I had a wonderful invitation to join the IT team for the wrap up and celebration of A25. That’s Accelerate 25 which was the territorial digital transformation project. At less that one percent of the annual operating budget this massive project has changed how The Salvation Army works entirely. From HR and Finance software, to updated data bases, new traffic patterns in the digital footprint, and abilities that once could only dreamed about.

Every officer, employee and volunteer are impacted by this work. There is no one that this doesn’t touch. And the less they know it, the more successful it is. And, perhaps most importantly our data which includes donor, employee, volunteer details are now safely guarded by systems and skilled people.

Now for whatever reason, there are a number of leaders who don’t get it. Don’t understand what has happened and how it helps them – and all of us. It’s a mystery to me.

Back to the celebration…what a great day!

Information, demonstrations and fun.

The gathering of the IT team, has changed over the years, but it remains focused on building team work and providing some education opportunity. The interviewing of those leading on the front lines and demonstrations of how we make good decisions were featured.

Learning opportunity came in a couple of fun ways. We had to form teams and simply lower a stick together….but we kept raising it! It was hilarious. In the end we did it, but we had to learn to work together.

But the game which really got energy going in the room was rock, paper, scissors!

So, we had 120 people paired for a game of RPS for a best of 5! The winners of that first game took on the next winner…but the losers had to get behind the winner and cheer them on, those 60 winners became 30, then 15…until there were only two winners left going head to head but with the room cheering on “their winner”. Here’s how it ended!

Rock paper scissors becomes a way to see how we can cheer on even though we aren’t the leader!

It was great fun!

Few know of the Bay Street conversation that I had with Jonathan many years ago trying to imagine what a modern business model for The Salvation Army would look like. He and the IT advisory committee are to be commended for the great work they did to move us forward. TSA is focused on helping people in the name of Jesus. But to operate safely and effectively it needs this kind of up-to-date technology. This saves us money, aligns our workforce and guards our reputation.

It is, the largest project ever undertaken by TSA.