Is Your Strategizing Akin to Penguin Mating?

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Do your team’s strategy sessions mimic the mating rituals of the Emperor penguin?

In his book Elevate, Rich Horwath parallels strategy meetings and penguin mating rituals. Horwath describes how once annually the penguin will waddle up to 75 miles for a few minutes of mating. Then the female immediately leaves.

In the same vein, many teams don’t talk strategy all year, but once a year, they go offsite and spend two days talking about strategy. Then, like the penguin, we waddle back to the office and resume “normal” life with the “real work. “ Sound like your team?

Strategy discussions need to happen more than annually. In fact, they need to be a part of your leadership team’s meeting routine. As Horwath points out, “Strategy should not be an event. Strategy should be an ongoing conversation.” Some of your strategy discussions will be short. Others long. But in either case, you need to have a systematic way of getting out of the weeds and discussing content that can guide and propel your future, strategically.

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Why a Multisite Model with Multiple Preachers

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What’s best for you may not be best for others. That could be true of the following philosophy from Brentwood Baptist Church. However, I wanted to share with you why when Brentwood Baptist chose a multi-site model, we chose not to have video venues, but instead to have live preaching at each campus. Perhaps something from our thinking will resonate as you consider your church’s future.

The multi-site strategy for us took two years of R & D and then time for implementation. A team studied, traveled, and prayed about what God would have for us (this hard work was done before I began serving here). For us, multi-site meant establishing both regional and ministry campuses. At this point, our five campuses are all within middle Tennessee. Each of the four regional sites is within 20 miles of our central campus (Brentwood campus), as is our one ministry campus. And for each of those sites, we have a campus and teaching pastor.

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Wins and Mistakes in Planning Sabbaticals

If you’re lucky enough to earn a sabbatical, you want to make sure you take advantage of it. I’ve taken a sabbatical, but most of my opinions about them have been formed by talking to other ministers who came back from theirs and realized it wasn’t maximized, or was used the wrong way.

As a free resource, you can view Brentwood Baptist’s documents related to sabbaticals, including these forms: Educational Assistance and Sabbatical Overview, Sabbatical Request, Sabbatical Proposal, and Sabbatical Report on my resources page.

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