At its last meeting, St. Stephen’s session selected and approved the implementation of two of the objectives of our strategic plan. There are a number of objectives for each of the main goals of the plan. These two were chosen because of their importance and also because the strategic plan requires us to go to a different model of implementing goals, the use of teams. Obviously, St. Stephen has used teams for various purposes for years; but the number of objectives in our strategic plan requires a massive and intentional use of teams, and so the session chose to start with only two to see what we learn from this process.
The two objectives the two teams are to address are: “the implementation of purely social events in homes” and “the development of a strategic communications plan.” The two teams have already been formed and have begun meeting. The session has directed them to complete both the planning and implementation of their objectives by the May session meeting.
There are many reasons why the strategic plan emphasizes the use of teams rather than committees to implement its goals. The easiest way to understand the difference is that committees set the vision and goals, but teams implement them. Committees engage in visioning, and teams engage in management–making the vision happen. Here are some distinctions:
- Committees have a large, over-arching purpose; teams have very specific, time-limited goals–basically, a team is “one and done.”
- Committees tend to have long-term members; teams have members who have signed on to work intensively, but only for a brief period of time–until the job is done.
- Committees are responsible to the hierarchy; team members are responsible to their shared goals and to one another, and so are often free to think “outside the box.”
- Committees are often comprised of elected or appointed members; teams are comprised of people who have the passion and interest to get the job done.
- Committees, especially governing boards, require members who are “proven;” teams are open to the participation of people who are unproven.
Because of their flexibility and short-term goals, teams provide opportunities for many people who want to serve God through St. Stephen, but don’t want to make long-term commitments.
Many committees have functioned for all intents and purposes as teams–e.g., the Future Committee, the Capital Campaign Committee, the Organist/Music Director search committee. And many committees have used team principles to implement their goals. For instance, the Worship Committee set very specific goals for worship education three years ago and temporarily doubled their size by drawing in new members who shared that interest. Likewise, the Communications and Outreach Task Force, a branch of the Membership and Communications Committee, worked as a team both to implement our churchwide retreat to Mo Ranch and later to initiate and implement this past year’s revamp of our communications strategy: different teams were created to update our website, to develop our email and mailer advertising strategy, and to work with the Future Committee to develop our tagline and rethink our brand identity (i.e., developing a new logo and making sure that this new identifier appears on all our publications). In each case, the teams were comprised of a handful of the same folks but also several people recruited just for that particular team.
The success of this approach in so many past venues solidified our consultant, the Rev. John Wimberly, in his assertion that the team model, which is so effective in business and the military, is also extremely effective for churches.
The two teams the session has created (so far) are responsible directly to session, since their goals are directly related to goals of the strategic plan. Committees are encouraged to use the team model in implementing their own work as well.