April 21, 2021

Turning a Plan into Action


Like many people who are involved in service oriented work, I’ve been around a lot of AmeriCorp members. There’s a few different “branches” of AmeriCorp and the one that is the most interesting to me is the VISTA program. They aren’t there to do direct service - instead they exist to set up systems that will help an organization be self-sustaining. The goal of an AmeriCorp VISTA position was best described to me as someone who is looking to work themselves out of a job. If you do your job well, if you answer the right questions and set up the right systems, then you’ll no longer be needed. While maybe not the best business model, this is truly the goal for But You Were Close!, so I want to provide people with an Implementation Plan that sets folks up for success on their own.


(Or you can just pay me to do it.)


Let’s continue our look at my work with Breath of God, and look at some of the steps put in place for their communications success. The Implementation Plan is phase three. As you may remember, we started with a Communication Audit followed by some Strategic Planning. As we turn to the Implementation Plan, regular readers know we’re going to start where we normally do… grounding ourselves in some core ideas.

Implementation Philosophy


It can be so easy to get this far - feel good about yourself - and then make no significant changes in your communication practices. You’ve wrestled with some difficult questions and maybe even corrected some simple errors. You’ve done just enough work as a communicator to feel good about it, and the next “obvious” step is to go back to what you’ve always done. But You Were Close! doesn’t want that to happen.


So here’s what I’m going to do.

  1. Provide you with the right tools and right systems to achieve your goals. I’ll figure out your budget (if any), learning styles, organizational preferences and find THE thing that will work for your organization.

  2. Identify the Key Performance Indicators that an organization can track on their own. Not everyone needs to know what SEO, CPC, or even what “reach” means. I’ll work with you to figure out what makes the MOST sense to you, and how we can interpret data to get the answers you need.

  3. Walk alongside you (if needed!). All feel like too much? I can do it for you and provide reports on how the work is going.


I’m confident, though, that Breath of God is ready to take on this work on their own. And in order to do the rest, there’s one place to start.

In Need of a Lead


The first step in achieving our strategic goals is to determine a Communication Lead. This person or group of people will take on the responsibility of implementing the strategic objectives and making sure they follow through in these actions. There needs to be authority given to this group of people, and they need to have tools in place to keep track of progress.


This Communication Lead can take on many forms. Whether it be a paid communications professional who leads the way - with an accountability team - or another member of the organization stepping into this responsibility (i.e. a clergy member, a development professional, or a trusted volunteer) or - using the existing structures of many a faith community and non-profit- a committee. In the case of Breath of God, which is growing in mission and complexity, the church should create a long term Communication Committee to serve alongside their other existing committees.

Your Journey


We have the committee, so now what? Implementing these objectives will take a few months to set up and up to a half a year to become routine. After years in the church and non-profit world, I love a directors meeting or a council meeting, so But You Were Close! will be happy to be on hand to present the results of our efforts. In reality, though, the success of revitalized communication will rely upon your group. Breath of God will need the Communication Committee to make connections, take seriously their task and role, and move intentionally, efficiently, meaningfully, and authentically to tell the beautiful story that is this community.


In a world that has spent much of the past year alone, the story of the ever-responding Breath of God Lutheran Church, The Highlandtown Preschool and Clinton Street Community Center is about resilience, about finding the love, and about hope. It's about reminding people that no one is perfect and we’re all figuring it out. It’s about celebrating successes together and assuring people that they were close in their failures. There are some universal truths in everyone’s journey - and some awe-inspiring moments unique to each community - and it’s time let the world know about them.