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Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts

29 things to know before you hit 30 (part 2)

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crazy bummed about when i will turn 30. feels like it will be crossing a huge line that i desperately don't want to cross.

but at least i will be prepared after reading The Pocket Guide to Adulthood: 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30
thanks to Jason Boyett for putting together a guide for peeps like me closing out their 20s to help us know what we need to know to be an old person.

(i already posted #s 1-5 HERE.)

6 Being all weird about food safety is a pretty good idea
wow. i DEFINITELY learned a lot from this chapter! i was breaking ALL these rules that were shared big time. i.e. - eating pizza that had been left in my hot car for a week!
not any more - because i'm about to be an old adult.

7 How to change a flat tire like a real live mechanic
this is the one mechanical thing i actually did know already. pretty much the only thing i can do.

8 Marriage is not necessarily a rowdy sex romp, and other misconceptions
wait, for real?
wait, is that after you turn 30 or before? :)

9 How to stop worrying and be an optimist
i really love being & so thankful i'm an optimist. but i still have to battle worry like everyone else. i need to work harder at relaxing too. (oxymoron?)

10 Establish your own coolness with an amazing card trick
now this was awesome. i've never really known a card trick. i love playing poker, but i've never really known how to do a trick. NOW I DO. so, someone please - ask me to see a card trick! or do i have to wait til i hit 30?

*that's only 10 down of the 29 things you have to know to be an old 30 year-old.
more coming tomorrow.

be a student not a critic

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this is something i must have heard Andy Stanley say a hundred times over the years.

"be a student not a critic"

it's something i think i've naturally tried to live out since i was 17 or 18... maybe even earlier in broader contexts.

i hope i can stay that way. every once in a while as i get all old... i sense the critic sneaking into my life. but i want to fight hard to stay the student i've always been.

because i would be a whole lot dumber if i had been a critic instead of a student all these years.
i can't even imagine all the great stuff i would have missed if i had been criticizing instead of learning.

i think this really comes down to pride for most of us. if i can stay humble, then i can probably stay a student.

but if pride takes over - that's when i'm tempted to be a critic. because i think i'm better, smarter, wiser, than the other ... therefore, i can't possibly have anything to learn from that.

what an awful way to live.

i have tried to live my life with an attitude of:

i want to learn from anybody or anything at any time and anywhere.

that's my goal and i hope i can always live that way.

i hope that even when i see, hear, experience stuff that is 95% awful... i can be a student and learn from the other 5%.

i'm not too good for it.

and i certainly never want to be a critic. somebody stop me if i turn into one.

are you still haters?

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so i was reading some Clark Pinnock back before Christmas and was about to Tweet and/or post as my Facebook status "Reading some Pinnock today"
...then i changed my mind because i didn't feel like getting a lot of HATE comments and hate mail and HATE TWEETS that day. i just wasn't in the mood.

and then i had a question...

do people still HATE on someone after they're dead?

Clark Pinnock actually passed away over a year ago. i remember reading about it when it happened HERE and all over the web.
i was bummed because i think his thinking contributed a lot to the conversation.

i started reading Pinnock back in college. because of a certain 50 page research paper i wrote back then on a topic that he was in the thick of - i REALLY had to wrestle with what he was saying. back then i disagreed with him but could appreciate where he was coming from. no way was he crazy... probably more brilliant than all the rest of us.

so, i've continued to read some Pinnock ever since.

...to the disgust of pretty much everyone i know :)

in fact, at my 1st job out of college, i remember reading a then recent Pinnock book. i made the mistake of showing it to my friend and co-worker in the office next door and he promptly THREW the book across the room to me and said something like "get that away from me."

wow. just a book, man.

(but it's always been crazy to me how people can actually HATE a person because of their views. but that's a blog for another day.)

so i was just curious - do you still hate on someone after they're dead?
i was curious that day... could i have Tweeted that i was reading Pinnock and would the haters still come out of the woodwork?
OR
does all that change when the hated upon dies?

i don't think i've ever been a hater, so i wasn't quite sure how it works...

anyway, didn't matter because i didn't tweet it, but now i'm writing about my curiosity.
and maybe it will enable me to find out the answer to my Q

and just in case any of you are wondering why i would even dare continue to read Pinnock... maybe because of stuff he writes openly and honestly like this:

"So I do not apologize for admitting to being on a pilgrimage in theology, as if it were in itself some kind of weakness of intelligence or character. Feeling our way toward the truth is the nature of theological work even with the help of Scripture, tradition and community …. A pilgrimage, therefore, far from being unusual or slightly dishonorable, is what we would expect theologians who are properly aware of their limitations to experience."

wow.

