Management of Change pt 5 – Guiding Coalition and Developing a Change Vision

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Management of Change
Last week, we started to look at ‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’. Importantly, we touched on the need to use these steps as an overlay to a Strategic Planning Process. It’s also worth reiterating that although Kotter’s steps can appear linear, effective application often involves concurrent and parallel activity aligned with the Strategic Plan. We will now look at the next 2 steps in ‘Creating a Climate for Change’ which Kotter describes as: Step 2: ‘Create The Guiding Coalition’ Step 3: ‘Develop a Change Vision’ Step 2 – ‘Create The Guiding Coalition’ [caption id="attachment_5849" align="alignright" width="316"] Commission's Guiding Coalition in a Q/A session during the recent Prayer Days[/caption] A Guiding Coalition is a group or team of people with enough influence, capability and credibility to lead a change…
Read More

Management of Change pt 4 – A sense of Urgency

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Management of Change
‘Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change’ was introduced last week as a helpful model for understanding and managing change, particularly when used in conjunction with a Strategic Planning Process and associated Strategic Plan. It’s important to reiterate that while Kotter’s steps appear linear, there needs to be concurrent/parallel activity which is overlaid and aligned with the Strategic Plan. Kotter’s model is not, in my opinion, a strategy in itself, but rather a very good overlay to optimise the likelihood of success. The steps are shown in the diagram below: We will now look at the first step in ‘Creating a Climate for Change’ which Kotter describes as: Step 1 – ‘Establish a Sense of Urgency’ Change is difficult, transformation is very difficult. Without a genuine sense of urgency, minor…
Read More

Freedom Movement – book recommendation

Books, Equipping, News, Reformation
Are you radical? Radical is a word that gets a bad press these days yet taken back to its origin it is a good word – roots (Latin - radix). Do you know your roots? 500 years on On October 31st we will be celebrating 500 years since Martin Luther posted 95 theses for debate on the church door in Wittenberg. This was the root of the Reformation. Following his striving to please a righteous God, whom he saw with increasing dislike and as a god of anger and hatred, he discovered in the Bible that God does not wait for us to be attractive in order to love us but loves us first! Others were discovering the same truth. One, William Tyndale, was burdened that people could not easily…
Read More

Management of Change pt 3 – Strategic Planning

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Management of Change
Where are you going? A successful change or transformation programme has many components. However, unless leadership provides clarity on what a programme seeks to achieve, there is unlikely ever to be more than loose directional alignment and half-hearted commitment. Many organisations, including churches, have no clear framework within which they dream or deliver, preferring to describe their strategy in terms of the collection of (often good) activities that they undertake. But these may not flow from a clearly articulated vision, supported by a top level strategy, through to a set of plans, delivered by highly motivated, enrolled and equipped people. Be specific, succinct and clear Vision statements (the ‘where’) should be future-based and inspire, and give direction to members of the organisation, rather than necessarily to the external community. They…
Read More

What do you want to leave behind?

Burundi, Equipping, Handing over, Older generation, Serving
Jesus said 'It is finished' as he hung on the cross and yielded up his spirit. This was no cry of relief that the pain was over but rather a shout of victory! Will you be able to say someday 'It is finished' with the same confidence that Jesus had? Do you know what your 'it' is? Will you have faithfully fulfilled 'it'? Recently I ended a series 'Grace-filled or Grumpy?' addressed to those in their later years. I thought I had finished, but have just watched this video 'What do you want to leave behind' by one of my heroes, Simon Guillebaud, who ministers selflessly in Burundi, and I felt I should add a postcript. He talks about his grandmother who was a missionary in Rwanda and was part of the…
Read More

Management of Change pt 2 – Leadership Foundations

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Management of Change
I continue the series on Management of Change by guest writer Gary Borland. Enthusiasm and Optimism are not enough Like change management, the bookshelves, libraries and online resources offer so much (at times apparently conflicting) material and advice that many simply don’t use any of it. Combine that with coaches, mentors and consultancy firms promising you things they can’t always deliver, and you could be forgiven for thinking that only the particularly gifted can manage or lead. That said, combinations of all of these are required if we are to develop into effective, high performing leaders and managers, rather than simply assuming that osmosis, appointment to a leadership role, experience and a liberal dose of enthusiasm and optimism will win the day. Leadership and management are both vital components of…
Read More