Make use of advanced profiles

As NCD coaches, we have a responsibility to provide tools and other assistance as needed and when needed. If a church receives a Basic Profile result, there are a number of things they need to process in their minds straight away: understanding the quality characteristics; accepting their minimum factor; coming to terms with the level of their results; etc. For many this is more than enough to think about for the moment. But most times, very soon after, they would like to know more detail about their results, either to understand them better or to feel more confident about the kind of action steps they should take in response to them.

All of this means that we need to be very sensitive to when a church needs less or more information, and also when they should be encouraged to take some action based on the information they already have (to make sure they don't endlessly put off taking action). When we take such a process approach to providing information and encouraging action, it is less about the quantity of information and more about providing the right kind of information at the right time.

This means that at some point in a church's NCD process, advanced profiles will likely be of benefit. Taking the NCD Result Guides as an example, we are able to equip churches with different kinds of information to suit different stages they are at in the process. For example:

  • Numberless profiles (Summary and Story Guide) — to ease them into the results without them having to initially consider their actual scores.
  • 3 Color representation of results (Summary Guide) — to help them more clearly see the importance of balance.
  • Themes (Story Guide) — when they would find it easier to grasp the areas that come more naturally and less naturally in more everyday church language.
  • Cycle Starter action steps (Story and Status Guide) — when they are ready to take some simple initial action steps.
  • Item level results (Status Guide) — when they want to have the full detail of their results and discover the most specific nuances of their own profile.
  • Corporate action suggestions (Strategy Guide) — when they would like to expand the number of people involved in helping the church move forward.

No matter what form of advanced profiles you use, the aim is always to meet the needs of the church at that exact moment in time with the most relevant information that will move them onto the next level of progress.

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