16. Practitioner's Podcast: 5 Symptoms of an Unhealthy Culture 

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Practitioner's podcast where we're applying Jesus style, disciple making to everyday life. This episode in all of our episodes are powered by Navigators, church Ministries. To learn more or to get connected, go to navigators church ministries.org. Justin, tell everybody who's this episode is perfect for.

All right, Tony, this episode is perfect for anyone who is leading a culture or who is in a culture, and so that. Kind of includes all of us, right? But it's especially perfect for those of you who are leaders, whether you are a leader in your church or your workplace, or even just in your home, right?

Because leaders create culture. And today we're talking about five symptoms. Of an unhealthy culture. So five things that you could see or look at that are symptomatic of a culture that is not healthy, right? So, a working definition of a culture. You could think about it like this. A culture is what most people do most of the time.

Culture is what most people do most of the time. And so it's the norms, right in the culture. And so it's not that there aren't pockets of things that maybe aren't that way or that are a little bit different, but culture is what most people do most of the time. Now to set up what we're thinking about.

Now, I want us to think about viruses, right? And so we've just come out of the pandemic not long ago. It's, it's barely in the rear view mirror. And viruses come in many forms. And you know, even the covid virus has transformed and changed in different ways and it impacts in different ways. But if you really think about it, symptoms.

Symptoms don't come in a lot of different forms. A symptom is the body's way of showing that there's a sickness. There's a problem here. And since there's only a few of 'em, you know 'em well, right? The most common symptoms of viruses or sickness, his coughing, fever. Nausea, headache, runny nose, right?

Stuffy nose, aching, tired, all these things. You guys know these. And when these symptoms show up, what we know is that something is not right with the body. Our body's been infected and we start, when we, when we experience these symptoms, we start doing things to make a change. Or to give attention to what our body is telling us, and that's how we can think about these five symptoms of an unhealthy culture.

If you observe these in the culture that you are in or a part of, then it's important for you to kind of stop and say, well, wait a second. I need to give some attention here. And that's why we're, that's why we're talking about this today, right? And specifically the things that we're talking about is things that keep disciple making from thriving.

Within a culture. Yeah, and I, I think what's interesting as someone who's led nonprofits at the local church, And in Parachurch Ministries, what I'll tell you is, is that it's not very often we spend time thinking about culture. It's really easy to get so focused on the mission of ministry that we forget about the culture that comes with community.

And I think for each and every one of us, what we hope is that this episode will kind of become an opportunity to do a check-in on where you are in the health of your organization. How is your kind of. Think of this like an annual checkup, right? Does your body, the movement that you're trying to lead, does it have viruses?

What does that look like? And spend some time, leading culture. Now, one of the things that I tell my sixth grade basketball team all the time is that you can be a thermostat or you can be a thermometer and. Bear with me for just a second, but a thermostat, not sure I wanna be either of those, right?

Right. A thermostat sets the temperature. A thermometer reads the temperature. That's the temperature versus reads the temperature. And what we know is as a leader, you have the opportunity with some intentionality to set the temperature of the culture you're trying to build. I like that illustration, Tony.

 because thermostats set the temperature, but they also read it, right? I mean, there, it, it's a both and in there. Sure. And I love that illustration of contrasting, like, are you only gonna be a thermometer that reads, or as a leader, are you going to be a thermostat that that proposes and, and develops change within that culture?

So, let's jump into the five symptoms that we're gonna be talking about today. Tony alternate as we normally do, but the, the first symptoms symptom that I want to bring up for us is vision division. Vision division. And so this symptom is we are not aligned in the vision as a culture of where we're going or where we want to be.

And so if there's not agreement or alignment on the desired destination, people are unable to share a, to see a shared future together. Now this isn't, new. It shouldn't be news to those of you who are listening as something that Jesus talked about. Matthew 1225, Jesus said that every kingdom that's divided against itself will be ruined.

Every city or household divided against itself will not stand. Abraham Lincoln referenced this in a famous speech around the Civil War, right? That we have to have alignment and agreement in the vision of where we're going so that we can have a shared future that really helps us move forward together.

But when we lack that common vision, And we, we will lack a shared future and it gives birth to other symptoms on this list, right? So it kind of starts here in a lot of ways that this is, I don't wanna use the word a, a core symptoms, but it's a symptom that leads to other symptoms because if we don't believe we're connected on the vision of.

Where we're going, then we also won't be committed to making sure that we're going there together because one person will be like, well, I'm gonna go over here, and the other person you look across and they're going somewhere different. And it, it creates this separation, not only relationally, but within that culture itself.

