"How are you doing," my friend John asked me during lunch. "I'm mentally exhausted," I said. "I've been doing a lot of brain-work both at work and at home.” "What do you do to relax," he asked. When I told him I played chess on my computer because I like using my mind, he said, "the problem is you're playing to your strengths."
Did I mention that John happens to be a psychologist?
Playing to your strengths means you like doing what you are good at doing and therefore, you keep doing it. If you are a technical director and you play to your strengths, you're going to be in trouble.
Let's talk purely technical. Pushing aside your TD title, are you a lighting tech, an audio tech, or a video tech at heart? You started somewhere. It's the area you feel the most comfortable. It's your area of strength. And it's those other areas where you might show less focus.
Let's say you started as a sound tech. You're now a TD and you've got video and lighting to consider each week. Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I have the same level of concern for video and lighting quality as I do the audio quality?
2. Does the congregation feel one area of production is significantly out-of-sync with the other areas?
3. Do I care for all areas equally? Does each area have an appropriate budget? Is all equipment equally maintained?
4. If I rated each area (audio, video, and lighting) in quality of results, quality of effort, and quality of care, how would they compare to each other?
Next, outline your current state of affairs for each area of production. Consider areas for improvement or immediate attention. Then, make a plan for how the qualities of these areas can be brought in line with each other. Consider this your initial plan addressing the current state of production.
Future Planning
When was the last time you evaluated your current state of production and when was the last time you made plans for the future?
"What does my budget need to include for next year?" Oh, that's future planning at its most basic level. So now let's get serious. Let's talk about hard-core planning. You have two high school seniors who volunteer on the team and they graduate next year. You'll soon be down two people. Talk of replacing your stage lighting has been coming up a lot. Push for a date and start planning. You are slowly running out of channels on your mixer. When will you upgrade to a new mixer? Any ideas which mixer? Who will train the volunteers in how to use it?
Not only does future planning concern your three big technical areas, but it concerns how they all work together. What is the vision of the church? Is it changing with a new pastor? How does your production ministry play into that both now and in the future?
Think backwards
The problem with future planning is you are often told to consider where you are now (what you have) and then consider what you need to do to move to where you want to be. The problem with this process is you have immediately put restrictions on yourself; I have this, therefore I can only do that. Think about the future and then think backwards.
Start by imagining where you'd like to see your production ministry in five years. What type of people would you want on your team? What equipment would make your production work better or easier? What direction is the church going and what work would you see yourself doing? Go ahead and consider any existing issues you might have. If those issues where gone, how would things be in five years?
Next, think backwards. If you imagined your audio team running on a whole new mixer, then what brand? How did they get trained? How did you decide on that brand? What gave you reason to finally start down the road to getting the new mixer? Here's the key to thinking backwards; you learn a lot from an experience after you reach the goal therefore, start by imagining you've reached the goal and "think backwards" on everything you would have experienced.
The Three-Legged Table
On a small table sits a lamp, two photos of my children, and a candy bowl. The table top is supported by three legs. If any one leg is shorter than the others, the lamp would fall over as would the other items. Your production work supports the needs of the church. Consider the legs as the three technical areas of production; audio, lighting, and video. Which way is your table tipping today? How can you keep the table level over the next five years?
