“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
This afternoon I had a blast watching The Hangover at Cinemark at Tulsa. The theatre was about 70% full for a 11:50am showing on Friday. I have been looking forward to this film since I saw the first preview. The scene were the police car door opens and hits the baby cracks me up. I am sick in the head, but I laugh every time. The Hangover is a laugh riot through out. The two guys who sat next to me spent most of the movie in tears from laughing so hard.
The story revolves around four guys who go to Vegas for a bachelor party. Zack Galifianakis plays the odd ball soon-to-be brother in law to the groom and has some great moments. I loved watching Zack’s talk show and wish it had never gone off the air. There really was no standout character of these guys, they all had a major portion of the laughs. This is a comedy in the vein of Wedding Crashers and Superbad . Raunchy and rude. Great for a guys night out. The baby is a constant cause for a laugh throughout the film, in what is the most amazing baby casting ever. Seriously, I dare you to not laugh at this baby in the film. You can not do it.
The cast had an amazing chemistry and this will be a classic.
Less Clutter Less Noise
If you have not picked up a copy of Less Clutter Less Noise: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures and Bake Sales by Kem Meyer yet, order it today. Churches, non-profits, and business alike can learn how to better communicate to their audience from this book. Kem spent 15 years in the corporate communications and internet strategy world and currently is the Communications Director at Granger Community Church. She blogs at http://www.kemmeyer.typepad.com/ and can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/kemmeyer. I was really excited to get the chance to be a stop on the Less Clutter Less Noise Blog Tour.
JEREMY:
What are some principles and strategies for transforming a silo-structured communications environment, where ministries are allowed to compete for attention with your main message?
KEM:
Ah, the ministry silos. The connections department runs its own campaign and doesn’t see what’s being communicated by the volunteer areas, the missions area, the student ministry area, the children’s area, the men’s and women’s ministry teams, the pastor, and others. The missions department does its own thing. The student leaders do their own thing. And, the pattern repeats throughout the whole church.
The result? Individual departments end up competing against each other with a carnival communication style trying to out-yell or out-explain.
More people should be asking this same question, but find it too exhausting to tackle. It’s simply easier to just ignore silos and let people do their own thing. Jeremy, I applaud you for tackling the transformation. I can’t tell you how to reach the destination, but I can tell you how to start. This is an ongoing process that you never fully conquer, but you can steer people in a more productive direction.
In an organization, interdependencies exist among each other—resources and assets. We thrive when we have the ability to negotiate among these dependencies and find a middle ground where empowerment and decision-making align. If we each serve up a different experience, run off in our own individual directions—information gets lost or isolated. People and projects proliferate—as does confusion. This creates real liabilities for the church as a whole and puts a lid on overall impact.
The only way to resolve these types of issues is to connect multiple areas to operate as part of a larger family.
• Use the same mission statement. If everyone is working toward the same goal, there will be less territorialism and more teamwork. Every ministry, every team, every employee, every volunteer leader should be looking at the same mission statement. Multiple, unique mission statements across a single organization create chaos, conflict and breeds more ministry silos. One mission statement transcends specific departments to unify the whole. Our mission statement at Granger is “Helping people take their next step toward Christ…together.” That mission statement applies to every ministry. It doesn’t mean the mission statement action steps can’t be tailored to a specific audience. But, everybody is working toward the same goal, like-minded, maintaining alignment. “Helping students take their next step toward Christ…together.” “Helping women take their next step toward Christ…together.” “Helping people afraid of dogs take their next steps toward Christ…together.”
• Use one budget for the whole church. There’s different categories for each ministry, but one church budget.
• One database. Single version of reality—reports and contacts.
• One web site. One church, multiple ministries. Not the other way around. A house doesn’t have multiple front doors, why would a church have multiple web sites?
• One kitchen. Not individual cabinets for different ministries.
