It has faded from my memory—the circumstances that were in play when a slight epiphany hit me during my workday last Thursday.
I feel a large part of my work is leading our congregation towards and through change. (BTW, I believe change will be better & more stable if accomplished gradually and by multiple members of a congregation instead of an authoritarian pastor.) A well-appreciated professor from Harvard Business School, John Kotter, wrote an influential book called Leading Change. One of the pieces of his thinking that has influenced my thinking is that one of the primary tasks in leading change in an organization is to stir up a “sense of urgency.” If people don’t feel an urgent need for change, our default human nature is to not (or, more accurately for some of us, resist) change.
The slight epiphany last week was that my own personal “sense of urgency” for change had faded. I don’t doubt that my sense of urgency will soon be fired up again—especially since the Holy Spirit pointed out my deficiency so point-blankly. A question that soon followed the ah-ha moment, though, was, “what does it look like [or should it look like] for a leader to have a high sense of urgency?”
Any thoughts are welcome.
8.12.2009
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