The 5-Minute Synchronization Principle.
At the recent Catalyst conference, Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit,” related a news story regarding Starbucks. It seems that a teenage employee, at the end of a long shift, took great liberty to write what he thought of a customer on her cup instead of her name. Her name is Vickie. I’ll let you Google or use your imagination to discover what the employee thought her name should be. Duhigg showed video of the news report and then said, “How would you feel if you were the director of marketing for Starbucks and had just spent $200 million on attracting business when you saw this report?”
Pretty tough.
I was thinking about the church, or for that matter, Christians in general, or… Brian specifically. How often do I/we get caught up in the frustration of a moment or weariness of a long day and respond in a way totally contrary to the call of our Master? It happens. I’d hate to think we would write a name on a cup, but we can write it on a wounded soul with a simple look or word, and in our case, it isn’t money that’s on the line, it’s eternity. Far too often we lose sight of mission and vision in the course of a meeting or a day.
In Kevin Cashman’s book “The Pause Principle,” he highlights the “pragmatic pause.” The “pragmatic pause” is simply taking 3-5 minutes at the start of every day and every team meeting to synchronize mission and core values. It reminded me of every military movie I watched as a kid where heroes would synchronize watches. Of course today we know the importance of synchronizing technology, but I wonder how often we synchronize our minds around mission?
Taking this a step further I decided to write a synchronization statement that we will be using at C1 in the days to come. I’ll be reviewing it personally every morning and every team meeting I lead will start with it as well.
We are Chicago First Church of the Nazarene.
We are followers of Jesus Christ.
We exist in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and serve others.
Our core values are Faith, Family, Friendship, and Farther along.
We are intentional and incarnational in our approach to ministry.
We will be principle driven and Spirit led.
(Luke 19:10) & (Matthew 20:28)
We are part of that great mission.
Are you in?
Your statements may be different. This is where we’re starting. It contains the essential elements that are guiding us. Write your own and improve on it.
Whatever you're leading take a moment to synchronize your team.
Hope it helps.
Peace,
pb