Executive Pastor Online

I don't know about you, but I can sometimes get too focused on the task at hand and loose my perspective.  You know ... what I'm here to accomplish.  As CCV's Executive Pastor I'm "up to my eyeballs in alligators" all the time, usually focused on slaying one dragon or another.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my job.  And, I'm almost always having a good time doing it.  Every now and then, though, I need to be reminded why I'm here.  I need a little perspective.

A friend of mine sent me this link a few days ago.  Check it out ...

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

God's creation is truly amazing!

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One of the most important components of good leadership is also one of the most difficult.  Have you ever heard the expression, "I feel like I'm being treated like a mushroom"?  Mushrooms are fed a lot of "crap" and kept in the dark ... obviously not good when it comes to communication.

The bottom line is that continuously communicating with everyone is critically important to an organization's overall effectiveness.  But, actually getting this done consistently is very difficult.  Like many of the other difficulties of leadership and infrastructure building, communication must be systemic - happening almost automatically at all levels of the organization.

In fact, communicating effectively is so important senior leadership should establish and document a Communication Plan.  The Communication Plan should be "communicated" to all team members and be continuously available for reference.  Of course, once you put a plan in writing you definitely have to follow it.

The Communication Plan should include communication guidelines/requirements at all levels of the organization.  A typical plan would include guidelines as follows:

Announcements - A vehicle for routine all employee announcements should be established and utilized as much as possible to get the word out to everyone frequently.  Almost anything of interest to the team that is public knowledge can be communicated via e-mail or an internal website bulletin board.

One on One Meetings - On a very frequent and informal basis a leader should meet one on one with each of their direct reports.  This can be done in an actual sit down meeting and/or through routine interaction throughout the week.  Regardless, there needs to be a forum for team leader to team member communication.

Routine Staff Meetings - Every team leader should schedule and conduct routine team meetings.  The two most critical aspects of a "staff meeting" are that they are regularly scheduled and on everyone's calendar well in advance and that an agenda is sent to the team before the meeting begins.  I've asked many a leader if they have a "routine" staff meeting and they immediately respond with a "yes."  But when I ask when the next one is scheduled, I more often than not get a response like, "We try to have them every week or two."  In other words, the leader hasn't made the commitment in the form of a standing appointment on the calendar.  It's important that the team know they can count on a regularly scheduled forum for communication and coordination with other team members.  The agenda piece is just good practice.  People need to know what will be discussed and have the opportunity to add things to the agenda if they want.

Quarterly Communication Meetings - All organizations of any size at all should have a periodic forum for presenting information from leadership to the rest of the organization.  In the past, I've done this via a "Quarterly Communication Meeting."  Around mid-month of the new quarter a meeting is held with all employees.  Again the meeting is scheduled in advance and has an agenda published ahead of time.  Communication in a large group setting like this one is mostly "one way" and should have more of a "state of the business" feel to it.  There can be a brief Q&A time, but actually resolving anything or making a decision in a forum this large is not easy and not really the point of this communication method.

Annual Meeting - One of the quarterly meetings (1^st quarter of the new "business year") can be utilized as the "annual" meeting.  Again, in a state of the business format the previous year is discussed and the plans for the coming year are presented.

Feedback - Another important aspect of good communication includes a method of allowing employees to give feedback to their leadership.  In larger organizations this can be done via a suggestion program of some sort.  Smaller organizations can implement something less formal, sometimes having a feedback segment to a regular staff meeting like a roundtable agenda item.

As important as communication is to the success of the mission, it should be given the attention that many other aspects of the business are given.  Having a formal Communication Plan can help the leader to get it done.

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I remember working with a group of employees on the manufacturing floor (many years ago) in an attempt to improve efficiency through a better layout and organization of the workspace.  I made a very interesting observation that, I believe, illustrates the significance of our responsibility to our staffs and organizations as leaders.

I spent a week "observing" a small group of production employees doing assembly and testing of one of our products.  There were a number of "operations" involved in the assembly and test, all located in a small area we had defined as a "work cell."  Anyway, during the week I had observed all of the employees walking around this small table that was kind of centrally located in the work cell.  Can you picture it?  I never saw anyone actually use the table for anything, though.  It was just there.  In fact, it was in the way, causing everyone to have to walk around it.  I even witnessed 1 or 2 of them accidently bump into the table.

At the end of the week, I got all of the employees together to discuss my observations.  During the meeting I asked, "Can anyone tell me why that table is there?"  They all looked at each other and me and finally concluded that nobody really knew.  "It's just always been there." they said.  I told them what I had observed and they all agreed that it was in the way.  I then said, "I have an idea ... let's move it out of the way."  They all agreed and we made it so.

