All posts tagged Jason Fried

Delivering Happiness :: Q & A with Tony Hsieh, Jason Fried, and David Heinemeier Hansson

by Tim Schraeder on 09/07/2010 in Notes with 72 Comments

On Tuesday, September 7, Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos, stopped by 37signals office in Chicago on his Delivering Happiness Tour to do Q&A with Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson, and 37 other guests. I was stoked to be a part of the conversation! Below are some of my notes from the Q&A. Enjoy!

On writing the book Delivering Happiness:

  • Tony went on a retreat to get the book written.
  • Once I was in the mood to write it was easy.
  • The hard part was getting into the mood to write.
  • Tried alcohol, caffeine, RedBull, coffee beans in vodka, etc.
  • They just started a 3 month long bus tour hitting 23 cities to promote the book.
  • They’ve already been on the road for 11 days,  and have hit 4 cities so far.
  • The tour is more about the message, less about the book.
  • They are using the tour as an opportunity to see and learn about what’s happening out there.
  • They want to inspire and be inspired.
  • Learn more at DeliveringHappinessBook.com and DeliveringHappinessBus.com

Tony to Jason and David: One of the challenges of a bus tour is that there are 2-3 events per day. It’s like planning 80 weddings over a few months. The bus is like a startup. You guys are all about productivity and efficiency… what tips do you have?

  • Typically, we wouldn’t do a 3 month bus tour; we’d stay in 1 city for 3 months.
  • Everything we do is all about doing it the simplest way possible first.
  • Instead of taking on many possibilities, we take on the easiest one first.
  • Anything you do is more than adequate for people who want to get to know you.
  • Go as low-fi as you can go… add on extras only when you need to.

Tell us about what Zappos stand for, what makes it different, what is your book about?

  • Zappos has evolved.
  • It started in ’99 during the height of the dot com boom.
  • It initially all about selling a lot of shoes online
  • 4 years into it they had to figure out what they wanted it to really be all about.
  • They decided they wanted their brand to be all about delivering the best customer service
  • In 2005, they shifted to make culture their #1 priority.
  • Everything else would happen naturally with a strong culture.
  • As many companies get larger they tend to lose their culture.
  • At Zappos, they want to scale their culture to make it stronger and stronger as the company gets larger
  • Having a strong culture causes you to be very explicit about what people’s jobs are all about.
  • Your job is not a job you do, it’s a culture that is a part of what you do.
  • Making customers and employees happy is their thrust to deliver happiness.
  • Check out zapposinsights.com
  • They help other companies figure out their core values to build their own strong cultures.
  • What’s important is having a strong culture.
  • What separates good companies from great companies is a strong culture and a vision that has a higher purpose above money or profit.
  • By having a higher purpose you generate more.
  • Zappos’ higher purpose is about spreading the idea of happiness as a business model

How did you implement culture 4 years into the life of your business?

  • They had 100 people when they decided to make culture the priority.
  • It’s different than when you are starting from the beginning.
  • When you are at the beginning of a start-up everyone knows each other… it’s easy to know when someone isn’t fitting in.
  • It’s hard as you get larger to have a handle on that.
  • Tony used to interview everyone personally
  • Zappos established 10 core values as a means to establish and define culture.
  • The problem with most core values is that they sound like a press release and are incredibly lofty… you can’t tell the difference between a company and their competitor.
  • They aspire to have Committable Core Values.
  • They hire or fire people based on their values.
  • Core values are a way to scale culture.
  • Core values are a formalized definition of our culture
  • They are the DNA of the company
  • There are no leader birds in the movement… each bird has simple rules embedded in their DNA that allows them to fly in unison

What is 37signals take on all of this?