Right. on.

we would expect it to be a pilgrimage, wouldn't we, Clark?

i hope i can engage on a lifelong one like you did and like most aren't willing to do.

hopefully they won't all hate on me like they did you... but i bet you'd say it's worth it.

innovation and all his friends

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(you can read some of my earlier thoughts on innovation HERE & HERE.)

whether you realize it or not, innovation is vitally important to the world we live in. i would argue that it is foundational to this increasingly postmodern world.

and the NECESSITY for INNOVATION will only INCREASE, imho.

Some futurist experts say this about the way our world is changing:

“For the foreseeable future, information will be the business resource, and innovation the work.”

- Clarke & Crossland

factory jobs and technical skills used to be IT. that was the type of jobs everyone worked. those were the skills in demand.
now the world is very different. KNOWLEDGE WORK is king (information) and therefore INNOVATION is the skill that is required.

“Innovation is creativity in its working clothes. It has experimentation as a coworker and failure as a strategic partner."

did you catch that? Yes, innovation appears sexy from the outside looking in, but 2 key components to true innovation and creativity are EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURE! are you willing to be an innovator since it means those 2 will be your friends?

and let me be clear what i mean by innovation. Technology doesn’t guarantee innovation. it's just a helper. When i talk about innovation, i'm saying that only the practiced discipline of innovation will produce innovative results.

this is a discipline which requires carving out space to create. it's a discipline that by its very nature requires EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURE!

and if you're afraid of that or think there's another way, i thought this was an awesome "encouragement" from Henry Petroski:

“no one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from success to go beyond the state of the art."

of course, we would like to be innovators without the hard work of EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURES, but it simply isn't possible. we can't experience one without the other.

While failure can be painful, innovative people and organizations EMBRACEthis pain.

simply put by Clarke and Crossland:

“If you want more innovation, allow more experiments.”

how many experiments (and therefore how much innovation) are you allowing?

my 2012 reading list

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for the past several years i have posted my Reading List for the upcoming year.

this year my "reading list" will be a lot different in that much of it will be handed to me via required reading lists for my graduate classes. so i won't actually be personally choosing most of the books i read.
Over 20 books already that i've been required to read just for this 1st semester! at that rate i'll read over 60 books in required reading alone for school this year!
Instead of including those in this reading list, i'll attempt to keep them all up to date in my Visual lists on the right side of this blog = books i'm currently reading & books i recently finished. i usually try to write a little summary of what i thought of them too.

So, as you'll see below, i'm trying to keep my personal picks for a reading list to just over 10 for 2012.

+ I always reserve the right to pick up a different book & bump these off the list & insert the good/better stuff! There's a good chance a book will come out in 2012 that i will want to read, but below is my best attempt to keep me focused on what i need most.

here are just 10 or so i hope to read by my own choosing:

Naked Spirituality - Brain McLaren
He's probably my favorite author, so i try to read at least one book from him every year. this is his newest that i started reading last year and it has affected me "spiritually" maybe as much as any other book i've ever read. powerful. and i'm obviously reading it very slowly... trying to take it all in. most excited about this book.

Start Something That Matters - Blake Mycoskie
Trying to do this very thing in 2012 and thankful to learn from someone who did it recently and did it well.

Radical - David Platt
Very expectant. looking for this to shake me up even more. i don't think we can ever be radical enough, so i'm not scared in the least.

Entreleadership - Dave Ramsey
No secret i'm a big fan of Dave. As much for his leadership genius as his $ genius. thankful to have that leadership style in a book now. i've been called a "Ramsey-ite" so i'll let you know if i am on the leadership side as well.

Parenting Beyond Your Capacity - Reggie Joiner and Carey Niewhof
Been planning to read this book for years to help us better partner with parents at Ridge Church. now i'm reading it for 2 reasons.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Chip and Dan Heath
These guys wrote the best book i read in 2010 - Made to Stick. so if this one is half as good as that one i'll be elated.

The Power of Full Engagment: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarz
i carried this one around for about a month last year and never got started on it. need to read it this year!

Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship, and Life Together - Mark & Grace Driscoll
Every year i read at least 1 book on marriage and 1 book on sex. This year i'm killing 2 birds with 1 stone + i know i'm pretty much guaranteed Driscoll will make me laugh.

How to Write a Great Business Plan - Harvard Business Review
In this process as well... figured i should try to learn how to do it right.

The Love Dare - Stephen Kendrick
Crystal and i are going to try this again in 2012.

The 17 Indispensable Laws of Teamwork - John Maxwell
Desperately want to master and leverage creating and sustaining great teams. almost finished with this book.

