Ok. It’s time for a reminder: Keep It Simple Stupid
It’s a cliché, but it’s true. As creatives we need to keep it simple. Simple is called for in a time when “trends” determine what our attention will go to for the next nanosecond.
But how do we maintain simple in an ever-increasingly, un-simple world?
Let’s brainstorm smarty-pants…
Easy There, Mr. Howard.
The real obstacle to our accomplishment is sometimes our own creativity.
We try to make what should be a pre-school play into a broadway production. This biggest mistake I often make is trying to go too big, when simple is all that is needed.
Recently I assisted in the production of a “music video” of sorts for the weekly Video Announcements (VA’s) that my church does to keep our people up to date.
What should have taken just a couple hours took an entire afternoon.
Why? Because we didn’t know what we were doing? No. Because we didn’t have the right equipment? Not that either.
What took up the time was trying to do more than we needed to.
As I said, the VA’s are a WEEKLY thing. It’s more of a drill than a production. It’s down pat. The time limit (4 minutes) is there, and while it does need to be excellent, it certainly doesn’t need to win any awards. Simple, right?
What Now? 2 Main Priorities (Need, Time):
I believe we can make most of our decisions with the following criteria, and to make this easier, I’ll use the VA’s as an example:
Identify the Need, Ask 4 Questions:
I am firm believer that as The Church we should do everything with excellence. But excellence looks way different for the mega church of 5,000 than it does for the small parish of 50. (Thanks Captain Obvious.)
But what about the community church of 500? Ask these 4 Questions (we’ll use the VA’s as a guideline example for this part):
- What is Needed? – Don’t ask: “What would I do if I had a Hollywood budget and Ron Howard at my disposal?” Why? Because you don’t. Answer: A weekly video sequence for making announcements.
- What is the Scope of this Project? – Do I have set parameters like length, content and cost? Answer: 4 minutes; anything that has the potential to effect at least 50% of the congregation; in this case, the cost of purchasing equipment had already been assumed by other areas of ministry (we already had the stuff).
- Who is it For? – Know your audience. Answer: Everyone. This is where you need to identify your group or congregation. In our case the average attendee is 32 and has a young family, BUT there are plenty of 20-somethings and empty-nesters as well.
- When and Where will it be Seen? – Helps identify equipment, etc. Answer: Prior to the start of service, on the auditorium main screen and screens throughout the building; on the Videos Podcast; embedded on the website.
With this info we can create a simple statement like this:
The Video Announcements are a weekly video sequence for informing our people about events and opportunities in four minutes or less. It will be shown weekly, prior to the start of each service, as well as appear on the Videos Podcast.
Now that the need is identified, the other elephant in the room can be addressed.
We’re Running out of Time Scotty!
Cool. You’ve done it, but time is your most valuable (and difficult) partner in this gig because most likely the VA’s weren’t the only project happening on a weekly basis.
They had to be limited to one day total (yes- all production in 8-10 hours).
By setting this precedent, there was actually more flexibility than you would think. If the equipment was needed for other projects that were time sensitive (ie- capturing a youth service project on a Wednesday in July, (Wednesday being a typical shooting day for the VA’s), the VA day could be moved around the schedule of other projects.
Insanity, right?
2 Questions to Consider:
- Is my family OK with not seeing me this week, month, year? I couldn’t put my family on the back burner every week. When “special” (see: last minute) projects came up, I didn’t have to over-draw the grace bank my wife has for me, because I still had a substantial “balance.” If every week I were missing dinner or date night, forget about it.
- Is this a sustainable pace? This may seem similar to the previous question, and in a lot of ways it is, but it also helps to focus on things may have been over looked. Will the equipment and/or software you’re currently using will still be able to achieve excellence in six months to a year or will an upgrade be necessary?
Awesome. I’m an Expert. Moving On…?
Turns out your grandma was right: Less IS more.
All too often we have the admirable thought that our work will change lives. It won’t. Changed lives are the result of changed hearts – something only God does through His Spirit.
This does not mean that we shouldn’t do our part, after-all, we’re called right? We can and should contribute to what God wants to do through us.
Amen? Amen.
A Personal Sidenote and Resource(s):
There’s one more resource I’d like to throw out here: Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Chip and Dan Heath’s Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die is a must read for anyone in the idea business. The Heath brothers came up with this simple acronym for making ideas stick: SUCCESS
According to the book there “are six principles of successful ideas. To summarize, here is their checklist for creating a successful idea:
a Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credentialed, Emotional, Story.”
