Leadership

Change: 12 Guidelines for Deciding When to Persist, When to Quit

Kanter’s Law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.”

Navigating change or transformation within an organization or church is a challenge, but when it time for a new ideas to hit the road? What is a good yard stick to measure a new program, ministry, or initiative? How can organizations and churches evaluate success? Often, there is a messy middle where the future is uncertain and evaluation is difficult.

The Harvard Business Review has an excellent piece on how to evaluate the effectiveness of new plans or ideas.What I like best about these guidelines is that they ask the right questions instead of using a specific school of thought through a per-packaged paradigm:

  1. Are the initial reasons for the effort still valid, with no consequential external changes?
  2. Do the needs for which this a solution remain unmet, or are competing solutions still unproven or inadequate?
  3. Would the situation get worse if this effort stopped?
  4. Is it more cost-effective to continue than to pay the costs of restarting?
  5. Is the vision attracting more adherents?
  6. Are leaders still enthusiastic, committed, and focused on the effort?
  7. Are resources available for continuing investment and adjustments?
  8. Is skepticism and resistance declining?
  9. Is the working team motivated to keep going?
  10. Have critical deadlines and key milestones been met?
  11. Are there signs of progress, in that some problems have been solved, new activities are underway, and trends are positive?
  12. Is there a concrete achievement — a successful demonstration, prototype, or proof of concept?

If the answers are mostly Yes, then don’t give up. Figure out what redirection is needed, strategize your way over obstacles, re-engage the team, answer the critics, and argue for more time and resources. Everything worth doing requires tenacity. If the answers trend toward No, as seems likely for Airtime, then cut your losses and move on. Persistence doesn’t mean being pig-headed.

These are wonderful questions that can help churches and leadership to look at a new worship service, new ministry, or outreach. Many folk in an organization or church see a change or new program and they say, “It’s not working.” Often, they accompany this statement with some personal thoughts on the matter that usually go back to personal preference rather than meeting a need.

I would add that the question, “How do we measure success?” will aid evaluation. Is success about numbers, people, profit, or something else all together. Helping leaders and lay people understand evaluation by asking the right questions will help meet a need even if the new idea doesn’t meet their need.

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