The Pocket Guide to Adulthood: 29 Things to Know Before You Turn 30 - Jason Boyett
really NEED to read this one this year! it's my last chance...

Holy Discontent - Bill Hybels
thinking and hoping it's much like Andy's Visioneering... just shorter and easier.

+ i know i'll be reading several more parenting books... just haven't picked them out yet. and i'm reading a few baby sleep & schedule books per Crystal's request. can't remember the names of them though?

ok, & below is another list of books i'll read this year, but they don't really "count" in the above list that i tried to keep to 10. BECAUSE they're either my 1 Fiction/fun book for the year, or an audio book, or a book i'll read in "waiting" time in shorter segments.

here are those extra 9 books i'll read this year:

What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell
The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking
SImply Strategic Volunteers - Tony Morgan & Tim Stevens
Making It All Work - David Allen
Taste and See - John Piper
Knowing God - J.I. Packer
SuperFreakanomics - Levitt & Dubner
and last but not least...
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

i would LOVE to know YOUR 2012 reading list AND any thoughts on mine above... have you read any books on my 2012 reading list and would you recommend them or tell me i'm wasting my time?

pas-sion

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Pas-sion. noun. [pash-uhn] - "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling"

i've been accused of being too passionate. i've been accused of having too much of this thing we call passion.

i take that as a compliment.

but sometimes this compliment meant as a negative can play tricks on me in the back of my mind and it could possibly cause me to hold back or play down my passion. i can think in my head "maybe i'm being too passionate?"

no more of that for me though. i'm gonna let it flow. i refuse to suppress the passion in me. i'm going to let it run wild.

because i believe that people HAVE to see your passion. they have to see it loud and clear. it can't be held back. so i don't wanna hold it back.

because...

People respond to passion. it demands a response from them. it may freak them out a little, but hopefully it inspires some similar passion in them.

People follow passion. i won't and i imagine no one will follow a "passionless" leader. not for long anyway. why would you?

People are pumped by passion. i can't think of many things that pump me up more than watching/listening to someone else who is passionate.

People NEED to see your passion. hopefully this should be obvious from the 3 above. but peeps need YOU to show your passion. don't hide it.

other people feed on your passion. let it out.

go shave half your head

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Demosthenes was one of the greatest orators in Greek history. he was a legit communicator and still recognized today as one of the greats.

Cicero called him "the perfect orator who lacked nothing", and Quintilian called him "THE standard of oratory" and said that "he stands alone among all the orators". that is some pretty high praise!

but this speaking ability did NOT come naturally. His first speeches were embarrassing, miserable failures. awful. he sucked.
in fact, he probably had a speech impediment.

so, this is what he did to go from being awful to being one of the greatest communicators in history = he shaved half his head!

yep, that was the solution. he shaved half his head and went and hid in a cave.
During his day, a half-shaved head was a public no-no. So he intentionally quarantined himself in order to reflect on what he most desperately had to say.

He searched his soul to find his passion, his sense of identity, and his reason to communicate. did you catch that? he had to find his PASSION. what what was his whole reason to communicate? [because without these things... you can never be an effective communicator]
He thought about what his Greek audience truly valued and the language that would speak most meaningfully to them. he desperately wanted to connect with them. in a relevant way. in a way that mattered & in a way that THEY thought mattered.

Then Demosthenes practiced speaking from his heart. practiced in the back of a cave, apparently, with half his head starting to look like a chia pet or something.

When he came back out into society he won the admiration of the toughest critics the world has ever known. His name has been married to speaking eloquence for more than 2,000 years. all from a guy with a speech impediment.

why?

all because he shaved half his head.

maybe you need to shave half your head?

then lock yourself away for a while until your hair grows back...
and until you find your voice. until you locate the burning passion deep inside you. what do you HAVE to say or else you feel like you'll explode? what is your reason to communicate? and how can you say it in such a way that people actually care? how can your PASSION and your REASON to communicate be RELEVANT to your audience? what do you most deeply have to say?

so do whatever it takes. shave half your head. do whatever you have to do.

i am.

because i'm not a great communicator, but i know that what i most deeply have to say is too important to not be heard and grasped and lived.

back to school (GCTS, Harvard, & a little flavor of Cambridge)

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after a "short break" that has now lasted OVER 4 YEARS... i'm headed back to school to finish my Master's Degree.

