December 16, 2007
After re-reading Powell’s American journey I was impressed by the people he pointed to as his mentors, especially his parents. He spoke about his Dad as his hero and his mother the disciplinarian of his wayward actions. Powell talks about the first time he found trouble, his mother and father rewarded him with the love and admiration of parents who move past his crimes but looked at his intentions. It just sounded to me that these were Christian people who taught their son grace and the ability to honor others for their actions. At the very end of the book he gives his rules or code of conduct, something tells me he learned long before he entered the military. I believe here is a set of parents who raised a fine American son in hard times with hard work ethics and the ability to persevere in difficult circumstances. Colin Powell was afforded opportunities others before him did not have simply because of his times. One thing is for sure… the Powell’s had prepared their son for his time. If don’t think parents make a difference in a child’s life, listen to this man’s story. If your a parent like me, give your children all you can while you can especially Jesus.
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December 7, 2007
Argyris argues that communication itself can be a detterent to objectivity in quality analysis. He illustrates this from the CEO who affirms a younger employee in the disguise of empowerment. In actuality he failed to recognise good empowerment as a process of community.
While Argyris focuses on communication breakdown, I see this as an indicator of an unhealthy community where communication is the revelation of this lack. Argysis is trying to seal off a leak in the pipe rather than consider the cause of corrosion.
Argysis rightly concluded that there is a problem in process with empowerment in his example. He would do well to consider further steps in enabling an environment of trust and excellence together.
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December 7, 2007
I walked by a tanning business this week named “Planet Beach.” Next to their sign they had posted this slogan: “Planet Beach: Where you are at the center of the solar system.” While my guess is that the marketing folks offered this simply as a fun play on words, I also read it as a clear statement of the height of self-centeredness in our current culture.
How does an effective leader lead in a world that operates primarily out of a look out for oneself mentality? As I thought about that question in light of Buckingham’s focus on strengths, I began to have a much greater appreciation for his work. By focusing on discovering one’s strengths and talents, Buckingham taps into our deep desire to know ourselves. However, he also thankfully takes the next step and encourages that our pursuit of knowing our strengths is not to benefit a self-centered ego, but to better serve others in the micro and macro worlds we encounter.
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December 7, 2007
Like several others, I had seen some of Curtis’ works but I didn’t know who he was. I really had no clue what to expect in his interview with Hybels but I have to say that really felt Jesus speaking to me through the message of this man. Some leadership principles that I appreciated from Curtis: 1) Never cast anybody only for their reputation or their last film. Think clearly about this film and if it would work for them. 2) Don’t be too emotional about failure because it may end up being part of your success later.
Caring for the Poor and Hungry -
I remember him saying something to the effect of “if the world is going to be changed and if poverty is going to be ended, the church will have to be at the forefront of that movement” (paraphrase) If I understood him right, Curtis honestly believes that the church is the single most important factor in ending poverty in the world. I now believe that myself. If Jesus came to preach good news to the poor (luke 4), that good news either had to be “hold on and wait till the end of history” or “your rich brothers and sisters are coming to help, have hope”. I think Jesus was proclaiming a combination of both while heavily leaning towards the latter. I’m not saying that Jesus didn’t come for the forgiveness of sins, he did and through him, everyone has reconclilation with God whether rich or poor. But I think Jesus left his disciples on earth for more reasons than just to proclaim a theological message. He wanted them to do good works that would glorify the father. (Matthew 5)
We are warned throughout scriptures about neglecting the poor and about injustice. I feel like , for some reasons, I am barely being awakened to some of these concepts and God is messing with me, so to speak. Curtis’ use of his talents and abilities to raise awareness and to raise funds for the poor is a great example of how one can live for Jesus and serve him by doing the things that he’s gifted us with. Curtis asked 2 questions that I enjoyed. 1) What do I do well? 2)Will I do it ruthlessly to help end injustice and poverty in the world? I still have to answer these questions and decide how to put a plan into action, but I am really thankful for this movie director and for the words of Jesus spoken through him on that afternoon.
“If Im going to pray for people at nigtt, I’d better be ready to do something for them in the morning.” -Richard Curtis
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December 7, 2007
In Michael Porter’s session there were two concepts that really spoke to me the most. The first one was the idea which he presented that many churches and non-profits have confused goals for strategy. For example, when we say that we want to “help the poor in our community”, we have just stated a form of a goal, but have not developed a strategic plan for how we will carry that out. Porter challenged us to see how often we are simply stating goals but rejecting the need for strategy. I think that one biblical concept that addresses this truth is found in the diversity of spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 12:28 particularly mentions what is called the gift of “administration”. I have been a part of multiple churces and Christian institutions where the desired gifts are only those of a more miraclulous nature (tongues, healing, discernment, etc) and not those of a strategic, thoughtful nature such as administration, mercy and teaching. I’m finding that I really need to surround myself with believers who are equipped in ways that are different than me, so that we can serve Christ and his church together. The second point of importance for me in the seminar was that Porter seemed to say something to the effect of, “If we don’t employ strategy, we may just be hurting the organizations that we are trying to help” (paraphrase) I found this to be somewhat of a scolding for me as a pastor and it has actually caused me to do some deep thinking about changing some behavior in our ministry setting. Among the changes, we are considering taking on only ONE urban ministry project in Oakland (where my church is) for the entire year. Up until now, we’ve been trying to encourage people to get involved in 1 of 4 or 5 possible ministries and this has actually resulted in confusion and less depth in our understanding of the needs in our city. We’ll see how it goes. The way I see it, is if some people get sick of hearing about the one place where we are serving week after week; at least no one can complain that the vision hasn’t been clear…
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December 7, 2007
This article was helpful for me as i lead a team of volunteers who have been working with Young Life for the past five years. In most cases i feel like they are leading out of their own experiences and not with a fresh enthusiasm that comes from the Holy Spirits leading. After doing the same thing for so long it can become natural to lead out of past success and just doing things the way they have always been done. But when kids start to change and we get different types of kids involved and things start to not work as well the first reaction is always to look to other things for the cause of the problem. If it is work is really busy or my school semester is really challenging… there are always other reasons besides the truth that i am not doing a very good job at adapting to the changing culture of this High School. I too feel like i am in a similar place as my leaders. I have been trying some new stuff, but still coming up short in many ways. Like the law firm commercial in my city say, Past earnings do not guarantee future outcomes. My past record does not mean that i will always have 100 kids at club. Especially if we do not follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and follow where he would have us go and do what he would have us do.
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December 7, 2007
Ouch, this article was a bit convicting for me as I evaluate my role as a ministry team leader. I felt in many ways that I fit his profile of someone genuinely wanting success and progress in the organization, but a bit unfamiliar with failure and thus unable to learn by critically examining my own involvement in situations. At least that would’ve described me a couple years ago. When I first went into full-time ministry, I came in having only volunteered in quite successful ministries made that way by people before my time. When faced with the challenge of starting a new ministry and revamping a dying ministry I blazed through with what I’d always done and hit a brick wall. Failure stared me in the face and I played the blame game. ”Other leaders aren’t getting to know kids”, “Young Life makes it’s employees do too much so I don’t have time to do what needs to be done”, “I can’t find anyone to help me lead this ministry”, and more comments like that flew out of my mouth. Like Ortberg and Argyris mentioned, I was deathly afraid to fail and was panicking in it’s midst. What I took away from this article (and Ortberg’s message) is that I need to redefine how I evaluate and how I help my team evaluate what we do in ministry. I think of myself as open to criticism but I definitely haven’t encouraged my team to evaluate me. When I evaluate them it’s usually “on the job” giving them pointers along the way but never a more official evaluation process. Because I want to be liked and want to feel like I’m doing a good job, I usually look for holes in the organizational structure or the programmatic part of our ministry when failure comes instead of considering how we as leaders might be causing the problem. Although I hate to admit it, I think often my “shadow mission” as Ortberg put it is what Argyris described as professionals “always comparing themselves with the best around them and constantly trying to better their own performance…They prefer to be the individual contributor-what might be termed a ‘productive loner’”. I have wanted to have the best YL club, the best leaders, the most kids at club and when those things don’t happen I look at our structure instead of being willing to learn from others and evaluate myself.
