Salvation Army Leaders - I Have to Change...

I was not ready for this word from the Lord.

And you might not be either.

I preface what I'm about to say with this:

Have you ever had to endure discipline? Maybe you made a wrong decision or you said something offensive and you had to apologise. We've all been there. Discipline from someone holding you accountable is painful and humbling.

The writer to the Hebrews sums it up well. In the start of chapter twelve he writes that first of all we should throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1b). Then the chapter continues by highlighting the importance of God's discipline in your life. Check out these verses:

'Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children.' (12:7)

'God disciplines us for our good.' (12:10)

'No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.' (12:11)

Now, if you're still reading (because no one likes to talk about discipline, let alone read about it on a blog), I'm about to tell what I feel God is saying to me.

The words have come from hanging out with many different ministry leaders and other pastors and teachers in recent days. One moment was at a wedding sitting on a table chatting with other Christian leaders. One moment was listening to a leadership podcast. Another moment was listening to a great leader of an effective church speak on leadership.

Here's what I feel like the Holy Spirit has said to me in recent days:

'Pete, your leadership style is not always conducive to producing a flourishing church.'

Ouch! 

Come again Lord... That can't be right?! Are you telling me, I'm not leading well? That I need to change?

I felt a little rebuke. Not a huge one, but like a father disciplining his son. A nudge that says, 'You realise you could change your behaviour and be more effective?'

You may wonder what I'm talking about.

I spent a few hours this week buying skewers to hold together chicken burgers, and a plastic tub for a new ministry. Last week, I spent a few hours in the hardware store buying a new broom and double-sided tape. We needed to purchase these items, don't get me wrong, but the truth is this: When I'm running around buying items for ministry tasks, I'm not doing leadership. Let's not beat around the bush friends. I may be doing nice tasks, but I'm not leading. I'm not empowering someone. I'm not casting vision. I'm just busy doing nice things.

The fact is, I work in the ministry far more than I work on the ministry. It's powerful when you grasp the difference. Salvation Army leaders, dare I say, work tirelessly in ministry, but we don't work on building the ministry. We spend too much time on pragmatic tasks, than we do on developing leaders.

See, failure to operate in a way that identifies, trains and releases leaders into ministry will always cause my ministry to be small. The ministry is like a small tree in a pot; that tree will only grow to the size that the pot allows. In that modus operandi I can only do as much as what my own time and energy allows.

Think about The Salvation Army more generally. The pragmatic nature of Salvos has caused us to neglect leadership development, which has been at the expense of the growth of our movement. We then have had to shift our theological position of 'size', in order to justify to the Lord that we're not doing as bad as what we think we are. I believe (and you know by now, these are personal opinions), that our hands-on approach to serving the lost has not been coupled with an intentional desire to train up people for the work. We have neglected that. At least from a personal perspective, I feel the Lord saying, 'Right, Pete, it's time for your to invest in building leaders! You can do ministry until you fall asleep at night, but unless you raise up other leaders for this work, you are just a one-man-band trying to be a Messiah!'

We must fundamentally shift how we view ministry as leaders. We need to be comfortable with the idea, that as leaders, often we need to spend more time in teaching, leading and empowering ministry leaders, than actually doing the ministry. I am happy to debate this. I think, irrespective of the differing views, discussion on this is worth having. We spend too long doing pragmatic things at the expense of leadership development, which ultimately is at the expense of the growth of what we do.

Maybe the fear is that we are not being true to Salvationism, if we step too far away from the front-line. I understand that. We need to model servant leadership. Jesus washed the disciples feet. He multiplied the bread. He healed the sick. Though he also, sat in the Synagogue and taught. He regularly took the 12 disciples aside and explained what the parables meant. There was a balance in the ministry of Jesus between just doing ministry, to actually training up 12 disciples, who after the resurrection would take on the leadership of the early church!   

When we are doing kingdom work, we should see that work flourishing and multiplying. When we don't see it flourishing and multiplying someone needs to ask some critical questions. But no one likes accountability or discipline right? Also, being nice and happy to leaders, is not necessarily developing leaders. Having coffee with leaders is not necessarily building them up or increasing their performance. Sometimes we can simply become busy touching base with people, with very little intention about growing the person's capacity and maturity in Christ.

Sometimes we can even keep someone in a leadership position long after the ministry has outgrown their capacity, simply because it's too difficult and painful to have a conversation about the reality of such matters.

Lastly, the way I spend my week, is not always directly related to my heart for God to transform people's lives. That is, often, if I'm honest, my time is taken up on things that do not add direct value to the kingdom of God, but that I find easy to do. I am challenged to consider what I should do differently to move beyond mediocrity and embrace focused, passionate, intentional leadership that seeks to empower generations to lead the mission of The Salvation Army forward.

There you have it. The discipline of the Lord is gentle, but loud in my spirit. I must change the way I lead. And I say that, because failure to do so will cause me to miss the flourishing and growth that God so intends to provide.

