Start with “Yes”: Foster a Culture of Innovation
As an executive pastor, it’s easy to become the weight to the church staffs’ balloons. The staff and pastors likely have big dreams and big visions, and then the executive pastor steps in with some version of, “Well, actually, we can’t do that.”
When I started as an executive pastor, I felt like I was constantly saying “no.” Money isn’t unlimited (not to mention it was all given to us by people within our church), and our time isn’t unlimited, either. There is always a cost to doing something - we always have to consider the opportunity cost of an idea (doing this one thing means we can’t do anything else with those same resources). When a staff member comes and requests more money or more resources, or pitches an entirely new church event, there’s a good chance we have to say “no.” At some point in an organization’s hierarchy, some manager or some executive deflates everyone’s balloon and kills the new idea.
It can be a bummer to be that guy. Yet, objectively, having someone filter the good ideas from the bad is very important. It’s part of what a leader has to do. I had to learn that while I didn’t love being the weight to everyone’s balloons, it was a crucial role to keep the team focused and certain about our decisions.
But over the years, I also learned that I could still facilitate thoughtful decisions without being the “no” guy, and it’s been extraordinarily helpful to build camaraderie with my team. All I did was make a simple, internal change in my head. I start with “yes.”
Whenever a team member comes to me with an idea, internally, I start with the assumption that my answer is going to be “yes” and that we’re going to get behind their proposal.
Do I mean I’m always saying “yes” to their ideas or requests? Not at all.
But the difference is that, by assuming that they know more than I do about a certain situation and that we need to do exactly what they’re proposing, I can quickly identify the obstacles that we’d need to overcome and begin problem solving those. And if we can’t problem solve those obstacles, or if the end cost seems too great for the potential benefit, then we’ll say “no.” But when we start with “yes,” we can actually discover new ideas we would never have considered before. That’s innovation. And it capitalizes on the greatest resource you have: your staff.
Let’s consider an example and compare two different responses and how they might lead to different results. Listen to this proposal from an associate pastor, John.
John: I think we should start a worship service for international people. I’ve been doing some research and there are 100 people moving to the city per month who are from another country. We could do a special service on Sunday nights when they can worship in their native languages and do Bible studies with other Christians based on their language, too. I’d be happy to set this up.
Starting with “No”
Me: That’s a neat idea, but I can see a lot of complications. We already have a worship service in the auditorium on Sunday nights and I don’t think anyone will want to move it. We’re not going to be able to worship in other languages because our worship guy only speaks English. We’d have to hire someone and there’s no more budget for personnel this year. Plus, there isn’t really a way to find those people who are moving to the city who are specifically not from the United States. It’s a neat idea, but I’m sure there are other ministries doing this kind of thing in the city already. If someone asks for a service in another language we’ll direct them to one of those ministries.
Starting with “Yes”
Me: Oh wow, that would be incredible. Something like that would really meet a spiritual need here and honestly, it would be like reaching the whole world at once. Ok, let’s figure some of this out. We’d have to move our current Sunday worship, but actually I think our people should be a part of this idea, so we could merge the two services. How do you think we could connect with international people new to the area? Although finding someone to lead worship in another language could take time, what if we simply started by putting lyrics on the screen in three or four languages? Do you think this idea could begin with your Bible study component and grow from there? Are there any other ministries doing this already that we could talk to?
Do you see the difference? In neither case did we give an answer, but our starting assumption was clearly different between the two responses.
The first one sees the potential issues and assumes that we’re going to end up saying no because these problems are too unsolvable or the costs are too great.
The second answer assumes that we’ve already decided we’re going to do it and that we’ve got to solve any problems that come up.
Which response is going to lead us to thoughtfully determine whether the idea is worth pursuing?
Starting with “no” assumes you already know the answers to any questions that will come up. It positions you as the smartest person in the room, and even on the off chance that were true, that’s an unhelpful message to send.
Starting with “yes” requires you to solve those questions and see what you can come up with. It also calls the staff member to take ownership of their idea. When I ask how they would solve some of the problems that might emerge with their idea, I’m challenging them. Will they do the hard work of solving these issues or will they give up right away? How much do they believe in this idea? How much have they already thought it through? Knowing those answers will likely affect my decision!
Even in our “start with yes” example here, we may not launch John’s international worship service. We didn’t actually commit to the idea. But even if we don’t, we’ve given John’s proposal proper thought and a fighting chance. We assumed John is a smart guy who identified a real need and opportunity that we should consider. John’s going to feel heard and valued as a team member and will know that you’re on his side, even if we don’t pursue every one of his ideas. There’s a good chance that if you both can reach the conclusion together, he’ll trust you even more in decisions in the future.
