Emergence Marketing highlighted a new study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit called Foresight 2020. It forecasts probable changes that may occur in the global economy over the next fifteen years. Two trends, in particular, that could influence the church are:

1. Personalization. Consumer markets, while still adhering to the importance of price and quality, will increasingly become focused on personalization. As the economy and society become accustomed to a custom lifestyle, personalization will not be innovative or special but an expected standard. Consequently, I expect the importance of creating quality, personal relationships within the church among members will be extremely high. Guests will also feel a greater need to make a meaningful connection when they visit a church. A society accustomed to personalization may reject a one-size-fits-all mass approach to reaching them. People will want and expect to be treated as an individual not a number.
2. Knowledge Management. The focus of management attention will shift from rules and processes to innovation and customer service. Instead of systems designed to manage a group collectively, management will be able to focus more on the individual. Again, this reiterates that Churches will need to be better equipped to meet people’s needs individually instead of relying on policies, procedures, or tradition. This means that Churches will also need to recognize the importance of innovation and creativity and learn how to nurture those traits in their staff.

Of course, much can happen in fifteen years. These trends may or may not become a true reality. However, consider what changes your ministry would need to make if the world does shift in this direction.

Food for thought.

Michael, the lead pastor of Oak Leaf Church, shared a nugget of truth yesterday on the importance of good communication. He writes:

One of my pet peeves is when I send out an e-mail or leave a voice mail or give an instruction, and nothing happens.  The person might have gotten the message, and might even be working on it.  Action may be happening, but I don’t hear anything.  What I would like is a quick reply, “Hey, I’m on it,” or “I can’t get to that now but will look into it next week.”  And when it’s done, I like an e-mail back.  It could be one word…”done.”

Part of good communication and an effective workplace is the ability to close the loop.  It’s not enough to say that something needs to be done.  We need to know who is responding.

Michael addressed this issue perfectly. Without proper communication, things are likely to fall through the cracks. The worst time to hear about a problem is Sunday morning before you preach. Train your staff to add response to their responsibilities. The communication will pay off.

This past weekend, Luke Wroblewski, an interface designer for Yahoo!, highlighted a number of conference reports recently published from Montreal’s CHI2006, a conference on human factors in computing systems.

A particularly interesting report is Scott Cook’s thoughts on innovation. Scott Cook is founder of Intuit, the software company famous for programs such as Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax. Highlights include:

• “The goal is to change lives so profoundly that people can’t imagine living without this.”
• “The only way to grow business is to have (customers) come back for more and tell their friends.”
• “Invention comes from mindset change.”
• It is “seeing what everyone else is seeing and yet thinking what no one else has thought.”
• “GO out to your customers first and design from that.”
• “Before you can walk a mile in someone else’s shoes you must first remove your own.”
• “Start with the user, then the problem, then design.”
• “Don’t do surveys which reinforce the company’s existing mindset, but get into the customer’s actual space.”
• “First: make it a great environment for (employees), then great for customers, then great for shareholders.”

What can the church learn from this?

1. Create a ministry that leaves an impact. If you “Wow” people with how much you care or with a great church experience, you will give them a reason to “come back for more and tell their friends.”
2. Focus on Jesus not tradition. Avoid a fixed mindset on tradition or any other barriers. Innovation requires a customer oriented mindset. Innovative ministry requires a people oriented mindset.
3. Understand people and their problems. But people change, which means you constantly need to be learning.
4. A great work environment is a key to effective church staff. The right environment nurtures creativity and leaves your staff happier and more productive. Ultimately, it creates a better church experience.

Further Reading:
View upcoming church conferences.

Walt Disney’s imagination has been capturing the imagination and excitement of others for decades. Why? He knew how to convert his thoughts into a great customer experience. Kem Meyer, Granger Community Church’s communications director, posted ten keys to a great guest experience derived from Be Our Guest by the Disney Institute.

1. “Know your audience. Before creating a setting, obtain a firm understanding of who will be using it.”
2. “Wear your guest’s shoes. That is, never forget the human factor. Evaluate your setting from the customer’s perspective by experiencing it as a customer.”
3. “Organize the flow of people and ideas. Think of a setting as a story and tell that story in a sequenced, organized way. Build the same order and logic into the design of customer movement.”
4. “Create a visual magnet. It’s a visual landmark used to orient and attract people.”
5. “Communicate with visual literacy. Language is not always composed of words. Use common languages of color, shape and form to communicate through a setting.”
6. “Avoid overload–create turn-ons. Do not bombard customers with data. Let them choose the information they want when they want it.”
7. “Tell one story at a time. Mixing multiple stories in a single setting is confusing. Create one setting for each big idea.”
8. “Avoid contradictions; maintain identity. Every detail and every setting should support and further your organizational identity and mission.”
9. “For every ounce of treatment provide a ton of treat. Give your customers the highest value by building an interactive setting that gives them the opportunity to exercise all of their senses.”
10. “Keep it up. Never get complacent and always maintain your setting.”

Of course, these rules are not limited to Disney. Your ministry can experience success like Disney by applying these principles. Fundamentally, it involves caring about people, learning about them, and clearly communicating to them not simply with words but also design, details, and well thought out systems. The November issue of Church Relevance’s newsletter also addresses the importance of communicating without words.