By Todd Adkins
So how do you create and communicate wins as ministry changes and shifts? There are actual risks and rewards during the change process, but it is also important to understand that people need to see progress along the way. Here is a 9-box to help you create visible wins for your church. Let’s take a look.
First, we want to determine it’s risk factor. Is it a high risk, is it a low risk, or is it something in the middle? Next, we want to assess the rewards. Are they high rewards? Are you going to get a big return? Or is it something low or medium? Now you want to mark the box where these two intersect.
You must understand that if things are too high of a risk and too low of a reward, or somewhere else in the matrix that isn’t quite right, you don’t do those things. If you fail early in the change process, it will be very difficult for you to recover. So, once again, you really want to focus on the things that fall in the upper right hand portion of the 9-box.
Another element that you have to consider here is, of course, visibility. Is this something that is seen or unseen? As a change leader you want as many visible wins as possible because you want to hit your clearly defined goals up front and in front of everybody and make sure those align with milestones toward leading change. The more visible the change is, the more visible the goal is, the easier it is to point out, to celebrate, and to build momentum that leads to people understanding progress is actually occurring and meeting the goal.
Now, if there is a change that is really, really high in reward, but maybe medium in risk and not as visible, we want to be creative in how we bring it into the spotlight. The best way to do this is by highlighting a story of a person or a family that was greatly affected by this change. Even if it was something that is mundane at first glance, maybe it was switching a process, system, or outside service that helps us track people better, you want to highlight the butterfly affect of how it had an impact on this person or this family’s life. By doing that you can make it really visible and help people connect emotionally to that family and connect to the change you are leading.
Again, as you approach this exercise that is coming up, think of it in this way, because it will really help you maintain momentum and constant visibility of how you are leading successfully in bringing change to your church.
To help you lead change in your church or ministry, our team has created a FREE course on Leading Rapid Change: 7 Steps to Agile Leadership in your church. Click here to get started.
