Monday, August 28, 2006

Putting Passionate People in Purposeful Systems - pt 3

A system… when we think about our bodies, a system is the chain of organs that interconnect together to perform a common function.

As we talk about systems we must look at two pieces, functions and processes. Functions are the ultimate purpose of the entire system. It is the goal that the system was created for. Secondly, we have processes, these are the minute routines that occur to operate the system. So if we want to extremely oversimplify a system we have the internal function and the external processes that assist the function.

So how does this all tie into passion? Don’t worry I’m getting there.

The problem that most of the world has is that we think that all our systems need are the perfect processes. We look for strategies for business, and we look for teamwork skills, we look for a 10 step plan to get our system to work right! The problem is, a system without a function will not work. Just think, if you stop putting food into your digestive system, eventually it will shut down. It locks up, it freezes, it becomes completely stagnant. A perfect system is useless without its function.

So what is a function… thus enters passion. Passion is the raw material. Passion is the food that we put into the digestive system. It is where the energy, the life, the strength comes from. However, passion without a system is merely potential. And potential that is never developed will rot. Therefore the function of our systems should be to shape and develop passion.

For too long, businesses, churches, the arts, education, media, government and any other area you can think of have all been limited to trying to create perfect systems that create perfect people. The problem is that we have had the wrong ingredients, so the system has been shaped for the wrong function. I’m really not sure which came first the wrong system of the wrong ingredients, but at any rate, somewhere we started building things for the wrong function. Look around, the entire world is a clone! Teenagers all dress exactly the same. I was teaching one night in the teen room at our church and we stood up a “redneck” kid and “thug” kid side by side. What was so funny was that they both were wearing hats, they both were wearing necklaces, they both were wearing belts with big belt buckles, they both even wore glasses that were shaped almost identically. My point is not that everyone should be different, my point is that we think everyone is different when they aren’t! When the system merely try’s get the same results with different ingredients it is bound to fail. This is why it is VITAL for us as leaders to be able to recognize the different passions in people. In a comment from Friday, Cyn said that she was wondering how passion connected to our “natural bent” (this is the word from where the bible says train up a child in the way he should go (it actually says when translated more acutely from Hebrew “according to his natural bent”). We have tried to make every single person have the same natural bent. We have tried to create a system that creates the same product from every person using exactly the same processes.

Imagine if your digestive system did that. Many carbs would go undigested, lipids would be another story, and who knows what would happen to fats. The fact is, that our system has to account for all kinds of “ingredients” and be able to adapt to “digest” and activate the potential energy in them all. Ultimately the system does create the same product (energy) from the materials, but how it gets there is very different. As we continue with change addicts we will look in depth at different strategies and systems that extract the potential energy from the passions of people. However, we have to start by recognizing the root of the passion. Not just the actions, but the roots. Not just seeing the potential, but seeing what activates the potential and what it takes to unlock it.

We will look much more closely at processes, at systems and at functions, because that is what true leadership is about. It’s not about charging into battle for all the glory, it’s about activating the “nuclear” (internal bound-together nucleus) energy that is in each and every person around you! It’s about creating messy, elaborate, beautiful systems that activate not performance, but activate real potential. No matter how messy or how unorthodox.

Start today, crack your system. What “law” have you created that worked for someone way back when, and has no bearing on anyone you lead today. Stop trying to create passion with your systems and find passion then create systems from the passion you find. Start seeing, recognizing, and activating the potential in the passion that you see. Shape it cultivate it, multiply it and ultimately release it to be productive and world changing!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You got me thinking...but it is information overload. Can you please summarize?

Ken Hendrix said...

I will be glad to summarize, but let me ask this first,

can anyone else summarize it? I would love to see what people are hearing!