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MAKING ROOM AT THE TOP: Why Young Eagles Don’t Stay

Published June 29, 2009 Leadership 18 Comments
Tags: Change, Leadership, Making Room At The Top, Young Leaders

In high school, I noticed a strange phenomenon. The freshmen got smaller every year. It was really weird.

When my friends and I walked onto campus for the first day of our freshman year we were legit high schoolers, admittedly a little intimidated by the seniors, but plenty cool in our own right.

Not so with the punks that came in the next year. Something must have happened at the middle school to stunt their growth. None of the new ninth graders were anywhere near as big, smart, or mature as we had been the year before. And by the time I was a senior, the middle school was pumping out mental, physical, and emotional midgets.

As I said, it was really strange.

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Of course, that’s not what was happening. The freshmen weren’t getting smaller, stupider, and less mature; we were getting older, more mature, and arrogant.

Fortunately for each incoming crop of freshmen, the seniors keep graduating, giving last year’s freshmen, sophomores, and juniors an opportunity to spread their wings and fly. And sure enough, they always ended up flying a lot higher than the seniors would have guessed.

Unfortunately, in the church, it’s a different story. The seniors never graduate (at least not until they’ve become literal seniors and start dying off). They hog the leadership table, shutting out the next generation. It’s one of the main reasons why most churches stop growing and lose their evangelistic touch (and cultural relevance) around the twenty year mark.

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Ironically, most churches are started by young eagles. But soon after getting their nest built, nicely appointed, and fully furnished, they start to marginalize the next batch of young eagles, asking them to sit at the kid’s table and wait for their turn at middle-aged leadership.

To counteract that natural tendency, I’ve made it a personal priority to make sure that our young eagles have a place at our leadership table. I see it as my role to enhance their influence within our church, making sure that they are supported, protected, and listened to.

But I have to admit, it’s not always appreciated, especially by middle-aged eagles who think that tenure should be the primary determiner of influence.

I understand their reluctance. Young eagles can make a mess in the cage. They’re impatient. They lack the wisdom that comes with experience. In short, they make the same dumb mistakes that the old eagles made when they first started out.

But that’s not the real reason that most churches and leadership teams push young eagles out of the nest. The real reason is that leadership is a zero sum game. One person’s emerging influence is always another person’s waning influence. And that makes making room for the young eagles a hard sell, especially to those who already have a place at the table.

Again, I understand. Like most leaders, I love the idea of servant leadership and putting others first – as long as no one actually cuts in front of me or starts treating me like I’m a servant.

But it has to be done or we’ll fall victim to the predictable twenty year death cycle when most churches stop growing, evangelizing, and making a mark.

When a church grows old, gray, and culturally out of touch – far more interested in protecting the past than creating the future – and starts to wonder, “What happened to all the young people and families that used to hang around here?” it’s a sign that the young eagles have been shut out for a long time.

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I’d be a liar if I said that protecting and promoting young eagles can be done pain free. I find that it’s far easier in theory than practice. I don’t like giving up my personal power, prestige, or preferences any more than the next guy. It’s kind of a drag.

But young eagles are born to fly. It’s their nature. It’s how God made them. If they can’t fly high in our church, they’ll bolt and fly elsewhere. And sadly, when they do, they’ll take most of the life, vitality, and the future of our church with them.

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So, honestly now, how are you and your church responding to young eagles? Are they written off, tolerated, or celebrated? Are they encouraged to fly, or asked to clip their wings? I guarantee you; your answer will determine your church’s future.

So, tell me, what do you think about the way we tend to treat young eagles?

Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret

Published February 18, 2009 Leadership 3 Comments
Tags: Innovation, Larry Osborne, Leadership

Yesterday I gave a talk on Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret at a conference in Phoenix. It’s one of those talks that always gets a strong response. This time was no exception even though I was fighting a seriously wicked head cold (which must have produced some pretty gross sounds on the recording as I coughed and hacked my way through the material).

I subtitle this particular talk Confessions of a Serial-Innovator™ which, I know, sounds a bit self- aggrandizing. But bear with me. My point is that there are many single-shot innovators who have a great idea that rockets them to fame and success followed by lots of other great ideas that never seem to get any traction.

Serial innovators, on the other hand, seem to have an easier time getting traction for their vision of the future. They don’t just have lots of great ideas. They have lots of great results.

How do they do it? What’s the difference?

For one thing, serial innovators all seem to understand (either consciously or sub-consciously) that new ideas don’t succeed on merit alone. They know innovations’ dirty little secret: Most innovations fail.

Sure a lot of ideas fail because they are goofy, poorly thought out or poorly executed. But just as many great ideas never get off the ground. Just check out the patent office. It’s filled with plans for better mouse traps that nobody wanted.

Successful serial-innovators seem to know this. They know when to bail out and how to bail out of an idea, program or vision so that they don’t get stuck with the label of failure. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that they don’t fail. They fail a ton. But serial innovators know how to fail without looking like a failure. And not looking like a failure is important if you want to live to innovate another day – it’s the key to marshalling the troops or gaining the funding you’ll need for your next great idea.

Serial innovators make their plans with a clear exit strategy in mind. They don’t burn the boats. They unlock the back door in case they or their idea have to make a quick exit. Sometimes it’s with the words they use. Think how much easier it is to shut down an experiment than a new initiative.

Often, they do it by innovating at the fringe or even outside their ministry or company so that a successful innovation can overtake the old paradigm OR quickly be pulled back if things don’t go so well. Think of difference between the disastrous introduction of New Coke and the successful launch of Coke Zero.

Once launched, New Coke had no graceful way out. Despite a plethora of market studies showing it would succeed. It failed. It was a well-researched “positive change” that the marketplace simply didn’t want.

Compare that with Coke Zero – it just showed up one day on the shelf alongside Diet Coke. If it had lost traction early on it would have simply disappeared. But it got the traction it needed to succeed. People tried it and liked it. It hasn’t yet edged Diet Coke off the shelves. It might one day. But even if it doesn’t, Coca-Cola has two winners in the diet cola category, each with its raving fans: Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

So how do you plan an exit strategy when you are convinced that God has just given you the next great idea? The following questions can help. They are what I recommend leadership teams use to clear out the trail – just in case.

• How are we going to market this in a way that gives us maximum flexibility?
• What can we prepare for a quick and relatively painless exit?
• How are we going to communicate if things go slower than expected?
• How are we going to communicate if we need to shut down the whole thing?
• How are we going to absorb and limit the financial burden if things don’t go well?
• What benchmarks will cause us to pull the plug?
• What benchmarks will cause us to keep going even though things are slow?

The simple fact is: when it comes to any new venture, be it planting a church or starting a new business, launching a new soda or launching a new program, failure is the surest horse to bet on. Preparing for the possibility is one of the most potent ways to guarantee that you can stay in the game long enough to become a serial-innovator.

It’s not the only way. I’ll scatter in some more posts and reflections on serial innovation in the weeks to come. But for now, how well are you planning for failure? How seriously are you taking Murphy and his frustrating law? What place does Genesis 3 have in your theology – and your game plan?

What do you think?