Customer Reviews

Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is something dysfunctional about most church boards, councils or governing committees, and to those trapped in the current systems it often seems that not much can be done about it. But in this book Larry Osborne offers a number of great insights into how a church board or a church staff can be coalesced into a great team, with the individual members working in unity for common goals rather than fighting each other for scarce resources.

The author defines unity in the context of a church leadership team as including doctrinal unity, respect and friendship, and philosophical unity. This means that someone who is a good Christian but who does not subscribe to your philosophy of ministry will not be a good candidate for your board. It also means that you need to apply effort and resources into training and growing your leadership team.

The ideas presented in the book include ways of reducing board conflict, recognizing changing team dynamics as a team grows, the need to play more to your strengths than to your weaknesses, the importance of clarifying the roles of pastor, staff and board, making room at the top for young leaders, providing adequate training to the board, how to get board, staff and congregational alignment, handling change, talking about money and salaries, and how to act when things go wrong.

This is probably the best book on church leadership team management that I have read. While acknowledging that there is no single right way to run a church, it provides plenty of creative ideas for overcoming many different intractable-seeming obstacles, and the discussion questions at the end make it suitable for church leadership teams to work their way through.

Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne is a leadership book with an emphasis on team-building. The author maintains, "Sticky teams stick together." And sticking together in difficult times is an indicator of health.

Osborne divides Sticky Teams into three parts, each designed to promote long-term unity and health in local church, which a special emphasis placed on the elder council, staff, and congregation.

Osborne stresses the three pillars of unity which includes doctrinal unity, respect and friendship, and philosophical unity.

He alerts the reader to transition points when growth takes place within a church and recommends different approaches (or "changing the game") for different contexts.

PART ONE: Landmines and Roadblocks

The author sets his sights on five roadblocks to unity: 1) meeting in the wrong place, 2) ignoring relationships, 3) not meeting often enough, 4) constant turnover, and 5) too many members.

Principles of protecting the unity of an elder council and church staff are discussed, what the author refers to as "guarding the gate." Osborne insists on maintaining high standards at the leadership level. Spiritual maturity is central. Leaders must be on the same philosophical page - they must agree on the overall direction of the church. Finally, leaders must work as a team relationally. There must be a relational match.

Osborne spends time focusing on clarification of roles at the board and staff level. "Healthy teams have great teamwork," he writes. "There's little role confusion, and everyone knows what the ultimate goal is."

PART TWO: Equipped for Ministry

Part two develops the importance of ministry alignment, mission, values, and methods. Healthy churches employ creative training opportunities for elders and staff members alike.

Osborne recommends scheduling monthly "shepherding meetings" to deal with "important but neglected priorities" and should focus on team building, training, and prayer.

The author discusses the importance of staff alignment which helps ensure the team agrees with the core values and priorities of the church. He argues that healthy teams are committed to a plumb line which may vary from church to church.

He also focuses on congregational alignment and includes five keys for maintaining the health of a given church:

1. A clear and simple mission statement

2. A front-loaded pastor's class

3. The drip method of preaching (where the core values and vision of the church are included in the regular preaching diet).

4. Sermon-based small groups

5. Short congregational meetings

PART THREE: Communication

Part three includes a host of practical suggestions for vibrant communication. Controversial topics are broached such as setting salaries, money management, and dealing with difficult staff members.

SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

I am certainly glad I read Sticky Teams. The author shares many stories that are rooted and tested in personal experience. I appreciate Osborne's heart for leadership development and his "down-to-earth"approach to ministry.

One critique is especially worth mentioning. The author places a great deal of attention on the importance of small groups, even to the exclusion of formal theological education. While I wholeheartedly embrace and endorse the use of small groups in the local church as a strategy of discipleship, I resist the notion that theological education should play "second-fiddle" or be excluded from the "performance" all-together.

I have seen first-hand the value of developing a strong theological education department in the local church context. The Christian mind must be educated, the affections must be engaged, the whole person must be equipped, and God-centered living must be encouraged. Therefore, the development of a rigorous theological education track is essential for biblical discipleship to take place.

3 stars

[...]

Dr. Larry Osborne serves as lead pastor of a growing California congregation -- over 9,300 in attendance this Easter. In addition he oversees a staff of some two dozen pastors and around two hundred church employees. When he opines about a subject such as "Sticky Teams" Osborne is writing from a wealth of personal experience and astute observation.

