I Want The Old Facebook Back…Because I Don’t Like Change!

Like you…I’ve had my share of invitations to join groups like this one and this one to bring the old Facebook back.

The response to change is pretty constant. Anytime change occurs in any organization there is always (and will always be) three groups of people. There are those that hate the change, those that love the change, and those that don’t really have a preference about the change taking place. The size of each group usually depends on the size of the change. The larger the change, usually means the larger the group of change haters. Why? Because people generally don’t embrace change unless death is the only other option. In fact, the reason most organizations die is because they wait until they are on their death bed before they implement a needed change. Their body is not healthy enough to deal with the major change…It’s too much stress on an already weak body. The body can’t handle the stress and it dies. The best time to make a change is when you are healthy, not when you are sick and about to die! However, when you make a change when you are healthy, be ready…because that’s when you will also hear the most criticism. Why? Because when people don’t see the need to change, they usually fight it.  How many times have you heard, “if it ain’t broke…don’t try to fix it.” What they are really saying is, “I don’t see the need for change.” I like to say, “If it ain’t broke…it probably will be soon.”

The smartest leaders are willing to face the criticism now in order to stay healthy in the long run. They do their best at showing the reasons why the change is needed now NOT later! And they anticipate some noise along the way. My guess is that facebook calculated the risk of not changing vs. changing and decided that the risk was worth the pain of the criticism that they were going to face. My guess is that they are willing to put up with the “noise” to stay fresh and ahead of their competition and to stay healthy in the world of social networking.

For those that want the old facebook back…it ain’t gonna happen…so you might as well embrace it and get ready to brace yourself for the next change.

I promise…six months from now you won’t even remember the old facebook and you will be starting a new group like…”I Want My Old Church Back.” or whatever other difficult change that is taking place in your life.

Remember…Life is built upon change.

Remember when…

The technology that we have available to us today is incredible. Just think about it…most of the people reading this blog can think back to the time before the internet and before cell phones. I remember getting the internet on my 386 IBM. It took 3 days to log on and half the time it would boot you off before you were able to get anything done.

And then cell phones. My first bag phone was the size of an overnight bag…but I don’t remember losing calls like I do now…hmmm. Remember pagers? wow…and to think that we actually used pay phones at one time! My kids look at me funny when I tell them these things! It’s hard to believe the advance in technology in just a few short years.

I think about the technology that I use everyday in church planting and how much more productive we are able to be because of it. Most of the items that we purchased for our church were purchased on the internet. Other amazing technology that we have available to us are…Our website, YouTube, MySpace, iTunes, Google, this blog, eNewsletters, email, eBay, Vonage, and of course…this cool gadget!

And then there are times that I wish it could all slow down for just a little bit. What would it be like if we were able to discipline ourselves to take one day each week where we say no cell phone, no email, no computer? Too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing.