Fast Company’s 30 Second MBA
About a year ago I became a magazine junky and I subscribed to about four or five magazines on various topics, from cycling, to business, technology and Christianity.
One of my favorite magazines that I subscribe to is Fast Company (@FastCompany). I love the blend of business tips, features on up and coming entrepreneurs and mind-blowingly innovative companies.
As I was reading through this month’s issue I came across an advertisement for 30Secondmba.com, a site that is filled with thirty second videos by various business leaders sharing tips, tricks and other insights into leadership and business practices.
Obviously in thirty seconds you’re not getting in-depth information but I have found the site to be thought provoking.
If leadership, and/or business is your “thing,” you might enjoy checking the site out.
What leadership resources have you found to be thought provoking and/or inspiring?
Posted on April 25th, 2011 by David | 6 Comments »
Change Happens: Part 4 – acknowledging change
Whether we like change or not, change is happening around us all the time. It’s happening in our personal lives, our professional lives and in the world at large.
Although we may be tempted to deny the reality of change, the sooner we can acknowledge that change is happening the better we will be when it comes to accepting/coping with it.
When it comes to dealing with change there are two initial healthy acknowledging responses we can have. We can either accept change and jump on board to support it, or we can find ways to cope with change if we disagree with the change being made.
It would be foolish to think that everyone is going to fully accept every change that is taking place in their life, however many changes are worth accepting. In these situations when you are in support of a change, there are three important steps that you can take to help things continue in a positive way.
- Encourage the leader making the change. This will provide them with the support and encouragement needed to continue down what might be a very difficult path.
- Implement the change. It is one thing to give lip service praising the change, it is another to incorporate the change into your situation.
- Become an evangelist for the change. There is nothing more powerful than having people who accept the change begin to share their satisfaction with others. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 21st, 2011 by David | 2 Comments »
Change Happens: Part 3 – communicating change
Although, it is important to ask the right questions when it comes to creating/implementing change, you will come up short if you fail to communicate the change effectively.
Unfortunately people are not always as open to the idea of change as we would like. For this reason it is important to keep the following in mind when communicating a change.
1. Involve your influencers.
At some point everyone in your organization will need to know about the change, but it is important to get your key influencers on board early. During this time you can get their thoughts, insights and overall impressions of the change you are proposing. If you fail to include this group early on in the process, you will lose a great deal of credibility with them and they will not be the advocates for change that you need them to be.
2. Speak to the underlying value.
Many times people are resistant to change because they don’t understand the underlying value that is motivating the change. Often times, by clarifying the value you will come to find that those in opposition hold the very same value, they just have other thoughts on how the value should be addressed. Nevertheless you now have a common ground on which to begin dialoguing about the change. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 20th, 2011 by David | 4 Comments »
Change Happens: Part 2 – creating change
Creating change is is not easy, that’s for sure. However there are some key questions that you can ask yourself as begin to create change in your particular situation. For the sake of this conversation, I will be looking at the idea of creating change within a church ministry setting since that is my particular context.
1. Why am I creating change?
As I posted last week, the question “why?” is the most important and foundational question we can ask because it gets to the heart of what we are looking to do. It helps us examine our motivations and practical rationale for introducing change. For me practically speaking, this might mean me asking why it do I want to create a particular new ministry. Is it because I feel there is a need that is not being met? Is it because other people are telling me that I should start the ministry? Is it because I think it would…Once you know the “why,” You will be more focused when it comes to identifying the specific change and how it is to be implemented.
2. What is my context?
Not every change is good in every context. When it comes to churches, we are very good at simply adopting a new program or ministry that we learned about in a book or at a conference. However, my context may not be right for that particular program. I may not have the right leadership, finances, overall ministry model, or even the right demographic for that program. Just because an idea is good, does not mean that it is good for you. Meaning that, just because something works in one context does not mean that is will necessarily work in yours so make sure you evaluate the context you are in. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 19th, 2011 by David | 10 Comments »
Change Happens: Part 1
Let’s face it, change is a part of life.
There literally is no way to keep changes from happening in your life. Whether, personal, professional, relational, etc. change will happen and that’s not going to change!
Perhaps Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best…
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today.
This week I’m going to unpack what I have found to be incredibly valuable insights when it comes to dealing with and implementing change in a variety of different environments. This will be a week long series so bookmark 24/7 Life and be prepared to engage in the conversation. The more engagement, the more insights, the more insights the more valuable the conversation.
