© 2008 Strategic Junior High. 
Have a clear vision about where you want to go as an organization but finding it impossible to execute on the dream? It could be that your strategy is not a good one. Knowing where you want to go (remember that vision answers the where question) cannot overcome an insufficient or ineffective how.
What can be [...]
What’s your practice when you plan for the what’s next? Are you reactive? Inactive? Or pre-active? This is potentially a key insight about a reality of your planning DNA. Clearly understanding your organization’s tendency is the first step in moving toward a healthier, more productive, planning perspective.
According to systems theorist Russell Ackoff there are three [...]
The concept of being mentored sounds like something that happens to you when you’re young and on the way up. The truth, however, is that, at any age or stage, we all need a loving critic, a friendly skeptic, a coach, a mentor to help us make sense of the world. Do you currently have [...]
Making strategies stick: Three principles
The three barriers to talking strategy—the Curse of Knowledge, decision paralysis, and a lack of a common strategic vocabulary—emerge for different reasons, but they can be overcome in similar ways. Note that Cranium’s CHIFF manages to overcome all three. It transfers a brand vision of top management in a way that [...]
Today I was reading the Globe & Mail, a national newspaper in Canada and I came across an interesting article about a pilot project in BC that pairs students up to teach each other the values of a healthy lifestyle. I’ve included the opening paragraphs from the article below but I thought the quote from the grade [...]
WARNING!! This is a pretty long article.
Barrier 3: Lack of a common language
In the classic 1950s models of communication, a “sender” communicates with a “receiver.” The metaphor suggests that the message that is passed is a kind of package—wrapped up on one side and unwrapped on the other. There is certainly a lot of communication [...]
In The Christian Post, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) shares his eight steps to dreaming bigger. Here is a summary:
Open your mind to God.If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to be quiet before the Lord. Schedule times of silence, of solitude.
Do some research.The Bible says that it’s dumb just to [...]
For any ministry leader it is hugely important to have a good grasp on who you are as a church, for a junior high pastor, knowing what the ethos and values of your church are before proceeding to define the values of your ministry can be hugely beneficial in avoiding headaches and conflicts down the [...]
WARNING!! This is a pretty long article.
Barrier 2: Decision Paralysis
Most people in an organization aren’t in charge of formulating strategy; they just have to understand the strategy, internalize it, and use it to make decisions. But many strategies are not concrete enough to resolve a well-established psychological bias called decision paralysis.
Psychologists have uncovered situations where [...]
Chances are, what your church faces is beyond the reach of what youÂ’ve done in the past to accomplish its mission. Therefore you need to go beyond traditional means of strategic planning if youÂ’re going to be effective. In Becoming A Strategic Leader, Richard Hughes and Katherine Beatty invite us to consider these five facets…
Strategic [...]