Do you feel your organization’s approach to strategic planning is inflexible and ineffective? Do you feel like you’re missing untapped opportunities? Roger Parrott, President of Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, suggests a new counterintuitive approach to traditional planning, an approach that shows you how unexpected opportunities may be the key to your future success.
Some of the distinctive qualities of Belhaven and why you've spent so much of your career in leadership in higher education (02:59)
"Belhaven is unique in a lot of ways. We are exceptional in the arts. We are the only Christian university in the world that is nationally accredited, which is a big deal, in all four of the major arts: music, theater, visual art, and dance." (03:31)
"So, you know, I think it's a time for education to think differently about how we help families and help students, and so we're trying to be creative and make that happen. And we're seeing it in enrollment and excitement for the future." (05:11)
Many colleges, ministries, and even Christian-led businesses are using a strategic planning model, and I particularly see this in Christian higher ed. And boards seem to like seeing organizational leaders present, let's say, five-year plans. You know, sometimes it's three years; sometimes it's five years; sometimes in the context of even ten years. But why do you advocate a different way of leadership? And I've heard you present this in a workshop. What’s the problem with long-range planning? (05:20)
"Yeah. I'm an advocate of getting rid of long-range planning entirely, for two reasons. One is it doesn't work. It doesn't work. We see how the plans we laid out, the world doesn't work that way. Growth doesn't happen in smooth, systematic upticks. The planning does not work. But more importantly than that, we are settling for less than God's best by planning." (05:53)
"Let's get that planning out of the way, and let's trust God to guide us into targets that are really of His direction, not limited by the best we can come up with around conference tables." (07:43)
"Planning focuses on deficiency. It focuses on what we don't have. Opportunity leadership focuses on what we do have. What are our mission, our strengths, and our capacity? What can we make happen if God would bless it and let it happen?" (08:52)
You've used the analogy of a sailboat rather than a powerboat to explain the concept of opportunity leadership, and how it differs from a traditional planning model. So help us understand the fundamental difference in leadership models that you've outlined there. (11:16)
"And the Christian community’s gotten pretty good at building very impressive powerboats that go and turn heads and go where we think God wants us to go, but we are ignoring the wind in the process. Instead, let's be a sailboat, to prepare to catch the wind of God and go wherever God's wind takes us." (12:13)
What are some initiatives that you and your team at Belhaven have taken to move forward by seizing opportunities rather than the destination planning? (14:55)
"You have to create a culture that can really be responsive to opportunities." (15:26)
You mentioned there are three criteria that you look for for new opportunities (18:51)
"Mission, gifting, and capacity" (18:59)
"First of all, it's the single best decision I've ever made as a leader, and it is freeing. I have such joy in leadership that I never had, because the burden’s not on me. This is God's name on this university, not mine. And if He wants us to flourish, we're going to flourish. If He doesn't want us to, He wants us to do something else, then that's fine. So there is a wonderful relaxation in freedom that I don't have to force things to happen." (24:27)
And here at BCWI, we're all about workplace culture and have employees who are engaged in their work. Share with us how opportunity leadership impacts workplace culture. You've already talked about, you know, changing the corporate culture. But what are some of the attributes of workplace culture that you need to create and emphasize where you're practicing opportunity leadership? (29:00)
"If you try opportunity leadership on your own as a leader, you won't get very far. Everybody's got to embrace it, all up and down the line. And so because of that, it's a broader dialog. It's learning from people wherever they are. I mean, the people on the front lines have got a lot more information than some of us in the corner office, and we've got to learn from them." (30:02)
You say that leaders need to be more like baseball managers than football coaches to create this kind of culture. What do you mean by that? (32:50)
"So, you know, we've gotten this thing in the Christian world where we want to be so precise and we want to win every single time, we're never even taking any chances on things where God might have the opportunity to work. And I want us to be more flexible, take the model of a baseball manager, who’s in the dugout; who’s quiet; who’s kind of working as their players are the focus, not the coach." (34:00)
To really listen to God and discern what He's bringing to your organization, how do you as a leader attend to your own spiritual health and also encourage those on your team to be attentive to God and be able to discern, you know, what God is saying and how He's leading? (35:01)
"I think you've got to be sensitive to, what is God saying through the godly people who are around you? because God uses those and, of course, Scripture and being, you know, systematic in study and those kinds of things are important." (36:02)
How are you and the board looking ahead to raise up the next generation of leaders for the university? And how does opportunity leadership work when it comes to succession planning? (37:10)
"And so as a CEO, my kind of guideline is I try not to do something anybody else on the campus could do. If somebody else could do it, I'm going to try not to do it." (38:20)
How is your organization developing emerging leaders? We believe a key role for every leader is to develop the next generation of leaders. And today,...
Would you like your leadership to be more inspirational? You might be thinking, "yes, but how do I develop it?" Steve Macchia, Founder and President...
Best Christian Workplaces : June, 06 2022
Best Christian Workplaces