Simplify
0 (0 Likes / 0 Dislikes)
Leadership Straight from Bill Hybels
Simplify
There are some things you
work on non-stop to simplify.
There are other things
you have to look at and say,
"Wait. This does not
warrant simplification.
This is really complicated.
We really have to live with complexity
and embrace it for what it is.
About half of what we do
globally is really, really complicated.
We are in 245 church-to-church partnerships.
In other words, we have partnerships with 245 churches
in under-resourced places around the world.
Some of what our church partners are facing
in their specific under-resourced
community is multifaceted and evil.
The river that they need
to drink from is polluted.
The factory a mile away is spewing
poisonous gas into their village.
There is no employment
and the roads are bad.
We go in there with our helping hands.
You go in and they say,
"Well, if you could clean up the river.
If you could stop the company that is dumping
the fumes on our village.
If you could build a road.
We do not want you to paint a fence
with your youth group.
We want you to help us resolve some of these
very difficult, community-oriented problems
that we have no power,
we have no voice.
We need some lawyers,
these kinds of things.
In church work, I like to figure out
what is unnecessarily complicated.
There are certain things in every church
that become bureaucracies.
And they drive people crazy.
I am always saying, "What do you see
around here that is insane?
Does anyone see any
tell tale sign of insanity?
Because does anyone want to live with it?
No. I do not either."
Every time you find anything that has
a shadow of insanity about it has to go.
Let's bring it to the table. Let's solve it.
Simplify it immediately.
Then I say, "What else is around us that is
exceedingly complicated and we need to call it such?"
I go back and forth trying...
Part of what you do...
Remember Max DePree said,
"A leader has to define reality."
You have to walk into
some situations and say,
"Everyone stop.
You are over complicating this.
Stop! Let's say 'yes'
and 'no' and move on."
One of my favorite things in meetings
in the last couple of years
as we are 'batting' things around
and everyone is 'weighing' in
and I say, "Hey, let's decide
something right now.
We could decide
something right now."
In a collaborative environment,
you wonder who gets to do that.
And you state,
"That would be us.
We are the executive
team of the church.
We can decide something right now."
I like to do that.
Then I also like
to define reality and say,
"Hey, we are no where near being able
to come to a decision right now.
Do you understand that? We are weeks
away from a decision on this.
If you think I am about to call the vote,
I am a long way from calling the vote."
You have to keep defining reality
on these kinds of things all the time.