My 1st class starts Monday. I'm currently a little over halfway through the degree. It's a Master of Arts in Leadership or a Master of Arts in Religion with the focus in Leadership... haven't quite figured out which i am technically doing because it's the exact same classes for both.

it's at the same seminary i started at = Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. i love that place and my time there so far has been awesome. It's actually located up in Boston, but there is a really nice campus here in Charlotte and the professors are amazing.

i've only got 9 classes left + a Thesis to write.
i'm going to try to be on the fast track and knock this thing out in just a little over a year by going full time this Spring, Summer, & Fall.

i'll actually take 1 or 2 of my remaining classes at Harvard up in Boston. Gordon-Conwell is in some type of partnership with Harvard that allows students from either school to take a certain number of classes at the other for their degree.
i'm definitely looking forward to sitting in a Harvard classroom.

i'm pretty pumped about some of the awesome classes and profs i'll have here at GCTS too.
For example, starting Monday i am in a class all week with a prof i'm really excited about. He is actually a long time Cambridge Professor in the PhD department! And he just comes to Gordon-Conwell to teach this class in his specialty... then heads back to Cambridge for the semester. should be awesome. never had a Cambridge prof before.

some more of my remaining classes include:
The Leader as Communicator (focus on casting vision & creating organizational culture)
Foundations for Leadership
Team and Team Building
Issues in Sexual Ethics and Bioethics
Managing the Non-profit Organization
Biblical Theology of Leadership
Managing Conflict
just to name a few.

i'd like to go ahead and make this clear. i don't really give a rip about a degree. a certificate with my name on it & some letters after it is worthless, imho.
trust me, the pursuit of a degree is SOOOO not why i'm subjecting myself to all these THOUSANDS of pages of reading, staying up late & getting up early working on school stuff, pulling all-nighters to write research papers, and spending a ridiculous amount of money on tuition.

so why go back?

the #1 reason that far outweighs all others = to grow, learn, improve, better myself, to be a better leader, and to hopefully gain tools that will help me on this world-changing mission i'm on...

#2 - to finish what i started.

#3 - to not waste what i've already done = half a degree. all that time, hard work, and MONEY.

#4 - my wife made me. she said now's the time to go back when Keira is so young and i'm not missing her soccer games or ballerina performances or whatever it is little girls do. this is pretty much my last & best chance.

so it's back to school time for me. gonna be a lot busier for a while, but i'll manage.
& hopefully i'll emerge at the end of this journey as a radically better leader. that's the goal.

i need to write

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i really really need to write for my own sake.

i come alive when i write. but when i'm not writing, it's as if i shrivel up inside.

when i'm learning and thinking about so much i HAVE to have an outlet and writing is one of those outlets for me. it helps me process and more practically understand and put in to practice the things i'm thinking, learning, and dreaming about.

but i haven't been very good at it lately. in fact, i've been really BAD at it lately. in December, i wrote LESS blogs i've ever written in any other month in the history of renown (4 years).

and in many ways, writing for me is definitely about QUANTITY over quality. that's a tension, but i really need to crank the stuff out of my head & not worry about how pretty, perfected, or excellent it is.

i haven't been doing this lately & the new year hasn't started off very well at all either.

but i'm laying down a goal and i'm making it public. 300 posts to renown in 2012. that's more than i've ever written. that's almost 1 article every single day. about 25 a month.

there, now i said it "out loud" for everyone to see. hopefully that helps keep me disciplined to reach my goal.

but the goal is only for the sake of me becoming a better me... developing what's inside of me & diving into this outlet that i desperately need.

useful

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Jim Collins told a great story about something his mentor, Peter Drucker, said to him when he was young and trying to make it in life.
i think it's something we all need to hear. (i only wish you could hear Collins' imitation of Drucker's German accent. uncanny.)

"You spend a lot of time worrying if you will survive.

BAH. You probably will.

You spend a lot of time worrying if you will be successful.

BAH. You probably will be successful too.

Why don't you go out and make yourself useful."

so, maybe you didn't even need that. but i definitely needed to hear it. hit me right where i'm at.

too much worrying and not enough of us making ourselves useful.

another reason why i blog

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yesterday i posted again about why i write/blog. you can read that HERE.

but i guess there's a secondary reason why i write too. here's an example:

i was at Catlayst 2011 last month. hung out with lots of old friends and met lots of new ones. at one break i was walking up the stairs from my seat and this guy jumped out into my path and was like:
"hey, is your name Patrick?"
"yeah."
"do you write a blog called renown?"
"yeah."
"man, your blog is so impacting. wow. I read it all the time. SO great to meet you." as he shakes my hand.

