I’m jumping into the middle of a story here from Good to Great (p. 206), but I think you’ll get the point. This has far-reaching implications for many things (including — and perhaps especially — churches):
Of equal importance is what they don’t waste energy on. For example, when the head coach took over the [cross country] program, she found herself burdened with expectations to do “fun programs” and “rah-rah stuff” to motivate the kids and keep them interested — parties, and special trips, and shopping adventures to Nike outlets, and inspirational speeches.
She quickly put an end to nearly all that distracting (and time consuming) activity.
“Look,” she said,”this program will be built on the idea that running is fun, racing is fun, improving is fun, and winning is fun. If you’re not passionate about what we do here, then go find something else to do.”
The result: The number of kids in the program nearly tripled in five years, from thirty to eighty-two.