Anyone who leads any type of association where membership/stockholder/board member votes are in play can sympathize with the dilemma faced by leaders of the tiny Gulf States Conference of Mennonite Church USA. You can read the account of their recent losing-and-yet-winning vote here.

Decisions always have long and short-term impacts. Short-term effects can easily be addressed, adjusted or rescinded. Long-term not so easily. And not paying attention to them means they stack up and create signficant drag on productivity and organizational culture. Sustained inattention to long-term impacts leads to crisis and the need for intervention, and sometimes even legal proceedings!