Don’t Overthink.

In yesterday’s post, we tackled the super-fun topic of systems. I know it was super-fun, because I heard from some of you who were using your office supplies to pluck out your eyeballs and try to forget the administrative tedium that you could no longer unsee.

And while I know that you travel to this blog hoping for fun emergency room stories or photos comparing our Student Pastor to a Sleestak or even links to fun things I’ve never showed you before, we’re going to take another day and talk about systems. Because let’s face it: there’s not going to be anything else on TV tonight except election results. And the 165,000th showing of Bring It On on ABC Family.

As important as it is to think through a change before you make it, it’s also important to know when to stop thinking, stop overanalyzing, stop obsessing, and just pull the trigger. In one of my very first annual performance reviews here at the Summit, my supervising pastor wisely told me, “Your perfectionism usually leads to your procrastination.” In other words, because I wanted something to be flawless before it launched, I’d put off the launch needlessly because I hadn’t figured out every possible scenario of what could go wrong.

(And so you know, I’ve been working on improving that performance defect for nearly ten years. As soon as I’m 100% ready, I’ll let you in on the results.)

Here are a few principles that will hopefully prevent your team from overthinking:

1. The permanence and importance of the change should drive the length of decision. If you’re making a sweeping structural change that will impact the nature of your team, affect the scope of what you’re responsible for, and shift the pattern of the ocean’s tides, you should take some time to process that. More time than you’d process, say, whether you serve coffee in a 6 ounce or 8 ounce cup.
2. Let “good enough” be good enough. Churches should strive for excellence, but there’s a difference between pursuing excellence and neglecting common sense. Don’t be guilty of putting blood, sweat, and tears into a relatively insignificant decision that no one will notice anyway.
3. Set a deadline. Challenge your team to “call for the question” by a certain date. Doing so will keep the issue on the front burner and prevent you from needlessly procrastinating.
4. Make a decision and pull the trigger. Once you’ve gotten appropriate buy in and a reasonable amount of information, just decide. Do it. Make it happen.

Your turn. What am I missing? I wanted a #5 but I was about to be guilty of overth… well, you know.

Comment below.