STRATEGY CENTRAL

Do you know Seth Godin?  I don’t know him…but I’m enjoying what he writes, and posts on his blog.  There were two very interesting posts on Friday.  One about Bill Gross, a sort’ve pioneer in internet marketing from an upcoming book called The SEARCH by John Battelle.  I’ve been looking at "keyword advertising" lately, as it concerns church plants.  This article has some threads of what is at the root of that interest.

The other post on Seth’s blog is a very interesting reference to the history of why Abraham Lincoln and not William Seward became president.  Here’s an instance where Seward’s chief enemy really was "as wise as a serpent" and undid Seward’s aspirations with a clever strategic move.

Implications?  Plenty.

Out.

“You can’t choose problem-free.  It doesn’t exist.  But you can choose the set of problems you’d rather deal with.”  I remember where I was sitting when I first heard that phrase.  Pastor’s Toolbox Seminar…left side…two thirds of the way back.  Jim Dethmer, then a teaching pastor at Willow Creek, was talking about vision and out popped this gem.  And it was like a light bulb popped on.

In The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership (the best book I read in 2004), Steven B. Sample summarizes this Machiavellian principle this way, “No policy is without its peril.  A really talented leader first discerns the pitfalls of each option and then chooses the best among them, recognizing that there is no perfect of perfectly popular solution.”

A practical example:  You want to increase the number of people in small groups in your church, but have a consistently difficult time finding small group leaders.  Plenty of people signing up to join a group.  But nowhere near enough “qualified” leaders to keep up with the demand.  Then you hear about a newfangled way of lowering the bar in terms of who’s “qualified” by using a material that is DVD driven, kind of a “just add water” study and encouraging hosts to recruit their own groups.

Solution A, recruiting and training leaders the old-fashioned way, has a set of problems.  (1) Never enough of them, (2) the ones you get off a sign-up have mixed motives, (3) willingness to volunteer guarantees nothing in terms of ability to gather and sustain a group.  Upside: you can enforce higher standards.  Downside: never enough to meet the demand.

Solution B, inviting people to simply open their home and invite their friends guarantees nothing in terms of their suitability.  Upside: Demand met by lowering the bar in terms of who can lead.  Downside: running the risk in terms of who may want to open their home.

Question: which set of problems looks better?  Which set of problems have mitigating solutions?  There is no problem-free.  Many churches are choosing Solution B because they recognize the upside of meeting demand and realize that they can mitigate the inherent risks by requiring orientation, linking each host with a coach, providing feedback opportunities, etc.

What goes through your mind when you hear the word, "customer" and you’re thinking about your church or ministry?  Does it resonate with you?  Or does it make you want to run the other way?  I’ve found there are two groups of people in the world.  One group readily gets the idea that even churches have primary customers.  The other group objects vehemently to the idea that a church would ever stoop to identifying who their customer is.  After all, they say, isn’t our mission to try and reach everyone, satisfy everyone, and engage everyone?

Truth is, you can’t!

Came across a great article at Working Knowledge (sorry…the link doesn’t seem to work right now), a great resource provided by the Harvard Business School.  In a time when we’re being told that everyone is a customer, Robert Simons points out that "by labeling everyone a customer, the organization becomes confused about its purpose and whom it is designed to serve.  If everyone is a customer, then no one is — and focus on the real customer is lost."

That is a huge statement with even bigger implications.  Do you know who the primary customer of your organization is?  And a bigger question is, "do your members believe that they are your customers?"  How about this question:  do you believe that your members are your customers?  The answer to that question will define your ministry.

More tomorrow.

Out.

I’ve stumbled on a kindred spirit in Mark Waltz, Connections Pastor at Granger Community Church.  Recently he launched a series of posts in reply to this question from "New friend and fellow-blogger, Pete Bishop, from Crossroads Community Church in Adrian, MI:

"I’d love to read your blog thoughts on how you guys keep the main thing the main thing. And how you have prevented silo-ing as you’ve grown."

Check out the whole story in these three posts:  Life-Sucking Silos; Life-Sucking Silos Part Two; Life-Sucking Silos Part Three

It’s like deja vu all over again.

Out.

One of the most challenging sections of the book, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry is on the critical importance of narrowing your focus if you hope to have real impact.  One of the great lines is that "your potential to make an impact with your life is directly related to your willingness to narrow your focus."  When you think about the world of sports it makes a lot of sense.  Although the illustration in the book refers to John Smoltz, the ace relief pitcher of the Atlanta Braves, here in LA it makes more sense to think about Eric Gagne.  No reliever has been more dominant in the last few years.  As a closer, Gagne had an incredible run of 84 consecutive saves over a stretch of 23 months.  His game was incredibly focused during that run.  Focused on his pitching.  Not on becoming more competent as a hitter.

So, the question becomes, how focused are we in our effort?  Have we really narrowed the focus and concentrated on that one area where we can have the greatest impact?  Or are we moving steadily toward and more and more complex menu of opportunities?

At its essence, narrowing the focus is about "deciding to do less in order to be more effective."  Can you imagine that happening where you are?

Out.