Like most of you I’ve been a part of churches that have invested large sums of money and time to send their staff to a conference together. I love the fact that many churches are willing to invest in their staff and I love how inspiring conferences can be! In fact I usually walk away with my thinking challenged and a few new ideas to implement. However, I’ve actually found it more economical and effective to bring an expert in to spend more intimate time with our team. The training you get is more personal, customized to your situation, and conversational (you can actually get your specific questions answered). Recently we had Larry Osborne come in to spend time with the Staff at Sun Valley. We intentionally designed for him to invest in our Executive Team, our Elders, as well as a day of training with all of our staff from all three of our campuses. By the way it was great to be able to have a couple of guys from my current Coaching Network sit in on the day of training with our staff! Below are some of my thoughts and take aways from our time together:

Ceilings of Complexity and Competency

1. Every Leader and Every Organization hits a Leadership Ceiling at some point

• We outgrow our leadership skills
• We outgrow our organizational structures
• We can be blindsided by a major cultural shift

2. How to Recognizing Ceilings

• Any ministry that has stagnant or declining attendance
• Marked increase in conflict
• Protecting the Past trumps Creating the Future
• Revolving Door Syndrome
• Long term personal spiritual stagnation
• Mission Creep

3. How to Break through Ceilings

• These 3 things come natural and are actually a trap:
  • Effort: work harder
  • Efficiency: work smarter
  • Quality: work better
• What happens when these 3 things don’t work?
  • New Advisors:
    • You have to get outside of your tribe
    • We first go to “me” then we go to “my team” and then we go to “my tribe”
    • All of the solutions to your biggest problems are going to be found outside of your tribe
  • New Expectations:
    • Expectations are really about 3 things you have to give up: Power, Prestige, and Position
  • New Organizational Structures:
    • Address whatever counter productive organizational structures you have (traditions, how you make decisions, etc.)

I’ll post the rest of the notes tomorrow: Part 2 “Why Some Teams Win and Most Lose”