CurryStew » Teams

Where do you gather?

DC — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:29:57 +0000

I often think about the different places we "gather" and why they matter so much. Places we hang out, places we make memories, places we go to share our lives. Above is a picture of one our my teams gathering places. This is the "Ding Dong"! Jeff's got a few pieces of killer furniture in his office and one of them is this simple ottoman called a "Ding Dong". When we were upstairs in our previous office space we'd kick back, put our feet up and talk about life and ministry around this crazy Ottoman every week and it was awesome! It would be our excuse to be close and hang out. Now that we're in our new office space (our department moved offices) and have an actually meeting room we haven't used the Ding Dong much and I can tell. I might have to boycott the table for GSM meetings and bring in the ding dong so we can regain the connection we felt when we were around it and continue to get stuff done!

Sometimes we have to change things up a little to get just the right environment for our teams to flourish. The question then becomes are we committed to doing whatever it takes to get our teams in environments where they can flourish?

I'm going to continue to try my best to do that and I hope you will to, they deserve it! For us: In theory, the conference table is practical and makes more sense. In real life, it doesn't work for my teams dynamic...feels to formal, we're farther away from each other, makes things seem to serious, & we just work better in a more relaxed organic non-formal setting (ie. when we can throw balls to each other, bounce tennis balls off the wall, throw pens at each other, get side-tracked a few times, wrestle, make fun of the girls for not joining in the shenanigans, you know...that sort of stuff.)

In the end: YOU GOTTA DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM...AND FOR US, IT'S A DING DONG, OPEN SPACE, & PADDED WALLS! I LOVE MY TEAM AND OUR CHURCH THAT LETS US MEET HOW WE NEED TO SO WE CAN FLOURISH!!!

Jeff the Genius

DC — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:29:34 +0000

I love hanging out with Jeff when he's working on stuff for GSM. He's got some of the greatest ideas when it comes to thinking outside the box AND taking things that have been done before and making them 10 times better. I love that about him considering nothing that we're teaching or doing is 100% brand new. So sometimes some of the best ideas we have are things we've never seen anyone do while other times it's taking things we've seen done and making them better suited for our group. (I only state this because I know creative people can sometimes have this bent that says in their head "if i didn't come up with it, i'm not doing it"...if that was the case NOTHING would ever get done around our ministry. So i think it's great Jeff can do BOTH.) (Sorry about the Preview image Jeff, i can't do anything about it, YouTube picked it.)

Leaders shape conversation quality

DC — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:05:03 +0000

I read this a few weeks ago and saved it and thought I would pass it along. I'm not sure where I read it, it was just saved on my desktop.

“I think getting up in the morning is more exciting when you’re nervous. If you’re not nervous, you’re dead. . . .It’s time to change your life or your work the moment you stop having butterflies in your stomach.” – Warren Bennis

If certainty and stability breed complacency and mediocrity, then change and challenge is necessary to breed leadership. Leaders bring about change they initiate, they innovate, they make things happen, they disturb the status quo! Why? Because leaders bring about change and what leaders want to change must get talked about..!

“If the marketplace isn’t talking about you, there’s a reason. If people aren’t discussing your products, your services, your cause, your movement or your career, there’s a reason. The reason is that you’re boring.” – Seth Godin, You’re boring

The vision and actions taken by leaders should generate the kind of emotional engagement that provokes conversation. Leaders are responsible for shaping and organizations conversation and the quality of an organisation’s conversation is the leadership’s responsibility. The quality of the conversation can be directly correlated with the quality of the organisation’s leadership. Using conversation deliberately means that we need to think carefully about how we will craft conversation and how we can use it purposefully. (I know this is something I can get better at, hence why I saved this to my desktop.)

