I am a big fan of Jim Collins. He has written some of the best leadership books ever written. For example, Good to Great, Built to Last, Great By Choice, and Entrepreneurship 2.0, to name a few. I appreciate Jim Collins as an author because his insights for business leaders, apply very well to Church leaders.
The Church is both a spiritual entity and a human organization. Jim Collins has very little to offer the Church as Christ’s mystical body on earth. You will not see an article by Jim Collins in Harvard Business Review titled, “Five Steps for Enhancing the Sacramental Economy of Salvation.” But, as a human organization, operating systems that are bound in space and time, dependent on the laws of human relating and organizing, Jim Collins has MUCH to say and we have MUCH to learn from him.
The Church as a human organization: operating systems that are bound in space and time, dependent on the laws of human relating and organizing, Jim Collins has MUCH to say and we have MUCH to learn from him. Share on XWhen a parish needs to build a new school or hall, it uses the same building materials as all construction projects. Parishes use the same building timelines and phases for construction as any project. Church buildings are not built by Seraphim nor do we have access to heavenly building materials.
In a similar way, building the Church’s capacity for mission follows along the same lines as any organization trying to maximize impact. The Church must learn how to recruit and retain talent, develop effective organizational structures and processes, and strategize the deployment of resources. These are all entirely human systems. The only difference between how the Church goes about it and any other organization is that the Church’s mission is infinitely more important.
Pastoral leaders are to be prayerfully discerning in all matters and cooperating with the Holy Spirit at all times, but the Church can learn from the best thought leadership no matter where it comes from. The body of work from Jim Collins, I would suggest, is necessary for Church leaders to master when it comes to the human dimension of the Church. The success of the Global Leadership Summit (seen below) is evidence that Church leaders are hungry for that kind of formation.
Jim’s book, How the Mighty Fall, offers much insight to Pastoral leaders, especially during this very difficult time in our history. His research is not only immensely interesting, but if pastoral leaders heed his wisdom, it might help save the Church from continual demise.
In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts the question, “How do once-great organizations, fall to the point of irrelevance and death?” Finding an answer to this question offers leaders a well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and if they find themselves falling, reverse
their course.
Collins’ research project – more than four years in duration – uncovered five stages of predictable organizational decline:
Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
By understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.
Things Are Not as They Appear
At the beginning of his book, Jim tells a personal and meaningful story. On a cloudless August day in 2002, he and his wife, Joanne, set out to run the long uphill haul to Electric Pass, outside Aspen, Colorado, which starts at an altitude of about 9,800 feet and ends above 13,000 feet.
At about 11,000 feet, Jim capitulated to the thin air and slowed to a walk, while Joanne continued her uphill assault. As Jim emerged from the tree line, where thin air limits vegetation to scruffy shrubs and hardy mountain flowers, Jim spotted Joanne far ahead in a bright-red sweatshirt, running from switchback to switchback toward the summit ridge. She was a picture of good health, vibrant and strong. Two months later, Joanne received a diagnosis that would lead to two mastectomies. Jim realized, in retrospect, that at the very moment Joanne looked like the picture of health bounding her way up Electric Pass, she must have already been carrying the carcinoma.
That image of Joanne, looking healthy yet already sick, stuck in Jim’s mind and gave him a metaphor for How the Mighty Fall. Jim has come to see that institutional decline is like a staged disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages.
I find this metaphor ominously pertinent for the Church today. Have we advanced too far along the pathway of decline to make a recovery? Has the Lord granted us a certain “severe mercy” during the pandemic to realize things were far worse than we thought two years ago? Has the Lord allowed a rapid decline in attendance to “wake us up” to the fact that the faith was not all that important to droves of Sunday Mass-goers? Are we precariously ignoring the warning signs by failing to conduct a deeper diagnostic on current reality? I think these are important questions for all engaged Catholics to ask.
Jim recognized that institutional decline is similar to a staged disease: it is harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, and easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. Share on XPrecarious Fact: An institution can look strong on the outside but already sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a mighty fall.
Let us unpack each stage.
Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Great organizations can become insulated by their success. Positive momentum carries an enterprise forward, for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline.
Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant about success. At the very worst, leaders regard success as an entitlement, something owed to them. Leaders begin to lose sight of the true factors that created success in the first place. Chance plays a role in many successful outcomes. Hubris born of success inhibits organizational leaders from acknowledging that some of the success came from chance – and thereby overestimating their own merit and capabilities.
There are several markers of Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success. For example, when success is viewed as “deserved,” rather than fortuitous, or even hard-earned in the face of difficult circumstances; the organizational leaders may begin to think that success will continue, up and to the right, no matter what the organization decides to do, or decides not to do. Also, success breeds more and more opportunities. When leaders get distracted by the horizon of possibilities, they may begin to neglect the primary mission of the organization. Failing to renew the fundamental sense of purpose with the same creative intensity and innovative spirit that made it great in the first place, organizations begin to consider the pursuit of non-essentials, distractions really, and lose sight of their own identity.
