Kem Meyer on Less Clutter & Noise

Build trust by flipping your marketing model upside down...

Have you seen the white paper from Moosylvania yet? It’s been out there awhile. If you haven’t had the chance to see it yet, be sure to request your own copy. It's worth it. We all can learn from the insights these guys share.

How do you build trust? A few notable highlights...

1. Respect people’s judgment & intelligence
2. Enhance their community
3. Personalize for people
4. Acknowledge life stages
5. Share the word
6. Unconventional messages rule
7. Support the cause

Mark the moment ...

I found some old family night photos from last year. They made me smile. We still do family nights, we just haven’t been as intentional about our themes or photos. I’m motivated to ramp those up again. Last night we had Gpops & Gbunny over for a Wii party, but I don’t have the pictures to prove it ever happened. MARK THE MOMENT!

   

   

                 

Management of the absurd: paradoxes of communication

The Paradoxes of Communication

• The more we communicate the less we communicate. Most organizations OVERcommunicate believing everybody should be in on everything.
• When all lines of communication are open for participants to talk to all members of a group – the problem-solving ability of the group diminishes markedly and becomes virtually paralyzed.
• In all of life, the metamessage tends to be more powerful than the message itself. Too often we become so concerned about the content of what we say or write that we often forget the form. Yet the feelings, the rituals, the arrangements, the social and physical design – all that is implied by the way we organize a communicate an experience – are crucially important. When they are taken into account, it is possible to send a metamessage that reinforces the intended message rather than undermines it.
• Listening can be a disturbing experience. It requires a level of self-awareness, even self-criticism, that is not often easy to endure. It’s more of an attitude than a skill. It comes not from technique, but from being genuinely interested in what really matters to the other person.

[So much bullet-y goodness in this book. I've had three posts about it. Part 1. Part 2.]

Management of the absurd: technology of human relations…

The Technology of Human Relations

• Increasingly we treat human relationships as requiring skill and technique. The more important a relationship, the less skill matters.
• Any technique loses it’s power when it becomes evident that it is a technique.
• Effective leaders and managers do not regard control as the main concern. Instead they approach situations sometimes as learners, sometimes as teachers, sometimes as both. they turn confusion into understanding. They see a bigger picture. They trust the wisdom of the group. Their strength is not in control alone, but in other qualities – passion, sensitivity, tenacity, patience, courage, firmness, enthusiasm, wonder.
• Knowing how people grow, does not mean we know how to grow them.
• Problems can be solved; predicaments can only be coped with. Most of the affairs of life, particularly the most intimate and important ones, such as marriage, child-rearing, are complicated, inescapable dilemmas – predicaments where no options look very good or better than any other.
• Predicaments require interpretive thinking. The best executives discover purely analytical thinking is inadequate.
• We become so enamored with process we lose sight of the product.
• We think we invent technology, but technology also invents us.
• We think the best communication takes place when people can see and touch each other, but that is not necessarily so. Obviously, there are occasions where physical proximity is necessary. But face-to-face communication often introduces more noise in the system and imposes more limitations on personal expression.

Source.

Management of the absurd: a different way of thinking…

Read this oldie but goodie recently. A few bullets.

• There is a difference between absurdity and stupidity.
• “Managers do things right, leaders do the right things.” Warren Bennis
• When formulas fail them, managers become frustrated, aggressive and sometimes verbally abusive.

A Different Way of Thinking

• Granting authority is not like handing out a piece of pie, wherein you lose what you give away. It’s like when you give away information to someone. Although they may know more, you do not know any less.
• Nothing is as invisible as the obvious. The most important discoveries, the greatest art and the best managements decisions come from taking a fresh look at what people take for granted or cannot see precisely because it is too obvious.

5 ways to start dissolving silos…

Question: How can I transform an environment where everyone runs their own campaign? Missions do their own thing. Student leaders do their own thing. Small groups do their own thing. The pastors do their own thing. And, the pattern repeats throughout the whole church. It’s impossible for anyone to make sense of our perpetual voices much less find the main message.

