Efficiency

Keep learning about the community. 

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   “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”‭‭Hosea‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/hos.4.6.nkjv None of us want to be the leader that God rejects because we … Read more

Planning, planning, planning. 

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For last few weeks I’ve been wanting a standing desk. What is that, you ask? It’s literally a desk tall enough for a person to stand and work rather than sitting all day. So, last week I visited a few furniture stores and office furniture stores looking to price a standing desk. I found two … Read more

The Management Cycle

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“But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king,” (Nehemiah 13:6 NKJV)

“I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them; for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. So I contended with the rulers, and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their place.” (Nehemiah 13:10, 11 NKJV)
 
One of my personal goals as a leader for the new year is to delegate more. I want to empower others to do more than I could on my own. I must admit in the past when I delegated responsibilities I made the mistake of believing every person involved was a motivated self starter and I rarely followed up with them. The end result is many of those delegated tasks fell through the cracks. 

Nehemiah had a similar incident occur in his leadership after the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. He delegated responsibilities to various individuals to lead the administration of the temple. He left Jerusalem for a while and when he returned he found the responsibilities had been neglected. Nehemiah was then forced to make hard corrections where he “contended” with the leaders.  

Nehemiah’s situation is a good illustration for the usefulness of the management cycle. The management cycle is a set of steps that can help any manager or leader keep projects moving in the right direction. There are many variations of the cycle but the basic steps are Plan, Do, Check, and Act. Here is an example. 

  • If I delegate the leadership responsibility for managing our church website, I will identify a leader and team and make a detailed PLAN addressing who, when, what, where, how, and why. 
  • Next I will commission the new leader and team to DO the steps derived from our PLAN.
  • As they follow the steps I will need to periodically CHECK their work to evaluate their performance and success of the plan.
  • After each evaluation we will need to ACT by either correcting errors, or making adjustments to take advantage of new opportunities.
  • Then we can modify our PLAN, Do the new steps, CHECK our performance, and ACT appropriately again. The cycle continues.

In Nehemiah’s case, the PLAN and DO steps were implemented but the periodic CHECK was missing. The good thing is once he did check on things, he was able to ACT by making corrections. These steps apply to virtually any project or team management situation. Give them a try in your organization for situations where you need to delegate and empower others.

Time and Planning

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The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, (Nehemiah 1:1 NKJV)

And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. (Nehemiah 2:1 NKJV)

It Takes Time to Plan Well
In the Jewish month Chislev Nehemiah heard about the conditions in Jerusalem. He fasted, prayed, and planned. Four months later in the month Nisan he stood before the king, shared his plan in detail, and received what he needed to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. Let that sink in. He took four months to plan a strategy that allowed him to lead the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in a miraculous 52 days with ancient construction methods and mostly unskilled labor. 

The level of success we experience in our projects, events, and initiatives is directly proportional to the amount of time we spend in quality planning. Last minute, knee jerk, rapid fire planning causes us to lean more on talent than excellence. I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to rely on talent alone because deep down inside I know I’m just not that talented. Quality, strategic planning gives us the ability to position people and resources to make up for our flaws as well as take advantage of opportunities. 

What are some other advantages of time and planning?

Pick A Street

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Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. (II Chronicles 34:1-3 NKJV)

While on vacation in another city, I ventured out to pick up breakfast for the family. As I listened to the directions from the GPS I looked over and noticed I’d passed the restaurant even though the GPS voice was still instructing me to keep my current course. Staying the course wouldn’t get me there. I needed to change course. All I needed to do was turn off the GPS, and pick a street where I could turn around.

Judah was headed toward destruction with poor leadership from previous kings. King Josiah knew his country wouldn’t rebound if they stayed on the path of idolatry. They needed to change course and serve The Lord. So Josiah chose the path his people needed to journey toward their recovery. Beginning with himself, he did what was right in the sight of The Lord and walked in the ways of David, a man after God’s heart.

Then Josiah did something to make change stick: he turned off the GPS (poor leadership from previous kings) and stayed focussed on the change. He didn’t get off the path to change. He didn’t turn to the right hand or the left. .

Many of us see the need for change in our personal, professional, and public lives. If we think we’re going to do what we’ve always done, better than before and see significant change, we’re insane. Doing what we’ve always done led us to the need for change but it will never lead to change itself. We need to pick a new street and turn off the flawed thinking and guidelines that got us here.

What new path do you need to choose? What ways of thinking do you need to turn off?