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December 7, 2007
Argyris mentions a tension that I feel often. He talks about how in the name of morale mangers/leaders create a culture that censors what people need to say and hear. I have been too committed at times to the idea that people want to be on winning teams- so I make sure that all that is being heard about our ministry is positive things. I have maintained integrity in the sense that I haven’t lied about what is going on but at the same time I make sure people are alwasy talking about the positive. I still believe in that idea generally but I also understand what Argyris is saying that this contributes to single loop learning. I guess what i want to do is more consistent with what Collins calls the Stockdale Paradox- an unwavering faith that we will prevail but a willingness to confront the brutal facts of reality.
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December 7, 2007
I’m writing my second post on Carly Fiorina and I’ve noticed that many others have commented on her remarks as well. Many were not very impressed by her interview and I have to admint, I didn’t really have any extensive notes that I took away from her conference experience either. I found her to be very “guarded” except for her comments about fear. After seeing her interview at the summit I wondered why Bill Hybels said that her book was one of only a handful that he had his entire staff read.
As the semester has progressed and I’ve finished her book I have a very different perspective on her remarks, however, and I think I understand Hybels requirement of her book to his staff. Her story is one of perservering through many fearful obstacles within the corporate marketplace It has started me on a journey of looking closer at the concept of personal and organizational fear within the environment that I lead as well. I’m in contact with many local churches and I have to say that the secular world does not have a monopoly on fear based organizational culture. There are many “walking wounded” who used to be in Christian leadership, but have thrown in the towel becuase they’ve were beaten up by the “fear based” cultures in which they served.
I wonder if Carly’s gaurded comments at the leadership summit are the result of the calluses that can build up on any of us after we’ve been run through the grinder of hierarchical, “fear based” leadership cultures? I would receommend, like Hybels, that all of us who are in leadership read Carly’s book and then look to root out fear from our lives and the cultures we lead with the love and grace of Jesus.
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December 7, 2007
In Michael Porter’s article entitled “What is Strategy?”, he says that, “Proper strategy is creating “fit” among a company’s activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well - not just a few - and integrating among them.” His article goes on at length to discuss the concept of “fit” and it’s application to buisnesses operating in a competitive market.
Porter’s detailed comments about the concept of “fit” and how important it is towards a succesful market strategy has caused me to reflect a lot about how these market truths apply to ministry. First of all we understand from a Kingdom perspective that our “marketplace” does not just consist of mere consumers choosing what good & services they want, but God’s children whose souls hang eternally in the balance. We also understand that the our “competition” in this marketplace does not consist of other churches or Christian organizations, but Satan himself.
In my years of ministry I’ve seen all too often our churches loose people to the “competition (the enemy)” because we haven’t thought about the important concept of fit. For exapmple, let’s say a young family has finally worked up the nerve to try out a local church. They walk into a crowded lobby and see a lot of happy connected people, a great message and contemporary worship awaits them. There isn’t anyone attending the visitor booth, but they courageously press on asking directions to the children’s area. As they drop their kids off things begin to unravel for them. The nursery is over crowded. The grade school Sunday school class has chosen to prepare for the Christmas musical for the next four weeks during church so there aren’t any regular mixers and other activities to help kids integrate. While this works fine for the regular kids and it’s really convenient for the teachers, the poor new kid doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t know any of the songs and has a miserable time. Mom and dad get an ear full when they pick up their daughter.
This was an actual experience for my family when we went out to look at prospective churches in our community. Luckily we are committed Christians and we “pressed on” through similar experiences until landing at a local church where our family has found community.
But what if we weren’t a committed Christian family like 90% of the people in our Seattle area community? There is a good chance that we would have given up rather that “pressing on” through the feelings of awkwardness and the complaints of our kids. I think that we in the church have a lot ot learn for Michael Porter’s thoughts on strategy. If we saw our churches through the eyes of vast “the marketplace” that doesn’t know Christ and we considered the issues of “fit,” I think we would make some very beneficial changes to the way we help people feel welcome and join our church communities.
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