Just Break It

The number one most innovative company in 2009, according to Fast Company magazine, is six-year old Facebook. They added 200 million users last year. That means they now have a total of 400 million users worldwide. 

How are they doing it?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's young CEO, says that at the heart of it all is "hacking" (which he insists isn't about breaking and entering): "It's about being unafraid to break things in order to make them better." 

When was the last time you dared to break something in your organization in order to make it better?

In most organizations - maybe, especially, faith-based ones - a whole lot of energy goes into maintaining things: budgets, staff, buildings, membership roles, traditions, good order, "the peace." And a kind of panic sets in when the status quo gets upset. Leaders go into high gear trying to fix whatever is broken, to get things back to "the way they've always been," to make everybody happy.

But the team at Facebook knows that breaking stuff isn't just inevitable - it is one of the keys to creativity.

"The root of the hacker mind-set is 'There's a better way,' " on Facebook staffer says. "Just because people have been doing it the same way since the beginning of time, I'm going to make it better." After years of making and remaking the site, pride of ownership takes a backseat to the sheer rush of creation. "It's like castles in the sand," designer Soleio Cuervo says of the countless product changes that happen over the course of a week, month, and year. "What we make won't last, but we make things fast and get to test our ideas quickly with real users. We're in it for the impact."

Is there something broken in your organization? This could be the chance you've been waiting for to make something new. Or maybe there's something that needs to be broken. Don't let your fear of what might happen prevent you from doing what matters.

Comments

[Ivy]

Sounds good, but the more I am learning about small churches, especially rural/small town ones, how does that play out?

[Kelly]

Good question, Ivy. Same way it would play out in any existing organization that is learning to live and work in new, renewable ways...at the grassroots, in a spirit of love, within the context of a shared purpose...playfully.

Zuckerberg talks about hackerthons...all night "lock-ins" where people across the whole organization take a program and hack away at it all night...Facebook buys the pizza and beer...and people just have fun taking things apart and putting them back to together again...trying to make it better, more fun, more effective, more creative. In other words, leaders don't make pronouncements from "on high." They create a culture in which people feel set free to dream, risk, explore, imagine, build. That's generally what it would look like. What could it look like where you are?

One suggestion: Take a copy of this post and share it with your folks. And ask them!

Let us know how it goes. :)

- Kelly