Top 10 Reasons to Give a Failed Strategy One More Chance

August 17th, 2012 by Mark Howell

Is it time to change direction?  Try something new?  Admit that old faithful isn’t working anymore?  Or would one more try really be the right thing to do?

Here are my top 1o reasons to give a failed strategy one more chance:

  1. Failure is such a harsh word.  You prefer to think of it as not quite succeeding.
  2. You are inspired by Maxwell Smart and think of it as “missing it by that much!”
  3. In the words of Woody Allen, “80% of success is just showing up.”
  4. You’ve already got budget for it!
  5. If at first you don’t succeed, eventually mediocre will come back in style.
  6. Thirteenth times the cha–what?
  7. You’ve already got the rooms reserved!
  8. You think Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is about being persistent.
  9. Turns out Einstein had it wrong.  ”Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” is the definition of longsuffering!
  10. Andy Stanley is really prone to exaggerate.  Your ministry is probably only sort’ve designed to produce the results you’re currently experiencing.

What do you think?  Have an idea?  Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Posted in Comedy, Small Group Strategy | 6 comments

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  • http://www.transformingleader.org/ Wayne Hedlund

    Nice list! Had to chuckle at a few of them.

    I will say, though, sometimes it can be very hard to differentiate when failure means “stop doing what you’ve always been doing and try something new” and failure means, “learn from your mistake and try again”.

  • markchowell

    Thanks Wayne! It can be hard to know what to do. The key for many of us is that we actually do know what to do long before we do it.

    mark

  • Margaret

    I agree with Wayne–how about, “change a portion of what you’re doing and try again”

  • markchowell

    Thanks Margaret! Does it have to be a clean break and completely new? No. Does tweaking a long established and ineffective strategy work? Rarely. The tension for many is in breaking out of a deeply ingrained trajectory…and that almost always requires a new idea.

  • http://www.SmallGroupChurches.com/ Andrew Mason

    Great list! It does help when you’ve practiced principles that have born fruit in the past. Every now and then you may have to adjust or improve upon them a little, but those time-tested Biblical principles eventually allow you to reap a harvest.

  • markchowell

    Thanks for jumping in here Andrew! Knowing the difference is definitely the key.

    mark