Way back in May of 2010, I posted about books I was considering having our Ops team read in the upcoming year. I've since moderately adjusted the list.
The following are currently being read by one person on the team and will be summarized in a 10-20 minute book report to our operations team answering the questions "What did I like? What did I take exception to? How could the concepts/ideas help our Ops team perform better? Our whole region?":
Radical - Platt
Death by Meeting - Lencioni
Jacob and the Prodigal - Bailey
I once was lost - Everts and Schaupp
Drive - Pink
Seven practices of effective ministry - Stanley
Switch - Heath
Linchpin - Godin
What do you think of the list? You read any of these?
Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Momentum Part I - Five things to move every day
I just read an article called The Art of Momentum: Why Your Ideas Need Speed. It recounts the story of a musician who suffered brain trauma that almost eliminated his short-term memory. But, for some reason, if he begin to play a piano piece, it was like it returned.
As long as his fingers and his mind were in motion, he could play beautifully. Clive’s wife writes, “The momentum of the music carried Clive from bar to bar… He knew exactly where he was because in every phrase there is context implied, by rhythm, key, melody… When the music stopped, Clive fell through to the lost place. But for those moments he was playing he seemed normal.”
I'd been thinking about along similar lines tonight as I was looking over what I had to work on before bed. There are a variety of projects and tasks that need to be moved forward, and each one seems to be in danger of grinding to a halt if I don't move it forward. Not just halting in reality, but in my mind. It seems to be more and more true: if I stay in motion, it's very easy to stay in motion. But when time goes by and the momentum has been lost, it's very hard to get back. Perhaps brain trauma only exaggerates what is already true of us!
The article offers three suggestions to generate momentum, the third one of "work on your project every day" striking me as key. Perhaps we are all inertial beings, but I feel especially so. I have a difficult time stopping once I get started, but an even more difficult time restarting once I've stopped. Accordingly, which project or projects need work every day in order for me to generate, and preserve, momentum?
1. Time with the Lord: I've seen time and again that stringing a few days together generates momentum in my devotional life, and stringing several weeks together brings a freedom and vitality that makes walking in the Spirit a whole lot easier. Miss a few days? Suddenly it's been a couple weeks and I wonder why I feel disconnected from God.
2. Exercise: The more I run, the more I want to run. The more I get to the gym, the more I want to keep pushing ahead and go harder. There were days in college when I was training for road races where to miss a day was an actual fear. I knew that if I missed one, it would be easy to miss another.
3. Support: For my ten years on staff, raising support to fund my/our ministry has been done in bursts that have varying levels of fruitfulness. Ramping up to think about raising support takes time, and often times when the momentum was finally coming, it was time to get back to campus. Is this the right paradigm for me? Could it be that working every day, whether for 5 minutes or a couple hours, might be the better approach?
4. Work (whatever is the most challenging project of the moment): Right now, for me it might just be getting our office reorganization done. We're going from 9 full-time (and several other part-time) to 17 full-time with even more part-times. Making minor changes would be safe and easy, but ultimately would miss the opportunity to capture the momentum of a new year, new people, and new hope. More on that in my next post...
5. This blog: It so quickly goes from "I have too many ideas to get down" to "where do I even think about restarting? None of these post ideas seem like the right one to restart with." Thus, today's post!
Does that seem like to much to think about every day? Maybe. But as the article points out, it is not the duration of time that we give each project, but the frequency. Five minutes every day just might be better than trying to do two hours every other week. Keep pushing things forward and don't allow them to come to a stop.
As long as his fingers and his mind were in motion, he could play beautifully. Clive’s wife writes, “The momentum of the music carried Clive from bar to bar… He knew exactly where he was because in every phrase there is context implied, by rhythm, key, melody… When the music stopped, Clive fell through to the lost place. But for those moments he was playing he seemed normal.”
I'd been thinking about along similar lines tonight as I was looking over what I had to work on before bed. There are a variety of projects and tasks that need to be moved forward, and each one seems to be in danger of grinding to a halt if I don't move it forward. Not just halting in reality, but in my mind. It seems to be more and more true: if I stay in motion, it's very easy to stay in motion. But when time goes by and the momentum has been lost, it's very hard to get back. Perhaps brain trauma only exaggerates what is already true of us!
The article offers three suggestions to generate momentum, the third one of "work on your project every day" striking me as key. Perhaps we are all inertial beings, but I feel especially so. I have a difficult time stopping once I get started, but an even more difficult time restarting once I've stopped. Accordingly, which project or projects need work every day in order for me to generate, and preserve, momentum?
1. Time with the Lord: I've seen time and again that stringing a few days together generates momentum in my devotional life, and stringing several weeks together brings a freedom and vitality that makes walking in the Spirit a whole lot easier. Miss a few days? Suddenly it's been a couple weeks and I wonder why I feel disconnected from God.
