Stadia

You are currently browsing articles tagged Stadia.

Things happen

August 24, 2008 in Blogging, Life in General, Technology, Travel | No comments

I’ll make this brief.  My hiatus from posting was due to equipment issues of two sorts: my back and my computer.  The outcome for both was positive, but clearly took my focus off of blogging. 

When I went to Toronto just 13 days after surgery, it was with my surgeon’s blessing.  In fairness, however, he did say that four weeks was usually his minimum.  I feel that being there was absolutely essential, so I have no regrets for boarding the plane.  On the other hand, I now understand why Dr. White usually has his patients wait a full month before airline travel — especially the 5-hour-each-way kind of flights. 

The day or two following our return flight, I began to feel pains that were eerily reminiscent of the pains that sent me to surgery in the first place.  I was scheduled to lead Stadia through Strategic Planning (Session Two) on Monday through Wednesday, but I knew that would only make matters worse.  Tom McGlinchey graciously agreed to lead the effort, giving me a chance to take Naproxen for the inflammation and to rest for three days. 

The good news is that the plan worked.  On Thursday I returned to work and had my first physical therapy session and since then the pain has virtually disappeared.  I credit rest and a return to a healthy, back-supporting regimen. 

No sooner was my back on the mend than my computer went on the fritz.  No connectivity at all, either wired, wireless or even broadband to Verizon.  I was dead in the water.  With the great help of our IT team, I was actually put in a new ThinkPad T61 laptop on Friday, which may tell you what I’ve been doing for the last 36 hours.  Ah, the joys of reconfiguring a new computer. 

So, I’m back online in two important ways.  If you are in the habit of checking my posts (or have RSS feed), you may reasonably expect more stirrings of life from me.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Strategic Planning Fully Underway

July 2, 2008 in Provision | No comments

A key initiative this year for the Provision Executive team is to lead each of our subsidiary ministries through the process of establishing a 3-year strategic plan.  If you know anything about the genesis and development of our ministries, you may already sense that our boldest actions were more often event-driven than strategically informed.  Through God’s providence (and organizational protection, I’m sure), we have usually moved in more or less the right direction at these intersections of opportunity.  What we’ve missed is the discipline and benefit of prayerfully mapping out an intended strategic course in advance. 

Last fall Tom McGlinchey (CFO) and I took training from The Center for Simplified Strategic Planning at Michigan State University based upon an effective but streamlined approach made popular by Robert W. Bradford and J. Peter Duncan in their book “Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast!”  Even though Tom and I have both completed MBAs with practical work in strategic planning, this system gave us hope that we might actually be able to guide four business units (3 subsidiaries and the parent) through the full planning process in one year and live to tell it.

While strategy snobs might pull out their copies of Michael Porter’s weighty works on business strategy and cast condescending looks in the direction of this relatively short book and simplified approach, Tom and I were actually drawn to its bright lines and tight schedule.  In the time it might take the purists to define terms and agree on a methodology, our teams will be well down the road to a completed strategy.  Clear assignments, accountability for “homework” and a doable but agressive schedule keeps this approach from languishing.

In seven days together, divided into three sessions, we will walk this road with about 25 different key leaders drawn from our various ministries in locations of their choosing.  The latest round, from which I just returned, was with Stadia: New Church Strategies as we convened for two full days in Cincinnati.  With all the groups so far, the flow of energy and ideas has been surprising.   But then again, I guess that makes sense when people are given the chance to take out a blank sheet of paper and write history in advance. 

Tags: , ,