Making good on planning in leadership

I was watching one of Mark Driscoll's leadership blurbs today on "How an Idea becomes Reality".  He had some very simple points to make which upon reflection I tend to agree with.  

When trying to make something work there are 5 stages that need to be completed.

Vision - An idea to do/try something has to come to a leader either through their own thinking or after being passed on to someone in leadership by another person.  The vision then must be shared with the leadership team who will decide whether it should be taken further.  They must ask themselves:

• Is this in line with our ethos?
• What is the goal?
• Is this something to be tried?

Plan - Once the idea has been decided upon decisions must be made about practicalities.

• How can we achieve this goal?
• How much will it cost (time, money, volunteers, resources, etc)
• What are the pros and what are the cons?

If the planning team can pass the idea through the planning stage then the idea needs to be implemented.

Implement - This stage requires people to actively make things happen.  So the idea has been thought through and the beginnings have been planned out.  There are no more questions just plain serving by action.  Buy things, make things, get things working so that the idea can become a reality.

Manage - Have you ever come across a situation where a new ministry/venture was set up enthusiastically but didn't really work at first?  I know I have.  The only way it will continue is if it is managed well.  Managers are needed to keep things going even when it seems on a go slow.  They need to keep money coming in to support the work, they need to make sure there are enough people to do the work and they need to promote the work to further supporters but also to those for who the ministry/venture was intended.

Review - Sometimes things are on a go slow, sometimes things just don't work, but sometimes things need a revamp to function well.  This is why it is extremely important to evaluate the ministry/venture.  You need to evaluate results and performance against what was intended at the vision and planning stage.  At this stage you can either modify the ministry, kill it (shut it down) or build it further so that it may bear fruit.  Review is most likely done by those in the vision and planning stage as the whole process is cyclical in order to work effectively.

Is this what we are doing in the ideas we have?

Do CU's work this way with their events, new ideas and methods?

Do churches work this way?

Let's make some of our ideas reality by doing it right.