John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Where the Light Divides

Issue No. 419 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting lists both good news and bad news from Fred Smith’s new book—another must-read. (I know. I know. I say that a lot.) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this website for recent book reviews, including ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance.



Fred Smith on Flaws and Foibles—With a Twist!

Good News! Fred Smith and a friend both left very generous tips for their waitress, a single-parent mom/student working two jobs.

Bad News! I read Chapter 36 (the big tip chapter) in Fred’s book at my favorite breakfast restaurant—having just reflected on “the divine moment is the present moment.” I had no choice—my waiter got a generous tip!

So…caution all readers! Fred Smith’s 50 short chapters in Where the Light Divides will sneak up on you and—if you have any measure of a spiritual pulse—you’ll get hammered. But it’s a good hammering. He’s provocative, but also patient with us. And just when you turn the page for a new chapter (“Ah! Yes! I know this biblical account…”), Fred will twist your pre-conceived and often ill-conceived understanding—and grab you by the spiritual throat.

Good News! Here are your add-water-and-stir discussion topics for your next 50 weekly staff meetings or small group gatherings. Each chapter is just three to four pages—and there are no wasted words.

Bad News! If you don’t like disruption, self-assessment, or biblical gut checks—then don’t read or recommend this book. Yikes.

Good News! While there are ample doses of biblical characters and their alarming flaws and foibles—Fred twists the commonly understood narrative with both wisdom and wit, as he does with the bronze snake (Numbers 21) in Chapter 37, “Snakes on a Plain.”

Bad News! “What the people of Israel did with the serpent, we do the same in many ways. We make good things into icons and then into idols.” He adds, “Some have made an idol of the church for their own benefit.”

Good News! I read over a dozen short chapters to my wife, Joanne. (I easily could have read every chapter out loud to her—they are that good.)

Bad News! I read over a dozen short chapters to my wife, Joanne. (And—GULP!—she turned the convicting insights back to me. Yikes.)

Good News! Fred probes and pokes about calling and careers and our tendencies to sometimes park and take “the wheels off the mobile home.” It’s good to read uncomfortable stuff—especially when we notice our priorities have subtly shifted towards comfort, not commitment.

Bad News! Chapter 3’s narrative on Abram’s calling, “End of the Line,” notes this: “Haran is any place we park along the way. It’s not disobedience like Babel. It’s simply settling instead of going on.” (It reminded me of Henry Cloud’s wisdom in Necessary Endings.)

Good News! Many of your favorite people headline each chapter: Leonard Cohen, Mary, Moses, Steve Jobs, Gideon, Joseph (as Doc Martin!), Malcolm Gladwell, C.S. Lewis, Naomi, and N.T. Wright.

Bad News! Fred’s grandfather, a Baptist pastor, “had an uncomfortable habit of telling the whole truth about the departed at funerals.” (Chapter 24 is a must-read about Fred’s father’s love/hate affair with Jaguars, once he could afford owning one.)

Good News! And speaking of Fred’s father, Fred Smith, Sr., I was reminded of Fred, Sr.’s axiom, “I learned to write to burn the fuzz off my thinking.” Gratefully this wisdom didn’t skip a generation. 

Bad News! Many of us zip through life—and books—thinking “Yada, yada, yada.” But Fred challenges us to put the brakes on our I-already-know-that smug wisdom—and instead think and ponder—as we slowly read and discern. Where the Light Divides (read his prism metaphor in the intro) offers this challenge:

“It may give someone permission to think about their world with a twist, and, like me, wonder if there is more to the story than I see the first time—or the hundredth. If there is a theme, it is this angle from which I see things. It is my slant. Looking both ways.

“I did not come to trust this slant early in life. It felt odd or out of place many times. It’s probably time to grow up and say, deliberately, what I am thinking and take responsibility for it.”

Good News! Fresh thinking oozes off almost every page. Example: when you’re seemingly “stuck” (Chapter 42), you’ll be encouraged with wisdom from Phillip Yancey, Dr. Paul Brand, and Henri Nouwen.

Bad News! Per Yancey, why is Dr. Brand’s example so rare? When the doctor spoke “to a handful of leprosy patients in the hospital’s Protestant chapel . . . He spoke as an act of worship, as one who truly believed that God shows up when two or three are gathered in God’s name.”

Good News! This is the perfect gift book for family, friends, colleagues, board members, staff members, and neighbors (like my 25-year friend, Pastor Mac, next door).

Bad News! You'll think of at least five friends who should read this—and it will cost you, but buy five books anyway. And one more reminder—don’t read Chapter 36 in a restaurant (or Chapter 39 in a hotel lobby)!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Where the Light Divides, by Fred Smith.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Fred Smith leaves no career unturned. To professional fundraisers, he urges: “Stop Ministering to Donors” (Chapter 41). He suggests that major donors just might have healthier lives than those who are after their money. Yikes. What can we learn from this chapter?
2) Smith, president emeritus of The Gathering, knows something about wealth—and he writes in Chapter 42, that the oft-trusted statement, “Leaving children wealth is like leaving them a case of psychological cancer”—is absolutely misguided. It only leads “to mistrusting our children.” Wow! What else do we believe that is misguided because we have not stretched our hearts and minds to hear contrarian wisdom?

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Peter Drucker: You’ll Make 2 Big Mistakes Per Year!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Drucker Bucket, Chapter 4, in Mastering the Management Buckets is what Peter Drucker (1909-2005), the father of modern management, preached: you must practice, practice, practice the art of management. Drucker wrote 39 books (published in 36 languages)—so he also preached lifelong learning.

I was amazingly blessed in 1986, when Fred Smith and Bob Buford invited me—along with 30 other Christian leaders—to sit at the feet of Peter Drucker for four days in Estes Park, Colo. It was certainly one of my top-10 life experiences. Thanks to Fred, I became a lifelong learner—and here’s just one of the many Druckerisms I often mention:

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.
People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

For more help on being a lifelong learner, visit the Drucker Bucket here and (my suggestion) read at least one Drucker book per year.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). The “No!” book, reviewed in the last issue, was designed by Pearpod Media. Call Jason to discern if a book in your future would move you closer to your mission. (He does say “yes” occasionally!)
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

No! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most

Issue No. 418 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a contender for my 2019 book-of-the-year. Why? It will help you say NO more often than you say YES. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this website for recent book reviews, including ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance.



"NO" Is a Complete Sentence!

Doug Fields emotes:

“Some people believe working in a church is the most serene, stress-free job around. These people are wrong.”

He adds, “Church work can be just as demanding and just as work-intensive as any other job—with the added assumption (from those demanding your time) that you’re never too busy, too swamped, or too exhausted to meet just one more need.

“After all, the Creator of the universe doesn’t get tired. And if you’re working for Him, how can you approach the job any differently? Days off? Vacation? Ha! You get the idea.”

Then in big and bold 24-point font (ALL CAPS), he confesses:

“WHAT I DIDN’T REALIZE WAS THAT EVERY ‘YES’ I WAS SAYING TURNED INTO AN UNSPOKEN ‘NO’ AS WELL, OFTEN TO THE PEOPLE MOST IMPORTANT TO ME.”

Yikes!

That’s from pages 30-31 of this quick-reading (but convicting) 97-page book by author, speaker, and consultant Doug Fields, on the power of saying NO! The subtitle is motivating and promising: NO! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most.

Fields, author of more than 50 books, says that he was good at being a “yes man,” and signed on for a thousand commitments that distracted him from “the very things that mattered most.” Today…he lists the benefits of saying NO:
   • “My relationships are better
   • My soul is healthier
   • My laughs are louder
   • My stress is lower
   • My pace is slower
   • My blood pressure is [not perfect, but…] good enough.”

Doug adds that “NO” has become “my friend, companion, and my go-to. I never realized how much power there is in a well-used ‘no.”

Almost half of the stunning color pages of this 97-page gem feature full-page quotable quotes on the power of saying NO. (It was very tempting to feature those quotes instead of writing this review.) November 2019 Challenge: I’ll send you a Starbucks card if you can read this book from page 1 to 97—without scanning the 40 full-page quotes first! Examples:

• “When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.” (Paulo Coelho)
• “Sometimes no is the kindest word.” (Vironika Tugaleva)
• “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” (Warren Buffet)

Okay—a few more (I’m addicted to “no” quotes!):
• “Part of the skill of saying no is to shut up afterward and not babble on.” (Judith Martin)
• “Focusing is about saying no.” (Steve Jobs)
• “Someone one told me that one ‘yes’ must be defended over time by 1,000 no’s.” (Gary Keller)

And how about this one:
“No is a complete sentence. It does not require an explanation to follow.” (Sharon E. Rainey)

So who should read this book? You? Your direct reports? Your boss? Your board chair? Your key volunteers? Your spouse? Your parents? Your kids and grandkids? At work—consider hosting a “Just Say No!” pizza party for your team—and ask seven people to give three-minute summaries of the seven chapters:
• Chapter One: 1,440 Minutes
• Chapters Two and Three: I Had No Idea…Saying No Would Be So Difficult
• Chapter Four: The Crash & Burn: Why It Happens
• Chapter Five: Avoiding a Personal Crash and Burn
• Chapter Six: Recognize the Warning Signs
• Chapter Seven: Take Action…Because You Can

“Busyness is the enemy of depth,” says Fields. This book will help you go deep—and trust me—even if you lead workshops on effective time management (or you’re the opposite—the poster person for procrastination), you’ll learn something new from this transparent and practical resource.

Fields also notes that all of us have the same number of minutes per day: 1,440 precious minutes. “Time speeds along the exact same pace for every person on this earth.” But then he adds (and he is very, very funny…): “Theoretical physicists might disagree with this, but fortunately for me, theoretical physicists tend not to read my books.”

If you need more backbone to say NO more often—buying and reading this book is a NO-brainer.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for No! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most, by Doug Fields. (And thanks to Doug Fields and Jason Pearson for providing a review copy of this book.)



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Doug Fields writes, “I had to learn that by making everything important, nothing was important.” What’s the culture here on our team? Are we saying “yes” too often?
2) My son, Jason, is also quoted in the book: “Practice saying no to people who only hear yes.” Today in our weekly meeting…we’re going to roleplay a scenario where you’re saying “no” to a boss who only hears “yes.” Any volunteers?!! 

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With Just 21 Time Blocks, You Must Say No!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Team Bucket, Chapter 9, in Mastering the Management Buckets is Ted Engstrom’s advice to schedule your week using 21 time blocks (7 mornings, 7 afternoons, and 7 evenings).

Then agree with your team and your spouse (if you’re married) how many time blocks you’ll work each week. If your job requires weekend work, speaking or travel (2 to 3 blocks), you may need to take time off during the week (skip work on 2 afternoons, for example).

Visit the Team Bucket and download “Worksheet #9.1: The 21 Time Blocks—Toward a God-honoring Balanced Life.” Read Chapter 9 and then affirm your commitment to limit your work to "x" time blocks per week (out of a possible 21).

For more resources from the Team Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). The “No!” book was designed by Pearpod Media. Call Jason to discern if a book in your future would move you closer to your mission. (He does say “yes” occasionally!)
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

The Divine Plan: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War

Issue No. 417 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a new book (and a documentary film) about Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II—and it will surprise and delight you! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this website for recent book reviews, including ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance.



"We Win and They Lose!"

Thirty years ago this week, on Nov. 9, 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall stunned the world. This week—on Nov. 6—you can experience the untold back story at selected theaters nationwide—but only for one night.

• Option 1: View the movie, The Divine Plan (Nov. 6 only in selected theaters)
• Option 2: Read the book, The Divine Plan: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War, by Paul Kengor and Robert Orlando
• Option 3: View the DVD (coming soon!)

In 1978, more than a decade before Ronald Reagan served as the 40th president of the United States (1981-1989), the “Great Communicator” visited the Berlin Wall and saw firsthand the evil empire of Communism—and felt “disgust but also intent.” He told Dick Allen:

“Dick, my idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would save simplistic. It is this: We win and they lose.”

“Allen was stunned—and thrilled. The word win just didn’t come up in discussions of the Cold War. ‘One had never heard such words from the lips of a major political figure… Until then, we had thought only in terms of “managing” the relationship with the Soviet Union. Reagan went right to the heart of the matter…. ”

Imagine! You’re a former governor of California. You’re not the U.S. president. But—you have this vision and you succinctly communicate it with just five simple words:
                    “We win and they lose.”

(Attention CEOs and senior leaders: how many words in your vision statement?)

Oh…did we mention that this “DP” (Divine Plan) was not actually Reagan’s idea? Did we mention the under-the-radar friendship that Pope John Paul II and President Reagan shared? Did you know these two extraordinary leaders had so, so much in common (both were actors, both took bullets from would-be assassins just six weeks apart, and much more)?

Detailed, yet with a flowing narrative, The Divine Plan reveals the hand of God in the life of two men—both believing they were selected by God to work together. Cardinal Timothy Dolan noted how their gifting as actors enhanced their calling:

“Reagan did that…in front of the Berlin Wall…. When John Paul II could stand in front of two million people at Warsaw on his last day of those [nine] days that changed the world in June of 1979, and when he, without mentioning, without using any political partisan vocabulary, without mentioning Russia, without mentioning Marx, without mentioning Communism, when he could bring two million people to chant for eleven minutes nonstop, ‘We want God,’ that’s an actor who is such a person of integrity that you are able to bring out what is best in your audience. And boy, they both did it with gusto.”

“The Confluence of Characters.” The authors deliver a well-documented and inspirational account with five acts. And they underscore the God-orchestrated “confluence of characters” that included Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev (whose mother was a Christian). They quote Cold War historian Stephen Kotkin:

“If would be hard, if you were writing a script, if you were sitting out there in Burbank around a table, having recently graduated with an MFA from Yale and you were quite imaginative and creative and you wanted to set the scene for the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, a dramatic moment in time, you would have been very hard-pressed to think up these four characters at the same time. The confluence was phenomenal.”

Why read this book?
• The Divine Plan will be a comforting balm for today’s news and impeachment clatter.
• The Divine Plan will elevate your aspirations for world leaders.
• The Divine Plan will remind you (and your grandkids) about evil empires and the dangers of communism, Marxism, and socialism.
• The Divine Plan will bring you back to foundational thinking: that freedom—without faith—will fail.
• The Divine Plan will give you dozens of quotable quotes to share with colleagues (fax machines, cappuccinos, Lenin on movies, “We win and they lose,” and more).

This book was a surprise and a delight. Much like Leaders: Myth and Reality, the “compare and contrast” descriptions are abundant and insightful. If you’re not a reader, see if the documentary film is screening near you or wait for the DVD and streaming options.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Divine Plan: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War, by Paul Kengor and Robert Orlando. (And thanks to the authors for gifting me a signed copy. Wow!)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) The authors note that when growing up, President Reagan thought he would marry his high school girl friend and work at the Montgomery Ward department store in Dixon, Ill. But that was not God’s “Divine Plan” for him. How eager are you to know and live out God’s “DP” for your life?
2) As the threads of the Soviet Union began to unravel, the authors discuss the perils of being honest. When communism’s core lies were brought into the light, the system disintegrated. What’s in a slogan? Discuss Poland’s “We want God!” demonstration and Reagan’s “We win and they lose” aspiration.

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“Caesar Is Not!”
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Strategy Bucket, Chapter 3, in Mastering the Management Buckets declares: “We plan, believing the results are up to God. We energize our people and customers with a Big Holy Audacious Goal (BHAG).”

Ronald Reagan: “We win and they lose.”

The Divine Plan: “It was a truth the Communists had labored so long to suppress. John Paul II exhorted his people to acknowledge that Christ—not the state—was Lord. ‘If Jesus is Lord,’ says New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, ‘Caesar is not.’”

For more resources from the Strategy Bucket, click here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Question: Is your vision statement succinct and memorable? Call Pearpod Media.
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead

Issue No. 416 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting urges you to read the new book by former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. With Turkey and Syria in the headlines this week—this leadership-savvy book will also shed light on a general’s in-the-trenches insights on the Middle East. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this website for recent book reviews, including ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance.

Leadership Masterpiece

Wow. This morning I just finished one of the most powerful, insightful, leadership-savvy books I’ve ever, ever read. I will read it again. It’s remarkable on many, many levels. Jim Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (Jan. 20, 2017 to Jan. 1, 2019), writes:

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”

He adds, “I learned then and I believe now that everyone needs a mentor or to be a mentor—and that no one needs a tyrant. At the same time, there’s no substitute for constant study to master one’s craft. Living in history builds your own shock absorber, because you’ll learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems.”

Those gems (and hundreds more) are from the new book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, by Jim Mattis and Bing West. I read with pen in hand—and no joke—I’ve underlined and noted more than 100 leadership insights from this leadership masterpiece.

Fresh—and convicting—leadership insights:
• “If the risk takers are punished, then you will retain in your ranks only the risk averse.”
• Warning to CEOs and senior leaders: “…once you made general, you never had a bad meal and you never again heard the truth.”
• “Ever since then [the Trojan War], in their imaginations commanders have searched in vain for the orderly battlefield that unfolds according to plan. It doesn’t exist.”
• Mattis’ mantra for officers: “What do I know? Who needs to know? Have I told them?” (Gen. Mattis repeated these three questions so incessantly that they appeared on index cards next to the phones in some offices!)
• Learned from Secretary Robert Gates: “The only thing that allows government to work at the top levels is trusted personal relations.” Mattis: “You can’t achieve this leading by email.”

While reading Call Sign Chaos, I was reminded of the 400 axioms and insights in Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, by Donald Rumsfeld. Mattis’ focus on lifelong learning also reminded me of two books by Gen. Stanley McChrystal: Leaders: Myth and Reality and Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. And one more by Adm. William H. McRaven, Make Your Bed (view the video).

But I’d slot Call Sign Chaos in a category of one. Leadership savvy (check!). Loyalty to the Commander in Chief—irrespective of political party (check!). An understandable primer on the history and deep divides in the Middle East (check!). A cogent argument for allies and partnerships (check!). Blunt but courteous approaches to commanding officers (check!). And—surprisingly—the in-the-trenches battle accounts in Iraq and Afghanistan—page-turning (check!). I could go on…

Mattis served as a U.S. Marine from 1969 to 2013, and was Commander of the U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013 under President Obama. From 2007 to 2009, for NATO, he was Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation. (That’s an impressive business card!) Mattis: “The American people had paid my tuition going on thirty-five years, and if this was where my seniors wanted me, I would go.” To prepare for this job, he read 22 books!

Mattis served 712 days as the 26th Secretary of Defense. His Dec. 20, 2018 letter of resignation to President Trump is just one of numerous signed letters in the book’s epilogue—and is a short treatise on his core values and leadership savvy.

I’ve earned just one nickname in my life (“Uber Grandpa”), but Mattis has three nicknames:
• "CHAOS" (His often irreverent troops assigned this call sign/question: “Does the Colonel Have Another Outstanding Solution?”)
• "Warrior Monk" (He never married.)
• "Mad Dog" (Read his battlefield doctrine—constantly confusing the enemy.)

There’s more wisdom—including meals at stand-up tables!
• American naval strategist Alfred Mahan: “If the strategy be wrong, the skill of the general on the battlefield, the valor of the solider, the brilliance of victory, however otherwise decisive, fail of their effect.”
• Yet strategy is not enough: “Nothing compensates for a lack of trust.”
• Meeting with world leaders: “If I wanted them to listen to me, I had to respect their dignity in public. But I’m known for blunt speaking, and I was very blunt—in private.”
• In senior operational commanders meetings (every two to three months), they examined their warfighting details and reordered priorities, discussed “what if?” scenarios “…all the while walking over a map, the size of a basketball court, nicknamed the “BAM”—the [Big-A**] Map.”
• And note this! “Meals were taken together, with commands intermixed at stand-up tables so that they conversed with one another across all ranks.”
• Four-point leadership: “In keeping with George Washington’s approach to leadership, I would listen, learn, and help, then lead.”

Mattis delivers a clinic in the power of “intent” (what it is and how to communicate it)—and what goes wrong without it. Example: his “Commanding General’s Message to All Hands” to the 1st Marine Division in March 2003—just one page intentionally—was distributed to all 22,000 troops. It was based on his “Commander’s Intent” written document, which launched Saddam Hussein’s downfall. (See Chapter 6, “The March Up.”)

Mattis notes: “Over the years since [2003], many have taken that letter out of their wallets and shown it to me.” Imagine! What letter could you write—as a leader—that your team members would keep in their wallets years later? Wow.

His greatest angst (my opinion)—the lack of clarity and strategic intent from the Commander in Chief and others. He labeled it “strategic frustration.”

On the verge of being criticized for what others thought was a too-quick response in battle, a military lawyer asked Mattis: “General how much time did you consider before authorizing the strike?”

“He knew from the record that the time from when I was awakened until I authorized a strike had been less than thirty seconds. ‘About thirty years,’ I replied.”

“I may have sounded nonchalant or dismissive, but my point was that a thirty-second decision rested upon thirty years of experience and study.”

Termination by Napkin! Leading the Joint Forces Command (2,800 servicemen and federal workers plus 3,000 contractors), Mattis discerned in 2010 that he could save “hundreds of millions of dollars” by disbanding JFCOM. In a Joint Chiefs budget meeting, he wrote three words on a paper napkin and passed it over to Admiral Mullen:
                    “Disband JFCOM
                 —Mattis.”

The result: “Over the next months, the valuable parts of JFCOM were moved elsewhere, and the rest of the command was disestablished. I had succeeded in firing myself.” Imagine!

Oh, my—there’s so much more. Maybe I’ll write a follow-up issue later this fall. For now, I’ll wrap it up with these big ideas:
• “Praise in public, criticize in private.”
• “Operational tempo is a state of mind. I’ve always tried to be hard on issues but not on spirits.”
• “We learn more about ourselves when things go wrong.”
• To his one-star generals and admirals: “…protect our mavericks. That’s your job. If you’re uncomfortable dealing with intellectual ambushes from your own ranks, it’ll be a heck of a lot worse when the enemy does it to you.”
• Winston Churchill: “Dynamite in the hands of a child is not more dangerous than a strong policy weakly carried out.”
• Humorous humility: “Memo to young officers: I can appear brilliant if I fight enemy leaders dumber than a bucket of rocks.” (I like the bucket reference!)
• Three categories of information—and how to respond to each: housekeeping, decision-making, and alarms (see page 199).
• “As it is for any senior executive, time was my most precious commodity.” (And why—when you’re tired—you must not get “snappish!”)

Too Busy to Read? Gen. Mattis writes that the Commandant of the Marine Corps maintains a list of required reading for every rank. “All Marines read a common set; in addition, sergeants read some books, and colonels read others. Even generals are assigned a new set of books that they must consume. At no rank is a Marine excused from studying.”

Think you’re “too busy” to read? Click here to read an email, published in Business Insider, that Gen. Mattis sent to a colleague documenting why reading books is critical. (It’s also included on pages 257-259 in the book’s appendix.) The book includes a sampling of over 50 “favorite” books Mattis recommends, including Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat.

Planning Defined. The final 10-page chapter, “Reflections,” is packed with leadership lessons—expanding on the previous in-the-trenches chapters. Example: “Mastering the art and science of war also means understanding strategy and planning. Strategy is hard, unless you’re a dilettante. You must think until your head hurts. Planning, which is simply another word for anticipatory decision-making, is equally rigorous and, in war, is a constant, never-ending process.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, by Jim Mattis and Bing West.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Gen. Mattis writes that “all leaders should be coaches at heart. For me, ‘player-coach’ aptly describes the role of a combat leader, or any real leader.” What are we doing here to equip our leaders to be coaches? (Read this!)
2) Mattis quotes an Air Force colonel, “To win a dogfight, you have to observe what is going on, orient yourself, decide what to do, and act before your opponent has completed his version of that same process, repeating and repeating that loop faster than your foe.” Mattis calls this the “OODA” loop. What’s our competitive advantage loop? 

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Culture Bucket Exits!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets, addresses values, conflicts, and exit signs. “…because we are human we will always have relational conflicts, so we are zealots about resolving conflict early. We invite those who won’t live out our values to exit.”

Does your culture embody sandbags and exits?

“Everyone on my staff, in Marine parlance, filled sandbags,” writes Gen. Jim Mattis. “No one was exempt from the simplest tasks. We answered our own phones, brewed our own coffee, and slept six hours when lucky.”

Culture is both subtle and in-your-face. Little things, like sandbags, matter—and when team members don’t live your values, you must act (see the four quadrants in the Culture Bucket). Mattis adds, “Because it is so hard to write about, relief of command is rarely mentioned.” Yet, Call Sign Chaos includes several poignant accounts of how Mattis terminated and reassigned officers (including an admiral from a European country)—and why.

For more resources from the Culture Bucket, click here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Question: Who is coaching your marketing team? Retain an outside voice and mentor and you’ll enrich your team’s impact. Call Pearpod Media.

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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance

Issue No. 415 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a hot-off-the-press resource with 22 board governance tools and templates. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad.



Tool Competence!

Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, once compared businesses to nonprofits with this memorable poke-in-the-ribs to both:

“Although I don’t know a single for-profit business that is well managed as a few of the nonprofits, the great majority of the nonprofits can be graded a ‘C’ at best. Not for lack of effort; most of them work very hard. But for lack of focus, and for lack of tool competence.”

So with that inspiration, Dan Busby, president of ECFA, and I have co-authored a hot-off-the press resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board. Jam-packed with 22 tools, the 272-page book includes access to downloadable Word documents that can be customized for any board.

The tools are organized around six themes:
   • Selecting and Training Excellent Board Members
   • Board Assessments
   • Reporting to the Board
   • Taking Time for Strategic Planning
   • Policies and Board Responsibilities
   • Ideas for Better Board Governance

Peter Drucker also wrote, “At least once every five years, every form should be put on trial for its life.” So…if it’s been five years (or 10 or 20 years) since you’ve updated your boardroom tools, this book will be a lifesaver for you. Examples:

• Tool #1: The Pathway to the Board. Ask an administratively-gifted person on your Governance Committee to track names and next steps in this customizable form for prospects in your pipeline. (It will slow you down—a good thing—so you take time to “date” board prospects before you propose “marriage.”) Six important steps.
• Tool #2: Board Nominee Suggestion Form. Inspire your board and senior team to recommend board prospects with a suggestion form that factors in your board-approved criteria. A huge time-saver!
• Tool #5: The Board’s Annual Self-Assessment Survey. According to John Carver, “Board self-evaluation is an inseparable part of governing, not an extraneous or optional task.” Three options for measuring your board’s effectiveness.
• Tool #8: The Board’s Annual Fundraising Audit. Here’s a true or false quiz with 10 statements the board must address annually about your fundraising program. What should the board be asking the CEO and staff? Features a green/yellow/red dashboard with Celebrate/Watch/Act indicators.

Tools and More! Sprinkled throughout the book are the research results from ECFA’s 2019 Nonprofit Governance Survey and comprehensive report, Unleashing Your Board’s Potential. ECFA research revealed that 82% of board members indicated that their fundraising needed the greatest improvement. Strategic planning was ranked second with 64% saying that was their nonprofit’s greatest need.

• Tool #11: Monthly Dashboard Report. A one-page color-coded dashboard report from the CEO to the board can be customized to highlight three to five of your CEO’s Annual S.M.A.R.T. Goals—with this caveat from Peter Drucker, “If you have more than five goals, you have none.” This will revolutionize your CEO’s priorities—and get everyone on the same page.
• Tool #15: Board Retreat Trend-Spotting Exercise. Just add water and stir—and this simple template will engage every board member in looking down the road for those important twists and turns that will impact your organization. Easy to implement!
• Tool #22: Straw Vote Cards. Hundreds of boards use green and red straw vote cards in every board meeting—as a quick and courteous way to give every board member a voice. The green card means yes. The red card means no. Another huge time-saver and consensus-builder.

A Lot More! I’m a tad biased, of course, but even if you use just one tool or template—you’ll bless your board members and save time and money. The book gives you access to all 22 tools and templates—so you can customize them for your board’s unique needs.

Other tools include: a legal audit checklist, a financial management audit checklist, options for the board’s annual evaluation of the top leader, a quarterly board meeting agenda template, board retreat read-and-reflect worksheets, The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat (one page), a board policies manual template, job descriptions, tent cards and tools for leveraging board member strengths, a “Ten Minutes for Governance” practice, and the Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement. Did I mention—272 pages of jam-packed time-saving tools? Enjoy!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) R. Buckminster Fuller said, “If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” What tool inspired you to think a new way?
2) “At least once every five years, every form should be put on trial for its life,” wrote Peter Drucker. Are there other unexamined or outdated programs, systems, or tools that need a refresh in our organization?

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Agree or Disagree?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Board Bucket, Chapter 14, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to “ensure that all board members hone their board competencies regularly.” That includes understanding the foundational role of the board.

Agree or Disagree: Green Card or Red Card?
     “There are no dysfunctional organizations,
       only dysfunctional boards.”

If you agree with that statement, invest in your board and order ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance. Then note the hidden webpage in the book and download the customizable Word documents that will enrich your board’s effectiveness and your organization’s impact.

For more governance resources, visit the Board Bucket here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). If it’s been five or more years since you’ve put your visual images “on trial”—contact Pearpod Media today!

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

The ONE Thing

Issue No. 414 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features 10 quotable quotes (all Twitter-worthy) from my 2016 book-of-the-year. Gary Keller says that to focus on The ONE Thing, you must examine your to-do lists. He notes: "To-do lists inherently lack the intent of success."  And this reminder: click here to check out my 20 management buckets (core competencies) and recent issues/book reviews.



He writes, “Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.” Here’s Keller’s big idea:

   "What's the ONE Thing
   you can do this week such that by doing it
   everything else would be easier or unnecessary?"

Read his chapter titles and you’re hooked. The first section highlights six lies that mislead and derail us:
• Lie #1: Everything Matters Equally
• Lie #2: Multitasking
• Lie #3: A Disciplined Life
• Lie #4: Willpower Is Always on Will-Call
• Lie #5: A Balanced Life
• Lie #6: Big Is Bad

Click here to read my review from 2016.

 

Parenting in a Screen Saturated Culture

Issue No. 413 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a just-in-time resource for parents at their wit’s end in today’s screen-saturated culture. (“Put your iPhone away!”) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Retired).



Summer Reading List #6:
Parenting in a Screen Saturated Culture

Imagine if your kids and grandkids (and maybe you!) would read this powerful prayer every morning:

“Leave me not, O gracious Presence, in such hours as I may today devote to the reading of books or of newspapers. Guide my mind to choose the right books and, having chosen them, to read them in the right way. When I read for profit, grant that all I read may lead me nearer to Yourself. When I read for recreation, grant that what I read may not lead away from You. As with books, so also for the music and entertainment I choose. Let all my reading so refresh my mind that I may the more eagerly seek after whatsoever things are pure and fair and true.”

John Baillie (1886-1960), the Scottish theologian, wrote that prayer before Apple Computer, Inc. was founded. Had John Baillie and Steve Jobs been contemporaries, would the iPhone, YouTube, and more been included in this morning prayer?

Youth culture gurus Doug Fields and Jonathan McKee have some thoughts about this—and just in time for the back-to-school routines. (“Young man! Get off your phone! Girls—stop texting and pay attention!”)

Here’s your next must-read:
Parenting in a Screen Saturated Culture: Teaching Healthy Decision-Making to the Smartphone, YouTube, Instagram, Gaming Generation.

Doug Fields has authored more than 50 books and was the youth and teaching pastor for 18 years at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Jonathan McKee serves parents and youth with a mountain of resources through two websites: TheSource4YM.com and TheSource4Parents.com. Bottom line: Fields and McKee have both the credentials and the calling. When they speak or write—people listen.

Here are seven reasons you should immediately order and read this short (63 pages) workbook—if you’re a parent, pastor, youth leader, teacher, or grandparent:

[ ] REASON NO. 1: Phone Contract. Wow! The phone contract template for families on page 59 is worth the price of the book and will reduce the hollering, the anxiety, and prevent serious harm. Example: “You are not allowed to delete any texts, downloads or your browsing history. No exceptions. Come to Dad/Mom, and we will delete this for you if your phone requires it.”

[ ] REASON NO. 2: One Word—“Guardrails.” Brilliant! Chapter 4 is subtitled, “What Rules Are Actually Helpful?” and the authors have invested three chapters in building the foundation for identifying guardrails that actually work with children and youth. They tilt towards the concept of “guardrails” vs. “rules,” noting “Establishing a balanced approach to guardrails is an act of love.” The workbook format journeys families toward a destination of writing up to 10 guardrails.

[ ] REASON NO. 3: In-Your-Face. Honest! So you just told your daughter that her curfew is 11 p.m. Her response: “Why 11? Is there something magical about 11? Does the Bible say ‘Make sure your kids are home at 11?’ How come the McCains don’t make their kids come home at 11—aren’t they good parents? Why not midnight like all my other friends?”

[ ] REASON NO. 4: What If the Rules Are Broken? Hilarious! Chapter 6, “Real World Application,” is both hilarious and helpful. In the very creative “Honest Thoughts” fill-in-the-blanks sections, Fields and McKee ask, “What would you prefer to use to destroy your kids’ phones and other screens—a sledgehammer or a wood chipper?”

[ ] REASON NO. 5: Meandering With Moses. Convicting! The authors ask convicting questions: “Are you one of the 54% of parents who have never had the conversation with your kids about their online profile?” But…they don’t leave you hanging with gut-wrenching anxiety. These modern day prophets also challenge the media’s typecasting of “clueless” parents and remind readers what Proverbs says about God-honoring family values—and the “talk as you walk” wisdom from Moses in Deuteronomy 6.

[ ] REASON NO. 6: Practical, Not Preachy. Surprising! Parents, teachers, pastors, youth leaders, and grandparents already know the dangers of the worldwide web. The authors don’t waste our time dwelling on those evils or listing convent locations for rambunctious daughters. They just deliver really, really thoughtful approaches to this modern day dilemma. The workbook is amazing.

[ ] REASON NO. 7: The Doug & Jonathan Dialogue. Refreshing! The book is actually a conversation between Doug and Jonathan—and each own their opinions and approaches (and they don’t always agree). You’ll read a few lines from Doug and then a few lines from Jonathan—punctuated with many laughs and very savvy counsel.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Parenting in a Screen Saturated Culture: Teaching Healthy Decision-Making to the Smartphone, YouTube, Instagram, Gaming Generation, by Doug Fields and Jonathan McKee.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Doug Fields and Jonathan McKee suggest: “List some of the values you hope to pass on to your kids.” What values do you live by at home? What core values guide the work in our organization? (How are we living biblically in this “screen-saturated culture?”)
2) Appendix C of the Fields and McKee book includes “A Teenager’s Social Media Rules for Her Parents,” featuring Ashley McKee’s “Social Media Rules for Creepy Parents.” (It’s hilarious.) What are the implied social media rules in our organization? Should we put them in writing? 

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Coach John Wooden’s 6 Values
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to preach and live your values.

