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Andy Stanley - Gaining and Sustaining Momentum · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, a
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Speaker 1: conversation designed to help leaders go further faster. I'm Andy Stanley,
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1:02
Speaker 1: And now let's dive into today's podcast content. Today we're
1:07
Speaker 1: talking about momentum, getting it, keeping it, leveraging it, and
1:12
Speaker 1: then regaining it when you sense it slipping away, And
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Speaker 1: of course, joining me today to unpack this important topic
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Speaker 1: is my co host Susie Gray. Welcome Susie. Thanks Andy.
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Speaker 2: That is quite an ambitious category of things for today,
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Speaker 2: so let's really get to it. As you alluded to,
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Speaker 2: momentum is something every leader craves. It's crucial for any
1:35
Speaker 2: organization striving for greatness, regardless of the industry. When we
1:39
Speaker 2: have it, we feel great, and when we don't it
1:42
Speaker 2: can cause frustration from the top down.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. Yeah, organizational leaders, we love progress
1:48
Speaker 1: and momentum. Really, momentum is really synonymous with progress, or
1:53
Speaker 1: at least it feels that way, so much so that,
1:55
Speaker 1: as many of you know, John Maxwell insists that momentum
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Speaker 1: is actually the leader's friend. And if anybody doubts that,
2:03
Speaker 1: just wait until you lose it, right, It's like losing
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Speaker 1: a friend and you don't know what you've got till
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Speaker 1: it's gone. So so anyway, so here's why I said
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Speaker 1: that momentum is emotional. It creates its own emotion. You
2:15
Speaker 1: feel it when you have it, you experience it. It
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Speaker 1: feels good, it's comforting. And when you have momentum, organizationally
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Speaker 1: the feeling of progress. It kind of permeates the entire organization.
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Speaker 1: I mean, if you've ever worked with a team with momentum,
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Speaker 1: everybody feels it. I mean it's intangible, but it's it's
2:30
Speaker 1: real even though it's intangible. Right, hiring is easier because
2:34
Speaker 1: while you're actually hiring, you're growing. Right. But the challenge
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Speaker 1: is there's a sense in which momentum is seductive, it's deceptive.
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Speaker 1: It makes leaders feel like they're really good leaders, and
2:45
Speaker 1: they may be, but they may not be. We've all
2:47
Speaker 1: seen poor leaders who just happen to run out front
2:50
Speaker 1: of a parade that was already moving down the street,
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Speaker 1: and they got all the credit and they said, look
2:53
Speaker 1: at me lead when actually, you know, they just dropped
2:56
Speaker 1: in in the middle of something, right at the front
2:57
Speaker 1: of something that was already good. Move it. Yeah, that
2:59
Speaker 1: was that was already good. So again, it makes leaders
3:02
Speaker 1: feel like good leaders, and again they may be or
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Speaker 1: they may not be. But the real test of leadership
3:06
Speaker 1: is not leading in a season of momentum. That's easy, right,
3:10
Speaker 1: You just get up, you show up, and then try
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Speaker 1: to keep up. The challenge is when momentum begins to
3:15
Speaker 1: slip away and that's what we're going to spend a
3:16
Speaker 1: lot of our time talking about today. But you know,
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Speaker 1: the great thing about momentum is there are always problems organizationally,
3:23
Speaker 1: but when you have momentum, the problems are good problems generally, right,
3:26
Speaker 1: their growth problems, even the not so good problems are
3:29
Speaker 1: easier to navigate when you have momentum. Right, momentum makes
3:34
Speaker 1: us all look a bit better than we really are.
3:38
Speaker 1: And a lack of momentum, while it can cause us
3:40
Speaker 1: to doubt ourselves and our decision making ability. Oh that
3:45
Speaker 1: is so true. Been there recently? We really so would
3:49
Speaker 1: you like to elaborate? Nope, moving on, Well, we've all
3:53
Speaker 1: been there, whether recent or not. I mean, come on,
3:55
Speaker 1: coming out of COVID, I mean, it's no wonder that
3:57
Speaker 1: so many CEOs took the money and ran right, because again,
4:01
Speaker 1: you're leading, things are going well. Suddenly the whole world changes.
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Speaker 1: And there are many leaders, especially founders sometimes who have
4:11
Speaker 1: never led out of the trough. They've never experienced going
4:16
Speaker 1: into the trough. And again we're going to talk about
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Speaker 1: this later. The leadership skills that are so important when
4:22
Speaker 1: it comes to starting something are often a very different
4:26
Speaker 1: set of skills than are required to fix something or
4:29
Speaker 1: to correct something, and not every leader has, you know,
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Speaker 1: an infinite toolbox of skills. So we're going to talk
4:35
Speaker 1: about arts.
