Catalyst ’15 – 27 Leadership Quotes From Bobby Gruenewald

As a member of the Catalyst Blog Team and INJOY Stewardship Solutions, I will be bringing you live updates from the much anticipated Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, GA.  The theme for this year’s conference is Awaken The Wonder.

Catalyst always begins by conducting a series of Labs on Wednesday for church leaders.  The afternoon’s first Lab session was conducted by Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor and Innovation Leader at Life.Church.  The following are 27 Leadership Quotes and Lessons on Innovation from this information session.

Also, before reading, make sure you check out the announcement from INJOY Stewardship Solutions shown below about a FREE webinar on October 13th for churches needing to raise capital in 2016.  Now onto  thoughts:

1. We are pretty predictable. If we are going to be innovative, we have to think differently.
2. If we are going to do things no one else is doing, we can’t do what everyone else is currently doing.
3. Innovation should solve a problem or create an opportunity. Creating an opportunity is solving a problem no one yet knows exists.
4. Embrace constraints.
5. Innovation happens when passion meets constraints.
6. If you have everything you need, you will not have innovation. You will just buy what you need.
7. If you have everything you need, you will want to put artificial constraints on your company.
8. If we think we are big and significant, our risks will be small and insignificant.
9. We are a micro-church with a mega-vision. If we think for a second we think we are big, we will stop taking risks.
10. Move fast and follow momentum.
11. People think they have to figure out the future and create a plan.
12. Do not plan. Prepare. Be nimble.   Be quick. Be ready to react.
13. You don’t have to be right. You have to be fast.
14. Data has a seat at the table. We measure everything.
15. The only thing worse than not having momentum, is having momentum and not know why.
16. “Never ever, ever, ever, ever give up!” – Winston Churchhill. That is great advice for war. But terrible advice for innovation. Because you have to be willing to give up what doesn’t work. Otherwise you can pretend you never failed.
17. This November we will pass 200 million who will have installed the Bible app.
18. Failure is not an option. It is a requirement.
19. What is your failure resume?
20. You are always going to have people who are resistant to change.
21. Small doses of change helps people lean into it.
22. A mistake some leaders make is spending all their equity making change. Then they exhale and say they’re not going to change for awhile rather than change being a constant action.
23. Social media has a tendency to elevate the individual.
24. Some churches elevate the individual well.
25. Truly unique ideas have trouble getting the attention they deserve in a large organizational vortex.
26. When you see God do something that was unexpected, are you going to respond in an incremental way or does it change the way you do everything?
27. Some of the most innovative concepts came from limitations when we had to come up with a new way to solve this problem.

More leadership insights to come throughout the day.  And do not forget to join our team at INJOY Stewardship Solutions on October 13th for a session entitled How One Capital Campaign Raised Over $10 Billion.  It will be a fun hour of equipping and training.  Click HERE or on the image below to register today.