For local leaders in the Church, the past three years have been anything but normal. We might even call them unprecedented.

“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.”

That’s President Nelson in the October 2021 General Conference.

This is a play on the common idiom, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

But why change the expression? Why unprecedented instead of desperate?

Last week in our Sunday School class, an Area Seventy described a meeting he’d attended the day prior in which Elder Anderson portrayed President Nelson — surgeon, professor, and prophet — as precise in everything he does, including (and especially) his word choice.

So President Nelson must have precisely chosen the word unprecedented.

Why?

A Call for Serious Change

Unprecedented means “never experienced before” or “never done before”.  So what President Nelson seems to be saying is, 

“The world has changed. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done, or we’ll die — we’ll become ineffective or irrelevant — as individuals and as a community. We need new strategies, new approaches, and new behaviors. We need to try things we’ve never tried before.”

To me, a call for “unprecedented measures” is a call for serious change.

And that’s a call for serious leadership.

We Don’t Know What We’re Doing

A few weeks ago, as I sat with the executive team of one of my clients, the CEO repeatedly used the word unprecedented to describe the challenges they face. Like President Nelson, his word choice was precise. With each use of unprecedented, he was straining to convey an important message:

“We don’t know what we’re doing.”

That’s a hard confession —

For 20 years, they’ve successfully guided the company through myriad other challenges: they’ve become expert problem-solvers.  But the world changed: it pulled the rug from beneath them. And now this CEO and his most trusted advisors are stumped.

But there is a way forward.

Unprecedented Implies Unknown

Ronald Heifetz, a leadership professor at Harvard, talks about two types of problems.

Technical problems, whether simple or complex, have known solutions and can be resolved using existing tools and know-how.

Adaptive problems, on the other hand, which can also be simple or complex, have no known solutions and cannot be resolved using existing tools and know-how.

But adaptive problems can be resolved.  (Quick note: almost all people problems and social problems, and therefore all leadership problems, are adaptive problems.)

An example of a technical problem is “we’re out of milk”. The solution is readily available: drive to the store and buy milk. An example of an adaptive problem is “the store no longer stocks milk”. Suddenly, “How did we used to get milk?” is an irrelevant question. The only question that matters is, “Now, how will we get milk?”

The way to resolve adaptive problems, says Heifetz, is to learn. That is, to create new tools and new know-how.  And the only way to do that is to experiment. That is, to try new strategies, new approaches, and new behaviors, to see if they produce better outcomes than our old ways.

Back to our analogy — You don’t even know how to buy a cow, let alone milk one. But when the store stops stocking milk, if you still want milk, you’re going to have to learn something new.

When I hear leaders use words like unprecedented, I know they’re dealing with adaptive challenges. I also know the only way to help them resolve those challenges is to inspire them to embrace uncertainty, to let go of what they know and reach for what they don’t know.

When it comes to adaptive problems, until you’re willing to get it wrong you’ll never get it right.

Unprecedented implies unknown.

God Loves Adaptive Problems

In his October 2021 talk, President Nelson was encouraging us to improve our personal spiritual foundations. But he was also justifying recent changes the Brethren made to the temple ceremony.

Think about it — the temple ceremony is the most sacred (and therefore we might think the most immutable) element of our worship; 

And yet — in response to unprecedented times — just like that, the Brethren changed it.

Maybe God told them exactly what changes to make. But there’s nothing unprecedented about following divine instructions. Maybe instead they’re experimenting. Maybe they’re acting on a hypothesis that a new approach will yield a better outcome.

After all, unprecedented implies unknown. 

And if there’s one thing the scriptures make certain: God’s okay with giving us the big picture and letting us figure out the details on our own. In other words, God seems to love adaptive problems that force us to grow, individually and collectively.

Throughout scripture, the prophets repeatedly emphasize the unchanging nature of God — He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And yet, in his talk, President Nelson points to the changing of the temple ceremony as evidence that God is directing His church.

But God is never-changing, so if today He is leading change He must be leading change all the time — yesterday, today, and forever.

Our God is a god of unprecedented measures. He’s a God of experimentation, learning, and growth.

What kind of leader are you?

Are You a Leader of Unprecedented Measures?

Ask yourself a few questions — 

• Do you fully grasp the unprecedented nature of these times?
• Are you trying to resolve adaptive challenges with current tools and know-how?
• Are you experimenting with new strategies, new approaches, and new behaviors?
• Are you embracing the journey of uncertainty as you learn your way forward?
• Are you making space for others in your unit to experiment and learn?
• Are you rallying your people to do things they’ve never done before?

Like God, President Nelson apparently loves adaptive challenges. 

With his simple admonition — “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures” — he set the stage and is inviting you to act on it. That is, to do something you’ve never done before.