Have you ever become so stretched in your personal and professional life that you let things slide? Of course you probably have, and so have I. Many times we become so busy, and therefore caught up, that we will let programs or curriculum continue long after they have stopped being effective.
When our consciousness begins to nag at us about it, we justify ourselves by thinking that maybe the students can glean something from it, no matter how terrible it is. This is not good thinking, so think again.
If we continue using a program or curriculum that isn’t working, our students will not so slowly lose respect for us. Here’s why:
1. They know it’s not working, and they know you know that it’s not working. You’re not fooling anyone.
2. If you use something that isn’t working, they are going to assume that you don’t care. And if you don’t care, neither do they.
3. You aren’t modeling responsible leadership when you allow a failing program or curriculum to continue. You aren’t being a leader, and they know it.
Don’t turn a blind eye when things aren’t working. It only aggravates the problem. Be responsible, be the leader, and set things right. Walk your leadership students through why you are changing things up. Help them to understand the process and the reason. They will learn a lot more from that process than they will if you let a dying program linger.
Question: Have You Ever Found Yourself Nursing an Ailing Program? How Did You Finally Put Things Right?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
What if a program is not working because you can't get your volunteers to buy into it? I am struggling with that. The program is failing because not ever body is willing to execute their roles.
ReplyDeleteGreat question. The first thing I would do is sit down with my team and try to figure out why the volunteers aren't buying into it. There may be a very practical reason, or it may be that they don't see the vision that you do.
ReplyDeleteI've faced this more than once in the youth group that I run. My volunteers weren't buying into a program that I thought was youth ministry gold. It turned out that they just weren't catching the vision. They didn't understand WHY we were doing the program.
It took a couple of meetings to re-pitch the vision of the program. Turns out I hadn't really talked to them during the formation phase of the program, I had just told them what they were going to be doing after I planned the program (not a good move on my part).
After you figure out why your volunteers aren't executing, you can go from there. You might need to just pitch some vision. It might be something deeper with your volunteers.
Figuring out why is a good first step. Talk to them, see what they have to say. It might turn up something profound.
Thanks for the question. May God bless you and your ministry.