“What is being done, is what is being rewarded.”  Or, to put it another way, if an action is taking place repeatedly, there there is some kind of reward being perceived for that action.   If this is true, and I think it is, then all of our behaviors have some kind of reward attached.  While the reward may be extrinsic, such as money or something tangible, in most cases that reward is the comfort of pattern, i.e. “we’ve always done it that way and see no reason why we should change.”  It is comfortable, you might also call that being in a rut. Now being in a rut is not always a bad thing. Have you ever tried to change how you brush your teeth? Try switching to the opposite hand to hold and brush your teeth and you will experience in a small way the challenge of change, and the comfort of a rut.  But being in a rut is not always a good thing, especially if that rut is taking you to an undesired destination.

As a leader, identifying the ruts which are conducive to accomplishing the mission, and those which are not, is part of the job. Someone has said that efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things. In other words, you can be doing things right, but those things may not contribute toward the fulfillment of the mission. The old forest and trees syndrome. Too many times the leader becomes focused on the trees and forgets the bigger picture . . . and then wonders why the mission never seems to get accomplished, even though huge amounts of time and energy are being poured out.

The benefit of understanding that “what is being done is what is being rewarded” is the knowledge that behaviors (ruts) can be changed, if you can identify the reward and alter it.  Effective leadership sees which behaviors are effective, i.e. “right” in the sense of mission fulfillment, and which ones need to be modified. Once behaviors or ministries are identified as being “off-track,” the leader can design a strategy which identifies a more effective behavior and the reward necessary to modify that behavior.

This is all part of understanding Change and how to bring it about.