Re-inventing YWAM
Fortune Magazine recently ran an article called, "Re-invent your company", giving ten rules for designing a culture that inspires innovation. In June the YWAM European Leadership Team (ELT) reviewed this article in relation to YWAM. Tom Bloomer and Jeff Fountain have adapted these rules as follows for YWAM consumption.
"Watch a flock of geese turning and swooping in flight. There is no president, director or chairman of the gaggle. Yet their course is true. And they are a flock. Complexity theorists describe this as order without careful planning, order out of apparent anarchy: no central authority directs ant colonies, the Internet, or a flock of geese. Order out of chaotic conditions, or creativity in organizations, can best be encouraged by leadership creating right conditions, by designing context, not by trying to direct everything from above."
Here is our summary, seen through OUR experience, of what the author's recommendations would look like for the YWAM situation.
But don't read this! Unless you want your base or ministry to start bubbling with creativity, new ideas and new initiatives.
Rule No. 1: Dream God's dreams. (Set unreasonable expectations) No company or organization goes further than its dreams or aspirations. Do we really believe that we share in the messianic inheritance of the Son? If so, our dreams need to be as big as the nations. Our dreams reflect our faith! YWAM was started by big dreams, dreams about young people doing things thought impossible. What are your dreams?
Rule No. 2: Discover who you are. (Stretch your business definition) Who are we, as YWAM? A mission running schools and outreaches? Too many organizations define themselves by what they do rather than what they know (core competencies) and what they own (strategic assets). Suppose we viewed YWAM as a catalyst, a seedbed for kingdom innovation, spawning all sorts of new and unconventional initiatives? What are our core competencies? And strategic assets? How best can they be used to realize our dreams?
Rule No. 3: Stay Kingdom-focused. (Create a cause, not a business) Employees in top businesses are devoted to a cause. They pursue a transcendent purpose. Says one stockbroker: "We are the guardians of our customers' Financial dreams," Who are we, as YWAMers? Are we stonecutters, or cathedral-builders? 'mere' support staff, or nation-builders? Our cause is the Kingdom, not running schools or departments. Our goal is the transformation of peoples, the coming of the Kingdom in greater measure. Is there a higher cause? Could anything be more motivating?
Rule No. 4: Listen to new voices. Often "industries get reinvented by outsiders free from the prejudices of industry veterans. Yet in most companies strategy is the preserve of the old guard, the same ten people talking to the same ten people year after year... Their positions are so well rehearsed they can finish each other's sentences." Ouch! Leadership must give a disproportionate share of voice to three often under-represented groups:
- Youth - those with the biggest emotional stake in the future [* Where different, original rules are in italics]
- Those on the geographical edges of the organization, The capacity for radical innovation increases with each mile you move from HO. (Of course, we don't-have HQ's in YWAM, do we?)
- Newcomers unencumbered by YWAM 'tradition'! Some companies convene annual dreaming sessions, days of open-ended debate where fresh voices get a hearing.
We have started to do this with the annual European Leadership Forum - how about regular national forums? Especially in the use of the Web, or evangelistic outreaches, we need youthful innovation! Rule
Rule No. 5: Create a forum for ideas. (Design an open market for ideas). Silicon Valley is a hothouse of business innovation nurtured by the existence of three tightly interconnected markets: for ideas, for capital, and for talent. In most companies, ideas, capital and talent are inert and indolent. But in Silicon Valley they understand that radical ideas are the only way to create wealth. In YWAM language, new ideas and visions should be encouraged from anyone and everyone. It's the only way to stay on the leading edge.
Rule No. 6: Create funds for new projects (Design an open market for capital) Innovative businesses expect many new ideas to fail - yet their goal is to have a big winner, not to have no losers. A division of Shell Oil allocated $20 million to new ideas. A two-day workshop spawned 240 new business ideas of which 12 were tested. Suppose we developed funds for new ideas in YWAM at national levels, or European levels? Who has new ideas?
Rule No. 7: Encourage mobility of staff. (Design an open market for talent) Yes, it could really hurt if 20% of your best people left in a single year. That happens all the time in Silicon Valley. And of course 'we need committed staff to build a stable operation. Yet we always need to be ready to release our best people on to new things, which is how we have doubled our operating locations in Europe over the past ten years (from 83 to 170: from 19 nations to 37).
Rule No. 8: Lower the risks of experimentation. Be encouraged. Most new ventures fail in the business world. Innovation requires risk. But we can lower the risks. Instead of starting a new school, start with a seminar - test the waters. Radical doesn't have to be high profile. The ECO programme orientating Latinos in language and culture at Harpenden is low key but highly successful.
Rule No. 9: Make like a cell - divide & divide. The human embryo grows through cell division. Division and differentiation are the essence of growth. The same is true for organizations. One large company is actually 400 business units around the world. This is part of the YWAM genius too - perhaps some of our larger bases could encourage cellular division, and thus a climate of innovation,
Rule No. 10: Reward your innovators (Pay your innovators well - really well)! So you've noticed we don't pay Silicon Valley salaries - but we should recognize innovators in Int'l YWAMer, Global Perspective, Europe NOW! Etc.