Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track and Keeping It There

Predictable success is something every pastor or leader wants. Is it possible? Sustainable? Can anyone or any church do it? According to Les McKeown in Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track and Keeping It There, the answer is yes.

But first, what is it?

Any organization (or church) that is in Predictable Success exhibits five main characteristics that, taken together, distinguish it from organizations at other stages in the growth cycle:

  1. Decision making. The ability to readily make and consistently implement decisions.
  2. Goal setting. The ability to readily set and consistently achieve goals.
  3. Alignment. Structure, process and people are in harmony.
  4. Accountability. Employees become self-accountable, in addition to being externally accountable to others.
  5. Ownership. Employees take personal responsibility for their actions and outcomes.

Reading through this book, I saw so many things from the church I lead, but I also found a roadmap to move it into a healthier growth cycle.

Here are a few other things I highlighted that might be helpful for you and your church:

  • Making the right decisions seems easy, but implementing decisions and making them stick is incredibly difficult.
  • In Predictable Success you know why you are successful, and you can use that information to sustain growth in the long term.
  • In Predictable Success the greater focus is on the execution of that decision once it is made.
  • The single most powerful characteristic of the Predictable Success organization is the existence of a culture of self-accountability.
  • A key identifier of an organization in Predictable Success: Management refuses to be distracted unnecessarily, crisis mode is rarely invoked and the organization restabilizes after problem solving, with minimal drama.
  • There are two stages to achieving results in business: First, making the right decisions to begin with, and second, implementing those decisions effectively.
  • Too many systems and processes in an organization cause it to slow down and lose its flexibility and lead it to look inward rather than outward.
  • The concept of ownership and self-accountability is the single most important factor contributing to Predictable Success.
  • In Predictable Success, employees take responsibility for outcomes.