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The Calendar Invite Was the Ask · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your associate pastor opens their calendar Monday morning and they noticed something new Sunday this Sunday 1030 posting and community and their name is on it.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody mentioned it last week.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: They mentioned it during the staff meeting.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a conversation about preparation or what else they're carrying, but nobody else knows about this Sunday.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just a calendar notification and an accept button.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And now they're wondering: hey, is this a request?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is this an assignment?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or something somebody thinks we have already discussed?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to talk about how we assign work, especially when a calendar invitation becomes the first conversation.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders at ChemistryStaffing.com, and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, scheduling tools at church are useful.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: They help us coordinate people and confirm details and keep Sunday from becoming a guessing game.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But they work best when people understand the expectations behind what appears on the screen.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Start with an important distinction.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Some scheduling is simply part of an established role.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if your associate pastor regularly hosts services and everybody understands how that rotation works, putting the next date on the calendar may be absolutely perfectly reasonable.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a separate negotiation for every ordinary responsibility.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders need to assign work and teams need reliable ways to receive those assignments.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: No problem.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The problem comes when the calendar introduces maybe something different.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a significant responsibility that you haven't discussed with them, or assumes capacity that you haven't even checked.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe hosting is familiar, but this week they're already preparing to preach.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe leading a parent meeting is new and they need information before they can do it well or even know where to start.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe an event falls outside their normal schedule and affects plans that you know nothing about.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: The calendar can show you an open hour, but it won't necessarily show you all of the work that that person is doing surrounding that hour.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the first thing to remember.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Schedule time and preparation time are different.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: A 20-minute presentation might require several hours of presentation.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hosting a service might include reviewing announcements and coordinating transitions and checking with different people and understanding a sensitive moment that you personally want handled very carefully.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when you assign the visible part, make sure that you account for the work that makes that visible part possible.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you may think that you've added 15 minutes while your staff member is trying to find half a day to figure out how they're going to get this thing done.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, make the nature of the request clear.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Are you asking whether they're available or are you actually assigning a responsibility within their role?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Checking whether they'd like an opportunity is different than assigning something.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're different conversations.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: If it's an assignment, communicate it honestly and give them a way to raise conflicts.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I need you to lead Sunday service, for example.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Before we finalize it, let's take a look at what you're already carrying and see if that will work and see what preparation you'll need.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's totally different than just sending them a hey, approve this.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: If it's optional, make that clear too.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something like, hey, would you be interested in leading this?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine if the timing doesn't work.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Calling something an invitation while treating it a decline as an attitude problem creates confusion that you can avoid.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And your staff needs to know what you're asking in what room they have to respond yes or no.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then number three, give them enough information to succeed.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: What example exactly are you asking them to be responsible for?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: What outcome are you looking for?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Who else is involved?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: When do they need to be ready?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You may already know the answers to this, but they may not.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You may have pictured the whole event in your head, and they may have six words in a calendar description to try and go off of.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: A short conversation can close that gap.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest enemies of communication in a church staff is email and texting, because it's easier to communicate in an email than to have a face-to-face conversation.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in church offices before where I go through and every office door is closed.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's on their email and their computer and they're they're emailing somebody in the next office rather than just going over and asking a question.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: For a familiar responsibility responsibility, a clear message may be enough.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's something substantial or unfamiliar or sensitive, don't just send that email.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just send that text or that calendar request.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Take time to talk about it.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then use the caption the calendar to capture the details so everybody else can find them later.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And make room for staff to tell you when assignments collide, when they've got conflicts, where they're double booked for something because of something that you sent.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody on your staff should be able to say, I can lead that meeting, but I'm also finishing the volunteer training that you asked for.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which one should take priority?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's useful information.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Responding well helps you make a better decision and it also teaches your team that raising a capacity concern is part of responsible work.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want people quietly accepting everything and hoping that they can somehow finish it all.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So here's something you can do.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: If this is an issue in your church, review the next responsibilities that you're about to schedule.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Look at all those calendar invites that you just want to get off your plate and stick on the calendar and ask people to do them, or tell people to do them, or ask them to approve it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself whether they're a part of an understood routine or whether they introduce something new into that person's workflow.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: For new or significant work, make contact, eye to eye, face-to-face, before finalizing the assignment.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Explain what's needed, check the existing workflow, clarify the priorities.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've already sent an unclear invitation, you can fix that with a simple message.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I put that on your calendar before giving you the context.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk through that about what I'm asking and see how that fits in this week.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you don't need a complicated process.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't start another process for this.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you do need clear expectations.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: You do need reasonable notice and a conversation when the work calls for one.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you add something to someone's plate and somebody's name on a calendar, make sure that they understand the responsibility that comes with it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope that has been helpful for you today.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Todd Rhodes.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the co-founders over chemistrystaffing.com.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any way that me or I or however I'm supposed to grammatically say that, or anybody on my team can help you in your healthy church initiatives at your church hiring, firing, compensation, succession, all of that kind of work is what we've given our ministry lives to.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Full time, a few of us here at Chemistry.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's any way that we can help you, reach out to me.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I always enjoy hearing from everybody.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you have a great weekend.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be right back here Monday.