Progress, either abysmal or exceptional, can derail your strategic plans.
External factors can easily impede our progress. Year-end donations are less than expected… by half. A key staff member experiences a moral failure… or a family crisis… or a better offer. Your lease is unexpectedly terminated. You thought that your efforts and resources would be directed one way, but that all changed in an instant.
We’re often even less prepared for unexpectedly good progress. In the hours after the D-Day invasion, many parachute drops were cancelled because ground forces had already overrun the drop zones. (It makes little sense to drop assault troops behind your own lines.) Planners were frantic to even know where the lines were because the situation on the ground changed so rapidly.
I’m consulting with a church that has increased weekend attendance by 25% in just three months. (Raise your hand if you’d like to swap your problems for theirs!) This represents 1,500 new attendees to connect and care for, and has overwhelmed existing systems, processes, and personnel. Their situation “on the ground” is changing… rapidly.
Strategic planners often ask: “What would success look like?” to refine goals and define measurable outcomes. But you can’t stop there. Ask what you will do when things go worse… or better… than you hope:
“What if we fail by half?” “What if nobody steps forward?”
“What if twice as many people show up?” “What if this exceeds our wildest dreams?”
Planning for Flexibility
The notion of “planning for flexibility” seems oxymoronic, since having a plan implies limiting options. We’re clear on what we will do “if everything goes as planned” but need to prepare for what we will do when it doesn’t.
This does not mean creating a complete set of contingencies for every situation, like NASA’s notebooks spelling out every possible response to every imaginable scenario. First, you don’t have the resources to pull that off. And second, Apollo 13 happens; the contingencies become irrelevant because “no one even remotely considered the possibility” of your particular situation.
“Planning for flexibility” means establishing guidelines to follow when things go awry. Here are a few:
Abandon the myth of centralized control. Encourage your leaders to deal with situations locally, and train them to listen to the Holy Spirit for direction “in the moment.” Reward innovative solutions and realize that you will have to clean up occasional messes.
Establish clear values. Your values will guide decisions that need to be made quickly by leaders throughout your ministry. If they can’t articulate your values, don’t be surprised by decisions that don’t reflect them.
Resolve to decide quickly. You can’t wait for “all the facts” to be known. Indecisive leaders hope that a preponderance of evidence will literally make decisions for them. There’s never enough information to make a “fully informed” decision. Almost any decision is better than inaction.
Consider long-term impact. While it’s tempting to say you’ll “worry about it later,” you must continually ask if short-term solutions support your long-term strategy.
Don’t cut corners on maturity. You cannot instantly produce spiritually mature leaders. Ramp up your leadership development efforts now. You’ll pay for lowering the leadership bar too far.
Part 2 of 3
