The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham

“I learned something about change,” he continued. “While
there’s a lot of discussion about change and the necessity of it, I
discovered through my dialogue with Billy that change is not
about the head—it’s about the heart. When the heart is soft, the
mind is open to change at any age.”

LEADERSHIP

LESSONS | Innovating

Applying the Principles

In the early 1960s the book The Dynamics of Changemade a star-

tling assertion. Not only would change continue, it would con-

tinually accelerate, expanding geometrically. We who decades ago

first read the book’s assertion questioned it, saying, “Everything’s

already changing so fast that it can’t go even faster!” But it has,

with the drumbeat of change building more and more momen-

tum with jarring acceleration.

Globalization. Breakthrough technologies. Economic volatil-

ity. Generational chasms. Religious upheavals. The need for inno-

vation today goes far beyond thinking up new gadgets or even

adapting to new cultural norms. So much is happening and will

continue to happen that even the nature of needed innovations

will shift on us before predictions come true. Henri Nouwen wryly

observed that he felt “at a loss when people asked me about next

month, let alone future years.” The immediate cacophony of

explanations and forecasts deliver fragments of truth, but as forces

plunge us faster and faster into yet more change, we must recog-

nize innovation will require more creativity, quickness, and depth

than ever before.

In one sense, this is nothing new. Every leader has always

had to innovate. Even in “stable conditions” people change or

die, resources expand or dry up, someone gets an idea that

catches fire and changes the chemistry. Adapting to new reali-

ties and bringing experience to bear is what leadership is all

about.

The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham