Changing Culture 2 of 4

In celebration of my first book release, I’m doing a 4 part series on changing culture in creative arts teams. Bringing any team to full health, efficiency and effectiveness is hard but rewarding work. During my ministry career I’ve picked up some ideas that help ingrain new cultural norms in a team, and they are included in my book, The Creative Arts Ministry Field Guide, which will be available in print and digital formats on Amazon.com starting July 24th. In part one, we talked about writing down team expectations in a guide that is distributed to the whole team, and giving constant reminders of cultural expectations in verbal and written communication. Here are two more!

Building Friendships

Through time spent in ministry together, working through creative and challenging service elements, and hanging out in the green room, I develop friendships with team members. Occasionally I’ll spend time with people outside of church ministry too. I have even had some of the extra rehearsals for Christmas and Easter services at my home. Once I had the whole team over for a picnic...60 people in my backyard! I am careful to encourage and build up team members through our weekly interactions in ministry. Through this genuine effort I built trust and buy-in.

Changing Slowly

I took months and even years to raise expectations in certain areas. I wanted to move the bulk of the team forward, and I didn’t want to lose too many people. I knew some wouldn’t be ready for high levels of expectation in a volunteer position right away, but if I gave them time to grow with the team many would come along. So even though I had clearly explained the framework of our ministry, I took my time helping people actually fit into that framework. I went softly and carefully. At first, I used phrases such as “I encourage you to...,” “it would be helpful if...,” “our team would shine if we all...,” encouraging rather than demanding. Later on, I increased the intensity of my statements, such as, “I feel strongly that we should...,” “I notice we’re not all doing...,” “let’s be sure to honor each other by...,” and the like. Finally, I would make a line in the sand, “this is how we operate...,” “coming late to rehearsal wastes your team member’s time...,” and “serving once a month is expected for all team members.”

More to come!