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August 9, 2022

2 THINKING BOOKS: Both/And Thinking & A New Way to Think

Issue No. 525 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features two new books on thinking. Contrarian page-turners—with paradoxical thinking. They'll mess with your comfort zones! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Enjoy these reviews of two contrarian books on thinking. (Read one and delegate one.) The insights just might launch you out of your status quo chair!

2 CONTRARIAN BOOKS ON THINKING!

*Here’s an idea. Next year during Berry Season on Fogo Island in Newfoundland, Canada, let’s book all 29 rooms at the innovative Fogo Island Inn—and enjoy a THINKERS WEEKEND RETREAT. Your homework: read these two new books on thinking. (Who will plan this for us?)

THINKING BOOK #1 OF 2: A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness, by Roger L. Martin

Imagine! You’re the consultant and you’re facilitating a senior team meeting on strategy—pushing the company leaders “to define two mutually exclusive options that could resolve the issue in question.” One option: the status quo which has served you well. But the other option—pretty compelling!

Suddenly, “the president of the company leaped out of his seat and sprinted from the room. When he returned, ten minutes later, his colleagues asked whether he was OK. He explained that the discussion had made him see how logically weak the status quo was. The reason he had raced out was to cancel a multimillion-dollar initiative in support of the status quo—the go/no-go deadline was that day.”

That’s from the contrarian chapter, “Strategy,” in the new book by Roger L. Martin, A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness. Actually, all 14 chapters are contrarian—and they just might also launch you out of your status quo chair!

I was already a big fan of Roger Martin’s thinking—now even more so! As Professor of Strategic Management, Emeritus, at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, he’s delivered consistent gems. My favorites:
• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (with P&G’s CEO, A.G. Lafley)
• "The Big Lie of Strategic Thinking" (Harvard Business Review)

So I was delighted to read his latest book (May 2022) featuring 14 contrarian insights (based on 14 of his 20 Harvard Business Review articles). I could write 14 reviews, but you’d miss the fun of your own discoveries. Martin summarizes: “Each of the fourteen self-contained chapters compares a dominant but flawed model to an alternative that I argue is superior.” My favorites:
• Chapter 1, Competition: “It happens at the front line, not at the head office.”
• Chapter 3, Customers: “The familiar solution usually trumps the perfect one.”
• Chapter 4, Strategy: “In strategy, what counts is what would have to be true—not what is true.”
• Chapter 9, Planning: “Recognize that it’s no substitute for strategy.”
• Chapter 10, Execution: “Accept that it’s the same thing as strategy.”

Wait…what? Martin gives readers and leaders permission to skip around his 14 chapters and read them in any order. (Who does that?) But warning—you’ll read them all. His wisdom on Culture, Innovation, Talent (“Feeling special is more important than compensation”), and more—all include leap-out-of-your-chair thinking!

Here are a few tantalizing morsels:
• NOT ARROGANT. After a succinct seven-page summary of the 14 chapters/models, Martin confesses that he is “not so arrogant to claim my alternative is the right model or the perfect model.” He adds, “But be assured that in due course your new model, too, will be found wanting and will be replaced by a better model still.”

• NOT STUPID. Martin writes that the 14 dominant models “are in place not because they are stupid. All of them make a lot of sense. So I don’t believe that these one-sentence descriptions of the alternative models will convince you to jettison the dominant model and adopt my alternative suggestion.” Citing his “hero Peter Drucker,” Martin’s simple goal is like Drucker’s: “to help executives increase their effectiveness.”

• MISGUIDED BY THE METAPHOR: Why the metaphor of the brain (top management) and the body (the organization) is all wrong. Must-read: how a bank teller ignored the training manual and discerned that “customers come in three general flavors.” (Brilliant!)

• PRICING. Why a product’s price at “$12.99 was really good, $15.99 not so good, [and] $18.99 great.” (Martin is a big fan of testing any new thinking, and using what he calls “the lazy person’s approach to choice.”)

• WASHING DAY RESEARCH. When A.G. Lafley was CEO of P&G, he “had a rule that whenever he visited another country, he needed the local P&G organization to set up an in-home visit with a local consumer and a store walk-through at a local retailer. His visit to the bank of a river in rural western China to speak to the village women who washed their clothes there became legendary. The message was clear: If the global CEO isn’t too busy to do in-home visits and store checks, how is it that you are?”

• YOUR MIND APPLAUDS YOU! In the fascinating chapter on “Customers,” (and so, so relevant to both nonprofit and for-profit organizations), the author’s contrarian views on customer loyalty may shock you. Using brain research, “Creatures of Habit” discusses “cumulative advantage.” Example: “If the mind develops a view over time that Tide gets clothes cleaner, and Tide is available and accessible on the store shelf or the web page, the easy, familiar thing to do is to buy Tide yet again.” When you do that he writes, “the mind applauds you.” LOL! (And by the way, before you do another expensive and unnecessary rebranding—read this chapter.)

Are you gutsy enough to consider a new way to think in your organization? Check out this 32-minute video interview with Roger Martin—with short summaries of four of his books, including A New Way to Think (starting at 20 minutes in). Martin was interviewed in May 2022 by Tiffani Bova, the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Click here. (Note: Both Martin and Bova are included in “The Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers for 2021.”)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness, by Roger L. Martin. Listen on Libro.fm (7 hours, 58 minutes). And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending a review copy.

View the two-minute video, “Strange & Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island [Official Trailer].” Read the two thinking books and meet us in Newfoundland next year!

*So…what’s with the THINKERS WEEKEND RETREAT during Berry Season at the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada? (Reminder: someone, other than me, needs to plan this!)

THINKING BOOK #2 OF 2: Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis

Breaking News! Leaders and managers must move from “Either/Or Thinking” to “Both/And Thinking”—and must be very comfortable with navigating paradoxes. Why? Authors Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis preach that “…either/or thinking can result in responses to dilemmas that are limited at best and detrimental at worst.” Now after two decades of studying paradoxes, these management profs (with in-the-trenches savvy) warn:

“Navigating paradoxes begin with the understanding that tensions are double-edged swords—they can drag us down a negative path or catapult us toward a more positive one.”

