Kem Meyer on Less Clutter & Noise

Everybody wants a sound byte from the platform… now what?

The question…

“Our church seems motivated to attend events and activities when things are announced from the platform. How do you get people excited to participate in things when there’s no major push from the pastor?”

My answer…

If people are responsive only to events and activities announced from the platform, it’s probably because it’s too hard to find out about the other events and opportunities that aren’t announced from the platform. Normal people take the path of least resistance and if they have to work too hard to find something, they’ll just take what’s on top (like the platform announcements). The problem with the platform announcements being the only place to find out about individual growth and serving opportunities is that it limits church growth and community impact. YOU CAN’T SAY EVERYTHING AT ONCE. My guess is that you “get this” and it’s why you asked this question in the first place.

Here are a few tips to help raise awareness and energy for the things happening all around the life of the church without being solely dependent on the platform announcement.

1. Use the platform to reinforce and promote core values and macro steps from the platform, not individual events or teams. It might look like this:
   • Announced from the platform:   Volunteer, Join a Group, Bible Classes, Be Generous
   • Not announced from the platform:   Men’s Hunting Trip, Book Discussion for Singles, Scrapbooking Overnight
2. Then, reinforce everywhere (from the platform, the bulletin, pre-service slides, postcards, business cards, etc.) the one place where people can find everything. For us, it’s our web site. It’s the one place where all information for every team is up to date and everyone—staff, volunteer, attendees, secret shoppers, the information counter—has access to it 24/7. For you, the one place might not be the web. It might be the information counter, or the weekly newsletter, or an events blog. Whatever you choose, stick with that one place and drive everyone back to it. When you talk about big, all-church steps like volunteering, joining a group, etc., that one place is where people can find the specific opportunities that appeal to them with dates, times, directions, registration, etc. (I’ve written about our web communications strategy before.)
3. Of course, there are always special events that warrant specific priority attention from the platform. Usually this makes sense for big deal events that affect the entire church like Baptism, Membership Classes, unique opportunities that directly apply to the topic you’re discussing in the sermon (i.e., Financial Freedom class when the message is about money.) But, even when you talk about specific events, remember to keep driving people back to that one place to find out the rest of the story.

It’s about the basics. People have good news and they want to spread the word. So, tell the people go spread it! (Luke 8:38) There are SO many wins to this approach.

• People (on both sides of the message) are satisfied with a rewarding experience. They know where to easily find information when they want it.
• People take ownership of the invite and spread the word about different opportunities naturally when you empower them with direct, self-service access to information. You eliminate the middle man and give them the tools to share it on their own.
• You eliminate redundancy and extra work when you put everything in one place.
• And, the most important benefit of all is you are able to diffuse the spirit of competition with ministry leaders jockeying for pole position on the platform. You reinforce the message we are “one church” where ministry happens not a bunch of individual ministries housed in the church.

Three stages of a multi-site communications journey...

The question…

“How do we effectively communicate (vision, values and policies) within the multi-site model without adding layers of complexity?”

 

My answer…

When somebody figures out the answer to this question, let me know. Seriously! With multi-site strategy, the complexity factor increases greatly. It’s a constant process trying to figure out what’s non-negotiable for everyone and what’s unique to each campus. We’re early into our own first multi-site launch and each day it seems we discover a new “exception” to the rule. As nice as it would be to launch and hit the autopilot button, it is unrealistic. So, we take it as it comes and adapt as we learn along the way. Here’s three snapshots of the multi-site communication frameworks we’ve encountered through our multi-site journey.

Getting started (1)

The heart behind everything is to empower departments and campuses using “freedom within a framework”. The objective isn’t to boss everybody around with a list of rules, but to instead provide guidelines to work within.

