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FORGET
SKINNING CATS:
MORE THAN
ONE WAY TO SHAPE A FUTURE
For too long church consultants
who have been asked to help churches develop strategic plans, do
long-range planning or cast a vision for the future have utilized
only one basic approach. The standard process, technically called
"Rational Choice Planning," has been the
"one-size-fits-all" answer to every strategic planning question.
Many church leaders would be
shocked to discover that there are at least a half-dozen legitimate
ways of formulating a strategy for a church or other organization.
I live in a house that is
surrounded by towering pine and poplar trees. Keeping guttering free
of leaves, pine needles and bird's nests has been a constant problem.
I recently did some investigation of my options for new guttering and
discovered a wide variety of choices. There are various styles of
leaf guards that can be installed over standard guttering. But there
are also various styles of one-piece gutters that have the debris
protection built in.
In the world of guttering, by
speaking with knowledgeable specialists, I was able to look at
several choices and determine which was the best for my situation.
Church consultants should be equally aware of the choices of process,
and help churches determine the particular way of planning that fits
a given church at a given time.
Rational Choice Planning has been
a useful and helpful method. It has been used extensively for at
least 50 years in the corporate realm and for at least 30 years in
church settings. However, it is important to note that it is not the "one-and-only"
way, and it is often not the preferred way to plan.
Other planning methodologies include:
1. Values-based planning
2. Reality-based incremental planning
3. Market-driven planning
4. Multiple scenario planning
5. Visionary leader projection
6. Purpose-driven planning
Some of these approaches are
heavily left-brain oriented. That is, they involve heavy research
with hard data and fairly mechanical procedures for writing purpose
statements, objectives, goals and action plans. Some of the
approaches are much more right-brain dominant. They involve intuitive
research, soft data processing, imaginative thinking and dreaming.
A few years ago, two colleagues
and I developed a very right-brain process for church planning we
called "Values-based Tactical Planning." We tested it in
several pilot churches and ultimately published a manual for use by
pastors and church consultants. The approach is, as the name implies,
based on discovering the current core values of a church, then
applying those to future plans. The key question to be answered with
this approach is, "How can we better live out our values as a congregation?"
Reality-based planning is a very
left-brain, unimaginative approach. However, it is often the best, if
not the only approach, palatable to smaller, established churches
that are stuck in the past and unable to think creatively or tolerate
much change. This approach helps a church assess where they are now -
what is their current reality. It then encourages them to look at
what they might hope to be in a few years and develop a map to get
from here to there. The result of this type of planning will usually
be a way of doing what we have been doing but try to do it a little
better. It may involve adding a few new twists to the church's way of
doing things, but the change will be slow and incremental. This kind
of planning does not result in any paradigm shifts. Reality-based
planning deals with the question, "How can we do things a little
better without making any major changes?"
Market-driven planning is a
fairly new concept for churches. It is heavy in contextual analysis.
It involves getting to know the demographic characteristics of your
area, analyzing what the key issues and needs of various segments of
the population are, selecting specific market "niche"
groups to serve, then designing approaches to effectively communicate
with and develop relationships with persons in those niches.
For some churches, the best hope
for future growth may be found in discovering the market segments
that they can effectively minister to. For these churches, the key to
success may be, "find
a niche and scratch it."
Multiple scenario planning is one
of the most futuristic and creative ways of preparing for major
change. To engage in this method of planning, the key leaders of an
organization identify several plausible future scenarios that would
have significant impact on their work. They then develop detailed
descriptions of each of these scenarios, along with supporting
materials to help make the scenario a "virtual reality." In
subsequent sessions, the leaders experience the impact of each
scenario, deal with the emotions and thought processes involved in
each, and brainstorm to develop creative responses to the issues involved.
Scenario planning is not an
effort to predict the future, but it is an effort to prepare for
various future possibilities. In the process of discussing and
struggling with the problems associated with each scenario,
leadership may discover clues immediate actions that will help
prevent negative futures and help enhance and make more plausible,
the positive futures.
I will not attempt to say much
about the final two planning approaches from the list above.
Visionary leader planning is not really a group process. It is a
matter of having a very imaginative, highly motivated and persuasive
leader who develops a vision, announces it to the organization,
enlists their support in pursuing it, and leads them toward achieving
it. It can be effective, at least for the shorter-term, but it
depends heavily on the unique giftedness and personality of the leader.
Purpose-driven planning is an
approach to church design and ministry that grows out a persistent
commitment to the accomplishment of a clearly understood, and widely
endorsed purpose. Decisions are made and priorities are set based on
the fulfillment of that overarching purpose. For further explanation
of this approach, I would refer readers to Rick Warren's book, The
Purpose-driven Church.
For church consultants these
days, one wrench in the toolbox will not get the job done. We are not
living in a "one-size-fits-all" world.
Church leaders and consultants
should become competent in at least four of the basic approaches to
planning. Rational Choice Planning, being the most common and
well-promoted, is the one most consultants utilize. In the early
1990s, as mentioned earlier, I worked with two colleagues to develop
a church-oriented approach to values-based planning and to publish it
as a manual. During a sabbatic leave in 1995, I worked on a process
for church application of multiple scenario planning called,
"Futuropting." I am currently doing research and attempting
to create church applications for market-driven planning.
These efforts, currently being
made by many church leaders and church consultants, illustrate that
those of us who attempt to help churches think strategically must be
constant learners and researchers. More information on these
approaches is available by clicking on the web pages for Strategic
Planning and Church Health on this site.
Bob Perry
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