{"id":981,"date":"2024-04-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/?p=981"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:20:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:20:51","slug":"core-four-innovate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/core-four-innovate\/","title":{"rendered":"Core Four: Innovate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2023 we placed a major emphasis on our Core Four \u2013 the four core behaviors we want to see in all New Day staff. Last year we shared what the core four was and gave out prizes to help reinforce the behaviors we wanted to see. Now unfortunately, we can\u2019t keep the prize wheel going, but I do want to keep the momentum going, so this year I\u2019m going to cover one of our core four each quarter. And today we\u2019re covering \u201cinnovate,\u201d which is the sequel to \u201ceducate<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We educate ourselves by reading books, listening to audio resources, getting wise counsel, doing site-visits, joining coaching networks and attending conferences. But what\u2019s really important to me that you understand is this: Educating ourselves isn\u2019t the end goal, rather the means to the end.<\/strong> And the end is that all our learning would result in innovations (defined for our purposes as positive changes) in the area we lead. Think about it, what good is educating yourself if you don\u2019t then take all you\u2019ve learned and use it to bring about positive changes? And understand, this happens all the time! So much so, that God felt it important to address this very issue, which He did through the apostle James, saying \u201cDo not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.\u201d (James 1:22 NIV84) Here we learn that it is actually commonplace for people learn and then do nothing with what they learned. And the same is true of our PD. It is not a given that you will learn and then innovate, which is why we\u2019re doing this lesson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So again, the end goal is not to have learned, rather to take what you\u2019ve learned and use it to bring about innovation. Let me illustrate\u2026Last year, for educate I attended 1 conference, did 3 site-visits, received coaching from 4 different sources, sought wise counsel at least 26 times, and read 30 books. But again, doing all this learning wasn\u2019t the end goal, rather the means to the end. And the end was that all my learning would result in innovations (me bringing positive changes) to our church. Now won\u2019t permit me to cover all<\/em> the positive changes that resulted from my PD, but let me share three\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Wooden Nickels.<\/strong> Having realized from my PD that I needed all staff focusing on the right<\/em> things, I clarified the four most important things for everyone to focus on, and additionally created a way to celebrate everyone doing these four things, knowing that \u201cwhat you celebrate, you duplicate.\u201d So the wooden nickels were my innovation, the \u201cpositive change\u201d that resulted from my PD. It was a good thing – a positive thing that all the staff got focused on the right things – so this was an innovation. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Clarified Executive Responsibilities.<\/strong> A lot of my reading in 2023 was on the role of senior leadership. And from my PD I learned that senior leaders need to 1) focus on making a small number of big decisions vs a big number of small ones, 2) work on what is long-term vs what is short-term, 3) work hard at making great hires, 4) need to monitor the key metrics that are indicators of organizational health, 5) need to work on funding the vision, 6) need to work on building and maintaining a healthy culture, and 7) need to communicate direction and priorities clearly. So I retooled both our DLT weekly strategic as well as our DLT off-sites to better focus on these<\/em> things. This was my innovation, the \u201cpositive change\u201d that resulted from my PD. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Created a strategic way for us to be organized that will scale as we add locations. <\/strong>The previous way we were organized worked great for one location, and didn\u2019t work at all for more<\/em> than one location. So that\u2019s part of why I sought wise counsel 26 times. I had to ask other multi-site pastors how they<\/em> were organized so that I could see how we<\/em> should be. And it was one of those interviews that gave me the basic framework for how we\u2019re now organized. We had to tweak it, but it gave us a great foundation to build on. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Now here\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping you\u2019re seeing from these examples\u2026Educate led to innovate.Again, professional development isn\u2019t the end, rather the means to the end<\/strong>, with the end<\/em> being you bringing positive changes to the area(s) that you lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    DISCUSSION QUESTION: Ok, let\u2019s break into groups and I\u2019d like everyone to share two things: 1) What you\u2019re learning right now and 2) What positive change(s) you\u2019d like to bring to your department(s) based on what you\u2019re learning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In 2023 we placed a major emphasis on our Core Four \u2013 the four core behaviors we want to see in all New Day staff. Last year we shared what the core four was and gave out prizes to help reinforce the behaviors we wanted to see. Now unfortunately, we can\u2019t keep the prize wheel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-staff","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mike","author_link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/author\/mike\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}