01Dec 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 7 – Creating a timeline

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Conference Administration, Equipping, Planning
Continuing the series on Planning we will now look at creating timelines. Timelines A timeline is a critical ‘driver' in achieving the end goal. Like a map it provides a constant reference against which progress towards a target can be measured at any point in the journey. It is a monitoring tool. And so it is worth taking sufficient time and effort in creating it to ensure that it is realistic. There are various ways of producing a timeline but I will consider two here: an Activity Table and a Bar Chart. I have found that the first helps me with planning an event where there are critical dates by which certain activities must be achieved, such as a conference. The second is more visual and is valuable where there…
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10Nov 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 6 – Ordering your thoughts

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Planning
The illustration I used in the last brainstorm related to this series of blogs about Planning. However, since this does not illustrate planning an event I will first show you how to ‘clean up' this brainstorm and then revert to a different example to show the importance of a timeline for event planning. Ordering the results of a brainstorm There are two stages to this. 1. Review each item in turn and amend the diagram. Without the self imposed pressure of time, which initially I find valuable to help ideas to flow, you now review the diagram taking each item in turn and adding as appropriate. The result looks more cluttered as there are additions that have been made, as highlighted, but simplification will come in the next stage. There…
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02Nov 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 5 – Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas It is important when beginning to plan to have some creative ‘out of the box' thinking, and to get an overview of the ultimate goal and process to achieve it, before becoming too detailed and specific. It is rare that the first thoughts that come to mind are the best! So I will share with you a technique to help free thinking which I carry out in all that I do, whether preparing to preach, thinking about this series of blogs, starting to arrange an event such as the Newfrontiers annual Leaders Conference, Together on a Mission, or helping to plan a long-term ministry. Spider Diagram 1. Free thinking Many would start planning by writing items on a list. This has the disadvantage of being linear…
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27Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 4 – Strategic Decisions and sharing Vision

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Strategic Decisions When beginning to plan there may be some key ‘in principle' decisions to make, decisions that will be strategic, and will affect how a plan is implemented and what the final outcome will look like. What do I mean by ‘strategic'? For me strategic decisions are those that have added value or affect the quality of the outcomes. For instance, when Nehemiah first heard of the news about the walls of Jerusalem being broken down his first action was not to contact an architect or to phone the suppliers of building materials. Rather, he saw that there was a fundamental problem that had brought about the situation - the rebellion of Israel (Neh 1:7). Until that was dealt with any plan he would be implementing would be on an insecure…
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19Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – pt 3 – Goal setting

Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Where do we start? The starting point of any planning exercise must be the finishing point! Where are you aiming to go and how are you going to get there? Planning is about taking a journey with many stages. It is no good just leaving your starting point ‘on a whim' and hoping you will go somewhere useful. It is vital that you have clear goals in mind. It is also important to know where these have not yet been fully defined in order to allow flexibility in planning and be able to make adjustments as the journey progresses. Look forward to look back When teaching on planning I sometimes ask people to imagine that they are meeting the day after an event has taken place. I then get them to suggest the…
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13Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – pt 2 – some basic questions

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
As I teach on planning I address two basic questions. One is ‘Why plan?' The other may not be openly expressed but is often close to the surface: ‘Is planning just adopting the world's methods?' 1. Why plan? In my introductory blog I shared on this topic and will enlarge on it further in subsequent postings. Put simply it is the best way of achieving the desired goal with minimum effort and maximum effectiveness. By careful forethought much time and resource can be saved as they are channelled in the most productive direction, and goals will be reached with greater accuracy. I agree with John Maxwell when he said "The longer we spend in preparation the shorter the time in implementation." In contrast I have heard an anonymous speaker quoted:…
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