I tend to think about a movement as a process that includes ingredients and stages. Those ingredients and stages do not happen through programs. Dreams become reality because of people, specifically, a certain kind of person.
Perhaps these words will ‘move’ you into a life filled with risk and adventure!
Imagine + Adapt + Implement = MOVEMENT
Imagine: The leader is given the freedom to dream big. He/She sets the vision in the framework of the tapestry. He does not paint the tapestry, he/she just creates the framework for which the dream can be painted. The people are now free to own the dream by applying their personal touch with each stroke of their brush. Imagination is encouraged and rewarded.
Adapt: The process or program will often shift because culture shifts. We need to listen better, open our eyes wider and ADAPT to the culture that is changing at an alarming pace. Move outside of your box and think bigger than your box. Recruit bigger thinkers and more skilled players to your team. Give them ownership and set them free.
Implement: This is the fun part. The entire team is now free to move within the tapestry created by the organizations leadership. It is a tapestry larger than a program. The tapestry size is determined by the quantity and the quality of the people you recruit and empower to accomplish the dream. You must give the freedom to ‘fail’ because if your team is not failing they are not attempting. Begin to DO something! It doesn’t have to be a giant step, it just has to be a step in a ‘forward’ direction. Celebrate and process each step.
Key Components to a Movement
1. Decentralized – No one person is the gate keeper. Each group and person are given the freedom to own the vision and are set free to carry out their part in seeing the vision become
reality. The everyone wins.
2. Open ended outcomes – (creativity and innovation) – Let the Spirit of God move. Quit trying to protect and control.
3. Goals – Personal ownership and responsibility to their relationship with God and with others inside and outside of its organization.
4. Processes are both descriptive and prescriptive – it is bottom line based. Tell them the bottom line. Let them know what and where the destination is. Let ’them’ figure out how to get there. Don’t answer ‘all’ their questions, learn to ask questions that help them figure it out. The Spirit of God teaches each disciple and together we learn from one another.
5. Simplicity in a well thought out Core DNA.
6. Act on it! Stop talking-start doing! Be excited about it
Catalyst and Champion
Within every movement there is a special DNA that drives the Movement. The two critical yet potentially stagnant ingredients are vision and implementation. These are essential to the movement but do not create the movement, neither do they sustain the movement. Vision and Implementation without a CATALYST and a CHAMPION is no movement at all.
Every movement needs a catalyst. The catalyst creates an action and sometimes a reaction, but in either case there is movement. Sometimes the movement creates ‘tension.’ Do not be alarmed, tension is your friend. Don’t try to control tension, learn how to manage it.
Do you want a movement? Then set your Catalysts free! Learn to honor them. They will stir up the dust in your organization and in our world, but they will create movement. Resist the temptation to ‘bridle’ them. Give them accountable space to think outside your box, helping you reach your mission and goals.
A Catalyst is critical, but will kill the organization if not partnered with a champion. The champion is the one who ties it all together. He has strong people skills and can market the product and the idea and get people to own the vision. A catalyst without the partnership of a champion will negate the full impact of the movements potential.
I am praying for a MOVEMENT DAY when the Church stops talking and starts BEING and DOING!