Oct
31
2011

Sudden Change, or Lessons From Steve Martin

An article by Matt Comments

This past weekend reminded me of one of my favorite movies: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Last week I spent a few days in the Chicago area to take part in the Alignment Conference. The plan had been to attend the conference on Thursday, and spend Friday and Saturday celebrating my wife Theresa’s birthday in downtown Chicago.

Everything went well, until Saturday afternoon as we were planning on heading to the airport to catch our flight home. While riding the L out to Midway Airport I received a text message letting me know that our flight had been canceled. This weekend’s unexpected snow storm had shut down all of the New York City airports. To make matters worse, the earliest we would be able to get a flight out would have been today (Monday). Rather than wait for the flight, we ended up changing plans and taking Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited from Union Station to New York’s Penn Station.

I enjoy the train because it allows you to see a great deal of the country, and gives you plenty of time to soak and think. Somewhere in the middle of Ohio I started to think about how I saw people reacting to the news about their changing travel plans:

Outrage. We have all seen the meltdown at the airline counter. Someone who is understandably upset about the sudden change of plans that has resulted in an inconvenience. The movie I mentioned above has a great example of one of these scenes that I would love to share… except that it is totally inappropriate.
Freeze. While at the airport we saw a few people who had essentially shut down. Having heard the news that they wouldn’t be making it to the east coast before Monday, they froze up, completely fixated on the situation that they had found themselves in. Rather than making alternative arrangements or finding a place to stay for the night, they just had a glazed look on their face… not doing much of anything.
Adjust. The last group of people we noticed were those who were making adjustments on the fly. Whether it was finding a hotel room, flying into alternate cities, or taking the train (we ran into one other couple who had made that decision), they realized the situation they were in, accepted it, and found another course of action.

Anyone who has served in ministry for more than a week has experienced at least one unexpected change of plans: whether it is being evicted from your meeting space or a volunteer calling off at the last minute.

How do YOU handle unexpected changes in ministry?

Anonymous

Other maneuvers I’ve seen at the airport during bad weather cancellations…
1. As soon as it’s canceled, the traveler quickly books a rental car. In some cases, a few of them team up – four people and one rental car comes out pretty cheap per person. They can always cancel it but if it’s a close enough destination, it might be just as quick to get there.

2. Let the airlines figure out an alternative route and go with it. Maybe they could fly you to an airport close to your destination and grab a rental car from there.

Unexpected changes in anything…
1. Determine if someone in higher position needs to take on the responsibility.
2. Evaluate short term impact
3. Take stock in existing resources (time, money, people, etc).
4. Focus on team mentality.
5. Develop plan based on new conditions.