If you've read any of his other books, you already know his 'voice' as a writer --- approachable, understandable, clear. Although well educated and highly intelligent, Osborne avoids the traps and pitfalls of a merely academic mindset. He wants to know what works in the trenches --- and conversely, what isn't helpful in actual practice.

Always the contrarian, Osborne may surprise some with his seeming disregard for carping critics and crying complainers. Yet in logical and concise fashion, he explains why a community of leaders should not be held hostage to the whims of those few who may disagree.

Year after year Dr. Osborne is one of the most popular, most requested, and most sought-after speakers for conferences, workshops and seminars where leaders meet to learn and grow. There's a reason Osborne enjoys such sustained popularity: He's been busy learning what works, and he's a gifted explainer of how and why the same principles could help you succeed in building a unified team.

Dr. David Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Author of "The Soul-Mate Marriage" and 9 other books

There are many ways to create a mega church. I can see why Mr. O. has his mega. Don't get in his way.

This is a whole book with many excellent ways to grow a church, have a "sticky team" of church leaders and be a "ra ra" team, happy about it all. It's all great, hardnosed business theory. Really quite good!

He's sarcastic. Also he is apparently good at making others feel that he cares about those he has pejoratively labeled "resisters" but they must go. He does not seem to have the ability to consider them "perceivers".

An example from p.85: "They remind me of the complaint of an old navy man: `Every time a sailor does something stupid and drowns, we make a new regulation.' A far better response would be to simply have a funeral for the dumb sailor and to wait until three or four sailors die the same way before rewriting the manual."

He likes titles, especially "Senior". (p. 117...) "... we have four 'senior pastors.'" "titles are powerful platforms that cost nothing to give away".

He has no demonstrated desire (very different than feigned), to be respectful to those with different ideas than he holds. On pg. 62 he describes his encounter with a church member and distributor of voter guides in his parking lot. "The gentleman with the voter guide (okay, the raving idiot with the voter guide) had attended our church ......" I agree that the distribution of voter guides is up to "management" but for Osborne's name calling to make it into print in his own book reveals his heart.

Pg. 165-7 he successfully (and appropriately) deals with the "morons with a microphone". (His term) After successfully shutting one of these people down, Osborne describes his personal glee. "I almost busted out laughing, but my filter took over. I put on the best stoic face I could muster." This is another case of a pretty good business principle administered by a man exhibiting the heart of "the Donald".

At the end of the book there is a page with 17 notes. 11 of them contain Bible verses. Four of the remaining six are references to Osborne's own works. The Bible references are treated with no depth of discussion as though they were the obvious ones that back up his point. It's almost like they are hidden back there. If you didn't turn to the back of the book when you first read past that tiny footnote number in the text, you will have a very difficult time going back and finding that tiny `5' and what he said about Eph 4:3 when you finally do see the small list of notes in the back of the book. This may be just a formatting oversight but my impression remains that there was little effort on a Biblical or spiritual focus.

So -- get the book if you want a lot of really good, hard driving ways to build your church. You won't find much here to help you love people who might irritate you or respect where another person is coming from. This book will help you build a compliant church not a loving one.

As a public speaker and former journalist who has been writing about collaboration for a couple of years I have not read over 50 books on the topic and find Osborne's very practical and values-based approach could have wide application.

Even if you are not a Christian yet you are a part of some member-based organization you will benefit from his pointers and I will cite some in a moment. Also, in an increasingly complex, transient and connected world, it will become increasingly vital for us all to both hone our top talent and to be able to collaborate with people who are unlike us around a sweet spot of mutual benefit.

This book offers solid advice on how to be a valued team player - one who will be sought-after for self-organized teams that will grow increasingly popular.

Some of my favorite points from Osborne (skip the Christian language if you need to to get the pointer):

* The best team players are almost always the most emotionally secure players. It's as if they have nothing to prove and no one to impress.

* The only one thing I know for sure about the future is that it will be different than I expected. Healthy teams know how to make midcourse corrections. Inflexible people don't.
(Reminds me of Carol Dweck's Mindset)

* The tell-tale mark of a sticky team is the ability to stick together during both good and bad times.

*It takes a unique combination of healthy interpersonal relationships and a shared vision of mission in order to stick together for the long haul. If either one is missing, things break down. A lack of healthy relationships turns differences and disagreements toxic. A lack of clarity about mission and priorities produces a mishmash of ministry silos and fiefdoms.