The strength of GSM, nobody gives a rip

DC — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:46:03 +0000

Recently, after hearing me brag about the GSM Staff team, I was asked by a youth pastor in Texas, "What do you think is one thing that makes your team so great." So told him, "I believe what makes the GSM team so great is that no one cares who gets the credit." Unfortunately this is uncommon territory in youth ministry where everyone is trying to 'get credit', 'get noticed', or 'get praise'. I believe our team models the heartbeat of Jesus in that no one gives a rip who's name is on anything, they just want everything we do to be amazing in the eyes of God. As their leader, I can work with that!

(This is something I learned from watching Mark Beeson. He's mentioned to me on many occasions "it's amazing what you can accomplish when nobody cares who gets the credit." I know lots of people before him said it. But I've personally witnessed Mark Beeson LIVE THIS so I give him the credit.)

(I'm up on the soapbox now) I know that many of the best ideas, concepts, prototypes and innovations come from a single person's insight, but what does that really mean? You get these amazing bits of work from inspired individuals who have the freedom to act, when they have the tools and knowledge they need, but someone has to give them that freedom to act, so shouldn't that person be recognized to? As I look at any project, it is always bigger than the person who's created it. Also, isn't EVERYTHING we do in the church supposed to give God glory? Then why is it that so many people try to steal the Glory that belongs to God just because they had a great idea? Yeah I don't know either. I love that our GSM staff could care less who's fingerprints are on what we do as long as what we do helps students take steps toward Christ. Too many people worry so much about having their fingerprint on something and forget that it's the fingerprints of God that makes ANYTHING we do worthwhile! (Ok i'm off the soap box!)

Great Leaders hire great people AND build great teams.

DC — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:37:25 +0000

(The GSM Staff before going down a MONSTER zip line at Spring Hill camp in Michigan. Left to right: Katie, John, DC, Jeff, Seth, Steph)

This is one of the most helpful and confirming articles I've read in 2008. I payed special attention as I hired the GSM team and I couldn't be more happy with their character, chemistry, and performance. I'm not saying I'm a great leader, even though I believe I am, but I sure did hire a great team! I've pulled out the main bits and pieces that I identified with. Read the full article HERE.

Great leaders surround themselves with great people. Lone ranger leadership is doomed to fail, there is no one great person that is going to transform an organisation it takes a strong team and a great leader. If you look at the life of anyone who has achieved success, such as Jack Welch, Bill gates and others, you’ll notice that they surround themselves with great people. But! It’s not that easy, the trick is to know what great looks like, "How do you know the great people when you see them?" An article by Peter Carbonara from Fast Companyprovides help for leaders looking to identify and select the right people for their team.

"The proposition is undeniable: you can’t build a great company without great people."

The article proposes that by using the following four principles you can improve your chances of selecting the right person…..

What You Know Changes, Who You Are Doesn’t - Popeye was right: "I y’am what I y’am." The most common — and fatal — hiring mistake is to find someone with the right skills but the wrong mind-set and hire them on the theory, "We can change ‘em."

You Can’t Find What You’re Not Looking For - Bill Byham, perhaps the world’s foremost authority on hiring, is president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Development Dimensions International (DDI) . He’s also the father of a hiring methodology that goes by many names ("Targeted Selection" is the most popular) but revolves around a simple idea: the best way to select people who’ll thrive in your company is to identify the personal characteristics of people who are already thriving and hire people just like them.

The Best Way to Evaluate People is to Watch Them Work

You Can’t Hire People Who Don’t Apply - Companies that take hiring seriously also take recruiting seriously….. Companies that hire smart usually start their recruiting efforts close to home — with their own people. SGI’s Lane estimates that 65% of his company’s new hires began as referrals from current employees. It makes sense: it takes a certain kind of person to thrive at SGI, and those people tend to spend time (personally and professionally) with people like themselves.

One of the central tasks of leaders is the selection and development of people and teams. Leaders tend to recruit too hastily and take too long to remove those who are under-performing. The key to recruiting great people is to be clear about what you’re looking for in others. What are the characteristics of people who succeed in your team? Do you actively look for those characteristics in the people you’re looking to hire? (By George Ambler on the Practice of Leadership)