John Wooden (1910 – 2010), the esteemed UCLA basketball coach, had an easy-to-remember formula for success. It was part of the corporate culture he created on the practice court, in the locker room and on Bruin game days. According to his book, co-authored with Jay Carty, Coach Wooden: One-on-One, Wooden’s dad gave him two sets of threes when young John was in grade school:

John Wooden’s 2 Sets of 3
     Don’t lie.
     Don’t cheat.
     Don’t steal.

     Don’t whine.
     Don’t complain.
     Don’t make excuses.

We have all experienced corporate cultures that could use a hefty dose of Wooden’s two sets of threes. While some companies and organizations might re-phrase their core value statements on the positive side (truthfulness, integrity, accountability, etc.), the coach’s six “do not” statements are memorable and crystal clear.

Click here for more resources from the Culture Bucket, including links to more than 10 books and other resources on creating a healthy culture. (See especially my 2015 book-of-the-year, Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels.)

BONUS LINK! If you appreciated the brief paragraph from John Baillie’s morning prayer (see above), click here to read the entire prayer for the 21st morning of the month. You can also order his book, A Diary of Private Prayer, with 31 morning and 31 evening prayers—and blank pages facing each prayer (for journaling). I’ve given dozens of these books to friends over the years—one of my all-time favorite books.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Jason has his own focus group of screen-focused triplet teenagers at home—so he knows what works when communicating to the diversity of generations you serve.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Anything for a Golf Ball

Issue No. 412 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a laugh-out-loud Kindle book on how to find lost golf balls—and why “golf hawkers” are so passionate. LOL! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad (another must-read!).


Summer Reading List #5:
Anything for a Golf Ball: The Art of Finding Lost Golf Balls

Before summer evaporates here in the Northern Hemisphere and you’re overwhelmed with strategic plan deadlines, carpool juggling, and reattaching those winter storm windows, let’s squeeze in some golf.

There are three ways to have fun with golf:

#1. Q SCHOOL. Invest several thousand dollars in fees and enter the Professional Golf Association’s qualifying school. A few years back, I reviewed a fascinating book about the agony and the ecstasy of “Q School.” Read: Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major, by John Feinstein.

#2. WIN THE PGA FEDEX CUP. If you’re one of the Top-30 golfers on this planet this weekend, you have a shot at pocketing the first place prize money of $15 million. Imagine! More info here.

#3. OR…BECOME A GOLF BALL HAWKER. What could be more fun and fulfilling than finding lost golf balls—and being officially declared a “Professional Golf Ball Hawker”? John Vawter shows you how in his laugh-out-loud Kindle book, Anything for a Golf Ball: The Art of Finding Lost Golf Balls.

In introducing the “Fine Art of Golf Ball Hawking,” Vawter (author, pastor, coach to pastors, and very funny guy) reports that American golfers lose 300 million golf balls per year. And noting that 75 percent of those balls are found, he asks, “Do you know how many that means are yet to be found? So why is there any question about why hawkers hawk?”

He begins with important definitions:

Nomenclature: “Hawking, ball hawking, fishing, golf ball hawking, retrieving… all these words are interchangeable. Rawker is the person who rides in the cart but does not golf; but they hawk. Rider plus hawker = rawker.”

Ball hawking: “The fine art of finding a golf ball that the normal person cannot find or has no interest in finding. The Hawker Litmus Test: If you have bought a golf ball in the last two years you are not a real hawker.”

Hawker Logic: “A form of logic known only to hawkers. It does not have to be consistent with other forms of logic. It is a logic known only to hawkers… but it is clear and it makes sense to the hawker.”

Captain Ball Hawk: “The highest compliment a hawker can be paid is to be called, ‘Captain Ball Hawk.’ The hawker is motivated by these words: Anything for a golf ball.”

John Vawter is no armchair hawker. He’s the real deal and finds about 2,000 balls a year as he, apparently, also golfs. (Read this Oregon newspaper’s interview with Vawter.)

His short book is a joy to read—whether you golf or just know someone who golfs. Examples:

• “A gentleman hawker does not pick up a ball until it stops rolling.”
• “A gentleman hawker—after slicing a ball into the living room of a house on the course—will always ring the doorbell and remove his shoes before entering the house to get the ball.”
• “The same person who would criticize the ball hawker probably does not like professional wrestling.”

Vawter even invokes psychiatry to prove his point: “There is a certain amount of joy the hawker experiences when he sees a friend who used to ridicule his hawking but is now out in the rough looking for balls and yelling, ‘I found one’ when he makes the discovery of a ball in the wild.

“Ball hawking is the tonic for physical and mental deficiencies that preclude the ball from going straight down the fairway. The confident ball hawker is doing what all other golfers secretly want to do but are too shy, weak or cowardly to do. Any golfing psychiatrist knows this to be true.”

Dare one hawk at exclusive golf courses? “New private clubs—still open to the public until membership is closed—are great places to find balls. Rich guys do not slow down to look for golf balls. If you are playing a public course and a guy from the exclusive private course you want to play happens to be put in your foursome, it is okay to downplay your hawking skills that day so as not to hurt your chances of his inviting you to his course.”

Green golfers. “The ball hawker stands secure in the smug awareness that he is environmentally correct since the retrieval and reuse of lost golf balls is one of the planet's highest forms of recycling.”

Brotherhood and sisterhood! “Turning off the highway to drive the road next to a fairway where you find lots of balls and seeing someone else already making the ‘hawking’ drive does not make the genuine hawker angry. He thinks to himself with great pride, ‘He ain't stealing, he's my brother.’”

Nostalgia. “Great hawkers will fly home from a golf vacation in Hawaii and remember the great hawking holes more than their first time back-to-back birdies."

Umm…who is demented? “Golf course designers who design the ponds with steep slopes so that balls hit into the water go to the deep bottom in the middle only to be found by scuba divers are a special breed of the demented.”

Vawter (the Rev. Vawter) could not resist the temptation to justify his hawking ways—with fresh theological commentary:

• “Pope John Paul the Second was not a ball hawker. This is not due, however, to Catholic theology. It has to do with the limitations and lack of versatility of the Popemobile on golf course terrain.”

• “Billy Graham [was] a ball hawker. He says it is a direct practical carryover from his life's spiritual mission ‘to seek and save that which is lost.’”

• “Those who believe in reincarnation actually make the best ball hawkers because they are not just looking for lost balls... they are looking for their lost uncle.”

• “New Agers do not make good ball hawkers because once they get in tall grass they lose sight of their mission of finding lost balls and start communing with the tall grass.”

• “If Jesus were walking the earth today, He would add the parable of the golfer searching for his lost golf ball to the story of the poor widow searching for her lost coin, since both parables contain profound spiritual lessons.”

“Hawkers are like priests... they know golfers' sins,” adds Vawter. “The golfing/hawking preacher is a fisher of men and of golf balls. Billy Graham told the story of a man with whom he golfed. The man had not had a good day hitting the ball or finding any balls in the weeds. At the end of the round Billy Graham asked if he could comment on the man’s golfing and hawking game. The man said yes. Billy Graham said, ‘All day long you have been asking God to damn your ball and all day long He has been answering your prayer.’”