* Another huge problem is a sloppy selection process. An awful lot of conflict could be avoided if we just had the courage to guard the gate more carefully. I can't tell you how many times I've asked a pastor under attack if there were any concerns about his nemesis on the front end. The answer is usually, "Yes, but I thought we could work it out."

* The best time to reduce conflict is before it breaks out. The best way to do that is to keep contentious people (and those with an ax to grind or competing vision) off the leadership team. I look at it this way: If I don't have the guts to guard the gate, I have no right to complain about who's in the pen.

* The most important thing is to help young pastors and leaders become a better them -- not a clone or poor copy of me. I find that too many mature leaders see mentoring as a parent/child relationship. My job is to come alongside, understand an individual's strengths and weakness, and then help them navigate their unique ministry environment. Fact is, the advice that helps one pastor, can mess up another. So you have to be part cheerleader, part Yoda, part truth-teller.

* There is a place for strong individualism on a winning team. Strong people come with strong personalities and opinions. But ultimately the team and the mission must come first.

* Avoid the single issue crusader. These folks kill morale because they won't rest until everyone jumps aboard their favorite bandwagon.

Some related reading to considerConnected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results
Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the ExtraordinaryCommunity: The Structure of BelongingThe Firefly Effect: Build Teams That Capture Creativity and Catapult ResultsThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series)How to Make Collaboration Work: Powerful Ways to Build Consensus, Solve Problems, and Make DecisionsLeading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great PerformancesStart with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take ActionThe Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless OrganizationsTurning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

Sticky Teams is the most practical and helpful book I've ever read on building healthy church leadership teams. Sticky Teams could have only have been written by a seasoned practitioner and it offers the kind of down to earth insights you wish you'd had earlier in your ministry.

Sticky Teams is not a Biblical treatise. Larry's biases, style and philosophy come through loud and clear but they do not cloud the outstanding principles of building, developing and serving with staff and board teams. Actually, hearing Larry's heart only illustrates his excellent principles in the laboratory of down to earth reality. You'll need to apply Larry's principles to your church polity and your understanding of Biblical governance.

I highly recommend Sticky Teams.

