The easiest form of management is to encourage or demand that people do more. The other translation of this phrase is to go faster.
The most important and difficult form of management (verging on leadership) is to encourage people to do better.
Better is trickier than more because people have trouble visualizing themselves doing better. It requires education and coaching and patience to create a team of people who are better.
Category: Reflections
Thoughtful Encounters
You have to risk alienating the 2% in order to please the 98%, btw they will be alienated anyway (via Seth Godin)
When a popular rock group comes to town, some of their fans won’t get great tickets. Not enough room in the front row. Now they’re annoyed. 2% of them are angry enough to speak up or badmouth or write an angry letter.
When Disney changes a policy and offers a great new feature or benefit to the most dedicated fans, 2% of them won’t be able to use it… timing or transport or resources or whatever. They’re angry and they let the brand know it.
Do the math. Every time Apple delights 10,000 people, they hear from 200 angry customers, people who don’t like the change or the opportunity or the risk it represents.
If you have fans or followers or customers, no matter what you do, you’ll annoy or disappoint two percent of them. And you’ll probably hear a lot more from the unhappy 2% than from the delighted 98.
It seems as though there are only two ways to deal with this: Stop innovating, just stagnate. Or go ahead and delight the vast majority.
Sure, you can try to minimize the cost of change, and you might even get the number to 1%. But if you try to delight everyone, all the time, you’ll just make yourself crazy. Or become boring.
Change: the fearful loudly resist, the hopeful quietly disbelieve, inertia results (via Seth Godin)
People who fear they will be hurt by a change speak up immediately, loudly and without regard for the odds or reality.
People who will benefit from a change don’t believe it (until it happens), so they sit quietly.
And that’s why change in an organization is difficult.
Jesus told us to make disciples and often as leaders we take the easy way out.
Heather Zempel, the discipleship person at National Community Church, shares an important reminder about making disciples. We have to work at making disciples just like a farmer has to work to bring forth a crop. Grabbing a “pre-ripened” disciple and showing others the fruit of your efforts is a short-cut. Do the hard work!
The last command Jesus gave his disciples was “go make disciples.” There are many things we focus on in church leadership- vision, communication, relevance, preaching, programming, etc. But if there is anything we must get right, it’s discipleship. The problem is that it’s often easier to focus on other things because discipleship is so stinking hard.
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We often look for disciples. We look for a potential leader. We hope to find someone with maturity and gifts that we can raise up. We forget that Jesus told us to go make them. Not find them. If you can’t find a potential leader in your group, in your ministry, or on your team, it’s not their fault. Don’t blame them for being immature or needing to grow. It’s your fault. It’s my fault. We are supposed to make disciples. And making disciples is long, hard work.
Spencer Burke talks with Leonard Sweet about evangelism that you can taste, touch and smell (via TheOozeTV)
via theooze.tv
Len Sweet sets the context for his new book NUDGE (2010).
Krista Tippett reflects with Sharon Brous about the Days of Awe. A passionate look at the Jewish High Holy Days. (via Speaking of Faith)
We delve into the world and meaning of the Jewish High Holy Days — ten days that span the new year of Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur’s rituals of atonement. A young rabbi in L.A. is one voice in a Jewish spiritual renaissance that is taking many forms across the U.S. The vast majority of her congregation are people in their 20s and 30s, who, she says, are making life-giving connections between ritual, personal transformation, and relevance in the world.
Dr. Tom Morris at powerful and entertaining talk on the 7 Cs of Success at the NC Annual Conference (2010, via Vimeo)
via vimeo.com
Tom Morris’ summary of his 7 Cs of Success.
From Plato and Aristotle to the present day, the wisest people who have ever thought about success and excellence have left us bits and pieces of powerful advice for attaining true success in our lives. I have put them all together as a framework of seven universal conditions which I call “The 7 Cs of Success.” For the most satisfying and sustainable form of success in our lives, we need:
(1) A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.
(2) A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain that goal.
(3) A focused CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal.
(4) A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision.
(5) An emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we’re doing.
(6) A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on a proper course.
(7) A CAPACITY TO ENJOY the process along the way.
These seven conditions provide the most universal framework for making things happen in a positive way, for putting our talents to work in the world, and for creating a better future for others as well as ourselves. They give us the most general strategic principles for success.
As We Forgive :: view the trailer from this powerful film about reconciliation in Rwanda. There is hope in the midst of despair.
Laura Waters Hinson offers AS WE FORGIVE as a testimony of forgiveness among the Rwandan people as victims and murderers find ways to live next door to each other. Where are you finding it hard to forgive? Watch this message of hope. THANKS to Gabe Lyons at Q Ideas for bringing this work to our attention.
A conversation about making vision stick with Andy Stanley – step 5, Embrace the Vision Personally
Key takeaways: You have to live they vision — you must embrace the vision personally and publicly.
A conversation about making vision stick with Andy Stanley – Steps 3 & 4, Repeat Vision Regularly & Celebrate Vision Systematically
Key takeaways: Repeat the vision regularly. (North Point’s annual vision-casting in January and small group invitations and calls to service are tied to the vision as well, weekly announcements). Regularly we needing to be saying “Here’s what we’re doing, here’s why we’re doing it, here’s how you can be a part … here’s the problem, here’s our solution, here’s why we need to do it now … ”
Celebrate the vision systematically. The things we celebrate are repeated. Nothing reiterates vision and values like a story … warm other hearts with a great story. (Baptism stories are key at North Point).
Front Porch Reflections 
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