Closing the Knowing/Doing Gap

J. David Schmidt 

What keeps a:

• man traveling alone from renting an adult movie in his hotel room?
• parachurch leader from inviting the small, faithful donors—as well as the major givers—to a private reception?
• mature Christian couple home for the fourth Friday night in a row, watching a rented movie—instead of inviting their unchurched neighbors in for the evening?

What makes a:

• tired Mom of two young children take time to read to them before bed?
• pastor tear up seven pages of sermon notes on Saturday morning and start over?
• leader get his senior team away for a weekend of vision development?
• grandfather with arthritic knees take long walks with his chattering granddaughter?
• church split over the addition of a contemporary worship service?
• leader humiliate a department head in a staff meeting?

What causes:

• a young leader to confront an apathetic older employee?
• one Christian couple to give 10% faithfully to God's work while another couple in the same church gives nothing because they maxed out 3 bank credit cards?
• one ministry to rely on prayer and a light touch in their fund raising letters, while another sends 14 letters a year?
• an 18-year-old girl to give in to the sexual pressure of the guy she is dating?
• a new believer to spend time 15 minutes in God's word each day—while the elder of a Bible church spends 15 minutes a month?
• a fisherman to throw a bass back that is 1 inch short of the legal limit?

In each of these examples, one primary force is at work that allows people to either connect, or disconnect their Christian beliefs to their actions. One hidden, hard-to-define, difficult-to-acknowledge force that drives their decisions. One force that determines whether their behavior honors God and others or pains God and hurts others.

The force at work is values.

It is puzzling how little attention we pay to these things called values. We expend large amounts of energy "doing" things—building and executing programs, raising money, developing systems and structures in our organizations and churches. We spend incalculable time trying to improve things. But we spend far less time paying attention to or trying to develop the soul—the values—of our churches and organizations.

In many ways, we have grown comfortable with some of the gaps that we see between belief and action. "Human nature," we say. But as leaders, we do a great disservice to our organizations when we fail to identify and nurture those connectors (values) between our Christian beliefs and our behavior. Conversely, by better understanding what values are, how they function, and how we can be more effective in connecting and aligning our beliefs with our actions, we steward the very heart and soul of our enterprise.

In surveying a local church congregation, it is usually true that as many as 45% of regular attenders have not read their Bibles even once in the past week. Now what Christ follower doesn't know that "Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you"? Yet Bibles lay unopened on night stands between Sundays. What's going on here? What's going on here is those 45% of Christian church attenders are behaving in perfect harmony with their values. They value the activities of their week and their self-reliant way of decision-making MORE than they value the guidance and counsel found in God's Word.

We Don't Do What We Believe. We Do What We Value.

As Christians in North America, we are stuffed to the gills with Christian knowledge and information. We swim in Christian, even Biblical information. But experience tells us that a gap often exists between the information we have taken in, and our actual behavior.

Most married couples believe that continuing to date even after they are married or the kids come along is important. If you're married, here's a test. Go to your palm pilot or calendar and see when your next date is scheduled, or the occasion of your last date. That ouch you may feel is the pinch of realizing you don't do what you believe, you do what you value. If you really valued dating your spouse, you could identify a recent past or future date.

In life, we don't do what we believe, we do what we value. Our daily actions tell us what we value. So if you want to know what YOU value, ask your wife or best friend, your direct reports and your kids. It will be a very telling conversation, I assure you.

The Bible gives us some clues on this disconnect or gap between our beliefs and actions. The focus is on our hearts—the home of our values and source of moral decisions and character.

"Guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life." Proverbs 4:23
Jesus said, "For a man's heart determines his speech." Matthew 12:34
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:21

If we don't like the values we see expressed in our organizations or our lives, the place to begin to look for the trouble is in the heart.

Cheap Substitutes

In their book, The Knowing-Doing Gap, authors Pfeffer and Sutton identify several behaviors that organizations (and I might add churches and individuals as well) employ to dodge the real issue of overcoming weak or dysfunctional values.

These include:

• Using words and lots of them—the busywork of developing perfectly crafted mission or vision statements, strategies, policies, and guidelines.
• Always planning and revising plans but rarely moving on them
• Holding on to good memories—instead of thinking strategically about what lies ahead
• Allowing fear to stymie vision

Without leaders taking charge to implement a process for articulating core values, modeling them, mentoring them into others, and holding the organization accountable to them, these cheap substitutes take over.

How Values Function

There are three primary ways values function:

1. Values steer daily decisions.

Values function a lot like the guidance system in a missile, firing cues to keep it on course. Over a series of cues, not just one, the missile maintains a desired course. That's how values function. When staff and volunteers know our values, they are able to make many more strategic decisions consistent with what is truly important to the organization.

2. Values help us say yes to the right things.

Think back to some of the longest meetings you have ever been in. Fuzzy or unshared values are a likely culprit. When we are clear about what we value, decision-making gets easier. We can say no to those opportunities, be they ministry or otherwise, that are not in alignment with our core values. And, we can more easily say yes to those opportunities that are in keeping with what we value.

