Fresh Eyes: Q&A with Andy Stanley

One month ago, North Point Resources recorded its first installment of Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast. This podcast is a conversation designed to help leaders go further, faster.

In this first session, Andy explores the role assumptions play in an organization. He explains how to look at your organization with fresh eyes and initiate change when change is needed. Below is an excerpt of the recording.


NPR: You quoted Andy Grove, Former CEO of Intel Corporation, at this year’s Drive session entitled Random Thoughts on Leadership. What was the quote, and how is it impacting North Point Ministries?

Andy Stanley: “If we got kicked out, and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he or she do? Why don’t we just walk out, come back in, and do it ourselves?”

We asked ourselves if there were areas where we could be better stewards in terms of resources and finances. Looking through this lens, we evaluated two ministries that have been a large part of North Point since its inception 13 years ago: 7|22, a mid-week Bible study for single adults; and KidStuf, a weekly, Sunday family environment where kids bring their parents to learn together. Both of these ministries had tremendous emotional attachment associated with them. But we realized that they were no longer supporting our vision or our mission as effectively as they could be. Ultimately, we ended 7|22 and changed KidStuf to a monthly production.

NPR: You warn church leaders not to allow their love for a program to influence programming decisions. Talk a bit more about that.

Andy Stanley: When you create something, you always think it’s better than it is. Church programming is the same way. Every one of us is emotionally in love with the way we do ministry—regardless of whether it works.  It’s ok to be infatuated with programming, but don’t fall in love with it. Instead, fall in love with your mission and the vision of your organization. We were in love with KidStuf and 7|22, but that didn’t necessarily mean those ministries were serving our purpose or mission.

NPR: At Drive 2008, you talked about the need for “fresh eyes” in an organization. What did you mean by that?  

Andy Stanley: Fresh eyes means having the ability to see programming through the lens of vision and mission rather than emotion or experience. Fresh eyes can walk into an organization, see everything as brand new, and make adjustments, without considering emotions, opinions, or past experiences.  
            
NPR: You’ve recently asked your staff to spend some time discussing organizational assumptions. What did you discover?

Andy Stanley: There were two statements that have been driving our discussion on North Point’s organizational assumptions.

First, leaders must bring the underlying assumptions that drive company strategy into line with the changes in the external environment. In other words, as culture changes, we need to reexamine the things we’ve always assumed. Otherwise, we’re working off assumptions that don’t reflect cultural reality. One example of this is our assumption that all families look like our families—a mom, dad, and children—and this influences how we create our environments. But this is a false assumption—one that continues to drive our programming decisions.

Secondly, assumptions that a team has held the longest or the most deeply are the most likely to be its undoing. Some beliefs have come to appear so obvious that they are off limits for debate. A discussion around this idea gave us the fresh eyes to evaluate both 7|22 and KidStuf and make much needed changes.

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