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UCB Word for Today

Give us more pioneers!

THERE'S SO MUCH MORE. LET'S GET ON WITH IT!' HEBREWS 6:3

Settlers are important. They bring order and stability.
But without pioneers we'll go no further. Pioneers bring change, and change is unsettling. But that's the price of progress. Henry Ford said, 'I'm looking for people with an infinite capacity for not knowing what can't be done.' In 1920, Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize winner, said, 'There is no likelihood that man will ever tap the power of the atom.' In 1943, Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, said, 'I think there is a world market for no more than five computers.' Wow! Rather than being concerned about what our most gifted people will come up with next, our greatest fear should be that they won't be given the chance to do it. We mustn't allow our policies and procedures to stifle God-given vision! The Bible is full of non-conformists like Deborah, Elijah, Esther and Paul, who challenged the established order, refused to settle for less than God's best, and left us an example to follow. Want to encourage our pioneers? Give them a longer tether; they need space to soar. Put them in charge of something they can really 'own.' Listen to their ideas and give them time to grow. Leave them alone and allow them to blossom. Want to kill our pioneers? Have as many layers of management as possible for decisions to have to travel through. Keep looking over their shoulders. Make your policy manual very thick. Control all-important decisions at the top. Send everything to committees for deliberation. Make them wait months for decisions that affect them. Put them on a team of small thinking bureaucrats.

posted by Steve & Gill @ 3:04 pm