• One web site, enews and bulletin template for the whole church. Although, each campus may have their own unique communication points on a blog or announcement reel, we use the same weekly communication vehicles for 20% of the content that affects 80% of the audience. While it’s not perfect, it eliminates the run-around to multiple sites and makes the basic information easy to find—regardless of the campus.
• Look for ways to produce it once and use it twice. Any place we can eliminate redundancies we try to do it to reduce time, costs and errors.
• Simplify the problem. Rather than react to everything as a complex execution, we consistently boil every project down to its core: “what do we want to happen as a result of this,” and work backwards from there.
• One team; multiple campuses. We all gather as one church, once a week for the all staff meeting.
• Adhere to the same Communication Values. Look for ways to bundle and simplify everything we do. Even though the next steps and ministry teams for each campus are very individualized and unique, we still look for ways to tie the next steps to the same major themes (e.g., the weekend series, volunteers, groups, etc.)

After the first year or so (2)

We’re trying to harness the power of a message and enhance the experience, not create a list of dos and don’ts. There’s a balance between centralizing efforts that maximize excellence and creating a bottleneck for the things that don’t matter. We’re constantly evaluating that contrast, tension and the multiple paradoxes.

• Scalability is the goal but scalability is not the same thing as duplication.
• The focus is mission not mirroring. .
• Community is a shared mission, expression is not.
• Value is communicated different ways to different people.
• Our church, and the community developed around it, is not contained in one box and shipped for use in multiple locations. We’re evolving our DNA to live multi-site as a ministry, not as an export.

Where we are now (3)

After working with a generalized framework for about two years, we’ve gained experience, clarity and advice – from - others. As a result, we recently finalized a working first draft of our Campus Constants to help usher us into the next season and future campus launches.

It’s a moving target, but this shared roadmap helps us all aim for the same bull's-eye.

Three most important skills for technology stewards…

This summer I answered a couple of questions for a Worship Leader magazine article.

Name two or three skills or areas of expertise most critical for a worship tech steward or team of stewards?

We serve people, not technology. So the first, second and third most important skill would be the ability to see the human touch at every decision intersection. Too many professionals involved with technology have mad tech intelligence but sad social intelligence. It’s less common to find someone who leads technology action plans through the human touch filter. The best steward of tech or tech teams doesn’t necessarily have all the answers, but knows the right questions (and the right people) to ask:

• How will this decision affect the people involved?
• Are we complicating the problem?
• Are we falling victim to geek and gadget lust or empowering people to release the best out of them?
• What at risk if we don’t do this?
• What will have to change if we do?
• Is it worth the return on investment?

When we ask the right people the right questions, we are able to not only see a picture of today's reality, but are also able to prepare for course changes and growth without breaking or starting from scratch. 

Wrapped up in all of this is the ability to communicate tech benefits (or liabilities) from different perspectives. That’s the key to translating ideas and objectives into functional specifications and designs. The result? People to say “thank you!” instead of “why do I have to do this?”

Who are the people (by skill, function, title) currently involved in stewarding technology (e.g. audio, video, web, social media, mobile) in your church so that they all work well together?" Is there one point person, or many leaders in different areas...(team over various areas vs. single head)?

We’re organized into three main tech areas between communications and creative arts—each one with a unique vocabulary, distinct personality traits and specialized skills. There’s a lot of overlap between the teams, but we’re all protecting the same mission, vision and values so it works well.

• The Tech Arts Team is responsible for supporting a multi-dimensional experience in the auditorium (or any physical facility platform) by strategically and creatively using all audio and visual systems.
• The Tech Ops Team is responsible for empowering people with transparent hardware, software and support and protecting people from technology infrastructure and security pitfalls.
• The Digital Media Team is responsible for using communication technologies (web, social and mobile) to resource people, enable community and encourage spiritual growth.

Even though there are three specific areas for tech responsibilities and deliverables, the culture here is all about shared ownership as one team. There is constant contact between key stakeholders who are intentional about collaboration and cross-training. Although it might be easier if everyone stayed in their own area, it just wouldn’t be as effective.

(Full article.)

Want better results from others? Change your M.O.

A few weeks ago I blogged about reducing the static to engage with others. I got a few comments and even more DMs and emails from people asking me how to “change an internal M.O.”

