Wisdom - Insights from the Last Time
How can we determine what’s next in the midst of this “structural break?”
A quick read of only 548 words … you’re welcome!
If you’ve been a reader of Church Leader Insider, you know that I am a fan of McKinsey Consulting. Their numerous newsletters, blogs and podcasts provide tons of insight into the issues of the day … facing businesses and actually most organizations, including the Church.
On occasion during the pandemic, they have featured articles that were published in earlier times that shared insights from then that apply to now. One such article was entitled “Strategy in a Structural Break.” The article originally appeared in December in the early days of the 2008 crash.
A structural break is an econometric term meaning the moment the rules change and what was previously nice and predictable becomes messy and unpredictable … usually the indicator that the current model is no longer working and a new model needs to be devised.
Sound familiar?
Rule change?
Messy?
Unpredictable?
These words are frequently used in the conversations that I have every week with leaders like you.
So what’s a leader to do?
Richard Rumelt, author of the McKinsey article recommends two things:
Survive.
Benefit from the new realities.
What does this mean for the church?
Be smart about your resources.
Conserve cash by creating efficiencies, cutting unnecessary costs. Quick tip - don’t bring back the things that you couldn’t do during lockdown and you had hoped to eliminate anyway. Cuts and changes that may have created significant conflict in good times can be made in challenging ones.
And though it may be counter-intuitive, now is a great time to invite your church to invest in a fresh, well articulated vision for the next chapter of your ministry. Shorthand - liquid, disposable resources are at an all time high. Check out this recent video from my colleague, Dave Travis for the numbers.
Strengthen your competitive advantage.
For churches this means spending some time revisiting their vision, mission and values. What makes you unique as a church? What unique place do you play in the kingdom?
Do things differently.
The wrong way forward in a structural break is to try more of the same. First simplify and simplify again. Then start reforming ministry. Ask questions like the following:
How/why did this ministry survive during this difficult time?
How does this ministry support your vision, mission? Does it still?
As we reshape, what has to be retained? What needs to be improved? What needs to be transformed? What needs to go away?
What can we know?
What can we not know?
What would be the ideal?
What would happen if?
What ideas can we borrow?
How can we test our model?
Most churches need to rethink their future strategy. It won’t look like the past chapters in many ways.
Storycrafting for Strategy Process™ is a proprietary process that helps you think creatively about the next chapter of your church’s ministry impact.
God is always writing new chapters in the leader’s life, the congregation’s life and the community’s life. Determining how those sync up helps a church develop a robust pathway to the future.
As you think about innovating your way to your new future, I would love to help.
To schedule a call to talk about it, just go here.
Email me your innovation experiments and stories at greg.ligon@generis.com.