Conversion: “When a golfer who used to make fun of you for hawking says, ‘This course has so many places to find balls, I would walk it without clubs just to find balls,’ you know you have made a convert.”

This is the perfect book when you need a break from your serious summer reading. Enjoy!

To order from Amazon Kindle, click on the title for Anything for a Golf Ball: The Art of Finding Lost Golf Balls, by John Vawter.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) What avocation are you so passionate about that—someday perhaps—you might write a book about it?
2) You are the PGA’s FedEx Cup 2019 winner and they just handed you a check for $15 million. After taxes are deducted, what will you do with the remaining funds?

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Spontaneous Soaking!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Hoopla! Bucket, Chapter 10, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to create spontaneous hoopla! for your team.

One year I set up an 8-foot golf putting green in my office and invited team members to drop by anytime to practice their putting skills. The big idea: take a break to reduce the stress. Then at our next weekly staff meeting, I gave every team member $5.00 to buy their own stress-reduction devices for their own cubicles. "So when we drop by, you've got something whimsical or fun to distract us for a moment."

The creativity was mind-boggling! One guy installed a Nerf basketball hoop. Others featured twirly gizmos on their desks and dart boards on their walls. Someone else had a Slinky®. (When was the last time you chased a Slinky down the stairs?)

The hoopla! prize went to Jimmy Mellado, now president of Compassion International. Feigning disinterest and procrastination, he waited for two weeks and then at the end of a staff meeting, asked people to remain for one more agenda item. "I completed my assignment," he smiled, and then sprayed every surprised team member in the room with his bright orange Super Soaker® squirt gun!

For more resources from the Hoopla! Bucket, including links to more books and resources on team spontaneity and affirmation ideas, visit the Hoopla! Bucket webpage here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? And are you working with a partner that adds Hoopla! to the mix? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad

Issue No. 411 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a fantastic book on strategy—cleverly disguised as a graphic novel! Is your team tactical or strategic? And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including Jim Collin’s short classic, Turning Goals Into Results. 



Summer Reading List #4:
StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad

“Be strategic or be gone” is the tagline of the Strategic Thinking Institute. STI launched when a struggling manager asked Rich Horwath, “I had my performance review and my boss said I’m too tactical. How can I become more strategic?”

But get this! Instead of creating solutions with more talking head blah-blah-blah blue sky “imperatives,” Horwath noted the Stanford University study that says you’ll retain six to seven times more information when it’s presented in a story format.

Thus...”Fwumpfh!”…”B-Zapp!”…and “Bwa Ha Ha!” (Yes, I’m quoting directly from this must-must read graphic novel, StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan.)

But…you’d miss the texture, color, hilarity, and brilliance of this unique business book—if I reviewed it solo. I needed help!

In June, I invited our 16-year-old granddaughter, Zuzana (“Zuzu”), a voracious reader, to share her thoughts on Scott Rodin’s novel, The Four Gifts of the King. The feedback from readers was over-the-top (thank you!)—so let’s do it again with StrategyMan!

Grandpa John: OK, Zuzu—your junior year in high school starts next week—so how many books have you read so far this year?

Zuzu: StrategyMan was my 81st book.

Grandpa John: Yikes! Really…81? That’s amazing! (I better up my game!) So…what did you think of StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan?

Zuzu: Amazing! I’ve read many graphic novels, but this is the first business book/graphic novel I’m read. It features three heroes, 21 villains, and 10 weapons—for fighting off those anti-strategy villains!

Grandpa John: So this business story finds a company in search of a business strategy—but they’re kind of clueless! Did that surprise you?

Zuzu: Not really! When not fighting off the Anti-Strategy Squad villains, the characters in this fun story reported that “a survey of 400 managers found that only 44.3% of organizations have a universal definition of strategy, and less than half (46%) have a common language for strategy.”

Grandpa John: Speaking of the colorful villains…my three favorites were Miss-Alignment, Jargon Goblin, and Meeting Menace (“Teleconferences or meetings that are consistently unproductive, inefficient and a drain on morale.”)

Zuzu: I’ll go with the Multi-Taskinators. That’s a huge problem, isn’t it? The book gives ways to defeat the villains—such as “Keep your mobile phone out of sight and out of reach during meetings.” I don’t know anyone who does that! I’m also guessing that the Dr. Yes villain is a big problem in organizations.

Grandpa John: You nailed it, Zuzu. The Dr. Yes villain is about “the inability to say no to things that don’t contribute value to the business and directly support one’s goals.”

Zuzu: What was your favorite weapon?

Grandpa John: Hey! I’m running this interview—but since you asked, all 10 weapons are succinct, memorable, and immediately useful. The heroine Innovatara—who’s great at “generating insights that lead to innovation”—introduces the Differentiation Detector weapon.

Zuzu: Right—and three cheers for the heroine! The Differentiation Detector, I’m thinking, is the best defense against The Same villain. I’d suggest that every store manager at the mall should read this book. There’s very little differentiation today.

Grandpa John: Great insight. Nonprofits, churches, and businesses all need help from the other two heroes, StrategyMan and Purposeidon (the mission, vision, values elements—and why many organizations get it wrong).

Zuzu: Before you give away the ending, Grandpa, do we need a spoiler alert? I’d also like to mention that I plan to loan the book to a friend whose family runs a business. The book is easy to understand, enjoyable to read, educational, and also entertaining. (I also laughed at the nerdy references!)

Grandpa John: Wow—four “E’s” right off the top of your head. Nicely done, Zuzu. I’ve never read a graphic novel. Why do you enjoy them so much?

Zuzu: Duh! I am the daughter of a graphic designer!

Grandpa John: You told me that you did skip the “meatier parts” (your words) of the book and I’m not surprised, but—good news—for leaders and managers, the graphics include call-outs and sidebars with serious strategy (or lack of strategy) insights: Example:
   • “A recent study of more than 8,000 new, nationally distributed products found that only 40% were still on the market three years later.”
   • “A survey of nearly 5,000 senior executives showed that more than 50% didn’t think they had a winning strategy in place.”

Zuzu: You mentioned the Jargon Goblin villain—why?

Grandpa John: Whew! My experience, especially with nonprofit clients, is that if they do have a written strategy—it’s packed with meaningless rhetoric and a mash-up of business terms. (Example: never, ever use “Strategic Imperatives!”) The book blasts away on this theme. Leaders will find it personally painful, but funny. The first chapter, “Strategy Defined,” is worth the price of the book.

Zuzu: Is it really this bad out there, Grandpa, in the real world of business? Is strategy so ill-conceived? (Are there really villains, like Megalo-Plan, who sneak 115 slides into a VP’s sales presentation?)

Grandpa John: It’s bad. Check out the villain, Status Quo-Lock. He ingeniously inspires teams to allocate 90% of resources to the same projects year-after-year! Or, read the chapter, “Strategy and Culture,” and leaders will quickly delete one of their favorite axioms from their vocabulary: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” (Not true!) But there is hope and there are weapons—like the “StrategyPrint” template, a two-page blueprint of a business highlighting four keys: Goals, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics.

Zuzu: But you’ve always preached five keys, right? The GNOME Chart: Goals, Needs, Objectives, Methods, and Evaluation.

