The STaRS organization types.

In The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins writes about the “STaRS” model of organizational evolution. He notes there are four situations you may find yourself walking into when starting a new job: a Start-Up, Turnaround, Realignment, or Sustaining Success.

This is your job in each one:

• START-UP - Assembling the capabilities {people, funding, technology} to get a new business, product, or project off the ground
• SUSTAINING SUCCESS - Shouldering responsibility for preserving the vitality of a successful organization and and taking it to the next level
• REALIGNMENT - Revitalize a unit, product, process, or project that is drifting into trouble
• TURNAROUND - Taking on a unit or group that is recognized to be in trouble to get it back on track

This is how the evolution works:

1. A START-UP that succeeds enters a growth cycle which leads to a SUSTAINING SUCCESS.
2. If a SUSTAINING SUCCESS fails it becomes a REALIGNMENT. If it enters a recovery cycle it can return to a SUSTAINING SUCCESS.
3. If a REALIGNMENT fails it enters a crisis cycle and becomes a TURNAROUND. If it succeeds it can return to a SUSTAINING SUCCESS.
4. If a TURNAROUND fails it dies as a SHUTDOWN.

Here’s the question for church leaders: What type of church are you serving in?

• START-UP
• SUSTAINING SUCCESS
• REALIGNMENT
• TURNAROUND

What cycle are you presently in?

• growth
• recovery
• crisis

Assess each team, project, and program in your ministry and ask the same two questions for each one.