The Dangers of Change

I'm about to give you one of the greatest quotes on leading change that has ever been written. I thought of it tonight as I was reading one of my textbooks for my seminar tomorrow. The book, called, "Leadership on the Line", talks about the problems of leading an organization through change. One of the key issues is that organizations and leaders don't typically understand the difference between technical changes and adaptive challenges. Technical changes, to put it simply, are changes that need to be made for which we already have the expertise or understanding. For instance, if the change you want to make in a church is revamp the C.E./S.S. offerings, you gather together a group of people that have the technical know-how to find out what needs to be offered, what materials are available, and what training needs to be done. The group knows (or can find out) the expertise and procedures that need to be followed to create the change. The other issue is called Adaptive Challenges. For Adaptive Challenges, no one knows or has the expertise to create the change. For instance when paradigm shifts occur, people tend not to be ready to understand how to do what needs to be done in a different or changing atmosphere. Like the Swiss watchmakers who could not adapt to the fact that the latest technology was electronic in nature and didn't have gears and sprockets. They couldn't adapt and lost nearly all of the world's watchmaking business (they went from 90% of market share to barely 10% of the market by failing to adapt). Interesting, huh? The authors of the book I am reading say that the greatest failure of leadership is that leaders typically treat adaptive challenges by assuming they are technical problems. And to that insight I say, Amen! Some of the greatest failures that I have seen the church make and the biggest failures I have done as a pastor have been in the realm of trying to apply technical answers to adaptive changes. I think of my last pastoral charge and can think of numerous ways in which both I as pastor and people in the congregation who wanted change failed because either I as pastor or they as lay leaders or we as a congregation failed to understand that we were being faced with an adaptive challenge and not a technical problem. Oft times I have sought adaptive solutions to technical challenges only to be rebuffed because I did not understand the difference and did not make the case for change in the adaptive mode. As a result, I have faced the quote below and have felt the sting of loss that results from it. Maybe it will help you to understand the difficulty of the atmosphere that you face in trying to create change. If it helps, good. If you find you need more help than just a quote, post a comment and I will give some more insights from "Leadership on the Line" or other resources I am learning about. Here is the quote.

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favour; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had the actual experience of it.''

Niccoli Machiavelli

The Prince and The Discourses