3. Values help us advance our mission.

John Bryson (author of Strategic Planning for Non-Profit Organizations) suggests that "only strategies that are consonant (in harmony) with core values are likely to succeed." Knowing our core values well helps us stay aligned with our hearts—where the energy comes from for mission. Think about a program that was launched only to fall on hard times, fizzle, and fail. Programs fail when they are out of sync with the organization's real values.

The Leader's Task: Closing the Knowing/Doing Gap

If as a leader, you don't like what you see in the behaviors of people in your organization or church, you may want to pause and ask the question: Does this person know what we value here? When was the last time I rehearsed these values with the staff? Talked openly about how well we are adhering to our core values? Of course if your values aren't articulated, you have your answer. Values can only steer the decisions of employees or volunteers IF they know them, they are mentored into them, and they are held accountable to measure up to them. As leaders, it is our task to address the gap between knowledge and action, between knowing and doing. If you do have a set of core values for your enterprise, pull them out and score how well you believe your organization is doing in using them to connect beliefs and actions.

Below is a checklist for scoring your organization's values.

The Test of a Good Value:

• Is it Biblical?
• Does it engender passion in people?
• Is it shared by many?
• Is it constant?
• Can it be expressed simply and clearly?
• Is it congruent with other values?
• Can you implement it (use it to guide decision-making)?

Taken from Values-Driven Leadership by Aubrey Malphurs

Most of us want the quick fix: "Just give me the formula." (Some evidence of whether that's true about you will be if you read this entire article.) Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Some weaknesses we see in our ministries and churches today have no quick fix because the problems are not on the surface. They are in the heart.

So what do we do when we see a weak or underdeveloped value in our staff? Or in the constituency we serve? Or a child? Or ourselves? What do effective leaders do to strengthen core values once they have identified the value that needs attention?

I want to suggest here a six-step process that research has shown to be fairly effective in closing the knowing and doing gap in organizations. These steps are really for the convinced—for the intentional leader who wants to see a deep heart change in themselves or their organization. As you review this list of steps, you may want to fix in your mind a weak value so that you can better see how each step functions. This process unfolds somewhat sequentially. Each step builds on the previous one. Keep in mind there is good rationale behind the order, including the first step:

STEP 1. START ON YOUR KNEES

Let's do the math here. When you commit to align your life more with what God wants, what usually happens? You get resistance. Distractions. Illness. Expect it here. Addressing weak values is often a spiritual battle that requires the Holy Spirit's resources—not just our own good thinking and powering through. So be forewarned. The last thing the enemy of our souls wants is for the faith and works of God's people to be in harmony. So pray.

STEP 2. PUT A NEW SPOTLIGHT ON THE VALUE

How can you help peoplebecome aware of the value in fresh new ways?

Sometimes we grow hardened to the same voices and messages. Look for new voices and ways to teach the importance of the value. Exposure to new Biblically sound teaching and training—from new sources and models—is a good starting point. Use outside guests and resources. In baseball it's called the changeup pitch. Change up who and how you bring this value into focus. For example, call in a Christian leader to speak who models the value and can teach about it.

STEP 3. GET PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THEMSELVES

How can you help people respond to the value?

Give people a chance to learn what the value means to them. Get people into small groups to talk about it and themselves. Give them a chance to have an emotional as well as a head response to it. Use drama or stories to stir hearts. Lift up positive role models of people who exemplify the value. Create or use a diagnostic or survey to make the gap between beliefs and behavior more clear. The key here is to get the value out of the clouds and into people's hearts so they can feel the gap that is there between what God wants for them and where they are. This creates an opportunity for God to speak.

STEP 4. SCHEDULE PRACTICE TIMES

How can you help people own the value?

To own the value is to take positive action related to the value. That means to actually take steps to practice or use the value. Give opportunities to implement the value. This will take some work and practice time. As leaders, it is our responsibility to train and to provide opportunities to begin to practice implementing what is being learned. Adult learners really need hands-on practice to truly learn something. Just being told isn't enough.

STEP 5. RECONSTRUCT YOUR CALENDAR

How can you help people prioritize the value?

To make something a priority we put resources against it—and not something else. This usually means we will have to make some choices about how we spend our time and other resources. To help others make something a priority, we as leaders need to make that possible by making adjustments in expenditures of time, money, and other resources.

STEP 6. CALL IN REINFORCEMENTS

Values need to be reviewed consistently and regularly—held up for reflection and not forgotten once addressed.

Too often we think that because someone has been oriented or trained, we've addressed the "weak value thing". Time to move on to other issues. It doesn't work that way. A value that is weak will take months, even years, to turn around in most organizational cultures.

Closing the knowing and doing gap is the work of leaders. It's not work we can delegate. We have to be willing to lead the charge, mentor others, and model the value that closes the gap we see. When we do, we guard the very heart of the church or organization we have been called to lead.

David Schmidt is the founder and president of J. David Schmidt & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, research, and organizational development for Christian organizations and churches. For more information, go to www.wiseplanning.net.