Starting with “yes” actually allows for new ideas to come to fruition, and we might end up doing John’s idea! In 20 years, we might look back and see that it was the best strategic move we ever made.
This is the only way to innovate. Local churches, like any organization, die when they don’t adapt. Your organization’s future is not the same as its past and what worked before will not be the best path forward. At some point, the most successful event you do in 2024 will no longer get you the same results.
New ideas are crucial and as leaders, we have to foster a culture of innovation.
A Story of the iPod Killer
If I can detour us from church-world to consumer-electronics-world, there’s a great example of this technique we can consider.
Leaders talk a lot about Apple Inc. because this company has so succeeded by smartly doing new things that most large companies would never risk. Even from the very introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, this company marketed itself as bucking traditional business ideas (at the time, as compared to IBM). It has, of course, paid off, and I’ve subsequently read a dozen books on the company (and naturally, 40 years later, I’m writing this blog on a Mac).
When’s the last time you used one of these (if ever)?
Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, (eventually) excelled at knowing how to pivot the company to not only survive, but grow at an unimaginable rate. In 1997, Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy and no marketshare higher than 2% for any product. Fast forward to just 10 years later and by 2007, Apple is flush with cash, cultural relevancy, and market dominance thanks to a wild bet that no one thought would pay off (even those within the company): the iPod.
Steve Jobs completely turned the company around in those 10 years with a few radical ideas that no sane business person of a standard, industry-leading company would have ever entertained, much less pursued. Including the development of the iPod.
But now, by 2007, Apple absolutely commanded the MP3 player market with the iPod line at 85% marketshare and billions in profit per quarter. When an organization is so successful with a product or an idea, like Apple was with the iPod, here’s what they tend to do next: protect it at all costs and don’t do anything that might risk its success. It’s the cash cow, our winning formula- protect it.
Think about your organization. When something is working well, let’s say a particular ministry, and a staff member comes up with a new idea that might jeopardize the future of that ministry, do you immediately dismiss the idea on the grounds that it might disrupt what is working well? Unfortunately, as leaders we can be prone to this error- the assumption that what makes us successful today will make us successful tomorrow. The problem is, the world changes around us either way.
If the iPod had been created by Microsoft and it represented 40% of Microsoft’s revenue, in 2007, they would have restructured the company to sell iPods until the end of time.
iPod sales by year. Can you tell when Apple introduced the iPhone?
But this is why leaders are so fascinated by Apple. In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the product that the executives of the company all knew (and openly discussed) would actually kill the iPod, their prized product that everyone else was chasing. In 2007, at the height of the iPod’s sales, Apple introduced the iPhone.
And sure enough, the iPhone did kill the iPod. iPod sales plummeted until it made so little money that Apple finally discontinued the product line entirely. In a few years, the iPod went from providing 40% of Apple’s revenue to less than 1%. If you want an iPod today, you’ll have to buy it on eBay.
But I don’t have to tell you that was one of the most savvy business moves in consumer electronics history, because there’s a good chance you’re reading this blog post on an iPhone right now. The iPod made billions of dollars; the iPhone has made trillions.
An early iPhone prototype
Today, you can look back and say, “of course that was the right decision.” But in the years and billions of R+D investment that were required to develop the iPhone, it wasn’t obvious.
In fact, when it did finally launch, industry leaders (like Microsoft) scoffed at the foolishness of the iPhone endeavor. There’s a great book called “The One Device” by Brian Merchant about how the iPhone came to be and frankly, it barely happened. If you worked at Apple in 2005, the iPhone prototype you would have seen would be the size of a pingpong table with a noisy projector and not an app to be found. Would you have looked at this pingpong table touchscreen, or the prototype with a click wheel, and foreseen the most successful consumer device in history? Most didn’t.
Someone had a wild idea. And the leaders started with “yes.”
It’s Not about the Answer; It’s about the Mindset
Starting with “yes” is all about my mindset and it dramatically changed my responses to requests from our staff. It’s actually not about whether you say “yes” or “no” more often, but staying open to new ideas, solving problems collaboratively, and getting behind your team.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure I actually green light ideas more often than I used to. To go back to our history lesson with Apple, Steve Jobs was famous for killing product ideas once it became clear to him that it was the wrong direction. The change is in our starting posture. Do we go into a proposal already prepared to kill it? Are we too quick to say “no?”
Starting with “yes” has totally shifted my conversations with staff. They know that I trust them and will earnestly hear out even their most harebrained ideas.
To return to the balloon metaphor, I am still the weight to my staffs’ balloon. But my goal is not to pull the balloon all the way down to earth - it’s actually to provide the conditions to allow it to fly to new heights without bursting. When I keep that in mind, we can dream about the future of our church together.
Learn how adopting a 'start with yes' approach can transform leadership style, fostering innovation and camaraderie in your organization.