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Church production planning programming meeting
Consider the Christmas debrief meeting the first step in planning for next Christmas. It’s a vital part of the planning process.
As you put away the Christmas decorations around your church and home, if you’re anything like me you're probably breathing a sigh of relief. You made it. You got through another crazy season and it’s time to take a much-needed breather. But before you move completely out of Christmas mode, I challenge you to tackle one more Christmas project: a Christmas debrief meeting.
If you don’t take the time to go over lessons learned during the Christmas season, you risk losing information on key takeaways, tasks, and other valuable bits of information.
I know that for so many of us we’ve moved past Christmas and are ready to move on to the next project. But if you’re not already planning on debriefing with the church tech, music and creative teams who helped make your Christmas services a reality, you are missing a tremendous opportunity. If you don’t take the time to go over lessons learned during the Christmas season, you risk losing information on key takeaways, tasks, and other valuable bits of information. You might be patting yourself on the back for an amazing service while others might be sadly disappointed by the same service. And you’ll never know if you don’t talk about it.
Send questions out ahead of the meeting. You’ll get better answers that way, instead of off-the-cuff responses.
Consider the Christmas debrief meeting the first step in planning for next Christmas. It’s a vital part of the planning process.
How do you debrief?
Let’s look at three key steps in executing a quality debrief meeting. First, evaluate on your own. Determine your own impressions of the Christmas season before consulting with your team. What went well? What could use improvement? Brainstorm questions for your debrief meeting and think through your possible responses.
Second, let the attendees evaluate on their own too. You will want to send questions out ahead of the meeting so you get better answers. You want the people in the meeting to have had a chance to ruminate before sitting down to talk. You’ll get better answers that way instead of off-the-cuff responses.
Third, when you do come together to meet, set the ground rules so everyone feels comfortable sharing. One of my bosses frequently starts Christmas rehearsals with a reminder that we are all working towards the same goal and a request that we all have thick skins and short memories.
Sticking to an agenda will help people stay focused and will help to limit unproductive sidebar conversations.
Keep in mind that a debrief is a time to identify problems. It is not, however, an uninhibited opportunity to let team members vent. Encourage people to voice problems that were encountered and to state the impact of the problem. Stick to facts, not emotions. Remember that we are looking for solutions. Saying, “Deciding to purchase additional lights at the last minute made for a few really long days and ended up costing us extra money because we didn’t have time to shop around.” is acceptable. Keep personal attacks out of it and don’t allow anyone at the table to go down the rabbit hole of just venting.
Remind everyone that we all work hard at Christmas time. This is not a contest to see who worked the hardest. If you have anyone on your team who did not pull their weight that’s a topic for a different meeting and should not be the focus of a debrief.
Sticking to an agenda when holding a debrief meeting will help people stay focused and will help to limit unproductive sidebar conversations.
What to cover?
A typical debrief meeting covers questions like:
- What went right?
- What went wrong?
- What aspects do we want to keep for future years?
- What aspects do we want to do differently next time?
Those basic questions cover a lot of territory. Your team might have a ton of information to share based on those broad questions or you might have to probe a little deeper by asking more specific questions such as:
- What were the unexpected expenses?
- What took more time than anticipated?
- What caused undue amounts of stress?
- What could have been communicated better?
- Were the rehearsals effective?
- What was the opinion of the set? The lighting? The ???
Write it down!
Take detailed notes at the debriefing. Write everything down even if you don’t agree with what is being said. Make sure the notes are available to everyone involved in decision making for next Christmas. Don’t leave without a basic plan for next steps. When will the first Christmas planning meeting be held? Put it on the calendar now.
Don’t forget your volunteers...
You’re likely not going to be sitting down with all your volunteers at a table to debrief from Christmas. But you will still want to seek out their opinions. They may have a brilliant idea for next year or they may have seen a problem that you didn’t see. This is a golden opportunity for you to gauge the health of your volunteer team and the mental health of your individual volunteers. It’s a valuable touch point to connect with your team.
Christmas will be back upon us before we know it. And once again we will have a chance to celebrate the good news that is for all people:
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Take time now to set your team up for success next Christmas. It won't be wasted effort. And it just might give you the breathing room you need next holiday season to be able to truly focus on the reason for the season...the reason we do what we do every single weekend.
