In the business world you have the "research and development" department and you have the "manufacturing" department. In the manufacturing side of the business you want to have zero defects. Apples manufacturing department wants every iphone and every ipod to work 100% of the time, if you work in that department your core goal is to have defects and mistakes!! But if you take that core value and you super-impose it over the research and development department by telling the team to never make a mistake, guess what happens! You will never create anything!! You will never push any boundaries, break any limits or create anything new!!
In order to move into new territory we have to create a mindset and a culture where it's alright to make mistakes and make a mess. If we're going to change culture, bring the kingdom of heaven to earth and go up against the powers of darkness we are going to have to humble ourselves, step out of the zoo into the jungle and head on down to the research and development department for some training, because you're never going to be prepared for the jungle by staying in the zoo!!!
“The greatness of a man's power is in the measure of his surrender (to God).” William Booth
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide
RE "Research and Development vs Manufacturing"
ReplyDeleteVery good point Sam!! I agree 100 per-cent! I recently read an article by Mike Pilavachi talking about some business friends who returned from a skiing trip. I think it went something like this:
He asked them how many times did you fall over? Two of them answered that they'd both fallen several times and compared accounts on how dramatically they'd ended up making a meal of some of the jumps and routes they'd taken (with the bruises to prove it); The third guy proudly remarked that he hadn't fallen once during the entire skiing trip! He followed this statement by saying, "Clearly I'm the best at skiing!" Mike laughed and asked "Did you really not fall at all during the trip?" When the guy again said no, Mike laughed and said "Then you weren't skiing hard enough!" Turned out that the guy had barely attempted a difficult route or ventured onto the more harshly graded sections of the mountain whilst the other two men both improved their skiing grades as a result of the trip.
'Playing it safe' isn't always the best option when we want to develop! I suppose these types of account have some resonance with what the bible describes as 'refining in the furnace' (Psalm 66:10),(Isaiah 48:10),(1Peter1:7)etc, but it means we have to be willing to step into the fire and risk getting burnt (Daniel 3).