Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Countering leadership assumptions

In a review of the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Angie Ward notes that : the authors discovered three surprises about change that run counter to common ministry leadership assumptions.

Surprise #1: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. Perhaps the problem is not with the people in your congregation, but with the systems that reinforce their behaviours. What are you doing to enable the very behavior you are trying to change?

Surprise #2: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. If new behaviours are too taxing, they stand little chance of developing into habits. Are you asking too much at once?

Surprise #3: What looks like resistance is often lack of clarity. Often change doesn't happen because people aren't given crystal-clear direction. Do you really know where you're going, and do the people in your ministry know the next personal step to get there?

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