One of the common complaints from church technical leaders with regard to building projects is that they don't always have a seat at the table when the major decisions are being made about a facility design. As a church technical leader, you know why this matters. You and your team will be the ones who make the room work on a weekly basis. Your perspective can help get the project to a better end result.
I recently spoke with Craig Janssen--Managing Director of Idibri--the team I serve with. Craig shared some things he's observed over the past 25 years on what church technical leaders can do to better position themselves on a building project:
Focus every conversation around mission.
Church technical leadership who have a seat at the table when a new building project begins all have one thing in common: every conversation focuses on mission. They never lose sight of the big picture, instead, every time they discuss technology they stay focused on the why rather than the what.
What does that look like? Well, mostly it gets reflected in the language. Effective technical leaders talk about missional goals rather than gear. For example, "This is a large room and we want people to be able to connect with the facial features of the people on the platform. Vs. I need this brand of HD cameras. " or "We value people and want our employees and volunteers to have a safe working environment. Vs. We need catwalks. "
Another observation on conversation? Technical leaders that use the word we rather than I, are much more successful at getting to the table because they have positioned themselves as part of the team. Marginalized technical leaders are typically easy to spot because they work from an "us vs. them" framework. Those who wind up as influencers make sure their comments are supporting the bigger vision rather than a personal one. One simple way to do this is by being inclusive in your language.
Get the timing right.
Regardless of the phasing, every project follows the same development timeline. Most of the mistakes made by technical leaders on building projects stem from not understanding the timeline. To be involved in the process, church tech leaders have to be responsive to questions and be able to give the right input at the right time--often in real time. One thing is for sure, on a building project, time is money and the project absolutely will not wait for you. To avoid some of the "timeline rookie" mistakes.
- During concept development, stay focused on the high goals. You will have time to talk about detailed gear preferences later in the project.
- Review things at every step along the way and give input. Keep in mind that changes after value engineering can make you the "guy who blows the budget" so make sure you are highly responsive as things are sent for review.
- Make sure all of your input is actionable and moves things forward. Critics slow things down and delays are expensive, so phrase things in ways that create forward-motion.
Changes are affordable before you get to pricing, but once pricing is in place things are locked in. And, each change you make is more expensive than it looks at first glance, because there are design fees, architectural, structural and electrical implications that go along with that. A $5,000 gear add could cost your project $10,000 in related fees (GC, engineers, architects, interior designers, consultants, integrators). It isn't cheap, and worse it costs your credibility with your ministry leadership and the design/construction team.
Understand the money.
Church buildings are built with donated funds and the worst thing that can happen is that the church builds something that locks up so much of the resources that there are no funds for ministry. Have the conversations with your designers about what you need day one and what can be implemented over time--then make sure that is documented so that funds are allocated for those upgrades as they come in. The things that are expensive to add/improve later are conduit additions, power, loudspeaker systems, etc. Boards, projectors, cameras, lighting packages, etc. can be upgraded and added to over time with the Day One gear being transferred to a satellite venue, youth or children's space. Without thinking through the money, you can wind up falling on your sword for things that make the church "house poor" which damages your credibility.
It takes some proactive career planning to build a reputation for focusing on church mission and being an asset to the leadership team, but the investment is well worth it and allows you to expand your ministry beyond the boundaries of the control booth.
