What’s the Big Deal About a Wrong Seat?

OK. So we have acknowledged that there are different kinds of seats on the bus. Why is this so important? Would it really be that big of a deal if team members picked their seats? What if someone who sits in the middle of the bus decides they would really like to hang out in the back of the bus? Shouldn’t we let them?

Do you remember where you sat on the bus when you were a grade-schooler or teenager? It’s pretty likely that, although you perhaps thought you would enjoy sitting somewhere else, if you did you would have felt really out of place. Or perhaps your parents made you sit in the front and you couldn’t wait for the ride to get over?

The point is, team members should be placed on the RIGHT team for their OWN benefit as well as the benefit of your organization. This is especially true when it comes to identifying who should be on your strategic team. It’s not for everyone to sit in the back of the bus. The conversations taking place in healthy strategy meetings will include honest and open assessments of current ministry, big picture brainstorming, and plans to make both small and large shifts and changes in your organization. Some of those conversations are enough to send your average “tactically-minded” team member to counselling for weeks.

Here are some signs you may have the wrong person in the wrong seat in Strategic Meetings:

• He rarely speaks during the meeting.
• She often fidgets or is disengaged from the conversations.
• When he does share, his comments seem to reflect a misunderstanding of the general direction of the discussion.
• She seems distressed during the meeting most of the time.
• He constantly brings up reasons why ideas won’t work.
• She regularly resents or defends ministry evaluations.
• He is emotionally exhausted after each of the meetings.
• She gets overwhelmed and excessively emotional during or after the meeting.
• He keeps turning the conversation towards the details – “Who is going to do that?”, “Where will we get the money?”, “How will we ever be able to recruit people to get involved?”, etc.