And if you're in a church, that is a huge problem. Because if as a, a team of leaders, a group of leaders, if you don't have common vision about where you're going, it's really gonna change the way that you interact together, what you do and the values that you have. And so that first symptom vision division really shows that there's, not, not real health in that culture.

What I, what I love about kind of the way that these symptoms work, and obviously symptoms aren't a good thing, just to be clear, but what I appreciate about the way that this builds is that it builds really on top of each other. So vision division is number one. Then the number two kind of symptom of an unhealthy culture is relational isolation.

Right? And what we're talking about here is when leaders. Whether that they're, appointed or self-appointed leaders, just to be clear about that, decide that they're gonna begin to start making decisions in a vacuum. Right? And so what what ends up happening is they lack relational depth and connection.

It's, it's really that phrase I've heard before. Maybe you've heard it before too. It's called with them what's in it for me. And so anytime that you're thinking more about we, then you're thinking about we, you know that you're in a bad spot. If you're looking for your own interest more than you're looking to build the culture, you know you're in a bad spot.

You if you listen to this podcast on a regular basis. First of all, thank you. Second of all, you've heard me say before, this is the quintessential castle building versus kingdom building. Jesus was never worried about building his own castle. He was always worried about building the kingdom of God. And we saw that when he was tempted in the desert, right?

The enemy approached him and said, you can have all of this, right? That's relational isolation. Because if, if he's gonna be that set apart leader in that way, well he'll lose is the connection, the disciples, the connection to the people that he was doing life with Now. I wanna talk for just a minute to the pastors who are listening.

I, I understand it's so hard to trust people. I understand that it's lonely. as a pastor in the local church, I understand that it, it can be so difficult because, cuz people are messy. But I just want to tell you this, your ability to connect with your community. Will have a greater impact on your culture than almost anything else you can imagine.

If they believe that you're with them and you're doing life with them, it changes everything. So look at your life right now and just think about whether or not you've got people in your circle that you can trust with the we kind of vision. And that's the, if the answer is no, then it's a good chance you're living in the unhealthy symptom of relational, relational isolation.

All right, so our third symptom is communication, chaos, right? So first we have vision division, then relational isolation, and then it normally gives birth to communication, chaos. And what this means, or what it refers to are things like secrecy, gossip. Poorly addressed or unaddressed conflict debate about what's even factually true, within a situation or an organization.

And now in churches, a lot of times this plays out, as you know, they're sacred elephants, sacred cows rather. I guess elephants could be sacred too. I've just. Not heard of that. But listen, I, I thought maybe it was a Thailand thing. I know elephants are different, actually it is. That's a good point. In Thailand, they are revered and viewed as sacred.

So, a little bit of my Asian background coming out, their history, so sacred cows, they're around every corner and they aren't discussed or acknowledged, right? It's the elephant in the room. There's where we put the elephant in, and the western culture is the elephant in the room. We all know it's there.

But we're unwilling to talk about it. We're unwilling to address it, head on or in a way that honors others. And what this does right, is when, when there's communication, chaos within a culture, it leaves individuals feeling unsafe. Unsafe to be who they are, unsafe to communicate about what they really think, and it also leaves them feeling vulnerable and so their defenses are up right when communication is happening, instead of being open and being able to listen.

What they are doing instead is trying to protect themselves or protect the things that are most important to them in the culture. The vision that maybe they have. And so this communication, chaos leads to a lack of trust, further lack of trust, cycles of conflict that don't get resolved. And so it's almost like the swirl of the water as it goes down the drain, it just gets more and more, chaotic, more and more unsafe.

And the result is this chaos. All those things I just mentioned, secrecy, gossip. Unaddressed conflict debate about what's actually true. I mean, it's just not a good environment that people want to be in, but people will stay because they will be committed to the things that they care most about those sacred cows, their vision of where the organization is going.

Now, not all, not all of them are gonna stay. I'm not saying that, but many will stay because they care about something that the organization is doing or relating to, and they believe that. Their staying will help them and help the organization get to where they want it to go. But again, back to what we've already talked about, when there's division in the vision and relational isolation, it's not gonna get there the way they want it to.

So that communication, chaos is another real key symptom. If you're in a, an organization where you're seeing that, where you're feeling that, there's a really good chance that you are in an unhealthy culture. And it doesn't mean, and we haven't gotten to this, but it doesn't mean that unhealthy cultures are, are a lost cause.

