Category: Meetings

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Brainstorming Leadership Meetings Productivity

Enabling the Impossible

It’s only impossible until it’s done”, words attributed to many including Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.

On a Thursday morning in January 2022, 24 ministers, elders and others from within the ITsForMinistry Facebook group meet on Zoom for a Conversation triggered by some of Seth Godin’s thinking around Leadership always being qualified by ‘this might not work’.The Seth Godin’s Video which all had watched prior to the conversation was this one:

The recording of the conversation is available to those within the FB Group. If you are not already a member there you can request to join. (There are a few simple questions including commitment to the group rules which must be completed)

The Practice

Following the conversation a number of the group have committed to reading Seth Godin’s The Practice and to meet regularly to discuss its content and to encourage one another in our practice in the context of ministry.
Details are in the FB group if you are interested in joining in.

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General Leadership Meetings MS TEAMS Productivity Saw Sharpening

MS Teams – Notifications

Are you getting too many notifications on TEAMS… or too few… or just the right amount? Take control of what notifications you receive and how…

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Change Leadership Meetings Productivity Video

Respond don’t React

In our fast paced world when communication can be instant there can be the temptation to react swiftly with an email reply. Remember though the slightly older technology that facilitates full duplex synchronistic conversation – the telephone – and its modern counterparts the Voice call or video call. You can engage much better, reach a full solution rather than just the next step… and there’s less opportunity for misunderstanding.

See also: Before you click SEND, think TRACKS

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Change Ecumenism General Leadership Meetings Productivity

Co-create! Get everyone on board!

“We need a sense of ownership.” How often do we hear that – or say that.

BUT, We tend to own things that other people create!

Authorship is better – get everyone involved – all the stakeholders in from the beginning – have everyone involved in co-creating the project, plan whatever.

And when we set up an event, have it all planned and then invite neighbouring congregations and denominations don’t give yourself an ecumenical clap on the back – it’s maybe welcoming and friendly… but true ecumenical working gets together from the start!

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Brainstorming Change General Meetings MindMapping

Kipling Questions

I keep six honest serving men,
they taught me all I knew.
Their names are What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who

from The Elephant’s Child, Rudyard Kipling

Six Questions to ask about anything and everything?

Kipling Questions: What, Where, When, Why, Who, How?

Use them to brainstorm on your own or with a group

  • What? is it, could happen, would happen if…
  • Why? Why, Why is, does it have to be…
  • When? is the right time, do we start…
  • How? can we do it, will it be achieved…
  • Where? should this happen, is best, are the target audience…
  • Who? is involved, are we involving, excluding…

Further reading:

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Change Leadership Meetings MindMapping Productivity Saw Sharpening

Mind Map Everything!

Today 2nd June 2020 is World Mind Map Day! I’ve been an avid mind-mapper since the mid 1980s. During University studies which weren’t going too well, discovering mind-mapping transformed me from being on the brink of being ‘chucked out of Uni’ to turning in a piece of work to a lecturer who always said he marked out of 75% – and getting a 76%! It was a turning point in life! I completed the degree, and was able to help some other students to realise their greater potential too.

35 years on, I still mind map everything. Sermons, agendas, reports, shopping lists, brainstorms, decision making and so much more. It just works for me, it’s a brilliant thinking tool, mirroring the way the brain naturally works – making connections, linking ideas and keeping the big picture overview literally in mind.

www.tonybuzan.com is the go to place for all things mind mapping!

TED Talk: Hazel Wagner, explains mind mapping.

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Meetings MS TEAMS Productivity Video Conference

Microsoft TEAMS Video Training

Helpful Training Videos for Microsoft TEAMS – click the box below.

Microsoft TEAMS Video Training – from Microsoft
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Change General Leadership Meetings Productivity Saw Sharpening

6 Thinking Hats

Are you thinking well?

When thinking about anything, whether on our own or in a group, we tend to have a variety of different kinds of thoughts. There are gut feelings, positive ideas, and the cautious constraints, there are thoughts about the process of thinking, creative alternative solutions may pop up and there are the evidence based hard facts. All together in an often confused chaotic way.

Edward de Bono, who coined the phrase ‘lateral thinking’, also brought us the phrase ‘parallel thinking’ – the idea that we think best when we focus on one kind of thought at a time. So whether on our own or in a gathering with others, we can metaphorically put on each hat in turn – perhaps revisiting some along the way… and process all the positive benefits of an idea… and then all together consider the constraints and all the reasons that it will never work… and so on…

Six Thinking Hats
Six Thinking Hats

If you google Six Thinking Hats you will get loads of info…