Transcript: How Strong Strategic Clarity Leads to Kingdom Impact // Janice Rosser Allen, ICM

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

How Strong Strategic Clarity Leads to Kingdom Impact

March 6, 2023

Janice Rosser Allen

Intro: We all know that having a flourishing workplace culture doesn't happen by accident. Well, in today's episode, we talk with a leader who has intentionally developed a flourishing workplace that includes a very healthy and sustainable strategy. Well, how does she do it? Well, listen in to discover her approach.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al Lopus: A flourishing workplace culture is a catalyst to accomplish the vision and mission of any organization. Great Kingdom impact is possible when engaged employees are clearly focused on a sustainable strategy. And sustainable strategy’s one of our eight keys to boost employee engagement. And today on the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, we're going to learn from a leader of a mission organization with a strong strategic clarity. In fact, you may want to implement some of these practices in your organization.

Well, I'm delighted to welcome Janice Rosser Allen. Janice is the CEO of ICM, the global church developer. Janice, welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast.

Janice Rosser Allen: Well, thank you so much. It really is a joy, and I love the opportunity to share the things that God is doing in and through the team here at ICM.

Al: I'm looking forward to our conversation and to learning from you.

Janice, let's start with an introduction of the work that your organization does. ICM, the global church developer, focuses on a particular slice of the Great Commission. So tell us a little bit about the mission and vision. And perhaps you can share a story of the growth of one local church that you've worked with that illustrates the work you do.

Janice: Well, I love sharing the stories, that is so true. And it has been a marvel to see the way that God has really grown this ministry in our 38 years of existence. Our mission statement is to nurture believers and assist church growth worldwide. That can be very encompassing. So to give more specificity about what ICM specifically has been called to do with the Great Commission, it's our vision that there would be a healthy church in walking distance of everyone in the world. We know that’s BHAG goal, but that's what God has called us to be about. And we are so focused on healthy, reproducing congregations because we believe strongly that it's very scriptural—that was God's plan—to transform the world is by healthy gatherings of His people who begin to do the transformational work of the gospel in the areas where they exist.

When I talk about a healthy church, I have to drill in and speak about how important it is to ICM that is inclusive of very intentional discipleship. And so the two things that ICM focuses on specifically that are ways to equip and empower the indigenous church in whatever country we are working is to equip them with the resources for them to build their own churches for existing congregations, and then also to equip them with Bible resources in their own language that are primarily in an audio or visual format that are particularly vital for oral communities.

ICM is focused on the work in 100 nations of the world. Our work is not focused in the United States, but on the church and other countries that are poorly resourced. ICM stands for International Cooperating Ministries, and that middle word is the hallmark, I think, of our model that everything we do in whatever country we are in is through the identification of strong, indigenous leaders of strong, evangelical networks or denominations. And so they are, from my perspective, they are the heroes. They are the ones doing all the heavy lifting in the countries where they work, under very difficult circumstances, the majority of the time. And an honor for ICM through our donors is to make available the resources for them to have healthy congregations with places of permanent worship.

Al: Well, that's fantastic. We have a lot of commonality. We like to focus on healthy staff cultures, and we know that when there's a healthy staff culture, especially in larger churches, we know that the health of the church today is—the health of the staff today is the health of the congregation tomorrow. And yeah, really love that.

Well, Janice, your organization did an Employee Engagement Survey with us in 2022. It’s the first time that you've worked with us. And first of all, let me congratulate you. You and your team have a flourishing workplace culture, and you did that the first time that you worked with us. In fact, as we looked at the results, sustainable strategy, one of the eight keys of a flourishing workplace that we measure, was really high. In fact, your scores in this area were in the top 5% of your sector of parachurch and mission organizations, which caused our consultant Doug Waldo to say, “Hey, they've got something to share. In fact, I know your listeners,” he was saying to me, “would really learn from their example.” So, Janice, what's your secret? Are there some foundational principles that are core to your organization? What makes your strategic focus so clear at ICM?

