Leadership Summit Reflections #2

I forgot to mention two other ponderings I've been having. In the round table discussion, probably my least favorite session, (Bill Hybels, Henry Cloud, Patrick Lencioni, David Ireland and Carly Fiorina [I do love her]), were talking about the hiring process, and the importance of getting it right. One thought they put out there was that we don't take the time we should take when hiring people. We're often in a hurry to fill the position, and so don't dig deeper, looking not just at education, but competency and story--what is the story of the person you're hiring. Sometimes story can tell you more than resumes can. Because we don't dig deeper, we sometimes hire the wrong person, but, rather than admit that, and rather than hold accountability (using clarity and care), our brains make the person hired into the person we want them to be. This has been rolling around in my head for a while for several reasons - 1) I think it is true, I think organizations everywhere do that, and 2) isn't this what we do with relationships? We make the person we're with into the person we want them to be rather than accepting and loving them for who they are, or, in the case of a bad relationship, getting out. . . and, do we talk to those people with clarity and care so that they can understand us and we can understand them?

Then, how could I forget Jessica Jackley, the co-founder of Kiva.org? I've written about Kiva in this blog before - the world's first peer to peer online microlending website. For as little as $25 you can sponsor an entrepreneur in a third world country, or, even here in the US. Jessica and her team have created an elegant mission statement for Kiva: to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. She's done everything right with the mission statement, short, sweet, easy to remember, and it is the heart of what they do. I am most impressed with their integrity. She shared that organizations have offered to give millions to Kiva, but they have turned them down. Why? The heart of the mission is connecting people through lending.The humanity piece is very important to them and if you can't connect the dollars with humanity, then it doesn't fit with their organization. It's lovely to know that there are still people with that type of integrity out there.

Leadership Summit Reflections

Leadership Summit was kind of like "Hole in the Gospel"-- you learn so much you are convicted to lead a more practical life for God.

Bill Hybels

• Live out the first century dream (Acts 2) in the 21st century. Do we still believe the local church is the hope of the world?
• The beauty, power and potential of the church lies in trust, love, the generosity of friends, church and colleagues.
• We need to step up and be generous with God's blessings.
• We need to walk by faith, not sight.
• Remember, in a crisis, cash is not king, but Christ is King. The crisis isn't about money, it's about time. (Isn't this a good thing to remember at home as well, and in our lives. We need to be wise with our cash reserves so that when we do have a crisis, we can take the time to talk to God and figure out the next step. The wonderful thing about God is that He rescues us even when we don't take those precautions.)
• In times of financial stress, people will give to a white hot kingdom vision.God wants people who are totally yielded to Him--whose hearts are fully His.
• Live the Romans 8:6 life - living in sync with the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace (who doesn't want that!?)

Regarding management--three statements that stuck out to me: 1) the kindest form of management is the truth; 2) it demotivates top performers to let poor performers continue and 3) job descriptions should not just include skills, but competency. Some questions to ask yourself:

• What do your colleagues and followers see when they look at you today?
• What do other people thing of you?

Gary Hamel (The Future of Management)
Unprecedented changes = unprecedented opportunities requires unprecedented strategies.
Our problem is inertia (am I going forwards or backwards)
Are we crisis driven or opportunity driven?

1. Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial: a) Face the facts, don't pretend there's an easy conversation; b) question your beliefs (humility); c) listen to renegades/dissidents. Question: Do we welcome dissent or stifle it?
2. Generate more strategic options (more new things): a) we clutch at the familiar--make change seem more exciting than standing pat; b) we must choose open, participatory conversations on change.
3. Deconstruct what you already believe. What hasn't changed for 3 to 4 years and why? Is it good, or just a habit? Learn to be contrarians (I have some friends that are very good at this). We must be visionary, yet practical, confident, but humble.

Look at our structure today, and consider the early church. The early church was spiritually powerful, but institutionally weak. Lives won't change till churches change. The new model = mobilize/connect/support.

Tim Kellar (The Prodigal God)
I'll write more when I finish the book. Suffice it to say that his writing reminds me of C.S. Lewis, in that I feel my brain being peeled back to absorb new understanding. Basically, whether we strive to be obedient, or we choose to live a pleasure seeking and disobedient life, either way, we miss the mark. Do you know that one of the meanings of prodigal is recklessly extravagant - rather than the connotation we give to the story of the prodigal son, it is the story of our recklessly extravagant God. I loved that this middle aged gentleman's church is filled with mostly 20 something people. Young people are hungry for Truth and he delivers it.

Dave Gibbons (The Monkey and the Fish)
I'm sure you'll hear more about this once I've read the book. Once again we hear about the need to be contrarian. Look at our churches today. Are the people in your church more like you than not? Churches need to be contrarian - it's easy to like people who are like you, the world doesn't see anything special there - "the world will stop and see something beautiful when we love what is different from us". The church must adapt and love, learn and serve in any culture (third culture).

