Pan Dulce

Give Thanks

The time has come once again to take a break from the routine of each day and each week, from the busyness and stress of getting things done for children and families to stop, take a breath, and remember all the reasons we have to give thanks. About two years ago my family and I made a transition from serving as president of Baptist University of the Americas to Buckner. Two years have flown by at a high rate of speed.

I give thanks to the Lord for visionary leaders like Dr. Ken Hall, President and CEO of Buckner International. I have appreciated his leadership, his vision, his passion for serving children and his finesse as a minister/executive leader. I have known few people who have the skills necessary to serve as a pastor and executive leader of an organization like Buckner. I give thanks for Pat Williamson and Glynnis Barrett who tirelessly strive to provide support and encouragement to Dr. Hall’s leadership team.

I give thanks for David Kihneman, Tony Lintleman, David Slover, Scott Collins, Jack Davis, Lloyd McWilliams, Steve Ingram, Pearl Merritt, Karen Houston and their teams for their excellent contribution to the management of Buckner. I will miss the leadership contribution of David Kihneman and the business acumen he brings to the table.

I am blessed to have served these two years with highly competent professional staff leaders such as Felipe Garza, Randy Daniels, Kenton Keller, Arnie Adkison, Victor Upton, Melissa Opheim, Michelle Harris, JoAnn Cole and their teams. I am also thankful for Cheryl Jones who serves as executive assistant in my office. She has brought an extraordinary level of support and professionalism to my office. I thank the Lord for each of our Director/Team Leaders and their teams who provide direct care and supervision to the children we serve. I am also grateful for the kind of regional leadership and country directors we have internationally. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such competent professionals.

I am thankful for the challenges and opportunities that we will face in the coming year. I am certain that we will find new opportunities to serve children in new ways and we will strengthen the core competencies we have developed over our 130 year history. I am thankful for the donors and churches that provide direct support of our ministry both in Texas and around the world. We literally could not impact as many lives as we do without their help. I am thankful for thoughtful and supportive trustees who provide oversight of our ministry. I am thankful for my wife Belinda and our boys for following my sense of leadership 24 months ago.

I grew up going to church all my life. I remember as a young boy singing a hymn about counting your blessings and naming them one by one. The hymn challenged the worshipper to reflect on what God had done. Honestly, I am sure that I could not count the blessings God has given me and my family. They are so many that I have lost count and lost track of them. I think of God’s grace and I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude. My blog will be silent the rest of this week in order to take time to reflect and give thanks. Take a few moments this week and reflect. Then, give thanks.

Great Skills and Good News

The last time I wrote on my blog I wrote on the subject “Dynamite Was Right,” with an idea taken from Napoleon Dynamite. I adopted the line from Dynamite and said “Buckner likes staff with great skills.” So what are the skills for the future that are needed at Buckner?

Beyond job specific skills, I believe we need staff with cross cultural skills, project management skills, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, business skills, negotiation skills, persuasion skills, team leadership skills, relational skills, presentation skills, public speaking skills, writing skills.

We will continue to require staff with a social work background and credentials. Our focus will increasingly lead us to the place where we take care of the poor in our global village. Consistent with the heritage and history of social work, we will continue to focus on condition of people in their environment drawing upon the best theories of human development and behavior as well as social systems to facilitate positive change. This is the heart of what we do. Staff with a background in social work, ministry, missiology, business, organizational leadership, economic development, alliance management, educational services, and organizational management will lead the way to our future.

Our best stewardship for the future is to equip our current staff with the skills listed above as well as the effort to equip manager with a sense of his or her own personal mission. Obviously, in some cases, external candidates may best fit the profile of the type of staff person we need for a given position. I have just received notice that the Leadership Development Profile has an official copyright and we are ready to schedule a training experience for all our managers in 2009. I hope to announce a training date by December 31, 2008. Beyond the LDP, my vision is for Buckner to develop a comprehensive training and staff development programs which may be a combination of internal training opportunities as well as access to external programs, certificates, and degree programs.

More good news!
You may have already read about the action of our board this past week. The agreement providing for a new affiliation with Dillon International a Tulsa based international adoption agency, was approved last week in the meeting of the Buckner board and also approved our 2009 budget. I am very encouraged about the new directions we will see in 2009. Stay tuned to the blog, the Buckner website, and the Baptist Standard for more news about these developments.

Dynamite Was Right

At the risk of sounding like Napoleon Dynamite, “Buckner likes staff that has great skills.” “Napoleon Dynamite” is probably the best dumb movie I have ever seen with “Nacho Libre,” following as a close second. However, Dynamite makes a good point about the value of skills. Let me talk about some of the skills that are needed in the new Buckner.

