Mike Walker Creative

I was in Las Vegas recently and attended the Cirque du Soleil salute to the Beatles called “LOVE” as well as KA as a special guest. They are both definite “must see’s”.

I have now been doing large scale productions for almost 20 years (that makes me feel old). There isn’t much I haven’t seen and in some cases done, but there were moments where in both evenings where I found myself asking “how’d they do that”?

This weekend was another one of those moments.

During the past year and 3 months it’s been nice to be a church member/attendee. For several years I was in the thick of it “doing church”. What always made it tough was, in the process of working it was often hard to let go and be a worshipper or get fed.

Let me be clear here, I am in no way placing blame anywhere…..I am just saying it was tough.

The past several weeks I found myself being able to attend my home church Gateway in Southlake (which I am greatly thankful for the investment they have made in me), but then was on site with different clients on Sunday morning. As I was in the middle of a service on one of the weekends I looked around at the staff and was asking “how do they do this”? Several of the people I have been in contact with are in the throws of doing services and never have the chance to sit in a service to be a worshipper or have a chance to disconnect enough to get fed. Again, it’s just hard. It’s no wonder that burnout in the church world is so high.

Here’s another sobering thought, network television produces between 18-26 episodes a year. The local church has 52 if they only do weekends. What about the ones who do Wednesdays or require additional time from the staff during the week for outside classes or whatnot….wow!

If you are a church staff member let me first send out some props…keep going! At the same time do what you can to make sure you stay healthy and aren’t trying to pass out something you don’t have yourself.

If you know someone on a church staff that is burning it at both ends make sure to keep them covered in prayer…..having been there I can tell you that they need it.

Looking back I am not really sure how I did it….or if I was always successful at it…but recent events have made me take a good hard look at friends and clients and wonder….”how do they do it”?

I am currently working on a couple of larger production projects as well as working on buying a company. All of these things require large amounts of capital to execute.

I have a good friend of mine who is a venture capitalist that I went to for some advice while putting all my documentation together. The first thing he told me was “before anyone gives you a dime or buys in to your idea…they have to buy in to you. If you have a track record that will make it easier, but if you don’t then you have to sell yourself…then, and only then, will they listen to your idea”.

I have heard that said in a similar manner before, but it was a good reminder.

It got me to thinking later about employees. Sadly most organizations see them merely as that…employees there to serve “me” (the leader) to carry out “my” vision.

What if as leaders we viewed our employees as investors? What if we got them to buy in to the vision for the organization to help build it and grow it. What if the organization grew beyond the leader and we were able to grow something larger than ourselves? I think most would say they want that, but not many go out and DO that.

A side note on buy in…it’s not fear. Having your employees fear you does not mean they buy in.

Some time ago I was an observer in a meeting. There was a new leader put in place to run a department. I just about fell over when he made statements to the effect (I will paraphrase) “it’s now my department so it’s my way. I have taken some larger leaders out and I won’t hesitate to do the same to any of you if you don’t buy in to my vision”.

While yes it sounds absurd and cartoonish, but it happened. Consequently, the team, instead of getting on board and helping dig in to grow the vision they now, even to this day, do just enough. They do their jobs and nothing more. There is no buy in.

I have also sat in meetings where a new leader is brought in and clearly laid out the vision, told the team “this is your department. We will grow and develop as to the level you all buy in and contribute. If you are ok with being average then we will be average. If you want to be great then we will do it together.”

I spoke with the leader of the organization just the other day and they are still growing leaps and bounds and morale is at an all time high. Everyone is working hard, but they are digging in and doing it together because they bought in to the leader then the vision.

Get the buy in and there’s no telling where you can go…as a leader, as a team, and as an organization.

I produced a large festival in Dallas, TX for several years and had the privilege of working with a man I had respected for many years named Denny Keitzman who is one of the absolute best production managers the industry has ever seen.

It was an outdoor event and we had seen several days of severe weather leading up to the event as well as on show day. Everyone on the stage was exhausted and starting to fade as the show finally got under way. As we were discussing possible scenarios to preserve the event and make the best out of a tough situation I remember him saying “people solve problems, so let’s make sure our people working have exactly what they need to do their job, they are well fed, and they feel appreciated”.

The first thing we did was have catering bring additional food and drinks to the stage. The next thing we did was huddle the team and figure out what each person needed to be successful that day and we made sure if it was at all possible we got it for them. Finally we made sure everyone knew that they were vital to the success of the day and every chance we got we made sure to thank them and let them know they were appreciated.

What could have been a disastrous day ended up being one we all celebrated together and still talk about to this day.

I see too many situations where organizations forget that it’s people who solve problems and if you want to grow an organization you have to be about people. Starbucks says it best when they say “we are not in the coffee business serving people, we’re in the people business serving coffee. We are passionate about the people who make the coffee, the people we serve, the people we partner with, and the communities we’re a part of”

I think over the years I haven’t adequately been able to state why I do what I do. I think some people have seen the creativity and technology and always thought I was about excellence for the sake of excellence or being great at creativity or technology, but it’s always been about people.

When you take an approach that is people centered it makes it easy to keep an open mind. Through the years I didn’t always just do what I wanted to do or what I thought would be the coolest thing. In fact there were several times I completely thought ideas were the wrong ideas or approaches, but…because it was never about me and it was always about people, the people coming in the doors, the people I worked with, the people I worked for, and the people/companies I kept relationships with, it was always easy get past it and stay about the business of connecting with and impacting people.