Borrowing from the World or being Strategic?

After a long hiatus I am back to my doctoral research.  There were a few times over the past year when I felt like giving up.  I am inspired by a college roommate who recently successfully defended his dissertation after long years and personal struggles.  He might not think he is an academic inspiration but he is. :-)

So what did I do on a mild Saturday morning beginning a week of vacation?  I met with one of my research congregations for a three hour visioning and operational structuring meeting.  Yes, it was a good meeting and I learned a lot.  Coincidentally, I have spent a lot of time recently engaged in workplace strategic planning processes.  Several of the processes and activities discussed in the church meeting were similar like SWOT analyses and Balanced Scorecards.  Secular strategic planning theory and practices are increasingly being used by church organizations, as well as theories about marketing, media, and communication.  These are not without controversy, and the churches I've met with who have taken this direction are very conscious that they are not businesses like Harvey's or The Bay, or even service groups like the Kiwanas.  They are very concerned with remaining faithful.

On the long bus ride home I had time to think about what might make a church process different from a corporate process.  I thought of three possible differences:

1. The meeting began with prayer.  At one critical junction someone asked "do we need to stop and pray before we vote." 
   
   I believe that my respondents saw this as more than a religious formality; they invited God into their process.  I've previously blogged about prayer in information seeking.  Whether you believe in the active involvement of a God in the activities of people (I do) or not, the participants in the churches I have studied do believe in it.  This will affect the process adding both weight (God is among us) and expectation (God leads us).
2.  A church is predominately a volunteer organization.
   
   Are paid employees more or less motivated to engage with the organizational vision than volunteer staff?  I think it would make a difference.  Larger churches do tend to have a number of salaried staff, but in few cases are these positions well paid.  They aren't there for the money; staff and volunteers are largely motivated by a sense of calling to the work of the organization.  Is the level of "buy-in" the same for corporations?
   
   
3. A vision rooted in faith is very powerful.
   
   Employees of corporate organizations may have strong service ethics, lofty ideals, and the desire to pursue excellence.  These would all inform their visioning and strategic planning.  But when a vision is rooted in one's personal faith how does that change things?  One of my former directors used to say when we would get riled about something "It is only a library, nobody will die."  She was not saying what we were doing was not important or necessary but that we had to put things into perspective.  By contrast when someone says they believe in the eternal spiritual results of the work of the church in people's lives, how does this re-shape how we view the guiding vision and planning of the church?  This certainly came through in the church meeting I attended.

This is worth exploring deeper, and I have a strategic planning trainer friend who will be getting a visit from me soon as I wrestle through this. :-)

As Dilbert is the final authority on strategic planning I will let him have the last word.  May none of our strategic planning processes be like this.

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