KevMcCord

Idealists and Perfectionists

Idealists won't let you start until you agree 100% with their goal.

Perfectionists won't let you finish until you've reached 100% of their goal.

Idealists who are also perfectionists won't let you start or finish or even enjoy the ride.

Printing Without a Safety Net

Oasis church had a bad experience trying to get out of a lease on a printer/copier.  I decided to buy the next machine outright and to go without a maintenance contract as long as we possibly could.  We're treating this 10k machine just as we would a 2k laptop.  We don't get any special extended service plans for our computers and we're just going to treat this printer/copier the same way. 

This post is my update on how the original experiment is going.

We've had our Cannon ImageRunner for 15 months now.  During that time we could have spent about $1k per quarter on their maintenance plan.  We actually spent $1k total on service calls.  We purchase our own tonor (color too).

Sure it will get worse, but I'm not leasing and paying property taxes.  I'm not stuck in a lease that auto renews if we forget to send notice.  So what if my staff has to empty the tonor refuse (nasty job).  So what if a couple of times I had to open the machine up and figure out why something was stuck.  So what if the machine will wear out sooner.  Sure, we'll have to pay to replace some parts.  We already have a few thousand dollars savings to offset that trouble.

If I had to buy a bigger machine that I couldn't afford all at once I'd want to finance it through our Credit Union.  I'm feeling pretty good right now about the risk we took.  In 24 months I might feel differently.  If I could find a company that just charged a fair rate for onsite repair and wasn't trying to sell me the other stuff I'd be interested.  Otherwise, we'll go it alone for now.

Florida IT Roundtable?

Very cool news from my friend Jason Reynolds at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens.

It looks like South Florida may have its very own Church IT Roundtable.  I haven't been to one of these for 18 months, but I can't wait to have one here close to home.  These casual events allow those of us serving in the area of Information Technology to learn from one another live and in person.

Please tell your church's IT team about this opportunity and weigh in on Jason's website if you are interested.

Who's Interested?

This blog post is to gauge interest in a Florida Regional Church IT Roundtable event. We seem to have a group in the Tampa area and others along the East coast of Florida from Orlando to Miami. Redundancy could be a good thing, so let’s talk it out in the comments below about what everyone is looking for, if people are willing to drive, and what the focus could possibly be for the event. Whether we land on two gatherings or one, I think it would be good for Florida churches to represent better through some networking, fellowship, and knowledge-sharing.

READ MORE HERE...

Employer, Client, Market

If you aren't a risk taker you might consider a journey along a path towards entrepreneurship that is slow but relatively safe. 

First, a bit of definition:

Your employer gives you stability.  He takes profit from your labor to produce his product or deliver his service.  You gain skill and insight into an industry.  You earn steady revenue and benefits.  Being comfortable is about the best you can hope for.

Your client pays you for your insight, knowledge, and special attention.   You keep all the profit, but there are fewer benefits and less consistency.  You may feast, you will famine.  You observe more situations and develop insights for different situations.

Your market will buy your mass produced creativity for a price.  If you continue to meet its needs you will employ others and eventually create equity others will want to buy

The trick is to move deliberately from one to the othe overlapping where possible.  Take on clients while gainfully employed.  Develop a product while serving your clients.

Ready to start?

1. Pick the right industry.  Work hard, pay attention. 

2. Develop knowledge and begin to share it.  Solve problems, take notes.

3. Package the solution and distribute it.  Improve the solution, re-release, repeat.

Being Briefly Thorough

Some people are brief.  Some people are thorough.

With emails to a large group about policy matters it is particularly tough to strike a balance.

I love the concept of http://five.sentenc.es/. It works well for personal emails and for some professional communication.  However, my responsibilities as an administrator require that I go into enough specific detail to ensure people can be held accountable to what I am clarifying.

Here are some thoughts on being brief in emails about policy matters to a group of people.

• Avoid examples that require a lot of explanation and setup.
• Avoid explaining the exceptions.
• Don't try to sound professional.
• Don't try to placate people, coddle people, or re-assure people.  If these things are necessary you should be meeting in person.
• Read your message before you send.  Cut out as many adjectives as possible. 
• Make sure you aren't saying the same thing twice.  Re-order sentences and paragraphs if necessary.
• Check to be sure your message has not evolved beyond your subject line.
• Avoid using "PS." especially if you have a long signature
• Avoid handling more than just one topic in a single email.
• When replying, copy the key thought or question from the original message and then reply.  Restating the thought or question can introduce your own assumptions.  Do this only if the original thought or question is unclear to you.
• Do not reply to "all" if you aren't sure what you are being asked.  Reply to the sender only for clarification then hit reply all once you understand what you are being asked.

Here are some thoughts on being thorough in those same emails.