Grandpa John: You remember! I’m good with letting leaders pick what works for them—as long as they understand and implement the whole system.

Zuzu: Well…if I needed to read a book on strategy, I’d pick StrategyMan. Will this be your 2019 book-of-the-year?

Grandpa John: Stay tuned!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan, by Rich Horwath.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) StrategyMan notes a survey that said “only 44.3% have a universal definition of strategy.” Pop Quiz! What is your definition of strategy?
2) “Are the different functional groups in your company (marketing, sales, HR, IT, R&D, etc.) all aware of each other’s strategies and how they align?” That’s question 19 of 20 questions in the free quiz, “Is Your Team Tactical or Strategic?” Click here to take the Strategic Thinking Institute’s quiz.

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Is Your Team Tactical or Strategic?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Strategy Bucket, Chapter 3, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to be strategic about strategic planning.

Rich Horwath’s StrategyMan book defines strategy as “The intelligent allocation of resources through a unique system of activities to achieve a goal.” He says you must answer two questions:
   1. What are you trying to achieve? (Goals and Objectives)
   2. How are you going to achieve it? (Strategies and Tactics)

“Strategy is generally how to achieve a goal and tactics are how specifically.”

For more resources from the Strategy Bucket, including links to more books and resources on strategy, visit the Strategy Bucket webpage here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Reminder: a Stanford University study says you’ll retain six to seven times more information when it’s presented in a story format. Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Leaders: Myth and Reality

Issue No. 410 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features profiles of 13 leaders (some with warts) and some deep thinking on the myths and realities of true leadership. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including Scott Rodin’s novel, The Four Gifts of the King.



Summer Reading List #3:
Leaders: Myth and Reality

“While leaders are generally intelligent, exceptionally intelligent people are actually less likely to emerge as leaders.”

That zinger (or perhaps comforting insight) is from “The Geniuses” section of Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Retired). In reflecting on geniuses, McChrystal and his co-authors profile Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein.

The book’s approach is fascinating, disturbing, and thought-provoking. McChrystal’s compare-and-contrast model was Plutarch’s Lives—and, trust me, you’ll need a pen if you’re still reading books the old-fashioned way. Oh…and schedule a long vacation this month—this gem is over 400 pages, plus notes.

In the news recently was an observation that only three prime ministers—across the pond—have been known by their first names: Winston, Maggie, and Boris.

Between 1979 and 1990, Margaret Thatcher served as the U.K. Prime Minister. McChrystal describes her early leadership style as a cabinet minister in 1970:

“Within a week, she took her abrasive tongue to the page, writing a minute at the bottom of an interim departmental report of a flagship research program. ‘This is one of the most disappointing and frustrating documents I have read. Not a penny [in funding] after 1971.’ She had a disparaging habit of refusing to send out substandard documents given to her for signature, instead ripping the tops off those pages she thought inferior.”

There are more fireworks as the authors exegete leadership myth and reality in “The Power Brokers” section—contrasting Thatcher (1925-2013) with New York City’s infamous “Boss” Tweed (1823-1878).

Tweed, the corrupt politician, was nevertheless a leader. “…he increased the size of Tammany Hall’s general committee from 21 to 150 members, making the group more unwieldly and less able to make decisions.”

“The Zealots” commentary positions the French Revolution’s Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) against the jihadist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (1966-2006). (Note to budding revolutionaries: both men died in their 30s.)

A leader—yet a confirmed introvert, “…the Revolution took Robespierre out of his room and placed him front and center. That this deeply private man both had to and tried to play an increasingly public role would become his undoing.” (For more, read Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal timely July 25, 2019, column, “What Were Robespierre’s Pronouns?”)

And for another take on never-done-this-before leadership in-the-trenches, read my review of McChrystal’s Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. It was a runner-up for my 2016 book-of-the-year.

The authors of Leaders also list book recommendations for each of the 13 leaders profiled—a generous bonus. After reflecting on leadership styles for each leader—I couldn’t stop discussing the strengths and the foibles of each leader. (Ask my wife, Joanne!) I urge you to dive into these troubling portraits of leadership. No one survives unscathed.
   • The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee
   • The Founders: Walt Disney and Coco Chanel
   • The Geniuses: Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein
   • The Zealots: Maximilien Robespierre and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
   • The Heroes: Zheng He and Harriet Tubman
   • The Power Brokers: William Magear “Boss” Tweed and Margaret Thatcher
   • The Reformers: Martin Luther and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I confess—I skipped the 13 profiles and read the authors’ conclusions first. “Three Myths” (the Formulaic Myth, the Attribution Myth, and the Results Myth) challenged my leadership assumptions. In the final chapter, “Redefining Leadership,” the authors include a helpful chart on page 397 calling for an improved definition of leadership.

After reading the back end of the book, I then I returned to the first profile on General Robert E. Lee and was stunned to read what McChrystal wrote:

“On a Sunday morning in 2017 I took down [Lee’s] picture, and by afternoon it was in the alley with the other rubbish awaiting transport to the local landfill for final burial. Hardly a hero’s end.”

Oh, my. You must read “The Marble Man” chapter. Leaders is jam-packed with insights and surprises. So consider these ideas for staff meetings:
   • Pick four team members and inspire them to each “compare-and-contrast” two leaders at future staff meetings.
   • Or…zero in on the authors’ insights summarizing each section—such as “Entrepreneurialism and Ego,” or “The Cyclic Lure of Conviction,” or the follow-up to Harriet Tubman, “A Human Need for Heroes.”
   • With Hong Kong and China in the news—don’t skip the chapter on Zheng He (1371-1433). Prepare for “aha!” moments—as you learn about China’s motivations for today and the future.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Retired), Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone.

To listen to this book on Libro.FM audiobooks (17 hours, 2 minutes), click here.

BONUS BOOK! For faith-based teams, couple Leaders with Steve Moore’s brilliant analysis, The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders (read my review here).

In his chapter on “Failures,” Moore notes, “There are qualifying failures, and disqualifying failures. They can be further subdivided into character-based failure, and competency-based failure. Disqualifying, character-based failure can be partial or complete. Competency-based failure can be direct or indirect.” (Another must-read!)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible, by Steve Moore.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Leaders reports that Margaret Thatcher had a “distinct style of written command” with quick Yes, No, or Agreed notes on memos. “But a prime minister does not lead by force of memo alone.” Peter Drucker often wrote about understanding your supervisor’s learning style: is she a reader or a listener? So…what is your leader’s style?
2) In the chapter on Martin Luther, the authors share a “Table Talk” recollection: “When Luther’s puppy happened to be at the table, looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes, he [Martin Luther] said, ‘Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat!’” So…how’s your prayer life? 

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Delegate Your Reading!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to delegate your reading. When someone recommends a great book, buy it—even if you don’t have time to read it. Delegate some of your reading to the management zealots on your team.

But…if you do delegate the reading of Leaders to someone else, don’t skip the chapter on Harriett Tubman. As our nation revisits our racial history, you’ll appreciate Tubman’s heart and style. “She never intended to lead, and that turns out not to matter—she became a hero, and a leader, all the same.”

For more resources from the Book Bucket, including a link to “20 Books to Get You Started” on your lifelong learning journey, click here.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.