January 13, 2006

• First Entry For 2006

  
  

  A new year this is.  So much has passed since my December 28th post.

  
  

   

  
  

  The New Year celebration was calm and collected.  We had 2 close couples over to our house for games.  Both of the couples had 3 rug rats in tow so the house was full of fun stuff going on at all times.  Everyone bailed before midnight and I was falling asleep when the fireworks started popping to celebrate the New Year.

  
  

   

  
  

  We had an all together worship service at church.  We have had 3 services for almost 15 years but the attendance has waned over the last 2 years so we had close to 600 people in attendance for the one service on January 1st.  Our new interim preacher taught a lesson on new beginnings which was well received.  All 7 elders of whom I am one stood up in front of the entire congregation at the end and asked for forgiveness for the sins we had committed.  We were specific about them.  We had let private conversations from our group leak out which had caused gossip.  We had failed to act quickly to alleviate sin we had witnessed in members.  And we made comments outside our group that should have not been made.  The response from the membership was overwhelming.  I was not the only one crying when it was all said and done.

  
  

   

  
  

  Since then where church is concerned, the attendance has jumped back over 1000 and the contribution has jumped an additional 10K per week.  There is something to be said when God gets a hold of people and has them do what he wants.

  
  

   

  
  

  On the work front with the new responsibilities I have taken things are going awesome.  I took a group of directors, managers and supervisors to a hotel in Galveston for a workshop.  We all sat in a room for 8 hours and mapped some critical processes.  The entire purpose of the day long session was simply to map current processes without trying to fix them.  That is a hard thing for most people to do.  I facilitated the meeting.  It was a blast.

  
  

   

  
  

  This group of people are driven individuals that have worked in an environment that has been entirely solution oriented from day one.  That is how entrepreneurial companies typically begin, operate and then die.  Solution orientation works for a while but that type of management is not scalable.  If all you ever do is put patches or Band-Aid solutions on problems, there is no way to scale any processes because no one is conscious that there is even a process going on.

  
  

   

  
  

  Everyone was fully on board with mapping things as they were even when it got ugly.  No one in the room knew any process from start to finish and definitely did not know how their workflow affected anyone else’s.  My main goal was to get everyone thinking in terms of process rather than just solving a problem as it appeared.  Much more work will occur before we can begin to improve and implement processes to replace those that have just organically grown.

  
  

   

  
  

  Now the good stuff.  I was called into a meeting on Tuesday by the President of our company.  He wants us to grow the monthly recurring revenue for our business by a sizeable amount over our projected numbers.  Our company has never operated in this fashion.  No one is oriented around sales numbers much less has any experience in actually running an organization that is.  Oh, wait a minute, I am.  I was so pumped when the numbers rolled out of the HeadSurfer’s mouth.  My blood started flowing and I began thinking how we could tackle this “new” idea of outbound sales for our company.

  
  

   

  
  

  I called a meeting Wednesday morning of the key people for this endeavor.  I actually felt like a sales manager during the meeting.  I gave out assignments and rallied the troops and then went home sick.  Even though I had a flu shot, my body told me I had to sleep.  After making a Dr. appointment for Thursday, I slept as best I could between sneezing and blowing unmentionable substances out of my nose.  This was a first for me, making a Dr. appointment at the first sign of yellow substances in the Kleenex.  I usually wait until I cannot walk or breathe before asking for help from the medical profession.  I even told the Dr. that I didn’t think I needed a steroid pack which has been a standard issue for me when I have a sinus infection.

  
  

   

  
  

  After 2 1/2 days home, I am starting to feel better.  The troops have been reporting in via email and everything is ready for us to begin outbound calls to our existing customers on Monday.  Did I mention that I am pumped about this new era at work.  Well, I am.

  
  

   

  
  

  We are off to the in-laws house tomorrow for the weekend.  We will spend the night tomorrow and go to their church on Sunday morning.  Our niece is getting married in March and she has a shower Sunday night that Cyndie wants to attend.  I am looking forward to the slow paced napping and game playing that will occur over the next couple of days.

  • 11:48 pm
  • 5 Comments