Janice: Well, that can be answered, I think, in several different ways. The foundational documents that we created clearly set riverbanks for the ministry. ICM was actually founded by my father when he was 65 years old, having a lengthy career in business and had been on the boards of numerous parachurch organizations. And I think his service in both of those arenas became instrumental in shaping some of the unique qualities of ICM.

My father never even went to college, never went to Bible school, never intended to start a global ministry. But he was passionate about the Great Commission, and he was passionate about always looking for ways to be efficient, effective, make an impact for the least amount of money possible. So those kind of core values we have identified and have as our core-value statements for how we operate. Those ideas of our core cultural, our DNA, create part of the riverbank. We do have a clear statement of faith for all the international partners we work with that's based on the Lausanne Covenant. So we have a clear statement of faith for all of our international partners.

On the fundraising side of things, we early on created a very clear philosophy for fundraising and development that becomes a guidepost to all the people, in the years since it was created and ongoing, affirm our belief that giving is an act of worship. We perceive ICM as being the temporary stewards of the money that our donors are the temporary stewards of as well, and that God just enables that to pass through us.

Operationally, we have created manuals that give guidelines and expectations to all of our international partners so they have ready access to clear guidelines for how we work and what our goals are.

I think the other thing that became important, I've been in a leadership role at the ministry for 18 years, and while the ministry was far smaller 18 years ago, we established the practice of, between our board and our staff, creating very clear five-year visionary goals for the ministry. Those strategic pillars are affirmed and developed by our leadership and by our board, and those become, to me, the strategic pillars that we implement for the next five-year period. And then the staff is to develop all the individual departmental goals that create our annual plans and budgets that all align together. So we're all kind of marching to the same drumbeat, and all of our goals and objectives line up together as an entire ministry.

Al: So you've got five strategic pillars, Janice. I'm curious, can you mention a couple, just to give our listeners an idea of what an example might be?

Janice: Well, our primary pillar would be aligning with our mission statement for advancing the healthy churches through discipleship and church building. So that primarily captures what we're doing programmatically. Another goal would be more relevant to what we're trying to accomplish with our fundraising and marketing. Another strategic pillar has to do with our increasing the use of cutting-edge technology for us to become more efficient and more effective and secure because we carry a lot of very, very important information that could do a lot of damage if it were in the wrong hands. So the focus investment wise and time and technology has been very important for the ministry.

Al: That's very helpful.

So what would you say to a leader who's discouraged about keeping their teams clear on goals and strategy? So how do you get your employees at all levels to be clear on their goals and execute a plan in their daily work? You've already talked about how you cascade the goals down—managers, employees are involved in the creation of those. So are there some practical steps that you've incorporated at ICM that would help you with this process?

Janice: I think one of the things that, I mean, I think your point is so well taken that a leadership team can create the best plan in the world, but unless there's buy in and ownership by the people that are rolling up into that plan. So we make sure that, you know, everyone knows what the plan is. We reinforce the plan. Every department has their quarterly goals and have to report on those quarterly goals. All the managers are tracking those things. And then, we share with the whole staff how we are doing against various goals at our quarterly staff meetings. So we try to keep it out in front of people and give as much ownership at every level to all the different measurables that we're tracking.

Al: Yeah, I love that. Ownership at every level. And so you've actually broken down the annual goals to quarterly goals, and every department reports on their quarterly goals to the rest of the team. And you've got, as I recall, something like 70 employees, a pretty-good-sized group. But they're reporting to their team, “Okay, this is what we've done this quarter.” And then, of course, you celebrate those milestones, and work towards the next quarter. Wow, okay.

You know, we've talked about how sustainable strategy and a focus on goals are key factors at ICM. And boy, your scores certainly reinforce that. So how do you balance the emphasis on goals and strategy while giving people the freedom to innovate? And you've talked about technology and innovation already, but how do you give them the freedom to innovate and be creative in their jobs?