So…pick one: the negative path or the catapult! (Oh, wait. It’s not an either/or question—or is it?) In Chapter 1 of Both/And Thinking, the authors spotlight Zita Cobb who had a vision to re-energize the rural community of Fogo Island, Newfoundland—the island of her birth. Talk about a challenging paradox! A traditional saying in that province is “Onward through the fog.” (That’s going on my office wall!)

So how would you preserve the tradition, the beauty, the culture, and the economy of a small Eastern Canadian island (16 miles long by nine miles wide)—with just over 2,000 residents? (The challenge: keep things kinda the same, but thrive.) With help, Zita Cobb and her brothers dug deep into the paradox research—and launched a charity, Shorefast, and created a spectacular 29-room inn, Fogo Island Inn. (Did I mention it’s perfect for a THINKERS WEEKEND RETREAT? Click here.)

The Fogo Island story is just one of many colorful case studies and insights in this hot-off-the-press (Aug. 9, 2022) thinker’s book from Harvard Business Review Press. The authors also share their personal paradoxes. One word: transparent. Other must-read paradoxes:

THE LEGO WRECKING BALL. Pendulum swings—in response to lagging sales—prompted an unfortunate either/or overcorrection at LEGO. “In this case the pendulum becomes a wrecking ball; an overly powerful swing in the opposing direction creates a new and even greater challenge.” The book features challenges at Starbucks, IBM, and others, plus these insights from LEGO:

The slow and steady LEGO protocol…
• “In response to a proposal from Lucasfilm, one vice present proclaimed, ‘Over my dead body will LEGO ever introduce Star Wars.’” (RIP! I recommend this LEGO Star Wars model with 1,062 pieces!)

…was replaced by a “Creativity Above All Else” LEGO mandate…
• “Whereas it once took nearly a decade for LEGO to introduce the green color, within a few years the toy maker started making parts in 157 colors.”

When a new strategy development champion arrived, he was shocked. “Despite early successes, few of the innovations were actually profitable.” Helpful: the “Polarity map: upsides and downsides of LEGO’s strategy” illustrates the classic matrix: Inspiring the builders of tomorrow vs. Organizational death; and Core business vs. Innovation (page 59).

MULES & TIGHTROPE WALKERS! The memorable metaphors ensure that the complexity and efficacy of paradox thinking is described with a measure of simplicity:

• MULES. Complementing Roger Martin’s thinking in The Opposable Mind, the authors note that “mules are the offspring of female horses and male donkeys”—and write that leaders must look for “a synergistic option that integrates the opposing sides of a paradox.” They add that notable creatives (Einstein, Picasso, Mozart, and Woolf) had “aha moments” that often started “with noticing the opposing forces in their work.”

• TIGHTROPE WALKERS. Picture tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s 1974 triumph between NYC’s Twin Towers. That’s the metaphor for the “microshifts between alternative options”—that enable organizations to move forward. This process involves “small either/or choices that constantly move us back and forth between alternative poles, creating a pattern in the big picture that accommodates both options over time.”

Maybe you’d prefer a terra firma metaphor—like riding a bike. Warning! A true “balanced life” is never achieved.) Or consider Soren Kierkegaard’s description of the “tug-of-war between being expansive…and being constrictive.”

With that context, Smith and Lewis then serve up “Breeding Mules That Walk Tightropes” (that I’d pay to see!). Their quadrant on page 85 is (my opinion) the most helpful one-page summary of the book: “The paradox system: four sets of tools” for both/and thinking. I salute two academics who deliver a very memorable ABCD picture!
• A: Shifting to both/and assumptions
• B: Creating boundaries to contain tensions
• C: Finding comfort in discomfort
• D: Enabling dynamics that unleash tensions (a big idea: “Learning to unlearn”)

Gratefully, the authors allocate one chapter to each of the ABCD topics—and that’s where you’ll find the meat and potatoes (or just the potatoes, if you’re vegetarian).

CONFLICTING GOALS? With stunning documentation and resources, the appendix (pages 259-302) includes the “Paradox Mindset Inventory” with 16 questions on measuring tensions experienced and comfort with a paradox mindset. Example: “I often have competing demands that need to be addressed at the same time.”

How will your team members score this one? “I often have goals that contradict each other.” (Use these questions at your next staff meeting using the authors’ seven-point rating scale: “Strongly Agree” to Strongly Disagree.”)

There’s so much more—but let me conclude with this comment from Tom Peters of In Search of Excellence fame. “This book is, pure and simple, a masterpiece. And every word and semicolon is backed up by hard research. Don’t skim—dig in, take deep breaths, and reflect.” On tensions in Chapter 7, the authors quote Peters:

“Leaders have to guide the ship while simultaneously putting everything up for grabs, which is itself a fundamental paradox.”

Reminder: I need someone to plan the THINKERS WEEKEND RETREAT next year at the Fogo Island Inn. Bring your books!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis. Listen on Libro.fm (9 hours, 46 minutes). And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press and Fortier PR for sending a review copy.

BONUS. Read the HBR article, “’Both/And’ Leadership: Don’t Worry So Much About Being Consistent,” by Wendy K. Smith, Marianne W. Lewis, and Michael L. Tushman (May 2016). Click here.

RISK—IN YOUR FIRST 10 YEARS! Are you coaching an early career woman—in her first 10 years in the workplace? Read this book together: Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott. Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Maybe…you don’t need a six-month rebranding marathon (per Roger Martin), but a rethinking exercise on customer habits? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: contrarian thinking

July 27, 2022

Leading with Heart: Five Conversations That Unlock Creativity, Purpose, and Results

Issue No. 524 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a new WSJ bestseller on the five conversations for unlocking creativity, purpose, and results. It’s already a Top-10 pick for 2022! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Leading with Heart suggests a team exercise. Give nine Post-its to each person: "...ask everyone to write one important or quirky need they have from each category of need.”