What's the moral of the story?  As a leader I've seen it over and over.  The people "in our charge" will work around any obstacle we put in their path to get the job done.  No matter how many "barriers" we place in front of them, they will find a way around them.  Unfortunately, we often don't like the method they are using to get it done, not realizing that something we did, didn't recognize, or otherwise are responsible for (as leaders) is the cause.

As leaders we need to recognize this and at a minimum empower our staffs to make decisions about the things that affect them.  We need to teach them this concept and make sure they know that they are empowered to remove the obstacles/barriers to getting the job done.

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The more I do this job, the more I realize that much of what I've learned over my years in corporate applies to managing the church.  "Doing church" each weekend is a lot about logistics.  You know ... having everything you need, where you need it, when you need it.  Pulling this off, though, in a multi-purpose facility is difficult to say the least.  Over time, everything gets shuffled and before you know it, you are stifled by the clutter and inefficiency.

In the manufacturing industry not only is efficiency important, high quality is a concern.  It's difficult to build high quality products in a cluttered, inefficient environment.  Enter the concept of "a place for everything and everything in its place."

It's really pretty simple.  Everything that it takes to build a product (materials, tools, fixtures, equipment, etc.) has a designated location, and nothing that is not needed is allowed to be at the workstation.  Sounds pretty simple, right?

While I was a Plant Manager in Mexico, I used to go down to the production floor and "rifle through" the various workstations (drawers, shelves, etc.).  I remember being amazed at the amount of "stuff" that would accumulate.  In some cases it was just due to the employee at the workstation being a "pack rat."  Correcting this was a matter of setting expectations and accountability.

The more difficult situations were those where an employee was trying to get the job done and leadership hadn't provided them with what they needed.  In this case, a place for everything they needed to get the job done wasn't provided.  They, therefore, stuffed it in a drawer or otherwise "found a place" for it.

I've learned over and over that people will find a way to get the job done.  They will find a way, despite the obstacles, to get done what you are asking of them.  The challenge is that most of the time we as their leaders don't like the way they've found to "work around" the obstacles.  If you put them in a situation where they are expected to create an exciting, dynamic production every Sunday without space to store props, supplies, and equipment they will get it done anyway and end up stuffing things in every available space.

To illustrate my point I'll describe the exercise I am now leading our staff through.  Due to lack of financial resources and our insistence that "the ministry come first" we built a building that has very little if any storage space.  In fact, it doesn't even have enough office space for our staff.  We did this for the right reasons, but the result is not very pleasant.  In fact, we were "busted" pretty seriously by our local Fire Marshal during a recent inspection for having "stuff" crammed everywhere!

So, as I've always found to be the case, our staff is doing what is necessary to get their jobs done.  You've got to admire their tenacity.  Unfortunately there is "stuff" everywhere.

The solution?  As leaders we must evaluate the real need for equipment and supplies and provide "a place for everything."  In our case, this means offsite storage.  It's interesting.  Making a decision not to provide proper storage space in a building is only a decision to increase operating costs through storage space rental.  In other words, it really doesn't save money.  The space is needed regardless and storage space isn't free.

Once a place for everything has been established and communicated, it's necessary to instill the discipline of putting "everything in its place."  I hear it all the time, "Do we really have to put that in storage?  I'm going to need it in 2 weeks."  Where are you going to put it for the 2 weeks it's not needed?  I can tell you.  It will be leaned up against the back of the building outside and never be put in storage.  Before you know it, it's rusted (or otherwise damaged) and has to be replaced.  The staff has to get used to the idea that they are going to have to use the 6 days between Sundays to go to and from storage as needed to prepare for the coming weekend.

Of course a vehicle has to be provided and the storage space has to be organized in such a way as to make everything easy to store and retrieve.  Again, this costs money and takes time.

A place for everything and everything in its place is an operational must!

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I don’t know any other way to say it. I’m mighty proud of my wife (Terri Stone) of almost 24 years. She is a pastor on our staff … specifically Associate Director of Adult Ministries. She is a gifted speaker with a passion for teaching people about Jesus. Her responsibilities on our staff basically fall under the heading of “assimilation.” She is responsible for First Impressions (Hospitality, Resource Center, and Ushers), congregational facing forms of communication, including our website (MovieChurch.Com), and all of our assimilation classes (Starting Point, Baptism Class, and Membership Class). She is also responsible for following up with first time guests.

Anyway, she was invited to teach yesterday morning (Mother’s Day) by Craig Casey the Senior Pastor of Princeton Community Church in Pennington, New Jersey. They have one service, and from what I hear she knocked it out of the park. Awesome! Great job Terri!

Terri basically told her story beginning as a new mother at age 18. She told of life’s difficulties and how she found Jesus along the way. Her message ended with a video that our oldest child Gail (almost 30 and the mother of 3) edited shortly after the birth of her youngest, Drew (our 3rd grandchild!). I wasn’t there (on my way to Mexico) but I bet there wasn’t a “dry eye” in the place.

Check it out …

Terri … you go girl!

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