The Wheels on the Bus

“I’m not sure how the wheels fell off the bus,” my friend commented. Even though I didn’t respond audibly, my thought was, “One lug nut at a time.” It doesn’t “just happen,” even though it is often described in exactly that way. A calamity only occurs as a result of multiple preceding events. This might seem obvious if you’re talking about a bus or a car, but what if the subject is a church or ministry or non-profit organization. In these cases, it is just as unlikely that a disaster “just happened.” Something, usually a series of things, came together to create the problem. Unlike the example of a vehicle’s lug nuts, however, it may be much more difficult to determine what those contributing factors are. After months of planning, a church opens a satellite campus. An ideal location is purchased, funding is secured, and a great core group is lined up. Nine months later, the new campus is thriving, but leaders are wondering “how the wheels fell off” on the original campus. “We didn’t see this coming.” It’s obvious that they didn’t expect these problems or they would have made different decisions. But should they have been able to anticipate the problems? It might be helpful to conduct a “post-mortem” to learn why a problem occurred. But it’s even more valuable to pay attention to early warning signs in order to predict and avoid problems. With a vehicle, this might be as simple as regular maintenance or someone double-checking after new tires are put on. With an organization, it is knowing the early warning signs. Too often, organizations focus on “lagging indicators.” By the time that attendance drops noticeably, the problem is serious. In contrast, if key leaders seem to have lost enthusiasm, this may be an early indicator. Early indicators tend to be more subjective, and are therefore easily dismissed. If you bring them up, you may be labelled as a naysayer. And yet, this may be just what is needed to keep the wheels from falling off the bus. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>