How to Overcome Complacency....

Complacency is overcome by change, however in order to have change you must first overcome complacency. This is the chicken and egg problem, which comes first. Change begins with a single powerful person, spreads from him or her to a few others through examples, produces some group benefit, and then spreads still more widely. In order to bring about change you must have a plan or a program. In order to have a successful program you must have change and the change or involvement of people in the change will reduce complacency. The more programs, the more change and less complacency.

The problem to overcome with programs is how to keep them moving ahead and produce positive results. I have been reading Leading Change by John P. Kotter, It's Your Ship by Captain D. Micheal Abrashoff and now the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch in order to learn how to overcome this problem of complacency. Leading Change explains why and how, It's Your Ship will give you the management techniques to use and the 80/20 Principle helps you direct your resources for the best results.

The Plan:

Over the next year we will be developing a program with a team from our Church that will launch in 6 months a new program called The Development Hour, Christians in High Places. With the goal to offer practical Christian solutions to our world around us. Businesses are looking for leaders who can take them through the changes required to survive in the twenty-first-century, and what better way to spread the message of Jesus than to give them strong Christians equipped to do the job right.

The Method:

We plan to tap the resources of our seniors for the experiences of how to overcome the mistakes of the past and teach the skills of Leading Change in the future.
*To create a Guiding Coalition made up of leaders in the Church and seniors willing to accept the challenge, to guide the program and make suggestions for improvements.
*To train teachers for Sunday school classes of all ages.
*Offer classes in finance and stewardship.
*Conduct classes on Leadership for the twenty-first-century.
*Conduct classes on Management techniques from examples given in the
book It's Your Ship.
*Have counseling sessions on gifts and how to put them to work.
*During 2007 develop a list of classes to be offered and class outlines, review and improve each class on an ongoing basis.

The Benefit:

More people involved in the ministry.
**Less complacency in the Church.
**Growth in our Sunday school and Church through involvement with the community.
**Enabling our young people to enter the work place with the tools needed to succeed in a Christian manor.
**Identifying our gifts and how to use them.
**Having a strong team in the Guiding Coalition that can review the process keep us on track.

The ultimate Goal, overcoming complacency

In order to ultimately overcome complacency, the program must rack up short term wins. These must be planned for in the Guiding Coalition team and celebrated at regular intervals.
New programs have to be started in no less than eighteen months to overlap the existing programs in order to keep the changes moving forward. The more programs that are ongoing at the same time the greater the result of reducing complacency.
Apply the 80/20 principle to the programs, 20 percent of the effort will produce 80 percent of the result. So work on improvement with the first 20 percent for compound results. A small improvement in the best 20 percent will result in the largest result.
Look at the example that Jesus gave us, He selected a Guiding Coalition of 12, gave them a program, produced short term wins (miracles), and kept the program going by introducing new programs. Be aware that just like the 12 with one snake, you will have egos and snakes to deal with.