How to Coach Perfectionists, People Pleasers, and Imposters!
What do CEOs fear? A study of 116 CEOs revealed that most executives have deep-seated fears. “While few executives talk about them, deep and private fears can spur defensive behaviors that undermine how they and their colleagues set and execute company strategy.”

That’s from The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Leading with Heart. The authors quote a Harvard Business Review article that documents how these fears often fuel dysfunctional behavior. (Read “What CEOs Are Afraid Of.”)

So how do your fears (and the fears of your CEO) impact your organization’s future? “What fears are holding you back?” is one of “Five Conversations That Unlock Creativity, Purpose, and Results” in this powerful book by two very savvy executive coaches, John Baird and Edward Sullivan. Leading with Heart says “there are three typical fear archetypes that leaders fall into, one for each of the fear responses: fight, flight, and freeze. Each archetype has an unexpressed underlying fear, as well as a ‘tell,’ a way of behaving that we can see quite plainly from the outside.”

The authors spotlight three CEOs (changing their names, of course):
• Chris: THE PERFECTIONIST. She freezes and her “tell” is “chronic indecision and nitpicking.” For her, it’s the “fear of getting it wrong.”
• Andre: THE PEOPLE PLEASER. “Flight” is his fear response and his “tell” is “conflict avoidance and craving consensus.” For Andre, it’s the “fear of not belonging or being accepted.”
• Luis: THE IMPOSTER. He fights and his “tell” is “arrogance, anger, and irritability." Luis fears “being seen as incompetent.”

Yikes! Recognize anyone? These archetypes are not uncommon, but many executives are blind to their own blindness. “Of the five Leading with Heart conversations, this is often the hardest one to have and create change around.” But there’s good news: you can make fear your ally and the authors suggest some very practical steps.

This is an important book—phenomenal, really. The power of coaching oozes throughout the chapters. It reminded me of my early CEO years—and how coaching could have transformed my leadership. (See Chapters 12 to 15 in Mastering Mistaking-Making.)

Do you want results? Focus on these five conversations (five chapters):
1) What do you need to be at your best?
2) What fears are holding you back?
3) What desires drive you, and which might derail you?
4) What are your greatest gifts?
5) What is your purpose?

Page after page, you’ll find dozens of delightful surprises, helpful pokes-in-the-ribs, PowerPoint-worthy quotes, and amazing, amazing exercises! (The authors generously give the store away with dozens of exercises and group facilitation ideas. Stunning!) Plus, it’s jam-packed with probing questions in every chapter. You’ll appreciate:

#1. STAND UP FOR YOUR NEEDS EXERCISE. Give each team member nine Post-its (3 each of 3 colors) and “then ask everyone to write one important or quirky need they have from each category of need.” Example: physical needs (maybe use a yellow Post-it), emotional needs (peach), and environmental needs (lime).

The facilitator posts them, by category, on a whiteboard or wall. Then the group sits in a circle, “and the facilitator goes through each of the needs in every category, saying, ‘Stand up if you need _______ to feel creative, productive, or safe.'” (What happens, the authors note, “…is that people start standing up for needs they didn’t even write down.” Read more on how this exercise helps foster a safe place for conversations.)

#2. “I HAVE A LEFT-HAND COMMENT.” How often are team members thinking, but not saying something in a meeting? The concept: “…the right-hand column contains all the things that are easy to say—all the ideas and comments that don’t rock the boat. The left-hand column is where potential conflict lives. It’s the pushback, the probing question, the nagging doubt that often goes unsaid.” When someone announces, “I have a left-hand comment,” everyone in the room “snaps to attention” because even though it is hard to say, it’s worth saying. Brilliant!

#3. “THE TEMPERATURE READING.” One way to develop a “fear-naming habit is to embed it into other exercises.” At the beginning of any meeting, just ask three simple questions:
• “What or whom are you grateful for today?
• What are you worried or concerned about?
• What are your hopes and wishes for this meeting?”

#4. CEOs: THE ONE QUESTION. In the chapter, “What Are Your Greatest Gifts?” the authors name names with the permission of many well-known CEOs. (Reminder: they are premier executive coaches.) In a coaching session, Sullivan observed that Ariane Goldman, CEO of maternity fashion brand Hatch, “was spending all of her time putting out the flames of fears and tending to the organization’s low-level needs.” In a coaching session, he asked her, “What is one thing you alone can do at this company?”
• Goldman: “Strategic and creative direction.”
• Executive Coach: “And how are you spending your time?”
• Goldman: (silence…)

“Ariane was spending 90 percent of her time on the ‘small stuff’ that zapped her energy. She wasn’t giving herself the space to feel creative.” She was also consumed by fears of failure. Yet, inspired by her executive coach, she was able to integrate the issues addressed in the “five conversations” and began leveraging her gifts. And this summary: “The more we get the flywheel of expressing our gifts spinning, the more our needs are met, and so on. It’s a system that builds upon itself.”

#5. ODE TO THE RELUCTANT LEADER. The authors comment on the engineer and/or the designer who builds something—and then becomes the reluctant CEO who “does not have enough desire for power and does not do a good job giving employees power, status, and recognition.” Good news: there is hope for those who “now find themselves leaders by circumstance, rather than by design.” (Read “Which Desires Drive You, and Which Might Derail You.”)

#6. OVERPLAYING YOUR GIFTS. Yikes! Is your CEO or any of your senior team members like “Aaron,” a force of a nature—a machine—yet a “diminisher” (a term coined by Liz Wiseman in Multipliers). “…diminishers tap into just 50 percent of their capabilities by micromanaging, telling people what to do, hoarding all the decision-making power, and generally underusing the brilliant people they painstakingly hire.” Why? “…they are often overplaying their gifts.”

