A Warning

Let me start by saying I really hope you don’t fall down and have some sort of heart attack in front of me and my wife when we’re out on a date. You might think, man, that’s selfish, but you’d be wrong. The reason I hope this doesn’t happen to you is because last night at dinner we were talking about our CPR training. You know the kind I’m talking about, right? You pack eight hours of training into some sort of “re-cert” and they remind you of everything you need to know to save a life, and then you’re off and running. So there we were, talking about our training, and neither of us could remember how many compressions and how many breaths. We couldn’t remember how long to wait between each. Frankly, we couldn’t remember a thing. She guessed it was five compressions and two breaths. I said three compressions and one breath. We were both way off: 30 compressions and two breaths (we found out when we googled it).

So What?

What does this have to do with you? Other than suggesting you stay clear of Melissa and I when you feel chest pain? If you think about that training we received, it has everything a good training should have: it is critical information; it uses visual and multimedia aids; it is passionate talk about life-saving; and it’s even interactive. Sometimes we wish our own training or messages had that much info, media and interaction, right?

So why couldn’t we remember what we’d learned?

I think there are two simple things we often forget, when we’re communicating with others:

1. People don’t learn much in a single sitting. Packing a lot of information just isn’t all that helpful.
2. Without practice, people will forget everything they heard.

In the Gospel of Mark (Mark 4:25), Jesus tells his disciples, “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” It’s one of those statements you can spend a lifetime trying to figure out. But I think it comes down to this: If you work with the little nuggets of truth that you do understand, you’ll be given more nuggets to chew on. If you don’t work with what you have, you’ll forget even what you’ve heard before. Sound about right? Does it ring true with training or messages you’ve received that you never put into practice? It does for me—I can’t remember anything I learned, at all.

Less is More

So instead of packing your messages or trainings with tons of information, maybe you should deliver less content. Less information. Less facts. Less of everything. And just help people put it to use. Help people obey. Help people digest the smallest amount of truth so that they can count it as something they “have” and now “more will be given” to them.

In the Orange Leader Handbook, Reggie sums it up better than I: “Instead of standing up in front of an audience and giving a list of seven things to do with a biblical passage, we like to narrow it down to one primary truth,” (p.72).

Last night my wife and I ended our discussion by quizzing each other on what to do if we were on fire. We both remembered the single line that we learned as kids, “Stop, drop and roll.” One thing. One action. And so simple that the real test isn’t if we know it in the greek or some other obscure fact about it. It’s that we know how to obey it and we can even remember practicing it. It’s not easy, but it’s true: Less is more.

Without getting into the debate between leaders and managers, I think we can all agree that both are needed. But here’s my problem – I don’t really like managing. I know, it’s a needed part of leading people, and without it, the chaos reigns. So over the last 15 years, I’ve developed a management approach that works for me and the kind of leading and managing I want to do. It won’t work for everyone, but I bet it works for more of you than you might imagine – even if initially it might scare you.

One Call to Manage Them All

Even before I started managing people in remote locations, I discovered that a single meeting, held daily, was more valuable than the random and spontaneous approach of many meetings over a week, or that single once-a-week marathon meeting that many of my peers use to lead. I call it a “pulse” call because it’s the way I check on the heartbeat of my teams. One call. Every single day. At the same time each day. And each quarter I change the time of the meeting so it doesn’t become too commonplace for people. Today, as I manage people in three countries and five states, I can’t imagine life without a daily pulse call.

Positive Peer Pressure

Remember when you’re mom would ask you, “If Billy jumped off a bridge, would you?” (was it only *my* mom that did that?) I love peer pressure and I use it daily on the pulse call. The way it works is simple. I go around the room and ask each person to share three things – what they gone done, what they are on now, and what is holding them back from moving forward. Each person shares in 3-5 minutes. It takes a little practice to help people get it short, but by talking every day, no one needs to remind me of the complete context because we talked about it yesterday. The peer pressure comes from the number of people getting things done. By reporting on that first, the others “in the room” don’t want to be the only ones not getting things done, so they drive things forward. In essence the call focuses on the exceptions. But most importantly, when one person gets stopped up, another person on the team can help them out. And when one person is getting slow, they’re more likely to ask for help – from me or from someone on the team.

What would You Do with your Free Time?

So the big question, if you only spent 30-60 minutes a day on a daily management call is what you’d do with the rest of your time each day? Maybe you could focus on that work that only you can do. Maybe you could focus on those strategic projects that no one has time for. One thing I can tell you for sure: you’ll spend less time managing, and for me, that’s a great thing.

Be warned, the technology described below can become habit forming, and may possibly turn your church service into something so interactive that you may never be the same again.

What’s with all the doodling?