Richie and i got to talk for a while. he sounds like a phenomenal leader. campus pastor at a really big church up in Chicago. sounds like he killing it up there, but he's crazy humble and nice. i would be proud if Richie is representative of the normal demographic of renown readers.

and i can't even explain how humbling it is in that moment to hear that something you've written has impacted someone in such a positive way. crazy humbling and eggs me on a bit to keep writing.

so, shout out to Richie, btw! God bless in your new position, bro.

that's just 1 tiny example. since i started renown and have been writing for a few years now i've heard back from tons of readers whose lives have changed and the world is becoming a different place = children have been sponsored, people have reconciled with their families, their pastors, their churches, & people have told me their lives have been impacted in so many different ways.

this isn't the only reason i write, but really encouraging. all for 1 renown.

writing again...

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i felt like i didn't write for a really long time. i guess technically i went about 2 weeks without writing here. but it felt like months and months. i felt like my soul was drying up when i wasn't writing.
now that i've been writing again - i feel alive again. it's amazing how much i NEED to do this for my own good.

i have a few hundred partially written "articles" stacked up just waiting to pour out onto this blog. i've got to get them out of me and onto "paper". below is what i wrote HERE back on August 19 about WHY I WRITE.

tomorrow i'll actually post about another reason why i write.

______________________________________________
so why start a blog and write stuff pretty much every day?
great question & i'm glad you asked.

there are many answers to that question but the main reason is that I HAVE TO.

if i didn't write i think i would explode.

there just aren't enough people in the world to talk the things in my head out with. and i've gotta talk things out... or write things out.

writing is the way i have to process all these thoughts, ideas, wrestlings, learnings, etc... in my brain.

i've got to have an outlet for it all. renown is that outlet. i can write about whatever i want or need to write about on renown.

This helps me grow. it's part of my development. writing makes me a better me. writing helps me make sense of me, of God, of the world, of what's next, etc...

i know i'm not a great writer. i never claimed to be and have never really attempted to be. i just write. i just crank it out. get it out of my brain and down on paper.

really, this blog is just for me. the fact that other people choose to read it is just an extra bonus i guess.

although ultimately, this blog is not for me. as the name implies, it's for a RENOWN bigger than mine. but not necessarily just that people read it and are pointed toward that renown. although it's awesome when that happens, it's secondary. Primarily, just the fact that i have a place to write helps me become who i think God is trying to mold me into for His renown.

so i don't think i'll ever stop writing. unless i stop having ideas and thoughts and wrestling with stuff. and i hope that's not until after i'm dead.

so i blog because... well, because i am. i think; therefore i blog.

i got this phrase from Tony Morgan but it's from my heart 100%. seriously. i blog because i think stuff. (& i'm no expert, but i'm guessing Tony somewhat adapted it from Descartes or someone like that in the age of Reason or Rationalism or the Enlightenment ?)

"I process what I believe and figure out who I am while I write. I think; therefore I blog." - Tony Morgan

What is YOUR outlet or avenue for processing all that stuff in YOUR brain?

a Good to Great TO DO list

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Below is a TO DO List Jim Collins gave each of us at Catalyst '11. it is awesome if we follow it. These won't make a lot of sense without reading my previous 4 posts or hearing Collins' talk.

1 Go HERE and run the Good to Great diagnostic on you, your team, and your organization. This is a vital evaluation process.

2 Answer these Questions = how many seats do you have on your bus and what is your plan to have 100% of those seats filled with the right people in 1 year?

3 WHO will you allow to mentor me? Build a personal board of directors.

4 Get your personal HEDGEHOG right before it's too late. (a Good to Great principle = the coming together of your passion, design, and how you can make a difference.)

5 Once you have your Hedgehog, set your 20 mile march and stick to it! (Collins set weekly time goals.) What is your organization's 20 mile march?

6 Fire at least 6 new bullets by the end of the year. Navigate uncertainty with bullets.

7 Turn off electronic gadgets at least 2 days every 2 weeks. now that is a biggie! (it's impossible to "be present" with your iPhone in hand.) we need to be focused and gadgets rob us of our focs.

8 STOP Doing List. "True disciplined action is not what we choose to do, but what we choose not to do." *maybe you find it kind of ironic to have an item on your to do list that says "have a stop doing list" ? maybe humorous, but vital.

9 Double your reach to people half your age ALWAYS by changing your practices without changing your values.

10 Set a BHAG that makes you really useful. (big hairy audacious goal)

Which of the 10 TO DOs is most needed for you? which scares you the most to do?

creativity, innovation, & pioneering

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i'm prepping to launch something. i'm going to pioneer something. it's a big grand vision. it could go splendidly awesome or it could be a complete bust. i have no idea.

so i perk up and pay special attention when gurus and experts like Jim Collins talk about STARTING something and about pioneering and innovation. (i perk up and listen when YOU talk about it too... promise.)