It's only July, but Leading with Heart is already on my Top-10 list of books for 2022. If you’re a consultant (or a consultant wanna-be)—it’s a must-read.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leading with Heart: Five Conversations That Unlock Creativity, Purpose, and Results, by John Baird and Edward Sullivan. Listen on Libro.fm (8 hours, 8 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Try this at your next staff meeting! When Edward Sullivan’s prof in the “Exercising Leadership” course at the Harvard Kennedy School quizzically sat down during an early class session, “apparently refusing to lead the class any longer,” chaos ensued as students wondered if the prof was orchestrating “Lord of the Flies meets Survivor.” It’s another must-read section in the chapter, “What Are Your Greatest Gifts?” On the last day of class, the prof circled back to that chaotic class session—and Sullivan experienced a profound insight about himself (see pages 173-177, “Claiming the Gifts Born from Our Pain.”) When is the last time you truly injected stunning creativity and deep learning into your weekly staff meeting? (Read this book!)

2) Yikes! The authors warn, “Many companies that have amazing perks actually have horrible cultures. The posh benefits are often a weak attempt to make up for the fact that people no longer see their families, live in fear of their managers, or receive no encouragement or praise. It’s sad, but true.” (Read the final chapter, including the section, “Cultural Perks Are the Only Ones That Matter.”) Pop Quiz! List the “cultural perks” here in our organization.

The author of The Coaching Habit says the best coaching question in the world is the AWE question: “And What Else?”

Why We Need Coaches: We are pitifully blind to our own behavioral tics!
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (The 10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson - Order from Amazon.

Here are four books to remind you that, as Marshall Goldsmith notes, smart, successful people are pitifully blind to their own behavioral tics and “the higher you go, the more your problems are behavioral.”

[ ] What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break, by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter (John’s 2013 Book-of-the-Year: read the review)

[ ] The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier (read John’s review)

[ ] Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (The 10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. See “Part 4: Every Leader Needs a Coach, Especially Leaders Who Endorse Coaching Books!” - Mistakes #12, #13, #14, and #15. (Download the table of contents and order the book here.)

[ ] Christian Coaching, Second Edition: Helping Others Turn Potential into Reality, by Gary R. Collins, Ph.D. (Order from Amazon) – Note: Gary Collins (1934-2021) opens his chapter on “Coaching Through Change” with LOL headlines: “Bill Clinton Appointed Head Coach of Miami Dolphins.” “Mother Teresa Named General Motors CEO.” And “Michael Jordan to Pastor Megachurch!” (No…you can’t be anything you want to be!)

10 FATAL FLAWS! “Accepting mediocre performance in place of excellent results” is one of “10 Fatal Flaws That Consistently Lead to Failure in Leadership” in the helpful book, The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (3rd Edition), by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman. Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are some of your key marketing and communications team members “overplaying their gifts”—to the detriment and disappointment of other team members who don’t get to fully leverage their gifts? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: executive coaching

July 16, 2022

Strategy Quartet - Summer Shorts on Strategy

Issue No. 523 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights the lead, tenor, baritone, and bass parts of your strategy quartet—just in time to delegate to your harmonizing team members! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Here’s this month’s edition of your 2022 “Summer Shorts”—brief reviews of a quartet of strategy resources, including the new book, The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists.

Summer Shorts!
Don’t look now (enjoy your vacation)—but in about 90 days, your Board of Directors is expecting Draft #1 of The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan for 2023 and beyond. (Is anyone working on it?) Check the board meeting minutes, but I think there was a strong suggestion that they are expecting a new-and-improved plan—not a carbon copy of last year’s plan, and the previous year’s plan, and the…(well, you get the idea).

So if your current “strategic plan” is as outdated as my metaphors (“Carbon copy,” John? Really?)—here’s some help! For this “Summer Shorts” issue, I’m featuring A QUARTET OF STRATEGY RESOURCES. Forward this eNews to your strategic plan task force (including one board member)—and delegate your reading. Plan an off-site day with the task force in October and ask for book reviews and vacation videos.

POP QUIZ!
What are the four singing parts in a barbershop quartet? (Answer: Lead, Tenor, Baritone, Bass.) What are four strategy resources you should read this summer? (Answer: See the “Strategy Quartet” below.)

LEAD:
[ ] #1. The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists, by Richard P. Rumelt. Click here to order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (10 hours, 53 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending a review copy.

Published in May 2022 with COVID-relevant insights, The Crux dares you to think differently about strategic planning, in fact—the author preaches—don’t even think about the worn-out, over-hyped strategic planning process—especially the “star” of the show, the rhetoric-rich actual document (LOL)! Instead, try this: “Don’t start with goals—start by understanding the challenge and finding its crux.”

The “lead singer/resource ” in this Strategy Quartet notes that Elon Musk built his SpaceX company by focusing on the crux—flying rockets back to earth and reusing them. “By 2018 the Falcon 9’s cost per pound into low-Earth orbit was twenty-three times cheaper than the old space shuttle.” To get to Mars, NASA had estimated a cost of $200 billion. Musk’s estimate: $9 billion.

Known as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers on strategy and management, Rumelt is professor emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. (You remember UCLA, right? They are the latest football program to join the Big 10. After all, they’re practically neighbors with those Cornhuskers. Wait…what?)

If I were on your team—I’d pick The Crux to read and report on. Hot-off-the-press. Fascinating. Practical. Witty. Humble. (Even some mountain climbing references—per the author’s personal experience.) Using real life consulting examples (names have been changed, of course), Rumelt also shares what he learned from clients and from Donald Rumsfeld in 2004, then U.S. Secretary of Defense. (Read my review of Rumsfeld’s Rules.)

Rumsfeld believed leaders were neglecting a key element—the need for a coherent strategy. When Rumsfeld asked Rumelt if his academic colleagues had fixed that problem, Rumelt admitted they had not. The professor’s plan: “Basically, you put a small group of smart people in a room and see what they come up with.” (See Chapter 18, “Rumsfeld’s Question.”)

