I remember growing up and hearing people, (mostly old people) say "you can't see the forest for the trees". What in the world does that mean? I later learned that it's an expression of being so focused on one thing that you don't see the collective it is a part of.
In the church world, and business world too for that matter, we have truly experienced this problem. Our focus is and always will be people. For churches, it's loving God and loving people. Jesus said "And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:40 NKJV)" For businesses it's similar, give the customer everything they need to have a fantastic experience.
So it's obvious that our focus is people... Right? Well, maybe not that obvious. Could it be that we have become so focused on delivering a winning experience for "people" that we have forgotten about the main ingredient to do that..."People".
Businesses spend their time so focused on the customer experience and no mistakes, that they begin to eliminate the warmth that another human can bring, even with mistakes. Churches long for the days when they can hire full time positions thus eliminating the need and reliance on voluneers. However, a volunteer has something that no full time employee of a church has... Another job, where there are other people. I have discovered that the larger our volunteer base, the larger our influence and reach into the community.
If we are not careful we can become so focused on delivering something excellent to the people that we eliminate the people element. Embrace the people factor, mistakes and all and your church/business will grow. See the trees and the forest.