I love hanging out with my daughter,
Rebekah. She has one of the most creative minds and thinks up some interesting
inventions. Sometimes her ideas are very intricate and quite involved. I
remember recently when she came home and told us that she was going to create a
space suit out of plastic soda bottles. Executing her plan was a little harder
than the picture she had in her mind. She reminds me of many of the
ministry teams that I have been a part of. Some have had incredible creativity
in the dreaming and brainstorming phase of ministry. The challenge that I have
seen with many creative ministry teams is execution. Yep, how do you put the
strategy or mission statement into action? How do you bring change when we know
that people need it, but won’t necessarily want to embrace it? How do we get
our plan from paper into action?
Sometimes you think you have to have
a sophisticated plan in order for the results to be successful. However,
what sometimes looks like a simple or simplistic plan on paper can have greater
impact because it is executed well.
Here are four things I have gleaned
from others that have worked in my ministry when I have been trying to ensure
the strategy will be executed well.
1. Allow your team to be part of the decision
making – after all they are the people that are going to be
executing the plan. The biggest win on our team has been when everyone on the
team has been required to be part of the process and buy in of the direction we
are moving in. In his book Five dysfunctions of a team, Patrick Lencioni gives
a great illustration of how leaders get others involved. Even Solomon speaks of
the significance of teams: “Two are better than one, because
they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help
him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two
lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though
one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is
not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
2. Execute the plan. – Set a timeline for implementing different parts of the
strategy you have set in place and make sure that each piece of your strategy
is attainable. In other words put your plan into bite sized pieces that can be
shared between your team. In the last year, the ministry that I am part of has
undergone tremendous change. The one thing that has helped us to move forward
and come out on the other side has been our willingness to look for the
tangible action items, give them a name and a deadline. Have someone on your
team map out deadlines on a calendar and hold everyone on the team accountable
(including you). This has helped our team to be able to make huge strides and
to celebrate great successes. Some of the best ideas in our ministry have come
from people in our team who in times past would not have been invited to
brainstorming meetings.
3. Repeat the things you do well – instead of feeling like you need to create something fresh
and new every year, keep doing the things that are effective. I’m not saying
you shouldn’t evaluate processes and ministry tools, but all too often paid
staff are the only ones in ministry that want change because we are bored with
something, not because it has lost its impact or effectiveness.
4. Celebrate small milestones – too often in ministry we forget to reflect and take pride in
small victories because we are looking for big ones. One of the small
milestones for our team, [well okay it is a big one] is that our whole team can
communicate what our mission is and how we execute that everyday in our
ministry. Our volunteers and parents hear weekly and monthly what we are about,
and can articulate what they are about. Plan to do something everytime a person
in your team checks off an action item on your list, even if it is writing two
words on a post-it note.
As you look toward the summer and think about the ministry
year ahead, remember to keep things simple. Don’t fall into the trap of
overcomplicating things. Oh, and remember to celebrate the moments, yes those
small sweet ones that God gives you with your team, your family and the other
people in your life. Now go and look at your mission statement and execute
something!