Organizational success breeds opportunity and when leaders get distracted by the horizon of infinite possibilities, those leaders begin to neglect the primary mission of the organization. Share on XWe know for certain that the Catholic Church, founded by Christ, was intended to have a global impact. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” was the original vision of our Founder.
We were meant to grow and influence every nation around the world. Having an ambition for the entire population is not evidence of hubris when the Founder demands it. My question of concern is that when times were good, in a Christendom era, did we extend our reach into too many areas of apostolate and industry that have now become difficult to maintain?
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Hubris from Stage 1 thinks like this, “We are so great, we can do anything!” which leads right into Stage 2, Undisciplined Pursuit of More. What do we mean by “more.” More status, more influence, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as “success.” Organizations in Stage 2 stray from the pursuit of disciplined creativity that led them to initial greatness. Jumping into new areas where they cannot be great is undisciplined. Growing at a pace where they cannot sustain excellence is a sure sign of Stage 2. When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill the key seats with the right people, it is setting up for mediocrity or failure. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangers to any successful enterprise, overreaching is the term that best captures Stage 2 of How the Mighty Fall.
Hubris from Stage 1 thinks, 'We’re so great, we can do anything!' which leads right into Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Share on X When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for mediocrity and a fall. Share on XThere are several markers of Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. For example, successful organizations tend to pursue an unsustainable quest for growth by confusing “big” with “great.” Success in one area is interpreted as likely success in any area. “We will succeed in this endeavour because it is us who is pursuing it.” This is hubris through and through.
When the pace for growth is unsustainable, the next marker becomes clear – a declining proportion of right people in the right seats. When organizations grow at an unsustainable pace, the growth forces them to settle in their hiring practices. Key leadership positions are filled with mediocre talent.
An organization must never outgrow the ability to recruit and retain the top talent, the top leaders, the best people. When the pace of growth is unsustainable, not only are key positions filled with less competent leaders, the organization also experiences poor leadership transitions. Either in the form of poor succession planning from the outside or failure to groom excellent leaders from within, because they are so busy trying to keep up with the pace.
Successful organizations tend to pursue an unsustainable quest for growth by confusing 'big' with 'great.' Success in one area is interpreted as likely success in any area. Share on XOver the past number of decades, has the Church confused big with great? Have we historically thought that success in one area guarantees success in another area? In terms of leadership transition, this is an interesting thing to consider for the Church. We have been doing succession for 2,000 years but without fail, many Parish and Episcopal transitions remain a bumpy ride. Are we able to fill key leadership positions for every Catholic institution (parish, school, college, social agency) with the best leaders? Most parishes are so busy doing a bunch of things, there is no time or capacity to dedicate to making disciples. A.W. Tozer said it like this, “If the Holy Spirit were to withdraw Himself from the activity of the Church, 90% of the activity would still go on.”
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
As companies move into Stage 3, internal warning signs begin to mount. However, there are enough external results that suggest we are still “strong enough” to ride through the disturbing data. Further, in the absence of a hard, honest look into current reality, leaders tend not to accept responsibility and are quick to point to the difficulties as “temporary” or “cyclical” or “not that bad,” and “nothing is fundamentally wrong.” In Stage 3, leaders are tempted to discount negative data. Or they delay acting on it, hoping it might get better in the future. Or leaders amplify positive data (usually a secondary metric) that puts a positive spin on what is being revealed.
There are several markers for Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril. Healthy debate typically goes quiet in Stage 3. Partly because the strongest leaders and usually the most vocal, left after a long time of trying to sound the alarm. The shift goes either to consensus, with the “yes-people” still on the ship, or to “kicking the ball down the street.” Rather than accepting full responsibility for setbacks and failures, leaders point to external factors that may change in time. As a result, hard decisions get delayed. In Stage 3, what gets lost is a healthy process of argument, disagreement, debate followed by a unified commitment to execute decisions.
In stage 3, denial of risk and peril, rather than accepting full responsibility for setbacks and failures, leaders point to external factors that may change in time, so hard decisions get delayed. Share on XIn my conversations with priests and Bishops over the past several months, it is clear to me that many pastoral leaders find themselves precariously close to this stage if not already in it. One significant grace of COVID has been the clarity gained. Can anyone really deny the decline of the Catholic Church right now both in numbers and influence?
- Sacramental participation is significantly down in most dioceses around the world. In the past ten years, many Dioceses are reporting 50% fewer baptisms, 50% fewer marriages, 30-60% fewer people attending Mass on Sundays. And that was before COVID.
- Scandals continue to rock the Church. Another incident of sexual misconduct by a senior Catholic clergyman in the US hit the Church this past month. What’s most sad to see is the lack of a sense of scandal. Are people getting numb to the news, starting to expect it?
