Complexity Makes An Organization Dumber

I was reading, “STRANGE LEADERSHIP: 40 Ways to Lead An Innovative Organization” by Greg Atkinson when I found this quote…

On the podcast Andy Stanley said, “Everything drifts towards complexity. Complexity makes an organization dumber. Complexity is so distracting that nothing gets done as well as it could get done were fewer things being done. For some reason in church life we add and we add and we add, and we chase the new fad, and we chase the new program, and we never subtract and things become so incredibly complex that we often times just fold under the pressure.” Reggie Joiner continued by saying, “A lot of churches get distracted from their vision and become ADD. It dilutes your potential to make an impact. It takes all of your energy, budget, staff, and resources and divides it in a hundred different ways instead of it being focused and excellent.” Andy agreed and added, “Competition for resources, competition for rooms, competition within the organization. Ultimately what gets squeezed out is not ministry to believers but evangelism. Complexity kills the spirit of evangelism in the church…(this last sentence is most troubling of all) All the resources are consumed trying to make insiders happy.” p.103