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I have heard words like that time and again around the tables at a PMC gathering at the beginning of Phase 2. It is usually followed by enthusiastic detailed planning and it causes me to cringe. How can that be if I have said previously that SMART plans are a key indicator of success in PMC? Here they are making SMART plans and I am criticizing them! What gives? SMART plans are important when we are getting clearly defined work done effectively. However, missional innovation requires a process that is more fluid and emergent. When we start by making SMART plans we too often shut down the ‘discovery’ aspect of innovation before we even know who God is calling to be part of the team or what we are called to do together. While there is a time when we need to move toward closure and focus, which is the purpose of SMART Goals, there is also a time to remain open and available for discovery. It is a unique skill to maintain open focus for any length of time without becoming discouraged or bored. The phrase open focus may seem an oxymoron. How can you be both open and focused? There is a focus in a direction that is open to discover what lies in that direction. It is the attitude of an explorer who is venturing into uncharted territory. Or the scientist who remains open to the serendipitous discovery. Years ago my kids would play a series of fantasy computer games called “King’s Quest”. Maybe some young people who play these games are better suited to this work because they have learned from experience that the way to play the game is to get started and engage the various characters you meet in the game world. Through this interaction you discover what needs to be done by piecing together the story from the many conversations. But then you have to also discover who has the special artifacts and powers that are needed to complete the task. Knowing all these things, THEN you assemble the team to complete the quest. Of course, new quests emerge along the way. Alan Blackwell of Cambridge did a major study of innovation and recognized a unique characteristic of leaders who led innovative teams. “The essential attribute was defined as the ability to maintain a ‘pole-star’ vision, in which a team work together toward a shared interest in a goal that motivates the general direction of their work, but without the need to get there blinding the team to opportunities along the journey. The leader must be able to recognise opportunities for other outcomes, and be skilled at harnessing excitement among members of a team as they arise.”† When Jesus sent the seventy to the various towns and places he intended to go (in Luke 10), he gave them specific instructions that both got them there and kept them open to discovering what needed to be done and how the Kingdom of God was coming near. There was both a focus and an openness to discovery. In Phase 2 of PMC our Missional Challenge is not so much a goal as a call to a missional quest where the Spirit of the Risen Christ is leading us on an epic adventure. If we turn it into just another task to be completed, we will be left behind. But if we can manage to stay open to the discovery of the partners God has for us and the task ahead, we may find ourselves in the company of Christ and God’s mission in the world. The choice is ours: another project to manage or being part of God’s mission in and for the world.
Bob Armstrong is director of Partnership for Missional Church® in North America. |
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