Change in the Church
I spend the majority of my time working with leaders of local churches. Talk about a group that struggles with change!! One of the most significant ongoing “challenges” that these leaders face is that they have experienced success with something in the past, and are having trouble adjusting to the currently reality.
Churches have a great deal of trouble distinguishing between their “methods” and their “work”. No product or service delivery “method” is effective forever, but the “work” of the church never changes. When it is being effective, suffering is being relieved, people are finding hope, and lives are being changed for the better. It is vital that the church finds ways to be effective.
Kevin Carroll interviews IDEO Tom and David Kelley
Great interview by Kevin Carroll (Rules of the Red Rubber Ball) of brothers Tom and David Kelley (founders of IDEO).
21 Rules of Innovation… numbers 15-21
15. A good team is always an active learning team.
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16. Be aware of the balance and flow of polarities that exist for your team. Remember that too much team can be just as bad as not enough. Allow for individual self-expression within the team. Teams are not problems to solve, they are a mass of polarities to manage (see Bruce Johnson’s “Polarity Management”)
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17. Your team is a strong as its weakest link. A good team makes efforts to cover, improve, or strengthen its deficiencies. Read “The Goal” by Eli Goldratt to understand more about the “theory of constraints.”
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18. Effective teams engage in constructive disagreement around content with a ‘yes and not a ‘yes but’ attitude.
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19. Listening is key.
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20. Know thyself – what you can contribute to the team and what others can contribute that doesn’t come naturally to you.
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21. In teams, seek to ‘pull in’ the outliers, the mavericks, those who we tend to exclude. Everyone has something important to offer the team – find it.
21 Rules for Innovation..1-7
Greg Fraley wrote this list, with the assistance of Kim Greene, for the 2009 CPSI Team Building participants. They had made the request for a bit of “real world” content (imagine!).
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1. A strong bold initiative and vision inspires teams. It has the right people wanting to be involved.
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2. If you are the organizer/leader know that Who is on the team may have more impact then any other choice you make. As they say in golf, all bets are made on the first tee.
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3. If you can’t choose who is on your team, clarity of roles and task fit, are very important choices.
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4. When a team member leaves or a new member comes on board, don’t forget you have work to do in reforming the team. Really, it’s a whole new team.
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5. Don’t forget the fun element… “if it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right” (JFK). Try to integrate an element of fun in all the team does.
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6. Regardless of who is on your team, overt appreciation of strengths and diversity is a good place to start. Starting with positives is always a good idea.
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7. Build trust all the time. Make deposits to the “savings account” you have with each team member. You can, and will need to, “withdraw” from that account in difficult times (thanks Stephen Covey). A key to building trust is rigorous integrity around your word. Do what you say you will do. If you don’t, or have a problem, come clean on it ASAP.
Avoiding Burnout
Elizabeth Gilbert gives an interesting talk on the “dangers” of feeling personally responsible for the creative process. For pastors, writers, and others in the church who must create on a schedule, these thoughts are highly valuable. Although she is not coming from a Christian perspective - the concepts of “genius” and job are well suited for anyone who feels the responsibility to communicate what the Holy Spirit inspires.
Post Christian America
In a recent article in Newsweek it is reported that the percentage self identified Christians has dropped by 10 points in the last 20 years. Throughout this article the implication is given that the Christian influence in United States is headed towards and end. The article is entitled The End of Christian America.
I don’t want to get into the semantics of whether or not this was ever a Christian country, but it doesn’t take much research to see that this nation was founded on Christian principles.
Telecommuting for Jesus
Pennsylvania State University studied 12,833 telecommuters and found that telecommuting programs are beneficial for both the workers and their employers. The results showed more job satisfaction, less stress, improved work-family balance, and higher performance ratings by supervisors.
Sounds great!!!! So how so you work in a church or non-profit and do this???
It’s not easy. The first hurdle is the boss, and then all the people who give to support your mission. Then the real hurdle: Your ego.
I bring this up because those who work in these sectors sometimes have the biggest problems with the work-family balance issue. There are always more people to help or more souls to save. And there is always a group of people cheering you on as you sacrifice all to do so. So how do you figure out what to do?
The first step is to get to know yourself better. Ask yourself some of the tough questions:
Who am I trying to impress? What am I afraid of? What am I trying to control and why?
As you answer these questions, you may find that telecommuting is not your solution, but rather just choosing to go home when it is time to go home (and then actually focusing on home when you are there!)
Most of us are actually choosing to neglect what we say is important in order to do things that get us positive attention from those we want to impress. We just use the “working for God” as an excuse to get our egos fed.
Service
I spent the last week in Washington D.C. and had the opportunity to see some very inspirational sites. Among them was Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. 
Although the estate itself was very impressive, what I found inspiring was the fact that the man many said could have chosen to be a king, was more of a farmer at heart than anything else. All around his home he had established gardens and groves to farm.
His life was remembered for his military and public service, but his heart was with the most basic of professions: farming. Somewhere over the past 200+ years, we have lost site that serving people can be a simple way of living, not just a paid profession. We can find opportunities to do the right things and make the world a better place - without ever receiving a paycheck for doing so.
Granted, Washington was paid for his service in the military and maybe even as president. But it was not his goal. He was a farmer who served others.
We’re back!
We are back online - with a few minor bugs here and there - Special thanks to Marcus Neto and BlueFish Design Studios for the help on this move.
Happy Birthday
Today is Marcus Neto’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Marcus!!
