What Amazons Delivery Drone Failure Can Teach Your Church about Innovation

The Amazon drone delivery program in College Station, Texas provides critical leadership lessons for church leaders who might push forward with innovations without considering their impact. This episode examines five key truths from Amazon's mistake and how they directly apply to church leadership decisions.

• Innovation without invitation is invasion - launching programs without community input risks alienating the people you want to serve
• When people don't feel heard, they push back through resistance, complaints, and sometimes leaving
• Progress isn't always worth the price if it fractures relationships and community trust
• The right location matters - strategies that work in one context may fail in another
• Trust is hard to win and easy to lose when leaders make decisions without transparency

Are you listening well enough to your congregation before making big decisions? Your leadership is only as strong as the trust your people have in you.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Amazon's Drone Disaster Introduction
• 1:10 Innovation Without Invitation Is Invasion
• 2:44 When People Don't Feel Heard
• 3:59 Progress Isn't Always Worth the Price
• 4:56 The Right Location Matters
• 5:52 Trust Is Hard to Win, Easy to Lose
• 7:17 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Have you ever had a neighbor who just wouldn't stop making noise? Imagine a leaf blower running outside of your house all day, every day. That's what happened in College Station, texas, recently when Amazon's drones took to the sky. But here's the twist the people fought back and they won. Here's the big lesson here for church leaders Are we pushing our own agendas without truly listening to the people we serve? We're going to tackle that. Today. We're unpacking the hard leadership lessons from Amazon's drone debacle and absolutely what it means for your church.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Thanks so much for joining me. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast. Okay, so we're going to learn five things from this total fiasco from Amazon and how they tried to implement their drone delivery. We're going to look at five different things.

Speaker 1: 1:10

We're going to talk about how innovation without invitation is invasion. We're going to talk about when people don't feel heard. They often push back. We're going to talk about progress isn't always worth the price. We're going to talk about the right location matters. And we're going to talk about trust is hard to win and it's really easy to lose.

Speaker 1: 1:23

So let's dig right in Truth. Number one innovation without invitation is invasion. That will preach. Innovation without invitation is invasion. So here's what happened. Amazon drones were an attempt to innovate delivery services, but what the company failed to consider was the real impact on the community the noise, the privacy concerns, even pets and wildlife reacting to these buzzing drones making these deliveries, and sometimes church leaders. We launch new programs or services or technology because they seem like really great ideas, but if we don't take time to invite feedback and involve people in the process, we risk alienating the very people that we want to serve. So here's what you need to ask yourself whenever you introduce something new, something you are excited about as a leader, something that you feel like, hey, this is an incredible innovation that we're going to introduce and people are going to love it. Here's what you need to ask yourself Are we introducing changes because they serve our people or just because they seem exciting? Okay. Are we introducing changes because they serve our people or just because they seem exciting, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Truth number two when people don't feel heard, they push back. The residents of College Station didn't just grumble about the drones. They organized and submitted formal complaints and ultimately, they forced Amazon to retreat. Why? Because they felt unheard. They felt like they had some input. They had, yes, some complaints, and Amazon just didn't listen. Does this ever happen in the church? Oh, my goodness, yes it does. When people in your church feel like they're ignored, whether it's about worship styles or ministry direction or staff decisions, they just don't get over it. They talk, they resist, in some cases, they leave. So what should you ask yourself here? Here's some question you should be asking Are you listening well enough to the frustrations and concerns of our congregation before you make big decisions? I know it's usually the same people that have the same complaints and yep, absolutely. But sometimes you get input from people that you really need to listen to. Okay, truth number three progress isn't always worth the price. Amazon totally miscalculated the cost of running drones near residential areas and the backlash outweighed the benefit. They found this out the hard way. The community was not anti-progress, they just wanted it done in a way that respected their lives and church people are the same way.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Churches sometimes push forward with new ideas without counting the relational and cultural cost, whether it's a new worship format, whether it's a new leadership structure, whether it's a building project forcing change too fast. You know this, as a leader can fracture a congregation right down the middle. So here's a question you need to ask yourself in this area Is this change necessary, or are we just pushing it without considering any of the long-term impact? You really do need to ask that question, because it's just that important. Okay, two more here. Number four the right location matters. Okay, amazon's drones. They work well in some locations, like commercial areas, where noise and privacy aren't real major concerns, but in residential areas it became a problem and, just like Amazon needed to rethink its drone locations, church leaders must consider context. Okay, you got to consider context when you're making some of these leadership decisions.

Speaker 1: 5:18

A strategy that works well in one church, even across town, might fail in yours. What works in a big city or a megachurch won't necessarily work in your small town congregation. So what should you be asking yourself here? Are we considering our local culture, our demographics and our history before implementing new strategies? Incredibly important question. And then, finally, number five trust is hard to win and it's easy to lose, and in the end, amazon could have avoided almost all of this drama by being upfront about its plans.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Number one, and by listening to the community and by adjusting their strategy before it became a battle. Instead, they didn't listen, they were just kind of obstinate and they lost trust. And how does this relate to you in the church? When church leaders make decisions without transparency or dialogue, when they don't listen, you're going to erode trust, and trust is much harder to rebuild once it is lost. So what question should you ask yourself here? You should really be asking yourself are we able to be as transparent as possible? Matter of fact, not. Are we able? Are we being as transparent as possible with our congregation, with our church, about all these upcoming changes and decisions? And then, more importantly, are we listening to the feedback that we're hearing? So Amazon learned the hard way that pushing forward without listening, while it can be innovative, while it can be exciting, it can also backfire in a huge way.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Church leaders, let's not make the same mistake that Amazon made. There are decisions that you need to slow roll, you need to slow down. Maybe you're dealing with some of those now. You, as a leader man, you're ready, let's go, let's do it. In order for this to work, in order for it just needs to be slower, right, and you need to answer questions. You need to listen. Are there people you need to listen to before you make a big move. Your leadership is only as strong as the trust that your people have in you, and if you lose that trust, it'll take a lot longer to regain it.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Okay, I hope this was helpful to you, and even if you just know that Amazon's not perfect, right? Maybe you thought that I don't know, I'm not one of those that thinks Amazon is perfect, but I do order a lot of stuff from them. All right? Thanks so much for listening. This is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm your host, todd Rhodes. Thanks for joining us. We are here every weekday, monday through Friday, with five to eight, sometimes 10, 12 minutes of stuff that I find interesting, and I hope you do too, and I hope you have a great day.