It’s been said that employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers. Employees don’t quit jobs or managers. Employees quit employment, the bartering of their time and energy for monetary resources.
Churches are a voluntary organization, people choose to be there or not. Why is it that millions of people willingly give hours of their time every week to attend worship, to serve at church and to serve their community? Why is it that across the world individuals chose roles where they are paid below market value to give of themselves in demanding jobs? Why don’t they quit when the challenges come, when the reward seems small, when the pay isn’t enough?
People don’t quit ownership and purpose. When they are co-owners, pay is secondary, time is an investment, and they chose to stay.
It’s not only churches that are voluntary organizations. All good teams should be seen as a voluntary association. Lovett Weems writes, “The best people working as paid staff in an organization are like volunteers in that they probably could find good jobs many places, but choose to work in your organization.” How do you create an organization of owners rather than an organization of employees, members or donors? You do it by giving them the vision, the framework, and the language to join in owning the mission and vision of your organization.
Strategic planning tends to be top down. There is a vision, a project and a plan. The plan is executed. In an ideal world success results. This world isn’t ideal, it’s not static, and people don’t give sweat and tears to projects. They give sweat and tears to invest in purpose, to be co-owners of an organization and a mission.
Strategic Framing is designed to build the framework to develop ownership. It’s setting up the scaffolding, giving them the materials they need, and helping them capture the vision of working together.