How did I miss this “giant in the field of strategy?” My favorite chapter, “The Challenge of Power,” is based on a talk the author gave to “the Sons and Daughters of Vikings” in Stockholm, Sweden. He’s also the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.

TENOR:
[ ] #2. What Is Strategy? An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter, by Joan Magretta and Emile Holmewood (Illustrator). Conceived by Heinrich Zimmermann. Click here to order from Amazon. (And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending a review copy.)

When you sing tenor in a barbershop quartet, you’re expected to add interest and appropriate pizzazz. So how do you add vitality and that wow-factor to an already rock solid pillar in the strategy literature? Michael Porter’s classic article, “What Is Strategy?” first appeared in the November–December 1996 issue of Harvard Business Review. (See purchasing options under #3 below.)

So you probably already know which task force member will enjoy reading/viewing this very creative resource—what the prestigious Harvard Business Review Press titles, “An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter.” Better buy two copies, because this eye-catching coffee table book will be “borrowed” by visitors to your reception area.

Similar to the recent publishing trend in business/parable/novel/story graphic format (with very appealing illustrations), What Is Strategy? announces on the first page, “This is not your father’s business book.” (LOL!) Instead, the author clarifies, “It’s aimed at readers in all types of organizations who learn visually as well as verbally. It’s aimed at time-starved readers who want to absorb important content fast. It’s aimed at readers who are serious about learning, but who also enjoy a good laugh.”

In the business story, a fictitious management team—with the help and ideas of the real life Michael Porter, “grapple with the challenges of strategy—and their own egos.” The executive team includes a creative collection of animals (the CFO is a bull!) The panda (HR) tweets, “I wish @CEO would stop with the insensitive animal jokes. #hostileworkplace.”

If someone on your team enjoyed reading/viewing other business novels (graphic-type) such as The Goal and StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad, they will love this illustrated edition.

BARITONE:
[ ] #3. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter). Click here to order from Amazon.

The person who sings baritone in a barbershop quarter rarely stands out—and that’s a good thing. Ditto a good strategy. There’s alignment and coherency. Everything blends together. (Examples: Southwest Airlines and IKEA.)

Option #3.1 – Book. This resource features “10 Must Read” articles on strategy—pulled from back issues of the Harvard Business Review. “What Is Strategy?” is the anchor article.
Option #3.2 – Article. If you just want Porter’s 21-page article—and not the other nine must-reads on strategy, click here to order “What Is Strategy?” which first appeared in HBR in November/December 1996.
Option #3.3 – Article Review. Really? You don’t have time to read a 21-page article? (LOL!) Well then, would you have time to read my 900-word review of Porter’s article? Click here.

BASS:
[ ] #4. Talent, Strategy, Risk: How Investors and Boards Are Redefining TSR, by Bill McNabb, Ram Charan, and Dennis Carey. Click here to order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (7 hours, 13 minutes). And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending a review copy.

POP QUIZ! What should boards be talking about? One word: Talent. The authors of “TSR” write: “Of all the factors that go into the creation of long-term value, talent is the most important one for boards to be talking about.” That’s the first salvo of the triple focus on “TSR” in the 2021 book, Talent, Strategy, Risk.

The authors spotlight a corporate board that “…dedicates one board meeting a year to talent, focusing on CEO succession and development, and discussing in detail the performance of every senior officer of the company.” While I’m partial to books that deliver the goods by page 25, TSR is an over-achiever. The chart on page 19 (six pages early!) delivers eight “lessons of leaders who have made talent their priority.” About half of the book is focused on the board’s role with strategy and talent, including a chapter on “Redesigning the Board’s Committees.” (Don’t get me started! LOL!)

As my long-time readers know, I’m a big fan of the books and wisdom of Ram Charan—but this one almost slipped past me. (In February, I reviewed his most recent book, Talent.)

Without a lively bass singer, all barbershop quartets will fall flat (no pun intended). The bass anchors the group to the rhythm, the lyrics, and all the fun of quartet singing. (How do I know this? I sang bass in my high school’s barbershop quartet.) And when a board does not “own the strategy” (per chapter 5 in Ram Charan’s book, Owning Up), organizations will also fall flat.

So there you have it…four strategy resources (Lead, Tenor, Baritone, and Bass) for you to delegate to your strategic planning task force. And, of course, you’d be disappointed if I signed off without featuring a barbershop quartet chorus toe-tapper—with the post-COVID celebratory lyrics, “Zoom Meetings Are Over!” (Note: Enjoy this 11-minute video parody, “Together Again,” from the Music City Chorus and featured on the Barbershop Harmony Society website. You may not get all the competition’s in-jokes, but…LOL anyway.) View the video here.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) See Figure 10 on page 129 of The Crux, “UN Sustainable Development Goals, 2015”—and you’ll need management therapy after you’ve read the 17 SDGs. Rumelt notes that “each goal points to a desirable outcome.” They are “admirable aspirations, but they are not coherent,” he notes. “Having seventeen inconsistent goals is the indulgence of politicians. A strategist would face such an exuberance of inconsistent ambition by selecting a consistent subset and pushing the rest aside, at least for a while.” But before we lambaste the United Nations for such idiocy, do we dare hold our own annual goals up to the light of day (or a cranky consultant)?

2) Peter Drucker wrote that if you “have more than five goals, you have none.” Richard Rumelt suggests you lead with “the crux,” not goals. One of four major steps in strategic planning, suggested Donald Rumsfeld, is to “Identify Your Key Assumptions.” Are we using a coherent approach to strategy—or have we become victims of what Scott Vandeventer (see the Book Bucket) termed, “management-by-bestseller?”

The Strategy Bucket affirms, “We know our mission statement by memory, and our programs, products and services are in alignment with the mission.” (aka…coherence!) Click here to view this hilarious parody video, “Mission Statement,” from “Weird Al” Yankovic.

