Ever noticed how the best restaurants always have the shortest menus? Yet everyone can always find something they like? The founder picked a few items she knew she could prepare excellently and made them as appealing as possible to a wide audience. She didn’t overcrowd the menu with three other kinds of pasta and five […]
Category: Strategy
The Vision Process
There are three stages to any vision: . Vision Development Vision Casting Vision Implementation Development involves an analysis of the current context along with the concept-construction of a future, better context. . Casting involves the communication of the need for and feasility of the vision, along with the inspiration necessary to pursue it. . Implementation involves the actual […]
Takeaways from Oak Leaf Church visit
This past Saturday evening, I had the chance to visit Oak Leaf Church, a campus of West Ridge Church. This campus is portable, meeting at a music venue in Cartersville, GA creatively named the “House of Rock“. Each time I visit a new church, I try to clarify a few takeaway concepts to apply in […]
Attendance Regularity: The important data hidden in your Children’s Ministry
Though some disagree, the analysis of attendance numbers is very important to your church. Numbers represent changed lives. And what could possibly be more important in ministry than changed lives? . But if you’re only looking at mass attendance numbers, you may be missing something. Mass attendance only tells you the total number people that were […]
Values Vocabulary
Every time a member of your organization speaks, your values are communicated. They may not quote a poster on your conference room wall, but they are talking about them. The principle is simple: we talk about the things that are important to us. We see this clearly in our personal lives. A proud father can’t […]
Innovation vs. Imitation
With every development, an organization either innovates or imitates. Too often the second is confused for the first. Let’s define the two… Innovation is any organizational development, created by your organization, that meets your own specific context. Imitation is the adoption of another organization’s development that meets that other organization’s specific context. [Also, the adoption […]
Programs themselves are not the problem.
Many criticize church ministry programs because of the frequency with which they are changed. But the fact is that every church has a set of programs, though they may be described differently. Programs provide systems for activity and so are necessary for effective ministry. The problem of change frequency may not be inherent to programs, […]
The water cooler doesn’t cut it anymore.
I came across the following video via tonymorganlive.com (excellent blog). While not explicit, it definitely has something to say about organizational culture and easily leads to ask a important questions regarding our organizations. Watch this short, 4 minute presentation and consider the questions I include below: Consider these… How easy is it for people within […]
The organizational chart you never knew you had.
Every organization operates according to two organizational charts: a published chart and a practiced chart. The published chart is the one that everyone is familiar with. It’s the chart that is communicated by management, with every position neatly organized into columns and rows symbolizing power and influence. The practiced chart, however, is much less familiar, […]
Deep or Wide?
Every growing organization is faced with this question. Its structure can only expand in one of these two dimensions. Growing wide provides the top leader with a greater amount of direct influence in each area of the organization. Yet it reduces the amount of focused attention given to these areas by leadership. Growing deep allows […]