jameyjohnson.org

What does your church do well?

"An organizations identity comes from it's ability to do something well because it has some special organizational talents: an abilty to network, change with speed, serve, change culture, learn, innovate, etc." - The Leadership Code

Living my life on PURPOSE...I think.

In his book, 5: Where will you be five years from today?, Dan Zadra explores the human capacity of potential that is inside each of us.   Dan also shares insights on life-purpose, meaning, goals, and possibilities.   Zadra says, "This is not a work book, it's a play book.  This is not a 'here's how' book, it's a 'why not?' book."  He asks the reader to be daring, be bold and be true to yourself. 

I picked the book up in one Minneapolis' local Starbucks.  And I have been working through it with zeal and passion.  I'm 37 years old now, and I've been mauling over questions lately that pertain to the direction of my life.  Questions such as:

• What do I really want to do?
• What do I really want to have?
• What do I really want to be?
• Where do I really want to go?
• What do I really want to contribute?
• Where do I really want to serve and lead?

Abraham Maslow said, "What is life for? It is for you."  I've been imagining my possibilities of late, and at times I have been extremely excited, however, there are other times I have been a little downcast.  Not truly being satisfied with where I'm at in life (anybody relate?). 

I understand that life is a journey (there are ups and downs).  I also understand that life is a gift (so embrace it).  However, I find myself in a place of deciding what's next in my life and attempting to strategize how to get it...there lies my struggle.

Activity isn't necessarily Accomplishment

Have you ever felt like your church is just going through the motions?  I was recently listening to a CD on leadership/vision, and a question was posed by a frustrated church leader, he asked, "My church is very active, but not very effective...How can I change that?"  Can you relate?

John Maxwell gives 8 things on how to get things effectively done in your organization:

1. What gets pictured gets done - Vision
2. What gets modeled gets done - Example
3. What gets praised gets done - Affirmation
4. What gets prioritized gets done - Alignment
5. What gets measured gets done - Evaluation
6. What gets budgeted gets done - Resources
7. What gets targeted gets done - Focus
8. What gets trained gets done - Leadership development

Top 10 Reasons Why Change Fails

Calling for change, its a popular theme in our American culture today.  Communicating the message of change can be very motivating and inspiring, especially to people who feel the (organization, business, church, etc) is off track, stale, traditional, and or ineffective.  

However,communicating change can be very different from actually leading change. As Mark Sanborn says, "Preaching change is much different than practicing it." 

Dannell Shu (a good friend of my wife and I), sent me an article by Mark Sanborn, entitled, Why Organizational Change Fails.  Sanborn points out that, "status quo doesn’t yield to good intentions. Change is tiring and toilsome work, requiring persistence and resourcefulness. Unfortunately, many leaders fall short in their efforts to enact change."  How many leaders can relate to that statement?  I know I can!

Two Great Question:

1. What causes attempts at change to bomb?
2. What happens to scuttle well-intentioned plans?

Most common reasons why organizational change fails (According to Mark Sanborn):

1. Misstarts

A misstart occurs when change is ill-advised, hastily implemented, or attempted without sufficient commitment. Misstarts are jarring and demoralizing to an organization, and they destroy a leader’s credibility.

2. Making change an option

When leadership commits to change, the message must be sent that change is not an option. Regrettably, the message of change is often weak and watered down. "We'd like you to change, we're asking you to change, we implore you to change, please change...” Whenever people have the option to avoid change, they will.

3. A focus only on process

Leaders can become enmeshed in managing the process of change to the point where they don't measure tangible outcomes. Activity becomes more important than results.

4. A focus only on results

Unhealthy results-focus stems from a belief that the end justifies any means. Organizations tend to fail miserably in this regard: they downplay or ignore the human pain of change. Insensitivity to people’s feelings not only prevents change, but also destroys morale and loyalty in the process.

5. Not involving those expected to implement the change

When management announces a change and then mandates the specifics of its implementation, a great deal of resentment is aroused throughout the organization. To smoothen the arrival of change, employees need to be involved in two ways. Firstly, their input and suggestions should be solicited when planning the change. Secondly, after a commitment to change has been made, they should be involved in determining the means. Leadership needs to communicate, "Here's what must happen. How do you think it can best be done?”

6. Delegated to “outsiders”

Change is an inside job. Although outside consultants may provide valuable ideas and input, people inside the organization must accept responsibility for leading change. Dodging tough transitions or passing the buck is not an option.

7. No change in reward system

If you continue rewarding employees for what they've always done, you'll never move past the usual results. Make sure rewards, recognition, and compensation are adjusted to reflect the desired change.

8. Leadership doesn't walk the talk

For change to happen, everybody involved must buy-in. Leadership, however, must take the first steps. Attempts at change are sabotaged whenever leaders neglect to demonstrate the same commitment they expect from others.

9. Wrong size

In this instance, change is either too massive to be achievable or too small to be significant. Like a good goal, a change program should be neither too easy nor too impossible.

10. No follow-through

The best planning is worthless if not implemented, monitored, and measured. Responsibility for executing change must be clearly defined so that follow-through is timely and thorough.

 

Pointing the Finger...

Executing change in the culture of "traditional-minded" organizations has been on my mind as of late.  As many of you know there is no easy answer to this kind of endeavor (executing change with the culture of your organization).  Organizations can be very complex, usually because organizations are made up of people, and people can be very complex.  However, even though the task is difficult, leaders have the responsibility to engage such endeavors as executing cultural change in their companies, businesses, or ministries...don't they?   

What are some of things that hinder leaders from successfully navigating cultural change within their organization:

• People in the wrong positions:    Getting people into the right jobs is an absolute necessity.  If you look at any business that's constantly successful, you'll find that its leaders focus intensely and relentlessly on people selection (Larry Bossidy).
• Lack of knowledge:   Many leaders haven't defined what are the 3 to 4 nonnegotiables--things the leader must be able to do in order to succeed.
• Lack of Courage:  People pleasing rules the day!  "Got my SPINE. got my ORANGE CRUSH" - R.E.M. 
• The Physiological Comfort Factor:  Leaders who stay comfortable with the status quo eventually will find themselves being SPIT OUT of the organization's mouth. 
• Lack of personal commitment to developing the RIGHT people: The leader who gets bogged down putting their energy into everyone will soon be find themselves low on the emotional energy side of life.  What could be worse?  The leader is burned out and still ends up doing all the work because they haven't properly invested into the right leaders to help him/her lead.
• Low energy: The leader who is out of shape and popping pills or caffeine will not last.
• Being indecisive on tough issues:  Decisiveness is the ability to make difficult decisions swiftly and act on them. Many leaders simply do not have the emotional fortitude to confront tough issues.  When they don't, everyone in the business knows they are wavering, procrastinating, and avoiding reality. 
• They do everything themselves:  Leaders know how to get things done through and with others.
• They follow through.    

Keepin' it REAL in your staff meetings?

Have your ever found yourself in a staff meeting wondering if your team was ever going to talk about those tough issues that face your team or organization...the "REAL ISSUES"?  Here are some helpful quotes from Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy:

• Realism is the heart of execution, but many organizations are full of people who are trying to avoid or shade reality (OUCH!...do you think church people really do that?).
• Sometimes the leaders are simply in denial.  When we ask leaders to describe their organization's strengths and weaknesses, they generally state the strengths fairly well, but they're not so good on identifying the weaknesses. 
• And when we ask what they're going to do about the weaknesses, the answer is rarely clear or cohesive.

Here are 4 simple questions that focus on getting REAL about your organization strengths and weaknesses (ask these questions to your team, key influencer's, and a variety of people...not just your spouse and dog):

1. What are we doing right in this business (or church)?
2. What are we doing wrong in this business (or church)?
3. What do you like about (your church/business)?
4. What don't you like about (your church/business)? 

Transition (slow death part II)

• How does a leader help turn around the culture of the organization that is trapped in an old and ineffective structure? 
• How do you infuse new energy and focus into an old and traditional organization? 

Lately, I've been seriously wrestling with questions like these.  I have known leaders (pastors) that had to help navigate (lead) organizations (churches) that faced a deeply embedded culture of tradition and in need of serious fundamental change.  Most of these leaders who took on the endeavor didn't successfully transition the organization into change.  What went wrong?  These godly men were good people, but utlimately they could not steer the ship into new waters.

The question still remains:

• How do you implement change into the culture of the organization that lacks resources, accountability, along with an organizational structure that no longer fits the needs of the people and community? 
• How do you implement such massive reorganization?   

I'm talking about massive reorganization that would fundamentally change the old structure and culture and transition it into a new and effective organizational structure, with a new environment, one of accountability, collaboration, innovation, teamwork, momentum and effectiveness.  Where do you start? Who do you talk to? What do you do? How do you do it?  I know, I know, we start with prayer!!!

Get back to you soon!

Slow Death

* Does your organization (church) struggle with issues of execution and focus? 

*How does your organization get things done?  And what does it mean to execute in your organization?

I believe for any organization to experience success they will have to answer these types of questions within the organization. 

There are many pastors with "good intentions" who formulate a God-ordained-vision and communicate it to their people, however, when all is said and done, the pastor ends up lacking the execution "know how/skills" to ensure the plans/vision/mission of the organization become a reality.  Lack of execution from the leader is usually from these 3 things;

(1). lack of understanding of the people process,

(2). the strategy process,

(3.) and or the operations process in one form or another.

What is important is that the leader of the organization and his/her leadership team be deeply engaged in all three processes.  An organization can execute effectively only if the leader's heart and soul are immersed in the organizational processes...fear of people, change, leadership passivity, lethargic behavior, and complacency will only result in mundane execution.  And mundane execution will result in numerous de-motivating factors within the organization.  De-motivating factors over a long period of time have a way of creating a negative effect on the leadership team, and the overall culture of the organization.  When the people in the organization fail to experience "WINS--successful execution of the vision and plans of the organization" de-motivating factors arise such as: low-morale, lack of commitment, competing systems, lack of leadership, confusion, withdrawal of people and resources from the organization (= empty seats).  Leaders must learn how to execute.  As goes the leader, so goes the church.

Larry Bossidy, in his book Execution-The Discipline of Getting Things Done, defines execution as, "a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.  It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organization's capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and liking rewards to outcomes." (WOW!)    

Lingering in Complexity

OK, I'm bothered to the core right now?  I'm reading a book by Chip and Dan Heath that is making me a little disturbed (upset – perturbed – interrupted – messed up -  unsettled).  The book by Chip and Dan Heath is called, Made to Stick - Why some ideas survive and others die.  Page 33 read, "forced prioritization is really painful.  Smart people recognize the value of all the material (that makes up an organization).  They see nuance, multiple perspectives - and because they fully appreciate the complexities of a situation, they're often tempted to LINGER there.  This tendency toward complexity is perpetually at war with the need to prioritize.  This difficult quest-the need to wrestle priorities out of complexity (is what leaders need to do)." 

I heard one leader say, "Prioritize or agonize."

Turning a blind eye to reality...

How many of us turn a blind eye to reality?  It's easy to do, because confrontation is never easy.  As a matter a fact, if you are in a leadership position you know what I am talking about - confronting is never easy.  When a leaders refuses to confront certain people or situations it can become very unhealthy for the organization - "we call it denial."  Andy Staley said, "Organizations, like individuals, often live in denial...denial is evidence of an unhealthy organization." This made me think about a few things: (1). I have personally observed many church leaders in my time who have been in denial about the current state of affairs (like declining church attendance, lack of giving, low membership, low moral, lack of momentum, decline in team leadership).  (2). Many leaders are prone to adapt the "habit of imposing biases on our perceptions of current reality."  I have never met a leader who did want things to go well, however, let's not replace "confronting the brutal facts" for churchy positivity.

2 Powerful Quotes on the Courage To Face Current Reality:

"Designing and implementing a strategy for change is a waste of time until you have discovered and embraced the current reality.  If you don't know where you really are, it is impossible to get to where you need to be.  What you don;t know CAN kill you." - Andy Stanley

"Leadership does not begin just with vision.  It begins with getting people to confront the brutal facts and to act on the implications." - Jim Collins

Commandments of Current Reality - for next generation leaders:

1. Thou shalt not pretend - quit doing the "positive" churchy stuff...be real in your staff/team meetings.

2. Thou shalt not turn a blind eye - get a pair of glasses if you have to correct your sight.

3. Thou shalt not exaggerate - quit doing the "positive" churchy stuff - AGAIN!

4. Thou shalt not shoot the bearer of bad news - if the church service and strategy stinks - IT STINKS!

5. Thou shalt not hide behind the numbers - pastors and ushers never exaggerate the numbers...do they?

6. Thou shalt not ignore constructive criticism - get emotional help for your insecurity if you have to.

7. Thou shalt not isolate thyself - FIGHT or FLIGHT? Gosh dangit, at least fight once in awhile.

(Note: Jamey Johnson is learning to engage in CONFRONTING THE BRUTAL FACTS - it's a process, it's not easy, it makes your palms sweat sometimes, but do it anyhow).