4 Ways to Know You’re Addicted to Innovation
In a recent post we talked about the art of innovation: we’re created as creative creatures, and creating is a good thing.
Except when it’s not. Except when innovation comes at the cost of clarity. When it makes things more complex and less useful. When it confuses the end user: those you lead, those who may or may not benefit, those who have to execute what you’ve created when they haven’t quite finished executing the last thing.
I’ll put the same cards on the table as I did previously: I’m not so much an innovator as I am an adjuster. I much prefer tweaking dials and turning knobs of already good systems rather than throwing them out in pursuit of the new. So what I’m saying is: I’m hopelessly biased towards incremental change.
But if you think you might be hopelessly biased towards radical innovation – simply for the sake of innovation – read on to spot four signs that it might very well be true.
1. You reinvent things because you can, not because it’s needed.
I still remember a horrifying story I heard 20+ years ago about a pastor of a large church who rolled into a staff meeting one week and switched everyone’s roles. The children’s pastor became the worship pastor. The executive pastor became the children’s pastor. The middle school pastor remained the middle school pastor, because no one else wanted the job (I kid.).
The change was intended to shake things up and keep things fresh. It remains lodged in my mind as a terrible way to innovate. While I don’t know the church, I doubt the staffing fruit basket turnover was necessary. I shudder to think of the layers of confusion and bitterness that came along with the rug being pulled out from experienced leaders. What the lead guy viewed as innovative likely came across as insulting.
2. You haven’t given the old system time to settle.
Serial innovators are notorious for rushing to the new new before properly analyzing the current new. We often hear things like “This new ministry model is going to be a game changer!”, yet many ask “But wait. I thought we already changed the game with last year’s new ministry model?”
The efficacy of a system is often revealed in months or years, rather than in weeks. We owe it to the systems we invent to let them settle into the cracks and crevices of the organization. We owe it to our people to let the new system become part of their routine and vernacular.
3. Your people can’t articulate what was or what is.
The new takes time. Leaders tend to roll out something “new” and are incredulous when their people don’t immediately understand and/or celebrate it. The problem usually comes with perceived longevity vs. actual longevity. We’ve been talking about this new thing behind the scenes for months, yet it’s brand new to them. It’s going to take them time to catch up to where we are.
So we have to help give language around what was or what is. We have to repeat and repeat and then repeat again. As our pastor often says, “By the time I’m sick of saying it, our people are just beginning to hear it.” We need to help people articulate what the new is. And speaking of new…
4. You started the “new” without killing the “old.”
Maybe the darkest shadow of innovation is when leaders add layer upon layer of new without having a proper burial for the old. In a ministry of addition, we occasionally have to subtract. Failure to do so will exhaust our staff and our volunteers and confuse our congregation.
If a church is switching to a small-groups-in-the-community model, it’s probably not helpful to keep an on-site-Sunday-School model. Sure, do some beta testing and feel out the waters for a while, but when you decide to switch, switch. Failure to do so will result in, at best, confusion from everyone, and at worst, exhaustion from those who feel like they have to do both.
(That’s simply an example. I in no way am suggesting that you kill Sunday School. Do so at your own risk, and don’t come running to me when the angry mob rises up to beat you with rolled up copies of their curriculum quarterlies. 🙂 )
If you think you might be addicted to innovation, it starts with that declaration. Yes, you should innovate. Yes, you should create as your Creator created you to do. But be wary of innovation for the sake of innovation. Those you lead deserve your clarity around what’s lasting, not necessarily what’s novel.
