Making change happen: three roads
How do you get changes made, and new ideas implemented – in church as well as elsewhere?
My theory is that there are three ‘roads’ that you need to be travelling on at the same time, in order for change to be successful. Neglect one – or more – of these roads, and you are almost guaranteed to have problems!
The high road is the road of formal approval from the ‘higher ups’ in your church or organisation. This might be the Board of Deacons, the English Committee, the Pastoral Team… and moving along this road might involve informal chats with chairmen and deacons to sell the idea. It might involve having coffee with pastors to keep them in the loop and getting advice. It might involve writing and presenting proposals and waiting for them to be approved, perhaps sharing it beforehand to get feedback…
The middle road is the road of the actual nuts and bolts of implementing this thing. This might involve booking rooms, drawing up rosters, working out runsheets and buying equipment.
The low road is the road of public perception. This involves selling your new idea, spreading the word through Bible study groups, getting people talking about it and excited. Perhaps even listening carefully for concerns that people are starting to voice, so you can get on top of them.
But the thing is, you need to work at all three of these.
If you neglect the high road, you can expect that the ‘higher ups’ to come down on you like a ton of bricks! And the negative taste might even lessen the chances of this initiative ever being formally approved again in the future.
If you neglect the middle road, of course your initiative will be a flop. But more than that, the higher ups whom you’ve sold the idea to, will not trust you in future. And the people who were excited about it will be disappointed and jaded about future exciting things you promise.
If you neglect the low road, your great idea may be well organised, but it may not actually be taken up by many people – because of simple things, like them not knowing who it’s for, what they can expect out of it, what it can do for them…
Got something you want to introduce? Make sure you map out your milestones along the high, the middle, and the low road. Realise that you have your own road that you feel most comfortable travelling on, and so perhaps allocate a specific person on your team to look after each road. Look after each road: the one you miss is likely to cause you problems later on!
[ PS: reflect on failed initiatives/changes in the past - can you trace it back to a particular road? can you discern a pattern? ]
