{"id":2996,"date":"2015-01-14T17:37:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T17:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/community\/?p=2996"},"modified":"2020-09-08T10:31:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T10:31:56","slug":"ou-synablog-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/community\/ou-synablog\/ou-synablog-2\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ideas to Ignite Synagogue Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Synablog623x221\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rabbi Einhorn’s SynaBlog is a new innovative blog that shares tips, tactics, strategies and best practices that enable Shul growth and promote Shul vitality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our davening is more or less a set program. We\u2019re not going to add more blessings to the Shemona Esrei, and we\u2019re not going to delete Aleinu. The fixed agenda of our prayer service challenges us to appreciate certainty, consistency and to find profundity in the awesome words assembled by the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah. It then becomes our job to add color, creativity and flexibility to the Shul program calendar, event space, youth groups, teen minyan, etc.<\/p>\n

What are some strategies to bring out our most creative selves?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The Doodle Revolution and 30 Circles<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"doodle\"<\/p>\n

Suni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, points to numerous brilliant innovators that used doodling to get their minds going. Steve Jobs would start doodling on a pad hoping each day to spark creativity anew.
\nTake a piece of paper and draw 30 circles on the paper. Give yourself one minute to convert as many circles as possible into objects. The point of these exercises is to massage neurological pathways that lead to greater innovation.
\nAlong similar lines, tapping into our emotional side can help break the barrier that\u2019s been set up between our logical and efficient selves and our emotions<\/p>\n

Example: A shul in Seattle tried a brain storming session with the 30 Circles at their board meeting. Immediately afterward, one of the board members came up with a concept of Themed Kiddushes. For example, one Shabbos would be \u2018Life in Greece\u2019 \u2013 the food would be a taste of Kosher Grecian food and it was followed by a shiur on the History of Jews in Modern Greece.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Get out of your comfort zone, reach outside of your field<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our intuition would tell us to speak to other successful shuls to gage what might be a great program idea. Often those best practices yield terrific results. But what if we left our comfort zone and looked outside of our field for innovative ideas? According to the Harvard Business Review looking to a different but analogous field often leads to mind blowing innovation.<\/p>\n

Example: A shul in Southern New Jersey heard a presentation on cutting edge ideas from a local tech firm. One of the tech firms initiatives was to make use of a simple app design program called\u00a0www.shoutem.com<\/a><http:\/\/www.shoutem.com\/<\/a>> for their numerous short-term projects. The shul used this app to design a Rambam learning competition in the shul.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0The One Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"oneIn 2013 Gary Keller and Jay Papasan came out with a book that was based on a simple premise: what is the one thing you can do today and the next day that you will absolutely set you apart from the competition? That\u2019s \u201cThe One Thing\u201d. This seems to stunt creativity as it minimizes our playing field. But the truth is the opposite. Our creative energies are harnessed and focused. Instead of being in too many places at one time we devote our attention to a sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Example: There are thousands of examples for this one but I\u2019ll simply say the synagogues that focus on YOUTH GROUPS in particular and they make that their \u201cOne Thing\u201d tend to see booming results.<\/p>\n

Bonus suggestion: Another fascinating exercise to elicit creativity is to try to come up with an apartment building that would be able to accommodate all Superheroes.<\/p>\n

To receive the OU Synablog to your inbox, please click here<\/a> to sign up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn is a Musmach of Yeshiva University. He has served as the founder of WINGS a Synagogue Consulting group. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Rabbi Einhorn was the Rabbi of Manhattan’s West Side Institutional Synagogue where he helped grow the membership by 70% over 4 years. Currently, he is the Rav and Dean of Yeshivat Yavneh.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Einhorn’s SynaBlog is a new innovative blog that shares tips, tactics, strategies and best practices that enable Shul growth and promote Shul vitality. Our davening is more or less a set program. We\u2019re not going to add more blessings to the Shemona Esrei, and we\u2019re not going to delete Aleinu. The fixed agenda of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":2974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ou-synablog"],"yoast_head":"\n3 Ideas to Ignite Synagogue Creativity - Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/community\/ou-synablog\/ou-synablog-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Ideas to Ignite Synagogue Creativity - Community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rabbi Einhorn’s SynaBlog is a new innovative blog that shares tips, tactics, strategies and best practices that enable Shul growth and promote Shul vitality. 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