Inspection is Key

I’ll never forget the words that Ed Young spoke when at the C3 conference years ago. He had this to say about delegation:

“You must INSPECT what you EXPECT”

I remember a story Ed told about how he INSPECTED what he put in place. They set up new guidelines for follow-up in the church for first time visitors. The volunteers and staff were to call them within a short period of time. To make sure they were doing it, Ed setup a fake answering machine on an unidentified phone number and he turned in a visitor card. He left a fake greeting and wanted to see if the follow-up process was being followed. INSPECTION!

Get this, you can’t just delegate to someone and pass on your expectations for them and never INSPECT what they are doing. How will you know if the organization is being run the way you want? How will you know if things are falling through the cracks. How will you know if your vision is being followed?

I told our staff a few weeks ago that I wasn’t going to stand for “small church” thinking when it came to our facilities, print material, decor or anything else (no offense to small churches, but often the quality is not there). If we want to be a church of the next level, we must act like it. So I laid out some expectations. Every Sunday when I arrive at the church, I walk around and look for things that are out of place or should not be out. I inspect the kids rooms to see if they are clean and put together. I inspect the bathrooms to see if the trash is emptied. If I see something, I address it and make a note of it. It will come up in our next staff meeting!

Whatever you delegate, you must inspect. That becomes your role as you delegate.