Corporate Skills for Church Leaders

June 29, 2007 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Religion 

Since getting re-involved in the church, I’m often frustrated at the general pace and tenor of church work.  (This is particularly true in our national conflicts, but I’m thinking primarily of local issues here.)  Everything is done VERY slowly, and there are far too many unnecessary interpersonal conflicts (conflict being a broad term encompassing everything from annoyance to lack of communication).  In the corporate world, the company would have been restructured and had its culture adjusted long ago.

It’s not even the case that the issues stem from differences between Christian values and capitalist corporate values.  Most of church disagreements are quite similar to corporate disagreements:  resistance to change, people having to have their input on a change, people just generally behaving badly, etc.

Some examples:  I’ve been involved in committee meetings where one person is allowed to dominate the discussion and consume all available time.  I’ve been involved in groups that forget important people (stakeholders) and push ahead with the obvious “right thing to do” without recognizing the opposition that is waiting.  We’ve all heard from a pew-sitter or even officer or leader who is upset that they were left out of a decision that “obviously” should have included them.  These aren’t even examples of malicious interference – that is even worse.

So here is my proposal – ALL church officers (deacons, elders, trustees, and clergy) and other leaders (non-ordained staff, committee leaders, etc) should have training in the following areas:

  1. Communications
  2. Conflict Management
  3. Project Management
  4. Change Management

When it comes to officers, the training need only be done once per term (or once per person letting the officer determine whether or not they need the training again).  For committee chairs and staff members, it should be done once per person.

Communications
A typical corporate Communications class consists of training in the following areas:   communications goals,  communications styles, bridging communications between people of different styles, roles and responsibilities within communications,  active listening, non-verbal skills, openness, cultural issues, and rudimentary conflict skills.  In the corporate world this tends to be a 3-day 8-hour per day class.
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Conflict Management
A typical corporate Conflict Management class consists of training in the following areas:  defining conflict, underlying causes, stages of conflict, conflict in teams, diffusing anger (and passive aggressive behavior), opening dialogue, conflict resolution (including compromise), and establishing a collaborative environment.  In the corporate world this tends to be a 2-3 day 8-hour per day class.

Project Management
A typical corporate Project Management class consists of training in the following areas:  stages of a project,  objectives, goals, requirements, deliverables, estimating, managing workload and resources, scheduling, evaluating risk, control of the project as it progresses, managing progress, project completion and closure, and rudimentary change management skills.  In the corporate world this tends to be a 4 day 8-hour per day class.

Change Management
A typical corporate Change Management class consists of training in the following areas:  determining the need for change, identifying and involving stakeholders, intellectual and emotional reactions to change, overcoming resistance to change, moving from fear to commitment to change, the importance of a change champion and leadership support for change, the importance of communications during change, change completion, recovery and rebounding.  In the corporate world this tends to be a 2 day 8-hour per day class.

Let me be clear – I’m NOT advocating that each officer be run thorough 12 days (and about $12,000) of training.  Most congregations already have people with corporate skills and many will have an actual trainer sitting in the pews.  I believe that officers and leaders need the rudiments of each of these skills.  These classes could probably be boiled down to a total of 8 hours of classroom and activity time, with external resources (your local church camp or conference center?) providing more depth on an as-needed.  I would assume (but I’m prepared to be told that I’m wrong) that clergy would receive training in these areas in seminary.

As Christians, we are expected to be in community and harmony (overall) with each other and therefore the willingness to improve our skills for working with each other and for God should already be there.  We just need to formalize the process of gaining those skills and doing our work more effectively.  And then let’s use the extra time and energy (no longer wasted) for prayer, time with God, or even more good works.

What do you think?

Disclaimer:  I have no relationship with Learning Tree or the American Management Association other than having taken their classes in the past.  Other trainers will provide the same training of comparable value.

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