  • When you are small you can talk to almost everybody.
  • Lead by example
  • You can’t have the disconnect of asking people to do something and not do it yourself or show them how.
  • You have to set the best example
  • The trick of being a small company is that you have to learn how to do everything.
  • You have to get better at doing everything.
  • If you’re not good at what you are telling people to do it won’t work.
  • Small companies must be focused on efficiency; there’s no room for slack.
  • Half of their company is in Chicago half is in 10 cities around the world.
  • Now that they’ve built an office there is a more unique experience for people who are in Chicago, to keep balance and a sense of keeping everyone on the same page, most of their communication happens online via Campfire, even if they are sitting across the room from one another.

To Zappos: How do you manage the decision making process?

  • I [Tony] do as little decision making as possible
  • Decision making is pushed to the front lines as much as possible.
  • The advantage of that is that all of the teams are much happier.
  • Customers experience the consistent culture.
  • Zappos tries to align themselves culturally with all of their vendors.
  • Any place that has a distributive force makes it difficult to ensure culture.
  • Zappos has 2,000 employees… 1,000 in Kentucky and 1,000 in Las Vegas
  • Visit tours.zappos.com to see their office if you are in Vegas.
  • They send employees in both directions…  every employee has to see the packaging and shipping in action.

Jason Fried to Tony: You aren’t price competitive. What’s cool about that is that on the internet people go to the cheapest place. Zappos culture and service is more important than price. Was that intentional?

  • Zappos doesn’t offer coupons, etc.
  • They want customers to shop with them for service and selection, not the price.
  • They launched 6pm.com as discounted service site they offer but doesn’t have the same service, etc
  • Whatever doesn’t sell on Zappos goes to 6PM. It’s like an outlet mall.

To Jason and Tony: In Rework: you say failure is not a rite of passage, they you shouldn’t learn from your mistakes, etc. In Delivering Happiness, Tony says that we need to fail our way towards success.  Please explain!

Jason:

  • There is something to be learned from failure.
  • There’s a lot to be learned from success.
  • Not enough people focus on that.
  • If you keep focusing on what didn’t work you’ll keep learning what not to do.
  • Since everyone is talking about failure,  look at what’s working instead.
  • Keep doing what’s working.
  • You get better by doing something better each time.
  • It’s not a great way to learn if you keep looking at what you did wrong.

David:

  • Learning from your mistakes is an oversold idea.
  • Failing doesn’t mean you’re succeeding.

Tony:

  • There’s a difference between correlation and causation.
  • Learning from success can be hard because you could be learning the wrong thing from your success.
  • There are very few entrepreneurs who did their first thing very well to the point that it succeeded.
  • If people fail at something they can look at themselves as a failure.
  • Failure is part of the path to where you are going to end up.
  • It’s a necessary step in the journey.
  • Entrepreneurial spirit is about optimism and creativity.
  • Being an entrepreneur is like being MacGyver for business.
  • It’s never a question of not having a enough resources but not having enough resourcefulness.

How do you both feel about the issue of transparency?

Jason:

  • I don’t know what transparency really means.
  • Transparency doesn’t mean everything is available to everyone.
  • Some things are not people’s business.
  • It doesn’t benefit anyone. It’s like trivia. It doesn’t help.
  • It’s fine to give something away for free but you have to have something to sell.
  • Example: First Citywide Bank skit from SNL:

  • It’s only in the web industry where FREE is a qualification for success.

Tony:

  • One of the fastest ways to grow trust is through transparency.
  • Initially focus on being transparent with your employees.
  • Transparency gives every employee the feeling of greater ownership.
  • They livestream all employee meetings to the general public.

David:

  • There’s a lot of techniques for running companies and building culture that work at a certain skill.
  • Techniques and tools are different dependent on the scale. Advice can be very context-specific.

The service industry has a bad reputation… if you have a huge staff in customer service, how do you instill value in them?

  • It goes back to having a greater purpose.
  • They are building Zappos to be all about delivering happiness to the world.
  • The same tasks have different meaning and value to people.
  • There’s many ways to motivate employees [money, fear, incentives].
  • There’s a major difference between motivation and inspiration.
  • If you can inspire your employees with your higher purpose and values that match their own you can accomplish more.
  • Motivational incentives are detrimental to creative/knowledge-based fields.