Janice: Well, that's a great question and I think probably one every leader tries to balance. I think one of the things that is a critical emphasis that we have in the creation of the goals—and this is something everybody on the team knows—it was done with lots and lots of prayer. And we continually affirm that is an essential part of every team's and every individual's responsibility, praying for the ministry, praying for one another. And I think that spills over probably into what you're asking, how do you balance, you know—emphasis on goals, which we have a strong emphasis on measurables and accountability. You know, we get—often people tease us that we count everything. You know, we believe that's important, you know.

But I think the thing that we encourage all of our team and when we have our staff retreats, which we have for the entire team twice a year, we pull everyone in together, even our folks who work remotely, and we reinforce looking at spiritual gifts of one another, encouraging people to affirm the gifting of their teammates. You know, we absolutely encourage excellence, but we affirm the use of the gifts of the Body and that all of those gifts are needed. And we talk about that quite a bit amongst the team. While, you know, always asking, how do we do what God's called us to do to make even greater impact and more efficiently using better technology?

I think we have always, because of the nature of my father, who was very entrepreneurial in business, and it spilled over into the ministry, and once again captures that idea of our core value I mentioned earlier, but we actually give out an award every year called the Rock Award. And the Rock Award is intended to acknowledge people's activity of looking under rocks to see every opportunity that God might have for us to make a greater impact for the kingdom. And we look for those people. We have nominations, and we award that entrepreneur. And to be an entrepreneur and to be a visionary and to be creative, you need to encourage people to think outside the box. And so we award that and acknowledge it and affirm it.

Al: I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

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And now back to today’s special guest.

The Rock Award. Okay, listeners, there you go. And that's to recognize people that look under every rock for even more impact for the kingdom. So I love that.

Well, Janice, first of all, you're encouraging your team, they're evaluating their own spiritual gifts, they're encouraged to build up spiritual gifts of the Body, and how, of course, that's such a wonderful thing. I oftentimes do recommend to our ministry partners that people knowing what their spiritual gifts are and knowing what their team's spiritual gifts are helps to really create life-giving work. That's a key. Also, I love your commitment. Two times a year you get your staff all together and meet, and particularly that's helpful for those that are doing work remotely, and, yeah, just really focus on impact and being even more efficient with the values of your entrepreneurial father. Those are great ideas for innovation and creativity.

Now, let's talk a little bit about effective teamwork. You know, that's another area that you guys are really strong. A senior leadership certainly sets the tone for this. But successful teams are lived out by supervisors and frontline staff in their day-to-day work. So how do you equip your managers, your supervisors, your frontline staff to work together on their teams and even between teams? You know, it's one thing to have good teamwork within your team, but the real measure oftentimes is having teamwork even across teams. Again, this is an area of strength. Tell us a little bit about that.

Janice: Well, before I get into maybe some of the specific ways in which we encourage communication, just to share about one of the things that we implemented a number of years ago, and I believe so very strongly when we are in the position of taking ground for the kingdom, there will be spiritual warfare. And I believe so strongly that many times that spiritual warfare can happen where we are vulnerable and where we aren't paying attention. And sometimes within an organization—I laughed for the day. It's like the little foxes in the vineyard, that difficulty can so often come when it's a breakdown in communication or a breakdown in team, or people begin finger pointing. And so all those things we know are part of us because we're fallen, but as a ministry leader to set the tone.

And so the very first staff retreat we had was an opportunity for the facilitator to have every person on staff look at Scripture individually, then in pairs, then in groups of four, then in groups of eight to dive into the Word, specific Scripture. And our staff wrote our own staff covenant for how we aspire to work with one another, in a covenant way, how do we aspire to work with our brothers and sisters in the workplace to keep our teams and communications with one another healthy? And so every single person who joins the ministry is asked to sign that covenant. Every staff retreat, we pull it back out.