2 days ago i wrote about Collins' analogy for empirical creativity = fire bullets! and keep firing bullets until you hit the target. THEN shoot the cannon ball.

because if you fire the cannon ball 1st... *how many cannon balls can i fire with limited gun powder? (and that gun powder represents 100 different things)
SO, we need to test what we pioneer very carefully.

and fascinating thoughts around the whole idea of pioneering that i'd heard Jim say before...

*"Pioneering innovation is extremely important for society, but lethal for the innovator."

very encouraging words for someone prepping to do what i'm prepping to do. (psych. as the kids used to say.)

so being the pioneer on something is GOOD, but rarely works. the innovator dies off. but the thing may continue.

the thing is, i'm actually cool with that. i don't need my name on it. i'm gonna die off anyway. i'm more concerned that the mission continues.

which is good because 64% of pioneers "die" outright. i.e. - they don't see their innovation come through - although it does come through. (for example = the things Apple has "pioneered" failed for them. they were a bust. although that thing may be a success. the things Apple is successful with - they did not outright pioneer. interesting, eh?)

and we are ALL innovators. we are all creative. we create. we have ideas. some of us are even pioneers with that creativity.

BEFORE you try to argue with me and say you're not creative = think back to when you were 5 years old... we were all creatives when we were 5 years old! i promise you were. we were constantly creating when we were 5. it was natural.

somewhere along the way that maybe died off for you. it was suppressed by "the system" or by you personally. and now you're just disciplined but not creative.

back when we were 5 we were all creative but none of us were disciplined.

"Marrying creativity to discipline makes creativity come alive!"

- Jim Collins

and that is 1 of the greatest secrets i've ever heard. MARRY them. that's key. it's the only way. (i've got pages and pages of thoughts on this i just can't wait to drop out here.) What if SPACE for CREATING were built right into your 20 mile march? (wow is what.)

basically we need to marry the 5 year old US and the 25 or 35 or 45 year old US. disciplined in our creativity and creatively disciplined.

then there will be more innovation. more PROBLEMS being solved. the world will keep changing. there will be more PIONEERS.

and i promise - if the thing/mission you pioneer is WORTH DOING and IT succeeds, but you don't - it's ok.

if it's worth doing then just do it.

straight butta

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"straight butta" is what we used to call something back in the day that was just amazing. it was so smooth and "pimp" that only the phrase "straight butta" would suffice to describe it's awesomeness.

so this stuff below from Jim Collins' talk at Catalyst '11 a few weeks ago is straight butta. my last couple (and the next) blogs have been thoughts from that talk and these thoughts below are the random ones that don't really fit into a topic.
so the topic for these thougths is "straight butta" - because that's what they are.

ya feel me?

The signature of mediocrity is Chronic Inconsistency!
This is true when you look at areas of your life or organizations across the world. Chronic inconsistency (or i would be witty and say consistent inconsistency) can be found in the mediocre leaders and organizations everywhere you look.

Collins says that VALUES are what can remain consistent. only VALUES endure. therefore, the bottom line from his 1st book (which is really a SEQUEL to Good to Great), Built to Last, is "Preserve the Core AND Stimulate Progress."

*which is what missional churches and contextualizing "missionaries" have been trying to do for hundreds of years.

The KEY is understanding the difference between practices and values. Change 1, never the other.
never changing values but ever changing practices can make something enduring and great!
wow - that feels like a direct address to churches & missional people. it feels as though it applies to us twice as much as business organizations. unfortunately, we're pretty bad at it.

Collins once asked the famed Peter Drucker (who happened to be Collins' mentor) which of his 26 books he was most proud of? - Drucker answered, "The next one." [i love that]

Andy Stanley interviewed Collins (again) at the end of his talk. he mainly talked about the difference between RIGOROUS and RUTHLESS cultures. especially as it relates to people in the seats on the bus (in our orgs) / firing people who don't need to be on our bus/ moving people who are in the wrong seat.
A rigorous culture is all about service to the cause. We make big RIGOROUS decisions for the sake of the cause - the sake of the mission. we should ask the question "what REALLY is compassion in this situation?" many times, firing is the most compassionate (yet hardest) thing we could do.
because if someone is failing in a seat, they're not in their Hedgehog (a Good to Great idea) - so helping them is getting them out of that seat. fast.

well, i wrote a lot more random thoughts into this "straight butta" article, BUT they just developed into blogs all by themselves. so, tomorrow i'll share some more "straight butta" Collins had to share on CREATIVITY.