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Speaker 2: What if I heard that said before. I've heard somebody
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Speaker 2: say you can be a starter, you can be a stoker,
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Speaker 2: you can be a maintainer of the fire.
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Speaker 1: Usually not all three. Yeah, you're not all three, And
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Speaker 1: in different seasons of organizational life, it requires a different
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Speaker 1: kind of leader.
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Speaker 2: Leader.
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Speaker 1: And when momentum stalls or reverses, again, as I said,
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Speaker 1: leaders begin to feel like failures. What's wrong, what's wrong
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Speaker 1: with me? Boards, you know, look for someone to blame,
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Speaker 1: which is generally I don't think a great idea. But
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Speaker 1: that's just what happens because there are so many factors
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Speaker 1: outside of a leader's control. The economy, outdated systems, sometimes
5:08
Speaker 1: the weather, depending on the industry, right, competition. But again,
5:12
Speaker 1: that's why we need leaders to lead in such a
5:15
Speaker 1: way to create momentum, to sustain momentum, and then to
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Speaker 1: fix it when the momentum stalls. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Well, and that actually surfaces another deceptive facet related to momentum.
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Speaker 2: It's easy to become enamored with here and now, what's
5:29
Speaker 2: right in front of me, right, or so busy managing
5:32
Speaker 2: the current success leaders stop looking around at all, stop
5:37
Speaker 2: anticipating the future.
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Speaker 1: And that's a problem too, isn't it. Yeah, Because again
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Speaker 1: it's seductive. I mean, things are going our way and
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Speaker 1: things will always go our way, and everybody's coming to
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Speaker 1: learn from us, And who's got time to look too
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Speaker 1: far into the future because the assumption is it's always
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Speaker 1: going to be this way. So warning to the leaders
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Speaker 1: out there, especially the young leaders, it's not always going
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Speaker 1: to be that way. Whatever that way is, it's just
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Speaker 1: not always going to be that That's just the reality.
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Speaker 1: And we experience this in our organization in twenty sixteen
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Speaker 1: and seventeen because we had extraordinary momentum for so many
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Speaker 1: years and then you know, things began to change. But
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Speaker 1: we had, just like organizations do, we had kind of
6:17
Speaker 1: settled into a why fix it if it's not broken mentality.
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Speaker 1: We had less innovation, we had less experimentation. We were
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Speaker 1: just riding the momentum and trying to keep up with
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Speaker 1: the growth, and then things began to change. The point
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Speaker 1: being to fuel and we're going to break this down
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Speaker 1: in a few minutes, to fuel or maintain momentum, Organizations
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Speaker 1: have to evaluate constantly and refuse to follow, as we
6:40
Speaker 1: talk about all the time, to refuse to fall in
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Speaker 1: love with our models, to refuse to fall in love
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Speaker 1: with the way we've always done things. But that's so
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Speaker 1: hard to resist when your model is killing it? Right?
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Speaker 1: Why begin to evaluate? Why look too deeply? Why do
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Speaker 1: an autopsy on our success? Again, especially if there's if
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Speaker 1: you're really growing fast, you're just trying to keep up.
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Speaker 1: But if you fall in love with your model, the
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Speaker 1: momentum clock is ticking backwards. Because every model has a
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Speaker 1: shelf life.
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Speaker 2: And really, that is why it's so important, as you
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Speaker 2: just said, for organizations to do an autopsy of their success.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, because if you don't know, we say this all
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Speaker 1: the time, if you don't know why it's working when
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Speaker 1: it's working, you won't know how to fix it when
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Speaker 1: it breaks and everything breaks and everything eventually breaks down.
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Speaker 1: It's it's just the way life works, right, is.
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Speaker 2: Well, I've actually heard you say there are three components
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Speaker 2: for gaining and sustaining momentum. So why don't we Why
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Speaker 2: don't we talk about those three components?
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Speaker 1: What are they? Yeah? New, improved and improving getting right
7:36
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah, new, improved and improving, and I will
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Speaker 1: go ahead and admit to our podcast listeners that is
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Speaker 1: a bit simplistic, but it is memorable, right, New, improved
7:47
Speaker 1: and improving. And the reason I came up with that
7:50
Speaker 1: many many years ago is I wanted some sort of
7:53
Speaker 1: formula to keep in front of our teams and to
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Speaker 1: keep in front of me because we were experiencing momentum.
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Speaker 1: And again, I'm just a fanatic when it comes to
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Speaker 1: stopping and saying it's working great, Why is this working.
