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Scoreboards & Accountability

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Scoreboards & Accountability

If you’ve served or led for any length of time, then you’ve probably watched a key initiative come up short. Maybe a ministry plan was doomed from the start. Perhaps it was slowly and quietly smothered by competing priorities.

What happened? The whirlwind of day-to-day activities consumed most of your time and energy, leaving little margin for important and strategic things.

Ministry 4DX is the application of Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to church growth and revitalization. It leads your team to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. 4DX includes:

  • Discipline #1 – Focus on the wildly important
  • Discipline #2 – Act on the lead measure.
  • Discipline #3 – Create a compelling scoreboard.
  • Discipline #4 – Create a cadence of accountability.

Create a compelling scoreboard. Since each ministry area or department has 1 or 2 wildly important goals (WIGs), it makes sense that each team will use a scoreboard that measures important lead measures for those goals.

The key idea is to take weekly stock of several lead measures, then show the lag measure they impact. Over time, positive movement in the lead measures should impact the lag measure (attendance, participation, etc.) in the right direction.

For example, a departmental scorecard for community might have five lead measures for new leaders and groups that point to one lag measure—attendance. The team’s time and energy is spent on the first five items with the expectation that average attendance will go up.

Create a cadence of accountability. Each ministry area or department can schedule weekly LAUNCH meetings to help create a cadence of accountability.

Typical meetings are no more than 20 minutes and include quick reports from everyone. Here’s a typical agenda:

  • Pray for each other.
  • What are the 1-3 most important things I can do this week to impact the scoreboard?
  • Report on last week’s commitments.
  • Review and update the scoreboard.
  • Make commitments for next week.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Use 4DX to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. Create a compelling scoreboard and a cadence of accountability.

Resources

Ministry 4DX, Part 1

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Ministry 4DX, Part 1

If you’ve served or led for any length of time, then you’ve probably watched a key initiative come up short. Maybe a ministry plan was doomed from the start. Perhaps it was slowly and quietly smothered by competing priorities.

What happened? The whirlwind of day-to-day activities consumed most of your time and energy, leaving little margin for important and strategic things.

Ministry 4DX is the application of Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to church growth and revitalization. It leads your team to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. 4DX includes:

  • Discipline #1 – Focus on the wildly important
  • Discipline #2 – Act on the lead measure.
  • Discipline #3 – Create a compelling scoreboard.
  • Discipline #4 – Create a cadence of accountability.

Focus on the wildly important. Each team needs wildly important goals (WIGs). And because team focus is quickly diluted, it’s important that ministry departments and teams have no more than 1 or 2 WIGs at the same time.

Ask the question: What do you need to focus on above all else? For example:

  • Evangelism WIG – Train 1,000 people to share their 1 story, memorize 1 verse, and get their commitment to share with 1 person by 8/1/16.
  • Worship WIG – Grow the 11:00am service +45 by 8/1/16.
  • Community WIG – Grow LIFE groups +80 by 8/1/16.
  • Service WIG – Mobilize 150 people on short-term mission trips by 8/1/16.

Act on the lead measure. Every goal needs a measuring stick, but not just any measuring stick. Placing your focus on the right measure is one of the most important things you can do to improve execution.

What’s the difference between lead and lag measures? Here’s a quick definition:

  • Lead Measure – Something that leads to the goal
  • Lag Measure – Something that measures the goal

The key idea is to take weekly stock of several lead measures, then show the lag measure they impact. Over time, positive movement in the lead measures should impact the lag measure (attendance, participation, etc.) in the right direction.

Take a look at some lead and lag ministry measure examples:

  • Evangelism Lead Measure—1×3 Outreach Initiative Commitments—impacts the Lag Measure—Baptisms
  • Worship Lead Measure—Invite Cards Distributed—impacts the Lag Measure—Worship Attendance
  • Community Lead Measure—New Groups Started—impacts the Lag Measure—Groups Attendance
  • Service Lead Measure—New People Mobilized—impacts the Lag Measure—Missions Participation

So what’s the Big Idea?

Use 4DX to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. Focus on the wildly important and act on the lead measure.

Resources

Celebrate the Win

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Celebrate the Win

The political thriller Argo portrays the successful rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Iran during the 1979-1981 Iran hostage crisis. With the leadership of the Canadian ambassador and support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the escapees left Iran with agent Tony Mendez under cover of a fake movie production.

When Mendez returns to the United States with the American hostages, his success is celebrated with the CIA Intelligence Star. But there’s no fanfare and no official recognition. In one of the last scenes in the film, Mendez’ CIA handler, Jack O’Donnell, explains:

O’Donnell: You’re getting the highest award of merit of the Clandestine Services of these United States. Ceremony’s two weeks from today.
Mendez: If they push it a week, I can bring [my son] Ian. That’s his winter break.
O’Donnell: The op was classified so the ceremony’s classified. He can’t know about it. Nobody can know about it.
Mendez: They’re gonna hand me an award, then they’re gonna take it back?
O’Donnell: If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.

Mendez and his team had accomplished something no one thought possible, but they didn’t receive the credit and they couldn’t celebrate the win.

Celebrating success in many organizations feels a lot like a secret CIA operation. We don’t celebrate as publicly or as often as we should. But just like Tony Mendez, we have an emotional need to revel in our accomplishments.

So what should we celebrate? Celebrate team success. Praise individual accomplishment. Mark important victories. Celebrate the small things. Celebrate the big things. Find something to celebrate!

