Sticky Teams: Selected Quotes (Chapter Five)

Nothing say "rewritten leadership talk" like the title "Six Things Every Leadership Team Needs To Know"... but when the quality level is this high, who cares?

1. Ignore your weaknesses.
2. Surveys are a waste of time.
3. Seek permission, not buy-in.
4. Let squeaky wheels squeak.
5. Let dying programs die.
6. Plan in pencil.

And now, the pithy quotes:

• Unless a weakness is potentially fatal, it's usually a waste of time & energy to worry too much about it.
• Surveys (esp. anonymous surveys) seldom give us the accurate information we think we're getting.
• Most people will grant the pastor, board, or staff permission to try something new as long as they don't have to make personal changes or express agreement with the idea.
• If an idea or program is really new & innovative, there will never be enough evidence to "prove" that it will work. After all, it's never been done before.
• Permission not only gets things up & running much faster; it also makes it much easier to close up shop when a great idea proves to be a dumb idea.
• Most squeaky wheels keep right on squeaking, for one simple reason: they don't squeak for a lack of oil; they squeak because it's their nature to squeak.
• Church harmony is inversely related to the amount of time spent oiling squeaky wheels.
• Without a commitment & willingness to cease funding & staffing the programs that no longer work, we'll never have enough money & energy to create the future.
• I do find that we constantly have to remind everyone up front that our budget is a planning tool, not a straitjacket, that it's an estimate, not the law of the Medes & the Persians.
• "Every time a sailor does something stupid & drowns, we make a new regulation." A far better response would be to simply have a funeral for a dumb sailor & to wait until three or four sailors die the same way before rewriting the manual.