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Speaker 1: We're gonna give an illustration of that later on that
8:06
Speaker 1: actually happened this morning. You know things are working well,
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Speaker 1: Why is this working so well? We have to document this.
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Speaker 1: We have to pay attention to this because if you
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Speaker 1: don't know why it's working when it's working, you can't
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Speaker 1: fix it what it's broken. So I came up with
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Speaker 1: these three words, and I actually got this idea walking
8:23
Speaker 1: through a grocery store. When I was thinking about this,
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Speaker 1: it was many many years ago. But it's momentum is
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Speaker 1: the formula is anything new creates momentum, Anything new and
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Speaker 1: improved has the potential to sustain momentum. But in terms
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Speaker 1: of long term sustaining momentum, it has to constantly be improving.
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Speaker 1: So that's kind of the formula. And we early on
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Speaker 1: we had momentum because what we were doing was new
8:48
Speaker 1: in terms of the kind of church we created, and
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Speaker 1: it was also in the eyes of many people, an
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Speaker 1: improvement over, you know, their church experience. We didn't create church,
8:57
Speaker 1: we didn't create a category. We just came up with
8:59
Speaker 1: a new, new, and improved version of an existing product.
9:02
Speaker 1: And for most of our podcast listeners and for most innovators,
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Speaker 1: that's what most people do. Very very few people have
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Speaker 1: the privilege or the brilliance to create a brand new category. Essentially,
9:12
Speaker 1: we're dropping into industries and markets and we're looking for
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Speaker 1: new ways to do things that for in most cases
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Speaker 1: have been being done for many, many years, or just
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Speaker 1: a different way, just to do it in a different way. Right,
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Speaker 1: So it's new, a new approach, an improved product or
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Speaker 1: improved approach, and then constantly looking for ways to improve.
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Speaker 1: And I knew we had to keep improving on our improvement.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's unpack those and what that actually might
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Speaker 2: look like.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, new, improved, improving. Let's start with new. This is
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Speaker 1: that you may push back on this or resist this,
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Speaker 1: but just think about it. Anything new creates some sense
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Speaker 1: of momentum. It doesn't have to be good, it can
9:52
Speaker 1: be bad. But new triggers momentum always because anything new
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Speaker 1: triggers interest, It gets attention initially anyway, and that has
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Speaker 1: its own sense of momentum. So new, by definition, generates
10:03
Speaker 1: some kind of momentium. It can be positive or negative.
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Speaker 1: This may be a terrible illustrator, Suzi, so you may
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Speaker 1: edit this out later, but just just go with me.
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Speaker 1: Imagine if Chick fil A announced the Chick fil A burger.
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Speaker 1: They and they marketed this new idea around the chickens
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Speaker 1: get their revenge as they would. Yes, right, okay, so
10:24
Speaker 1: this is probably a terrible idea, but it would create momentum.
10:29
Speaker 1: Initially people would try the Chick fil A burger. They
10:33
Speaker 1: would sell a ton of Chick filabor even if they
10:35
Speaker 1: were terrible. They wouldn't even have to do much marketing.
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Speaker 1: Word would get out. There would be all this interest
10:41
Speaker 1: in the Chick fil A burger, even if it tasted
10:43
Speaker 1: terrible and it was a terrible product. I just say
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Speaker 1: that to say, anything new again carries its own sense
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Speaker 1: of momentum. This is the power of new. Now here's
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Speaker 1: an actual example. Some of you listening can remember this.
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Speaker 1: Do you remember the New Coke? Ah, yes, you're staying
10:58
Speaker 1: with the atlantathem. I see, yes, the New Coke. I
11:01
Speaker 1: remember New Coke. And that wasn't even the name of it.
11:04
Speaker 1: That was just the nickname. Because what they did. For
11:07
Speaker 1: those of you don't remember this, what happened around nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty five or so of the mid or late eighties,
11:13
Speaker 1: Coca Cola had been losing market share to diet soft
11:17
Speaker 1: drinks actually for several years, because consumers began to prefer
11:21
Speaker 1: the sweeter taste of other products, especially I hate to
11:24
Speaker 1: even say this, in the city of Atlanta, Pepsi cola. Yeah,
11:27
Speaker 1: Pepsi right, So, Coca Cola, have you remember this? They
11:31
Speaker 1: actually changed the recipe formula. They changed the formula for
11:36
Speaker 1: Coca Cola, right, and it got so much attention. There
11:39
Speaker 1: was initially all this interest and hype and momentum, but
11:44
Speaker 1: the Coca Cola fans hated what became branded as the
11:48
Speaker 1: New Coke, and the company reintroduced the formula. This was shocking.
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Speaker 1: I looked this up because I couldn't remember. They reintroduced
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Speaker 1: the old formula in three months. It was that quick.
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Speaker 1: I remember it was quick. I didn't think it was
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Speaker 1: that quick. They only let the new formula run for
12:04
Speaker 1: about three months, and there was so much backlash, but
12:08
Speaker 1: there was so much interest. There was, in a negative sense,
12:12
Speaker 1: momentum again, everybody paid attention, everybody sat up straight. And
12:16
Speaker 1: and then here's the I don't know if this is
12:19
Speaker 1: an irony or not, but then when they went back
12:22
Speaker 1: to the original formula, Coca Cola sales skyrocketed. In fact,
12:28
Speaker 1: the sales went up so much people began to wonder
12:31
Speaker 1: if maybe this was a marketing scheme that they had,
12:34
Speaker 1: this was a ploy they had actually messed with, which
12:36
Speaker 1: I don't think that's possible. They messed with the formula
12:38
Speaker 1: on purpose in order to do all this, I don't
12:40
Speaker 1: think so.
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Speaker 2: No, the reality, it's probably they got the new part.
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Speaker 2: They just didn't get the improved part.
12:45
Speaker 1: Right. Well, there you go exactly that. Hey, what a
12:47
Speaker 1: great segue. Right, They got new, but it wasn't improved,
12:51
Speaker 1: but it still generated interest because new creates its own momentum.
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Speaker 2: Right, So in this case, they got the new part right,
12:59
Speaker 2: but they definitely did not get the improved part.
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Speaker 1: Exactly. The new code created its own momentum as and
13:03
Speaker 1: it got attention, but it did not increase sales because
13:07
Speaker 1: it wasn't improved.
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Speaker 2: So while we're on new, new doesn't actually have to
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Speaker 2: be a new product.
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Speaker 1: Right right, because a lot of people aren't in the
13:16
Speaker 1: product business. It's products, their services. Organizational momentum actually is triggered,
13:21
Speaker 1: just as I've studied this by usually one of three
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Speaker 1: new things. It can be new leadership, it can be
13:28
Speaker 1: a new direction for an organization. Or again, it can
13:32
Speaker 1: be a new product or a new line of products,
13:34
Speaker 1: or a new service. So it can be new leadership.
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Speaker 1: It could be a new direction or a new line
13:38
Speaker 1: of products and services. But momentum is rarely triggered by
13:42
Speaker 1: and this is one of the things that I think
13:44
Speaker 1: we struggled with when we found ourselves losing momentum. Momentum
13:48
Speaker 1: is rarely triggered by maybe never, but I'll just say rarely.
13:52
Speaker 1: Momentum is rarely triggered by tweaking something old. It's always
13:57
Speaker 1: creator generated by embracing something new. Again, doesn't have to
14:01
Speaker 1: be a new product or service. It could be new leadership,
14:03
Speaker 1: new direction. But tweaking doesn't create momentum, even though that's
14:07
Speaker 1: necessary from time to time, it needs to be something
14:09
Speaker 1: that at least is experienced as brand new. Yeah.
14:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, But in organizational life, I feel like when momentum lags,
14:17
Speaker 2: organizations tend to default to replacing the leader with a
14:20
Speaker 2: new leader or leaders.
14:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. Why why do you think that is? Well, it's
14:24
Speaker 1: the easiest thing to do. Yeah, I mean that is true.
14:27
Speaker 1: Fixing an actual problem that's too much work. It's so much,
14:30
Speaker 1: so much, well, discovering the actual problem, right, and then
14:34
Speaker 1: so much work then having the courage to fix it. Yeah,
14:37
Speaker 1: and too. In the fifth discipline, Peter Singe, I think
14:40
Speaker 1: that's how you say his last name. He talks about
14:42
Speaker 1: that it's human nature when it comes to blame, to
14:45
Speaker 1: begin by blaming a person. Then number two is you
14:49
Speaker 1: might blame human nature, that's just how people are. And
14:51
Speaker 1: then number three you actually blame systems. And he says,
14:54
Speaker 1: you got to flip it. You should always begin with
14:56
Speaker 1: systems human nature to the person. But an organizational life,
14:59
Speaker 1: especially corporate life, is like, let's just fire this guy,
15:02
Speaker 1: let's fire her, get somebody. Yeah, that he or she
15:06
Speaker 1: has to be the problem. So it's just human nature
15:08
Speaker 1: to blame a person again. Replacing a leaders easy compared
15:11
Speaker 1: to real systemic change. It's quick, it feels like progress.