To Jason: How did you decide to NOT take money from investors when you were starting out?

  • Fundamentally, it all comes down to your schedule.
  • Are you on you own schedule or someone else’s?
  • When you take money early on you are someone else’s schedule.
  • When you start something and invest in it yourself, you are on your own schedule.
  • 37signals started as a design company and now they do software… they choose to do what they do.
  • Being on your own schedule, deciding what you want to do, how you want to do it, etc is the best way to go.
  • Own your own schedule, don’t rent it from someone else.

Tony

  • Control and progress are essential ingredients in happiness.
  • Faster progress can be addictive.

David

  • If you do take money you give up control.

Rapid Fire Q&A

  • Slow down growth to build for the long term.
  • Most entrepreneurs have a strong bias towards fast.
  • Slow down growth by raising prices.
  • Focusing on culture isn’t expensive.
  • Be explicit about allocating attention to culture.
  • Implement your personal core values from day 1.
  • In the interview process at Zappos, they ask people what their top 5 happiest moments are in their lives. Those uncover your key core values.
  • People desire connectedness and being a part of something bigger than yourself.
  • Happiness looks different for different people.
  • Once you break even, invest as much as possible into your customers.
  • At Zappos, most money that would have been spent on marketing is focused on building the customer experience.
  • Customers will do their marketing for them via word-of-mouth.
  • Interestingly, people who spend the most aren’t the ones who talk the most.

Linkage

ECHO 10 :: Reworking Church Communications

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2010 in Church Communications, ECHO 2010 with 18 Comments

It’s always weird to post your own notes from your own talks, but here goes! I was incredibly honored to have the opportunity to have a breakout session at the ECHO Conference to share some ideas and thoughts that have been running around in my mind.

Thanks to all who were there and who tweets and thanks to ChurchJuice for sharing your summary of my talk as well!

Enjoy!

We Live in a Different World

  • It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the world around us is changing rapidly
  • With advances in media/technology along with the recent economic shifts happening, the world we are living in is a different place.
  • The world has become smaller as we’ve become citizens in new global community and as we’ve become tribalized.
  • The way we work and communicate has changed.
  • We are living in a new day and a new area and are literally seeing the world change around us every single day.
  • With every major cultural shift has come a significant move of God.
  • In Gutenberg’s time we had the beginnings of the Reformation.
  • In the industrial age we saw revivals and the birth of many of our modern-day denominations and church movements.
  • We stand as leaders in an ever-changing world with the unchanging message of the Gospel.

The church has never been more equipped to advance the message of the Gospel and we are living in the days of significant opportunity.

  • With that opportunity comes immense responsibility… we will be held accountable for how we steward the resources God has given us in a digital age.
  • We need to be people who are like the men of Issachar, who are able to see the times and know hwat to do are indispensable in churches that are growing and thriving in the western world
  • We are now able to go to places we’ve never been able ot go before and can literally take our message around the globe with the click of a mouse.

The challenge for all of us is that we’re leading in a time of change, and as we know, the church is often very slow and resistant to change…

  • We’ve got to learn how to lead up while leading from the middle and lead the church forward in communicating one of the most important message with clarity and conviction.

The world around us has seen that we’ve got to change to survive.

  • Seth Godin says “the factory has died” and economist Richard Florida talks about the fact that we are in a cultural reset.
  • The rules have changed.
  • In order to survive, we have to change.
  • We’ve got to change the way we work and stop holding tightly to the idol of “church as we’ve always known it’ and lean into the opportunity God has given us to extend his message to a world that is searching for authencity, hope and turth.

REWORK-ing Church Communications

No one Cares About your Church

  • People’s view of church in general is on a significant decline.
  • People don’t care because we’ve lost credibility and trust.
  • We’re all big fish in our small fish bowls
  • We’ve got to realize we’re not at the center of culture anymore.
  • The challenge is to show that we care, genuinely care, about what people care about.
  • This gives us an incredible opportunity to re-present the church to culture but it will be through focusing on the needs of our community and caring about what they are care about.
  • We’ll only have a voice when we take the time to listen first.
  • We’ve got remove the focus from our programs our needs and focus on people’s needs and the needs of our communities around us.
  • It’s only when we show genuine care that people will begin to give us their time.
  • We earn the right to be heard.

