Contributed by AACS Board Member Kelly Beaver, Sturgis, Kentucky
The following excerpt is from the presentation made by Rob Hewell, state music director of Arkansas Baptists, at their Denominational Division meeting. His presentation was about the restructuring of the various denominational agencies. While it was planned and directed at that divisional meeting, the spirit of the ten suggestions would be helpful in any changing organization. The title of his presentation was…
"Manna or Rocky Road Ice Cream? Lessons Learned During Restructuring."
- Own the change early,
get on board rapidly. Find a way in your own heart and mind to become a timely advocate. Become proactive by being an accelerator of the process. Early adopters have the best opportunity to influence the vision and vitality of the new structure.
- Don’t take everything personally.
Be alert to the things that apply most directly to you, and let go of the rest.
- View the restructuring process and your response to it as an opportunity to model for … leaders how to effectively deal with change.
- Realize that your first (and possibly most important) impact early in the new structure is to help your constituents as they deal with the changes generated by the restructuring.
- Free yourself early in the process to learn new behaviors and new ways of thinking. Don’t superimpose old-structure activity into new-structure needs and opportunities. If it is not needed in the new structure, leave it behind.
- Discover the difference between change and transition.
Change involves externals: "We were doing A, now we’ll be doing B." Transition is the internal process involved in getting from A to B.
- Keep track of what you’re learning.
Write it down and find some way to share it with others. Learn how to un-learn and then learn again.
- Take advantage of the opportunity to create something new.
Restructuring provides fertility for innovation. Put yourself in charge of creating the circumstances that will allow you to invent the future.
- Remember that change isn’t the thing—your organization’s core purpose is!
- Find a refuge
— a safe place or person — where you can process your thoughts and feelings.
—Rob Hewell, President-elect, State Music Directors of Arkansas Baptists