Monday, May 11, 2015
Bless The Good
Todd Rhoades:
Christianity, it seems to me, should be a lot about positive reinforcement and about relationship, not bureaucracy. Christ chose not to rise in the vast bureaucracy that was the Judaism of His day, Jesus rarely rebuked His close followers (the bureaucracy is a a different story) and trusted them to go out and do ministry, often when they were very much "rookies." For Jesus it was not about the organization running smoothly, it was about people touching peoples lives.
It seems to me that if that was what Jesus was about, then that is what the church ought to be about. And what the church is about starts with the staff, not what goes on with the congregation. That this has to be written tells me something is amiss.
bureaucracy church organization positive reinforcement
Dan Rockwell (aka The Leadership Freak) contrasts how leaders handle the failures and the successes; and gives your twelve pretty simple ways that you can actively act on the great things that are happening all around you:
- Call “what went right” meetings.
- Send emails to higher ups bragging about the team.
- Instill urgency.
- Identify behaviors that produce achievement and create success.
- Make decisions quickly. Action follows decisions. When leaders don’t decide, everyone waits.
- Identify expediters, multipliers, and progress makers.
- Assign responsibility for useful behaviors. Keep doing…
- Devise plans to keep success happening.
- Elevate accountability. “Let’s review our success plan next week.”
- Reward if it’s happened before.
- Have tough conversations. What needs to continue? How could we be better?
- Take action quickly and persistently until the next milestone is reached. Don’t ease up.
Christianity, it seems to me, should be a lot about positive reinforcement and about relationship, not bureaucracy. Christ chose not to rise in the vast bureaucracy that was the Judaism of His day, Jesus rarely rebuked His close followers (the bureaucracy is a a different story) and trusted them to go out and do ministry, often when they were very much "rookies." For Jesus it was not about the organization running smoothly, it was about people touching peoples lives.
It seems to me that if that was what Jesus was about, then that is what the church ought to be about. And what the church is about starts with the staff, not what goes on with the congregation. That this has to be written tells me something is amiss.
bureaucracy church organization positive reinforcement