15:14
Speaker 1: We're changing things around here, And while changing out leader
15:18
Speaker 1: can certainly be the right move, it isn't always the
15:21
Speaker 1: right or the wisest move. Right sure, thing's flagged on
15:25
Speaker 1: their watch, A wise border manager is going to pay
15:27
Speaker 1: attention to factors beyond the control of any individual leader.
15:31
Speaker 1: But when it's apparent that a leader is out of tricks,
15:34
Speaker 1: you know they just aren't going to be able to
15:35
Speaker 1: fix this thing or turn it around. That maybe they
15:38
Speaker 1: appeared more competent than they really were because of all
15:40
Speaker 1: the positive factors that they inherited. Right when they got
15:44
Speaker 1: in front of this parade that they had no control over,
15:46
Speaker 1: you know it may be time to make a change again.
15:48
Speaker 1: I don't want to downplay this. There's obviously a time
15:51
Speaker 1: and a place for a new leader. And when you
15:52
Speaker 1: bring in a new leader, there's going to be some momentum.
15:55
Speaker 1: Even if you bring in the wrong leader for a minute.
15:57
Speaker 1: For a minute, right, a new leadership well create some momentum.
16:02
Speaker 1: New leadership causes everybody to sit up straight and pay attention.
16:05
Speaker 1: That's always a good thing. But they better have more
16:07
Speaker 1: to offer than a new last name on the door,
16:10
Speaker 1: which if I can, which I think this is important.
16:13
Speaker 1: This brings us to something I know we talk a
16:15
Speaker 1: lot about on the podcast, but it so intersects with
16:18
Speaker 1: this topic. We stay have the time that organizations do
16:21
Speaker 1: what they're organized to do. Organizations do what they're organized
16:24
Speaker 1: to do, not what the leader of the organization tells
16:27
Speaker 1: the organization to do. The point being that new leadership,
16:31
Speaker 1: even good new leadership, isn't enough to create momentum or
16:35
Speaker 1: fix the momentum problem if they're not willing, as you
16:38
Speaker 1: alluded to a few minutes ago, to dig down deep
16:40
Speaker 1: and make the systemic change that is usually the problem
16:43
Speaker 1: related to that. And then here's the bad news, a
16:45
Speaker 1: dose of reality to all of you organizational leaders out
16:48
Speaker 1: there or department managers. And you may want to write
16:52
Speaker 1: this down later. I used to have this written somewhere
16:54
Speaker 1: where I looked at it all the time, but I've
16:56
Speaker 1: replaced it with more positive things. Your organization is perfectly
17:04
Speaker 1: designed to get the results you are currently getting. Isn't
17:08
Speaker 1: that a depressing thought unless you.
17:09
Speaker 2: Haven't any.
17:11
Speaker 1: This is the reality check, and this is why it's
17:15
Speaker 1: generally not enough to just bring in a new leader
17:17
Speaker 1: unless they're willing to dig down and make the difficult,
17:19
Speaker 1: the difficult decisions your organization. Our organization is perfectly designed
17:24
Speaker 1: to get the results we are currently getting. So if
17:26
Speaker 1: there's a loss of momentum, your organization is perfectly designed
17:32
Speaker 1: to maintain back your loss of momentum. If I wanted
17:36
Speaker 1: to lose momentum in your industry, I could just study
17:39
Speaker 1: your company and go Hi, there's how it works, right again,
17:41
Speaker 1: A new last name on the door is going to
17:43
Speaker 1: change that. New faces combined with existing systems and products,
17:47
Speaker 1: they generally yield the same results. So, and this is
17:50
Speaker 1: a big topic when considering a leadership change in an
17:53
Speaker 1: area organization that lacks momentum. Owners, boards, decision makers. They
17:59
Speaker 1: need to decide ahead of time what they're willing and
18:02
Speaker 1: not willing to give up or change or throw out
18:06
Speaker 1: or abandon Otherwise you know this. Otherwise the new leader
18:08
Speaker 1: isn't going to be empowered to lead or make the
18:10
Speaker 1: changes that are necessary to fix the problem. It wouldn't
18:13
Speaker 1: work anyway, exactly. They won't have the leverage they need
18:15
Speaker 1: to pull the org out of the nosedive. On a
18:18
Speaker 1: previous podcast, years ago we talked about the old couches.
18:22
Speaker 1: You know, people fall in love with things about the organization.
18:25
Speaker 1: They bring in the new leader. We want to change things,
18:28
Speaker 1: it's all. But you can't change that not bad thing.
