Understanding Guests

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Disney doesn’t have visitors, or customers – they have Guests.

One word, powerful difference.

It’s always capitalized and treated as a formal noun.

What’s the difference between treating someone like a visitor, and treating someone like a Guest?

The obvious reason is in our mindset: we do things differently when we bring Guests into our homes. We clean up, fix up, and straighten up our house. We clean up and dress up. We prepare something special to eat – something we know our Guests will like. We host them. We take care of their real needs.

According to J. Jeff Kober, former Disney Institute instructor, Guests have five underlying needs:

  1. Be Heard and Understood
  2. Belong and Contribute
  3. Feel Stable and In Control
  4. Feel Significant and Special
  5. Grow and Reach Potential

I’ll break these down in future posts – now it’s time to head out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and be treated like a Guest!

By the way – how are you going to treat those coming your way for worship this weekend? Like Guests?

Or …?

The Secret of Disney World…

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There’s undoubtably a lot of secrets to Disney World, but for me, it is simple:

Disney expects guests

I’ll be breaking this down over the next few days (and probably beyond), but a quick observation tells it all:

My wife, 23 year-old daughter, and I are visiting Disney World for the first time. Our daughter graduated from college in 3 years, so this trip is our gift to her (we’re having a lot of fun too!). Our first day at Disney World has been a blast: spending a lot of time in the Magic Kingdom, hopping on the monorail over to Epcot for a wonderful relaxing supper at the San Angel Inn at the Mexico pavilion, then back to our wonderful room at the Port Orleans Resort – Riverside.

It’s a typical Florida day – sun, clouds, and a few rain showers in-between. During one of those rainstorms, my wife and daughter were riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad while I was waiting on them outside. A sudden rainstorm came up, pouring down rain. In a few minutes, it stopped. Within 1 minute of that, a Disney cast member walked by my vantage post, using a squeegee to wipe the rain off of the trash cans.

That simple action speaks to the lengths Disney goes because they expect guests.

What do you do in your church to expect guests?

An Idea Everyone Will Like

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There’s no such thing as a truly original idea.
I don’t know who said it first, but it’s something I really believe! I’ve found a fascinating book by creativity expert David Kord Murray that takes that saying to the outer limits.
Over the last month I’ve been working on a project related to innovation and design in ChurchWorld, and this line of thought resonated a lot with me.
Borrowing Brilliance will challenge you as it examines the evolution of a creative idea. It also offers practical advice, taking the reader step-by-step through Murry’s unique thought process. Here are the six steps:
  1. Defining – define the problem you’re trying to solve
  2. Borrowing – Borrow ideas from places with a similar problem
  3. Combining – Connect and combine these borrowed ideas
  4. Incubating – Allow the combinations to incubate into a solution
  5. Judging – Identify the strength and weakness of the solution
  6. Enhancing – Eliminate the weak points while enhancing the strong ones

Read a quick summary of the six steps here. You can also get more information at this website. But don’t stop there – by all means pick up a copy of the book and explore it deeper – and you will find yourself looking at creativity in a whole new light.

Got a challenge staring you in the face, and looking for a solution. Why not follow the steps above by “borrowing some brilliance” and formulate your own unique solution?

Looking Sharp in a Leisure Suit…

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… too bad they went out of style 30 years ago.

That’s not just a fashion statement – it also applies to ChurchWorld. Yesterday thousands of churches across America and the world met and did things the way they’ve always done them, expecting new results.

That is a classic pop definition of insanity.

Tony Morgan, in his latest free eBook “Hanging Up the Leisure Suit” offers a brief but informative view on how to take the steps to become unstuck from your present situation and get new results.

In his typical easy-to-read style, Morgan (veteran pastor and church consultant) offers the following six steps to help your church get unstuck:

  • Making the necessary changes to bring different results
  • Bridging the space between strategies and systems
  • Following God’s blueprint for accomplishing His purposes
  • Building a solid foundation
  • Avoiding an over-reliance on teaching
  • Creating a healthy system in your church

“Hanging Up the Leisure Suit” serves its purpose well – helping church leaders begin to ask the tough questions about the organization they serve. As a matter of fact, while the six sections mentioned above will certainly help you begin to understand how you need to get unstuck, Morgan’s discussion questions at the end provide the most helpful “fashion guide” to actually make it happen.

Isn’t it time for a new wardrobe at your church?