I think it is first important to talk about what I mean by the “new Buckner.” Buckner is an emerging social service and missions agency. If you are interested in where we are headed, specifically, take a look at the “Why, What, How, Who, and When of Change at Buckner,” featured in the last two weeks. But, what does it mean that we are Social Service and Missions Agency? First, it means we are expanding who we are. About 15 years ago Dr. Ken Hall, President and CEO of Buckner began to lead Buckner to consider children at risk, orphans, and families who were severely underserved in other countries besides the USA. Why did he do this? Deep in the core of Ken Hall’s identity is a missional passion. He came in to the office of President and CEO with a twin concern for orphans and missions. Today we are in 10 countries because of his vision. So this vision is not really new. We are coming into its fruition in 2008 and beyond.

But I think it is important to say that the new Buckner is a “both/and” rather than an “either/or” proposition. We are committed to making life better for at risk children, orphans, and families here in Texas (as we have since 1879), in other states across the nation, and across our borders and across the seas. Buckner will continue to require staff with social work skills, credentials, and experience. Providing healthy family environments is at the core of what we do. In addition to those kinds of skills, we will need to add an array of skills that speak to the expansion of services we are seeking to provide to serve families. The new leaders at Buckner will have the best combination of ministry and business skills. We will also need leaders who bring unique specializations with them such as business, economic development, urban development, community development, management, education, and medical expertise.

We will need both social work skills and leadership skills. We will need a blend of both ministry and business in our leadership. We will provide both direct care and preventive support. We will provide healthy family environments both in the USA and in other countries. We will become a learning organization that upholds the value of lifelong learning, especially among its leaders. The best way to arrive at a place where our staff has greater skills is to create a system of staff development in addition to our Mentor Program. I will spend some time talking about what that program might look like on Wednesday.

The “When” of Change at Buckner: Timelines, Implementation, and Effectiveness

Over the last two weeks I have attempted to share the Why, What, How, and Who of the changes that we are pursuing and introducing at Buckner. I am indebted to my team for developing this framework of decision-making and direction over the past three months.

Today I would like to close out this series of blogs on change by outlining the “When” of all these changes. There are several positions that will be eliminated from our organizations and our colleagues that are affected have been notified. We may also see additional changes as we implement this new organization. We have already posted new positions on our main website at www.buckner.org with new positions and we have begun the interview process for open positions.

We plan to introduce our budget and new organization to our board of trustees on November 20th and will begin implementation immediately following that meeting. In the month of December we will continue to communicate internally to prepare for launching the new organization in January of 2009. We plan to officially launch our new organization on January 5, 2009.

This process has become a faith journey. It represents a faith proposition for those affected by the new organization as well as the new steps we will take to enhance our ability to increase service to more at-risk children, orphans, and families. We will need faith for the days ahead. We will need faith for the vision the Lord has given us. We will need faith for today. I am reminded that “without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

We will need to aggressively pursue enhanced communication efforts throughout our organization. A recent Organizational Effectiveness survey demonstrated how important communication is between our leadership and staff throughout the system. While we scored quite high for our effectiveness and ability to deliver high quality service to children and families, our staff felt that we need better methods of communication. My team will take these concerns seriously, especially as we implement this new organization in the coming year.

Pray for wisdom, understanding, and discernment as we seek to provide leadership and direction for Buckner. May the Lord guide us each day as we seek to make life better for at-risk children, orphans, and families here and around the world.

How The New Organization will Work: Internal Governance

I have explained the How and Who of the new organization but how will it work? The Strategy Group will have Directors of Alliance Management and Initiatives as well as a Director of Service Offering Development. The Relationships Group will have Directors of Ministry Development and a Research and Assessment Function. National Operations will have a Director of Campus Ministries with Campus Administrators reporting to that position as well as Directors of Community Ministries with some oversight to Community Empowerment Programs in other cities and states where we do not have Campus Ministries. International Operations will have Regional Directors of global regions and countries.

Our internal governance will focus on three monthly meetings:

Operations Review
This meeting will consist of the President, the Operations VP’s and the Chief Strategy Officer. Our goal for this meeting is to review our balanced scorecard and identify actions to meet operational plans. We will review both domestic and international performance to discern ways we are meeting our goals as well as challenges that require our attention.

Sales and Marketing Coordination
This meeting will consist of representatives from Buckner Foundation, Relationships/Business Development, Operations, and Strategy. This meeting will focus on planning and supporting the development and execution of major marketing campaigns that support BCFS and BF ministry. This meeting will ensure that we are working as a team to deliver the needed support for major initiatives and operations.