I grew up taking my little brother to church with me but without my parents. Thankfully our church wasn’t a long walk from home, because we’d clip on our ties, dress up and walk a block and a half to church. The frustrating part of going to church without my parents wasn’t that they may be destined to a place I didn’t want to talk about. No, the real downside was that when we hit that age when we had to go to “big” church, there was no one there with the distracting coloring books and other toys that other parents had for their kids. Skip a few decades forward and there are still days when I’m sitting in church watching folks my age doodle on bulletins. Maybe it’s because they learned the habit years ago. Or maybe it’s because they’re bored.

I’m not suggesting that your church is boring. But I am suggesting that in these days when people are updating their Facebook status multiple times an hour, sitting in a church service with little to no interactivity can lead to a lot of doodlers.

Who are we hearing from?

These days anyone with a twitter account can make sure they have a voice. The bigger question is whether they’re having a voice in church. If your church is anything like mine, there are people who come in and slip out on a Sunday morning and never have an interaction with anyone. Those are the folks that we rarely hear from. And the stats are suggesting that the younger this crowd gets the more they’re walking out of churches across the country.

What if you could PollEverywhere?

If you visit www.polleverywhere.com you’ll notice that it’s an audience response system for this generation. It’s really simple:

1. Create an account (collecting up to 30 responses is FREE).
2. Create a poll (survey question).
3. Save the powerpoint slide for use in church.
4. Let your congregation answer using text messaging.

That slide gives people all the text messaging codes needed to answer your survey. And even better, the answers are tabulated as they come in, and are presented on the slide – in an interactive and completely compelling way.

You’ll be able to ask multiple choice questions like, “What delights you most w/ our children’s ministry?” and put 4 answers down that will help give you instant feedback: a. security, b. volunteers/staff, c. curriculum, and d. parenting tools.

Watch as the bars start shifting, as votes come in, because people are excited to share their voice.

Interaction leads to Deeper Engagement

Social media researchers are slowly learning what churches have known for years. They noticed that people who created accounts didn’t immediately start participating. Sound familiar? They noticed that people began participating by logging in and watching. We see the same thing in church. And finally, they noticed that once people start participating (as in clicking the “like” button on facebook) they were far more likely to then start contributing (as in posting on their wall). I’d bet the same is true for your church – your contributors are those who are actively participating.

So look at PollEverywhere as a simple way to let people begin their participation and engagement journey without a big commitment (like that “like” button). It’s a much lower bar than joining a 6 week Bible study but can lead to the same destination: deeper engagement.

Years ago I worked at a large and well known non-profit, as their volunteer coordinator. I’m not sure who I replaced to take the position, or if I did replace anyone. I say that because the program was anemic and struggling. Part of the challenge was that we looked at volunteers as free labor and had them doing some routine and boring work. Part of the challenge was that none of these volunteers were trusted, so our managers had to watch and monitor their work. Finally, another part of the challenge was that volunteers weren’t always the most consistent – in terms of arrival times, length of commitment, and lead time when they’d be on vacation. In other words, these volunteers were volunteers, not employees – and that made it hard to manage.

Sound familiar? Does your church struggle with the same issues?

Here are five things I learned while turning that program around:

1. Volunteerism is a two-way street – make sure they’re getting something from it too!
Volunteers value personal growth, so craft roles where real experience is gained, not just rote and routine work (that won’t even motivate your paid staff). They may use their new skills in their regular jobs (and/or use the experience to get a new job).

2. Volunteers are motivated by Impact.
You need to find high-value positions where volunteers can make real impact. When the work is challenging, has natural feedback loops, and people can see the impact they’re making, they’re likely to step up their commitment.

3. No one likes Draining Work!
I have the skills needed to pick up a phone, read a list of names and phone numbers, call people and read a script. I have those skills. But doing that work drains me. Just because a volunteer *can* do something doesn’t mean they *should*. Make sure that you pair people with work that breathes life into them!

4. Everyone is Different.
Just because one person doesn’t like cleaning up conference rooms doesn’t mean that someone else won’t like it. Just because one person doesn’t like fundraising doesn’t mean that someone else won’t love it. There’s no way to know unless you get to know your volunteers.

5. All Management is People Management!
The most important people in your organization that need training isn’t your volunteers, it’s your staff that manage volunteers. Helping them design appropriate positions, teaching them how to interview volunteer prospects, and regular coaching will go a long way in developing a vibrant program.

So if you find yourself in a position where your volunteers are skipping out, your staff are complaining, no one new is volunteering, and the volunteers you have now are in the wrong roles, maybe it’s time to clear the decks and start over. The best thing you can do for that volunteer that was guilted into a role that they hate is to “fire” them and then help them (and your staff) find a life-giving role where they’re thrilled to wake up in the morning.