Today I want to talk to you about leading waves of change in your church. Now, in another episode of 90 Second Leadership you may have heard me discuss risk vs. rewards as a new leader. Securing early wins is very important, but you must also consider the long term implications of what you are doing, so let’s take a look.
Now, this framework comes from The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. If you haven’t read that book, please pick it up, no matter if it’s your first 90 days or not. It’s going to be a great read.
In stage 1, you secure early wins. Risk vs. reward and visibility all should be very high. You want to create momentum, but you also want to be sure that it is going to last, and you want to develop a new pattern of behavior in the organization. Doing so will establish your credibility as you move into these later stages.
Now in stage 2 and 3, you are implementing change, strategy, structure, and systems. And all those things need to support your over all goal. You learn, you make a plan, and then you implement that plan. These changes are more intense than stage 1 because you’ve already started a new work ethic. You’ve started to rock the boat and shake things up, and the keepers of the status quo are not happy. As a leader, you want to use that energy and that excitement of those who are already on board with you to encourage others who may be ready to jump ship.
Finally, we have stage 4, which is consolidation. Stage 4 is where the intensity starts to dip a little bit so that people can catch their breath. It gives you the opportunity to continue learning, continuing to hone the changes that you’ve made, but though this may sound counter-intuitive, it is a marker of success when the change you have made is now the status quo.
Now that you understand how to lead the waves of change in your church, what are you going to do about it?
