Miles McPherson

Progress or Activity?

Recently my executive team completed a two-day offsite retreat to discuss our strategic plan and conduct team-building exercises.

Dr. Angela Robles, the wife of one of my staff members, walked us through a discussion based on our individual strengths as identified through the Gallup’s CliftonStrengthsFinder inventory.

One of my top Strengths is an Activator.

In general an Activator, by definition, is someone who likes action or and makes things happen. This of course is a very abbreviated description and it is definitely true of me. I like activity and making this happen.

But like any strength, if taken to an extreme, your strongest asset can become your worse enemy. Too much activity can create confusion and chaos.

Even though I love to create activity and action, it must have a purpose. It must be strategic and bring about progress toward a goal.

If you are someone who enjoys action and activity in your organization but after the work is done you find yourself asking ‘What good did it do,’ it is probably because you did not have a clear ‘desired outcome’ of the activity before you started.

All activity needs to have a strategic purpose, which needs to be established before the work starts.

During a job interview of a potential senior staff member, I was asked what was important to me. He said he had heard that our church had a lot of things going on.  I said, yes, there are a lot of things going on but I do not want activity for activity’s sake. I am more concerned about ‘progress’ than ‘activity.’ I want to be assured we are making progress toward a desired goal.

If you want to avoid the trap of a lot of unproductive activity, here are three questions you should have clear answers to before you begin the work.

1-  How specifically will the activity fulfill your mission and vision?

2-  Who is the DFP, the Designated First Person, responsible for getting it done? In the end, this is the person who must deliver the desired outcome on time and on budget.

3-  How will that DFP prove that the activity was completed in a manner that fulfilled the originally intended purpose.

Next week, I will talk about the 3 characteristics of the ideal DFP.