I encourage you to get a copy of the book. If you’ve read it, read it again. There’s treasure in them pages.
There is one more place I go when it comes to creativity and simpleness: the junkyard. And although I’m not being literal the idea might not be a bad idea after all.
The point is this: What ideas did you scrap or write off some time ago because you weren’t in a position to do them then? Sometimes our best ideas just needed us (or our resources) to grow, become seasoned and be ready for them.
Nate Beaird says
Word. While we pursue excellence, we must also pursue practicality. It doesn’t mean it’s less excellent, it means we have more time to pursue other (possibly more important) things with excellence.
Nice post!
Nick Shoemaker says
Thanks! Enjoyed your post yesterday as well!
Stuart says
Good shout – we (as a church) went through a phase where our mantra was “we are not professionals but we can be professional amateurs”. Which in and of itself is not a bad thing.
Translated, everything we did we wanted to do to the best of our individual or collective ability.
Trouble is, the professional bit took over with some folks and we found those of us who didn’t fit a certain ‘type’ or ‘dress style’ or … well you get the idea … we became excluded or only used when absolutely necessary.
Thankfiully this has now been well and truly nailed and we’re back on track … sort of!!!
Nick Shoemaker says
Thanks Stuart. Glad to hear things are going back in the direction they should- sort of! 🙂
Kyle Reed says
Wow, thanks for putting in the work on writing this. A lot of great info here.
kylereed says
Great work, thanks for taking the time to write this.
Good info
Nick Shoemaker says
Glad to Kyle!
PhillipGibb says
brilliant, just the things I need to consider every other week.
Sometimes that pan and scan on the photo with text fades is more impactful than the keyframed, over filtered, 3D choas that people will get confused about – yet took you 2 weeks to design and all nitgh to render.
Nick Shoemaker says
Ha! Been there too many times man!
PhillipGibb says
on an odd note – this post does not seem to have a path to it, not from the home page or in tweetmeme
Travis says
Great post. Great reminders. I often forget that the point of my project is probably NOT to go big or go home. It is not to win awards. It is to communicate effectively within my constraints.
I really like the 50% impact guideline you mentioned. Going to add that to our evaluation of what to/not to say in announcements.
Nick Shoemaker says
I didn’t say a lot about this guiding principle in the post, but this was huge for our team. It was an instant go to for that awkward moment when the leader of the single-moms-that-read-this-book-group hits you up after service and wants to get their announcement out to everyone. 🙂
One more thing here: don’t stretch to get to 50%. NOT potential (as in: IF we introduce it here, half our peeps COULD be interested). Established interest.
Great comment. Thanks for sharing!
John Saddington says
gr8 stuff nick.
Chris Moncus says
Yeah the 50% rule really says what I’ve been looking for words for. A way to give a firm rule with no subjectiveness to skew it.
John Saddington says
definitely.
Nick Shoemaker says
cool. Glad to know it’s in the vain for this area of ministry!
John Saddington says
love that point too.
Andrew says
I think the 50% rule is definitely a good guide to announcements at any church function. I’m definitely going to recommend this post to my church pastor.
Nick Shoemaker says
Sweet action man! m/>,<m/
Jeremy Green says
I love how a lot of the stuff that I spend the most time on never gets any comments. But then the simple stuff that took a small amount of time often gets the most comments.
Good reminder of the K.I.S.S. principle.
Nick Shoemaker says
so true! 🙂
benrwoodard says
I’m right in the middle of developing some pretty big things for my church, this was greatly needed. Thanks for taking the time write this.
Nick Shoemaker says
🙂
Graham says
Amazing post Nick! Thanks for putting this out there. I think you hit the nail on the head with the “grace bank” comment.
I’ve been actually taking my days off recently to visit my special lady friend who lives in a different state. It may seem like I’ve been taking a lot of time off recently to my other team members when really I’ve cut my hours down to what they are supposed to be.
I only say that because it illustrates how we can’t let what we do, ministry, overtake our own lives. While we are called to do God’s will in the church, we can’t neglect those we love.
Nick Shoemaker says
Graham- you get it. Some time ago I thought I was nuts for voicing a similar opinion.
We need to be certain that we are not doing full time ministry and part time Christianity.
Thanks for checking it out Graham!