Learning From Losers

I read this article in Fast Company magazine. Unfortunately this article isn't online. It is about Clay Christensen's new book The Innovator's Solution. Listen to this:

Businesspeople, says Christensen, are victims of a kind of "academic malpractice" perpetrated by the interlocking worlds of management training and education. Through careful not to name names, he says "the whole arena of building management knowledge and understanding is fundamentally flawed." Take business school. "Eighty percent of the cases used in typical MBA programs are about successful companies," says Christensen. "Students graduate with this notion that 'If I do everything that the people in those cases did, then my organization will grow and be successful, too.' But in many ways, the causality goes the other direction. If you're successful and growing, you can manage any way you want to. Growth makes so many dimensions of management easier. It's when growth stops that things get tough."[emphasis mine]

There is more but this is enough for now. I've looked at successful growing churches to find out what I'm doing wrong. I don't see much. We're doing some things better in my opinion. These churches have bright, persistent, consistent pastors. Persistent consistency is often a key. Looking for opportunities is another and taking quick advantage of them.

I've thought for a while that the key to jumpstarting growth in a church (or in a business) is often a localized solution. We need innovation not copies.