Better to ask forgiveness than permission
I learn through argument.This is one reason that I learn well from quotes that just don't sit well with me. I found this one on Tony Morgan's blog. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to follow church leadership trends.
Anyway - here's the quote. It comes from Ed Catmull, President of Pixar (as in movies)
I don't have much argument with the idea that if everyone is afraid of (and trying to avoid errors) then that screws everything up. I think this is why Scripture is so clear that God loves us while we are sinnners and then once we turn ourselves over to Him, he works with us to re-form our lives. But He loves us before, during and after the reforms. So we strive for goodness and righteousness and holiness NOT out of a fear of screwing up, but with confidence knowing we are loved whether we succeed or not. For me this is huge.
I also agree with the idea that it's better to try to fix problems on the fly than to try to prevent them. I have some tendencies to get this wrong in practice. I am a perfectionist. I like fool proof plans. And sometimes that leads to paralysis. For me one of the most exciting things we've done at ICB over the last 2 and a half years is start our evening worship service. We started with about 5 committed people. Now we have a regular attendance of 45-50 people and there is significant ministry happening. The service almost never got started because there were some logistics I couldn't figure out how to make fool proof.
But here's my beef with the quote. See what you think. I think the notion that "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission" as a universal truth is a little ... scary. There is an arrogance to that. It's not collaborative at all. Most people I've known who operate by that mantra are extremely effective. They also leave a wake of hurt feelings and hurt people in their path. In business, maybe that's okay. The bottom line is more important than people. But in church - people are the bottom line.
Anyway - here's the quote. It comes from Ed Catmull, President of Pixar (as in movies)
The notion that you’re trying to control the process and prevent error screws things up. We all know the saying it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And everyone knows that, but I Think there is a corollary: if everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up. It’s better to fix problems than to prevent them. And the natural tendency for managers is to try and prevent error and over plan things.
I don't have much argument with the idea that if everyone is afraid of (and trying to avoid errors) then that screws everything up. I think this is why Scripture is so clear that God loves us while we are sinnners and then once we turn ourselves over to Him, he works with us to re-form our lives. But He loves us before, during and after the reforms. So we strive for goodness and righteousness and holiness NOT out of a fear of screwing up, but with confidence knowing we are loved whether we succeed or not. For me this is huge.
I also agree with the idea that it's better to try to fix problems on the fly than to try to prevent them. I have some tendencies to get this wrong in practice. I am a perfectionist. I like fool proof plans. And sometimes that leads to paralysis. For me one of the most exciting things we've done at ICB over the last 2 and a half years is start our evening worship service. We started with about 5 committed people. Now we have a regular attendance of 45-50 people and there is significant ministry happening. The service almost never got started because there were some logistics I couldn't figure out how to make fool proof.
But here's my beef with the quote. See what you think. I think the notion that "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission" as a universal truth is a little ... scary. There is an arrogance to that. It's not collaborative at all. Most people I've known who operate by that mantra are extremely effective. They also leave a wake of hurt feelings and hurt people in their path. In business, maybe that's okay. The bottom line is more important than people. But in church - people are the bottom line.
