Tag: Strategy

Culture versus strategy

Culture versus strategy

by | May 30, 2014 | , | 3

Michael Warden, a gifted leader within our community wrote a powerful post about emotionally intelligent leaders several months back. I recently pulled it out again to see what areas I can work on personally. One point continues to resonate with me. Emotionally intelligent leaders value culture over strategy. Michael describes it this way:

You’ve probably heard the common phrase of “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If the strategic goal is the new country we’re sailing toward, then the organizational culture is the ship that’s carrying us there. Emotionally intelligent leaders know that if the ship sinks, they’ll never reach the goal. So they tend to the ship first, and the trip second.

This is so incredibly true and I’ve seen this play out for the team I lead and within specific people on my team the last few years and more specifically in the last 9-10 months. The leader has a powerful and strategic opportunity to set the culture. His or her absence or inattention to this can result in strong personalities on the team to change the culture. Culture affects everything. It affects longevity, productivity and job satisfaction. If this is true, your role as the team leader directly affects the livelihood of other people… that’s huge! I’ve seen this play out in a powerful way this past year which I’ll write more about later. Here’s how culture trumps everything

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2013 Orange Tour

2013 Orange Tour

by | Sep 10, 2013 | , | 1

I’m very excited about this year’s Orange Tour. For the past 4-5 years, I’ve made the trek to Dallas to attend, usually bringing 15-25 staff, leaders and volunteers with me. It’s a huge does of strategy and encouragement that makes a big impact on my team. I’m especially pumped this year for two reasons.

  1. This year Orange Tour is coming to Austin, being hosted at my church. This is huge because now I can make the opportunity to even more leaders and volunteers. I hope to have 50 attend.
  2. This year I’m going on the Orange Tour as well. I’ll be participating in 5 Tour stops this Fall and I can’t wait to connect with leaders and staff in several cities around the country.

I especially love what the Orange Tour is doing this season. They’ve created a Lead Small event the night before the tour, a low cost event designed for small group leaders. Honestly, a lot of small group leaders aren’t going to be able to attend the tour and many might feel that the content isn’t designed specifically for them (I don’t completely agree). However, a volunteer focused event at 7:00 the night before the Tour… well, that’s brilliant. I’m so glad Orange is doing this and I’m so glad that I’m going to be a part.

I’ll be helping with the Lead Small event and a couple of breakouts on the day of the tour. I’ll also be leading a NextGen lunch/gathering for NextGen/Family Pastors on the day of the Tour. It’s going to be super busy, but I love it.

So, I’ll be in the following cities on the following dates:

  • Tampa, FL – Sept 12-13
  • Kansas City, KS – Oct 21-22
  • Austin, TX – Nov 4-5
  • Dallas TX – Nov 7-8
  • Charlotte, NC – Nov 14-15

So, if you’re near any of those cities, let me know… I’d love to connect! If you haven’t registered yet – well, what are you waiting for?

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Doing Church Strategically

Doing Church Strategically

by | Aug 6, 2012 | | 0

The High School serving trip to Branson I wrote about last week and the strategic view of a spiritual path of lost to leading has had me thinking quite a bit lately. Gateway Branson is crazy focused on reaching the homeless and working poor in Branson. Currently, they are working with about 20 hotels, serving meals to 700 or so people every week. They know that there are about 400-600 more that they need to provide meals for and they’re working hard to get the resources to do this.

Here’s what I love about this model of ministry. They have a hyper specific target, the poor and homeless. They know how many they are. They know where they live. They are actively pursuing ministry to their target. Probably within the next couple of years, they will have a significant presence that saturates their target. I think that success for them is probably where everyone in any one of those hotels feels loved and cared for by Gateway Branson. When that kind of environment is created, people will experience the life and freedom that only comes through Jesus. I’m sure their work will never be done, but with this very strategic target, you could almost set a deadline for “completion.” X Number of meals a week, X number of events at each hotel each month and X number of small groups/recovery groups at each hotel. I love that kind of strategy.

Last night I experienced the same kind of excitement about Gateway Austin.

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Be Strategic

by | Jan 23, 2012 | , | 1

From day one of engaging with Orange (more than 4 years ago), the word strategy was a word I heard often. It’s not a new concept, but it was something that was brought to my attention again last Friday and I’m glad...

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