Executive Pastor Online

We recently hired a new Arts Director, which is a very good thing.  During the more than 6 months it took to make the hiring decision, though, I had the privilege of directly leading the Arts organization including the development of a new Service Design process.

As the Executive Pastor I probably spend more face-to-face time with our Senior Pastor than anyone else on staff.  This helped me to get a new process established, documented, and implemented.  It also taught me a bunch about the constant "tug" between the lead speaker and creative design team.

The design team says, "We have to plan more in advance if we want to really do some good stuff."  While the lead speaker says, "I need the freedom and flexibility to change my message at the last minute."  Or, "I want to come up with the ideas and speak on them within a few weeks of each other when I'm still excited about the topic."

The problem is they are both right, and they are both wrong.  (That reminds me of a line out of a movie.  What movie?)  The creative team does need significant lead time on song selection and many other creative elements.  But if they had it their way, everything would be completely done and on paper for a year and there would be no flexibility to tweak anything as the world changes around the church.  In other words, too much planning ahead can equal lack of flexibility.  That's not good.

The lead speaker, on the other hand, does need to be excited about the topic in order to deliver the message with excellence.  Depending on the person, getting and staying excited about a topic might mean not planning too much in advance.  I've seen it before.  "Six months ago during a brainstorming session I was really excited about this topic, but now (six months later) I wish I had never brought it up!"

The bottom line is that the lead speaker and creative team have to work together to establish the best process possible given the gifts of the people involved and the level of excellence desired.  Depending on the service element, the creative team needs the lead time required to get the job done with excellence.  For example, an all volunteer music ministry (made up of people with full-time jobs) needs more time to learn the music and practice than a paid band needs to perform with the required (and expected) excellence.  If the required lead time is not provided, a lower level of excellence will be the result ... like it or not.  If the creative element is a video or drama, obviously much more lead time is required.

The lead speaker needs to work on planning ahead and sticking to the plan once it's established.  But, sometimes (for whatever reason) needs the flexibility to tweak or even completely change the plan.  The creative team needs enough lead time to produce services that inspire attendees.  But, they can't be so rigid that they can't tweak or even completely change the plan when needed.

So, I say establish a process (on paper) that works and that everyone understands.  And then, work to continuously reduce the amount of lead time required to get the job done.  The lead speaker continuously works to plan more ahead and the creative team works to be more flexible.  As with every other area of the church (and just about any business), once the process is established revision B (an improved process) should never be far behind.

Check out CCV's Service Design process here.

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I've blogged before on the topic of measuring results.  In my article on the Performance Cycle I discuss it in the context of everything else when it comes to leading the church in the accomplishment of the mission.

I have been asked lately about how to actually capture results and put them into a format that is readily available to staff and easy to read and interpret.

We use what we refer to as the Stat Sheet. It is e-mailed to the staff each week on Monday or Tuesday and contains just about anything you could possibly want. We also publish and review KPMs (Key Performance Measures) each month that put the data in graphical form.  I have found that looking at data in graphical form makes it easier to actually learn something from the information.  The Stat Sheet might be considered more of a dashboard, but both are needed and very helpful.

If you would like a copy of either our Stat Sheet or KPMs, send me an e-mail and I'll hook you up.

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A continuous challenge in the growing church is making sure every area has what it needs at all times in terms of supplies. You know ... paper towels, cleaning materials, paper, and the myriad of other items required to sustain the ministry week to week. Have you ever sent someone to the convenience store on Sunday morning (right before the service starts) for AA batteries? Or how about running out of grape juice during the 2nd of 3 services?

Every ministry, no matter the size, has a continuous need for supplies. And, just like any other area of church operations a system has to be developed and implemented that ensures that supplies are stocked and replenished as needed. In the manufacturing industry, where this is also an on-going challenge, implementation of a Reorder Point Based Supply System has been the solution.

It's pretty simple really. When the amount of supply (grape juice, batteries, paper, pens, diapers, baby wipes, crayons, etc.) gets to a pre-established quantity (reorder point) a demand signal is generated and the supply is replenished.

The simplest way to implement your own Reorder Point Based Supply System is to establish a location in your facility you'll call the stockroom. Equip the stockroom with shelving upon which you will place containers (plastic bins, boxes, etc.) to hold the supply items. The size of the container is determined by the size of the item and the amount of the item stocked at the maximum. (I'll explain how to determine this a little later.) The container is then labeled and a card is created with the same label to go along with the container. An individual (staff member or volunteer) is then assigned to go through the stockroom on the same day each week (Monday or Tuesday?) to look at each container to determine if the Reorder Point (ROP) has been reached. If it has, the card is "pulled" and given to the individual responsible for ordering supplies. The other thing that individual does on that day of the week is open newly received supplies from the previous week and put them in their designated container. It's as simple as that.

All that is left is to establish 3 very important variables: ROP, Order Quantity, and Stock Quantity. The ROP is calculated based on the usage. Basically, you have to make sure more supply is ordered and received before you run out. Let's take AA batteries for example. If your church has 10 wireless microphones, each using 2 AA batteries per week, the usage (assuming this is the only place AA batteries are used in your church) is 20 AA batteries per week. If it takes 2 weeks total time from order placement to receipt and restock to get more batteries, then you must generate your "demand signal" when you reach 40 (at a minimum) batteries left in stock. The ROP is of course 40.

The Order Quantity is determined item by item. It's a combination of how the particular item is ordered (each, box, sleeve, case, etc.), the usage, and how frequently you want to order it. Let's use our batteries as an example again. Batteries are usually sold in a package and the larger the package the lower the price. So, let's say we are going to order batteries by the "package." The next thing to consider is the usage. In this case we use 20 batteries per week. If we only want to order batteries once per month, then our order quantity is going to be a minimum of 80 (4 weeks x 20 batteries). The 80, of course, can be 8 packages of 10, 4 packages of 20, etc. This decision is based on best cost and availability.

I said I would address how to determine the size of the container earlier in this article. By now it should be pretty obvious to most. You have to base the size of the container on the Stock Quantity ... the maximum amount of stock, worst case. Sticking with the batteries ... if an order is placed when the stock is down to 40 and the order quantity is 80, the container should be sized to hold 120 batteries at a maximum. You might be thinking, "But the original 40 are gone by the time the 80 are received, so why not size the container for 80 instead of 120." This is a good question especially if space is limited in your stockroom. But what if things don't go exactly according to plan? For example, after the ROP is reached and an order is placed, weekend services are canceled due to the weather and the usage drops. Or the amount of microphones normally used on a Sunday is reduced to only one for some reason. The point is that things don't always go according to plan. And, the last thing you want is to receive a bunch of batteries and not have anywhere to put them. (Reference my article entitled A Place For Everything ... And Everything In Its Place.)

If you're really thinking this through, you've probably already observed that the opposite could happen as well ... usage could increase. What if you get a bad batch of batteries and they don't last as long, or more services are planned for a particular 2 week period? Obviously the ROP is reached faster which results in an order being placed sooner. If the increase in usage continues, the supply of AA batteries could run out before the new batteries are received. There are a number of ways to approach this situation, but my experience has told me that establishing an adjustment percentage is a good way to go. For example, the ROP of 40 could be increased to 50 to improve the system's ability to handle changes in demand.

Once the system is implemented it is continuously evaluated and quantities are adjusted. Like many other systems, tweaking and adjustment is required over time.

Give it a try, make adjustments, and watch your supply issues go away!

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