First, I do hope you had a great Christmas celebrating Jesus’ birth and also having family and friends around you. I am aware that for some Christmas is a difficult time and if this applied to you I trust that you knew God’s grace for the circumstances. May 2011 be a fruitful and fulfilling year [...]
Continue reading about Planning for Ministry pt 1 – Project or People?
PS = pre-script!
Before continuing my series I encourage you to look at the following YouTube video. Fascinating and challenging about the change in economies and life expectancy in 200 countries over the last 200 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded#!
Implementation
So far I have shared with you my approach to event planning - I will develop a series in the New [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implemention pt 8 - Implementation
Continuing the series on Planning we will now look at creating timelines.
Timelines
A timeline is a critical ‘driver’ in achieving the end goal. Like a map it provides a constant reference against which progress towards a target can be measured at any point in the journey. It is a monitoring tool. And so it is worth [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - Pt 7 - Creating a timeline
The illustration I used in the last brainstorm related to this series of blogs about Planning. However, since this does not illustrate planning an event I will first show you how to ‘clean up’ this brainstorm and then revert to a different example to show the importance of a timeline for event planning.
Ordering the results [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - Pt 6 - Ordering your thoughts
Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas
It is important when beginning to plan to have some creative ‘out of the box’ thinking, and to get an overview of the ultimate goal and process to achieve it, before becoming too detailed and specific. It is rare that the first thoughts that come to mind are the best! So [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - Pt 5 - Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas
Strategic Decisions
When beginning to plan there may be some key ‘in principle’ decisions to make, decisions that will be strategic, and will affect how a plan is implemented and what the final outcome will look like. What do I mean by ‘strategic’?
For me strategic decisions are those that have added value or affect the quality [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - Pt 4 - Strategic Decisions and sharing Vision
Where do we start?
The starting point of any planning exercise must be the finishing point! Where are you aiming to go and how are you going to get there?
Planning is about taking a journey with many stages. It is no good just leaving your starting point ‘on a whim’ and hoping you will go somewhere [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - pt 3 - Goal setting
As I teach on planning I address two basic questions. One is ‘Why plan?’ The other may not be openly expressed but is often close to the surface: ‘Is planning just adopting the world’s methods?’
1. Why plan?
In my introductory blog I shared on this topic and will enlarge on it further in subsequent postings. Put [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - pt 2 - some basic questions
Overview
Planning is a part of good stewardship. God has entrusted resources to us - time, money, health etc - and we have the responsibility of using these effectively. By planning we can significantly raise our level of effectiveness as we avoid taking wrong turns which result in having to retrace our steps or undo something [...]
Continue reading about Planning and Implementation - pt 1 - Introduction
The Importance of Minutes
The lack of adequate minutes can lead to frustration and inefficiency. ‘Minutes’ may seem a bit formal but notes of some sort are not negotiable - a ‘must’ from every meeting if the full benefit of the meeting is to be realised.
The detail included in these notes can vary – there is [...]
Continue reading about Effective Meetings pt 7 – Taking minutes
