least once.
What’s failing – God’s message or our methods?
“Church has become a weekly convocation for the converted and the content.”
Our materialistic culture has left people empty & jaded and needing something genuine.
The world is becoming more turbulent faster than organizations are becoming more resilient.
Success is a self correcting phenomenon.
A critical skill – The ability to change & morph as circumstances warrant. Unfortunately it usually takes a crisis to make this happen.
We need to change the way we change.
How do you become an enemy of entropy?
4 key imperatives for outrunning change
1 Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial. Every org is successful. . . until it’s not.
The 4 typical steps of denial – Dismiss, Rationalize, Mitigate, Confront. This pattern is typical to board rooms and bedrooms.
When an organization can’t see the future, it’s because the future is unpalatable.
Face the facts & question your beliefs. Make sure you’re listening to the renegades.
Do we welcome or stifle dissent? Learn from the positive deviants.
The future has already happened, but it’s unequally distributed.
2 Create more strategic alternatives.
The oak tree doesn’t know where the fertile ground is. We’re so anxious to find that one giant acorn instead of focusing on the small ones and increasing our impact.
3 You’re very unlikely to create new options unless you’re willing to deconstruct what you believe.
Look at your programs and ask what hasn’t changed in years. Have they not changed because we’ve explored options and found nothing better, or is it because it’s the “way we’ve always done it?”
“The longer you’re in the trenches, it’s easier to mistake the edge of your rut w/ the horizon.”
Is the challenge finding great leaders, or making great organizations that can successfully run w/o superhumans at the top?
Our organizations were never built to be adaptable. It’s not enough to be focused now we have to be malleable & experimental.
The web is the most creative & adaptable thing humans have ever created.
The Facebook generation doesn’t want to work for a Fortune 500 corporation, and they don’t want to go to a church that feels like one.
The early church was spiritually powerful & organizationally weak. Today that is often reversed.
We will not be able to fundamentally change people until be get fundamentally better at changing our churches.
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