POP QUIZ! The Strategy Bucket
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Strategy Bucket Core Competency: “We plan, believing the results are up to God. We energize our people and customers with a Big Holy Audacious Goal (BHAG). We’re systematic—never negligent—in our strategic planning. We know our mission statement by memory, and our programs, products and services are in alignment with the mission.”

At your next staff meeting, surprise your team with this POP QUIZ! “On the blank sheet of paper you have, write down our staff-reviewed and board-approved strategy.” (If all you get are blank stares and blank sheets of paper, then ask for volunteers to read and review one strategy resource from above or below.)

MORE STRATEGY RESOURCES (visit the Strategy Bucket):
[ ] #5. Strategy/Mission Statement Mumbo Jumbo! Before you launch your strategic planning project, view this rhetoric-rich “Mission Statement” video (4.5 minutes) by "Weird Al" Yankovic, the prince of parodies. Click here.
[ ] #6. Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin (read John’s review)
[ ] #7. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0, by Verne Harnish (read John’s review)
[ ] #8. Breakthrough: Unleashing the Power of a Proven Plan, by Randon A. Samelson (read John’s review)
[ ] #9. Another Strategy Oops! The front page of the July 12 edition of The Wall Street Journal announced, “Gap CEO Sonia Syngal Is Stepping Down.” The reason? Old Navy, which is owned by Gap, is doing poorly. “Old Navy last summer introduced a range of sizes to make its clothing more inclusive but the effort backfired, leaving the chain with too many very small and very large sizes and not enough of the middle sizes, which are the most popular. In May, the company said it would scale back the strategy, after reporting disappointing earnings.” (Read the article here.)

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

BONUS! Listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John Pearson (Episode 4, April 21, 2022). And click here to read John's review of Steve's new book, The Discerning Life.

TOUR de FRANCE for DUMMIES! The 2022 cycling marathon, Tour de France, July 1-24, is cleverly explained in the 2005 book, Tour de France for Dummies®. (Read my review here on the Pails in Comparison blog.)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your strategy coherent? According to The Crux, “At the simplest level, coherence means that actions and policies do not contradict each other.” Do you need an outsider’s look at your insides? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: strategy

July 9, 2022

One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General

Issue No. 522 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting urges you to read a “Master Class” in leadership by former Attorney General William Barr.And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Senator Everett Dirksen’s counsel to his son-in-law, Senator Howard Baker, after Baker gave a “windy maiden speech” in 1967: “Perhaps you should occasionally allow yourself the luxury of an unexpressed thought.”

Bill Barr on Malice or Stupidity!

We’ve all written our fair share of job descriptions over the years, right? So take out a blank piece of paper (you still use paper, right?)—and list the Top-10 roles and responsibilities for POTUS 47 (President of the United States, 2024-2028).

Extra Credit: List the Top-20 responsibilities of the White House chief of staff. Spelling and neatness count.

Term Paper: List the Top-100 responsibilities of the Attorney General and—in 50,000 words or less—explain how the nation’s top law enforcement officer (though appointed by a Republican or Democratic president) can effectively call those legal balls and strikes and still keep his job!

Required Reading: Oh…before you pick up your pen, read the absolutely fascinating, hard-hitting, poignant, often concerning, yet very witty book by Bill Barr (I've retitled it), “The 2022 Master Class in Seriously Critical Issues as Seen Through a U.S. Department of Justice’s Top Decision-Maker.”

William P. Barr, now 72, served as the 85th Attorney General for the last two years of President Trump’s term. He also was the 77th Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush (1991-1993) and here’s a hint on your job description assignment:

When Ed Levi, Dean of the University of Chicago Law School (and then president of the university), was asked to describe his stint as Attorney General under President Gerald Ford, he responded, “It’s just one damn thing after another.”

Did I mention that your required reading is One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, the New York Times instant bestseller by William P. Barr? It’s a robust 567 pages (plus notes). But honest—Barr’s honesty and insights were so memorable, I would have enjoyed another 500 pages. So…how does Barr view the President’s job description?

When COVID hit, Barr noted that “…the President’s desire to honor our federal structure and accommodate the states’ sovereign role was both sensible and, ultimately, unavoidable.” He adds, “But this collaborative approach required a statesman capable of herding cats—one with boundless patience and diplomatic skills, especially in an election year when his adversaries were at their worst in scoring cheap shots against him.”

DEMOCRATS will appreciate this book. Barr writes that the COVID crisis “…required a statesman with the ability to explain complex matters and regional variations to the public with precision and clarity. Trump was not that statesman. He was a disrupter—he liked to move forward by confusing and rattling his opponents. After March 2020, that was basically the opposite of what his job called for.” (What’s on your CEO’s job description?)

REPUBLICANS will appreciate this book. After about 300 page-turning “inside the Beltway” stunning moments (the Prologue explodes like a James Bond movie) and Oval Office policy debates (but often monologues), Barr then invests 200 pages for “Master Class” treatments of the gnarly issues facing our nation and world. With a conservative philosophical bent (yet an honest and balanced narrative), he offers real world solutions for:
• Upholding Fairness, Even for Rascals
• Bringing Justice to Violent Predators
• Fighting the Drug Cartels
• Securing Religious Liberty
• Taking on Big Tech
• Cops, Race, and the Big Lie
• Protest and Mayhem

For a first-time author (I think he was way too busy with “one damn thing after another” to write a book earlier in his career), Barr’s writing is colorful, often elegant, and yet with a tell-it-like-it-is candor. Yes, he voluntarily served as Trump’s second Attorney General, and stayed through thick-and-thin for 23 months, but frequently pushed back. Yikes! What a tough job! (Where is that in the job description?)

WHY READ THIS BOOK—whatever your political leanings? You’ll appreciate how leaders lead through the minefield of politics, egos, and crises. (Imagine: you’re the “CEO” of a government department with more than 100,000 employees in 50 countries. Click here for the DOJ’s current organization chart!)

