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EP. 02: THE "E" IN TEAMWORK IS FOR ECONOMY OF ENERGY Even a thoroughbred horse can’t run at a full gait all the time. The quickest way to burn-out a team is to never let them relax. The book of Proverbs teaches: "A relaxed attitude lengthens a man’s life." (Proverbs 14:30, LB) If you want the people on your team to last, they must have some down time. Here are some ways you can promote an economy of energy within your team: Anticipate and compensate for personal and family energy drains, such as illnesses and new babies. Your team has a life outside of their area of ministry. Allow people to work at different energy levels on different days. Some days, everyone must work fast and energetic. Other days, it is important to slow the pace a bit. In the long term, slow and steady always outlasts the fast and furious. Plan your year in energy cycles. At Saddleback, we always build in rest periods for consolidation between major growth campaigns and initiatives. Allow flexibility in schedules when possible. Make the work fun! QUOTABLE QUOTES There's flexibility but communication is key of letting us know ahead of time. And so I want to dispel that myth of that the staff is upset or the leaders are upset when you decline. - Tyler HoferClick To Tweet Focus on the long haul. For leaders, we ask everybody to think long-term in serving in this ministry. – Mingo PalaciosClick To Tweet DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT Grab your reading glasses and download the PDF here. READ THE TRANSCRIPT Mingo Palacios: The "E" in teamwork stands for the economy of energy. And like at first pass, that makes absolutely no sense, but I'm going to try to like break it down for you. It's really how we manage what energy is required of us when we show up for a ministry or as we lead our teams. And Proverbs 14:30 talks about how a relaxed attitude lengthens a person's life and a relaxed attitude is actually kind of the core value for what it means to have the economy of energy under wraps. So, if I could put two words around it, I would say it's like a relaxed concern, right? We know what it's like to see leaders or volunteers operate in a stress concern and that is like, that's a disaster waiting to happen because just an average attendee can come in, make the wrong step, do the wrong thing on accident and if that person is under too much stress and they're overly concerned, it can be disastrous instead of a ministry. So we value, we highlight the idea that is brought about in Proverbs about that idea of a relaxed attitude, being able to lengthen not just a person's life, but somebody's ability to serve on a team for a healthy amount of time. So, what are some suggestions in a way that would actually improve somebody's economy of energy? Let me give you a few. The first one, don't expect everybody on your team to work at the same energy level all the time. And I think one of the best ways we can imagine this being worked out is like a ministry table that is set up and manned before service begins. Sometimes a volunteer will be so eager to get some signups that they'll actually be trying to chase somebody down before the service is starting. And it's the wrong time to appropriate all that energy into getting something done. So, somebody is coming to church, let them be greeted, let them get their kids checked in, let them find a cup of coffee and make their way into the service. Tone down your sign up energy for when it's appropriate, which is after everything is said and done, maybe on their way to getting their kids or after they got their kids going to maybe the car, that's when you'd want to dial up that energy. And more importantly, you can't expect everybody to be on level 10 all the time. You have to understand. Carolina Corrales: Yeah, I have a thought about that. Mingo Palacios: