Coaching Churches

Lighting the fuse is an appropriate analogy for any leader who is about to initiate a significant change process. If you make a mistake during this critical process the whole situation can figuratively blow up in your face leaving your people and your organization in worse condition than before you started.

It is never enough to just do the right thing, you must do the right thing, the right way, and especially at the right time.  There are at least four major reasons for initiating the change process:

1.  Need Must Be Met—this would appear to be the easiest of all the reasons after all there is someone or something that is not right and we can make it better.  However, rarely does everyone in your group see this need in the same way and many may not be directly motivated by this cause at all.  Be careful of needs that only touch a limited constituency.
2. Opportunity Should Be Taken—this one requires everyone to look out into the future and see a new reality that is better than the one they are in today.  This requires maximum amount of visionary leadership to paint a picture that people can embrace to the point they are willing to move forward.
3. Problem Can Be Solved—here again one person’s problem is merely another person’s distraction.  Compelling reasons must be given that this situation not only if affecting people in a negative way but if it is not resolved it will only become worse.
4. Crisis Threatens Our Future—now you have an issue that can be communicated in such a clear and dramatic way because if it is not dealt with the future of this group of people or organizations is in peril.  Never take a problem and try to turn it into a crisis for impact sake because people will see through the clever marketing and lose confidence in the leader.

The bottom line for any leader is that you have a very limited amount of leadership capital with your people so spend it wisely.  Most people will only be motivated to change when the pain of the present is clearly worse than their fear of the future.  Be careful not to judge them for that because to some degree we are all the same way.

How do you know when the time is right for change?

Every individual and organization at some point in time will face a crisis and the way they respond will determine if the situation potentially becomes fatal or they experience a complete and total recovery.  I have learned a lot from personal experience on this subject over the years and probably the most important lesson is to be incredibly proactive and not stick your head in the sand and hope it will get better.

In Jack Welch’s great book Winning he gives some great advice on how he dealt with crisis situations at G.E.  These are his five guiding assumptions:

1. The problem is worse than it appears—No matter how hard you might wish and pray; very few crises start small and stay that way.  The vast majority are bigger in scope than you could ever imagine with that first phone call and they will last longer and get more ugly.
2. There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything—Information that you try to shut down will eventually get out, and as it travels, it will certainly morph, twist and darken.   The only way to prevent that is to expose the problem yourself and tell the truth.
3. You and your organization’s handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light—The very nature of a crisis means that you and your organization will be portrayed in a light so negative you won’t even recognize yourself.  Don’t hunker down.  Along with disclosing the full extent of your problem you have got to stand up and define your position before someone else does for you.
4. There will be changes in processes and people—Crisis requires change.  Sometimes a process fix is enough.  Usually not because the people affected by the crisis demand that someone be held responsible.
5. The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened—There is not a crisis you cannot learn from, even though you hate every one of them.  After a crisis is over the tendency is to put it away in a drawer.  Don’t, teach its lessons every chance you get.

What have you learned that helped you get through a crisis?

Most leaders understand there are powerful forces in place to maintain the status quo both on a personal level and with an organizational culture as well.  Therefore choosing the timing of when to start a change process that you want to be successful is critical.

If you don’t have any of the following priorities in place then do not light the fuse because it will blow up in your face:

1. Problem to be solved—at the very basic level of motivation for any change is the reality  that something  is clearly wrong and you know it needs to be fixed.  I am overweight and if I do not start an exercise program and change my diet I am going to be in serious trouble.
2. Opportunity to be taken—sometimes doors seem to open that we were not expecting and the benefits gained far outweigh the risks involved.  A good friend offers to pay my membership in the health club for a year if I will commit to go.
3. Crisis to be avoided—in this situation you recognize the perfect storm is brewing and if you don’t act immediately the consequences of my inaction could be catastrophic.  I have now had a heart attack and my doctor says without major change I will have another one and it will probably be fatal.
4. Need to be met—this moves the motivation point high up on the scale because there are hurting people involved and the change process will directly benefit them.  If I am not willing to act based on what I need surely because of the people I love the most I will do whatever is necessary to be there for them.
5. Calling to be followed—as a Christian I am called to represent Christ to the world in all that I do with my life.  If I do not take care of the body He has given me to be used in His service then I can lose my testimony and damage my effectiveness in helping other people.

These priorities also apply in our professional lives as we seek to lead the change process in the context of a company culture that tends to react after it is too late rather than respond to what should be obvious.  Leaders must be willing to cast a clear vision that the benefits of leaving the current reality behind far outweigh any pain involved in moving to a new and better place for all involved.