#1. MENTORING UP. How do you coach your boss or CEO to dial it back a bit? Maybe fewer press conferences during COVID? Fewer “gabfests.” Fewer tweets. Barr quotes Senator Everett Dirksen’s counsel to his son-in-law, Senator Howard Baker, after Baker gave a “windy maiden speech” in 1967: “Perhaps you should occasionally allow yourself the luxury of an unexpressed thought.” (Resource: Read the classic HBR article, “Managing Your Boss.”)

#2. TWO TYPES OF LEADERS. In the chapter, “Eating Grenades,” Barr colorfully details the constant never-ending challenges of leading the DOJ. (Impossible, actually.) He describes two kinds of cabinet secretaries, those “…who are run by their agency. They do little else but respond to their in-boxes and thus are almost entirely reactive, spending their time hopping to other people’s priorities and putting out fires.”

The other type: “Then there are executives who run the agency. This requires, in addition to responding to events, clearly identifying a core set of priorities, taking direct charge of them, and applying the energy necessary to overcome institutional inertia and bring them to fruition.”

The grenade metaphor? When working with White House counsel Pat Cipollone, “We operated like a tag team, so that neither of us would provoke too much of the President’s ire at one time. We referred to this as choosing who would ‘eat the grenade.’”

#3. MALICE OR STUPIDITY? Commenting on Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 suicide while in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, Barr said that he personally reviewed the relevant video footage. He writes, “The fact that so many failures occurred at one time understandably led people to suspect the worst. But thorough investigations have shown once again the wisdom of Hanlon’s razor: don’t ascribe malice when stupidity is a sufficient explanation.” (Resource: More wisdom from Wikipedia!)

#4. RECRUITING GOOD PEOPLE. I’ve often wondered (usually ascribing malice) why cabinet secretaries and senior White House staff continued to serve Presidents whose policies and/or character they could no longer support. Barr quotes Bob Gates (who served both Bush 43 and Obama). “‘Look, somebody has got to do these jobs,’ he said, ‘and what is best for the country is that we get good people who know what the hell they are doing.’” (By the way—as you might expect from the Trump White House—there are the occasional “strong” words used in this “damn” book!)

#5. CHIEF OF STAFF/LION TAMER. Barr notes that Trump’s fourth chief of staff, Mark Meadows, would sometimes take the heat for helping Barr and Cipollone protect the DOJ from “the President’s frequent bad ideas or his impulsive mistakes.” So what’s the job description of the chief of staff? “Before the election, Mark’s job was like a high-wire act; after Trump’s defeat, he was like a lion tamer without a whip and chair.” (Resource: read Rumsfeld’s Rules and his description of the job as “javelin catcher!”)

#6. MEMORABLE METAPHORS. My opinion: outstanding leaders have a steady supply of metaphors and well-crafted labels for describing challenging and complex issues. Barr is a master at this. When arguing with the Treasury Department that ATF (not a revenue source) belonged in the DOJ, Barr told Treasury Secretary Nick Brady (during Bush 41’s term), “Things that go Clink belong to you; things that go Bang should belong to me.” (Hilarious!) Other memorable metaphors and wordcrafting:
• “Hissy Fit” (Really…someone emoted inappropriately in our government?)
• Space Cowboys (the Clint Eastwood movie about geriatric astronauts): a moniker the younger DOJ staff assigned to Barr and two of his senior team members!
• Bamboozled: “Yet the FTC, bamboozled by economic mumbo jumbo, approved the acquisition.” (See the “Taking on Big Tech” chapter—brilliantly written.)
• Alligators: “Getting [Trump] to accept good advice was like wrestling an alligator.” And when asked how he felt beginning his first term as the AG, Barr commented, “Like I’m about to run across a river on the backs of alligators.”
• Skunk Works: Barr assembled a "skunk works" of key players to create “a specific plan of action to step up the fight against the Mexican cartels.” (See more about skunk works in the book, In Search of Excellence.)

There’s much, much more—including Barr’s appreciation for Trump’s important policy decisions during his term. But he also quotes Salena Zito’s article in the Atlantic describing how people responded when Trump made outrageous claims. She wrote, “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

This is Barr’s first book. I would definitely read another damn book by Barr! (Visit here to read his speeches.)

To order from Amazon, click on title for One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, by William P. Barr. Listen on Libro.fm (22 hours, 1 minute).

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Bill Barr writes about the death penalty: “Opponents cannot dispute that the proportionate penalty for murder is death. But they argue that it is somehow inconsistent to take a life in the name of upholding the value of life. This is a sound-bite argument lacking intellectual coherence.” (He builds his case in the chapter, “Bringing Justice to Violent Predators.”) Who on our team is gutsy enough to push back on, perhaps, our simplistic “sound-bite arguments” that we’ve grown accustomed to using in defense of our mission?
2) Barr had a good working relationship with FBI Director Christopher Wray. (Yet Trump wanted to fire Wray for a variety of reasons Barr thought inappropriate.) “I thought [Wray's] low-key, businesslike style—he called himself a ‘workhorse, not a show horse’—was refreshing after Comey’s insufferable exhibitionism.” Discerning leaders know when to hire and when to fire (some say “hire slower, fire faster”). Are our job descriptions, SMART goals, and expectations clear in our organization—so there is clarity on character and performance standards?

POTUS Leadership Lessons
Looking for several leadership books to read on the beach or in the mountains this summer? (Or if you’re a Southern Hemisphere reader, please jump in also!)

[ ] The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy (read John’s review)

[ ] The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, by Chris Whipple (read John’s two reviews)

[ ] Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, by Donald Rumsfeld (read John’s review)

[ ] Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump, by Tevi Troy (read John’s review and pop quiz!)

