Or perhaps the question right before this one is whether or not you “ideate” at all…
I study Google, a lot.
They are innovators and even though they may have some strange practices in terms of product rollout, product development, and the process by (or through whom) they vet their new apps they continue to inspire and change the way we do stuff online.
I especially love it when a news source is given access to their “lair” and shares with the masses their findings in terms of “how they do” what they do.
CNN recently had a look into their Google Lab’s and how a number of the Gmail ideas have been birthed.
I think there are 4 takeaways that ministries and organizations should consider in terms of how they vet new web technologies and how to create a culture where technological-ideation can occur unhindered:
1. Options
Google makes it “optional” for their engineers and staff to work on Gmail Labs’ ideas. They don’t have to. Forcing ideation and innovation is probably the worst thing to do.
2. Freedom
As a natural result of the “optional” strategy births the free air of freedom for the engineers. They let their imaginations run and the sky is the limit. Sometimes you just need to be given the ‘green light’ to dream in terms of how web is done for your ministry. Give people the authority and freedom to do so.
3. Promote and Reward
The best ideas get rolled up into a real product. That’s some kickbutt job satisfaction. It means that Google trust their engineers, shows them that they are valued, and the ultimate high-five is when they promote the best ideas into the actual application.
4. Good Feedback Loop
“The best thing you can do is to put your product and team in a position where you can move fast and get feedback from users to find out what sticks in the marketplace.”
Get a good feedback loop going on with staff and with members. Ideation is good, but group-ideation may in fact be better.
So… Does Your Ministry…
Does your ministry have a culture of technological-ideation? What needs to change or stay the same? Is this even a value for your ministry?
[Image from Alice]
Jim says
working on it…slowly
Anna Meadows says
Yes! LifeChurch.tv takes "using technology" to spread the gospel to the next level! They are always thinking about how they can leverage the web to take the goodnews to unseen places! That's what I love about working there!–Anna
human3rror says
that's lifechurch. you guys are an anomaly.
;0
fmckinnon says
We talked about this at my church yesterday. There's not a lot of opportunity for "the sky is the limit" dreaming and idea grabbing. 1) there is no budget, or a cut budget and 2) you are too busy doing the punchlist, daunting tasks just to get through the week. Reveal that you have much dream/creative time on your hands, and you'll quickly be given some new tasks to do so you earn your keep. So at the end of the day, there really isn't a lot of "just spend time dreaming and creating something awesome". As one of my co-workers put it, "instead, I'm printing name badges".
fmckinnon says
I think many churches, sadly, don't have the budget to go this way, or they are understaffed, so it's all they can do to get their staff to eek out their punchlists each week, leaving very little or zero time for spontaneous, creativity.
human3rror says
punchlists… boo…