3. Fighting change doesn’t stop change
It’s rather surprising to see how angry and opposed taxi cab owners have become in their opposition to Uber.
Their opposition has even spilled to violence on the streets.
This is nothing new. The Luddites famously fought the invention of motorized textile looms, smashing and burning the new technology.
They lost.
Fighting change doesn’t stop change.
The best leaders see change and adapt to it, never compromising the mission but reinventing the methods (which is exactly what Uber is doing).
Complaining about change doesn’t change anything either.
What change are you uselessly fighting?
(By the way, here are seven signs your church will never change.)
4. When you confuse method with mission, you lose
Taxi cabs have been a method of temporary transportation for a century.
But the mission behind the taxi industry is transportation.
Uber never mistook the method for the mission. It appears that the taxi industry has done just that.
We all get wedded to our methods.
I’ll devote an entire post to this soon on this blog, but the church is seriously in danger of confusing method with mission.
The cab industry could have become innovative and pioneered Uber-like service and innovation. But it didn’t.
When someone came along with a more popular method, they grew defensive.
Now it looks like the cab industry is far more wedded to their method than they are to their mission.
Know any churches like that?
5. Your past success is no guarantee of your future success
Having the best cab fleet of the 21 century may not matter as much as it did five years ago.
Your past success is no guarantee of your future success. Not in the face of innovation and disruption.
The best way to ensure future success is to keep experimenting and keep innovating.
When was the last time your church innovated?
6. Innovation spawns more innovation, while defensiveness spawns death
Very little has changed in the cab industry in the last few decades. Sure, payments have become mobile and now there are TVs in some cabs (but again, TV is hardly a new invention).
Uber was only an idea as recently as 2009. It launched its first service in 2010.
But as young as Uber is, it has introduced black car services, car pooling, transit and is experimenting with fresh food delivery, package delivery and so much more.
That’s because an innovative culture spawns more innovation.
Meanwhile, as outlined above, the taxi industry’s main response is not innovation, but a demand that Uber go away.
Uber isn’t going away any time soon.
And even if Uber disappears, innovation won’t.
Church leaders, take note.
Innovation spawns more innovation. Defensiveness spawns death.
So start innovating.