Download your free copy of “Hanging Up the Leisure Suit” today and take a look at yourself – and your church – in the mirror!

 

Deep and Wide

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93 years ago today humorist Will Rogers appeared in his first movie. As a salute to one of the greatest observers of his culture, here are two favorite Rogers’ quotes:

 A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.

Things ain’t what they used to be – and probably never were.

27gen is an invitation to a regular conversation about all things connected with what I call ChurchWorld and its attempts to interact with the culture around us. We all can certainly learn by reading; I’m a huge propoent of that! But we can all learn more by our “associations” with other people. I’ll start the conversation by tossing out a thought or two – why don’t you join in?

My background is from a church associate pastor role of over 23 years. For the past seven years, I have served as a church development consultant with JH Batten, a church design-build company. My current role allows me the wonderful opportunity to explore what churches are doing today to grow and be healthy, and to help them achieve their vision.

I’m a student of history, but I view it as a bridge to our future rather than a rock to cling to. Let’s celebrate the past and learn from it, but let’s not get stuck there. As Rogers observed, our view of history grows dimmer the longer we move away from an event in time.

My formal theological training came at a time when churches were expected to provide programs for everything and to involve members in hours of meetings and activities. I bought into that model full steam ahead – but to what result? Churches with all heat and no light? I’ve come full circle now, and am growing restless with the complexity and ineffectiveness of church today.

A former editor used the following Scripture passage from Proverbs 25.to describe my mindset. I think it’s an appropriate challenge for all leaders in ChurchWorld.

2 God delights in concealing things;
   scientists delight in discovering things.
 3 Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,
   the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.

                                                                                                                The Message

I’m certainly no scientist, but I have a burning passion to discover things that will help the church, the Body of Christ, grow spiritually and numerically.

You know – deep and wide.

 

The Bell Curve is Flattening…

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Seth Godin is at it again.

Godin’s latest book “We Are All Weird” was just released last week. As one of the most influential thinkers of today, I always eagerly anticipate a new work by him – and I was definitely not disappointed. Here’s a sample:

The distribution of a population is often shaped like a bell curve. For example, if you asked all the kids in a school to line up in order of height, the graph of how many kids were of each height would be shaped like the classic bell – you’d have as many 4 foot kids as 6 foot kids, and a whole bunch more in the middle at 5 feet.

Not surprisingly, this curve is called a normal distribution. It’s incredibly common in almost any phenomenon you look at (Internet usage, miles commuted to work, length of hair).

Something surprising is happening, though: the defenders of mass and normalcy and compliance are discovering that many of the bell curves that describe our behavior are flattening out.

 

Distributions of behavior remain, but as the anchors holding that behavior in place have loosened, the bells have spread, like a thawing ice sculpture.

There are now many bell curves, not just one. We don’t care so much about everyone; we care about us – where us is our people,  our tribe, our interest group, our weirdness – not the anonymous masses.

If you persist in trying to be all things to all people, you will fail. The only alternative then, is to be something important to a few people.

 

 

 

 

If you cater to the normal, you will disappoint the weird. And as the world gets weirder, that’s a dumb strategy.

 

Thinking for a Change

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I close Thinking Week by presenting the main points of “Thinking for a Change” by John Maxwell. Maxwell is probably my favorite author of pure leadership writings, and I have never been disappointed by his works. In this case, they speak volumes for anyone interested in developing their thinking.

  1. Understand the Value of Good Thinking
  2. Realize the Impact of Changed Thinking
  3. Master the Process of Intentional Thinking
  4. Acquire the Wisdom of Big–Picture Thinking
  5. Unleash the Potential of Focused Thinking
  6. Discover the Joy of Creative Thinking
  7. Recognize the Importance of Realistic Thinking
  8. Release the Power of Strategic Thinking
  9. Feel the Energy of Possibility Thinking
  10. Embrace the Lessons of Reflective Thinking
  11. Question the Acceptance of Popular Thinking
  12. Encourage the Participation of Shared Thinking
  13. Experience the Satisfaction of Unselfish Thinking
  14. Enjoy the Return of Bottom-Line Thinking

You can change the way you think.

Whatever things are true…noble…just…pure…lovely…are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; think on these things Philippians 4:8

 

Got Your Thinking Hat On?