All of these steps help…it just takes time and you have to tackle them one at a time. All along the way, you’ll have more success if you can effectively communicate what’s at risk if you don’t do this. Nobody will be motivated to change their “old way of doing things” if they don’t know what’s at stake. It’s up to you to cast vision for a bigger story. One everybody is part of, not a bunch of little stories that send schizophrenic messages to outsiders. The further along the list you get, the easier it will be for you to start implementing centralized systems that everybody uses for communications. But, you have to start with the core controls like mission, vision, budget and kitchen.
Many thanks to Kem for taking the time to stop by the blog and share some insights. Remember that what you communicate is not only found in what you say, on paper or on your web site. What you don’t say, how you fail to respond, and how your property looks are just a few other ways you are communicating with people. As part of the blog tour Kem has grasciously provided a free copy of Less Clutter Less Noise for one of you lucky Fish is the New Cheese readers. I will pick a winner at random from those who leave a comment to the question below. Buy a copy of Less Clutter Less Noise for the person who works on your bulletin, website, and pick up a copy for your administrative assistant. Everybody in your organization needs to know what you want communicated and how you want it said.
Open up your bulletin, walk your hall and look at the walls and literature center, check your web site, and think about what you announced and promoted at your last service. How many different messages did your church or non-profit communicate vocally, in print or on the web in the past week? Type your answer in the comments section below.
Less Clutter Less Noise
Just got word today that Kem Meyer will be making a stop on her blog tour for her new book Less Clutter Less Noise: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures, and Bake Sales next Friday, May 29th. Kem is the Communications Director at Granger Community Church and blogs at http://www.kemmeyer.typepad.com. If you haven’t picked up the book yet you can grab it on Amazon and other book stores. As part of the blog tour we will be giving away a copy of the book to one of our readers.
Does your church or non-profit have a communications strategy? It is really easy for churches to let the messages multiply. It is amazing how many people walk up to our ministers each Sunday and ask to have something announced from the stage or put into our bulletin. Can you get control? Read the book and see what Kem has to say about controlling the messages that are coming from your church.
Take the time this week and count how many different messages are coming from your church each week. Count the number of items in your bulletin, your poster, your signs, items in your emails, your Twitter feed, your blog, from your weekly service, from your LIFEGroups or Sunday School classes, weekly Bible Studies, etc. Is it too much for people to keep up with? Leave a comment below telling us how surprised you may be by the number of messages that people hear from you each week.
Green Sole Shoes
Yesterday I had the opportunity to drop my beautiful wife off at the garage where we get our auto work done. We were putting new tires on her car in advance of a trip she is making and to help improve the value of her car, which we are trying to sell. On the drive back to the office from the garage NPR had a story on a shoe company called Green Sole Shoes. This company has set a goal to put shoes on 1 million kids and their shoes are made from 100% recycled materials by local artisans in Southeast Asia. One of the founders was driving in Manila, Philippines when they notices the number of kids who did not have any shoes and people walking around town who had made shoes out of old tires. Check out the story on NPR here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104334308.
What struck me most about this story is the founders ability to look into a shanty town and trash dump in Manilla and see an opportunity to start a business, help local artisans, and get free shoes to kids. One man’s trash is part of another man’s business model.
When Jesus stepped out of heaven and into the world he was looking into a messed up world full of sin, murder, violence, etc and helping people what can happen when they partner with them. He can take the trash in our lives and recycle them into a story of transformation and hope. When you go into the worst neighborhood in your community what do you see? Do you see opportunities? I pray that God would give us all the eyes to see with eyes like Green Sole Shoes.
Opportunities abound, but obedience is in short supply. We now the story of Tom’s Shoes, but what other companies do you know of who are making a difference in an underpriveliged world with their business model?
Here is a list of books I have purchased or have been reading recently.
If you don’t know by now you should be made aware that I love books. The book that I really have been trying to get my hands on lately is Less Clutter Less Noise by Kem Meyer. It was a no go at Mardel’s and Barnes and Noble yesterday for that one. I try to give the local bookshops a chance before I go online, but after this weekend I plan on making all my future purchases online. I hate wasting time and coming up empty handed. I will still go to Barnes and Noble to read the staff picks and for some St. Arbucks.
So what are you reading these days?
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