Case Study
Green Bay Community Church: Strengthening Culture Through Custom Curriculum
Background
Green Bay Community Church is the first non-denominational church founded in Green Bay County. The community is largely Catholic and Lutheran, so the community was looking for an alternative. And while the church is approx. 55 years old, Troy Murphy, Lead Teaching and Vision Pastor, is only the third lead pastor in the church’s history.
Their vision is to help lead people towards Christ and introduce them to a spiritual family, with the ultimate goal of getting people connected to the body of Christ. In this Case Study, our team spoke with Troy Murphy, Lead Teaching and Vision Pastor about his overall experience working with Traci and the HPA team.
Challenges
With between 30-35 total people working for the organization, some part-time and some seasonal, GBCC has an incredibly high need for collaboration — which is a key value for them. Collaboration isn’t just necessary, it’s central to their success.
Even though GBCC wasn’t facing a crisis when they engaged Human Potential Advisors, they had recently expanded their leadership team. And while Troy is a dynamic and strong leader, he really wanted his lead team to take more initiative — to solve their own problems and not depend so heavily on him for decision making. The lead team at GBCC was very experienced and Troy trusted them, but what he really needed was for them to trust themselves a bit more.
In making the decision to call Traci to help, Troy recognized that you must be intentional about culture and leadership development. Since he had worked with Traci previously, he knew she would be a good fit to help create just the right session for his team. Troy felt safe in the knowledge that Traci was capable to come in and do the job in a constructive manner — which would help to strengthen the team in a productive way.
During the pre-planning phase, Traci began to hear some common statements: “empower,” “trust themselves,” and “give them the tools to believe they were capable to lead.” The truth was, while his lead team was not as experienced in leading others, what they needed to understand is that true leadership is about showing up as YOUR authentic self, not trying to emulate your current leader.
Solutions
While Traci was previously known at GBCC for her CliftonStrengths work, Troy knew she also had several additional certifications — meaning she isn’t married to one approach or another. Unlike some other consultants he’d worked with, Troy knew Traci wasn’t going to try and make his leadership team ‘fit’ into some framework.
Instead, Traci came in much more open-handed with the ability to take different approaches and systems and blend them to meet the needs of GBCC. As with most clients, Traci’s first step was to ASSESS the current culture and get a clear picture of GBCC’s needs. To do this well, Traci began with a listening session, after which she went to work designing a custom curriculum called “The CEO of You.”
Once this session was built, Traci moved the GBCC lead team into the ALIGN phase of HPA’s approach. They kicked off by considering nine different personality assessments — some they were familiar with and some that were new. With a goal of getting to know one another, and themselves, more deeply — heart, soul, mind, and strengths — they dove in headfirst into this new curriculum.
During the session, Traci and Troy spent the first two hours encouraging the leaders that they had the capacity, capability, and strengths to lead. Next, they took time to remind each person — individually and collectively — of how they had led successfully before.
By tying their current behavior to the results from surveys they took at the top of the session that morning, Traci began to truly ACTIVATE these team leaders — integrating how they lead, collaborate, give feedback and grow together. She then utilized a panel approach to allow the lead team to ask questions in areas where they felt weak.
All in all, this custom session left them feeling more prepared, confident, and allowed them to embrace who they were — suspending the need to compare or compete with Troy as a leader — allowing the culture to become a shared, lived experience.
Results
According to Troy, part of the decision to work with Traci was her inherent ability to show up authentically, dive right in, and keep participants both curious and engaged.
GBCC has a high-harmony staff, which is also made up of a lot of “processors.” While this can be good day to day, the downside can be silence — so Troy knew Traci would be able to help not only pull folks into the room but get them to actively participate.
Following the GBCC’s time with Traci, Troy received great feedback. “We all loved Traci.” There was no resistance to people who’d worked with Traci before or no feedback that someone else could’ve been better.
What they learned during the day-long session really stuck with the team who, Troy shares, continues to talk about it and carry it through in daily interactions. And the real confirmation shines through in the fact that they are all leading so well, and the church is thriving, even when Troy is not around. Through the “CEO of You” session, the GBCC lead team learned to not only own, but to also leverage their leadership talents.
Moving Forward
Beyond this session, Troy shared his desire to bring Traci back at a future date to have the whole staff go through this session. He found that this curriculum adds a framework for exercising and practicing individual Strengths, which in turn, nurtures and strengthens the overall GBCC culture.
When asked what the number one thing that’s been most impactful in working with Traci, Troy provided the three following impact points:
- “I love the fact that we can customize something, and we’re not stuck on something. I know she’ll curate what we need, and it’ll have some creativity to it. I appreciate that.”
- “I think the other part is she’s easy to be with. Everybody loves Traci. We’ve had some people come in who were more polarizing, and Traci’s not that.”
- “Third, I think her content is great.”