Know Your Real Competition

  • Your competition isn’t the church down the street.
  • We can oftentimes get competitive with other churches or look with envy at what’s happening over there instead of focusing on what God is doing right here.
  • Our competition isn’t other churches because were’ all on the same team.
  • Our real competition is the forces of darkeness around us.
  • Our competition are things that people give their time, energy and attention to outside of the church.

Forget Your Mission and Your Vision

  • Vision is important.
  • Without a vision people perish.
  • The problem is our vision can sometimes not be very compelling.
  • A lot of our vision is pretty bland and sterile.
  • It doesn’t motivate people to act.
  • Vision is picture of where we want to go and who we want to be.
  • Our passion is what truly motivates us.
  • So many people these days say “if your church ceased to exist what would people miss’
  • I’d say if you had to strip everything you do away to one single thing, what remains would be your passion.
  • Passion is what motivates people.
  • More than a vision we need a cause that people can be passionate about.
  • We’re a generation that’s looking to be moved and who wants to give ourselves to something.
  • In the Bible it says of Jesus, that passion for God’s house consumed Him.
  • There’s nothing we can be more passionate about and give our lives to than the church and the cause of Christ.
  • Your vision is where you want to go, your mission is how you’re going to get there and your passion is what will fuel the journey.

Technology isn’t the savior.

  • I know it’s odd to say that at a conference all about church media but it’s true, technology isn’t the savior.
  • The church has endured for 2,000 years without it and while I believe that it’s a significant oppporutnity for us, it’s not that end all be all.
  • It’s great that we are able to broadcast our services do online baptisms and communion and all sorts of things that create buzz and I do believe that those things are effective
  • BUT technology isn’t the savior, but we can use it to help point people to the Savior.
  • One of the great things that having chuch online does and what having an active social media presence does is that it enables you to take your message and your experience to people that you may never have the opportunity to connect with otherwise.

Be Inspired, Don’t Imitate.

  • One of the first glimpses we see of God and his character in the Bible is the fact that he’s a creative God
  • Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created…”
  • Creation is unique and God doesn’t create clones, He’s marked all of his creation with a sense of individuality and uniqueness
  • So why in the world can we be some of the most uncreative people
  • I think the greatest sin any of us commits in our work life is the sin of copying and pasting.
  • We all learn by imitating but eventually we find our voice.
  • It’s easy to copy and paste and sometimes you’re in a bind and it’s a quick fix
  • But the problem with copying is that it skips understanding and understanding is how you really grow.
  • Copying rips off the final layer and neglects the thought, energy, and intentionality that went on behind the scenes
  • We feel we’ve got an excuse because “we’re the church” and I do think it’s great that there are people and churches who freely share things they’ve produced… and some charge.
  • Your church is unique… you have a unique voice, DNA and call God has given you and our role is to cultivate God’s creativity and present our church and our message in a way that’s reflective of our context and community
  • Copying what worked somewhere else doesn’t mean it will work where you are.
  • This doesn’t just go for other peple’s work it applies to things you always do.
  • Don’t just rely on what worked before.

Constraints are a Blessing

  • I think I very common conversation at these conferences goes something like “we’re waiting for the budget to get that… we’re working on a new site… we’re going to change our logo…”
  • We get way too preoccupied with what we don’t have or are consistently thinking we need more than what we’ve already God.
  • Most churches are feeling the affects of the economic climate we’re in right now and have been forced to cut back our budgets and spending.
  • And honestly, I think it’s a good thing.
  • All too often we use what we don’t have as an excuse.
  • Your videos aren’t going to get better with a camera… the pixel quality may improve but if it’s a dumb video, it’s a dumb video.
  • Content is what matters most and having the best doesn’t mean you’ll do the best.
  • Having less means you’re forced to maximize and make the most of what you already have.
  • Constraints force you to be creative.
  • In our age of abundance it’s easy to rely on what we’ve got and less and less on seeking God for His divine inspiration.
  • Having less will increase our dependence on Him.
  • You don’t have to do everything you just have to do what’s right.
  • Less really does more.
  • Jesus fed 5,000 people with 2 loaves and some fish and had more than enough left over.
  • He can take our little and make it much

Flawed is the New Perfect

  • We are trained to not trust marketing anymore
  • We don’t believe what we are told at face value
  • We connect with real people and with stories
  • We feel closer to people when we know what’s going on behind-the-scenes in their lives
  • The movies, TV shows and music that we consume tend to show the down and dirty and a raw with emotion and authenticity
  • So why in the world do we try to wrap everything we do as a church up in a pretty package?
  • Life is messy
  • We shouldn’t be afraid to show our flaws.
  • There’s beauty to imperfection because it shows people you don’t have to have it all together to be a part of your church
  • It’s all about simplicity
  • Talk like you really talk
  • Use real pictures of real people who go to your church
  • Reveal things people don’t want to talk about
  • It’s ok to not be perfect because that shows you’re really being genuine.
  • A well produced, polished service will pale in comparison to raw story of someone who is on the journey of finding their faith.
  • We see how to do this most clearly in the life and ministry of Jesus… he told people, “come as you are…”
  • We say that but do we really show that in how we present ourselves?

Stop Speaking in Tongues

  • We need to be interpreters.
  • We have created our own language in the church subculture.
  • The challenge we have is that language matters.
  • Language is oftentimes our first impression.
  • Are we speaking in a way that people easily understand?
  • Does what we say make sense?
  • Are we creating easy onramps for people or creating barriers with our language.
  • It’s not about dumbing down the Gospel but making it easy for people to connect with and understand
  • Remember to have an outside set of eyes and ears.
  • Jesus was a pro at this, he used everyday terms and ideas to express some of the most significant spiritual truths.
  • We’ve just created our own language trying to explain it all.
  • Go back to the basics.

You Don’t Need a Marketing Budget

  • The rules of marketing have changed dramatically with the rise of social media.
  • It’s now more about what other people say than what you say about yourself
  • In an overmarketed-to culture, we do better off to realize that marketing is effective but only when it’s done right and oftentimes, we’re pretty bad at it.
  • Marketing is often expensive and the return on investment isn’t often very high.
  • We’re getting our message out there, like scattering the seed, but is it really taking root?
  • Everything your church does is marketing.
  • Your church marketing is the sum total of everything you do… it’s the experiences and interactions you have with everyone and your marketing team isn’t some people who sit around a table it’s the people who attend your church.
  • What other people say is what matters most.

Don’t Communicate, Curate

  • One of the most critical roles in any museum is the role of a curator
  • What matters most isn’t what’s on the wall but the stuff that’s not
  • You don’t make a great museum by putting everything on display, you make a great museum by saying no
  • The curator decides what needs to stay and what needs to go
  • In an age of information overload the discipline and tact of editing is an indispensible quality
  • We’ve got to learn to stick to what’s truly essential
  • We’ve got to pare things down until only what’s most important is left
  • We can always add more later, but it’s really about getting your core message, your core idea, the thing that makes your church what it is front and center.
  • It’s not about events or programs its’ about people
  • We’ve got the best message that’s out there and an immense responsibility to share it in way that connects with people
  • That means we have to sacrifice some good ideas for the great ones
  • That means we have to be actively engaged in the life of our church and listening and collecting stories
  • We need to shift from communicating to the intricate task of curating

Closing Thoughts

  • We have a tremendous responsibility and an incredible opportunity and it will require us all to think differently, look at the world around us with new eyes, to listen with ears that are open and to realize that we are all shaping the way the world around us sees the church.
  • We’re not geeks or techies, and what we are doing isn’t about being hip and cool and trendy, what we are doing is leaning into the opportunity that God has given us to communicate his truth to a world that’s desperate and seeking for answers.
  • It’s not about how many followers or likes we have, how many hits or comments we get or how many people fill our multiple campuses and online venues each week
  • It’s about true life change and people finding their story in God’s story.
  • We’re pursuing a holy calling and our labor and our work is for something so much greater
  • Communicating for the church is a big deal, especially in today’s hyper-connected world.
  • I hope we can REWORK the way we work and communicate so the greatest message that’s out there can be heard with clarity… that people might get connected to our church communities and ultimately, to Christ.

