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If your staff culture were a TV show, what would you call it?
Survivor?
Fantasy Island? (I’m dating myself)
Law and Order?
Or maybe,Who’s the Boss?
While we all wish it was The A-Team, we know that developing a healthy staff culture can be a challenge. Recently, I had the chance to interview Dan Reiland, Executive Pastor of 12Stone Church just outside of Atlanta, on a podcast I host. Dan worked with John Maxwell for 20 years. He said something to me that I didn’t want to hear (and you probably don’t either).
He dropped a quote by Dr. Henry Cloud from his book, Boundaries for Leaders: “Whatever culture, behavior and results you have, you’ve either created or allowed.” In other words, if I’m complaining about how unhealthy my staff culture is, I have myself to blame. Ouch.
While there are many ways to move forward and get healthier as a staff, if you’re anything like me, you can become paralyzed by where to start. Do we need a retreat? Do we need an intervention?
Let’s start with something that most of us have total (or almost total) control over—weekly staff meetings.
Dan uses a four-word staff culture model: dream, play, work and love. Here’s how you can incorporate these elements into your meetings every week—all the time remembering the kind of humility that Christ-like leadership requires (Philippians 2:5-11):
1. Dream (Sticky vision)
It is critically important that the pastor or organizational leader isn’t the only carrier of the vision. Often, visionaries tend to work in isolation rather than collaboration and emerge with articulate and inspiring ideas that eventually fall flat because, well, nobody else understands or feels like they own them.
Each meeting our staff begins with two critical components that reinforces our mission, vision and strategy as well as our sense of wonder at what God is doing in our midst.
Where did God show up? We spend significant time on this question (sometimes half the meeting).
Everyone is invited to share how they saw God at work during the week. Sometimes there’s applause. Sometimes there are tears. It’s incredibly powerful and infuses a sense of passion and purpose in everything else we do.
How has our strategy moved the needle on vision this week? This question helps land the passion into strategy and reinforces that daily tasks (that aren’t always very exciting) have a real-time impact on people’s lives.
2. Play
When I arrived at my church six years ago, staff meetings were all business. The problem? It did nothing to develop relationships. However, laughter and fun does that. As any youth minister knows, fun is the oil that greases the ministry engine.
Normalize laughter. We always have to shut the door of the meeting room because we’re loud… like really loud. The result? We are more productive and actually enjoy being around each other. Yes, struggles still flare up, but if there are real relationships developed, the struggles are easier to work through.
Celebrate wins. As a leader who’s always looking for the next hill to climb, I admittedly need to be very intentional about this. Your team will work better if you regularly celebrate the things going well. Whatever is celebrated gets repeated. So, you want to celebrate a lot whenever you see a staff member or team hit the bullseye on your vision.
3. Work (Shared learning)
There’s the work each staff member is doing—and then there’s the work you do together in the meeting. The shared discovery that happens when learning together is powerful. Jesus’ teaching method with the disciples was always about learning and doing. Unfortunately, most staff teams are so focused on doing, they forget the power of shared learning.
Dan Reiland’s method: pick a book, read a chapter, ask two questions.
4. Love
It may be that not everyone on your team gets along all the time. Sometimes words are miscommunicated or criticisms come in backhanded compliments and twisted conversations.
Our staff dynamics are very human, but love is the only thing strong enough to break through dysfunctional behavior. Jesus told us, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
Pray for each other personally as well as professionally.As you already know, it is tough to be angry with someone you’re praying for. Remember, you may be their pastor as well as their leader. Love them and show them what forgiveness, reconciliation and patience look like. Make that a part of your weekly meeting.
Stop trying to MacGyver your team together. It’s not about a new training program or task management software. Hoping your staff culture improves isn’t a strategy. Stop waiting for and start creating the kind of team you’ve always wanted.
Photo source: istock
 | Jason is a 30+ year ministry veteran, serving as a pastor, youth pastor, and national worship leader, presenter, and writer. He has a Master of Divinity from Princeton and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller, where he studied church revitalization, and is certified by The Great Commission Network as a Missional Coach. Follow on X: @JasonPastor |
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