I was visiting the University of Arkansas the other week and came across some great leadership observations. My friend is in charge of the baseball field and took me on a tour of many of the impressive sports facilities. During our tour, he introduced me to his boss and I learned so much about the history of the school and some of the major changes that took place over the years. One thing that stuck out to me was when he talked about the football field and how the head coach led major change. He recalled that one coach said that they would win ball games if they had turf, so they changed the field. Then another head coach would come along and would say "what do you think about grass?" we could win games if we had grass. These decisions happened and they went with the vision of the head coach. As he went on to explain this, I caught that when they switched from grass to turf; they kept the drainage and major parts in case they would ever go back. Admitting that he didn't think he would see it changed back, but planned in case it did. It was a good thing because they are going back to grass. Let me break down the leadership thoughts:
1. Leaders lead!
Each head coach made major changes based on how they believed they would win and created the best environment to accomplish it.
2. Followers play a huge role in success!
Not only did the grounds people make these changes happen, they made sure to prepare for the future as they created change. In this they saved money and time in the future by preparing and leading in their own roles.
3. Turf or Grass?
To the normal person, we would not see this as a major factor of winning. I still have not grasped this, but then I don't play football. I think that winning ball games comes from a variety of things done excellent and putting the right people in place. If the leader says we will win games and I trust them; I will believe that this is the significant and we will win ball games.
4. Don't go through too many coaches!
Can you imagine major change year after year? Turf, grass, turf, grass and so on? If this happens, those followers will have a hard time following leaders that had different visions and handled things differently. I think this is why many churches have issues when they jump from pastor to pastor. They never have time to build trust and look forward to their shepherd leading them into change for the church's mission. Now this illustration is sort of different because I am talking about paid grounds keepers, churches are mostly made up of volunteers. Imagine the amount of change we put our church people through if every pastor came in and did things his way? Then we wonder why church people have problems with change.
5. Pastors, your followers have been there faithfully following!
This grounds crew guy has almost two decades invested into the Arkansas field. Arkansas' new head coach, Chad Morris; just came in. He is the seventh head coach in this time span. Jeff's boss has loved and taken care of that field; seeing it through major and minor changes. If I were to make a major change to that football field, guess who I would want in that discussion and who I would want to cast vision to? You can't lead change by yourself, you need your followers. Understanding their faithfulness, understanding that they don't need to hear "you've been losing games because you have grass," understanding that they are attached and experience loss when we ask them to give up something and understanding that we can't fulfill God's mission for His church without His people; puts us one step closer to building trust and helping us to cast vision for needed change.
6. Reasoning for change is accomplishing the mission!
Why spend the money for grass or turf? To win football games! Head coaches want the W! The players want the W! The W brings money into the school! The W gives students and alumni pride in their school! Schools also spend money for the W's! They recruit for the W's! This is practical for any football program, business, school or church. In church, we are looking towards accomplishing God's mission and reaching people for him. If our churches are not reaching people, then we are not accomplishing what churches were created to do. When we realize that we are not accomplishing what we are supposed to be doing then we realize that there is a need for change.
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