By Jonathan Howe
In a recent internal meeting at LifeWay, Vice President Eric Geiger shared the SKS process for evaluating people, systems, or companies. The process itself is rather simple, yet extremely effective. SKS stands for the three questions:
- What should we stop doing?
- What should we keep doing?
- What should we start doing?
When used in performance evaluations, it’s helpful in identifying pivot points for employees. When used in systems, companies, or churches, it allows you to find areas where you’ve lost focus or drifted from your mission.
Churches could use this feedback process in a variety of ways. Since my posts here at ThomRainer.com focus on church communications, let’s look at how it applies in that specific arena.
- What should we stop doing with our communications? Use this question to identify areas that are time wasters or resource hogs. Are there processes that could be automated using technology? Are you using outdated modes of marketing or publicity without any results? If you have social media profiles or websites that are not updated or defunct, then eliminate them.
- What should we keep doing with our communications? Use this question to identify what is core to your church communications. This question helps you learn what works and allows you to find your sweet spot for marketing or publicity as well as informing your members. If you have a certain event that does well and people were well informed and enthusiastic about it, identify what led to that and implement the same process with other events.
- What should we start doing with our communications? Use this question to identify areas where you are coming up short. Online media platforms come and go all the time. Are there some platforms your church is missing? You don’t have to be everywhere online, but are there some core websites and online audiences that you’ve failed to engage?
These may seem like simple questions, but the results can be profound.
One final word of caution—before acting on your answers, you should consider the possible unintended consequences any change may bring. And as you implement the change, consider following the leading change roadmap from Who Moved My Pulpit?
Do you regularly evaluate your processes? Do you ever evaluate your online presence?
With each question, decide who you want to reach with the particular communication. You will then need to ask that particular group if the messages reach them in a timely manner. Although an extreme example, don’t have the elderly deciding what should go out to the youth group.
Great points, Mark