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Sail-Around People

I am trying to figure out why certain organizations seem to get “stuck” in their development. I visit certain churches or businesses that appear to live in the 1990s or worse. What stumps their growth and development? Here are a few observations:

1. They have people on the team that I call “Sail-Arounds”, the one person in the office or on staff that people don’t want to talk with, confront or otherwise deal with. Usually that person actually does a good job, but the culture of the particular organization or business does not allow for this person to be dealt with in a healthy way.
2. They have people on the team that do not stay current with culture. They are actually on the verge of irrelevancy. This creates a strange detached culture. Sometimes that ends up being funny, but mostly it just ends up being very uncomfortable.
3. They have an out-dated sense of ROI when it comes to media, staffing, facilities, etc. There are so many ways that healthy organizations spend money that are either risky, new or otherwise uncomfortable. There are too many people who raise the “should we be spending money on this?” or “why don’t we just focus on [insert singular purpose here] and not spend money on this frivolous item?” It’s hard to spend money when the Return on Investment is unclear, but it’s absolutely necessary.