I have to change.

What about you?

What do you get when you combine: The Theory of Constraints, The Salvation Army and my Dad?

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) was created by Dr. Eli Goldratt. The theory was introduced in his 1984 book called The Goal, that became a very popular business novel that provided insight into managing efficient and effective manufacturing industries. Many managerial leaders know that the theory is that you analyse your processes, find the biggest constraint and deal with it. So for example, you have a manufacturing process of cooking donuts on a large scale. You look at your process and realise that there is always a 20 minute wait on a particular machine, because of a staffing issue. Now, if the 20 minute wait is affecting the number of donuts you could create in a particular time frame and thus lowering your income capacity, you have a constraint. You have identified a 'bottleneck'. The theory of constraints suggests that you should work on this bottleneck at first priority. This is change management 101.

The theory of constraints may sound tedious and irrelevant to you, but let me convince you otherwise. The theory of constraints created by Dr. Goldratt can have a huge impact upon The Salvation Army, let alone any other organisation that has processes in place. Are you ready

Let us consider a few examples. When we consider any proposal that goes to DHQ and then to THQ, we may simply look at the process in a flowchart:

Have an idea -> Write a proposal -> Submit to DHQ -> DHQ board meets -> Salvation Army Officer is asked to rework the proposal -> DHQ board meets -> Sent to THQ -> THQ board meets -> Sent back to DHQ to rework -> Sent back to Salvation Army Officer -> Back to DHQ board -> Sent to THQ -> THQ approves -> Sent back to DHQ -> Approval given to Salvation Army Officer

Whew. That was a lengthy process. Now are there bottlenecks? Using the theory of constraints, can anything be done to improve the process? Of course. What about the time between the DHQ board and the THQ board? What if one board met in the morning prior to the next board in the afternoon? What about the time taken to communicate to an officer of the outcome of a board? Maybe we should just give DHQ authority to make the decision and thus eliminating many levels of bureaucracy? I'm not offering solutions, merely highlighting the theory. The theory of constraints challenges us to look at the process and refine it.

Let us consider another example:

A new mainly music ministry seems to be going strong. The leadership team are supportive, and the mainly music leaders are fired up. I mean, from the outside looking in, many mums and bubs are coming along. The place is buzzing every Wednesday morning. But for what purpose? What is the goal? Is there a goal? Are we achieving anything of worth? Let's have a think. After some discussion, the mainly music team decide that their goal is to be a stepping stone into a faith community. Great goal. Sounds nice. The team sit down and discover they have a process:

Invitations, Word-of mouth, etc -> Attendance at Mainly Music -> Build relationships -> Attend Church -> Become a Disciple of Jesus

The discussion continues on which parts of the process are going well. "Well, you guys know full well, we aren't having any trouble getting mums to come along," says Lucy.

"Absolutely," remarks Barry. "The only problem is, no one is becoming a disciple of Jesus."

So, there are a couple of choices. Redefine your goal, so that it's not about making disciples. Then everyone can rest-assured their program is working. Or, find the bottleneck and deal with it. The theory of constraints would suggest the bottleneck is between building relationships and attending church. The team, once they have discovered this as a bottle neck, must decide how to fix it. There are many different solutions:

• Instead of attend church, maybe invite people into a small group (redefine the process)
• Maybe the issue is the perception people have of the church
• Is the church a welcoming place?
• Maybe an innovative congregational plant might be the answer, instead of what currently exists.

The theory of constraints (Dr. Eli Goldratt) suggests the following three steps:
1. Identify the constraint
2. Manage the constraint
3. Evaluate performance

Well after that brief change managment class, let me say: The Salvation Army must consider the theory of constraints. We must be a lean, fighting machine that aims to honour Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that utilises its resources to its highest capacity.

Now, my Dad has a six-sigma blackbelt. That doesn't mean he knows karate, but that he knows much about operations management and helping organisations refine their practices so as to be more effective. So my initial question was, what do you get when you combine, the theory of constraints, The Salvation Army and my dad? You have a well-oiled soldier ready for battle.

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Change? We Don't Change! Leadership Insights on Change Management

Change is not a nice word for many people. Unless you fall into that small percentile of people who embrace change immediately (like those itching for a new ipad to be released), most change in life takes communication and a development of understanding. You know what I mean, for instance, 'Tell me why that change benefits me again?!'

In Organisation Development & Change (Waddell, Cummings and Worley, 2000), some tips of change management are highlighted. They say for effective change management you need to:

• Motivate change
• Create a vision of the change
• Develop political support for the change
• Manage the transition of the change
• Sustain momentum after the change is complete

These leadership insights are obviously written for organisations, and the managers and employees who are implementing changes to their workplace. Whether you are a leader in a church, a non-for-profit, a business, or even if you are seeking to make some change in your home environment, keep reading on.

