Photo by Canva Studio
I historically haven’t been a huge purveyor of the broad selection of reality shows that are now so ubiquitous on television. However, from time to time, I’ll find something that catches my eye and pulls me in.
One of those shows was CNBC’s The Profit, in which investor and entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis traveled the country to find local business he could invest in and help grow, often to save them from impending doom.
After meeting with the business owners to get an overall feel of the business, Lemonis typically would then talk about how strongly he focuses on his core values in every business with which he gets involved. Those values, simply, are “people, process, and product.”
In watching so many episodes of the show for the last several years, it became clear how easily these same values could translate into the world of ministry tech.
All of us crave a sense of community and belonging, all of us want to know that we matter to other people and are doing something that matters, and all of us desire some level of affirmation and support for a job well done.
Unfortunately, many of us might unintentionally be starting our focus on the “product” side of what we do: services and gear. But is that really the best thing for us to highlight first?
Like Lemonis, I feel that people should be the emphasis for any healthy team environment. All of us crave a sense of community and belonging, all of us want to know that we matter to other people and are doing something that matters, and all of us desire some level of affirmation and support for a job well done.
We also generally want to be perceived as competent in what we do, so we naturally desire to learn more about our roles and how we can do them successfully, and perhaps even how to advance in leadership, influence, and responsibilities.
And most of all, we want to have fun! Who wants to consistently work in an environment that’s boring or stressful or exhausting?
No. 1 Focus: A Healthy Team
When the first focus of any team is on investing in the people themselves, the sky is the limit for what that team is then able to accomplish. A healthy team has the ability to overcome nearly any obstacle and can often rally together to achieve incredible things.
Who wants to consistently work in an environment that’s boring or stressful or exhausting?
On the flip side, it often doesn’t matter how great the product is, or how great the process is, if there’s not a healthy team to run and manage those things.
The best part is that a healthy team will naturally grow. Current team members can become “brand ambassadors” who are naturally able to recruit new team members in their sphere of influence, simply because they want to share with others the natural feeling of excitement and fulfillment that they themselves are feeling.
And a content, fulfilled team always has an impact on the quality of the product. Things flow more smoothly and any potential hiccups are smoothed out quickly because the team is so loyal to each other they want to be as supportive and effective as they can.
By first focusing on people and the importance of a healthy team, that then makes it easier to implement efficient systems and processes.
- Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:32
No. 2 Focus: Systems and Processes
Sometimes those systems are hard to implement and involve un-learning years of effort and muscle memory. It can then be easy for there to be complaining and negativity as team members grumble about why it’s necessary to do certain things a certain way, or why it’s such a big deal to stop doing things “the way we’ve always done them.”
But a healthy team is able to embrace those challenges together. Negativity is quickly snuffed out because the team culture is so healthy that it won’t allow for cynicism and complaining. Team members embrace the idea of efficiency and structure because those things will allow them to do their work easier and more efficiently, removing elements of stress and making the team an even better place to be.
And once those processes are established (like training new team members, implementing Standard Operating Procedures or checklists for how to operate equipment, and developing ways to manage and track inventory, for example) they become a foundation for how to introduce any new technical element into the workplace.
If there’s already a thorough process of training new volunteers, then it doesn’t have to be a big deal for us to roll out new cameras. We simply have to swap out certain pieces of the training process to align with the new gear, and voila! The process can still work.
... a smooth service flow, free of distractions, is certainly a byproduct of things running well behind the scenes.
When the team is healthy and happy, and when efficient processes are in place to allow for streamlined and repeatable high-quality operations, then an excellent product will be the result.
No. 3: End Product
Yes, a church service is more than just a “product” from a business sense. But a smooth service flow, free of distractions, is certainly a byproduct of things running well behind the scenes.
The first goal of ministry isn’t just to have a great service or have new technology. Ministry, at its core, is all about people, regardless of the specific area of ministry (kids, senior adults, recreation, etc.).
The sky is the limit for what even a small team is able to accomplish in ministry, if it’s a healthy team.
For those of us in the technical arena, it can be easy to lose focus on that and instead put so much energy into the product. It’s easy to spend long hours working on gear or service prep, but how often do we put those same long hours into ensuring that our teams are healthy and the members feel appreciated and valued?
Likewise, we can stress unendingly about how our mix sounds or how the lights look, but are we spending that same amount of energy thinking of how we can improve our volunteer onboarding process or how we can train new team members more efficiently?
The sky is the limit for what even a small team is able to accomplish in ministry, if it’s a healthy team. But our people have to be the first focus of our effort.
First people, then the process, and then the product.
That’s the best investment we can make.