Consider a few ideas to get the ball rolling:

  1. Create a culture of sharing. Your staff team should feel the freedom to share when something is working. Encourage that in volunteer leaders and staff. If needed, prompt your team to start sharing with your own stories. Then, go around the table and ask them to share a win with the group.
  2. Share wins or stories in weekend services. Do it on video or in person. Focus on vision-aligned, values-focused stories that reinforce who you are and where you’re going.
  3. Celebrate success in one paragraph (or less). Attention spans are shorter than ever, and you have to contextualize for that when you celebrate the win. Practice the art of casting vision and celebrating success in one or two sentences. Provide links to the full story for those who want it, but summarize the win concisely.
  4. Celebrate success frequently. Frequency beats length any day of the week. Share less content more frequently to capture the attention of more eyes and ears.
  5. Recognize wins in weekly communication. This is usually some kind of digital or printed newsletter or weekly bulletin. Make that piece about more than announcements. Use it to tell short stories or report a significant accomplishment.
  6. Use your website to tell the story. Use video, blog posts and stories to keep everyone in the loop about your success. Link back to your site in social media posts.
  7. Use social media to celebrate the win. Be creative in the images and words you use. Remember that photos, videos, web links and hashtags increase engagement.
  8. Use photographs to celebrate success. Show people living out the organization’s strategic vision. Show them working, serving and preparing. Highlight volunteers and celebrate their service as they live out the organization’s vision and values.

So what’s the Big Idea?

We all have an emotional need to celebrate the win. Celebrate the small things. Celebrate the big things. Find something to celebrate!

Resources


Source

Terrio, Chris, Argo, Directed by Ben Affleck, Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Pictures, 2012.

Create a Culture of Accountability

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Create a Culture of Accountability

People and churches respond to accountability in one of two ways. Either they pull back from the prospect of increased attention or they embrace the opportunity to reach their potential and achieve better outcomes.

Many of us don’t have effective mechanisms for accountability in our personal and ministry lives. For one thing, accountability is difficult. We would rather not push people and staff—paid or volunteer—to go further, do more and be more strategic. Most people don’t naturally seek to do more than standard operating procedure requires.

It’s also true that accountability requires hard decisions and choices that many church leaders don’t want to make. It’s easier to kick the can down the road and hope for the best. But it usually doesn’t work out for the best.

A real culture of accountability can’t skip over any of the truly important things. It has to be practiced regularly and cover vital parts of Christian life and witness. Churches need staff ministers who are accountable for:

  1. Personal Spiritual Growth & Family Time
  2. Professional Growth & Development
  3. Organizational & Ministry Objectives

Consider whether ministry leaders in your church are held accountable for those things. If not, it may be time to consider a few adjustments.

How can you build traction for a culture of accountability? Start with:

  • Clear Vision and Values – Each staff member knows who you are and who you want to be. There’s no substitute for being on the same page. Accountability begins with clear vision.
  • Global Objectives – Each team member knows what you’re trying to accomplish and how you plan to get it done. With clear global objectives, the team is rowing in the same direction.
  • Ministry Objectives – Proper accountability can’t happen unless departments harmonize their plans with “big picture” vision, values and strategy.
  • Realistic Goals – Ministry goals should be achievable with available resources. It’s futile to expect outsized outcomes from insufficient resources.
  • Regular Interface – Ministry staff and volunteers need honest feedback and coaching. A coaching discussion with accountability should happen at regular intervals.
  • The Freedom to Make Adjustments – Ministry plans are written in pencil not pen. Because plans are adjustable, fear and anxiety about accountability is reduced.
  • The Freedom to Fail (and Succeed) – New initiatives and ideas are encouraged, even when they might not succeed. Expect that a certain percentage of new plans won’t go as planned.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Church leaders should be accountable for personal spiritual growth, family time and professional development, as well as church and ministry objectives. Build a culture of accountability in each of these areas with clear vision, realistic goals and regular interface.

Resources

Clarify the Win

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Clarify the Win

Measuring what you do is the only way you know you’re accomplishing something important. It’s how you clarify the win and know what success looks like in every area of your life.

Consider how often you start a task or set a goal without defining a strategic way to measure the preferred outcome. Sometimes it’s a simple oversight. At other times, we don’t measure because we fear the result won’t be what we expect it to be.

It’s also true that we can have shifting definitions of success. When something doesn’t go as planned, we may be tempted to redefine the win and rationalize an unexpected (and non-vision-driven) outcome.

The right measures clarify the win in your personal, professional and organizational worlds. They also combat vision drift and misalignment in 2 strategic ways:

  • They focus on outputs vs. inputs. Inputs tell you what ingredients go in to something. Outputs tell you what comes out on the other side. Move beyond simple input measures to the more significant outcomes you’re aiming for.
  • They measure quantitative vs. qualitative success. Qualitative measures are subjective and experiential. Quantitative measures, or metrics, are objective and numerical. In most cases, quantitative measures are the best way to measure outcomes without bias.

Remember that measures aren’t goals. Measures are an objective way to express the size, quantity or degree of something. Goals are a numerical objective and desired result for the measures you set. Both are important, but goals won’t mean much if you don’t measure the right things.

Clarify the win in 5 quick steps:

  1. Define success with measurable outcomes (metrics). Measure with quantitative and objective outcomes. Use unambiguous metrics to paint a clear picture of action plan results.
  2. Select the right measures. Align measures with organizational vision and values. Think beyond inputs to outputs.
  3. Record the results. Devote time to evaluating and measuring your plans. If you complete a task or goal, plan some time to compare it against the strategic measures you set.
  4. Track data trends. Trends show where you are in relation to your past and can be a predictor of future growth (or decline). Read measures intelligently and watch for important trends indicating health, effectiveness and relevance.
  5. Make measures-driven adjustments. Honest measures indicate one of two things. Either you’ve accomplished your goal or you haven’t. Either you’re moving in an upward trend or you’re not. Make adjustments based on measured results.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Clarify the win. Measuring what you do is the only way you know you’re accomplishing something important.

Resources

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