Leadership: “Don’t Be That Couch” by Andy Stanley
These are some notes I took from Andy Stanley’s talk at Catalyst One Day. I hope they are helpful.
Introduction:
Programs should be an answer to a question or meet a need.
I. Whereas programming begins as an answer to a question, over time it becomes part of organizational CULTURE.
A. As culture changes, many of the questions remain the same, but the answers DON’T.
B. The tendency is to institutionalize our answers.
C. If we institutionalize an answer, the day will come when it is no longer an ANSWER.
II. We must continue to be more committed to our mission than to our PROGRAMMING or our MODEL.
A. Over time, sustaining the model can become the MISSION.
B. Over time, the model can work AGAINST the mission.
III. Points of Discussion
A. What have we fallen in love with that’s really not as effective as it used to be?
B. Where are we manufacturing energy?
“If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he or she do? Why shouldn’t we walk out the door, come back in, and o it ourselves?” –Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove
C. What are our organizational ASSUMPTIONS?
Leaders must bring the underlying assumptions that drive company strategy into line with changes in the external environment.
The assumptions a team has held the longest or the most deeply are the likeliest to be its undoing. Some beliefs have come to appear so obvious that they are off limits for debate.
Jeremy Davis 