3 traits in great leaders

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those 3 traits of great leaders (according to Jim Collins) are:

1 FANATIC DISCIPLINE

2 EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

3 PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

you can catch up on the 1st trait in yesterday's post HERE. + you have to read that 1st post to understand the framework story used to show these 3 traits = the 2 teams and their leaders racing to the South Pole.

2 EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

When most leaders are unsure or in a time of chaos - they don't know what to do so they just do what others are doing/have done in the past. that's our natural response as average and even good leaders.

great leaders figure out how to marry their creativity with empirical data = combine their creativity with what is PROVEN to work (not just what others are doing/have done). make sense?

they work hard to figure out what WORKS. maybe it's not the most popular method... in fact it's probably not or else we wouldn't be in the time of chaos or season of being unsure.

i would prefer to call this CREATIVE PRAGMATISM. Jim's phrase sounds smarter, but mine makes more sense to me.

it's the realization that i am NOT smart enough to outsmart this, but there are people with empirical, practical evidence.

and then you make your move based on this empirical, creative pragmatism.

and looking in from the outside - the moves these leaders make may appear to be rash, crazy, BOLD decisions... but they are simply creative decisions based on the empirical evidence of what works.

and i LOVE Collins' analogy around this - it is EXTREMELY relevant to me in this moment of my life. he said it's like a ship back in the day at war on the open seas with another ship.

they can straight up fire a couple cannon balls to blow up the other ship -- but if their aim is off just a few degrees... and they miss... well, they're out of gun powder. you only have enough "powder" to fire a few cannon balls.

so, the better way is to fire bullets. test shots. get the right trajectory and then fire the cannon ball with all that gun powder you still have left.

try with a little. and again. and again. then you hit the mark... THEN go big. that's empirical creativity.

3 PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

in an uncertain world you really do have to be prepared for what you can't predict.

These great leaders are always sitting around wondering "what if" -- while channeling that energy into being PRODUCTIVE!

(most of us do just the opposite = paranoia & "what if" wondering paralyzes us and we do nothing.)

the team who actually made it to the South Pole put out 10 mile wide black markers at every depot stop! and you better believe they didn't miss a single one. THAT is productive paranoia.

(the other team just put a flag on top of the depot itself. they all died.)

some famous guy, CEO of a company - can't even remember who, but he had an awesome quote = "We predicted 11 of the last 3 recessions." = again, THAT is productive paranoia. that company was OK in every single recession. they're still doing fine. (wish i could remember who it was?)

they were being (some might say) OVERLY paranoid. but it was productive paranoia, so they put plans in place and they have been OK in every single recession.

so, the GREAT leaders have Fanatic Discipline, Empirical Creativity, and Productive Paranoia.

i have a lot to still be developed in me. how are YOU doing with these 3 in YOUR leadership?

tomorrow i'll post more leadership takeaways from Collins & on Thursday i'll post the 10 point TO DO list he gave all of us!

20 mile march'n it again...

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One of my last posts before Keira was born was this below - my thoughts from Jim Collins' awesome talk at Catalyst 2011. i was going to post the rest of my thoughts on it the next week, but Keira had other plans. that was about 3 weeks ago now! so i'm reposting the 1st one below and i'll follow up with the rest tomorrow.

diving back into my 20 mile marches myself, so this is good for me to dive back into & keep writing tomorrow...

when it comes to greatness there are 3 inherent traits that set GREAT leaders apart from the others...
& These are according to Jim Collins' STELLAR talk at Catalyst '11 last week. (and probably from his newest book Greatness is a Choice)

i'll just give you those big 3 traits straight up & then explain what he was talking about as we go:

1 FANATIC DISCIPLINE

2 EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

3 PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

The story and framework he chose to build this talk around was a study of the 2 teams who were in a race to make it to the South Pole back in the early 1900s. the leader whose team made it exemplified each of these 3 traits. the leader whose team all DIED did not.

each leader and each team faced the SAME environment and the SAME circumstances... one made it and one DIED. these 3 traits made the difference... and they make the difference in a long line of Great vs. Good leaders and Great vs. Good organizations.

Here is a little more context and discussion around these 3:

1 FANATIC DISCIPLINE

Jim told a (made up) story as a GREAT example of this trait. Let's say there are 2 guys who are going to walk from the California coast all the way across the country to the East coast of Maine. that's a long walk. they both set out on the same day.

