If you’ve been a Church Leader Insider reader for any length of time, you will know that there are a couple of topics I love to write about and a few leaders I love to follow. This post contains one of each - exploring the future and Seth Godin.
For those of you that are back at it after Easter celebrations, I hope you are basking in the overflow of God’s goodness and changed lives. And I hope that you will allow yourselves to stop, take it in and enjoy the fruit of you and your team’s work and God’s provision.
But I know … and so do you … it won’t be long before you begin to ask yourselves and be asked by others, “What’s next?” “Where are we headed in the near term and further out future?” “How can respond proactively to ____________ (fill in the blank for your world)?
When the questions come, I hope the following curated thoughts from Seth Godin will provide fodder for thought and promptings for next steps.
What’s Next - New Information
More than ever, we’re pushed to have certainty. Strong opinions, tightly held and loudly proclaimed.
And then, when reality intervenes, it can be stressful. The software stack, business model, career, candidate, policy, or even the social network habits that we had as part of our identity let us down.
It’s not easy to say, “I was wrong.” And so people live in stress, sticking with something that used to work longer than they’re comfortable with. Our challenges in shifting perspective keep us stuck in the past. These are sunk costs, decisions we can’t unmake, but they don’t have to be forever commitments.
One way forward is to rename this moment and change the story. Instead of “I was wrong,” perhaps it’s useful (if less satisfying to others seeking victory) to say, “It’s time to make a new decision based on new information.”
That’s not weakness. That’s not flip-flopping or even embarrassing.
That’s practical, resilient and generous.
What’s Next - Decision Making
The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference.
Leaders of every stripe make one thing more than any other: decisions.
In any environment with constraints (which is, actually, any environment), the decisions about time and resources–about what to do next–change everything.
How do we decide what’s next? Is it based on urgency, proximity or values? First in/first out is not a strategy, it’s an excuse. Even worse is the one about the squeaky wheels.
Questions about what’s next are never easy to navigate alone. Through LeadWell Cohorts, leaders gain unique insights from peer learning environments. The wisdom of well seasoned mentors and expert resources from multiple disciplines empower participants to tackle some of the most pressing issues and opportunities of our time. This collaborative community helps leaders bust through their leadership lids and create plans for accelerated results.
2023 Cohorts are Forming Now!
September 2023
Senior Pastor (30s to early 40s)
Fall 2023
August 2023
Cohorts are by invitation only and are limited to 12 leaders. If you are interested in receiving an invitation email me at greg@ligongroup.com or schedule a call here.
And finally, what’s next …looking back
The last eight weeks have been like no other. An unfolding tragedy, unevenly distributed. An economic freeze. A media frenzy.
It’s easy to be exhausted, especially since there’s still quite a lot of slog left to go.
Is it too soon to wonder what’s next? And at the heart of it: how can you contribute?
And just as expectations are being shifted, new opportunities will arise. They always do.
So what’s next? A commitment to learning and to possibility.
This post is one that Seth wrote two week into the pandemic - April 27, 2020. Seems like forever ago, but in reality “only” three years. Interesting that the feelings he expressed and the questions he posed then are not dissimilar to those of today. And his final sentence is the foundational posture for leading well - a posture of learning and possibility.
Never, never, never lose your footing from this posture. It keeps us humble and hopeful.