Huge thanks to 37signals for their inspiration and for the book REWORK!

I’m Speaking at Story!

by Tim Schraeder on 06/25/2010 in Personal with 8 Comments

I feel like this is the week everyone is talking about conferences. With so many to choose from, I’ve committed to attending [and blogging!] a few: ECHO, Story, and Catalyst. All three are incredible opportunities to expand your thinking, sharpen your leadership, be inspired, and get amazing insights from some of the best and brightest.

I’ve blogged a bit about all three but wanted to share some exciting news as it relates to the Story Conference… I’m going to be speaking at it!… kind of.

If you’ve been reading my blog anytime recently you’ll know how much I love the book REWORK. I think that Jason Fried and his team at 37signals are legit, and they are local, here in Chicago, which only ups their cool factor. Through some pretty random connections I’ve had the chance to get to know them over the past year or so. They are the real deal.

When Ben Arment was dreaming up Story this year and plotting the new direction it was going, focused on the creative class in ministry, one of the things I loved was that he wasn’t going after the “usual suspects” on the conference circuit. The lineup consists primarily of people who work in creative fields outside of the Church [which is great!], and I knew we had to snag Jason to be a part of the event.

Sooo… as you’ve already heard, Jason is a part of the lineup and he will be interviewed by none other than yours truly. I am beyond words excited about the opportunity.

I know many of you have been reading REWORK (and loving it!) and this will be a great chance to have a discussion with Jason and think about the ideas in REWORK through the lens of what we’re doing in the Church.

There’s many other reasons why I’m excited for Story, too… it’s going to be at Park [BONUS!], Chuck Swindoll will appear via hologram [that’s so Princess Leah and C3PO!], and the lineup is incredibly unique…

If you are a creative professional in the Church space, do yourself a favor and book your ticket for Story now. Tickets are going fast and I’d hate for you to miss out on what I think is going to be one of the most unique conference experiences this fall.

Hope to see you there!

REWORK-ing Church Communications

by Tim Schraeder on 03/12/2010 in Books, Church Communications, Principles, Resources with 40 Comments

Alrighty, here’s the fourth and final post in a series of posts inspired by REWORK.

If you haven’t been convinced to get a copy by now, you are just plan ignorant.

So since I’m a ‘church communications guy’ I thought I’d devote my last post some thoughts on REWORK-ing Church Communications.

Stop Being a Communicator, Start Being a Curator

What makes a museum great is the stuff that’s not on the walls. Someone says no. A curator is involved, making conscious decisions about what should stay and what should go. It’s an editing process. There’s a lot more stuff off the walls than on the walls. It’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what’s truly essential. Pare things down until you’re left with only the most important stuff. Then do it again.

This pretty much echoes my hero Kem Meyer’s mantra “Less Clutter, Less Noise.” If you haven’t picked up you copy of her book, get it when you order REWORK. It should be required reading for any church communications person.  PS, have you noticed the similarities between the cover of her book and REWORK? Great minds think alike.

Stop Sounding So Profeshional.

Sound like you.  Language is often your first impression – why start it off with a lie? Don’t be afraid to be you. That applies to language you use everywhere – talk to customers the way you’d talk to friends.

We’re a church for Pete’s sake! While we should have proper grammar and sound somewhat intelligent, we shouldn’t come across as being polished and sterile. Your church has a distinct personality and a unique style… let that come across in all of your communications. Toss your copy of the AP Stylebook and discover your own voice. [I intentionally misspelled professional.]

