Tony Dye

Networking 101

This is NOT about IT networking. Has nothing to do with LANS or WANS or routers or switches or TCP/IP or any such technology. This is about people networking. Specifically for the Sumner County Career Transition Group for tonight's presentation. If you are in a job search, or if your business could use some fresh relationships, maybe this is for you. Otherwise ... move on ... these arent' the droids you're looking for ...

Presentation PDF: Download Networking101

Handount (blanks) PDF: Download Handout

Handout (with answers) PDF: Download HandoutAnswers

Did You Know?

If you have *anything* to do with Church IT, please join the CITRT group on LinkedIn. For all things Church IT related, check out http://CITRT.org/

If you are considering a new Church Management System (ChMS), be sure to include MinistryPlatform by Think Ministry Inc. in your research

 

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Project Time Consumption

I recently did a small research project for a company. I started about 7:30 in the morning, finished up about 1:30 in the afternoon, so that means 6 hours “went by.” However, I wasn’t fully dedicated to the project this whole time, I handled a few other things in some gaps.

During this roughly 6 hours, I spent precisely 2.5 hours of measured, “on the clock,” time on the project.  (Which begs the question what did I do with the other 3.5 hours?!, but won't go there now.)

The greatest value in this project (other than my summary report, of course) came from three brief phone calls of probably 10 minutes or less each, so theoretically, instead of 6 hours, instead of 2.5 hours, there was a very high-value 30 minutes spent.

So, how much time did I really “work?” Could the 30 minutes have happened without the 2.5 hours? Could the 2.5 hours have been effective without the elapsed 6 hours? I think there was some similar lesson in one of my favorite books from many years ago, The Mythical Man Month, which, highly paraphrased, came to the conclusion that projects had their own time lines, regardless of people and resources applied.

So, can I do a project for you that has 30 minutes of extreme value, 2 ½ hours of effort, 6 hours of elapsed time, charge your for half a day, and have you be thrilled? If you’re thrilled with the results, does the time consumed matter?

The 5 - 15 Rule

One of my training heroes, Jim LaBarr, has often expressed one of the keys to training: getting a user's attitude to transition from "I don't know how to do that" to "I bet there's a way to do that."

Last week I was in a training session with another hero, Tavie Allan. She introduced the class to what she calls the "5 - 15" rule. The idea is so simple: if you're having a problem, you MUST NOT ask for help until you've spent at least five minutes trying to find the answer for yourself. And, you MUST NOT spend more than fifteen minutes on the problem without asking for help. Two simple boundaries.

Of course, there's nothing particularly magic about 5 and 15. 3 and 12 would be good. Even 1 and 5! What numbers would you use? Would this work in your organization?

Thanks Jim and Tavie!

Is it OK to be a Slow Learner?

Just a few random thoughts here, all touching on the idea of learning, or failing to learn, or the need to keep on trying.

As infants, and on up through some young age, we learn almost entirely by trial and error, with most attempts ending up in failure. But we keep on trying. Then we reach some magical age where we're embarrassed by failure, and then we either quit trying as hard, or we cover up the failures. Why is that?

Every now and then, some new technology comes along, that we don't fully understand. If it's something were "supposed" to understand, that old embarrassment thing factors back in, and we have to learn it when nobody is looking, or pretend to know more than we do. Or we could try a line like "I don't know anything about that, should I?" Nah... Then Steve Jobs and friends introduce something completely different, like the iPod, or iPhone, or iPad. Nobody knows anything about the new technology, but somehow, there's no embarrassment. There's even the fun of learning it. Trial and error (and failure) is OK again. How can that be? More importantly, how can we reintroduce that concept everywhere?

Finally, I want to propose that it's perfectly OK to NOT learn something the first time. Maybe it's even better! This concept was inspired by Bill Seaver's story of going to third grade twice. When I advanced from the 7th grade to the 8th grade, I change school systems. Even though my grade level went up, many of the subjects I took actually regressed to levels I'd previously completed. Amazingly, I suddenly started making really good grades, and this continued throughout high-school. The second time I took those nearly-identical subjects, I guess I really "got it."

I guess the point I want to make here is that there is always a need to learn more, and good "systems" (hardware, software, design, whatever) make learning easy and non-threatening. Even "safe." How can we make that more common?

