How a Stamp Taught Me a Lesson About Flow and Leverage

Running a ministry, especially as a founder, is tough—you assume the responsibilities of coordinator, executive, mentor, problem solver... the lists get long and the tasks become more demanding. We often look for ways to batch our tasks together to accomplish more in the shortest time as possible. But this isn't always the best way to accomplish your goals and improve your workflow over time. Batching DOES have its benefits, but it depends on context.

Just the other day, I had 250 brochures to mail to ministry leaders throughout our state. On each envelope, I had to place stamps, shipping labels, and return labels, fold the brochure (the printing service I used wasn't able to mass fold them), and then place in and seal the envelope.

That's six steps... all for one brochure that someone MIGHT read. 

But I did it anyway, and I dug into my long afternoon of work, starting with a blank envelope and performing all six steps, one after another, thinking that I would have neat and tidy packages to send out in no time. 

Except—they were turning out terribly. I made it through about 5 completed envelopes and looked them over. They were bad. Stamps and labels were slightly skewed or off-center—it was just plain sloppy.

I stopped immediately and thought back to a mentor of mine who works in the world of lean, where manufacturing processes are streamlined through removing obstacles and improving assembly flow. He posted an article some months back that showed how batching processes can lead to bottlenecking and poor quality when putting a product together. The article showed how it's actually better to perform a single task repeatedly on multiple pieces, sending them down the line, rather than performing multiple tasks in one spot before shipping it out. 

So I paused, placed my stack of envelopes and rolls of stamps in front of me, and put away the rest of the materials. I peeled a stamp and placed it on my envelope. Then, another... and another... and another. Pretty soon, all of my stamps were perfectly placed. I rinsed and repeated the process with my shipping and return labels, and I had a large stack of envelopes that looked way better than before. For each step, I performed it over 240 times—which made me an expert stamp/label placer 😂 In other words, my flow state was on point. Within a couple hours, I drove over to the post office, dumped my completed packages in the outdoor box, and moved on with my day. I accomplished a large task, and it yielded some great results.

I called my wife to check in and told her about accomplishing my massive task. Her response? 

"That's nice, but why didn't you just print the shipping and return addresses directly on the envelopes instead of peeling labels?"

😫😫😫 cue massive facepalm

I completely missed a point in my preparation that would've leveraged more efficient processes in accomplishing my task. Sure, I got really good at placing labels on envelopes, but a printer is perfect every time—plus, it's super simple to copy/paste all the information from my label documents into another for envelopes and print them all at once. In this case, batching that process was the better way to go. 

How does this translate to your work in ministry, especially in managing a team and leading a congregation in weekly worship?

In the story above, I learned an important lesson in balancing flow and leverage to optimize my all of my ministry processes, and it's pushing me to evaluate where I can streamline or tweak my methods to achieve the best results in an appropriate amount of time. 

If you're in a phase where you're performing multiple duties at once, organize your processes in a way that balances quality work through flow and timely results through leverage. Delegate where you can, but when you're solely assuming responsibility for tasks that only you can do, take them one layer at a time to achieve quality results. This might look like:

• Flow: Considering a focused song set for a season that allows for continual improvement and creativity through repetition. Then, apply that to the next set in the following season.

• Leverage: Implementing someone else to be a musical director for your Sunday morning set, allowing you the freedom to lead the congregation. 

• Flow and leverage combined: Separate vocal and instrumental rehearsals into sectionals, allowing team members to assume leadership/directing (leverage) and for you to focus on one group at a time, addressing their specific needs and integrating afterwards (flow).

The key is to find a balance that achieves desired outcomes, whether that's in excellent performances, nurturing your team with leadership opportunities, heightened efficiency, and smoother organization.

Be blessed 👊✌️