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Never Underestimate the Power of Expectation

As I was eating breakfast this morning, I happened to be listening to Robert Schuller and thought I'd pass on to you his closing illustration.  To the best of my recollection, it went something like this.

"I recently met a professor in physics who told me that he taught at a university where he was told he needed to flunk 50% of his students each year.  And each year, that's exactly what happened—50% of his students failed.  Then he started attending a church where the pastor kept preaching on being positive and believing the best about others.  Finally, over time, he bought it all—hook, line and sinker.  The next fall, he began his class with the following statement.

'Class, in previous years, 50% of the students have failed this course.  But this year, I have a feeling, that this year is going to be different.  I've checked your records and you are a special group of students.  So this year, I'm confident that none of you are going to fail.  And to that end, I'm going to help you succeed.'

At the end of that semester," Schuller said, "not one student failed.  One got a C+, another one got a B-, but the rest of his students got B's and A's—and the professor concluded with this statement, 'And I didn't change my grading criteria one iota'"

Incredible!  You know that the intellectual capacity of students didn't change (it was just a normal distribution of students).  You know that content didn't really change.  And you know that the grading didn't change.  There was only one thing that changed.  And that one thing was the attitude of the professor toward his students.  Just by raising his expectations from failure to success, 50% of the students who would have failed in previous years didn't.  That is simply incredible.

But it happens all of the time.  The most famous experiment about this in education happened in the '60's in San Francisco and you can read about it in "Pygmalion in the Classroom."  It that study, a normal distribution of students increased their IQ's by 15 to 30 points in one year simply because the teachers believed they were the best teachers and that they were given the best students (neither of which was true).  Expectations drive so much of what happens around us.

So, as you look around you, what do you expect from those who are around you?  Who do you expect the best from?  Mediocrity from?  And the worst from?  And how much do you think your expectations play a role in how they perform? It could be your staff, your board members, your small group leaders, your ministry leaders, your spouse, your kids, your parents, your in-laws, your neighbors, your team members, or even yourself.  For example, when I talk with pastors, they'll often say, "Well, no one can hit a home run every week.  Sometimes you're going to hit a single and sometimes you're going to strike out.  But you just keep getting up to the plate and every now and then you get to hit a home run."  No!  What a terrible expectation.  I say, you go to the plate expecting to hit a home run every week.  And if you expect that you'll hit a home run every week, you'll hit a whole lot more home runs (and an occasional triple or double, but no singles or strike outs). 

So please, never underestimate the power of your expectations—on the people around you—or on yourself!  In fact, why don't you raise them right now.  You just might be surprised by the difference!

Ranking Success Factors

Everyone has their favorite "gurus" (or people they like to listen to or take advice from).  One of my favorites is Tom Peters.  I know.  I know.  He's a "business guy" (but remember, a lot of church life is business).  Yes, he's arrogant at times (but then again, most leaders are—at times).  And yes, he's a little off the wall (but then again, so are most creative/innovative/insightful/change agents).  But, what I appreciate the most about Tom is that he's brilliant.  He makes me think new thoughts and challenges me to see things differently.  Plus, he also happens to keep one of my favorite blogs, tompeters.com, where he just happens to make all of his Power Point slides available for free.  Not bad.

Well, this evening, I was running through his slides from a presentation he just did in Kiev, when I came across a slide that had the following information (the slide didn't import well).

Importance of Success Factors by Various "Gurus"/Estimates by Tom Peters

                     Strategy        Systems        Passion        Execution

Porter            50%                20%                 15%            15%

Drucker         35%                 30%                15%            20%

Bennis            25%                20%                30%             25%

Peters            15%                20%                35%              30%

Now, I don't know if those numbers mean a whole lot to you, but they do to me.  Let me explain.  If you've been following my blog lately, you know that I've been talking a lot about systems.  But, what Tom has pointed out, quite convincingly, is that just having great people and great systems is not enough.  There are two other categories that ought to be added into the mix, "Passion" and "Execution".  In other words, if we have great people and great systems in place, but those people don't have a passion for what they're doing (i.e. a compelling vision that moves them) or they're not executing well (i.e. not following through well), then we still end up falling short.  That's brilliant.  Great people and great systems are not enough. In fact, in Tom's book, they're less important than passion or execution.  Now, there's a thought!

So why don't you try this.  Give yourself and your church a grade on each of those four criteria.  How would you score your organization/church/business on its people? Its systems? The passion of your people?  And  their execution?  Where are you strong?  Where are you weak?  And what needs to change to make sure all four of these issues are cranking for you and your church/organization/business.  Two out of four is not enough.  But even more importantly, how are you and your people doing on the passion and execution side of things.  Tom's challenge to you and to me is to make sure they get their rightful place in our planning discussions.  So let me ask you one last question, "When was the last time you and your staff talked about your passion grade (and the passion grade for your people)?"