You Don't Need to Take Notes

I was at a [people] networking event a few days ago, and there was the general expected sharing of business cards. One of the guys in the group, Donald, a web designer, also put out some small notepads. Now let me be clear, I don't know Donald [yet] other than to say hi, I don't know his work [yet],  but I sure like the line on his notepad:

"You don't have to take notes to remember how to use a smallbuck website."

That's exactly what I want to see in software, or in products or services of any type. "No training required," or "training so obvious you won't need notes." I know we're not there yet, but every day I see products and ideas that take us a step closer. I remember the days when one of the church management companies would not let you buy their product until you signed up for training, and it was a significant time expenditure for that training (and largely forgettable, too). It's nice that many of the newer ChMS products have a much simplified training program. That's progress!

Again, I don't know Donald, but I like his business card, too. His title? "guy in charge." I think I get it.

Free Webinar: Secrets of Successful Check-in by Fellowship Technologies

This webinar is obviously for Fellowship One users, but what if you use another product? Any chance you still might learn something? I'll leave that up to you. Thanks to Curtis Simmons of Fellowship Technologies for this detailed information.
 
Free webinar on the Secrets of Check-in For Children, Events and Rapid Follow-Up.
 
Fellowship Technologies will host its next webinar on July 21, 2010 at 1:00 PM (CDT) about the Secrets of Successful Check-In. This helpful and informative online session will reveal how to use Check-In for children's ministry, activities and events with rapid follow-up!
 
The webinar is free, but registration is required. To register visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/675236104. This hour-long webinar includes insight from the staff of Fellowship Technologies on helping your church take check-in to a whole new level! One registered webinar attendee will win a FREE Godex DT-4 label printer, courtesy of POS Computer Corporation.

FREE resources on the Secrets of Church Check-in & a chance to win a FREE check-in printer! http://budurl.com/CheckInSecrets #KIDMIN #CHMS


QUICK LINKS:
WEBINAR REGISTRATION: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/675236104
CHECK-IN RESOURCES: http://www.fellowshiptech.com/dynamicchurchtrends
COMPANY: http://fellowshiptech.com

POS Computer Corporation: http://www.poscomputercorp.com/fellowshiptech.htm

Thank you!

Curtis Simmons
VP, Marketing & Community
Fellowship Technologies
@CurtisSimmons
2 Corinthians 11:28

Social Media Boot Camp

This may be the closest thing to an advertisement I've ever done on my blog. I think this is a great opportunity, but I'm not compensated in the least if you participate.

If your organization knows you need to be doing something with Social Media, but don't have a strategy, or know how to create one, this is the event for you. This all day event (in Nashville) will give you the tools you need. Check it out. Social Media & SEO Boot Camp. If you want to save a few dollars, check out Ben Stroup's post that has a discount code.

Ministry DNA

I had the privilege of meeting with Kerry Bural of the Resonate Group a few weeks ago. Kerry is yet another great connection via Kayla Barrett of Organization Impact. (Kerry and Kayla are each contributors to Ministry Marketing Coach.

Kerry gave my not-overly-creative brain a lot of very creative ideas, which says a lot about what he can do. He also showed me a presentation (on his iPad, of course) about ministry DNA branding convergence – the section of a Venn diagram where your values, competencies, and passions converge. This clicked, not just for ministry, but for any organization, and personally. Maybe he’ll publish the full presentation some day, or of course you could always engage him to present to your organization, but he did summarize the concept here. Worth a look and some thinking!

Blogging Session at Social Media Seminar

The Somerset Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Social Media Seminar today and I'm co-leading the breakout session on YouTube and Blogging. Actually, I'm doing approximately half of a 20 minute session. In roughly 10 minutes, I going to try to explain everything anyone wants to know about blogging. Easy, right? Well, I'm going to give it a shot, hitting a few high points. And leaving time for Q&A, of course.

Since I can't really cover much in a few minutes, I'm giving the attendees a homework assignment. Each is expected to find this post and review the presentation and handout (they they didn't receive during the presentation). So, if you're an attendee, here are the files to download. For anyone else, what would you have included, with an expectation of less than 10 minutes total for presentation.

Download BloggingPresentation

Download BloggingHandout