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| Engaged, Not Engaged, or Actively Disengaged |
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People naturally want to be successful, to feel at peace, to make a contribution; however, most are living below their expectations and their potential. Some are frustrated and merely living a life of survival with no sense of their strengths or their mission in life. Others have some sense of their strengths and mission, but their time, talents and treasure are not allocated in alignment with what they know about their God-given wiring and purpose. A small few are living life as it was meant to be lived: not only aware of their strengths and mission, but fully embracing both, with their decisions and resources reflecting their commitment to work in their God-given destiny.
Churches, government, employers, universities, and parents are not equipped to assist in strength and mission discovery or clarity to the individual. At best, fragmented solutions are administered to the masses; however, there are some telling and costly indicators this is not working, as discussed below.
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| Strategic Living
10% Vision, 90% Alignment |
Greetings!
JUST FAST-FORWARD IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT!
In my 25+ years in business and as a management consultant working with global Fortune 500 companies, family-run businesses, non-profit organizations and churches, I have witnessed first-hand the evolution of acquiring and serving customers, members, clients - the market, if you will. From the post-WWII era when companies such as Proctor and Gamble would market to the masses by talking to them via television commercials and other mass-marketing techniques to today's age of personalization, where nearly everyone has iPods, Facebook, Portals, Digital Video Recorders and Web-everything, people have moved to more personal forms of content delivery and communication. The one-size-fits-all approach is dead and has given way to customized experiences targeted at specific individuals.  The "age of personalization" is well underway and expectations are high. Sophisticated consumers want what they want, how they want, when they want. Web-access needs to be ubiquitous. Personal experiences need to be customized. And no one is willing to pay for less than that. In this issue, we'll take a look at how personalization plays into some of the non-entertainment domains of our life: our work, our church and even our very approach to life.
I developed this newsletter because I'm passionate about helping organizations and individuals a.) Understand their strengths b.) Have a vision and plan that maximizes their potential and c.) Align their resources in such a way they actually walk in their vision.
I hope you find this to be a helpful resource for your journey! |
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Control or Growth?
So how can churches create "fanatical brand loyalty?"  Pastor Rick Warren, in his book, Purpose Driven Church, states, "Every church must eventually decide whether it will be structured for control or structured for growth." He further states "If you release people for ministry and relieve them of the maintenance, you'll create a far happier, more harmonious church with much higher morale. Fulfillment comes from ministry, not maintenance." Churches focused on control are often consumed with maintenance activities - things that must be done to keep everything in control. Churches need to release people so that each of them can discover and walk in God's plan for their lives.
As a management consultant, I have worked with a number of churches regarding their processes, how they measure themselves, etc. From my experience, some church leaders would actually disagree with the above concept; that is, the purpose of the church is to release people. Steeped in tradition and often lacking leadership skills at the top, these churches often plateau in their growth early on. On the other hand, I'm pleased to say many other church leaders do in fact, agree with this premise of releasing their people; however, they are inadequately equipped to fulfill such a mission.
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All Customers Are Not The Same!
 In today's tough economic climate, any customer is a good customer, or so it seems. Sure, we all need more customers to survive; however, as the economy recovers, it would be prudent for businesses to recognize that all customers are not the same and in turn, to take steps now to right-size their costs to maximize profitability from all of the customer types they serve.
In reality, different customer types consume resources differently. Consider cell phone users for example. A technology savvy teenager expects a totally different set of functionality (i.e. texting, You Tube videos, Facebook access, etc.) than say a middle-aged man (i.e. I just need to call my wife to tell her I'll be late). Similarly, customers need different things from their suppliers. Some need consigned inventory, some need technical support, and others need special payment terms. You get the picture. There are costs associated with acquiring, providing for, serving and retaining customers. The key is to right-size the costs for those services in such a way that you charge for them, provide the best possible quality and only sell the services that the customer values enough to pay for.
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I'd love to hear from you on the topics presented in this newsletter as well as other thoughts you have regarding aligning our lives to help us realize our visions.
Consider forwarding this newsletter to your friends and colleagues by clicking on the "Forward email" link below. You never know who might benefit from this message.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Ron Swingle
Co-Founder, The Retreat at Hidden Treasure |
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