In technical ministry, our job is often to get other people "on board" with a new project or a change to the routine. This is hard enough in the normal business world, but for the world of production technology in the church, it can be even more challenging to get that essential "buy-in."
The problem, as I see it, is two-fold:
1.) it's often difficult for others, particularly those outside the technical team, to understand production technology and work flow, and, perhaps more importantly,
2.) we often do a poor job of explaining ourselves.
A friend of mine once told me about (and perhaps created) the Two-thirds Rule of Leadership: Spend two-thirds of your time explaining the "why" of an initiative, and only one-third of your time explaining the "how." We often inherently know the "why" and don't realize the extent to which others don't. The "why" is by far the most important part, so spend most of your time talking about it.
For example, when working toward higher production standards, it is desirable to get people more involved in training and rehearsal times. However, simply saying, "I need you here for this" doesn't create the desire in the other person's heart to get involved.
Instead, spend your time casting the vision of where you want the production standards to be and why. Remind your team that God calls us to do everything with excellence; that He deserves it from us; that we want to provide the congregation with the most engaging and least distracting worship service we can; and the only way to get there is with an investment of time. When people truly understand the reason, they will want to follow that vision. That's buy-in. While this example might apply to the production team with whom you serve, it could also apply to your desire to influence the worship team's routine, too.
As another example, consider how you might recruit someone to organize the media booth (which always seems to collect more trash than the actual trash can). You might simply ask them to "Put this here, throw this away, and move this over there." That would satisfy the "how."
However, instead you could explain how the booth is visible to church members and a reflection on our stewardship and attention to detail; how everyone enjoys working in a clean workspace a lot more than a dirty one; and that it even helps keep people focused and on top of their cues. Now the person you've recruited for the task understands why it's important, will probably do a better job, and will experience a more significant feeling of accomplishment at the end.
Just remember: not everyone automatically gets the "why." It's often necessary to simply state what may be obvious (to you) and put it in terms that are meaningful to others.
