All over North America we see people doing what is expected and bombing when they do it. Rather than shaping their work around the gifts and talents they bring, using practices that bring life and excitement, and working in ways that are fun – these leaders choose to do the routine in routine ways. And whether these leaders are leading a church or a business, when they stop creating and risking and start to simply meet expectations, then their leadership no longer provides life – it is just painful to watch.
Some of our team are somewhat night owls and one of us watches late night TV while burning the midnight oil. There has been a mad shuffle in late night TV in the last few months. And when the dust settled Jimmy Fallon ended up hosting the Late Night show that Conan O’Brien had hosted before taking over for Jay Leno.
A tradition among these late night shows is an opening monologue – a talk that is to be both current and based on the events of the day while also making the audience laugh. These standup routines provide laughter and news and are such deeply embedded traditions that it is virtually unimaginable having one of these late night shows without them. But Jimmy Fallon has a problem. He isn’t very good at them. In fact, his standup delivery is forced and wooden. He's a good comedian but standup isn't his format (yet?). Watching him fulfill the obligatory monologue is almost enough to make you change the channel. It may be expected but it isn’t effective.
But Jimmy Fallon is incredibly good at playing games, clowning around, and just having fun. In the last weeks he has played beer pong with Betty White, shuffleboard with Ryan Reynolds, basketball with Dwight Howard, and played the 11th hole in the US Open against Tiger Woods on Wii (he lost by a stroke to Tiger) – each time having so much fun that viewers simply got caught up in the atmosphere and laughed and enjoyed these games playing moments and the freedom and joy that Fallon exudes. If Jimmy Fallon is going to make it on Late Night he will have to spend less and less time delivering the expected and more and more time being himself , working playfullyand drawing people into his childlike joy.
This week the A.R.E. team was talking about our work and the creative stuff that we find brings us life. But we also noted that perhaps we too were trapped by traditional ways of sharing the message we bring and the format in which we connected with people. We have new ideas about how God is using people to bring about hope and change in the world around us but we were “selling” it like most of the people with an old message. Like Jimmy Fallon delivering the expected monologue maybe we’ve been connecting and inviting people in ways that don’t fit the gifts we bring, the movement we sense that we are a part of (and that many of you are as well), and that constrains our voices rather than frees us.
We’re going to loosen up a bit, speak out a little more boldly, try to provoke more responses, create more dialog, and play and act crazy a little more often. And we’re inviting you to push back, speak up and be playful and provocative in return. Perhaps we’ve been trying to meet expectations too much and using our best gifts too little. From what we've observed, some of you have been too.
Jimmy Fallon has already shortened his monologue, changed it to include less “monologuish” things, and spends more time playing and being himself. The results are positive. Maybe we can all learn from him. Meeting expectations without being yourself never produces the most creative stuff. So STOP DOING IT and be your best instead. It’s the only thing that will change the world.
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