“We have a problem,” Perry said. Thus began the conversation the led to my first senior pastorate. The problem he alluded to was an open church conflict that led to a lot of angry words at a time when the church Perry attended was without a pastor.
He was asking me to come and preach (I was the associate pastor at a nearby church). I did, and the rest, as they say….
As long as businesses, churches, and other types of organizations are comprised of humans, they will eventually experience setbacks, upsets, dysfunction, and problems. Nobody gets it right all the time, and even healthy organizations must confront serious problems.
Broken organizations, however, are different. They can be the site of a careless country club mentality, where everybody loves each other, but nobody actually does anything. They can have the look of chronic chaos or hostile anarchy, where the toddlers have taken over the nursery. They can be sweatshops, run by control freaks who, using catch phrases like “catch the vision,” abuse employees to the point of mind-numbing exhaustion. Or they can be bureaucracies, weighed down by rules and procedures, political groups and frozen traditions, that never accomplish anything innovative or decisive.
How can leaders capture what may still be healthy in an organization and yet help fix what’s broken about it? How can they win the trust of people, while at the same time inspiring them to action and greatness? I haven’t always succeeded, but when I was at my best (before the Lord, of course), here are some of the things that helped:
1. Focus on identity.
Help them see who they really are, both as individuals and as an organization. People live and behave in light of the way they see themselves, their work, or their organization. But in broken organizations, one of the first things that goes is accurate perception of the organization or the people that comprise it. What makes this organization unique? One-of-a-kind? What values, vision, or victories have etched its identity in the psyche of the teams, the community, or the culture of the organization?
2. Establish expectations by clarifying roles.
Ours may not be the specialized job descriptions so prevalent in unions or bureaucracies. But people still need to know what is expected of them and, even more importantly, what they can expect from their leaders. Ancient Jewish leadership was based on the idea of covenant – sacred commitments to seek the well-being of the covenant partner(s). We have an aching need in this day to rediscover the power of covenant leadership.
3. Recast a vision based on specific targets.
What will this organization be when it grows up? How will it serve tomorrow’s child? How will it succeed to serve a future generation? How will it make a personal difference in the people who make it up? This goes beyond paychecks, pensions, and profits. Leaders must present the idealized image of a mature organization.
4. Focus on what unites the people in the organization.
Call the various factions within the organization to unity. Get them laughing together. Eating together. Playing together. Praying together. Dreaming together. Working together. Get them to laugh at the things that divide them, and celebrate the things that unite them. Eliminate from the organization people who continue to cause division; you just think you can’t live without them. Nobody – not even you – nobody is irreplaceable.
5. Establish a climate of responsibility and accountability.
Organizations sometimes break down because people lose a sense of accountability and responsibility. Somebody must rise to model the values of the organization and what it stands for. And everybody, including leaders, must model accountability – to the organization, to constituents, to supervisors, and to at least one close frient.
6. Work together to establish a roadmap to your destination.
Leaders cast vision. But somebody has to draw the map to get there. That may become the task of the leader. Or it may come from the energetic interaction of a task force, a team, or the entire group.
7. Tell the truth with love.
Dysfunctional organizations live in fantasy land. They sometimes “don’t ask, don’t tell” themselves to death. They celebrate the whip-cracker/emperor’s new clothes. They gimmick themselves into oblivion with pop psychology, fad following, and management by cliché. In order for the organization to thrive again, somebody has to step up and say, “This ain’t working!” I don’t mean the shrill, mean-spirited fare that’s hurled these days by the donkeys and elephants in politics or denominations and deacons in church world. Rather, in love, kindness, and sincerity, somebody has to decide neither to lie nor to leave. Be honest – even if it isn’t what people want to hear about themselves.
The common theme here is to ask for the trust of the people in your organization. Some will more readily give it than others. Some will expect you, the leader, to earn their trust. So quit demanding it, and earn it.