Motivating Change

For people to want to embrace change, they need to be motivated to change. There needs to be a readiness for change. You can create a readiness for change by 'revealing discrepancies between current and desired states' (Waddell et al.: 152). For example, if the change is the moving of equipment, it's helping people understand that the equipment is more desirable to be in the new location than its current location, that is, the change is worthwhile!

Create a Vision

The vision can simply create excitement or 'buy-in' for the change by 'providing a compelling rationale as to why change is necessary and worth the effort' (Wadell et al: 155). I have written extensively on vision, and its potential positive impact on organisational life. Have a look at the visionary leadership post.

Develop Political Support

I would probably word this differently from the authors of Organisation Development & Change. Personally, as an Officer of The Salvation Army and minister of a local church congregation, I would grab hold a God-given change project (e.g. an extension of a building, the employing of someone new, or the expanding of a particular ministry), and then seek to help people understand the purpose of the change. This may well be the same as eliciting political support, but I would much rather see it, as gathering support and developing understanding from all levels of the organisation and all key stakeholders, so that they can see the benefits of the change. This differs slightly from the idea of needing to canvass political support, like its some sort of democratic process where people vote on whether this is the right change or not. I would possibly call this, 'Develop Organisational Understanding of the Change'.

Manage the Transition

The change process is not just about communicating a clear vision of the benefits of the change. Nor is the change process just helping all levels of the organisation understand the change. You must manage the transition of the change.

Years ago, in the church I was in, we transitioned into a new facility on a Sunday morning. We spent months communicating the rationale for the change; sharing the vision; getting people excited. This was all great, but without a smooth (or as smooth as possible) a transition into the new building, people would become dispondent and disappointed. They would no doubt say things like, 'It would have been better if we left things as they were!' This is why you need to make a smooth transition! Write a flowchart, mindmap or use a big whiteboard. Try to nut out the logisitics of the project. Think about people, finances, equipment, etc. Consider the hows and whys and whens... There is so much more to say, but we'll leave that for another day.

Sustain Momentum

For the example of the moving location of the church gathering, it was important to continue to create excitement and momentum following the change. For example, we wanted people to continually understand the increased value of being in a new location compared with the previous location. Since we had to set up this new location every week for our time together as a church, it was imperative to communicate the value of the change continually. We had to sustain momentum.

There you go. There's some quick leadership insights and tips into effective change management.
*****

As the old joke goes:

'How many leaders does it take to change a lightbulb?'

'Change?! We don't change!'

*****

Leadership Tips on Communication: 

• Communicating Effectively.
• Public Speaking without Notes
• Public Speaking while Nervous
• Speak Simply - Communicate God's Word so people understand!
• Preaching tips from George Muller
• Teaching Unteachable People

Emotional Leadership

• Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Leadership - Daniel Goleman
• Five Sources of Power - French and Raven

Visionary Leadership

• Visionary Leadership

Leadership and Management

• Leadership and management - The differences and similarities. 
• Change and Innovation - Some leadership tips
• Innovative Leadership and Cutting Edge Christianity
• Definition of leadership
• Top 10 Leadership Tips for Healthy Organizational Culture

Leadership Tips

• Intuitive Leadership 
• Mediocrity and apathy
• Leadership Transitions.
• Leadership Tips (Rinse your cottage cheese)
• Leadership Quotes - Short and Snappy
• Leadership Quotes - From Spiritual Leadership
• Personality Profiling glimpse

Leadership in Business

• Leadership Philosophy of the U.S. Military
• U.S. Military Leaders Core Competencies
• Changing Organizational Culture

Leadership in Politics

• Abraham Lincoln - Failing Forward in Leadership

Strategic Leadership

• Strategic Leadership

Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey writes some great material on leadership and personal development. The best teachings being both his '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' and 'The 8th Habit'. Have a read of the following few posts on Stephen Covey's leadership teachings:

A Summary of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit - A review of the 4 Human Intelligences

John C. Maxwell

John C. Maxwell has some great leadership insights, especially his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Below are helpful and informative summaries on some of the 21 Laws, including some of my own stories.

• Law 1 - The Law of the Lid - We can lift the lid on our ability to lead.
• Law 2 - The Law of Influence - Leadership is influence...
• Law 3 - The Law of Process - Leadership develops over time.
• Law 4 - The Law of Navigation - Leaders learn how to navigate.
• Law 5 - The Law of E. F. Hutton - When the real leader speaks...
• Law 6 - The Law of Solid Ground - Trust is the foundation.
• Law 7 - The Law of Respect - People follow stronger leaders.
• Law 8 - The Law of Intuition - Intuitive leaders know... 
• Law 9 - The Law of Magnetism - We attract who we are.
• Law 10 - The Law of Connection - We must connect then inspire.
• Law 11 - The Law of the Inner Circle - Who is in your inner circle?
• Quotes on Leadership from John C. Maxwell.