18:30
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm hyper sensitive to that because in our industry,
18:34
Speaker 1: my industry, the church industry, this happens all the time. Yeah,
18:38
Speaker 1: you know, the church says, oh, we want to change,
18:41
Speaker 1: we want to reach young families, we want to reach
18:43
Speaker 1: new people. And they bring in the young pastor and
18:45
Speaker 1: the young pastor and his wife, and oh, we're just
18:48
Speaker 1: so excited. We want change. And everybody wants change until
18:52
Speaker 1: you change something, until it's something they care about exactly.
18:56
Speaker 1: Everybody loves change until it change begins to happen. So
18:59
Speaker 1: an organizational life, sometimes there's a little bit more leverage.
19:01
Speaker 1: In church life. It can be a disaster. But if
19:05
Speaker 1: momentum is a problem, and if a new leader is
19:07
Speaker 1: the solution, the leader has to have the leverage or
19:11
Speaker 1: be given the leverage to make the changes because tweaking
19:15
Speaker 1: something old does not create new momentum. That never ever works.
19:19
Speaker 1: But there's always the temptation because tweaking is less expensive,
19:23
Speaker 1: tweaking is less disruptive and tweaking is far less risky.
19:27
Speaker 1: But overall change are overhauling an organization, making big change.
19:32
Speaker 1: It's usually very expensive and very painful and very very emotional.
19:36
Speaker 1: Back to our conversation in just a moment before that,
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Speaker 1: now back to today's episode, let's talk.
21:14
Speaker 2: About the second component of momentum, which is improved, new
21:18
Speaker 2: and improved. How can leaders ensure that their initiatives are
21:22
Speaker 2: significant improvements over the old ones and not just different
21:27
Speaker 2: for different sakes.
21:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, we we just touched on that. A little bit
21:29
Speaker 1: of tweak never works, and that's the case. How do
21:33
Speaker 1: you know what enough is enough? Yeah? Different isn't always
21:35
Speaker 1: an improvement. Sometimes different is just different. I mean, the
21:38
Speaker 1: new Coke was new, it just wasn't an improvement. So
21:44
Speaker 1: the new must be and must be effectively marketed to
21:48
Speaker 1: be an actual noticeable improvement. Let me say that again,
21:52
Speaker 1: whatever the new is, it must be an improvement. But
21:56
Speaker 1: more than that, it has to be marketed as an improvement,
22:00
Speaker 1: and it has to be an actual noticeable improvement. When
22:03
Speaker 1: people pick up the new product or the new version
22:05
Speaker 1: of the product, they need to come away thinking, while
22:08
Speaker 1: this really is an improvement. It's an improvement over what
22:11
Speaker 1: you used to sell, and it's an improvement over what
22:14
Speaker 1: the competitor sells. It's not a new category, but it's
22:18
Speaker 1: a new, improved version of whatever it was that I
22:20
Speaker 1: was using before, a service that I was using before. Again,
22:24
Speaker 1: this illustration has been used in so many ways. I
22:26
Speaker 1: almost didn't put it in my notes, but I mean,
22:29
Speaker 1: the iPhone wasn't a tweak. No, it wasn't like, oh,
22:34
Speaker 1: it's a better flip phone. It was what is that exactly?
22:38
Speaker 1: It was not a tweak. Well, eventually it became a
22:41
Speaker 1: new category, it did, but initially it was just a
22:43
Speaker 1: different kind of phone. But it was new, and oh
22:46
Speaker 1: my goodness, it was improved. Right, It was essentially a
22:49
Speaker 1: new and vastly improved product. So, you know, looking back
22:53
Speaker 1: on our own organization, our approach to church thirty years ago.
22:57
Speaker 1: Hard to say that thirty years ago was new and
23:00
Speaker 1: we were convinced anyway that it was a significantly improved
23:04
Speaker 1: version of church. Church wasn't new again. We didn't create
23:07
Speaker 1: a new category, but our approach was it was new
23:10
Speaker 1: and it was improved. Our approach to children's environments and
23:13
Speaker 1: communicating new and improved. Again, we didn't create a new category.
23:17
Speaker 1: We created a new and improved version of an existing
23:20
Speaker 1: category again, which is the context that most of our
23:22
Speaker 1: podcast listeners are working in. So new and improved, but
23:26
Speaker 1: it has to be noticeably improved. It has to be
23:29
Speaker 1: marketed as improved, and then it has to be experienced
23:33
Speaker 1: as improved, new and improved.
