Step Three: Build More Consensus among the Leadership Team to Increase and to Encourage Breakthrough Leadership

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth
concerning anything that they ask,
it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
— Matthew 18:19 (NKJV)

In many organizations, the overall leader is the person
who knows the least about what the problems are, what
the potential solutions are, and how to implement the
best of those solutions. As a result, it’s easy for a leader
to direct the organization to focus on minutiae that
won’t make much difference while believing that a
breakthrough will follow.

How can such potential misdirections be corrected?
Jesus taught His followers that faith and agreement
were essential to accomplishing mighty deeds that
would glorify God. By concentrating on God, the Lord
Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures, faith can be
increased so that magnificent changes occur as a result
of prayer and personal activity. By working closely
together, two or more people can learn to understand
what it was that they each sought and then make an
agreement to take to God in prayer and to act on.
Some human leaders can also rely on Christian faith to
develop agreement to accomplish breakthroughs
through prayer and action.

Those who are fortunate to lead Christian organizations
are blessed by being able to follow His example in this
exact way. Most organizations, however, are secular
ones, and there has been no attempt to employ only
workers and volunteers who are born-again Christians.
What, then, can be done that draws on faith and
agreement in such a secular organization?

The information gathered in Step One of this blueprint
provides many helpful perspectives, beginning with
identifying the hidden consensus (if it exists) and
extending through the agreement that was developed
at the end of the first group meeting. A Christian leader
will be wise to ask the faithful to pray that the agreement
will be accomplished. At this point, the organizational
leader should have two faithful sources to correct
misdirections: God and colleagues.

Organizational leaders should think of their leadership
team’s hidden consensus as a sound foundation for
identifying opportunities for breakthroughs and
accomplishing them. Any breakthrough initiatives need
to be explicitly aligned with the hidden consensus.
With that alignment, those who need to take action will
have greater insight into what the purpose of action is
and will feel more interested and excited about
achieving the intended results.

Let me give you an example of a hidden consensus to
help you appreciate what’s involved. A client company
was a major government contractor. During the
interviews, it became clear that engineering excellence
was an important value within the leadership team. In
addition, every member of the team described the
happiest day experienced at work as the same one:
when a difficult government project with humanitarian
implications had succeeded and been hailed by their
peers in other companies.

During the interviews, I asked each person if he had any
similar experiences since then involving other projects.
They all replied in the negative. During the group
meeting, I asked the leadership team members if they
would like to shift the type of work that they did for the
government so that they would do more work with
positive humanitarian implications that required
outstanding engineering. The excitement grew in the
room, and commitment to that new direction was made.

Decades later the organizational focus had almost totally
shifted into these different types of projects, and the
organization grew greatly from making this shift.
Astonishing benefits followed for all of the organization’s
stakeholders.

One of the most notable breakthroughs came almost
exactly two decades after the group meeting: The
organization made another astonishing achievement in
an area closely related to the project area that had
originally epitomized the hidden consensus. Even
though this accomplishment came in an area that was
now a tiny part of the company, the new program had
received the very best the organization could provide.
Consequently, the results exceeded the government’s
expectations by several hundred times. What a great
breakthrough!

Isn’t it wonderful what a hidden consensus can do when
it’s encouraged, strengthened, and expanded?

The hidden consensus can be expanded beyond its
initial dimensions by redefining the organization’s
purpose to include aspects closely related to and
consistent with the hidden consensus. The
organization’s mission can also be reshaped to include
new activities that inspire and excite the management
team. Then, a strategy can be designed that will make
more resources available for the new purpose and
mission. If the organization has a strategy map, that,
too, can be redone to reflect what motivates the hearts
of the leadership team.

Operating plans, in turn, will begin to reflect those new
directions. The organizational leader should also
encourage believers to pray for the success of the new
directions and the expanded consensus. As the Lord
provides the prayed-for results, these successes can be
included in testimonies that will help attract the interest
of nonbelievers.

Copyright 2010 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved.