—C.S. Lewis

I came across this quote today and find it a great reminder. We care about legacy and want to lead well. It’s important to remember that we cannot truly succeed by trying to be better than others in a competitive nature. Such narcissistic thinking is a zero-sum strategy. It will backfire. Instead, it is far more virtuous to think less of self and care more for the greater team. Such focus will yield so much greater fruit - not only in the charge of the task, but in life.

-Marcus Buckingham

I have been thinking a lot about team. I suspect that many of our attenders would love to feel less overworked and stressed that they never get to breathe as they move from event to event to event with no end to tunnel of expectation. I suggest it’s actually a simple fix if there is a paradigm shift in what the job is. A true FILO ought to always be thinking about how our real job as Production Directors (or discipline leads for that matter) and is not to "do" a task, but rather to lead volunteers into a place they can serve as part of the Body of Christ. Let’s encourage our attenders to focus their energy on praying (Matt. 9:38) through who they invite with them to partner on the project. Let’s challenge our FILOs to see success as "working themselves out of a job" by training a volunteer to find their greatness in task rather than stooping to the lowest common denominator of finding identity as doing the task themselves.

Related, it’s important to remember that what we do with our "clock punching" and serving may be a virtuous thing, but it is vital to maintain the perspective that it is not the Work of God (John 6:29) - the Work of God is to believe in in Jesus, "ministry is simply a context for us to lift up Jesus as we help fill our position in the Body of Christ.

Initial ideation:

What about ideas of seeing the difference between a "one man band" and a conductor of an orchestra?

I wrote this page about what my team would look like last spring when I was considering the request to lead the Troy Production Department. I'm reviewing it again this month now that I've hired the final member of my staff. I'm grateful for each of them; and for all of our incredible volunteers. Here's to a great season of thriving in ethos, mission, and vision as we push through our busiest part of the year these next couple months...

So I was taking a creative break while trying to work the diagram for Easter’s production design concept (I have a deadline to present this morning - I know, it’s not like I have a Troy Midweek to lead, or a Christmas Premier to have to get to late this evening, or Troy’s Christmas load in this Sunday to prepare for, or a big funeral to help provide coverage for, or our CT building project with a key meeting to prep for, or this weekend to think about making sure is covered while I have to be away on Saturday, or that fact that I’m still a position short and have the stress of ensuring coverage and praying through making a wise hire. No, not anything like that LOL - Anyway, sometimes the 1:1::input:output satisfaction of organizing helps me think creatively with the other side of my brain on the back burner…) and I came across this old half-written blog post I wrote over 5 years ago:

My goal as a leader is to never say "no." Rather even if I know with certainty that "no" is the correct choice, I prefer lead through the situation by considering the possibility of a yes. I try to lay out the best few options that we can see and what the benefits and consequences are from each.

Most choices to try an enhance a plan requires a choice to abandon another part of it. If someone does pose a truly good idea, we'll all probably agree that it's an improvement. If the culture is created that all ideas are considered, then there will be a better chance of good ideas being offered.

If change is always squashed, then ideas for improvement will never be revealed and we will die in status quo…

If an idea is suggested that I know (either because of intuition or previous experience) is a poor choice, I am a better leader if I steer them (be they a subordinate, a peer, or a superior) toward realizing the choice on their own.

Summarized, I'm the best leader when I am optimistic and disciplined enough to choose not to say "no."

There was a lot of prototyping and iteration as well as complexity in leadership of multiple departments to achieve the success in this Production Design.

The process was really fun to nerd out with research into classic toys and some surveying of people who grew up in that era. Along the way, we kept coming back to the movie Elf.

We began with an idea of what classic toys might bring nostalgia. The LiteBrite was a fun idea. I liked it for multiple reasons:

We design the Elf inspired Houses:

A problem became an opportunity when we figured out how to hide the set behind the main traveler and tell a prelude story based in Nepal and using chalk art to tell about partners all over the globe.Fun too, to coach blocking for a the broadcast into during the countdown. My friend snapped this photo of yours truly that he used to coach the crew in duplicating the shot composition.