There is no “one-size-fits-all” or “five quick steps” to answer that question. A person’s M.O. is about emotional intelligence and spiritual health. The key to breaking out of our own ruts and changing our internal M.O. is self-awareness. But, our ruts are highly personal, aren’t they?

So, instead of just answering “get a therapist” (which isn’t a bad place to start), I thought I’d point to ten posts where I’ve talked about this before (trust me, there’s a ton more where these came from). Hope this helps.

10. Get feedback.  

9. Remember, everybody doesn't hate you. 

8. Learn from your mistakes.   

7. Quit trying to get it all done.

6. Get a preventative maintenance plan.

5. Create social social impact.

4. Know the difference between drawing, crossing & blurring the lines of communication.

3. Guard your heart.

2. Cultivate success. 

1. Get over yourself.

If I jumped in a time machine & went back to school…

Last week I was asked, “I’m hoping to pursue a career in advertising/marketing. What advice would you give to me as I pursue my education & career?” Here’s what I shared; it’s just my two cents.

Even though I studied public relations and journalism in college, very little of that formal education makes me more effective in my current role. If I had the chance to go back and do it all over again, I would concentrate in psychology and sociology. And, here’s why. Culture moves and the methods (and technologies) for design, marketing, advertising, etc., change rapidly and frequently. For all of that stuff… you keep up, learn on the job, read blogs, watch real life wins and misses on the go. It’s just in time, all the time. However, people are the same despite where culture moves. I believe, the more you learn about and understand the human condition—the more successful you’ll be in any communications role.

5 ways to start dissolving silos…

Question: How can I transform an environment where everyone runs their own campaign? Missions do their own thing. Student leaders do their own thing. Small groups do their own thing. The pastors do their own thing. And, the pattern repeats throughout the whole church. It’s impossible for anyone to make sense of our perpetual voices much less find the main message.

Most people find it too exhausting to tackle silos. It’s easier to ignore them and just let people do their own thing. I encourage you … tackle the transformation! It’s worth it. When individual departments compete against each other, you end up with a carnival communication style where everyone fights to out-yell or out-explain each other. Chaos.

While I can’t tell you how to fix everything once and for all, I can tell you 5 places to start steering passionate 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. (Although, this is not a problem isolated to churches. It happens in businesses, government and schools every day.)

So how do you resolve it? Connect multiple areas to operate as part of a larger family.

1. Use the same mission statement. Multiple, unique mission statements across a single organization create chaos, conflict and breeds more silos. One mission statement transcends specific departments to unify the whole. 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 is pulling for the same win.
   
   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.”
2. Use one budget for the whole church. There’s different categories for each ministry, but one church budget.
3. One database. Single version of reality—reports and contacts.
4. One web site. One church, multiple ministries. Not the other way around.
5. One kitchen. Not individual cabinets for different ministries.

All of these steps help dissolve silos. 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.

There you have it. Start with the core controls like mission, budget, database, web site and kitchen.

[Repost from Less Clutter. Less Noise. blog tour May 2009.]

What I've learned from my mistakes...

Question: What mistakes have you made and what/how have you learned from them? Any advice to help me avoid making the same mistakes?

I think we all have a tendency to “fill in the blanks” and make assumptions based on a snapshot. I’ve done it to others, and it’s been done to me. It’s particularly easy to do when someone’s actions don’t match up to what I’m familiar with in my own life.

"Have you ever noticed how we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions?" The Noticer

I’m thankful for the hard lessons I’ve learned in this area, because I’m less likely to jump to conclusions these days. I’ve learned (and am still learning) that the actions don’t tell the whole story. I get the opportunity to dig deeper to discover the story behind the behavior —behind the person. I’m better because of this and would miss out on SO MUCH that’s great in this world if I spent my days running away from, or fighting against, everything new and unknown.

The real boot camp experience for me came when my daughter hit turbulent times in adolescence. I’m convinced those times would have been a lot less turbulent if I hadn’t feared some of the new subcultures resonating with her. I reacted without taking the time to learn about them first. I read an article about Shepard Fairey, founder of OBEY Clothing. In it, he talks about his alternative journey and the assumptions that people made about his methods. The insights were helpful.

My attitude was never ‘I want to be an isolated person and do my own thing in direct opposition to the mainstream’; it was more like ‘I need to be doing what I’m doing, and I need to figure out how to keep doing it by any means necessary.’ A lot of people think if you are into some sort of subculture or alternative culture that means you are anti-mainstream. My idea was always ‘Well, mainstream is kinda sucky a lot of times, but does it have to be?’ It would be cool to educate people about the stuff that I’m into. Sort of, enlighten the mainstream—raise the bar all across the board rather than having to feel like an outsider forever.

Geez, Louise. Is he right, or what? Too often, I have assumed the wrong motives in people. I defaulted to “if they don’t think like us, they must be anti-us.” I think the big takeaway here is to let people color outside the lines. Every time I apply that principle I learn something new.

A lot of church people struggle with this believing whole-heartedly it’s their holy responsibility to live “separate from the world” and fix the sin of anybody they come in contact with. But, here’s the thing … we’re responsible to people, not for them. This applies in every area of our life - in every relationship.

I read something in Mark Waltz’s Lasting Impressions that talks about the difference between being responsible to people versus being responsible for them. It’s been very helpful to me and I refer to it often. When I remember to apply this, it affects how I shape both my personal and corporate communication.

• When I’m responsible to people, I understand they have a choice. When I’m responsible for people, I think I should decide for them.
• When I’m responsible to people, I know they must figure out their next step. When I’m responsible for people, I try to tell them what their next step is.
• When I’m responsible to people, I allow them to bear the brunt of the consequences for their own chosen actions. When I’m responsible for people, I assume the guilt, or worse the shame, for them.
• When I’m responsible to people, I engage in their journey, offering encouragement and teaching. When I’m responsible for people I try to direct their journey, never allowing them to wrestle, mess up or make a wrong turn.
• When I’m responsible to people, I talk to God on their behalf. When I’m responsible for people, I talk to people a lot on God’s behalf.

[Repost from Less Clutter. Less Noise. blog tour May 2009.]

How do you "do" press releases?

"I know the fundamentals of a press release. But, I wonder about the practical philosophy behind it. Do you need press releases to get news coverage? Are there principles to follow that makes an editor treasure a press release instead of trash it?"

I invited Jami Ruth as a guest blogger to answer this question. Before she joined the communications team at Granger, she spent several years as an account executive and media relations rep at a local ad agency. She's been the driving force behind organizing our press strategy and strengthening our two-way relationship with our media outlets. Here's how Jami answered...

"No strategy is a bad strategy. So rather than ignore the media or worse yet, bombard them with self-centered tidbits, our strategy is to ask ourselves a few questions before we ever send out a news release.

1. Why? Every contact with the media is an opportunity to tell our (God’s) story. If we're doing something worth talking about...people will talk. It’s not publicity for publicity’s sake. Awareness is not the win. The win is interest that compels people to give God or church a chance. While media publicity can effectively help with that at times (it's like free advertising) we are never in control of the message. We can provide talking points but reporters don't accept "scripts." We're ok with that, though. It's authentic.
   
2. What? We want to be proactive with the media, but only send out news releases for events that are truly newsworthy and of interest to the general population. Events that qualify impact a practical community need; physical (feed the hungry), emotional (marriage or family series) or intellectual (job seeker workshop). The news isn't "here's what we're doing." The news is "here's how the community is going to be different and here's ways you can be a part of that." If we send out a large volume of releases, we're adding noise--not value. Noise gets ignored.
   
3. How? It's important to build a trustworthy consistent rapport with the local media. It's a two-way relationship. They trust us because we respect their time and guarantee a consistent, professional contact person who puts them in touch with the right spokesperson at the right time. We do that by centralizing media publicity and routing inquiries through the communications team. Not only are we able to time the volume and release dates to make sure they're appropriate and newsworthy, we're also able to work with the senior management team to select best spokesperson person for interviews, quotes, etc. (The communications team isn't the spokesperson. That's not our job.) To help equip anyone involved with interviews, we developed a spokesperson tip sheet.

Samples:

• Media spokesperson tips
• News release

How do you organize your promotions?

From the mailbag...

"We are in overhaul mode of our communication processes here and I wanted to see if you had any info related to promotion and processes that you might be able to forward. We're working through issues related to coordinating info on the web, enews and bulletin. Issues such as timelines, submission deadlines for promotion, who writes edits and approves copy, the whole deal. Thanks for any help you may have to offer."

I thought I'd share some of our process documents we've used along the way (and how we use them). Some are current and some are from the archive, but they might help provide some insight & inspiration for the change you are leading.

1. All Church Promotions Process  (big picture)
   At a glance, what happens when.
2. Speaking Schedule for the Year (tool)
   Our Executive Pastor provides this outline at the beginning of every year. It’s a working document that starts as a high level outline (major themes/date chunks) and becomes more detailed as the year goes on. This resource point drives next steps.
3. Promotions Outline (tool)
   An abbreviated snapshot of major events we’ve got planned for the year. The Communications Dept uses this document to cross reference with the speaking schedule (see #1) to coordinate major series and with events. A lot of times, it’s an at-a-glance snapshot. It’s helpful to keep in front of us as we’re promoting and packaging any events, programs, groups, etc. The more opportunities we have to communicate these things as next steps out of a series, the more clear the path becomes to our audience and the more successful these events and programs are. For example, when we’re in the middle of a money series in January, that’d be a great time to schedule the financial freedom course (not during the sex series in July). In other words, we schedule ministry events on the calendar to meet and match all-church programming, not individual ministry team plans.
4. Series Promotion (team documentation)
   This is what we use in our communications department as the how-to sheet and steps we follow for series promotions every 3-6 weeks. It’s a checklist we use for quality control, training, memory supplement, etc.
5. Communications Department Routines (team documentation)
   Keeping track of the regular routine, maintenance tasks in our department.
6. All Church Communications Values (foundational)
   The why behind the how we communicate.
7. All Church Communications Priorities (foundational)
   What gets promoted when, where and why.
8. Big Idea Worksheet  (tool)
   Probably the most comprehensive snapshot of a series. It’s an extension of the Speaking Schedule and it’s what we use to write the copy, concept creative, prioritize promotions, etc.

There's updated, modifiable versions of these tools and more in the Communications Bundle we offer on WiredChurches.com. If there's anything else that'd be helpful. Let me know. I'll see if I can add it.

Getting it all done

"With all the projects you manage, besides being a mom, how do you control the traffic of demands on your time? How do you get it all done?"

I do get that question a lot. Truth is, I take it a day at a time and prioritize based on the needs of my focus audiences. I have good runs where I’m early to bed, early to rise, proactive and productive. I’m responsive to my team, I’m smiling, sharp and in complete control of my schedule. I meet the kids off the bus, serve a home-cooked meal to my family and surprise my husband with unscheduled date nights.

Then, there are those other runs where my schedule starts to control me and I consume comfort food, stop sleeping, get weeks behind on email, forget to turn off the bath water, mow over the phone, feed the kids cereal and sleep through date nights. One time I was in so over my head, pulled so many different directions that I actually left the house without my shirt on. I’m not lying. I did that. Left for work and completely forgot to put my shirt on. I remembered my coat. I just didn’t have a shirt on under it. I was at the office before I realized it.

So it’s all about moving back and forth between the two extremes for me and spending time on both sides to appreciate the place I’m supposed to be. When I start to have journal entries that look like this “Dear God. What does a nervous breakdown feel like? Because I’m sure I’m in one.” I know it’s time to make a change. My husband, my boss and my team jump in when they see the signs. They lift me up, extend me grace and focus me on the main thing during those crazy times to get me back to less clutter, less noise in my own life. And, during my controlled seasons, I try to do the same for them.

So, how do I get it all done? I don't.