Firstly, I looked at each project and recognised "who owned it?" in other words who lead the project, who should be accountable for it? Secondly, I predicted what I thought what we could achieve in this area in the next 3 years using 1 year increments. Thirdly, I asked the project leader to work out their own targets. Once done I then met with them and through Socaratic dialogue we arrived at plans with which we both agreed.

At this point I asked each member of the team to define what success would look like in their area. This was in many ways the most interesting. To understand what success might look like. I gave them 2 options. They could define success in numbers i.e. a quantative approach. In this case they had to approach it like a scientist. Or they could define it using a qualitative method. In which case they had to produce sufficient evidence to prove their case. In other words they had to approach the task like a lawyer. In the event, most people selected a combination of the two. I then used these documents to develop key performance indicators against their projects.

The final piece in the planning jigsaw was the presentation. We booked a conference suite at the village hotel and every person there presented their own area to the others for information, motivation, comment and prayer. This was a great success in that everyone could see how their project fit into the bigger picture. The next part of the process it to measure how we are doing which will be done on a monthly 1 hour meeting and then every 3 months for a full day.

How would you measure success?