~ 4 minutes of reading
This is the final series of articles on the work of Charles Handy, who died back in December.
I had meant to write a series on how he had shaped my thinking, but his death reminded me to compile some of those.
Handy had been a practitioner in several situations as oil company sales, dean of a business school, and leader of a nonprofit networking/learning lab, but was more of a management philosopher.
There is a role for thinking broadly across various organizations to see patterns, apply generalities and rules of thumb, and explore ideas that practitioners might find helpful in looking at other aspects of the culture.
Here are some of Handy’s thoughts, articulated three decades ago, that became valuable tools for examining their organization to think productively about the future.
Here are some that apply to larger churches.
The Sigmoid Curve and "Second Curve" Thinking:
Church leaders should anticipate the need for change before their current success peaks. This involves starting new initiatives or programs while the church still thrives, ensuring enough resources are available for the transition.
This idea is very familiar across corporate and nonprofit organizations as well.
I addressed this a briefly in the previous issue. The truth is, you never know when the curve will acp out or when to jump to the next curve.
An even more significant issue: what is the next curve, and how can we be sure it will work?
We will always have imperfect information.
But we do know what happens if we stay too long on the current curve. It begins to curve downward, leaving an organization without the resources to make the change.
Organizational Culture Understandings
Pastors are leaders of organizations that, while hopefully shaped by scripture, also contain many human elements.
While we all realize over the past few decades that your church’s culture determines its future paths, Handy’s works in this area helped shape many other’s views on cultural formation for the organization.
Multiple church practitioners and consultants have developed frameworks to help church leaders examine and shape a congregation’s culture.
Understand and shape the church's culture using Handy's four culture types (Power, Role, Task, and Person cultures) to motivate and align staff and volunteers. Here is a summary as found in his book: Gods of Management.
But here is a two-by-two grid to help your understanding:
Power Culture (Centralized and Informal): In this culture, authority is concentrated among a few individuals, and decision-making is swift. There are few formal procedures, and control is exercised through personal interactions.
Role Culture (Centralized and Formal): This culture is characterized by clearly defined roles within a structured hierarchy. Authority is delegated, and procedures are formalized, leading to a predictable and stable environment.
Task Culture (Decentralized and Formal): Teams are formed to address specific problems or projects, with power derived from expertise rather than position. While the organization is decentralized, formal procedures guide team operations to ensure coordination.
Person Culture (Decentralized and Informal): Individuals see themselves as unique and superior to the organization. There is minimal hierarchy, and the organization exists to serve the interests of its members.
As an outsider to many congregations, I can observe the degrees of how the church operates from this framework. Others exist, especially among smaller churches, but this is a good starting point.
Implication: Which church is yours now? What do you want it to be?
The Shamrock Organization
In his book The Age of Unreason, Handy described the “new model of organization (remember this was 35 years ago) as the concept of core staff, external contractors, and temporary workers.
The key in the future will be the ability of the organization, managers, and leaders to think in these ways and utilize the various players within the organization to accomplish its mission.
This opposed the standard way of thinking about large organizations, which was just thinking about having paid staff.
Over that same time frame, I have observed how churches have applied this thinking to their work, including deploying key unpaid staff and volunteers.
I saw Handy’s main point here as two-fold:
First, an organization can grow beyond the abilities and talents of paid staff by utilizing talent in contractor and temporary ways.
Second, and equally important, how one manages and leads each group looks different if we want to maximize the organization's outputs.
Too often, I observe church managers trying to think of all of these groups of workers as “the same by different names” instead of thinking about how each must be deployed differently.
Staff have different goals and assignments and must be managed differently than contractors.
Few churches utilize temporary workers for projects and short-term needs but should consider this idea.
Volunteers must be equipped and led, not managed!
Implication and Takeaway: How would you classify each contributor to your team now? How are you leading and managing them different?
Final Thought: Leadership vs Management
Management is needed, but it is not micromanagement.
I think it was Warren Bennis, (another hero), who said managers do things right and leaders do the right things.
But how does one “Do the right things?”
Handy said that leaders should:
Choose the right individuals for the work.
The key challenge of the leader is to pick a team member because we always have imperfect and partial information.
We often don’t know if the choice was “right” until we have had experience with a person for a long time.
Implication: Take the time to choose well!
Create conditions for good work.
The proper culture (see above) and the best work environments help individuals complete their part of the work.
Implication: How will you improve this 1% a week for the next four weeks?
Set the standards.
This falls to leaders to describe clearly the minimum standard sought in the task or project.
You must hold people to the minimum you desire to allow them to go beyond.
When I use the term “minimum” here, I am not describing what bad looks like but what success looks like in the simplest framework. Too many leaders describe the top end as a place where their aspirations can never be met.
This will frustrate all.
Implication and Takeaway: Where is the trouble area now in your church? Have you described your minimum expectations for that area to that team? How can they improve this week towards that minimum?
This is the end of the series honoring, remembering, and learning from Charles Handy. Read at least one of his books this year, and you will profit from it.
Prior issues:
In the Handy series:
The Pastor’s Path to Lasting Impact
A few you might have missed over the holidays: