Importance: 10%
The Big Idea: Notes after a personal conversation with Bruce Hartung.
A fundamental tendency of LCMS circles tends to be this push to have everything polished and ready to go before there can be any change. The change has to be perfect and all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed without any possibility of failure. And when a new idea does fail then that is taken as some fundamentally bad thing and a fault of the leader.
A different and more productive path toward change is to invite people into an experiment and path of growth. This attitude plans and thinks about things beforehand but then tries new things to see if they will work. Failure in this kind of relationship is a learning and growth opportunity not a death noll. Continued evaluation of what is being done and invitation to try things is at the core of this experimental mindset. This means that things are reinforce and pushed forward based on real life experiences rather than a fully polished and “bullet proof” plan.
Entering into this kind of experiment mindset is important to maintain creativity and growth. It also takes a mental shift from trying to act like it is possible to know everything before hand to honestly just trying things out and figuring out what works better or worse.