- Recent legislation in Canada expanded the opportunity for just about anyone for any reason to seek medical assistance in dying. This was unthinkable just 50 years ago.
- Gender dysphoria is rising to epidemic levels particularly for teenage girls but we can’t talk about it because gender is now defined as a social construct. The book that broke this story may be banned from printing in the coming weeks.
- 2021 might be the year that Canada legalizes prostitution after a group of sex workers in Ontario filed to repeal Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act.
- The pandemic has made it clear that the government no longer considers Sunday services as essential as window shopping, going for a workout or attending a strip club.
The trends are clear. Everything is shifting under our feet. We have been galloping away from a state of Christendom toward a new season of Apostolic mission for a few decades. Each year the pace quickens.
The Catholic Church, at least in the West, is in a serious state of decline. Some have used the word “haemorrhaging” to define our current reality. Furthermore, the culture that was once very aligned to Gospel values, is running as fast and far away from the influence of the Church as possible. Growing numbers of people believe the further society is from the influence of the Church, the better off society will be.
We live in the information age and yet people have never been so confused. What makes this more tragic than ironic, is that we are confused about the things that matter most – marriage, family, the dignity of the human person and divine revelation.
Developments in technology, communication, transportation, medicine, entertainment and manufacturing have so influenced our lives that, “a person who lived a hundred years ago was closer both in modes of consciousness and in the daily rhythms of life to the time of Christ than to our own” (From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, University of Mary Press, 2020).
We are not living in an era of change but in a change of era. This is undeniable and therefore, cannot be ignored. As Fr James Mallon once pointed out, “We were trained in seminary for ministry in Jerusalem but we are now living in Babylon.”
The question remains, will our pastoral leaders and their collaborators have the courage needed to confront the most brutal facts of current reality? Will we embrace the changes needed to stop the downward spiral? Will we prune when necessary? Will we persistently seek the Lord – His Face, His Grace and His will? We will learn to say yes only to the things that matter most and protect priorities by saying no to a thousand others things?
I wrote more on this stage because it is my strong conviction that this is the stage we find most of the Church in the West. It is critical to sound the alarm, to gather the troops, to radically edit the way we view the world and the Church’s relationship with it. Only when we define current reality in an accurate way, can we begin to talk about methods, programs and initiatives for the mission.
One significant grace of COVID has been the clarity gained. Can anyone still deny the precarious state of the Catholic Church right now? Share on X
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
The cumulative peril seen in Stage 3, throws the organization into a sharp decline becoming visible to everyone. Stage 4 is all about how the leaders respond. Either the leaders will lurch for a quick salvation strategy or they will lead the organization back to the disciplines that brought about their original greatness. Those who grasp for salvation, and neglect to re-evaluate why and how they first made progress, fall into Stage 4.
There are several markers of Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation. For example, the tendency to make dramatic, big moves, such as a “game-changing” acquisition or an exciting innovation, in an attempt to quickly catalyze a breakthrough. Leaders lunge from program to program, goal to goal, strategy to strategy, in a pattern of chronic inconsistency. Instead of setting expectations low – underscoring the duration and difficulty of the turnaround – leaders hype their visions and sell the future to compensate for the lack of current results. This initiates a pattern of overpromising and underdelivering. Soon, nobody can articulate what the organization is all about. Core values get eroded to the point of irrelevance leaving the organization in an identity crisis.
Stage 4 and Stage 2 are similar. Both stages involve getting off course, moving away from a primary mission into secondary importance. In stage 2 organizations pursue more in a spirit of over-confidence, “We will succeed because it is us doing it.” In stage 4, the pursuit of more is about grasping in a state of panic and insecurity, the root of which is a loss of identity.
Writing this paragraph brings a tear to my eye. I have seen many Catholic organizations, ministries, even parishes, grasping for salvation. They may not have the resources for a big acquisition, but they have tried to radically shift their original mission statement or core service, the root of which is a loss of identity. We need to become highly skilled at pruning if we are going to recover. It will be painful but if we don’t stop pursuing more, either in a state of panic or from our over-confidence, it will lead to further and more consequential demise. The Church is to make disciples,. We need to get back to the basics.
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
The longer an organization remains in Stage 4, repeatedly grasping for silver bullets or delaying action altogether, the more likely it will continue to spiral downward. In Stage 5, accumulated setbacks and expensive false starts erode resources and individual spirit to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future. In some cases, the leaders just sell out. In other cases, the institution atrophies into utter insignificance. In the most extreme cases, the enterprise simply dies outright………..
This is a long post. Thanks for making it this far. If you have endured the full distance, I am sure you would agree that Jim Collin’s book, How the Mighty Fall, could be required reading for all pastoral leaders at such a time as this. Maybe Jim’s insights could be utilized to inform all the tough decisions that Church leaders need to make during this very difficult time of our history. The capitulation toward irrelevance doesn’t have to continue.
Next week I will write a follow-up article on, “Five Ways We Can Avoid the Fall.” See you next week.