The person who helped us write that staff covenant said, “It'll only be as valuable as you keep it in front of people.” And so we actually have it hanging in our breakroom, and around this document, we have pulled out the words that guide us as an organization—words like integrity, harmony, faith, grace, laughter, creativity, joy, compassion, humility. Those are the words that guide us as an organization. And I think that, once again, gives us the riverbanks in which to work. When there is conflict, we quickly go to God's Word and say, “How does it say we resolve the conflict? Let's get in front of one another and resolve any challenges we have.”

That was a rabbit trail, and getting back to the question you asked really, though, sets the tone for healthy communication with teams, amongst teams. You know, I think all leaders recently have felt the challenge with people working remotely so much more, how do you keep healthy communication when you aren't necessarily with people physically as often as you may have been pre-pandemic? So it's taken an extra amount of effort to make sure we stay in healthy communication at the manager level and supervisor level all the way down to the volunteers that are part of the ministry.

Al: Yeah. Again, to our listeners, I just want to point out I love the idea, do you have a staff covenant? And again, as Janice was describing it—Janice, congratulations—you had your employees participating. You identified, they identified key words that came out of Scripture that helped them to know, “Well, this is the way we want to work together.” I mean, you gave them a kind of a spiritual vision of how the Body of Christ should work together. I mean, that's so much part of our vision, that Christian workplaces should set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world. And it comes right out of Scripture, that God wants us to be in community, to flourish together. Oh, I just love it. Thank you.

In a flourishing workplace, we see engaged employees who are energized in their work. We talk about them bringing their whole selves to work, that they're emotionally engaged in their work. And your staff feels like they have a great work-life balance in addition to that. So what are some of the ways that you invest and support your employees to have healthy rhythms of work? How do you help them balance work and other aspects of their lives so that they are healthy even as they are, based on the survey results, flourishing? What are your thoughts there?

Janice: Well, I think one of the things we try to reinforce is the sense that being part of ICM, they are part of the ICM family, and that extends beyond just the employee. We celebrate life events together. We celebrate marriages. We celebrate babies being born. We have gatherings for the entire family to come and meet with one another. And so we definitely celebrate the families that people come from who are choosing to be here at ICM.

I think one of the things that we have begun to do in an accelerated fashion, and I think, once again, there are some trends that have been happening in the workplace with the pandemic, and I think everyone is noting that people have an increasing desire to have more flexibility within their work week. And so we have tried to build in more benefits, more flexibility, some more vacation time, where people can choose to use personal days or vacation days. So we've tried to give the employees far more engagement with balancing work and family life.

We recently, also, added benefits that support new mothers and new fathers. We have added additional benefits that support wellness and prevention benefits and mental-health resources as well. And we certainly encourage all our people to be involved in their local churches and to be engaged with their local churches. We even recently—in fact, today we did the awards—we had a fitness competition for anyone who wanted to be involved in counting the number of steps and had a healthy competition amongst the departments and gave out some gift cards for the fitness. That was just a lot of fun.

But I think one of the things that we hear over and over again is the blessing that we have, because of the work we're involved with, for there to not be this compartmentalized existence between this is what I do over here with my work, and this is what I do over here in my faith life. And people will often say, “I can't believe I'm getting paid to do what I do.” And it gives our team, I think, a great sense of purpose and value in the kingdom work that they are part of. Gives them great deal of personal fulfillment. And so that's a joy to be in a place where we can promote that.

Al: Yeah. It gives me great joy when I see open-ended comments coming in, “I just can’t believe I get paid to pray.”

Janice: Yep, yep.

Al: “And gosh, I just love working in this Christian workplace. Nobody else swears here.” You know, I mean, the things we take for granted working in Christian workplaces is unbelievable.

Janice: Yes.

Al: Yeah. That sense of integration and balance. And I love those examples of healthy rhythms of celebrating life events, bringing families in to be together and celebrate the work that's going on to make sure that there's good wellness. I love the fitness example. Yeah, I'm getting my 10,000 steps in today myself. So those are great things. Thanks so much.

