19 April 2009

Before coming to work at the church I worked in the mental health field. And unfortunately I learned some bad habits. Everything from watching my back, to hoarding knowledge to paying someone as little as possible to do a job without thinking how it might impact future interactions with the person or company.

It was about keeping your job and trying to live up to unrealistic expectations - typically to pad the companies bottom line and allow the CEO to feel good about himself on his next exotic vacation.

But the church has taught me new habits. Trust, sharing your ideas, collaborating with teams and partnering with people.

It's that last part that I want to stress - partnering with people and vendors. I've seen it over and over again. Instead of contracting the cheapest solution and then dropping them the next time if something cheaper is found, the church develops strategic partnerships. These relationships begin like any other but over time become a sharing and collaborative interaction that helps strengthen both entities.

For years now we've had this partnership with AspireOne. They help us maintain the foundation of our website - allowing us to manage the daily/weekly updates and dream about future revisions. They push us on our decisions and we hopefully keep them on the cutting edge by asking for the next crazy thing out there.

Little by little it all made sense - to the point where last week I formed a partnership with a company in the community. It's starting over a specific project, but I hope it continues for years to come.

Isn't growth a wonderful thing?