New Business Review
This meeting consists of representatives from Strategy, Operations, Business Development, and Buckner Foundation. The purpose of this meeting is to review and approve all new opportunities for Buckner as well as current opportunities in process. Focus will be kept on extensions of service within current locations as well as expansion to new locations for service.

These monthly meetings will enhance an integrated leadership effort between Buckner Foundation and BCFS staff and will ensure a team approach to serve our clients and customers.

The “Who” of Change at Buckner: Leadership

I have assembled a powerful team of leaders that represent the best of strategy, business, ministry, social work experience, and passion for children and families. Today I would like to share with you the leaders of our new organization.

Kenton Keller will serve as Chief Strategy Officer will lead our Strategy effort. He has serve as an international management consultant with Accenture for over 28 years, and brings the best of business thinking to our team. Strategy will include; Initiatives and Alliance Mgt as well as Service Offering Development. Service Offering Development will focus on standardizing and codifying current as well as new types of services. New Initiatives will focus on all new service offerings, opportunities, and change at Buckner. The focus of Strategy is to keep the organization focused on performance and effectiveness, week by week and month by month.

Arnie Adkison, Chief Relationships Officer, will be responsible for all relationships other than Donor Relationships at Buckner. Arnie comes to us with a unique combination of pastoral leadership experience, Para-church leadership experience, and development leadership in higher education. He will lead account management and ensure customer satisfaction. He will generate new customers for all service offerings, communicate and coordinate across BCFS and Buckner International, oversee community assessments and will be responsible for the Customer Relationship System. He will also manage Ministry Development Directors and SOS Fulfillment.

Felipe Garza will serve as VP for National Operations. Felipe is a career veteran with Buckner having served over 26 years. He has served as a direct care provider and has held various management positions during his career with Buckner. Felipe will direct and supervise the delivery of Buckner Services nationally. He will have a Director of Campus Ministries report to him for all ministries where we have an operating campus. He will have current staff that will supervise Community Enablement/Services for North and South Texas as well as other States. He will continue to supervise the ISAAC program

Randy Daniels will serve as VP for International Operations. Randy is also a career veteran with Buckner with over 17 years of service. He has had various management and leadership positions during his career at Buckner. He will have Directors of Latin America, Border/Mexico, and Africa/Eastern Europe report to him. We will combine Mission Resource and Humanitarian Aid under one office to support international operations.

National Adoptions will be led by a Vice President for Adoptions that is yet to be named. On Thursday I will write about how this new organization will work.

The “How” of Change at Buckner: New Structure

I have written about the Why and the What of Change at Buckner and today I am introducing the “How.” The “How” will require a new organizational structure.

Our current Continuous Improvement Model requires a Re-Organization Effort. So this is what the new organization will look like. Let me explain:

The focus of this new organization is to streamline the organization functionally. We will have a closer working relationship with Buckner Foundation and jointly align ourselves to provide a cohesive approach to our work moving further and further away from a Silo approach. We will focus on our organization into four main functions: Strategy, Relationships, Operations, and Adoptions.

Strategy: The focus of the Strategy Group is to drive change, direction, service offerings and performance as well new initiatives. This group will focus on introducing new operational practices aimed at discipline, focus, effectiveness, and efficiency. Strategy will also help implement our Opportunity Management Approach with all new ministry opportunities. We will also standardize service offerings and consider new initiatives such as economic development, community development, and of empowerment programs across our system.

Relationships: Our focus here is to proactively engage our customers, in this case churches, educational institutions, businesses, NGO’s and governments to look for win-win solutions. All relationships except Donor Relationships will be handled through this organization.

Operations: We will implement a relentless focus on impacting lives by delivering high quality service for our clients. This will be the primary focus of our Operations group. We will divide this group into Domestic and International Operations.

Adoptions: Our new adoption focus will expand our impact nationally as well as internationally to places we have wanted to go to for some time. Ultimately, we will be able to serve more children from a national perspective and will become a global force for adoptions for here and abroad.

This is our basic structure for the new organization: Strategy, Relationships, Operations, and Adoptions. Tomorrow, I will spend time describing the “Who” of this new organization.

The “What” of Change at Buckner Part III: Continuous Improvement Models

Last week I began sharing the rationale for the changes that we are introducing at Buckner for 2009. I will continue this week with the “What, How, Who, and When” of these changes.

In any organization at any point in time, there are at least 5 approaches to assessing the future direction for that particular organization. I think it is important for the sake of context and understanding to accurately identify where we are as an organization in order to identify the correct model that applies to us at this time in our history.

