Business is a lot of habits (routines). We purchase the same stuff from the same people (think of your own experience grocery shopping). I once filled in for a purchasing agent and got a request from an assembly department for $80/lb cold-temperature grease. I knew the operations so I was curious how they were going to use it. Just as I thought, they applied the grease to assembly plates to keep other parts from sticking while they were in an oven! It turns out that some number of years ago, a high temp grease wasn’t available, some cold-temp grease was and it just kept getting reordered without any questions.
A lot of studies have shown that change programs—efforts to make significant improvements—often fail. Some because they’re not appropriate to the industry. Some just because of resistance to the unknown, the uncomfortable, the fear of being inadequate. Some just because the “program” is separate from the everyday work. Some from a lack of trust and so people just wait “it” out until the distrusted leaders give up on the program.
When change is needed because the business results are horrible or not at a level worthwhile for growth, it can happen when there’s trust. It can happen when it becomes part of our everyday work. It can happen when the old ways to do things are no longer available: the machine has been mothballed, the software has been upgraded, the purchasing mechanisms (cash, cards) are no longer available. This style of not providing ways to revert back to old habits and old routines is named after the Spanish explorer Cortez: “first, burn all the ships. We have to go forward; there is no return to Spain until we’ve achieved victory.” Andersen in his small book Hunger in Paradise describes achieving new success by smashing past awards, assuming everything is broken even if the customers think it works, and never be content.
Christ dealt with this by acknowledging that old religious structures or religious thinking or rituals needed to be replaced. He described them as old wineskins or old clothes. The kingdom of heaven coming is new wine or new, unshrunk cloth patch. New wine will burst the old wineskins. A new cloth patch will pull away from the old cloth when it shrinks. And so the old can’t be allowed to continue when the new is present. Unfortunately for us, for human nature, if we’re satisfied with the old [wine], we resist the new. (Luke 5.39) Christ gave us a new way to commune with the Father by the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit. We are the priests now. (1 Peter 2.5)
Even though we have the new, we still might resist because we’re comfortable with the old. “My old flip phone works just fine making calls. Why do I need the latest iPhone or Galaxy or Pixel or…?” The new is uncomfortable and we might fail.. “Now I’m responsible for praying to God, understanding the scripture, being full of love, joy, peace…!?”
Can we cry out like the father desperate for his child to be healed, “I believe. Help my unbelief?” (Mark 9.24)
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