Pace can make or break the progress of an organization. If a church, business, or institution moves too slow, competitive edge is lost. Remember Circuit City, the electronics business that didn’t adjust quickly enough to the booming online sales industry? Or what about Blockbuster Video that missed the rising popularity of accessing movies digitally? Moving too slow can be lethal. However, when an organization moves too fast, a number of issues can arise:

Mistakes Increase. Moving too fast increases the chance of mistakes solely because too much is happening at one time. As a result, the leader begins to question the competence of the staff instead of allowing completion of one thing at a time.

High Turnover. Many people are not built for a fast pace, and most are not able to keep it up for too long. High turnover is an obvious sign that the structure of the organization is off and something or someone is driving people away.

Civilian Casualties. Customer service suffers when staff are running too fast or overwhelmed with a myriad of tasks. Customers will be neglected or feel used. Today, people will not hesitate to go to a different organization that seems to genuinely care.

Task-Driven Instead of Vision-Led. If staff is more concerned about completing daily and weekly tasks then the overall vision of the organization, things are probably moving too fast. A multitude of tasks, especially those notorious “pop-up” tasks, can essentially lead people away from fulfillment of the vision.

Leadership Fatigue. A sign of fatigue when driving is the driver tends to drive faster, but reckless. The leader of the organization might push hard because he/she is burned out and trying to stay alert. The leader needs to pull over and get rest before everyone crashes.

No Fun. Staff should take business seriously. Everything should be done in excellence. However; if there is no laughter, no smiles, or camaraderie in the workplace, it is a sign of low morale. Low morale kills productivity. The leader should be equally concerned about morale as she is about completed tasks.

Are you seeing these signs in your organization? What are ways you are addressing these signs? Email me and share your experience.

Pastor Anthony C. Cobbs
Breakthrough Ministry Consulting