The language of goal realization

Realization = the process of making something a reality.

In my context, my goal at Romeo has always been the same. Kristen and I moved 2150 miles from Northern California to the suburbs of Detroit to help lead a church into being "dumb enough to think they can change the world." In other words, despite the fact that studies show our area is headed into the abyss, the message of Jesus Christ will penetrate so deeply into our community that it will actually change the DNA of the community. It takes a brave people to venture into that goal. But they assured me they had it in them and we came east 2150 miles.

Over the past 24 months this has really taken shape. It started first as our staff jelled together. We are a very diverse group of people who always love one another but aren’t afraid to bump heads. As our working relationship became cohesive, that started to spread as the church really grabs hold of a crazy vision… we all want to deeply impact this community for life change. And now we are all agreeing on the methods we chose to use to reach those goals.

Over the past week or two I’ve started to pick up on some language cues that have changed as we think and talk about our mission in Romeo. Here is how the language has changed as people, from the staff to the newest attender, talk about our mission.

My guess is that this is the language of goal realization for a lot of organizations and teams as they set high marks and try to move forward. Let’s learn from Romeo.

1. "Want to" This was the step where we talked about what we wanted to do. You heard it everywhere, "If we do this, we want to _____."
2. "Should" This was a step where all of us started to deal with the Biblical rationalization for our goal. It wasn’t that we wanted to do it anymore, it’s that the people started to see how God’s Word compelled us to act. People would say, "We should do ____ because it will help us accomplish our goal."
3. "Can" Once our team hit a few home runs (metaphorically of course) and our plan started to play out as good or better than we had hoped, I started to hear people say… "Hey, we really can _______ if we all just work together."
4. "Will" This is where Romeo is at right now. I heard it at the fair from every volunteer who helped me at the booth. I even heard it from other church people from our community when I talked to them about what we were doing here. They say things like, "If you keep ______ then you will reach your goal." This step is absolutely infectious as your goal is now within site. This goes back to one of the very first chapters the leadership team listened to from Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner… everyone loves to play for the winning team. With a couple of big "wins" behind us, people are very excited as they see that the plan God laid on our hearts so long ago can actually be a reality if we just keep going.
5. "Are" This is where I want to go. This is when we are stupid enough to change this community for Jesus Christ. I hear the phrase "We are reaching _____ with ____." But those are merely shadows of what is to come if we just see the plan all the way through.

What is so powerful about this is that it’s not a gimmick, it’s not a "thing I learned from a book," it is a thing that is happening right in front of me. This is an organic thing that has happened. We never sat down and said… "How can we manipulate people to talk like this?" This is much more simple than that as it’s simply how people’s language patterns change as they realize that the goals set are attainable. In reality, it’s the exact same language that the golf team used when they realized how good they were. And the converse is the same when they realized that using the wrong language ("We are the reigning champions, we are going to win by just showing up.") led to the complacency on not accomplishing the goals. (Losing a championship they were talented enough to walk all over.)

Question: For those who are leading a comeback process in their organization (job, team, small group, youth group, church, whatever you lead) how does language that is coming from the people you lead change?