A Leader of Change
How to be a leader of change…
If you want to be a great leader, you need to learn the art of change. Winston Churchill famously said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” It’s true that leadership is about taking things from where they are to where they could be, otherwise you’re just managing. If you want to lead, you need to become a master of change.
So how can you become a master of change? My work for the last 6 years has been heavily involved in change – in churches, charities and higher education – and over those years, I’ve seen change done well, and some common change mistakes. Here are some of the common mistakes I’ve seen:
Mistake 1: Focusing on solutions rather than people
The first mistake is to think of change as a project. With projects, you have a defined thing to implement, maybe it’s an event or a system, and its easy to jump straight to the solution – what’s the new system? What will the event look like? Once you’ve defined it, you get to work and deliver it on time, on budget, and at the agreed quality level.
Change is different. Whilst projects focus on the “what”, change considers the “who” – who is this going to affect?
When we think of change as a project, we miss out important steps that will make change happen. Projects are only a part of change – a crucial part, but only a part. Change starts much earlier – you need to prepare hearts and minds for change. After all, if no one follows you, you’re just taking a walk.
Mistake 2: Not communicating properly
A big problem I often see with change is that the vision for change hasn’t been communicated correctly. We all love coming up with a vision for the future, but if no-one knows what it is, they won’t be able to follow.
To communicate effectively, you need to recognise that whilst everyone is equal in the sight of God, not everyone is equal in change. What do I mean by that? Some people need more care, attention and input than others.
At the first level, there are people you need to co-create the vision with. There are people who you need around you to create the vision. I truly believe that vision is better and stronger when done as a team, rather than alone – and it’s incredible to see what God can do when a team comes together. I’ll speak to more on vision later.
Secondly, there are people you need to consult. These are people with expertise who will help shape your plan so it is legal, ethical, logical, financially sound, and theologically accurate.
Thirdly, you’ll need to test the vision with a few people. These will be some key people who represent different areas within the location/department. They are people who you trust will give you great feedback on how the vision will land. You need to engage these people before you go to the wider church.
Fourthly, there are people you’ll need to sell the vision to. I’m not talking about a QVC-style pitch – I’m talking about taking the time to explain the what, the why and the how of the vision, and allow them to ask questions. These are people who warrant being able to wrestle with the change ahead of time so when you go public with the change, they aren’t left surprised.
Finally, you need to tell everyone else. This is the big vision launch, putting the new thing on the website or putting it on social media. However, when we think of change, we think this is the only method of communication, but in reality, it’s the final step.
Mistake 3: Moving on too quickly
Another mistake I’ve seen is that once the change has been launched, people assume that it’s done. In reality, it’s far from done. The truth is that the change is only complete once “the new thing we do here” has become “the thing we do here” – real change affects the culture.
So, what are some solutions to becoming a better leader of change?
Solution 1: Foster Urgency
In John Kotter’s excellent book, Our Iceberg is Melting, Kotter tells a fable of a group of penguins living on an iceberg that is melting. The problem is, no-one can see that it’s melting. There are no outward signs that anything is wrong. However, one Penguin had dived down underneath the surface to look at the underside of the iceberg and noticed that there were large fissures within the inside of the iceberg, which, when water would get in and freeze, could cause the iceberg to crack and break apart.
I don’t think people don’t like change, they just don’t like change when it doesn’t feel beneficial to them. Unless you can show people that change is necessary, not just preferrable, no one will be willing to move.
To help people embrace change, you must accurately describe the problem with now. What’s going to happen if we stay where we are? In reality, we’re all penguins on the melting iceberg of where we are now, and if we don’t find a new, better iceberg, things won’t stay the same; they’ll get much worse. To get people to embrace change, they need to be crystal clear on why they must change.
Solution 2: Have a Vivid Vision
I’ve recently changed my opinion on vision statements. For the last few decades, having a vision statement was the go-to method of change: a short, snappy phrase that everyone can remember. This replaced the long-form “church that I see” document that was popularised by Brian Houston. The problem with this, so people said, was that no-one could remember it. I actually disagree; the problem wasn’t that it was too long, the problem was that it was too long a time frame. In this fast-paced world, it’s difficult to see further than 5 years.
A middle approach has been posited in the business world by Cameron Herold of the COO Alliance, who argues for what he calls a Vivid Vision. What’s a Vivid Vision? It’s basically a “3D render” of the future state. When I went to extend my house, I didn’t give the builder a short, snappy phrase, I gave him a blueprint. In the same way, you need to give the people in your locations/departments a vision they can “see” – using your words to paint the picture of what every area will look like in 3-5 years’ time. If people can’t see themselves in the vision, they won’t go towards it, so it has to include all areas. When you paint a vivid picture, you help them see their part to play, which fosters involvement. It only needs to be 3 or 4 bullet points for each area, but it gives your team something to aim for over the coming years. What will it look like? It’s your job to paint that picture, but as I said above, it doesn’t need to be done alone. When I wanted to re-decorate my son’s bedroom, he was part of setting the vision for the room, it wasn’t just me and it wasn’t just him. If it was all my idea, he would have hated it. If it was all his idea, it would have included a slide down to the living room. In the same way, utilise your team to help you paint the picture together. Don’t forget the role of the Holy Spirit in leading and guiding the team to where He wants it to go: pray, listen and trust that He is working in your planning.
Solution 3: Know your supply lines
An army can only move forward at the pace of its supply lines. If the army moves into territory where they cannot get ammunition, medical supplies and food, they won’t move forward until they have the supply line sorted.
We all want to move change forward, to keep moving, to keep gaining territory, but we can’t outpace our supply lines. If we outpace our supply lines, we’ll find ourselves unable to withstand the attacks of the enemy and to hold the ground we’ve fought hard to win.
What are your locations/departments’ supply lines? Whilst it will be different depending on the context, I would suggest that in a church setting, the supply lines will always include people. If you set a vision that you don’t have the people to achieve, you’ll outpace your ability to make the change stick.
As a leader, making change is your job. By fostering a sense of urgency for change, setting a vivid vision and communicating it well, and making sure that you have the right supply lines in place so that the change can truly be embedded in the culture, you will have the right ingredients to lead your location/department on to where God is calling you to go.
Chris Bright
