Constant Change Good?

I’m not a political analyst and honestly sometimes, the political system seems confusing. One thing for certain is that there is always someone campaigning as the next better deal. I understand the benefit of not having a life-time dictator since we’ve seen so many dictators being overthrown in the past decade. People want freedom, freedom to prosper as individuals. Yet my questions is how much meaningful progress can be made in a four year span?

What decides whether the person voted in is making a real difference or not, especially when there is literally a constant change in staff, administration and representatives? Those now voted in are cleaning up the “mess” of the previous person’s work.  And what usually happens is that those who didn’t like the person voted in will quickly jump on the first “mistake” to prove that they were unqualified or incompetent to the lead positive growth for all.  So the banter begins again.  Republicans can do it, no they can’t -next! Democrats can do it, no they can’t -next. Independent can do it…next! These personnel changes most often bring changes in philosophy, methodology, personal opinion and unique motivation. People fight not only how issues can be solved, but whether the government should be ones to solve the issue.  I completely understand that all of these things are important to discuss and argue about. My question is simply whether this constant change in personnel can adequately solve any problem properly? In a sense (I’ll go ahead and say it), can anyone voted into office have a real chance to make a difference?  The answer is “they have to.”

So with all this change, what then can a leader really do? I believe the only thing a leader can do is to cast their vision and equip their “team” to make the right decisions.  Making a change in the system isn’t something that can happen in a year.  I like what a wise person once said:

“we often overestimate what we can do in a year, but underestimate what we can do in 5.”

Well, the leader, in this case the President, really only has one year terms when you think about it.  And eventually the burn out and frustration comes when all the decisions have to be made by the leader.  The leader gets into the trap of constructing all the new ways to solve problems.  The leader gets into the trap of talking to everyone available to formulate a plan of action.  The leader gets into the trap of being a “jack of all trades” and an expert in NOTHING. People loose the vision of what the goal is because the longer we move away from the reason we started, the more we forget why we started. Suddenly, there are a bunch of plans and solutions in place that go in a million different directions and often collide with one another or the system is turned upside down leaving some people left out to completely to defend for themselves against the new “solution”.  It quickly becomes evident that there is another need for the change cycle.

My thought for the leader is to constantly remain in one year term mode.  Constantly convey the vision, the reason why we do what we do. Teach it constantly to those who can make decisions.  Dev Patniak in “Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy” says:

“Real strategy is the aggregate of thousands of decisions that employees make over time. When you improve those decisions, you improve your strategy.”

Putting the decision making into the hands of experts and individuals who are all on the same direction sounds like a winning concept.  Getting people to point in the same direction is the hard part! So work on that. That’s how got you into office in the first place, the vision, the hope of individual progress. Remind yourself and your “team” and the country of the vision, the goal, the reason we started it all in the first place.

On a side note and maybe I should have made a different post, I believe this not only applies to politics, but it relates to the church as well.  Leaders aren’t called into the ministry to solve all the issues.  They are there to help people make wiser decisions in accordance with God’s pleasure and will to bring all people before Him as holy and blameless through Jesus Christ.  They are there to go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize them in the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything God says. They are there to help people do the work of ministering to others until we all reach: 1) the unity of faith, 2) the knowledge of the Son of God and 3) maturity. Ultimately, it’s always been about helping people love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves. Obviously, this is easier said than done.

Perhaps we can say that leaders are not there to make leaders. God calls men and woman to be leaders. Leaders are there to make followers, followers of Jesus Christ. Leaders are just really great followers who remained true to how and why they became one.