Mike 
The message on my phone was clear: “Houston ISD had cancelled all after-school activities today due to inclement weather.” I’m not sure when they left the automated message, but I heard it around 3pm, as the clouds were clearing and the ground was drying. Sure, we had heavy rain earlier in the day and even some minor street flooding. But just as forecast predicted, the storms moved through and conditions improved right at the time that school was ending.
Why did they cancel? My guess is that there is a risk-averse person somewhere in the huge bureaucracy of HISD’s administration. For this person, the potential liability posed by the possibility of lingering storms was far greater than the reward of allowing things to go as planned. In other words, the weather guru had a lot more at risk by not canceling the events. Perhaps they made was the right decision in this case. After all, no one wants to see a high water rescue of a school bus full of children.
It makes me wonder, however, if this kind of risk aversion creeps into other, more strategic decisions too frequently. How often do your decisions reflect a “play it safe” or “incremental steps” mindset? How difficult is it for you to make bold moves when you can’t confidently predict the outcome? The latter is evidenced when:
- A church launches a new campus or worship community, even though the numbers don’t all add up.
- A key new staff position is created, even though there’s only enough funding to cover the first six months.
- A ministry or department is restructured for growth, despite the fact that it was already doing pretty well.