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Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better.
-Edward de Bono
 
Dr. de Bono is an internationally acclaimed authority in the teaching of thinking as a skill. I’ve posted on his most famous book, The Six Thinking Hats, here. In this week’s ongoing discussion of thinking, I wanted to revisit his work briefly.
 
In “Six Thinking Hats” the author presents a simple but effective way to become a better thinker. He separates thinking into six distinct modes, identified with six colored “thinking hats”:
  • White – facts, figures, and objective information
  • Red – emotions and feelings
  • Black – logical negative thoughts
  • Yellow – positive constructive thoughts
  • Green – creativity and new ideas
  • Blue – control of the other hats and thinking steps
“Putting on” a hat focuses thinking; “switching” hats redirects thinking. With the different parts of the thinking process thus clearly defined, discussions can be better focused and more productive.
 
There are two main purposes to the six thinking hats concept. The first purpose is to simplify thinking by allowing a thinker to deal with one thing at a time. Instead of having to take care of emotions, logic, information, hope and creativity all at the same time, the thinker is able to deal with them separately.
 
The second main purpose of the six thinking hats concept is to allow a switch in thinking. If a person at a meeting has been persistently negative, that person can be asked to take off “the black thinking hat.” This signals the person that he has is being persistently negative. A person may be asked to put on “the yellow thinking hat;” this is a direct request to be positive.
 
By referring to the color of the hat instead of the emotion or perceived style, the concept of the hats minimizes the impact on a person’s ego or personality and allow for the possibility of focusing on one thing at a time – instead of trying to do everything at once.

 

Got a tough meeting coming up?

Make sure you carry six hats in!

 

 

 

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

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Continuing our Thinking Week, let’s move from the structure of Morgan Jones to the adaptive unconscious of the mind as depicted in Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book “blink“.

Gladwell weaves compelling stories as diverse as the uncovering of a fraud in ancient statuary to that of a classical trombonist auditioning for the lead chair in a world-class orchestra. The power of these and other stories in the book is that our mind has an uncanny ability to quickly make decisions that can be every bit as good as decisions made curiously and deliberately. So much for structure and analysis!

 

The problem is that our unconscious is a powerful force. But it can be fallible. It can be thrown off, distracted, and disabled. Our instinctive reactions often have to compete with all kinds of other interests and emotions and sentiments. Are we then not to trust our instincts?
 
Gladwell does an amazing job of laying out the case that the mind can be educated and controlled when it comes to making snap judgements and first impressions. Gladwell captivates the reader with stories that help us understand the power of instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously arise whenever we meet a new persons or confront a complex situation or have to make a decision under conditions of stress.
 
What do you think? Can there be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis?
 

Thinking About Thinking

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Have you ever thought about how we think? Since reading Brain Rules and the sequel Brain Rules for Baby, I have been fascinated by the thought process we go through to make decisions. Here’s a whirlwind tour of some great resources on thinking.

The Thinker’s Toolkit

Former CIA analyst Morgan Jones argues that the single most important factor missing from most decision-making processes is structure. Structure for him means a logical framework in which to focus discussion on key points, keeping it focused so that each element and factor of a problem is analyzed separately, systematically, and sufficiently. Jones goes on to say that humans tend to avoid analytic structure that because structuring one’s analysis is fundamentally at odds with the way the human mind works.

Human beings are problem solvers by nature. Yet in order to reach most solutions, we go through a process of trial and error. In all human affairs, from marriage to marketing to management, success is generally built upon failure. And why some failures are justly attributable to bad luck, most result from faulty decisions based on mistaken analysis.

Here is a list of some of what Jones calls analytic sins:

  • We commonly begin our analysis of a problem by formulating our conclusions; we thus start at what should be the end of the analytic process.
  • Our analysis usually focuses on the solution we intuitively favor; we therefore give inadequate attention to alternative solutions.
  • Not surprisingly, the solution we intuitively favor is, more often than not, the first one that seems satisfactory.
  • We tend to confuse “discussion/thinking hard” about a problem with “analyzing” it, when in fact the two activities are not at all the same.
  • We focus on the substance (evidence, arguments, and conclusions) and not on the process of our analysis.
  • Most people are fundamentally illiterate when it comes to structuring their analysis.

If we take a structured approach in thinking, the mind remains open, enabling one to examine each element of the decision or problem separately. The outcome is almost always more comprehensive and more effective than following our instincts alone.

Think about that…