23:35
Speaker 2: So we're leading a department or an organization and we've
23:38
Speaker 2: introduced something new and we've confirmed that's a noticeable improvement
23:42
Speaker 2: over the old, but we're still not done yet. Continuous
23:46
Speaker 2: improvement is so crucial for a sustained momentum, which brings
23:49
Speaker 2: us to the third component that you mentioned at the top,
23:51
Speaker 2: which is improving.
23:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is this is the harder one, I bet. Yeah.
23:56
Speaker 1: Is this never ends? Right? Yeah? Always? You know many
24:00
Speaker 1: people they if we're lucky enough, we get to ride
24:04
Speaker 1: the momentum maybe once in a lifetime of something new
24:07
Speaker 1: and improved, right, I mean, it's it's rare, and it's difficult.
24:10
Speaker 1: But even if you have new and improved, it has
24:13
Speaker 1: to be improving. So let's talk a little bit about that.
24:15
Speaker 1: And here's here's a field trip suggestion. Okay, and this
24:18
Speaker 1: is where I got this idea all those years ago.
24:20
Speaker 1: Go to the grocery store and look for the following
24:24
Speaker 1: on boxes and packages, new and improved, new and improved.
24:29
Speaker 1: And what you discover you'll see new and improved on
24:32
Speaker 1: products that have been around for decades, decades, especially detergents. Yeah,
24:38
Speaker 1: cleaning products, cleaning products, cleaning products, new and improved, new
24:41
Speaker 1: and improved, and they are probably actually improved, but who knows, right,
24:46
Speaker 1: But even putting that on the labels effective, you think
24:48
Speaker 1: as a show, and they know that. Marketers know whether
24:51
Speaker 1: it's actually that or that improved. If it says new
24:54
Speaker 1: and improved, I'm more prone to pick that up than
24:57
Speaker 1: even the same brand that does that say new and improved.
25:02
Speaker 1: And what it communicates to the customers this We're still
25:05
Speaker 1: working on it. We're still working on it. We're still
25:07
Speaker 1: working on it. We're still working on it to make
25:09
Speaker 1: it better. Stick with us, Stick with us, stick with us.
25:12
Speaker 2: We care about you.
25:13
Speaker 1: We're trying to make it better for you, right for
25:15
Speaker 1: riding our past success. We're constantly trying to make this better.
25:19
Speaker 1: Consumers are unaware of the exact value offered by new
25:22
Speaker 1: and improved. We want it, but we want it and
25:25
Speaker 1: then we consequently we stick with stick with our brand.
25:28
Speaker 1: So there's something emotional and mental about that phrase new
25:31
Speaker 1: and improved. My point is even the perception of new
25:34
Speaker 1: and improved helps sustain momentum. So new improved it's best
25:38
Speaker 1: if it's actually improving. But even if customers think it's improving,
25:43
Speaker 1: there's something about brand loyalty and the idea of their
25:47
Speaker 1: making it better. They're making it better.
25:49
Speaker 2: So really, the big question that's in front of us
25:51
Speaker 2: is how can organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement.
25:57
Speaker 1: Well, that's a podcast for another day. That's a huge topic, right,
26:01
Speaker 1: I mean the whole subject of continuous improvement. I mean
26:04
Speaker 1: book written. Yeah, books have been written on that. So
26:07
Speaker 1: just you know quickly, for our organization, our answer to
26:11
Speaker 1: that is orchestration, evaluation innovation, orchestration evaluation innovation, or organtation
26:16
Speaker 1: evaluation and then acting on the evaluation orchestrate. This is
26:20
Speaker 1: how we do it here, evaluate, how do we make
26:22
Speaker 1: it better, innovate or activates. The other words sometimes we
26:26
Speaker 1: use is Okay, let's take what we learned in our
26:28
Speaker 1: evaluation and let's apply it. And so it's that cycle
26:33
Speaker 1: and building that into the culture of an organization is
26:36
Speaker 1: how you keep your eye on the ball of continuous
26:38
Speaker 1: improvement and the other thing. And you know, we as
26:42
Speaker 1: a group of churches, we don't compete with other churches,
26:45
Speaker 1: but we constantly learn from other churches. In fact, our
26:48
Speaker 1: administrative teams they go and meet with teams of people
26:51
Speaker 1: who are running similar size, multi site churches, and we
26:54
Speaker 1: learn from each other because it's not competition, but in
26:57
Speaker 1: the marketplace, paying attention to competition and is another challenge.
27:01
Speaker 1: It's a kick in the rear end in terms of
27:03
Speaker 1: continuous improvement. I know that the home depot exects from
27:07
Speaker 1: time to time walk the aisles and shop at lows, right,
27:10
Speaker 1: and hopefully the Low's execs do the same at the
27:13
Speaker 1: home depots or they should, Yeah, because that's where your challenge.
