Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash
Proper planning prevents poor performance. It’s a very alliterative (and slightly sanitized) saying that I believe originated in the military many years ago. It’s easy to remember, is very true, and is also incredibly applicable to the church world.
Unfortunately, we can be in a world where it’s not so easily understood and embraced. I think most of us would agree that our peers (and sometimes our leaders) don’t properly plan and then wonder why poor performance (or implementation) was the result.
Proverbs 15:22 reinforces the idea that without proper planning and advisors, ideas are doomed to fail.
So, it can feel like we’re fighting a losing battle sometimes. Others fail to plan (which means, as another cliché says, you are “planning to fail”), we scramble last-minute, and something may or may not work effectively. It becomes a double-edged sword: if it doesn’t work out, it’s our fault for not making it happen, and if it does work out, it now becomes the standard and we’re expected to perform miracles regularly.
Sound familiar?
The more this happens, the more we feel doomed. Others are never going to change their approach and we’re always going to have to bear the brunt of the weight to make their ideas happen, often at the expense of another important task (or our sanity). The cycle will never end.
Proverbs 15:22 even reinforces the idea that without proper planning and advisors, ideas are doomed to fail.
Fortunately, regardless of what our circumstances may say (or what we may feel), there are ways to slowly start pulling out of that death spiral. This doesn’t have to be a repeatedly inevitable process. There are ways to change things.
I can sit around and complain...or I can proactively approach them and ask about their vision, needs, or ideas.
How?
First, I have to embrace the idea that if things are ever going to change, I’m probably going to have to lead the effort. Other people may not change their thinking or mentality, so in order for the situation and outcome to change, then I need to be the one that pursues it.
I can sit around and complain about how so-and-so always shows up last-minute with special requests whenever a certain event arrives or when he’s asked to preach on a Sunday, or, knowing that person’s proclivities, I can proactively approach them and ask about their vision, needs, or ideas.
Yes, that means I’m potentially asking for more work to do, and it no longer means that I can shrug with “plausible deniability” for not knowing what they wanted to do. But I can either ask questions on the front end, hoping to take advantage of margin in the planning process, or I can passively wait and possibly have to scramble in a stress-filled panic before the buzzer. At that point, if I choose to wait, it’s on me, not the other person. I had the option to take the lead to solve the problem but chose not to.
If late-arriving content or changes are going to be part of the normal workflow, then I need to make sure I have as much off of my plate by then as possible, or at least for the things I have control over.
As my former boss once impressed upon me, leaders always take the first step. And if I want a situation to be different, then I must lead by being the one to initiate a solution to the problem.
In Psalm 90:12, Moses prays to the Lord, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” In essence, he asks the Lord for help understanding that our time on Earth is short, and without wisdom, we won’t be able to properly plan out the best way to spend them. Leaders plan ahead, considering the best way that they can spend their time and energy, and then act.
Do I want my days to be wasted waiting, or do I want to proactively pursue progress?
However, if I try to proactively seek answers, but still am not able to get anywhere (maybe the pastor is set in his schedule for when he provides sermon content, for instance), the next thing I can do is adjust my own schedule and workload to try and inject some margin.
If late-arriving content or changes are going to be part of the normal workflow, then I need to make sure I have as much off of my plate by then as possible, or at least for the things I have control over.
Is there a place where a workflow change, or an additional technology investment, could make a difference in absorbing late, unplanned changes, without interrupting regular planning or execution?
So maybe I need to finalize my volunteer schedule earlier in the week, or I need to have a different timeline for doing lighting programming or computer software updates. Maybe I need to plan on eating lunch at my desk on that day instead of scheduling something with a volunteer.
Whatever the case may be, I need to be actively finding ways that I can have as much flexibility as possible so that when the late details arrive, they aren’t fighting for attention with a dozen other tasks.
This also may mean staffing our team differently on Sundays or altering our workflow. If there’s too much work for one person to do on a Sunday morning, I may need to create a new volunteer position so duties can be split, allowing each person to focus on a particular task.
Our team made a workflow adjustment years ago that paid immediate dividends. Until then, we had one computer that handled all graphics for song lyrics and sermon notes. However, it became so cumbersome to make sermon content edits during worship, and was so disruptive to the workflow, that we decided it was best to invest in a second machine so we could split lyrics and sermon slides into different workstations. That would allow either to be edited or operated independently of the other.
Is there a place where a workflow change, or an additional technology investment, could make a difference in absorbing late, unplanned changes, without interrupting regular planning or execution?
Additionally, are there ways that others on the team, whether volunteers or staff, could be trained in how to fulfill additional duties? That way, if I’m scrambling to solve something last-minute, things don’t all fall back on me, and others can help carry the weight.
Perhaps we can offer “next-level” training on certain positions or go more in-depth with different workflows, just so volunteers can become more capable of what their role could entail. This would also deepen their comfort level with their station, which might make it easier for them to absorb changes that come in moments of chaos.
Ultimately I may just have to accept that, regardless of how much I ask or plead, others might not change their workflows, and if I want end results to be different, I may have to own that process entirely.
I may have to plan ahead for others’ lack of planning and find ways to adapt to a less-than-ideal environment. Hopefully, by thinking differently and approaching those challenges head-on with proper, proactive planning, we can take potentially poor performance and make it precisely picture-perfect!