Enjoyed this look at improving relationships with the board, the staff and the congregation. Some of my favorite quotes include:
"I've found twelve members to be the absolute maximum we can handle on our board and still have full, honest, and vulnerable conversations... As I write this, we have eleven on our board, counting me and three staff elders."
Six Things Every Leadership Team Needs to Know: Axioms to Lead By, The six urban legends of leadership
1. Ignore your weaknesses - Why most of your weaknesses don't matter
2. Surveys are a waste of time - Why surveys are a waste of time
3. Seek permission, not buy-in - The myth of buy-in and why it kills innovation
4. Let squeaky wheels squeak - The truth about squeaky wheels and why you don't want to oil them
5. Let dying programs die - When it's time for a nice Christian burial
6. Plan in pencil - Fuzzy budgets and flexible policies, why you need them and why control freaks can't stand them
"Church harmony is inversely related to the amount of time spent oiling squeaky wheels"
"Without a commitment and willingness to cease funding and staffing the programs that no longer work, we'll never have enough money and energy to create the future."
"Overly restrictive constitutions and bylaws reveal a profound lack of trust...it took three years and a major rewrite of the constitution and bylaws to free up Sunday nights and Wednesday nights so that the church could launch a large-scale small group ministry."
"At this point, it was obvious that we needed to redefine the role of our elder board in ways I'd not foreseen. First, we had to redefine our spiritual role. There were simply too many people for us to know or spiritually care for. We had to find a way to push our role as spiritual shepherds out to the front lines. In our case, that meant making sure that our small groups offered the same kind of spiritual oversight and care that we'd always seen ourselves as responsible for."
"at North Coast Church, our small groups are the hub of our ministry and the primary vehicle for relationships, discipleship, and church health... That's why our children's ministry is not allowed to have a midweek program, no matter how great it might be for the kids and their ministry. We've found that most people will only give us two time slots per week (including the weekend worship service). If we had a midweek children's program, the volunteer staffing needs would cut into our ability to get parents into small groups. And for the sake of the entire ministry, we believe a growing mom and dad is far more important than an awesome children's program."
"Real ministry takes place in small groups. A crowd is not a church. It's impossible for the biblical `one another's' to be lived out in a large group setting dominated by casual acquaintances. Therefore, the success of our ministry will be determined by the number of people we have in small groups, not the number of people who attend our weekend services."
"I believe the best way to reach non-Christians and disciple them to maturity is to make everything we do believer targeted and seeker friendly."
"North Coast's mission statement is, Making disciples in a healthy church environment. Everything we do is geared toward reaching that goal. That means we judge our success by two questions.
1 How well are we moving people along the continuum of non-Christian to fully obedient Christian? In other words, are we fulfilling both halves of the Great Commission?
2 How healthy is our church environment? Something we measure by looking at our five Ws (word, worship, witness, works, and warmth)."
"'Churches are a lot like horses. They don't like to be startled or surprised. It causes deviant behavior.'
"He was right. The fiercest battles are seldom fought over theology. They're fought over change, especially any change that comes as a surprise, alters a comfortable tradition, or represents a symbolic changing of the guard."
Four Step Change Process
"I started to follow a four-step change process that I still use today when introducing any significant change or innovation to our board, staff, or congregation."
1. Test the Waters
2. Listen and Respond to Resisters
3. Sell Your Idea to Individuals before Groups
4. Lead Boldly
"at the five-year mark of our ministry, we wanted to make home fellowships the axis of our ministry. That meant cancelling most other programs and putting all of our stock into what was at the time an unknown quantity. And soon afterward, we moved further into uncharted waters with sermon-based small groups, a lecture-lab model that takes the weekend message and digs unto it more deeply."
"Our resisters told us that lots of people feared being stuck in geographic groupings in which they would have little in common with others except their neighborhood. They worried about studies that would be no more than sharing of ignorance or a regurgitation of the sermon. They fretted over being asked to share too deeply too quickly. And they absolutely hated the idea of being asked to divide their group after they'd started to bond. In short, they set an agenda of things for us to work on."
"Our listening and responding to their concerns didn't win everyone over. Some folks still dug in their heels. But listening and responding did help us put together a far better small group ministry, one that has thrived for decades."
"Over the years, North Coast Church has gone through some huge changes. I often tell people that in terms of style and corporate culture, we've been three completely different churches during my tenure. Not that our message has ever changed; it hasn't. And not that we've turned over or lost lots of people with a revolving-door ministry; fact is, our back door has remained relatively small."
"Nonetheless, we've changed a lot. I've gone from suits with monogrammed shirts, to Dockers, to flip-flops and jeans. We've morphed from searching for excellence to thriving in an atmosphere of laid-back authenticity. Our outreach methods have changed from special "bring-your-friends-to-church" events to massive service projects that send our people out to minister in the community. And we've gone from being a small everybody-knows-everybody-church to being one with multiple campuses and worship venues that feature everything from gray hair and hymns to body art and giant subwoofers."

as a pastor of a growing church, our team of elders has been thrown into a bit of a snafu from time to time by growth! Osborne addresses this issue with simple insight that is not so common. Likewise all the subjects of church leadership he tackles. Our elder team is going through this book together and finding it extremely practical. This book is not really for people who are not pastors or elders or church leaders. however, it's not boring either and many of its principles might transfer over to other leadership situations.

This is my third Larry Osborne's book I have read and so far clearly the best. Even though I am not in the same type of church, I originally come from a movement very similar to Osborne's denomination, so I understand well the struggles he had in building the lasting team culture with a strong leadership. And because I undrstand well, my appreciation for his journey, wisdom and ideas has only grown! I wish my coleagues in my former denomination would get this and learn, because this is a journey of a church that has been almost predestined to remain small, but made neccessary adjustment to keep growing and win on every level of their journey.

But even for movements like where I am now, that is more pastor driven, this book is of amazing value as focuses on practical side of team building and have a lots of prectical examples how to do it and how not to do it. Since I am teacher on leadership myself, I read a lot, and among over 120 books on leadership I have read in last few years, this one is the best on teams I have ever seen!

It matches my recent favourites on leadership that would include Billy Hybels' The Courageous Leadership, Craig Groeschel's It, Andy Stanley's The Seven Practices of an Effective Ministry, John Maxwell's The Leadership Gold and Kouzes+Posner's The Leadership Challenge. Larry Osborne's The Sticky Teams would be added to this collection of the best leadership resources for current generation of leaders.

This is a must read for all pastors and church leaders. Been a pastor for over 30 year and wish I had been able to read years ago!