Organizations often find themselves in one of the following situations:

Realignment – The challenge is to revitalize a unit, product, process or project that is drifting into trouble. It might be apparent that certain parts of the organization are healthy while others need revitalization and realignment.

Turnaround – The challenge is to take a unit that is recognized to be in trouble and work to get it back on track. I have personally been involved in turnaround environments and this can be the most challenging high risk work that exists. The rewards are also high as well.

Start up – The charge is to assemble capabilities to a get a new organization, product, or process off the ground. Church planting is much like Start Up scenarios. The energy required to get momentum going is enormous and time consuming. Start Up situations may also exist in Realignments and Sustaining Success models for some parts of the organization.

Sustaining Success – The challenge is to preserve the vitality of a successful organization and taking it to the next level of effectiveness. This is very challenging because one must take care to allow successful parts of the organization to remain constant with minor enhancements to reach a higher level of productivity and effectiveness while also identifying areas of the organization that could be more productive and effective.

Shutdown or Divestiture – The charged is to exit a business, product or project. This is a difficult task and can apply to some parts of the other models.

Our team has agreed that we are in a Sustaining Success Model with some realignment of resources. It is from this diagnostic reading that we are making the changes necessary at Buckner for 2009.

The What of Change at Buckner Part II: Strategic Response

Given the “Why of Change” where are we headed? What are we pursuing in 2009 and the years to follow? Here is my response:

There was a time in Israel’s history when David was to be made King over the nation. The Tribes of Israel gathered to rally around their new King and one tribe in particular among the listing of the tribes that gathered was the Tribe of Issachar. 1 Chronicles 12:32 says that The Tribe of Issachar was made up of 200 warriors with their families and livestock. But the description of this tribe kind of stood out. The Chronicler states that the Tribe of Issachar was made up of leaders who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

After many conversations and much deliberation, and dare I say, vigorous fellowship, our leadership team has developed the following Strategic Focus for 2009:

Our Strategic Focus will feature Responsible Growth. That means we will focus on lives impacted and recovery rates. Recovery Rates help us see what the true cost of providing a service really is. Since we are a Not-for-Profit ministry, everything we provide bears a cost with no excess resource.

Our Strategic Focus will also feature Operational Excellence. This means we will streamline our organization so that it makes functional sense and efficiency.

Our Strategic Focus will also feature Organizational Effectiveness. We want to be sure we continue our heritage of professional development and a healthy work environment.

Our Priorities will include Church Collaborations, Foster Care, and Transition Service Commitments in our Domestic Programs and Foster Care, Community Development, and Transitional Services in our International Programs.

Some of our programs will be discontinued and others will be modified. We will consider new approaches to caring for children that bear the mark of good stewardship. This means there will be continued changes between now and the end of 2008 as well as throughout the year in 2009.

We believe this is our best path to the future. We are becoming more disciplined about our growth and the manner in which we respond to new opportunities.

On Monday, I will introduce the concept of Continuous Improvement Models.

The “What” of Change at Buckner Part I: Critical Success Factors

In the past few days on this blog I have written to provide a context which is the “Why” of change. I want to be clear that we are affirming how we have served children in the past while reassessing our methods to consider new ways we might serve those in our care while striving to be good stewards of our resources. I would like to think of expanding our level of service offering as well. So we will need to define Critical Success Factors.

In this changing and challenging environment there are several things we must do well:

We must focus on outcomes, and in our case, we mean Lives Impacted. So everyday in our new future we will come to our task and ask two questions: What’s our business? And how’s business? For Buckner this means Building Families and Promoting Self-Sufficiency. We will also Codify or classify our service offerings to that they facilitate growth and promote quality.

We will explore expanding our service offerings to include education, economics, and health services through strategic alliances that address the specific needs of our clients in context specific formats.

We will need to focus on a higher level of stewardship where we blend the best of business and ministry into one powerful Kingdom force. This means we will need to make difficult choices through deliberate opportunity management that will focus on ensuring sustainability, and self-sufficiency of service offerings. We will need to adopt an Entry and Exit Strategy approach for everything we do in order to maximize our impact on the lives of children here and around the world. When we think of how many children and families we are not reaching we need to reconsider how we approach each new opportunity. We may want to consider an “Apostolic” approach to new opportunities where we go in, set up new services, hand them off to national leadership, and then move on to the next area of need.

We will optimize Customer collaborations by implementing win-win solutions and deliver value to those who engage with us to make a difference in the lives of the children.

We need to maximize donor support by delivering on our stated outcomes.

We will also have an eye toward increasing our effectiveness as an organization.

On Friday I will develop the idea of Strategic Response as part of the “what” of change.