Two Nuggets

I love sitting with someone smarter than me and getting wisdom and knowledge from them. I got that opportunity today.
I met with the owner of a church management software company, one of the biggest in the U.S., for a couple of hours this morning and came away with some great nuggets.

Nugget #1: Be a constant learner - an oldie but continues to be a goodie
You know, if everyone who's brainy keeps saying it, it's probably something I need to be doing. I know often times I feel like I need to be constantly learning about what's important to my performance on the job. But, duh, I need to be a constant learner about a lot of things; God's ways, husband, parent, finances, home improvements, etc... (I'm kidding about home improvement).

Nugget #2: Avoid "tribal knowledge"
Ooh, I like this one. Tribal knowledge is something learned that doesn't get passed on to others. It's like department A figuring out something that departments B and C could benefit by knowing, but department A doesn't pass the info on. When people on the team don't get this info, they may end up re-inventing the wheel or making mistakes that could have been easily remedied. Instead of keeping the knowledge in the "tribe", I need to pass it on to other's who could and probably would benefit. Whether it's "re-inventing the wheel", making mistakes or a long learning curve for the "new guy", all these time wasting activities could be avoided by not keeping knowledge and wisdom just within the tribe.

So there you go, I glimpse into what goes into Wayne's brain.

Happy New Year!

5 Ways to Help Keep Your Students’ Attention

As a leader, how often have you looked into your audience, whether in a conference room, classroom or large group setting and realized what you were saying was, well, boring?
The Instructify website has a post titled, 5 Ways to Help Keep Your Students' Attention. Click the link and take a moment and read about five easy ways to keep people's attention no matter who's you're audience.

5 Ways to Help Keep Your Students' Attention

Freedom

Freedom - the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints

Tonight my wife and I experienced freedom in a middle school service at a church we are "shopping." In a life of being on staff at one church or another, we're in a place we've not been at in a very long time; being able to shop for a church. Ok, we haven't done a real extensive shopping campaign, the first church we've checked out is probably the one we'll settle on, but hey, I hate shopping anyways.
Back to freedom. Have you been someplace, whether it's a restaurant, home, church, whatever, and either really felt that it was "right, good, comfortable" or that it was "tense, restrained, uncomfortable?" You know you can feel it when you walk in and move around. Tonight felt right.
There were quite a few possible "checks." We were visiting with our middle school age son at a place we've never been, in a sea of wild middle school kids, and we didn't know anyone. And yet, it felt good.
My wife and I talked about it feeling good. What was it that was a factor in our comfort? We laughed, we worshiped, we listened, we prayed. And in the end, it seems the word that came to mind was freedom. There was a freedom in the building, amongst the staff, permeating the kids, evident in the worship and the words spoken. And it felt good, really good.
Sometimes you don't realize what you're missing until you realize you've been missing it.

Wayne Geer
Church Staff 101

Transparency and the Draining Effect

Basically John said he was totally drained today.
I was in the same place yesterday, in fact I know most if not all of our Management Team felt the same way.

June 11 will be a day remembered for a long time amongst us staff folks at our church.

8:30 am: Lead Pastor, Executive, Worship, Nursery/preschool, Student, Small Group and me Children's pastor (Management Team) all together, one room, to work through the first layer of the pyramid from the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni.
We all knew we were "dysfunctional" we just didn't know our dysfunction was as deep, wide and murky.
We focused for most of the day, and yes, it was a full day - til almost 4 pm, talking about trust.
Don't get me wrong, we needed to definitely clear the air. The last few weeks have pretty much brought a whole load of dookie to the table that was once covered and put away.
It was just, wow, totally emotionally draining.
Pretty much in my experience I've never, ever, EVER been in a meeting where this much transparency and honesty has taken place. It was good, it just hurt.
My hope is we, gulp, continue this process; it would be a colossal shame to open this box to only have it quietly forgotten.
If you think about it, pray for us.

Wayne Geer
Church Staff 101

10 Things To Do Before You're Hired

Read a great article titled, 10 Things To Consider Before Your Church Hires Another Staff Member by Todd Rhoades.
It's an article geared towards churches before they hire, but it's an insightful post for anyone looking for a job as well.
Click here and jump to the site.

Wayne Geer
Church Staff 101