Evaluating programs, practices, people and promotions should be an ongoing process. Evaluating meetings, events and activities can be done in just a few minutes. One of my favorite exercises is the “10 finger” technique where one has participants raise their hands and use their fingers to vote, asking questions such as “On a scale of 1-10 (10=very), how energizing, meaningful, or productive was our time together?” I usually follow up with the question, “What changes could we make in order to make it a “10?”
The “Pulse/Delta” exercise also works well for evaluating people, programs and processes. Simply make two lists, one asking participants to list in the Plus column responses to the question, “What’s working or what went well?” On the Delta side, ask participants to list possible changes that could be made to improve an event, a person’s effectiveness, etc.
When’s the last time you evaluated your staff our Leadership Team meeting? worship service? annual meeting? website? How might you benefit from inspecting more frequently in order to get better results? Where would you begin this evaluation process in your congregation?
We mostly have questions emailed or mailed to congregation members that they can answer on a 1-5 scale (5-being most effective) and give us feedback. We also recently purchased a tool called “Survey Monkey” where we can post questions on our website and it polls the answers given. We haven’t used it much yet, but are working on making it more useful.
Good stuff Jim
Jim: Hope this gets to you. I have tried to email you on several occasions and they return “undeliverable.” One of these returned was from when I hit reply to your email. I don’t know if you got the Constitutional Directives and 5 Goals I sent or not. If you have sent me any docs, I have not received them. Please reply so I can get back on track with our communications. Thanks! Ken
When I worked as a hotel manager, the company had a mantra of ‘Expect what you inspect’. That what you inspect and evaluate on a consistent basis will become what you expect. Your attention is on it and thus everyone will work to improve it.
I think they key is to make it a part of everything you do. Whether it is a simple look at the good, bad and ugly from the event you just completed or sitting down at staff meeting and talking about what went well during worship. I think too often in the church we may be unwilling to point out the bad stuff. We think we may offend or that we will not be supportive. I think that we do an even greater disservice to people and organizations when we fail to provide the critiques that are necessary for improvement.
I appreciate the blogs on this site very much! It’s great to get a reminder of the importance of evaluation, as that too often is left by the wayside. In a kind and neighborly way, though, I also wish to remind you that your heading uses the possessive incorrectly…. should be “gets.”