The inception for this two day conference hosting 1000 VIPs event was put in motion less than three months before the event! Therefore ideation of concept; iteration of prototype, approval of concept; partnership in developing story and production management prepping cast and crew; ordering of materials; leadership of assembly: continuity of brand in every part of stage, room, handout, and communication: coordination of rehearsal; programming of lighting, video, and special effects cues; execution of audio including a last minute live voiceover intro by yours truly. What an exciting project to be part of!

The budget for the scenic and lighting was <$5K so that alone presented constraint that drove creativity. The fact that our timeline was tight was fuel to move fast and actually helped leverage pushing past doubt and leading to excitement about our concepts during ideation. Key elements of this design were built on the request of a large screen that could carry the brand of the organization. The budget required us to create an unique workaround to simulate a properly blended projection mapping rig and "fake it" with some clever finesse and the reminder that guests won’t know the difference if we are strategic in how we craft our graphics and video assets.

The idea of a B-Stage presented multiple challenges that yielded the iteration of multiple special additions to the experience: LEDtape that outlined the stage (and provided uplight - or maybe it was the other way around). Communication banners (that added to the branding and communication - or provided depth in every video shot). Finally, which was better: the excitement of transitions with the additional entrances and focus shifting for the narration, the eye contact and authenticity of new ideas in a town hall segment of the communication, or the up close excitement of key performances that literally break the fourth wall!

The buzz and excitement about the project was useful in leveraging contribution from numerous collaborators. Delegation to key personalities was key in leadership of execution. It was beautiful to see many people leverage their talents and a number of young team members realize new passions as they learned new skills on the fly!

Here are some of my favorite moments.

Intermission between sessions the first night. I love tables and chairs for a conference.

This silhouette moment from the opening medley - I hope Michael Jackson would have been proud. Top image also from the opening medley - covering Hey Ya by Outkast.

From the opening medley - I believe this was Shake It Off.

A shot from house right showing a bit of the room. We really have transformed the old warehouse. I remember doing our walk-through when we first purchased this space. It used to have columns in the middle of the room. Oh, and dirt floor with vile things growing in the puddles...

I like this shot during worship that also shows some of the table decorations that I helped braintrust the design of. Please forgive the odd looking text on the screen due; to the fact that I snapped the photo exactly on the CG transition.

The Kensington founders and their wives on stage together. It’s a beautiful encouragement to see them still be close friends 25 years later.

I love how my friend Michael Duggan programs lights. It’s fun to see my plot come to life!

It was an honor to get to run audio for day two of the event. Here’s the view I had of the keynote speaker teaching from the B-stage in the middle of the room.

A panoramic shot of the room. I wish I had taken a reverse angle of the room in use. The best I can do is the following photo.

My view of the room from above the stage while working on projection. Collaboration and intentional choice was made even to each centerpiece on the tables.

This is day two of our set-up and we're somehow calm in spite of being way behind planned schedule. 24 hours prior all we had was the arch in place and the wrong size fabric. RoseBrand had sent us the wrong width due to a mis-labeling error in their sewing department. They overnighted us the correct size and we were able to work past midnight to get everything ready for doors to open the next morning for another event that was using the room. The team was great as we flexed through the setback and found other useful things to do with our time on day 1 and the first half of day 2. Thankfully we had kept a second day of setup on the schedule; if not, we would not have had a chance for the vision to have turned out as you see in these images.

Early sketch of what it would take to pull off the custom built screen that required no support beams so that the silhouette moment could happen. Leadership, creativity, design - it’s all problem solving!

The inception for this two-day conference hosting 1000 VIPs event was put in motion less than three months before the event! Even with the crazy timeline (and perhaps because of it) it was an honor and a privilege to be asked to design and lead production for this event.

Constraints drive creativity. Moving fast actually helps leverage pushing past doubt and leads to excitement about our concepts during ideation. Leadership, creativity, design - it’s all problem solving! The buzz and excitement about the project was useful in leveraging contribution from numerous collaborators. Delegation to key personalities was key in leadership of execution. It was beautiful to see many people leverage their talents and a number of young team members realize new passions as they learned new skills on the fly!

Feel free to read the full detailed version of this blog post if you’re curious for more of the story.