The New York Times posted a story today about the struggling Chrysler corporation. In this case, an auto company’s lack of progress toward economic stability speaks a truth about spiritual growth (or lack thereof) as well. The analogy is too clear to require explanation, so I’ll just give you the quote from the Times that explains the cause of Chrysler’s ails:

“Chrysler is fighting for its survival again, a situation that lays bare
the failure of previous generations of managers to resolve, or even
fully address, its many fundamental problems. Rather than using crises
as opportunities to remake Chrysler in the model of its Japanese
competitors, say analysts conversant with the company’s trajectory, a
revolving cast of corporate stewards repeatedly relied on silver
bullets to revive the automaker. Over and over, they introduced a
single hot-selling model here or tightened the screws on suppliers
there, instead of doing the tougher work that real transformation
required.”

A tweak here and there, or a flashy new angle, isn’t going to bring life, at least not for long, though it’s what we most often try. To live, deep long-term transformation is required. Otherwise, we’ll just sputter out and get stuck on the side of the road.