September 28, 2009  

Practical Tools
Vern Sanders

Re-learning Timeless Lessons

Reflections on the Creator Secret Project
Sometimes you have one of those moments when, as in the proverbial cartoon characterization, the lightbulb goes on over your head. Sometimes, as with a language, you learn something gradually...growing into comfortable realizations and knowledge. In the course of the development of the Creator Secret Project, I have re-learned a lot of things that I had known and/or discovered earlier, and/or in different contexts. I believe they apply to the practical aspect of church music and worship ministry, so I thought I'd share them with you...in no particular order.

Know the End before you Begin

...also known as "measure twice, cut once." Another example of this is the amount of time a professional painter will spend in prep, compared to the actual time spent painting. The first time I heard this and had it make an impression, was in reading Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book. It is an axiom that proved invaluable for this project. Before we started, an incredible amount of time was spent thinking about what the project would look like. When the time came to do the work, most of it became just a matter of solving logistical problems. Although the temptation was to "dive in," we were more efficient in the long run by thinking through the problems in advance.

It ships on Tuesday

Shortly before I purchased the magazine, I had a conversation with a friend about my intentions. I'll never forget his words: "You know the most important thing about Time magazine? It ships on Tuesday." What he meant was, like a weekly worship service, the content, design, and readiness of the component parts have to be ready when the "go" deadline arrives, whether they are ready or not. It is important to keep in mind that, in any project, "perfection" seldom is possible. I know that some projects can be held until they are absolutely ready, but sometimes that perfect project becomes moot because circumstances change while the perfection is being pursued. As I learned from my music publishing partner, who was a printer, in printing there is a very clear choice to be made. That choice is summed up as follows: You can have your project quick, cheap, or good. But you can only pick two.

The Creator Secret Project may never be perfect, but we are close to making it public because, as one of our beta testers told us: "Amazing, simply amazing, and a brilliant idea." Instead of tweaking it forever, we're going to make it public as soon as we can. (By the way...the headline of this section refers to Time magazine's deadline, not the secret project release.)

Fill Your Team with People Who Have Skills That You Don't

That's a bit awkward, but I'm sure you understand what I mean. Because of the complexity of what we were trying to accomplish, we needed a set of specific skills. I recognized quite early on in the process that without adequate help in a number of areas (legal, marketing, etc.), the project would either be slow to progress, or fail entirely. As a result we assembled a team that had the specific skill set that we needed, and they were empowered to get their "piece" of the job done in the best way they thought possible. They all have performed brilliantly, in my opinion, and I simply could not have done it without them. The lesson here, as Hugh Ballou is wont to say, is hire people who can do things you can't.

Plan for the Unexpected

When we made the technology decision, we made some assumptions, based upon what the technology "sales team" told us. What we discovered was that they were answering the question based upon their own assumptions, and we weren't asking the correct quesion. This is not a huge problem, but we discovered the "we're talking apples and you're talking oranges" problem pretty late in the game. The lesson here is that no matter how well you plan, there is a direct correlation between the complexity of the project (and the finances at stake) and the amount of time it takes to complete the project. We allowed for a "fudge factor" in our timetable, fortunately, and we are close to meeting our deadline (see "ships on Tuesday" above).

The flip side of this is that as we began to talk with some key industry people, we got an unexpected response, which boiled down to: "can we play too?" As a result, what started out as a fairly self-contained project has grown into something that we could never have conceived of when we began. This is good news...for us, of course, but also for those of you who are reading this. As a result of the industry response, our project will serve more people, and have a much wider impact than we intended. That's all good.

Start Marketing Sooner than you Think you Should

This is the proverbial chicken and egg. Our marketing people have been leading us through this, and the viral buzz has been very good. But marketing, it turns out, is a 360 degree proposition. Had we started one particular aspect of the marketing sooner, it would have made a significant difference in a key area of the project. I first heard this bit of knowledge when I was in the army, and asked my drill sergeant why he kept repeating things. He said (and I'm quoting exactly): "Son, the army has figured out that ten percent of the people never get the message. We're just trying to keep people from dying." The lesson here, and you've heard it a thousand times before, is over communicate. I'll repeat: over communicate. Just to make sure you got it, what I'm saying is: over communicate. Did you hear me say: over communicate? Are we all clear? Over communicate. 'nuff said...

Conclusion

Whether your music/worship ministry is a "one person shop" or a huge department, there are things that you have learned over time that can get lost in the day-to-day exingencies of deadlines and crises. Take some time to re-apply what you've learned in an intentional way. My experience is that it really helps.   

Final Thoughts