2. Exercise: The more I run, the more I want to run. The more I get to the gym, the more I want to keep pushing ahead and go harder. There were days in college when I was training for road races where to miss a day was an actual fear. I knew that if I missed one, it would be easy to miss another.
3. Support: For my ten years on staff, raising support to fund my/our ministry has been done in bursts that have varying levels of fruitfulness. Ramping up to think about raising support takes time, and often times when the momentum was finally coming, it was time to get back to campus. Is this the right paradigm for me? Could it be that working every day, whether for 5 minutes or a couple hours, might be the better approach?
4. Work (whatever is the most challenging project of the moment): Right now, for me it might just be getting our office reorganization done. We're going from 9 full-time (and several other part-time) to 17 full-time with even more part-times. Making minor changes would be safe and easy, but ultimately would miss the opportunity to capture the momentum of a new year, new people, and new hope. More on that in my next post...
5. This blog: It so quickly goes from "I have too many ideas to get down" to "where do I even think about restarting? None of these post ideas seem like the right one to restart with." Thus, today's post!
Does that seem like to much to think about every day? Maybe. But as the article points out, it is not the duration of time that we give each project, but the frequency. Five minutes every day just might be better than trying to do two hours every other week. Keep pushing things forward and don't allow them to come to a stop.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Covey's "Speed of Trust", the Kindle, Facebook, and the GNW
I bought my first Kindle book today.During the plane change in Denver today I got a Facebook message inviting me and some of the staff leaders in our region to join a Facebook discussion thread in our Greater Northwest staff Fb group. We would be sharing thoughts and ideas around the idea of building trust with others, with the book "Speed of Trust" by Covey as the framework.
Not having the book and wanting to jump in sooner rather than later, I sprung for the Kindle version (using the iPhone app, not the Kindle hardware). Unfortunately, it didn't download before the friendly Southwest flight attendants asked us to turn off our portable devices. But, it quickly showed up once my phone was on in Orlando. I'm curious to see what the experience is like to read a whole book on my phone. The kindle price of $12.99 is higher than the paperback cost, so there is certainly a premium on convenience.
I'm also curious to see what it is like to have a virtual book discussion with staff from our region. Will people engage? How frequently? Will they have to be prompted to share? Will sharing about building trust...build trust? Is there a better way to do this than via a Facebook discussion thread?
Monday, August 9, 2010
Update: New National Director's training this week
I'll be in Orlando the rest of this week at a training for those new in their roles as Hopefully I'll be able to share some of the content and insight from our time during the event via twitter and this blog. The schedule is above.
Anything on here you want me to make sure and take good notes on?
Monday, May 24, 2010
Books for an Ops team
As our Operations team begins to form this summer, I've began thinking about ways we can unify our vision and gain momentum before we officially launch in August. Reading the same books related to our job could play a helpful role in this. Here is a reading list that I'm thinking about suggesting to our GNW Ops team to work on this summer:
1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni - Great book to help us establish healthy team norms and avoid the 5 dsyfunctions that teams can fall victim to. Was really helpful for our WSU team, and I know other teams in the NW have read it together, too.
2. Next Generation Leader, Stanley - Another book with five main points, this one was referred to me by my friend Matt (see About) as the best of Andy Stanley's books. I was challenged and encouraged when I read it last year and think it's a good fit for our emerging young leaders.
3. Linchpin, Godin - This is the most current of the list. Godin is an innovator and challenger of the status quo. While not writing from a Christian perspective, I think there is much that translates to leading, working, and innovating in ministry. Michael Hyatt, CEO of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, liked it enough to give copies out to a whole bunch of his employees.
4. StrengthsFinder 2.0, Rath - Combined with the (included) online test to suggest your "top 5" strengths (everything is 5 in publishing, huh?), this book helps people to discover and leverage their strengths. Basic idea: spend more time working out of strength then focusing on weakness. Again, many teams with Campus Crusade, including mine at WSU, went through this together and gained great insight into how to better work as individuals and as a team.
5. Celebration of Discipline, Foster - The first four deal a lot with productivity, leading, being pro-active, getting things done, etc. Topics like prayer, meditation, simplicity, and worship will be a good counter balance to help us stay centered on Christ and rely on the Spirit more than the flesh.
Have you read some of these books? Did you like them? What other books would you suggest for a new team to read together?
[Update: The book we will all engage with the most, both individually and as a team, is the Bible. All other books we read and engage, of any genre, will be sifted and processed through a Biblical framework.]
[Update: The book we will all engage with the most, both individually and as a team, is the Bible. All other books we read and engage, of any genre, will be sifted and processed through a Biblical framework.]
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