ANDY LUBINSKY ON PEOPLE-FOCUSED MARKETING, EMOTION OVER ANALYTICS AND LIVING BEYOND DENOMINATIONAL DIFFERENCES
Andy Lubinsky is one of Ellen’s favourite marketing mentors – an innovative marketing and strategic planning/research leader with a passion for team building and a track record of success across several industries and Christian ministry. After building a successful corporate career , with organizations like McDonald’s Canada, he is now the Vice President of Ministry Advancement at Bible League Canada.
In this episode, Andy opens up about why he moved from his successful corporate career to pursue ministry, his findings on why ministries have a hard time with change, and how organizations need take emotion into account when making decisions that affect people. He also shares his unique perspective on denominations and why we need everyone at the table.
Welcome to Episode 002 of The Change Makers Podcast. Listen and access the show notes here or search for The Change Maker’s Podcast on your favorite listening app (for free).
3 INSIGHTS FROM ANDY
1. Warning: Applying pure business rules to your ministry won’t work.
While we need more skilled professionals in the charitable sector, it just doesn’t work to copy and paste pure business practices into a ministry context.
The basic principles still apply – and must be applied -, but they need to be reinterpreted, repositioned, and reapplied. Why? Because ministry is about people, not products…and if it is about people…it’s about God.
Andy’s approach is to first look at analytics and data–then ask what questions they answer. Second, he turns to intuition. Thirdly, before making a decision, Andy shares why it is critical to realize its impact on people.
2. Losing donors? It might be your fault.
Andy is clear when he says: your organization is perfectly designed for the results that you are getting.
When we’re losing donors, or seeing staff leave, or campaigns don’t work, we are tempted to blame everything but ourselves. However, what if the problem is the organization’s design? We can all fall into the trap of doing things we’ve always done them, if we do not look inward. This is why Andy recommends ongoing team meetings asking what needs to change if we want different results, and checking in on the purpose, vision, and future goals of your organization. If something in your ministry/non-profit is not working, it is probably perfectly designed not to work.
3. Failure is an option.
Without giving our teams the permission to try and fail, we’ll never be innovative. And what our ministries really need is permission to innovate.
Andy notes that the fear of failure is a sector-wide epidemic. His advice: to build a culture of innovation in your ministry, you must encourage your people to not be afraid of failure. That doesn’t mean “anything goes” because we still need to hold one another accountable. However, if people are not afraid to fail, they are more likely to offer new ideas to the table. Andy also reminds us that innovation is a conscious effort, it’s uncomfortable, and takes time. Yet, it sure is worth it.
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