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Why is it, all of a sudden, we are starting to slow down?  Has our current paradigm (ministry strategy, vision, etc.) answered all the questions it can answer?

The word paradigm carries a contemporary meaning which refers to a set of practices that define a scientific discipline during a particular time.  To leaders and practitioners like me, a paradigm can be a new idea, new ministry, new program that... (a) can be observed and scrutinized, (b) indicates the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed in relation to the subject and (c) how these questions are to be structured and interpreted.

Charles Handy, who served as a professor of the London Business School, said, "What worked well last time almost ensures it won't work well this time around."

Here's the profoundness of Handy's statement about change initiative.  We want to be careful as leaders that we don't calcify what's working now...because what's working now is because...it's working RIGHT NOW!  In other words, because this paradigm works this minute is because it works this minute (this place, this location, at this moment).

Here is what leaders need to know and understand.  All ideas go thru a life cycle and start out at Point A where they experience newness, freshness, momentum, excitement and especially effectiveness.  These are the things new ideas in their inceptional stage generate.

Once we get momentum with the new idea, then what happens over time is that we hit Point B where there is some noticeable and observable climb.  More importantly, this particular idea is now reaching its maximum level of effectiveness. 

Why is that?  Let me give you 3 plausible reasons.

Reason #1
The current paradigm no longer answers questions.  It has answered all the questions it can answer.
With the current paraidigm, idea, or strategy, there comes a "tiredness" and a need to get the next stage of questions.  When this happens, certain things are gonna have to happen--a whole new construct (paradigm) has to enter.  It is here when someone becomes an adjutant and starts asking "what if" questions.

Reason #2
At Point B there begins to settle in a confusion and disorientation.  Why?  Because someone has begun to do site analysis by looking at all the pieces and saying, "we are doing things the way we've always done them."  Why isn't it working the same way? 

This uncovers exactly the problem.  We are doing the same idea, same ministry by doing exactly everything we did when it was effective.  But there is something else at work here.  Confusion and disorientation is the first sense of the need to "retool" or "re-invent."  The old paradigm is tired and exhausted. 

Interestingly, there is the presence of a "tiredness" because the emerging questions cannot be answered primarily because the current paradigm has answered all the questions it can answer. 

Leaders should know that while a few folks start hunting for a new way at Point B, yet others wait until an old paradigm or model gets to Point C where momentum is in serious debt levels and is getting ready to crash and burn.  This is where resistance is noticed and can be averted or promote the staus quo.  But remember.  If you are waiting to Point C, then I've got news for you.  You are sledding into serious decline and you will not recover with one great idea.

Reason #3
One great idea or "silver bullet" will not rescue your organization from peril and maybe even death.  At this stage it will ot take "one" thing but an entire group of things to create a new construct.  Looking for salvation at this stage never works.

Sharp leaders will intervene before Point B because they are already on the hunt for a new way--after the paradigm is functioning well and hasn't exhausted itself.  I know it seems counterintuitive and subversive, but knowing when to intervene and always being ahead of the change path is extremely important.

What is great leadership?  Great leaders are those who will not let their church or ministry organization get to Point C.

Here's a good example.  Just today I had coffee with the director of a non-profit organization called Love INC, that coordinates churches with community needs and serves as a clearinghouse for this effort.  Eva, the director, is a terrific leader.  She explained to me a current problem with a probling question.  She said, "Love INC. can't expect its volunteers to work around their schedule (Love INC. office personnel) because many of those dedicated, service-minded volunteers work themselves while still giving time, energy and ability where they can and when they can.  She said that simply purchasing a "go phone" for the clearinghouse coordinator is necessary in order to contact volunteers outside of office hours.

Sounds like a simple solution.  Right?  Kudos to a sharp leader!   This particular intervention became huge because it was anticipated by great leadership.  As leaders we must anticipate problems before we identify problems.

"If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti

"People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.  People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."  --Peter Drucker

"What worked well last time almost ensures it won't work well this time around." --Charles Handy


Barry serves as a consultant for the Missouri Conference of United Methodist Churches.  He can be reached at barryw@ministryindicators.com .