5LQ Episode 252: How to Create a Culture of Recruiting –

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Eric Geiger, Todd Adkins, and Daniel Im continue the series on recruiting volunteers with a practical discussion on creating a culture of recruiting. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How important is culture to recruiting volunteers? What are some of the best levers leaders have at their disposal to create and embed culture? How do I assess my current culture? Is culture created by poetry or plumbing? What are some practical steps to actually start changing your culture? BEST QUOTES “Culture is important for any discipline or value you want proliferated across the church.” “Just having a recruiting culture isn’t enough.” “The argument on which comes first isn’t as important as deciding you need both culture and systems.” “If you want to create culture you tell stories that embody the values you want to see in the culture.” “You create culture by who and what is celebrated.” “You change the culture by telling new stories and pointing to new heroes.” “You can assess the culture by listening to what’s talked about, what’s prayed for, what stories are told from the past, and what heroes are lifted up as the kind of person that is celebrated by the church.” “If you don’t assess your current culture, you might go into a loop thinking you are doing something new when you actually end up back at your original starting point.” “Take a look at your policies and your processes because those systems pieces speak very loudly to what your culture actually is. A lot of churches have policies and processes in place because of something bad that happened at some point in time.” “We can be so obsessed with learning what other churches are doing that we don’t spend enough time assessing our own.” “Leadership development is poetry and plumbing. It is vision that inspires and the system and processes that deliver on the dream.” “If you are all poetry and no plumbing, you are a dreamer. You are just talking about development and recruiting.” “If you are all plumbing and no poetry, you are a doer. It’s about the task, not about the person.” “Identify the actual values you want to retain. Celebrate those. Have less aspirational values, but have a plan to imbed them in the culture.” “When it comes to practical steps to start changing your culture, you have to know your values so you can move ahead and bring about a new culture.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Creating and Curating a Recruiting Culture e-book Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck 5LQ Episode 233: Jean Twenge No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im