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What Do You Want? Innovation

This post is from the article, Correcting Ministry Performance, at SpiritualLead.com.

In the last post we talked about achievement.  And while every ministry and enterprise needs achievement to fulfill its mission, and achievement is expected from your team members, there is a dark side too.  In the last post we said,  "Achievement is the methamphetamine of endeavor.  In small doses meth energizes.  But soon it becomes the focal point of experience and all of life now centers around the experience meth provides.  Achievement, left as the end result of enterprise or ministry can do the same thing.  And, in the end, what was an energizing experience of achievement becomes the very same substance that destroys." 

So, if compliance is fundamental and achievement is essential, is that all there is to be satisfied with your team's effort?  Or is there more?  What happens when compliance simply runs the team to a dead end and simply doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (Ben Franklin's definition of insanity) becomes the activity de jour?  What happens when achievement has turned in on itself and like flesh-eating bacteria is consuming the body for more energy to grow in order to consume more energy from the body?  Something has to change.  But what?  Perhaps its time for innovation.

Innovation

Taking an existing service or process and making it better is innovation.  In the 1980s Japan rocked the U.S. manufacturing  world with products reflecting quality and reliability at a competitive price.  Many U.S. manufacturers struggled to complete.  Whereas a decade before Japan had been synonymous with poor quality, now products manufactured in the U.S. were being flipped to the mat and gaining that same reputation.  Japan was now being hailed as the exemplar of quality process.  What happened?  Innovation.  Due in part to the quality process steps introduced by Edward Deming, Japan innovated itself into excellence.

When team members are unable to fulfill their roles to meet leadership standards and expectations, and the issue is neither compliance nor achievement, innovation may be what's lacking.  Organization or relational barriers may be preventing team members from getting work accomplished.  Sometimes working harder and being more careful isn't the solution.  Sometimes finding a better way to do the job is what's required.  Staff need to be challenged with the fact they have been selected not just to do existing tasks well, but to find better ways to deliver ministry.

Innovation is, however, only one side of a coin.  The other side is creativity and we will look at that in the next posting.  But as we look at innovation, keep in mind it is limited to finding more efficient and effective ways of doing the SAME thing.  That's the heart of managing.  And while managing is essential to get the best use out of available resources, it is still managing--not leading.  Leading is influencing others to transform into something they never knew was possible.

The rich young ruler in Mark 10 apparently had a dilemma.  He wasn't satisfied with his traditional system of worshiping God and finding completion in compliance.  Remember, innovation is taking what we already do and finding a better way to make it work.  The rich young ruler was looking for an innovative solution.  "Master, what must I do (using existing methods) to inherit the Kingdom of God?"  Great innovation question.  Master, what can I do to be a better Jew and inherit the Kingdom of God?

Jesus wasn't offering innovation and perhaps the young man was beginning to sense that.  To him, innovation was finding a way to be more consistently observant, less sinful and thus more righteous.  Jesus didn't give him an innovative answer to his dilemma.  "Young man, come, like a child in your innocence, sell all that you own and follow me."  That was NOT innovation. 

Now, keep in mind, in the administry of the Kingdom of God, innovation is a good thing.  It's being a good steward of the resources you have.  But innovation has little to do with influencing others to God's agenda for their lives.  The rich young ruler could not innovate his system of religion into conformance with what Jesus was teaching and requiring to be be lived out.  

Innovation has its place in being a good steward of your ministry but is that all you want from your ministry team?  Next post -- Creativity

What Do You Want? Achievement

This series of posts is from the SpiritualLead.com article, Correcting Ministry Performance.

So, what do you want from your work or ministry team?  While compliance is fundamental its not enough.  In the last post we said, "When we set our expectations at the lowest rung, that's what we get.  Oh, we may talk about vision and excellence and striving for the best we can be but if, in the end, what we focus on and reward is merely compliance then compliance is merely what we get. Make no mistake, compliance is important but it is the beginning of great work, not the end point.  Compliance isn't for dreamers." 

Compliance is for managers and that's not bad, but is there more?  Of course.  What we want is achievement, right?  Bigger, better, more excellent, more profitable, more impressive--these are the goals of achievement.  Every ministry and every successful enterprise needs to find increasingly more excellent ways to deliver goods and services.  It's good stewardship of resources and good discipleship of staff to increase skills, knowledge and insight and to keep ministry sharp and sensitive to the people it serves.  Make no mistake, the obvious is true.  Achievement is good.  But is it all?

Libraries are full of inspiring examples of achievement.  Perhaps one of the lesser known was Henry Knox. (Download The Little Known Achievement of Henry Knox  )  Better known, perhaps, would be the 40 year trek of the Hebrews from Egypt to Canaan.  The construction of the Egyptian pyramids and the Inca and Mayan temple grounds are certainly great examples of construction achievement.  And the credibility and influence of the Billy Graham Association is certainly an example of ministry achievement.

However, is bigger and better always the best for a business or a ministry?  It seems the answer is an obvious, "yes, of course!"  But when staff are overextended, quality of touch time diminishes.  Tension and conflict increases.  Stovepipe ministries form and over focus on achievement can leave staff worn out, frustrated and unfulfilled in ministry.  Business enterprises look very similar.  Many are the businesses in the bone yard of failure because they overextended their success.  They became over leveraged and under capitalized, provided poor service, produced poor quality product and failed to stay true to their vision and mission statements.  Every ministry leader can recall high flying, high profile ministries that have crashed to the floor of failure.  An internal implosion occurs when we fail to attend to the details beyond simply "more achievement."  Doing well is good.  Doing well and losing sight of why you were created brings disaster.

