By Editor Bob Terry
It is too much to say that dramatic change of an institution or entity can only be made by someone from outside that organization’s culture, but studies indicate that is usually the case.
Scholars of institutional dynamics point out that dramatic change involves reshaping an organization’s goals, roles, processes, values, communication practices, attitudes and assumptions. None of these can be changed individually. They are like interlocking parts each protecting the other.
That is why scholars say single-fix changes (like a change of leader) eventually fail because the interlocking elements of an organization inexorably draw back into the existing culture.
Usually it takes actors who are not steeped in a particular institution’s culture to make dramatic changes. These new actors must offer a new vision (leadership), new processes and procedures (management) and new systems of reward and punishment (power).
Studies cite case after case where a new leader offered a new vision or a new strategic plan or new motivation but was unable to make significant change because the whole culture was not impacted. The final result was more of what had been.
That observation may sound overly academic but it has been demonstrated in Southern Baptist life and is being demonstrated now at the International Mission Board (IMB).
Some Baptists will remember the Covenant for a New Century adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in 1995. The Conservative Resurgence had won a multiyear struggle for SBC leadership and sought to reshape the convention in a particular direction. Before the Covenant for a New Century report was released people wondered how far the leaders would go in their changes.
Experience level
Rarely mentioned in the run-up to the report’s release was the experience level of committee members. Scholars say that is important because one must know the “institutions that guide the actor’s perceptions and activities.”
Louisiana pastor Mark Brister chaired the committee. He later became president of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. Ronnie Floyd, current SBC president, was a prime mover on the committee. He was elected president of the SBC Executive Committee at the same meeting the Covenant for a New Century was adopted, but at the time his primary identity was as a Baptist pastor.
The only SBC entity leader on the committee was Albert Mohler, who had been elected president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, two years earlier at age 34.
None of the committee members had extensive experience in leadership of SBC entities or working with the interlocking pieces of convention structure.
Previous reorganization
The result was the largest intentional SBC reorganization in history. Entities were abolished. Other entities were combined. Program assignments changed. Entity names changed. Some entity leaders were reorganized out, others demoted. When the report was approved, SBC was dramatically changed.
Shortly before the Covenant for a New Century was proposed, some Southern Baptists who felt disenfranchised by the Conservative Resurgence formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). Instrumental in the formation of this new group were some former SBC entity leaders.
Not surprisingly, the first iteration of the new group reflected much of traditional SBC structure.
It was classic textbook principles at work. Those with the least experience in the organization created something new and different. Those with the most experience tweaked their new organization but kept it similar to what they had known most of their ministry lives.
As textbooks teach, one must know the “institutions that guide the actor’s perceptions and activities.”
Southern Baptists saw the principle at work again when Kevin Ezell was elected president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Ezell was a well-known pastor but had almost no background with NAMB. Ezell made drastic changes in NAMB’s partnerships with state conventions much to the consternation of practically all state leaders.
Ezell was unhindered by NAMB’s culture as he led the organization to jettison many of its SBC-assigned programs to focus primarily on church planting in underserved areas. In the new organization, the “interlocking parts” did not fit together as they had in the past.
That brings us to IMB. Traditionally, IMB looked inside the organization for its top leadership. Baker James Cauthen, who led the organization for 25 years (1954–1979), was a former missionary to China. He was succeeded by Keith Parks (1980–1992) who served as a missionary in Indonesia before becoming an organizational vice president. Jerry Rankin, also a former missionary and area director in East Asia, served as president from 1993 to 2010. Tom Elliff, who led IMB from 2011 to 2014, is best known as a pastor but also served as an IMB missionary and IMB vice president.
While each IMB president made changes — some of them difficult changes — they were largely in keeping with the traditional IMB culture.
In August 2014, IMB trustees elected David Platt, a 36-year-old pastor from Birmingham, as its new leader. Platt, a popular speaker and author, was active in missions efforts around the world and worked closely with IMB.
But in terms of working with the interlocking parts of IMB’s culture, his experience was limited.
The result was that Platt is able to make dramatic changes to IMB unhindered by experience within the organization’s culture. Where others opted to address the deficit spending problem through missionary attrition, Platt attempts to solve the problem in one year. He can rework missionary qualifications, tilt IMB’s balance between career and short-term missionaries, even close an award-winning communications department that others built up over the years.
Whether the changes are good or bad is for another discussion. History has yet to pass its judgment. But from an institutional dynamics understanding, IMB’s overall dramatic change should not be surprising. In fact it could have been anticipated because the “institutions that guide the actor’s perceptions and activities” were not those of IMB as it has been known over the years.
Pray for all impacted
Now the changes are a reality just like the Covenant for a New Century or NAMB’s new relationships and structure. The task now is to ensure the interlocking parts of IMB’s new emerging culture work together effectively for the task of sharing the gospel.
Please join me in praying for Platt and all who have been impacted by the dramatic changes at IMB and those yet to come.
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