In late October we ran an article on churchproduction.com entitled “Winning at Christmas,” written by Todd Elliot, technical arts director at Willow Creek Community Church located outside of Chicago. Christmas can place incredible demands church tech staffs. The article talks about how to create a plan that achieves the goal of a great Christmas production, but can also be supported by your team and their families. In the article, Elliot asks, “….have I fried my soul in the pursuit of a Christmas program?” In other words, will I (my team and my family) be so burnt out that I'll (we'll) have trouble getting excited about doing it again next year? The article goes on to provide fantastic advice on how to define what it means to win.
Most of you will be getting this issue after your Christmas productions are over. Hopefully you'll have a bit of downtime to set your sights on the New Year. So let's take the concept of “Winning at Christmas” and apply it to “Winning in 2014.” I suggest you start by defining your “must wins” for the entire year. Make a long list, then pare it down to just to the top three. You can plan to do more, but these are the top three that you would find unacceptable not to achieve.
Make a note to yourself, print it out and post it on your wall.
It’s the little things that matter. When placed end to end, they add up to the really big things.
Next you should start planning your Easter events, your Fourth of July events, Christmas 2014, and your other big events for the year. Define and state your top three “wins” for each. Note them and revisit them as you get deeper into planning.
Do the same for your upcoming sermon series. Then start doing it for each upcoming weekend or service. Eventually, you should start defining and stating your three wins for every day.
If you're like me, there's so much that needs to be done you sometimes don't know where to start. This can be frustrating, but I've found it extremely rewarding and empowering to achieve each of those short and long-term wins.
Also, don't just limit your three wins to work related stuff. Be sure to include items like, go for a walk with your wife, or throw the ball with the kids, get some exercise, spend some quiet time with God, read the Bible. It's the little things that matter. When placed end to end, they add up to the really big things.
To help you keep track of your three wins, there's a great free app in iTunes called WinStreak from Toronto-based Strategic Coach, a business coaching program of which I am a great fan and long-time client. The three wins originated with Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach. I strongly recommend you download the app, and watch this three-minute video on the concept on You Tube: tinyurl.com/threewins.