Getting staff to the level of compliance is doing the work of a manager and satisfies the transactional process role.  But/and there is more.  Challenging, inspiring and disciplining staff beyond that begins the work of leadership.  A healthy functioning team has at its core a transformational process model and that model is essential to moving beyond compliance and into achievement.

The achievement of the rich young ruler in Luke 18 was, no doubt, impressive.  A member of the ruling Herod family he had wealth, power and education.  While not all of his achievements were due to his own work, the family certainly represented achievement and he could and should have been proud of his personal and family achievements even though history now reveals their dynasty to have been atrocious and cruel.  Since the question he asked of Jesus had the look and feel of sincerity rather than mocking, we can probably assume this young man was a compliant Jew as well.  This young man had achieved a lot in a few years.  In today's culture of worshiping celebrities and celebrity lifestyle he would have the paparazzi following him and capturing his encounter with Jesus for the next edition of a Jerusalem tabloid or blog.  Certainly, if this encounter would have happened in our culture somebody would have Twittered it!  But in Jesus' eyes, all that achievement was not enough to inherit the Kingdom of God and eternal life.  Not only was it not enough, it didn't count for anything.  Given the choice between achievement and something more, the rich young ruler chose what was tangible and familiar--achievement.

Achievement is the methamphetamine of endeavor.  In small doses meth energizes.  But soon it becomes the focal point of experience and all of life now centers around the experience meth provides.  Achievement, left as the end result of enterprise or ministry can do the same thing.  And in the end what was an energizing experience of achievement becomes the very same substance that destroys.

So, what do you want from your staff?  Compliance?  Yes.  Achievement?  Yes, as long as it is contained and focused.  But is there something more you want from your team when the perfect plan turns into the perfect storm?  In the next post we'll look at innovation.

 

What Do You Want? Compliance

It''s a simple axiom but its true.  You get what you ask for.  If you ask for help, you usually get it.  If you ask someone to do something, they usually will.  If that be the case, then why do people not follow up and follow through?  Generally it is because you get exactly what you want.  You want compliance?  That's what you'll get--and no more.

In the last post we said, "Effective leadership is a careful balance between coaching, mentoring and managing.  The proportions vary based on risk consequences and the emotional and skill maturity of those who are a part of your team.  The art of leadership is more about knowing the answers to key questions than it is simply possessing knowledge. So, if you know the measure of a leader what is your answer to what you expect of your team?  In other words, What do you want from your team and your staff?  What do you really want?"

We also saw a rich young ruler listening to Jesus teaching about how a child-like faith is how you enter the Kingdom of God.  The interaction between Jesus and the young man apparently didn't go well.  We know that because he walked away.

When we work with a team we can project through words and deeds several levels of performance expectation.  They can be compliance, achievement, innovation, creativity, empowerment or legacy.  What level do you want?  Let's look at compliance first.

Level 1 - Compliance  

Several years ago I had the opportunity to conduct team building sessions for an aluminum plant in rural West Virginia.  Because of serious work relationship problems between hourly and management employees, the plant had been shut down by a strike for over 18 months.  One of the precipitating factors angering hourly employees was the legendary hourly worker orientation session.  Though discontinued by the time I arrived to do team building, the sting of its humiliating effect still resonated through the plant.  For new hires the “welcome aboard” meeting went something like this:  “Boy (This wasn’t a racial slur—all West Virginian hourly workers were called “boy.”), Welcome aboard.  I just want you to know we hired you from the neck down.  If there is anything needing done differently from what we’ve told you to do, that’s what we’ve got engineers for.  Now get to work.”  That is transactional leadership and transactional compliance* at its worst. 

Yet, how much of our correcting time is spent on issues like attendance, timeliness and attitude, and how often are we satisfied when there is compliance? This is not to say that showing up for work and ministry isn’t important.  And, of course, meeting deadlines and having a positive attitude is a good thing.  But, if that’s all that’s expected—be on time, complete your assignment on time and smile—then it’s all about a marginally effective manager responsible for a marginally effective ministry worker who needs multiple areas of assistance.  There’s got to be more to excellence than just compliance.

The rich young ruler looking at the children and feeling perhaps perplexed, envious or confused asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He had been indoctrinated into salvation through works and he knew he was on a frustrating race where the goal kept getting further and further away and perhaps he was irritated that Jesus made it so easy.  What Jesus said was, it’s not about compliance, it’s about innocence.

How many times, as a leader have you thought, "If only my team would do what I asked them to do."  Then what?  If your team did all that you asked them to do but no more would you be satisfied?  Probably.  Would the ministry thrive?  Probably not.  The rich young ruler felt a gnawing sense that compliance was not only not enough, it was also impossible to achieve.  No doubt you have experienced the same.  Trying to be perfect is not all it's cracked up to be.  People fall short, make mistakes, and sometimes screw up royally.  That's how we learn and get better and become excellent.  Not by merely being satisfied with compliance but by stretching, taking risks, learning by trial and dreaming big.  When we set our expectations at the lowest rung, that's what we get.  Oh, we may talk about vision and excellence and striving for the best we can be but if, in the end, what we focus on and reward is merely compliance then compliance is merely what we get. Make no mistake, compliance is important but it is the beginning of great work, not the end point.  Compliance isn't for dreamers.

Next post:  Achievement