Marketing isn’t a line in your budget.

“Marketing isn’t just a few individual events. It’s the sum total of everything you do.”

Marketing isn’t what we do to get people to come to our Easter and Christmas services. Marketing is everything we do… from print, web, email, social media to individual encounters people have with our churches. It’s not something you control but it’s something you can influence. What is what you’re doing saying about you? What needs to change?

Forget writing Press Releases.

“If you want to get someone’s attention, it’s silly to do exactly the same thing as everyone else. Do something meaningful. Be remarkable. Stand out. Be unforgettable. That’s how you’ll get the best coverage.”

Last year we put on the Cultivate Conference. Over 400 people came from around the country for a day to talk about the web, social media, and communications and how they impact the Church. The event got coverage in the Chicago Tribune and NBC Chicago. And you know what? We didn’t send a single press release.

Say No by Default

“Use the power of no to get your priorities straight. You rarely regret saying no. But you often wind up regretting saying yes. People avoid saying no because confrontation makes them uncomfortable. But the alternative is even worse. You drag things out, make things complicated, and work on ideas you don’t believe in.”

We get asked to do a lot. Too much in fact, because “it’s all for the Lord.” Some of you may not have the freedom to say no as much as you want to, but as someone who is guilty of saying yes too frequently, I’ll testify that the consequences of saying no far outweigh committing to something you didn’t want to do in the first place. I think one work around to saying no is by offering options. Don’t tell people what you can’t do, but put the ball back in their court by telling them what you can do instead. [That's a nicer way of saying, "your idea is stupid."]

Good Enough is Fine

“When good enough gets the job done, go for it. It’s way better than wasting resources or, even worse, doing nothing because you can’t afford the complex solution. And remember, you can usually turn good enough into great later.

My friend Shawn Wood has written a lot about “good enough” and is wrestling with excellence and what that means in the church space.

We’ll never be perfect so stop straining to get everything just right. Good enough is fine. I think half of the things we obsess over are things no one would even notice. That’s not an excuse to get lazy but it’s freedom from worrying about being perfect. In the grand scheme of things a font or a Pantone color isn’t going to mean life or death, so stop killing yourself trying to get it just right. Most of the time our desire to be perfect comes out of selfish ambition or pride anyway. Yes God is a God of excellence… but He’s God, we’re not.

Don’t Commit the Sin of Copy + Paste

The problem [with copying] is it skips understanding – and understanding is how you grow. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding the all the layers underneath. So much of the work an original creator puts into something is invisible. Be influenced, but don’t steal.

The cardinal sin of church communications is our use of copy + paste. I’m not going to do the original vs recycled argument, but will say this much: STOP IT!  Churches are notorious for copying. For some reason we  feel we have permission and entitlement to copy, steal or imitate what’s not ours. Open source is great, learning from others is invaluable, but every church has a unique audience and importing what worked somewhere else might not translate in your context. You learn the most by doing things yourself. And, God is the author of creativity [Genesis 1:1], maybe if we spend some time with Him some if it can rub off on us.

Closing Thought…

Communicating for the church is a big deal, especially in today’s hyper-connected world. We have the greatest message that’s out there, and all too often we do a pretty poor job of communicating it. I hope  we can REWORK the way we work and communicate so the greatest message that’s out there can be heard with clarity… that people might get connected to our church communities and ultimately, to Christ.

“God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:14-16, The Message

This post was inspired by reading REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals. It’s an important book that I think should be required reading for any next generation church leader.

I’m giving away one more signed copy…? Here’s how to win…

  1. Tweet This: I just entered to win a signed copy of REWORK! Comment here and RT to enter: http://bit.ly/detxNp.
  2. Comment Below: With your Twitter handle [so I can verify you did step 1] and share something you’ve been challenged to REWORK in your church communications.
  3. Check back at 5 PM CST Friday: I’ll randomly choose someone to win!

Congrats to @TonjaC… you snagged the last copy of REWORK!

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