• Link to outside resources if instructions are beyond one page.
• Bold the main thought in the paragraph asking one question:  If the reader only reads the bold line, will she know enough to know whether she should then read the entire paragraph?
• Think of the busiest person who will receive the email.  Figure out what you want that person to remember when you next talk to them.  Put that concept at the beginning and end of the email message.
• If the message has ongoing significance, make sure that email message makes enough sense so that a year from now it can be located in a search to answer the question or direct the reader to the answer.
• Format your email properly with spaces between paragraphs, bullet points and other items that visually direct the reader to the most important content.
• Think of the most common situation where the information will become critical to the reader.  Make sure that situation is covered.  If you have an example make this your example.

Here's a simple guide to sharing a change to a policy or guideline with your team.

SUBJECT: The... Policy Has Changed

Dear Team,

The leadership met and a change has been made that impacts you.  Please read this email carefully.

The old guideline/policy was:

Copy and Paste

The new guidelin/poicy is:

Copy and Paste (bold/strikethrough the change)

This will affect anyone who...

If you find yourself needing to...  then please be sure you...

Click here to read the entire manual.  This policy is found on page XX.

Email me if you have questions.

Serving with you,

Kevin McCord
Administrative Pastor

In case it matters I will generally err on the side of being thorough.  This is because of my responsibilities and my disposition.  However, I value brevity and strive for it when possible.

Blunt Leadership

I'll confess, I'm blunt in my opinions and often intentionally frame things in ways designed to drive a point home.   I can be intentionally UN-diplomatic in how I explain things.  Sometimes this is to avoid confusion about what I'm saying.  Mostly it is just a bad habit verging on a character flaw.

So, I offer the following group/team leadership advice.  This isn't a top 10 list or even a list of the most important things leaders should do.  It's a list of several things I think people in leadership positions are sometimes afraid to do.

1. Pray together before ministering together.  I don't care if everyone's late and things aren't ready.
2. Tell people you will shoot straight with them at the beginning.  Then shoot straight.  Don't hope they'll improve on their own.
3. Don't under-sell the importance of a role just because you need people. For example, the screens person isn't JUST clicking through powerpoint, They are playing an instrument along with the band and you need people with a feel for the music who can react under pressure.
4. Stay in touch during the week with phone and email and text and skype and twitter and...   If you aren't communicating during the week you aren't ready for the weekend.
5. Maintain an attitude of INCLUDING any new people, but feel free to focus on including the right new people.  The prettiest girl gets lots of invitations to the prom.  Only a fool would wait on her to offer to go with them.  Want the best?  Pursue them.
6. Have a high standard for participation and tell people when they aren't meeting it.  Do not be afraid to ask people to improve or transition to some other area of service. If you throw someone in without first proving they have the basic skill and some aptitude, then you deserve the awkward conversation you'll get when you tell them they don't meat your minimum standards.
7. Give people real responsibilities, hold them accountable, but let them fail.  If your ministry can't fail in small ways then it will ultimately fail in big ones.
8. Help people transition ON and OFF your group or team.  If someone is getting burned out and you are surprised then you aren't paying attention.  If you are not surprised but you didn't go to them first then you aren't leading.

Do you disagree?  Have any to add?

Craig's List Exchanges At Church

Recently my wife has been selling items on Craig's List.  Unlike eBay, this service is generally free.  It has a very local focus.  She gets quick responses on things she posts.

One of the key issues with this kind of service is the safety involved with the exchange of goods.  Often times a neutral site can make the buyer and seller feel better about the meeting.

Suzie has been meeting people at our church.  She is there a lot and it is an easy place for people to find.  Interestingly, the people who meet her there are generally very interested in the church.  They ask her about it and comment on their own church or indicate they've been thinking about visiting a church.

Oasis Church has 11 services each week at our Pembroke Pines Campus.  I'm thinking everyone wins if we encourage people to do their Craig's List exchanges at around 6:45 pm just before our evening worship service.  They can meet at Kona (Oasis' coffe shop) and we might even give the buyer a free cup of coffee.

This is the kind of thing we can test with our staff and then promote to our leaders.

Note: Craig's List is a free classified ad service described in this Wikipedia article.

Why Should We Keep You Around?

In tough economic times I think it is important to know exactly what value you deliver to your organization and to your team.  Then, make sure you are visibly working in your area of strength.  If your organization doesn't need much of what you are good at, then make sure your resume is current and that you are in touch with the network of people who would help you find a new place to work.

I know why people keep me around.  It isn't because I make them feel good about themselves.  It is NOT because they like my humor,  or because I inspire them, or because people naturally follow my lead, or because I am deeply spiritually. 

I'm gainfully employed because I can organize things so that problems are solved and work gets done.  In particular I excel at creating and managing processes that allow people to leverage systems to get things done.  If asked, I'm ready to share concrete examples from past successes, current projects I'm working on, and future areas that I will tackle.

What's your thing?