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?
- 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.”
- 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.
- Understand people and their problems. But people change, which means you constantly need to be learning.
- 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.
hey there. Interesting short article. There is but one part of it that makes me cringe.
The “Church” (in America, anyway) has taken the “wow people…with a great church experience” way too far, and from looking around at ‘church growth’ this is snowballing bigger, in the name of Jesus of course.
People are mistaking emotion- and stimuli-laden productions and worship service pizzazz with the true enthusiasm (from “en theos”, literally ‘God within’) that comes from freedom from sin and the joy of the Holy Spirit.
To keep up with the other church Joneses, churches are dropping $20K or more on lighting and sound systems for these continually more elaborate productions. Productions that appeal to the senses (instead of men’s spirits)…while five people in their congregation can’t make rent.
In discussing this with other Followers, they have brought up Philippians 1:17-19 in the discussion.
I have responded with 1 Cor 3:10-15. The thought of justifying a $20M airplane for a megapreacher to “take the gospel around the world at 600 mph” concerns me. Deeply.
I cannot remain silent in this mega-church, “God wants us to grow” mentality in the Body, that there must be some “wow factor” involved.
We were not told to entertain people or conduct a PR campaign for Jesus. We were told to proclaim and to be witnesses.
I see the (American) Body increasingly fixated with productions, entertainment and human emotionalism.
Someone once reminded me of “I’ve become all things to all people…to win some”.
Got it. The missing link on that approach is what the newcomers believe the Body is a feel-good place where you wear a smile and everyone tells everyone they’re “blessed”.
Oh, and if you say the acceptable words, exhibit the acceptable actions and behaviors then you “fit in” and before you know it you’re being called a brother/sister in the Lord, regardless of whether your heart is struggling with anger, lust, etc.
This superficiality in the American Body terrifies me. It has proven itself empty and hollow to a transparent, wounded heart, and it is stunningly unattractive to people who have written the church off for years for being skin deep.
This comment is a generality, and there are exceptions and pockets outside its bounds of course. I simply speak from experiences and observations over the past few years.
John,
Yes, unfortunately sometimes ministries turn their focus to the wrong things. It is something that every ministry has to daily check themselves on. That is why I think that, as the above point #2 states, ministries must focus on Jesus and have a people mindset. If your focus is on Jesus and how to best reach people with the Gospel, you can’t go wrong. If you are doing this, than the “Wow” experiences are just an enhancement because it is done with sincerity and a love for God.
-Kent