Making Changes without Getting People Steamed
How to do what's needed, yet keep the pressure
low.
Larry W. Osborne
April 1, 1998
The principles of limiting conflict while leading change are timeless. That is evident in this Leadership classic, originally published in 1987.
Its author, Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, California, recently said, "Innovative and change-oriented people get as locked into their traditions and methods as anyone else. That's why the approach that worked with the traditionalist of yesterday is still effective today. Yesterday's rebels have become today's traditionalists."
We reprint the following for your work with yesterday's rebels. An old farmer once said, "Go slow. Churches are a lot like horses. They don't like to be startled or surprised. It causes deviant behavior." The fiercest battles are seldom fought over theology. More often, they are fought over change, sometimes even the slightest change. I remember well a phone call I received from a key lay leader, not long after my arrival at North Coast. He said his family was leaving the church, upset over all the changes I was making. When I asked for specifics, I found I had committed two unpardonable sins: I had failed to schedule a third annual "All-Church New Year's Eve Party," and I had stopped using a closing hymn in our services. I hadn't thought of either change as significant. They both happened more by accident than design. But for some reason, they startled and surprised my caller. His "deviant behavior" was just what the old farmer had predicted. There was a time when such petty and negative responses to change left me feeling angry and cynical. But after studying organizational culture, I came to realize Christians aren't the only ones who respond negatively to change. It is a phenomenon found among all groups; it's more of a sociological ...
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