Most people find it too exhausting to tackle silos. It’s easier to ignore them and just let people do their own thing. I encourage you … tackle the transformation! It’s worth it. When individual departments compete against each other, you end up with a carnival communication style where everyone fights to out-yell or out-explain each other. Chaos.

While I can’t tell you how to fix everything once and for all, I can tell you 5 places to start steering passionate people in a more productive direction.

In an organization, interdependencies exist among each other—resources and assets. We thrive when we have the ability to negotiate among these dependencies and find a middle ground where empowerment and decision-making align. If we each serve up a different experience, run off in our own individual directions—information gets lost or isolated. People and projects proliferate—as does confusion. This creates real liabilities for the church as a whole and puts a lid on overall impact. (Although, this is not a problem isolated to churches. It happens in businesses, government and schools every day.)

So how do you resolve it? Connect multiple areas to operate as part of a larger family.

1. Use the same mission statement. Multiple, unique mission statements across a single organization create chaos, conflict and breeds more silos. One mission statement transcends specific departments to unify the whole. If everyone is working toward the same goal, there will be less territorialism and more teamwork. Every ministry, every team, every employee, every volunteer leader is pulling for the same win.
   
   Our mission statement at Granger is “Helping people take their next step toward Christ…together.” That mission statement applies to every ministry. It doesn’t mean the mission statement action steps can’t be tailored to a specific audience. But, everybody is working toward the same goal, like-minded, maintaining alignment. “Helping students take their next step toward Christ…together.” “Helping women take their next step toward Christ…together.” “Helping people afraid of dogs take their next steps toward Christ…together.”
2. Use one budget for the whole church. There’s different categories for each ministry, but one church budget.
3. One database. Single version of reality—reports and contacts.
4. One web site. One church, multiple ministries. Not the other way around.
5. One kitchen. Not individual cabinets for different ministries.

All of these steps help dissolve silos. It just takes time and you have to tackle them one at a time. All along the way, you’ll have more success if you can effectively communicate what’s at risk if you don’t do this. Nobody will be motivated to change their “old way of doing things” if they don’t know what’s at stake. It’s up to you to cast vision for a bigger story; one everybody is part of … not a bunch of little stories that send schizophrenic messages to outsiders.

There you have it. Start with the core controls like mission, budget, database, web site and kitchen.

[Repost from Less Clutter. Less Noise. blog tour May 2009.]

10 tips for compelling web copy …

From The Web Design Ledger:

1. Make it personal
2. Use language yo mama would understand
3. Draw on common metaphors or experiences
4. Use pictures that compliment your composition
5. Read it out loud
6. Don’t edit until the end
7. Remember that sarcasm is hard to pull off
8. Tidy up your speech
9. Search perspective is king
10. Be scannable

[Full article.]

Social media butterfly charm school …

I get questions about social media from business leaders and pastors several times a week. Sometimes several times a day. I would say all inquires easily boil down to two primary questions:

1. Is it worth it?
2. How do I control it?

Here’s some helpful links that might help answer both questions …

• Why I do it … A pastor’s answer.
• Why we do it … From business people in the trenches.
• The number 1 mistake … We all make.
• Taking brands social … the best & worst.
• Social experiences … how to build them. [new]

Chicagoland! Get in on this deal of deals for Catalyst 1-day…

This photo (taken by Mark Beeson) is from last year when we had the opportunity to host the Catalyst One-Day event at Granger. It was a great event with rare access to frank and honest Q&A with two great leaders: Andy Stanley & Craig Groeschel. That one day of helpful resourcing is still fueling me today.

This year, the Midwest stop is at Willow Creek on March 25 and you can get in on an amazing discount. I thought you’d want to know.

Register this week with the rate code "BLOG" to get the $99 rate ($40 discount).

You’re welcome.

5 ways to use social media offline…

From John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing…

1. Build local networks
2. Create and attend social media aided events
3. Let offline people know how to connect
4. Network offline, connect online
5. Teach your offline networks

Full article.