change bites
Today, our staff meeting was led by Pastor Merle Mees for the last time. Merle, our Director of Ministries, is leaving Westside to join the staff as lead pastor at another metro church that will result in transition to Senior Pastor in the next couple years. This is a tremendous opportunity for Merle that we celebrate has come his way but at the same time drag our feet to accept the reality of. Being his last staff meeting with us, he taught on change. Westside is not new to change but as a staff… the transition of losing Merle as a daily presence is a difficult change. I don’t know how much of his talk was his original content … but either way I walked away from our staff meeting today having been once again inspired and challenged by this gifted leader and teacher. challenged.
(thanks to klint for posting the 1-7 for me so i didn’t have to retype my notes. he stole my idea to post about this to begin with.)
1. Good change can be perceived as both loss and opportunity.
2. People are at different levels of readiness for change.
3. People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless anchor.
4. People tend to revert to old behavior if benefits of change aren’t championed.
5. Change is messy!
6. Corporate change is easier and more exciting to navigate than personal change.
7. to lead others, you have to be willing to change. “The more you’re willing to change, the more you’re likely to institute positive change in your organization.”
Our individual perspective plays a huge part in whether changes yield positive or negative results. I personally hate change. I’ve never been good at the beginning of transition but I eventually adapt. But my adaptability might just be the result of time causing the change to seem normal. Change is a necessary and un-avoidable aspect of life and leadership so I suppose it is an ever-present up-hill journey.
Thanks to Merle Mees for once again adding value to my life! Gosh, you will be missed so bad…
Now to get personal, how have you changed:
- in the last week
- in the last month
- in the last year
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