Fixing a messy situation
No matter what your experience is in ministry, sooner or later you will encounter a messy situation. It could be where you need to come in and fix a situation that went terribly wrong or you have to clean a situation up. Or it could be doing a rebuild of a once successful ministry that has fallen on really hard times.
Whatever it is, you don’t want to make a messy situation worse. So, what do you do? How do you bring resolution into a messy situation? Here are a few things I have done over the years as I’ve come in to fix messy situations:
- Find out all the details. Before any changes can be made and solutions put into place, you have to find out all the details and history. What is the history and how did it become messy? You want to know this because you don’t want to make the situation any messier…you want to fix and repair.
- Surround yourself with “fixers”. People who can be apart of the change and not contribute further to the demise. It’s all about finding the right people for this change.
- Inform others what your plan is. When people are involved in a messy situation they want to know how it will be fixed. So call together a meeting, send a letter or email and let people know what steps you are taking to “fix” the situation and make it better. They don’t have to know every detail but the more they know what you are doing, the more likely they will want to partner with you to fix it and come along side of you.
- Start making changes. Changes need to happen, yes, but change over time not overnight. Changing too much too quickly can make a messy situation messier.
So what do you think? How have you come in and resolved a messy situation? I’d love to hear them. Share your experiences below or on social media with the hashtag #ymsidekick so we can all be learning from each other.