So you're doing kingdom-building work at ICM. And of course, the evil one wants to derail the important work of growing churches, particularly healthy churches, and discipling in the less-resourced areas with indigenous people around the world. And you've already mentioned some of these things. How do you keep spiritually nourished for the work that you do? Are there some spiritual practices that you have as a staff, on your leadership team, throughout the organization? What can you share with us, Janice?

Janice: Well, one of the things that we—and I don't think this is probably unique to probably most Christian organizations—but we have a weekly devotional time for all the staff. And we have teaching from the Word, worship together, prayer together. And then, we have a presentation either from one of our partners overseas, which I feel is important to keep reminding our team of why it is they're doing what they do. So we hear from the partners who are on the front lines and expressing their gratitude for what ICM brings to the table to help them advance the impact of kingdom growth through their ministry. So I think that's an encouragement to our team.

We have a volunteer prayer team that meets once a week, and everyone on staff is encouraged to submit prayer requests to that team, for prayer requests that are either confidential or work related. And so we really have a culture of praying before every meeting, praying at every devotional time. Each department, apart from our full-staff devotionals, each department will have their departmental devotionals, too, where there's more of a personal exchange of how we can be supporting one another in prayer for personal things.

You know, I think one of the things that we do encourage all of our team members to have a daily personal quiet time. And I know within the leadership team, so we have a group of four on our leadership team, and we will meet every other week, but begin every other meeting, before the recorder gets turned on, we just share around the table what we can be praying for one another and just kind of touching base with how one another is doing. And you know, so that, to me, is an important way in which we as leadership just keep pulse on how one another is doing in our personal lives.

I mentioned we do have worship together whenever we have staff retreats. That is very significant in terms of praying and worshiping together. And just the staff covenant, totally based on scripture, how we aspire to work together.

Al: Yeah. Again, I just love the staff-covenant idea. And yeah, the spiritual practices, reinforcing those practices personally and as a group, as a team. And spiritual leadership is clearly a clear competence that's required of leaders in Christian organizations.

Well, this has just been a fabulous conversation, Janice. Thank you so much. It's so fascinating. And I'm encouraged to hear after 38 years that you've been nurturing believers, that what a vision to have a healthy church within walking distance everywhere in the world. And let’s pray that God’s kingdom come. Absolutely. And that you have this foundation of a sustainable strategy that your father, who founded the organization at age 65—there's hope for a lot of us—that at age 65, a ministry like yours could be founded and flourish for so long. And also, that you work with every department and every group, that you have goals, and you report on goals that are linked to your overall strategy every quarter, that you really reinforce innovation and creativity, that you've got regular awards and encouraging people to look under the rocks. The Rock Award. That was a great example. That you have regular rhythms in the organization and that leaders set the tone, as you say. Your staff covenant is another example of just how it can bring a team together, to agree on, “This is the way we're going to treat each other.” And it also, it puts the onus on each of your staff members to kind of bring that accountability to bear so that the leaders and yourself, you don't have to be the ones always reinforcing, “Well, that's not in the staff covenant,” where more people buy into it and help each other live that way. So just great examples. Thank you so much, Janice.

How about anything you'd like to add that we've talked about?

Janice: Well, you know, I think one of the things that is for me personally a challenge as a leader of the ministry is retaining that very culture I've been speaking about at the same time we are experiencing significant growth. And I think that is, you know, probably the last thing to kind of leave folks with is the intentionality that is required to make sure you don't lose the culture that we have spent many years creating while at the same time growing and adding on new people at a very rapid rate. And how do you keep the culture spoken about in front of the new people? So that's a challenge.

Al: Yeah. That's a challenge, and it's a good problem and a good challenge to have to experience growth and to make sure that you're creating that culture for all people that’s so flourishing.

Well, Janice, thank you so much for your contributions today, and I just love our conversation. I just really appreciate your commitment to growing healthy churches that will transform the communities and the world. And as I've walked the Camino de Santiago recently, I just come back with the saying, the world needs Christ now more than ever. So thanks for taking the time out today to speak into the lives of so many listeners.

Janice: Thank you for giving me the opportunity. God bless you.

Al: Thank you.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.