27:16
Speaker 1: That's when you realize we have to keep up. That's
27:18
Speaker 1: when you realize if we cloister ourselves and just ride
27:22
Speaker 1: on our current momentum again, the clock is ticking backwards. Yeah,
27:27
Speaker 1: and that really is the incentive and what incentivizes us
27:30
Speaker 1: to pursue continuous improvement. And when you love your product,
27:35
Speaker 1: when you love your company, when you love the people
27:37
Speaker 1: you work with, there's something in all of us that
27:39
Speaker 1: wants to just keep making it better. So it's new
27:43
Speaker 1: improved in the endless process of improving.
27:47
Speaker 2: So, as we've talked about the essential elements of creating
27:50
Speaker 2: and sinsating, momentum are new, improved and improving. So as
27:53
Speaker 2: we wrap up today, are there some momentum inhibitors?
27:57
Speaker 1: Like anything come to mind?
27:59
Speaker 2: Is the leaders should watch out for as they're thinking
28:02
Speaker 2: about this in their own organization.
28:04
Speaker 1: The things that undermine momentum. Yes, yes, again that's a
28:09
Speaker 1: podcast for another day. I mean that really the list
28:12
Speaker 1: is endless. I mean we've already talked about some fall
28:15
Speaker 1: in love with your business model that's an inhibitor, fall
28:19
Speaker 1: in love with the product, fall in love even with
28:21
Speaker 1: a process. All of those things are going to eventually
28:24
Speaker 1: slower kill momentum because things are changing, right, launching a
28:28
Speaker 1: great product too soon We've seen that launching a good
28:31
Speaker 1: product or service before it's really ready to be rolled out,
28:34
Speaker 1: that just oftentimes kills momentum, even with a really great
28:37
Speaker 1: idea or product or service, or when the product doesn't
28:41
Speaker 1: live up to the hype, if you overmarke it, overhype it,
28:44
Speaker 1: that kills momentum, I mean, and oftentimes it's hard to
28:47
Speaker 1: resurrect even a good product if that's the case. Organizationally,
28:51
Speaker 1: micromanaging kills initiative, which kills momentum. Organizational complexity can kill momentum. Again,
28:59
Speaker 1: another thing we talk about all the time on the podcast,
29:01
Speaker 1: A culture of suspicion kills transparency. If you kill transparency,
29:06
Speaker 1: it makes communication difficult, which keeps important information for making
29:09
Speaker 1: us way at the top, which ultimately kills momentum. So
29:13
Speaker 1: there are so many things that we talk about on
29:15
Speaker 1: the podcast in terms of creating healthy organizations that if
29:19
Speaker 1: you don't do kind of the trench work, if you
29:22
Speaker 1: don't do some of those difficult fundamental things, even if
29:25
Speaker 1: you have a great idea, the momentum is going to
29:29
Speaker 1: collapse on the strength of the current systems and on
29:33
Speaker 1: the health of the organization. So all of these things
29:35
Speaker 1: are critical the tangible and the tangible.
29:40
Speaker 2: Wow, that is a really big idea and I think
29:42
Speaker 2: that that is going to be something that we can
29:44
Speaker 2: dig in further and our Reverb podcast next week, because
29:48
Speaker 2: there's a lot to unpack there. But for today, that
29:51
Speaker 2: is all the time we have to our listeners. Thanks
29:54
Speaker 2: for listening, and before we leave, we have one ask
29:57
Speaker 2: and this is the only thing that we would like
29:59
Speaker 2: to to ask you on this podcast, and that is
30:02
Speaker 2: to subscribe. By subscribing, you're gonna help us grow our audience,
30:06
Speaker 2: which allows us to keep improving it is and bring
30:10
Speaker 2: you great guests and great content to help you as
30:12
Speaker 2: a leader, go further faster. So please subscribe to our podcast. Also,
30:17
Speaker 2: as always, be sure to visit the Andy Stanley dot
30:20
Speaker 2: com website where you can download the Leadership Podcast application
30:24
Speaker 2: guide that includes a summary of our discussion plus questions
30:26
Speaker 2: for reflection or group discussion. And as we just mentioned,
30:30
Speaker 2: join us next week for our Reverb episode where Andy
30:33
Speaker 2: and I will dig even deeper into this topic of
30:35
Speaker 2: creating and sustaining momentum with a focus on the evaluation aspect.
30:40
Speaker 2: And that's going to happen right here on the Andy
30:42
Speaker 2: Stanley Leadership Podcast