Assume the Best Unless Proven Otherwise

Since my blog on Don't Keep Your Staff Guessing has started a firestorm of comments on lots of blogs (both positive and negative), I thought I would share one of the heart attitudes that we work with our leaders on here at Seneca Creek, "Believe the best, unless proven otherwise."  For my blog, which is aimed at a small slice of the world (leaders of life-changing churches), yesterday was an amazing day.  I had 864 hits on that blog.  Lots of the comments I've read have been positive and I've had several pastors e-mail me for my list (which I find rather interesting/funny.  Note: read the blog and you'll know why). But, I've also read some of the most amazing comments on several blogs.  My favorite was the guy who said that my need to be THE BOSS was a drive for power and that I was undermining Jesus as the head of the church and hindering the advancement of the kingdom of God (though he used much more colorful language).  Oh, and then there have been the "You need therapy" kinds of comments. 

Whoa!  Slow down there!  For any of us to make those kinds of assumptions about people we don't know is amazing (let alone to post them in a public forum).  If you go back and read that blog again, you will see it's not slanted toward employees, it's focused on the employer/boss.  My blog wasn't really about "the list", it was about bosses (and if you are the senior pastor, you are the boss—note: no caps on that word) and our need to communicate our expectations and idiosyncrasies to our employees.  Despite how some have read this, this is not an authoritarian action, it's a loving action.  I'd encourage you to go back and read the blog.  My opening paragraph was about how no employee likes having to feel out the work environment for the first six to twelve months trying to figure out their new boss (and his or her likes and/or dislikes).  So, let's avoid that and make it easy on them.  Once they have the list, then they know.

As for the chairs illustration, I think I clearly stated that the "big 'rock' issues are easy for most of us to identify, like "I care passionately about us getting our work done, on time, with excellence."  But, it's often the little things that really get under our skin that hinder our relationships with staff that we don't communicate."  I then chose the littlest thing I could think of on the list to point out that little things that bug us ought to be on the list as well.  Now, while some may think the chairs item was small, I explained why, for me, this is an issue (and it has nothing to do with chairs).  My point was, "When someone leaves a conference room a mess (or a production room), it communicates, "I don't care" or "Someone else needs to clean up my mess" or "I'm too important to clean up my stuff" or "Excellence doesn't matter to me."  In other words, i was saying, this is a values issue.  For me, I think that selfishness, lack of respect for others, lack of team play, not thinking about how our actions influence others, etc. are big issues.  The chairs illustration was simply the smallest thing on my list I could think of that illustrated something that I find big.

But we all have preferences.  My point wasn't that everyone's preferences should be the same.  Some of us are Type A and some Type B.  Some of us are more task-oriented, others more people-oriented.  Some of us are "J's" according to the Myers-Briggs inventory, while others of us are "P's".  My the point was, whatever you are, make sure you communicate that.  if you are a laissez-faire kind of leader, your list will be very short.  If you are a more driven kind of leader, your list will be a little longer.  And if you are an employee who wants a more laissez-faire kind of work environment, then you better not work for a Type A kind of boss.  Letting people know our preferences is not authoritarian, it's loving and wise.

For example, I have a phenomenal new assistant, Heather (whom you can ask how she felt about the list).  Today I had to ask her, for the first time, to book a flight for me to Minneapolis.  Now, some leaders would be fine with just saying, "Get me from point A to point B" and be done with it.  However, I do have preferences about my flights.  Since I value time, I prefer direct flights over layovers.  During the winter months, if I have to do a layover, I prefer connecting flights in the south over the north.  Since I have a health issue, I prefer aisle seats.  If the emergency row is available, I prefer that.  Since we live near DC, even though I can fly out of three different airports, I prefer BWI.  Since I get motion sickness, I prefer large planes over puddle jumpers.  And since DC traffic is horrendous during rush hours, I prefer flight times that don't have me driving during rush hour.  Now, I could keep all of those preferences to myself and be frustrated every time she booked a flight that didn't meet one of my preferences.  But, now that she knows (which she prefers), it makes her job infinitely easier.  Letting employees know our preferences (however short or long the list is) is a wise and loving thing to do.  Assuming this is authoritarian is wrong.

