It seems to me the most common challenge before leaders today is leading through change. In the kidmin realm, many churches are shifting into more of a NextGen/Family Ministry model. Some churches require an entire vision overhaul while others simply require a few direction tweaks. Either way, they’re leading others through change.
Those ‘others’ are peers (fellow ministry team members), leadership (those to whom they report), and volunteers/staff (those whom they lead). Change is a challenging thing to lead through for a variety of reasons. Recently, I read the book SWITCH. I thought it was interesting the way the book describes a person and how they deal with change. And, in so many ways, I identified with it.
The visual analogy for the important components of change are the elephant, a rider, and the path. The elephant is the emotional side of the person while the rider is the logical side. The path…well, that’s the steps we want the rider and elephant to take. What a great picture to paint for me! Why?
Because the author compares the elephant to the emotional side of an individual while the logical side is the rider. Clearly, the rider can steer the elephant in a certain direction…until the elephant decides it wants to go another direction. Then the rider has a problem.
Think of it this way…logically, we know that eating a bowl full of ice cream isn’t going to get us closer to that goal of losing 10 pounds…logically. So why do we struggle saying no to the ice cream? Because our emotions override logical decisions much of the time.
The authors say this…
Self-control is an exhaustible resource…When people try to change things, they’re usually tinkering with behaviors that have become automatic, and changing those behaviors requires careful supervision by the Rider. The bigger the change you’re suggesting, the more it will sap people’s self-control.
What a great way to explain the challenge of changing. Self-control is a resource that can be strengthened with use. But use is exhausting and requires time to build up. If the rider weakens, the elephant gains control…and you’ve got an empty bowl of ice cream sitting in your lap. How’d that happen?!?
So how do you take this knowledge and use it to effectively lead change?
The author defines 3 steps to take.
The 1st step is to Direct the Rider by pointing to the destination (make sure the goal is clearly defined) and script the critical moves (make sure the Rider knows the most important steps to accomplish the goal).
The 2nd step is to Motivate the Elephant by finding the feeling (gain buy in from the elephant by instilling hope, optimism, and excitement around the goal) and Grow Your People by helping them believe they are capable of the change.
The 3rd step is to Shape the Path by tweaking the environment to better lead people to the change you want to see and Build Habits by giving people specific steps/tasks to do in order to create new outcomes.
It isn’t hard to take this model, apply it to the change you want to make, and actually script out specific steps to accomplish the goal. I like that.