1. The third culture leader is focused on the fringe: a) the misfit, not the masses; b) the margins lead the movements. He gave the example of a housewife with a website (I thought he said it was deuce.com but can't seem to find it on the web) who has thousands of followers - an example of someone on the fringe who is influencing the masses.
2. We have to have a different set of metrics: a) failure is success to God - it's your platform to humanity--He allows you to have these failures to touch the humanity in this world; b) look at human resources--gifts + tests + story (for an employer). For all of us - do you have time to listen to people's stories? Do you really see people?; c) weakness guides us more than our strength.
3. Vision. Pretty simple really - Love God. Love your neighbor. Relationships trump vision. Jesus did what He saw His Father do. We need relationaries, not visionaries (I loved this). Maybe what happens outside the building, is more important that what happens inside the building (speaking of church). The church's main task is to model equipping leaders, the best discipleship is life on life. Here he referenced the Medici Effect - another book that sounds interesting.
4. Obedience is more important than passion: a) deeper collaboration; b) communal living; c) prayer (here he said the church doesn't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit); d) radical sacrifice for the outsiders.

You can probably see why I wanted to read the book.

David Gergen (Eyewitness to Power)
This was an entertaining segment. One thing that all the pastors learned is that you lose people after 25 minutes - most usually to sexual fantasy. That brought a big laugh.

• Don't confuse motion with progress
• Go after big goals tenaciously
• Look back at a 6 week period - what did you hope to accomplish, what did I do right and what did I do wrong--don't fool yourself.
• Be willing to wrestle (with the questions)
• Someone who can look farther back can look farther ahead
• People may not be able to conquer flaws...how do you live with them
• Good speeches contain 4 parts: Ethos (who you are); Emotion; Reason (include humor); and Emotion again (get up and get moving -- call to action).

Chip and Dan Heath (Made to Stick and Switch [not yet published])
This session was about why some ideas survive and others die.

• Ideas can start out with hope (we can), and then most usually take a dive (which they called the valley of insight), and then end with confidence (we did it). Forewarn people on your team working towards the implementation of an idea, that this can happen.
• Tolerance for failure is a necessary step for success, especially in a time of change.
• Failure can possibly be an early warning sign of success.
• There's always resistance to the journey for equality
• Change your thinking - for example, instead of standing against poverty, take a stand for poverty (effecting change).

Wes Stafford
Mr. Stafford is the president and CEO of Compassion International. He shared the story of his youth, when as a child of missionary parents, he spent the school year in a boarding school. The boarding school was staffed by adults who didn't quite make the missionary cut, and so were put in charge of the school. He shared the story of himself and 50 of his classmates who were physically beaten, some sexually abused, not allowed to even have pictures of his parents anywhere in the room. It grieves me to hear of people who claim to follow God and follow Satan's teachings in the name of God. He finally told his mom, but just prior to boarding the plane, seconds before he said, and so he still went. His parents were going by boat and it took a month for them to get there. As a result, when he got to the boarding school he was forced to stand in a chair, holding a candle that was burning at each end. He was 10 years old. The man who forced him to do this told his classmates that because of him Africans would not get to know Jesus, because he TOLD, his parents would not save souls. Something came over this little boy, and he decided he was going to win this time, and held the candle in his fingers even though they began blistering. In fact, he was watching this in an "out of body" experience as often happens to abused children, until a classmate couldn't stand it any longer and knocked it out of his fingers. He spoke about this horrific experience, and the need to forgive. The forgiveness is most important for the victim, or else the bitterness and anger grows like a cancer inside of you. This was an emotionally draining session, it just hurts your heart so much.

Bono
This was different than I thought. We didn't get to see that much of Bono I didn't think, but it was still interesting.

• When Bono was first invited to Summit, some 10 years or so ago, he blasted the church for standing on the sidelines when it came to justice, poverty and aids. I take it this caught the church by surprise, and they were offended, but also forced to look at themselves.
• The church took action, and Bono said, that he knew the church was a sleeping giant, but he didn't know the church could move so fast. Now the church is in the forefront of this work.
• Bono has a thing for the Man in the Moon story. He just loves the story of how man walked on the moon. I don't know all the details behind it. Hybels asked him if he ever felt like giving up, and Bono told this great story. He was walking in the park in Manhatten, he was feeling discouraged, and feeling like maybe he would just give up the group, retire, etc. A man was sitting on a bench - he looked like he was homeless, and he was talking crazy. But, he said hey to Bono, and asked if he would like to buy a newspaper (he had a bagful of newspapers at his feet). Bono said, what do you have--he pulled out a newspaper with the headline "Man Walks on the Moon". Every newspaper in the bag was "Man Walks on the Moon". He bought them all.

This is the longest post I've ever done! Whew. . . please excuse any typos/grammar . . .

A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls Lanier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was about the Little Rock 9, and the racial upheaval that took place during the desegregation of Central High. I am sad to confess my ignorance of history. I was not aware that the school was closed for a whole school year to both black and white students. This first person account was factual and interesting. The hurt to the heart is expressed in this sentiment: "Some days I was so mentally exhausted that I didn't have the energy to guard my heart. In those low moments, when the troublemakers hurled their insults, they smashed my spirit like bricks."

This would be a great book for teens I think. It made me want to learn more and I wanted to see pictures. The story of how one of the teens, Elizabeth Eckford ended up going alone on the first day they were allowed in (isn't that crazy, to have to be allowed in to a school), and how the mob treated her blows my mind. I think the part that gets to you is, how do I know I wouldn't act like that? When you see the pictures (look online), and the absolute hatred in people's faces it seems unbelievable - and it really is, isn't it? Who can believe human beings would treat others that same way. Carlotta says: "when I was suffering in those hallowed halls, they (white students and teachers) turned away. They did nothing. They said nothing. They chose not to see". It makes you stand up and take notice of what you are doing or not doing for people that are different than you today. . .

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