Andy has caught on

My friend Wade went to Catalyst this past October and sent me the following notes from Andy Stanley's talk to pastors in the room. It's nice to hear people like Andy catch on to systems thinking, or at least to finally be talking publically about it. This was Andy's final address to the people of Catalyst.

Here are the notes:

Liberating Your Organization – Creating a Leadership-Friendly Culture.

The bottom line … it’s all about developing, implementing, and improving systems to affect change in your organization. Here’s much of the content from Andy’s discussion:

Introduction

1. There are organizational systems that are conducive to ministry and organizational systems that impede ministry.

2. There are organizational systems that free leaders to lead and organizational systems that obstruct leaders.

3. Defined: Systems are your organization’s approach to getting things done.

I. Systems create behaviors.

A. Examples: Family vs. Student Ministry, Marriage vs. Marriage Series, Western vs. Middle Eastern

B. The systems you inherit, adopt, or create will eventually impact what staff and volunteers do.

C. Examples: Anytime you hear, “Well, our people just won’t …” you are listening to someone who doesn’t understand the influence and importance of systems.

D. Components of a system: 1) Expectations/Rules, 2) Rewards (or lack of), 3) Consequences (or lack of), 4) Communication (content and style), 5) Behavior or Behavior Patterns (of those in charge)

E. Systems have a greater impact on organizational culture than do mission statements. This principle explains why it is so difficult to transition an organization. If a new leader casts a new vision and never addresses old systems, nothing changes.

II. The NT does not present us with a comprehensive system or model.

A. In the NT we discover what the early church did. The NT does not lay out a comprehensive plan instructing church leaders what to do.

B. Always differentiate between what is pre-scripture and what is de-scriptive.

C. The NT and OT do offer some principles that should be integrated into our systems. 1)Delegation: Acts 6/Exodus 18, 2) Accountability: Acts 15, 3) Authority: Romans 13, 4) Interdependence: Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts, 5) Point Leadership: Modeled in OT and NT, 6) Seeking council: Proverbs, Acts 15

III. Systems Imperatives

A. Your system should allow you to involve and hire the best person for the job.

B. Your system should provide you with the flexibility to get the right people to the table to make a decision.

C. Your system should allow you to make complex decisions within the context of a small group of empowered individuals.

D. Your system should ensure that only one person answers to “they.”

Andy concluded with a recommendation to:
1. List the 3 behaviors you want from your staff.
2. List what you're doing to encourage these behaviors.
3. List what you're doing to encourage the opposite of these behaviors.

Systems thinking … it’s the key to improving the effectiveness of your ministry.