Book Review of Sticky Leaders: The Secret to Lasting Change and Innovation by Larry Osborne
Sticky Leaders: The Secret to Lasting Change and Innovation
by Larry Osborne
(Zondervan, 2016). 176 pages. $16.99
As a relatively new pastor of a church struggling to find a path to vibrant life in the post-modern world, Larry Osborne’s beginning provocative statements in Sticky Leaders caught me by both surprise and intrigue. I was eager for more of his wisdom because, without a proper footing in today’s world, the church will experience a slow death. To be sure, his wisdom does not merely counsel the declining church. This wisdom applies to any kind of business or organization but particularly demands the attention of church and non-profit organization leaders.
Osborne begins with what might be called a peculiar and loaded negative: Prepare for Failure (chapter 1). By the time the instinctive question, “Why the heck should I prepare for failure?,” arises, you are hooked and must read further to discover more of Osborn’s peculiar aphorisms. He does not disappoint.
When Osborne asserts leaders to “prepare for failure,” he is quite serious that those courageous enough to risk failure for the chance to succeed may do so where no one else has or has dared to try. Given that many attempts at innovation fail (Osborne says failure at innovation is common), leaders have to plan for failure with flexible strategies and expectations and readiness to adjust to reach articulated goals. Of course, an organization’s goals must be astute, clear in their objectives, and communicated repeatedly to all stakeholders. This is crucial in any organization but is especially so for churches because they function primarily by volunteerism. People more easily follow a leader whose vision makes sense and is clearly communicated, enhancing the buy-in of the vision itself. Osborne advises leaders to be intentional about finding innovators and change agents inside their organizations and to permit them to try new ideas. Although some ideas will fail for any kind of organization, permission to explore is necessary for growth and survival. Maintaining the status quo is a death wish.
Along with advising leaders to prepare for failure, Osborne urges that these pioneers “have an exit strategy.” Leaders must maintain a high degree of flexibility in order to make adjustments as energy is channeled into a new program, structure or strategy. Flexibility enables proactive reactions to obstacles and missteps. This includes knowing when to terminate a project or one’s involvement with a modicum of grace.
Most gratifying in Osborne’s treatment of innovation and change are the anecdotes he provides from his own experience as a pastor. Those experiences include illustrations of failure as well as successes. That is important to his credibility as a writer, but more importantly, the anecdotes allow the reader to see how Osborne’s principles of leadership and innovation have transpired for him in real life situations. From them, the reader visualizes that the key to innovation is being flexible enough to adapt to the new while having a graceful exit strategy for experiments that do not work.
Osborne’s Chapter 6, Why Your Biggest Problems May Be Your Greatest Blessings, resonates with me most. Cogent innovators are those who evaluate their circumstances and commit their time and energy to the consequential elements of their organization. Osborne suggests that the “art” of determining what is most important to change begins with asking “What frustrates me the most?” or “What’s broken the most?” Evaluating and answering those questions helps identify the core of organizational activity that most needs innovation. Further, if a leader has gathered genuine change agents in the leadership team, the leader has but to allow those individuals to pursue “crazy” ideas to see change. The leader becomes the benefactor of the innovators and uses his/her influence to block obstacles to trying new ideas.
When considering the question “What’s broken the most?,” Osborne advises attacking problems head on. A great deterrent to leadership is avoiding problems. “Your greatest insurmountable problems often will contain the seeds of your most significant innovations.” Osborne cites the example of his own mega-church in its growing stages. Over-crowding was a problem for a church that wanted to reach new people because new people may not tolerate problems (like poor parking) that regulars do. The church resolved to create multiple “video venues” that would allow different cites to share the same preached word while having individual worship styles. Osborne reports that many thought the idea was crazy, but his church grew from a capacity of five hundred to accommodating over five thousand per weekend in the space of two years. Launching an innovative solution to the church’s most significant problem resulted in phenomenal growth. Osborne ends this chapter by providing a series of helpful questions leadership teams can ask to think through their most significant frustrations, including questions like: “What are we doing that makes absolutely no sense?”
In the section of the book captioned Accelerating Innovation, Osborne discusses the importance of mission statements and notes that many such statements are nothing more than clichés and slogans that do little to help an organization advance its cause. A mission statement, he says, must be ruthlessly honest, widely known and broadly accepted. He argues that a mission statement is aimed at insiders, helping them see the target, while marketing should be aimed at the target audience. That may seem axiomatic but Osborne posits that many organizations actually confuse mission and marketing. Further, he warns against mission statements that are too long for people to remember. The mission statement must be well communicated and repeatedly communicated to assure broad acceptance and to weed out people who have contrary agendas. A clear mission statement helps the leaders and the organization focus on important matters and identify those things that impede progress toward the ultimate goal.
Other principles Osborne champions include: a bias for action, changing traditions and the role of the leader in creating and sustaining vision. Regarding the importance of vision, he notes that a well thought out vision helps clarify an organization’s priorities. Understanding priorities and keeping them focused can drive the innovation necessary for the organization’s mission to progress.
Osborne provides an easy to read and refreshing addition to the writings on leadership and innovation. He does not explain why he calls this book Sticky Leaders, so I offer my own conclusion. Sticky leaders are not just those who can stick to the task at hand, as important as that may be. Sticky leaders know to stick with innovators who offer ideas that may seem crazy but carry the potential of breaking through the twin barriers of tradition and status quo thinking. For many organizations, status quo thinking and the bonds of tradition may result in their slow deaths. Sticky leaders celebrate innovative and creative thinking which may not guarantee success but uncover pathways to vibrant organizations.
