Enhancing Effectiveness of All Our Members

Enhancing the Effectiveness of All Members

Core Ideas: OMF Leaders have primary responsibility for equipping people for effective ministry, facilitating their learning as adults.

A.  Principles and Practices of Learning for Adult Learners

We want to be sure that training we do in OMF is designed to meet the unique challenges and needs of adult learners.

1.      Quick Quiz

2.      What do you know/believe about adult learning?

3.      How Adults Learn

•     In pairs describe the best learning experience of your life. Write the factors that made it so good on post it notes and share them at your table.

•     Listen to a description of research on adult learning:

•     What are your questions and comments?

4.   Implement a learning process that involves ideas, feelings and actions

•      Read this case study of a leader’s work in some other mission (not OMF!)

•      Examine this model from Kurt Lewin: Learning always involves ideas (cognitive material), feelings (affective considerations), and actions (psychomotor activities)

•      What are your questions about this model?

•      Using the model with a partner, decide at least one or two things Jim can do to make his collaboration with his team more successful. The group will hear all ideas.

5.   Use Open Questions

à  A learning task is an open question that the learner has the resources to answer

•      In pairs, look over the following list of questions. Mark those you consider “open.”

•     As a pair, name at least two differences you see between “closed” and “open” questions.

•     Write two open questions Jim might have used with the training session group (above). The group will hear a sample.

7a  Dealing with My Needs:

•   Be in control

•   Feel comfortable

•   Teach, talk or lecture

•   Cover the material

•   Be the expert

•   Tell everything I know about …

•   Tell my neat stories

•   Demonstrate my PowerPoint^® skills

•   Be admired

7b  Dealing with My Fears:

•   Dissent

•   Not having the answers

•   Failure

•   Resistance

•   Losing control

•   Conflict

•   Disappointing people who want a lot of facts

•   Being perceived as “not earning my money”

•   Criticism from my colleagues

•   Criticism from my audience

8.   Thirteen Training Methods

•    Structured
Warm-up

•    Presentation

•    Reading

•    Demonstration

•    Video

•    Note-taking

•    Discussion

•        Quiz/Question-naires

•        Case Study

•        Role play

•        Role play/case study

•        Games

•        Structured Closure

•   Think back over your training experience at NLIC. Using the list above, identify the various methods you have experienced.

9.   Synthesize the Information

•      Examine with a partner the content (what) and achievement based objectives (what for) set out at the beginning of this session. What strikes you about them?

•      Identify one thing you learned that you might use. The group will hear a sample.

2.   Understanding Member Development in OMF

1.   Scriptural Principles

•      Using the following scriptures as a base, plus other Scriptures you are familiar with, try to draft at least five principles concerning an individual’s personal development.

•      Select three principles from your table to share with the entire group.

2.   Read the vision statement

We long to see OMF members glorifying God through their lives and serving fruitfully and strategically in their God-given roles. We long to see every OMF leader with a passion to inspire, mobilize and develop their ministry teams, and equipped to strategically lead them to accomplish OMF’s mission and vision to the glory of God.

•     What are your questions?

•     What would you add?

•       What would you change

3.   Indicators MDP is taken seriously

•      What factors contribute to this renewed emphasis?

•      What are major challenges you have observed to better equipping OMF members for effective ministry?

4.   Review obstacles to development

·         Underline the one you would you be most ready to address in your situation.

·         Circle the one with the greatest long-term impact on effectiveness if resolved

·         Put a check mark in front of the one which you have personally felt most strongly about.

–      Need for specialized ministry training

–      Distance between workers

–      Diversity of training and experience makes it difficult to provide appropriate help

–      Demands of ministry or other work commitments

–      Lack of experienced trainers and developers

–      Unwillingness to commit to OMF-related training

–      Lack of perceived value in OMF training

–      Lack of time and skills for intentional mentoring

–      There is no clear ministry/career development path

–      Knowing how much to invest in people on field from 3 weeks to years

–      Trying to maintain balance while living in a CAN

–      Normal “church experience” is not possible and family aspects suffer

–      Ensuring that investment in training translates into actual “effectiveness”

–      Difficulty in measuring ministry effectiveness

5.   Purpose of Developmental Assignments

•      They motivate people to focus their attention and exert effort toward learning growth and change. 

•      They provide the raw material or resources for learning: the information, observations and reactions that lead to a more complex and sometimes quite different understanding of the world.

•      Assessment:

–      An understanding of where they are now

–      What their current strengths are

–      The level of their current performance

–      What are seen as their primary development needs

·         Challenge:

–      If conditions don’t change, people feel no need to move beyond their comfort zone to develop new strengths.

–      In a comfortable assignment, they use familiar strengths well in serving the needs of the organization, but they do not learn very much from it.

–      The same is true for a comfortable relationship, feedback that confirms, or a training program on skills that have already been mastered.

–      In these cases, comfort is the enemy of growth and continued effectiveness.

·         Support

–      While the element of challenge provides the disequilibrium needed to motivate people to change, the support elements of an experience send the message that their efforts to learn and grow are valued.

–      If people do not receive support in the form of confirming messages, and if other people do not allow and encourage them to change, then the challenge may overwhelm them, rather than opening them up to learning.

–      For example, an organization that wants to develop more effective teamwork is unlikely to make progress if it continues primarily to reward individual contributions.

How did the apostle Paul use assessment, challenge and support with his co-workers

6a. Developmental Interviews

•      Facilitate Reflection

–      What worked well in the last six months?

–      What have you learned from success?

–      What will you do differently in the future?

–      What have you learned from failure?

–      What are on-going problems or needs?

–      What would make you more effective?

•      Facilitate Action

–      Prioritize high priority major developmental needs

–      Envision future results in this area

–      Create specific steps leading to results.

–      Follow up development in the next interview.

•         Watch this demonstration of a developmental interview, and see how many of the factors highlighted above you can detect.

•         In groups of 3 role play a developmental interview based on a situation given by the facilitator. Each person should take turns playing the leader, member and observer. After five minutes of interaction, the observer will provide feedback to the “leader.” Rotate roles and continue until all have had opportunity to participate in each role.

C.  Identifying Steps toward Ministry Effectiveness: A Developmental Mindset

1.   Identify the developmental goal

•      What does ministry effectiveness look like based on the following resources?

–      Scripture

–      Ministry profile

–      job descriptions

–      models

–      examples

–      articles

–      books, etc.

2.   Identify the gap

•      Training and development needs assessment

–      How could you assess current levels of awareness of ministry potential and developmental needs? (methods and means)

–      What is your current assessment of ministry potential and developmental needs?

3.   Identify resources

•       Training and development options and opportunities

–       Formal training -- academic study

–       Informal training --workshops, seminars, classes, etc.

–       Non-formal training -- self-study, developmental assignments, mentors, etc.

–       Which is most likely to enhance effectiveness?

–       What resources are needed?

–       What resources are available?

4.   Create an action plan

•      Who will do what by when with which resources?

•      To whom am I accountable for implementing these steps?

•      How will I know that my capacity has increased in this area?

•      How will I celebrate my progress?

D.  Best Practices in Ensuring Effectiveness

1.   Review this list

Identify those that are already functioning well in your situation.

_        Use of development assessment forms

_        Appointment of member development coordinator for the field/region/team/etc.

_        Using the SYIS materials

_        Surveying MDP effectiveness

_        Field leaders using developmental questions

_        The use of developmental assignments

2.   Which has potential to make the greatest impact in your situation?

3.   Outline a program for development in your situation using what you have gained in this session. Refer to facilitators as coaches.