But for the sake of easing into the subject, let’s keep things simple today…with one question. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 18th, 2011 by David | 8 Comments »
The Inspirational Power Of “Why”
The ability to inspire others is priceless. Think about it, if you are able to inspire other people to action, the potential of what you and that group can accomplish is limitless.
Unfortunately we often come up short in the area of inspiration because we fail to ask the right question. We fail to ask the underlying question that leads to the the motivation of others. We fail to ask, “why?”
Simon Sinek (@simonsinek), does a brilliant job of expressing this in a talk he did for TED, where he talks about “The Golden Circle.”
How can you be more intentional about using the inspirational power of “why” to motivate the teams you lead?
For more great ideas from Simon Sinek, visit his blog.
Posted on April 14th, 2011 by David | 2 Comments »
A Week Pursuing Knowledge
This has been a bad week for me in terms of blogging…okay it’s been a non-existent week for me in terms of blogging and for that I apologize. But I have a good excuse, I promise.
Over the last week I have been up to my neck in educational experiences. Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was a part of a conflict coaching/mediation training put on by Peacemaker Ministries. Let me just say that it was one of the most intense and draining educational experiences I have ever had, and yet it was phenomenal.
Then Tuesday night I spent the evening hanging out with a bunch of great people at the final class for church membership at MVPC. Last night Monika and I were at our small group where we were again studying Peacemaking principles. And all the while I have been trying to play catchup on my current class for grad school, “Power, Change and Conflict Management.”
There is no doubt about the fact that I have been busy and have neglected the the blog, but truthfully, I think sometime we need to do that. We need to be okay disengaging from our blogs or Facebook, or Twitter. Especially when it allows us to pursue personal growth. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 1st, 2011 by David | No Comments »
And Then There Were None
Debt is a dog.
It weights on you. It stresses you out. It’s an inconvenience. It prevents you from pursuing other endeavors. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Well today Monika and I took a significant step to remove that dog from the equation, we paid off our last student loans and talk about a sense of freedom!
I don’t really consider student loans to be the worst kind of debt but they need to be paid off nevertheless.
We have been working diligently on getting those taken care of for the last four years and so to have them taken care of is pretty remarkable considering the dollar amount we started with.
I say all of this not to brag or make those of you who have debt feel discouraged, but rather just the opposite. If you have debt know that you can take care of it. If you feel overwhelmed by how long it will take you to pay it off, use that as motivation to save more and work harder. If you feel tempted to go into more debt to buy something that will make you “happy,” don’t.
Kill the debt! It feels so good.
If you need a good resource on how to eliminate your debt, check out Dave Ramsey and his book Total Money Makeover. He is legit!
Posted on February 3rd, 2010 by David | No Comments »
Man Up
Later this year we are going to have a series at New Life called, “Man Up.” The premise is that as men, we need to take our spiritual leadership to the next level, especially in our homes, with our families.
For a variety of reasons it is often challenging for men (myself included) to step up and be the spiritual leaders of their families. While I personally have felt that way, I haven’t been able to put my finger on exactly what it is that makes it so challenging, and so I posed that question in our strategy team.
“What makes it so hard for a man to take the spiritual lead with his family?”
There were a variety of great responses but the one that stood out to me the most was that, while men and women are both relational, they pursue relationships/connection/intimacy in different ways. This came from a woman, go figure. Leave it to the women to hit the nail on the head when it comes to how men operate.
Anyway…
Women pursue relationships through conversation and talking, while men pursue relationships through action.Put another way, men are most comfortable opening up when they are working on a task together.
For example, women are completely fine sitting and talking over a cup of coffee for hours, while most men would rather be active, pursuing relationships/connection over a task ie, fishing, working on a car, building something, etc.
The task is what brings men together and allows them to feel connection while for women it is specifically the conversation. This isn’t to say that it’s all black and white. Both men and women fall at different places along the spectrum, but there is a lot of truth to men finding connection while “doing” something, and women while simply talking.
So how does this all tie into men being the spiritual leader in their home?
It ties in because spiritual leadership in a home often consists of prayer, talking about the bible, getting emotional, etc. It is missing the component that allows men to feel most comfortable opening up, causing men to lead from a place of discomfort and insecurity.
Posted on March 11th, 2009 by David | 2 Comments »
Engaging Kids In Learning
Below I have linked to an article on the importance of kid’s engaging in their learning. If you have a child, I would encourage you to take a look. Once you have read the article leave a comment with your thoughts and any suggestions you might have on engaging kids in the learning process.
Posted on April 16th, 2008 by David | 2 Comments »