And so I just wanna mention that before we move forward to the fourth one. Yeah. So keep in mind, right, vision, division, relational isolation, communication, chaos. The fourth one is act. Don't ask. Now this one is this notion and an unhealthy culture when people begin to move in isolation in the sense of like they're carrying out.

 past that they feel are correct, regardless of, you know, any real dialogue or discussion. And in some circumstances this is needed, for example, the battlefield, right when decisions need to be made on the fly. But for the majority of organizations, we don't need an us and them kind of mentality when it comes to the things that are done.

If, if you're making decisions with the specific intent of not informing the people that you're trying to lead, It's a pretty good sign that you're in a season of unhealth, and if you're hiding decisions or if you are doing things that, you know, you're operating in a vacu it's, it's a pretty good, you know, symptom that you're in a, a season of unhealth.

So the fourth one is, is really easy to, to diagnose because you're unhealthy if you're acting without talking to anyone else. Excellent. Yeah, so that, that's kind of leadership isolation too, is another way we could think about that, which really rolls right into the fifth and final one. Affinity based authority, affinity based authority.

And so what this refers to is when leadership is marked by personal affinity rather than performance, or in the church we might say personal affinity rather than character or fruitfulness. Right. And such cultures that those things are secondary to whether the, the next leader or the leaders who are being invited into the leadership circle share a common viewpoint, personality, you know, relational connection to the current leadership.

And again, this, this feeds right from the fourth one that Tony just talked about because instead of engaging people, who are on the other side, who aren't yet in leadership, who maybe don't have those relationships or connection yet, they're just bringing people in that kind of rubber stamp what's happening.

And so they keep the status quo. And the reason this happens so often in unhealthy cultures is because in many unhealthy cultures, power is what's up for grabs. And power, not in the sense of, you know, they can dominate others. Although sometimes that is the case power in the sense of we're gonna keep the status quo, we're gonna keep going in the direction that we're going, in the ways that we want to go, our vision, and we don't want to be disrupted from that.

And so if you have a different idea about things, if you have a different way of doing or thinking or different philosophy, We don't, we're really not even interested in hearing about that or making space for that robust dialogue at the leadership level because we have control and we have what we wanna do.

And so we're just gonna keep going in that and we're gonna bring people, into the leadership circles that have a similar viewpoint so that that viewpoint can continue to be propagated within the culture. Now in churches, this is really important because the Bible speaks of the body of Christ, right?

Speaks of diversity and the importance of diversity around the, around the throne and at the, at the end of all the time, right? So the book of Revelation, I'm not expressing it well, but we're all gonna kneel before the throne and every tribe, tongue, and language are gonna be represented there. All different types of people because God values diversity.

And he has gifted us in different ways. And if we're not willing to listen and bring in people who view things differently and, express and live out the calling in different ways, the same calling, right? So, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we have different callings in terms of. what God has asked us to do.

The, the where and the how that we live that out is going to differ. But when we have affinity based authority, we're not interested in any of that. We're simply interested in keeping the status quo going. And so let me review, right, so we've gotten through the five on, name him for you. I'm gonna kick it back to Tony.

 number one is vision division number two, relational isolation. Number three, communication, chaos. Number four is act don't ask. And number five is a Fendi based authority. So these are five symptoms of an unhealthy culture. And if you see these things in the culture that you're in, it needs attention.

Just like we would give attention to symptoms that we have when we are aren't feeling well. I think that these five symptoms are so real for so many of us. And yet the, the truth is, is that. Like Justin kind of alluded to that. Just because you have an unhealthy culture right now means that you have to end in an unhealthy culture.

There are ways to get out of this. Every single one of these symptoms, they have a mere side, right? So you, you can have unity in the vision, you can have intentional community, you can have direct communication, you can have collaborative action, and you can have diversity and authority. You can have those things.

It just requires each and every one of us as leaders to show up and do the work. So the takeaway for today's episode culture is what most people do most of the time. Unhealthy culture will infect the movement. You're trying to lead the action step. Do a cultural checkup, examines the aspect of the culture, and look for symptoms that indicate a bigger problem.

Also hit this subscribe button right now wherever you listen to podcast. Our next episode is really all about, serving as a leader, and we're gonna talk about the serving training illustration. It's a really good way to combat unhealthy culture. And so these kind of go hand in glove as we do our very best to try to equip you to make disciples who can make disciples.

So thank you so much for listening. Thank you for, giving us this honor. Remember, if you can please leave us a couple of reviews on iTunes. Let the world know what God is doing on this platform as we work together to build the kingdom. Thank you guys so much and we'll see you real soon.