Dr Paul Allen

Apostle Silas (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Regardless of position, leaders rarely find themselves satisfied by status quo. Except for the few who lead at the very top of an organization, the problems many see are outside of their control. Discouraged by their inability to make every necessary improvement, many church leaders choose to withdraw from the change process entirely. This “all or nothing” thinking places them in maintenance mode. Recently, a business professor introduced me to three simple questions asked by managers seeking improvements to their production processes. Applied by church leaders, they can be very revealing about the things we choose to focus on… What can I directly control? What can I influence? What is out of my control or influence? Unfortunately, the things outside of our control or influence often absorb the majority of our focus. We recognize that we cannot affect them yet continue to develop unvoiced solutions in our minds. Rather than d

Cover of Leading Change Every time I teach or work with church leaders the topic of managing change comes up. With that, I decided to go back and take a look at a classic book on the topic,  Leading Change  by John Kotter . I highlighted so many key passages that it was impossible for me to narrow my favorites down to just one post. With that in mind, here are the first set of highlights that grabbed my attention. I’ll share the second set tomorrow. “Transformations always fail to achieve their objectives when complacency levels are high.” “ Vision plays a key role in producing useful change by helping to direct, align, and inspire actions on the part of large numbers of people. Without an appropriate vision, a transformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible, and time-consuming projects that go in the wrong direction or nowhere at all.” “Whenever you cannot describe the vision driving a change initiative in five minutes or less and get a reaction tha

Cover of Leading Change Every time I teach or work with church leaders the topic of managing change comes up. With that, I decided to go back and take a look at a classic book on the topic,  Leading Change  by John Kotter . I highlighted so many key passages that it was impossible for me to narrow my favorites down to just one post. With that in mind, here are the first set of highlights that grabbed my attention. I’ll share the second set tomorrow. “Transformations always fail to achieve their objectives when complacency levels are high.” “ Vision plays a key role in producing useful change by helping to direct, align, and inspire actions on the part of large numbers of people. Without an appropriate vision, a transformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible, and time-consuming projects that go in the wrong direction or nowhere at all.” “Whenever you cannot describe the vision driving a change initiative in five minutes or less and get a reaction tha