So, back to where we started.  To read how some people have made all kinds of wrong assumptions about someone they don't know is probably not the wisest choice to make.  That's why I would always opt for the heart attitude of "Assume the Best Unless Proven Otherwise."  If I'm not mistaken, Jesus said, "A new command i give you, love one another.  As I have loved you so you must love one another.  By this will all men know you are my disciples." To the best of my ability, I will do everything possible to keep this blog positive.

Don't Keep Your Staff Guessing

Have you ever started a job and wondered, "What does my boss care about?"  We all know that every boss has certain expectations and idiosyncrasies, but most of us spend months (and sometimes years) trying to figure out what they are.  None of us like that, so why don't we turn that around?  Why don't we make clear to our employees, from day one, what our expectations and idiosyncrasies are?

This week, we started two new employees at Seneca Creek—and one of the pieces of paper they get is entitled, "Bruce's Idiosyncrasies".  So, from day one, they know all of my little pet peeves as well as my big "rock" items.  The big "rock" issues are easy for most of us to identify, like "I care passionately about us getting our work done, on time, with excellence."  But, it's often the little things that really get under our skin that hinder our relationships with staff that we don't communicate.

For example, "I really dislike it when people leave a conference room with the chairs all over the room (i.e. not pushed in to the table neatly arranged)"  I know this is obsessive compulsive, but it is me (and, in our case, I am the boss).  Keeping an office environment clean matters to me.  It's one of those excellence things (and, in our case, core value number three).  When someone leaves a conference room a mess (or a production room), it communicates, "I don't care" or "Someone else needs to clean up my mess" or "I'm too important to clean up my
stuff" or "Excellence doesn't matter to me."  In other words, it doesn't communicate anything positive. And frequently, I end up going in and straightening the chairs and cleaning up someone else's mess. As you can tell, this bugs me.  But, if I never communicate this, and someone doesn't clean up, and I keep this frustration buried inside me, chances are, it'll poison our relationship.

So, what are your idiosyncrasies?  What are the big "rock" issues and the little "issues" that get under your skin?  In my case, it's a list of a little over twenty things that new employees know from day one.  They don't need to play the guessing game or wait six months until the hammer comes down.  No, from day one, they know what will make me happy and what will tick me off—which, as an employee, is a good thing to know!

The Magical Power of Belief

Have you ever been a part of a winning team?  Or "been in the zone"?  If you have, then you know what I mean when I say, "It's like you couldn't lose."  Why?  Because there's just something infectiously contagious about winning—and what makes winning contagious is the belief that you're going to win.

I just finished watching the movie "Finding Neverland," the somewhat "accurate", "inspired by true events", biopic about J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan—which is all about belief.  One of my favorite scenes involves Barrie trying to teach the Llewelyn boys—Peter, Jack, George and Michael—how to fly a kite.  The scene starts out with George, the oldest, trying his hand at flying the kite, to no avail.  They then decide to attach a tail to the kite.  As they're doing that, the youngest, Michael, decides he wants to try his hand at flying the kite.  All of the other boys chime in, "He can't do it."

Nevertheless, Michael gives it a try and, of course, nothing happens.  Immediately, the other boys chime in, "Told you it wouldn't work." At which point Barrie makes the statement, "Of course it won't work if no one believes in him."  He then turns to Michael and the other boys and says, "This time, I don't want the least bit of doubt.  We must get the kite in the air."  This time, the other boys start to encourage Michael and egg him on with, "You can do it!"  "You can do it!"  And, of course, this time, the kite gets in the air.  Why?  Because there's power in belief.

If you've ever been around a fast growing church, one of the things you quickly catch on to is the infectious belief that good things are going to happen at that church (new people will show up, growth will not be incremental, people will come to Christ, etc.).  Conversely, if you're around a stagnant or declining church, there is a reverse kind of belief, that good things are not going to happen here.  Interestingly, whether we want to admit it or not, Henry Ford's famous quote has more power than most of us would like to admit, "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right."

So, as you look at your church/ministry, what is your belief about your church and it's future growth?  Is there a sense of positive expectation that God is going to do something big?  Do you expect growth?  Do you anticipate people coming to Christ each week? Or, do you anticipate that this week will pretty much look like last week?  Whatever you chose to believe, remember, that belief has incredible power over what actually happens in your church/ministry.

Note:  I know some will dismiss this as self-help mumbo jumbo, but just go hang around Fellowship Church in Dallas or Bayside Church in Sacramento or McLean Bible in D.C. or New Hope Church in Oahu and you'll realize that there's a whole lot more to this principle than you may want to admit.  Maybe your church needs you to be a J.M. Barrie today, someone who says to the people in your congregation, "We can do this.  God has great plans in store for us.  So, no more doubting.  From here on out, we're going to believe God for the impossible!"