The 1st guy sets a pace for himself of 20 miles per day. he is committed to his 20 mile march. he is fanatically disciplined about it. the 1st day he walks 20 miles. the 2nd day he walks 20 miles. the 3rd day he completes 20 miles and is tempted to keep going... he feels good, the sun is still up, he can probably walk 40. but nope. he sticks to the 20 mile march. he hits Colorado and there is snow all over the ground and he wakes up early and wants to sleep in inside his tent... but he does his 20 mile march. no matter what. fanatic discipline.

he makes it to Maine.

The other guy just gets after it. he walks 40 miles the 1st day. then blazes ahead for 57 miles on the 2nd day! he's dead tired on the 3rd day so he just sleeps in and lays around all day knowing that he can make up the ground later. he hits the snow in Colorado exhausted and takes a 3 week break to let the weather clear up. he hits the trail again and does 60 miles, but can barely walk the next day. he never makes it to Maine.

the team who made it to the South Pole had a 20 mile march and their leader made them stick to it no matter what.

THAT is fanatic discipline.

and that is what i need.

for those of you familiar with Good to Great, this is a repackaging of the FLYWHEEL principle.

my main takeaway = i desperately need to KNOW what my 20 mile march is. i'm going to spend the time and the hard effort to land on the right 20 mile march for every area of my life and then i'm going to freaking hit it every single time... no matter what!

we'll talk about the other 2 traits in the coming days, but for now - anybody know their 20 mile march?

20 mile march

on |

when it comes to greatness there are 3 inherent traits that set GREAT leaders apart from the others...
& These are according to Jim Collins' STELLAR talk at Catalyst '11 last week. (and probably from his newest book Greatness is a Choice)

i'll just give you those big 3 traits straight up & then explain what he was talking about as we go:

1 FANATIC DISCIPLINE

2 EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

3 PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

each leader and each team faced the SAME environment and the SAME circumstances... one made it and one DIED. these 3 traits made the difference... and the make the difference in a long line of Great vs. Good leaders and Great vs. Good organizations.

Here is a little more context and discussion around these 3:

1 FANATIC DISCIPLINE

he makes it to Maine.

the team who made it to the South Pole had a 20 mile march and their leader made them stick to it no matter what.

THAT is fanatic discipline.

and that is what i need.

for those of you familiar with Good to Great, this is a repackaging of the FLYWHEEL principle.

my takeaway = i desperately need to KNOW what my 20 mile march is. i'm going to spend the time and the hard effort to land on the right 20 mile march for every area of my life and then i'm going to freaking hit it every single time... no matter what!

we'll talk about the other 2 traits in the coming days, but for now - anybody know their 20 mile march?

greatness

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One of the 1st lines in Good to Great that wrestles you down and grabs your attention is:

“Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice."

That is what i am talking about. that is echoes of my Father & Grandfather from years past.

and that is one of the lines Jim Collins kicked off his stellar Catalyst '11 talk with last week. for me, it was the best talk of the whole conference.

a lot of it was great reminders after reading Good to Great a few years ago, but those in-your-face reminders have kicked my butt back into gear. but some of it was also reframed in different ways - probably from his newest book Greatness is a Choice. (that i can't wait to devour, btw.)

so, back to that statement. "Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice."

we can see that from the pure data/evidence. because if 2 organizations are in all the same circumstances and 1 stays good while the other goes to great... obviously something they did made the difference.

WHAT makes that difference though? why do some leaders and organizations thrive in chaos? it is NOT what happens to you; it's the choices, actions, and disciplines you choose.

the rest of his talk was about a lot of those choices, actions, and disciplines that makes a great leader.

and it was all pure gold. i'll be breaking it down and processing my takeaways from it here at renown the next few days, but for now i'll just leave you with another sliver...

It all starts with PEOPLE.

Get the right people on the bus. that's the famous chapter/phrase from Good to Great. it's all about the right people on the bus and then having those people in the right seat. So...

Try to change every WHAT question to a WHO question.

and that's just 1 of the 5 principles that cause leaders and organizations to go from good to great, but i think if we rigorously acted on just this one... wow. there would be a world of difference.

and this may seem off topic but it was a simple/profound/brilliant quote in context. because a lot of times we make bad people decisions... but we have good intentions... our hearts are good...

"Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions."

yep. right on Jimmy. more coming soon. and it's all the really good stuff. i'm saving it.

what do YOU think so far?

A die hard YANKEES fans

29 things to know before you hit 30 (part 2)

be a student not a critic

are you still haters?

innovation and all his friends

my 2012 reading list

pas-sion

top 10 books i read in 2011

go shave half your head

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i need to write

useful

another reason why i blog

writing again...

a Good to Great TO DO list

creativity, innovation, & pioneering

straight butta

3 traits in great leaders

20 mile march'n it again...

20 mile march

greatness

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