[ ] How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions, by Susan Eisenhower (read John’s review)

[ ] Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War, by David A. Nichols (read John’s review)

For more leadership and management insights, read Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

EVANGELICAL EXODUS! A theologian/trend spotter writes, “Baptists are learning to love Mary” in the fascinating book, Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome, by Douglas M. Beaumont (Editor). Click here to read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Does your chief marketing officer feel like a “lion tamer without a whip and chair?” Is it just one crazy thing after another—with no coherence in your marketing and communication strategies? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: William P. Barr

June 24, 2022

Next Sunday: An Honest Dialogue About the Future of the Church

Issue No. 521 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a gutsy new book, by Nancy Beach and Samantha Beach Kiley, on the future of the local church. Must-read! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Nancy Beach (a boomer) and Samantha Beach Kiley (a millennial) have a gutsy and honest dialogue about the future of the church. (Next Sunday is must-read!)

A Gutsy Dialogue on the Future of the Church

Gutsy! That’s my one-word description for the mother/daughter (boomer/millennial) conversation in the new book, Next Sunday: An Honest Dialogue About the Future of the Church, by Nancy Beach and Samantha Beach Kiley. Published last week in the InterVarsity Press Praxis series (“equipping leaders for ministry”), I’m guessing the authors’ thoughtful views will generate cheers and jeers. But good for them—these two gutsy women!

The authors bring significant street cred (“church cred?”) to the table. Nancy Beach served as the programming director at Willow Creek Community Church and is now on the teaching team at Soul City Church in Chicago. She’s also a leadership coach with the Slingshot Group and is a frequent conference speaker. Samantha Beach Kiley is the creative arts pastor at Austin New Church and is a “writer and performer at the intersection of art and faith.” Her writing is superb. I read her poem, “The Little Red Chair” (pages 33-36), to our grandchildren at our Father’s Day gathering last Sunday.

They wrestle with seven distinctives that the church should address. Each chapter includes Nancy’s perspectives, followed by Samantha’s insights. (If you’re a boomer with nailed-down convictions about most everything, it might be dangerous to read this millennial’s informed affirmations about the church. Yikes.) But you’ll appreciate their humility:

“Together we asked, What will be most important for local churches going forward if they hope to thrive and not merely survive? Others will no doubt point out distinctives that are not on the list (prayer!), and we offer our perspective as humble learners who care deeply about the church and, like so many others, are just trying to figure it out.”

They add, “We do not come at these questions with an audacious sense of confidence or think we possess the answers or the magic ticket for churches to reach their full potential for the next generation.” They describe themselves not as historians or academics, but “storytellers” and suggest that “this book is for every person who wants to believe that church still matters, even though so many of us have been disappointed, even wounded along the way.” (See Chapter 5, “When Harry Works With Sally.”)

Why read this dialogue about the future of the church?

#1. Boot Camp for the Church's Future. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another book, published in 2022 by a fairly conservative Christian publisher, that aggressively (yet humbly) takes on big and thorny issues. It’s a boot camp immersion experience for new recruits and burned-out vets. The seven distinctives: Creating Genuine Community, Being Kidcentric (must-read!), Having an External Focus, Concerning the Hour on Sunday, Men and Women Leading Well Together, The Church’s History of Exclusion and Oppression, and Creating a Healthy Culture. (For more on flourishing cultures, read this review.)

#2. External Focus: Yes or No? A church founded in 1980 (“with a very long name”—LOL!) honestly answered a penetrating question: “If our church suddenly disappeared, would anyone in the surrounding society even notice?” Their response: no. (So…yes…Chapter 3 is also must-read.)

#3. Doing Good…Without Sacrifice. Reflecting on the commitment levels required of seven-days-a-week Jesus followers, Samantha confesses, “I would like to do good and feel good. I would like to do good on my schedule. I would like to do good without sacrifice. I would like to look good while doing good. I would like to change someone’s life in one hour or twenty-five dollars a month. I would like it if afterward someone could show me what I fixed. I would like to imagine myself a fixer.”

#4. Easter: Hamburgers for the Homeless. Samantha and her husband landed at a church in Austin, Texas, because “…we saw on social media that instead of an Easter service, they grilled hamburgers for the homeless. This sounded like a church community that my justice-driven husband might feel at home in and that my megachurch-high-production-value self might need to recover in. (I thought you did twelve services on Easter, not zero!)"

#5. COVID Recovery. Nancy looks in the rear view mirror in the chapter, “Concerning the Hour on Sunday,” and reflects on Willow Creek’s seven-step strategy and suggests a wider range of strategies for this decade. She wonders how the church will authentically articulate the case for in-person worship on Sunday (and why in-person is a mandate) when online streaming during COVID (sweatpants with coffee) became so “…comfortable and easy, playing into the worst of our consumer tendences.”

#6. Managing Pendulum Swings. Nancy suggests, “While I have no crystal ball to forecast the future, I do believe that the gathering as we know it will die if it’s only about the delivery of content. Now that all of us can listen to a message from any pastor around the world on our little screens or even worship with a team of our choosing even if they are far, far away, why would we be motivated to physically show up at a specific time and place if only to hear a message and maybe sing a few songs? I don’t believe content will drive anyone to make the effort.”

The book provides solutions and offers a very thoughtful discussion on five tensions churches must address (“pendulum swings”), noting, “We often look at values or strategies as all-or-nothing rather than as tensions to be delicately managed." The tensions include: 1) attractional versus missional, 2) performance versus participation, 3) authenticity versus excellence, 4) unpredictable versus template, and 5) topical teaching versus biblical exegesis. (Did I mention: must-read chapter?)

NOTE: One of my bucket list projects is to wait until I’m about 85 (at that age, who cares what critics post on Facebook?) and then write a book titled, “If You’ve Only Got One Hour a Week to Give to God, Come and Hear Me Preach.” Thanks to Nancy and Samantha, I don’t need to write that book. Just read Next Sunday.

#7. “More Sales-y Than Soul-sized.” The writing and the practical ideas are memorable:
• How to leverage the question, “So what?”
• Samantha’s five core principles for next Sunday (she tags herself, “a recovering daughter of the megachurch movement”)
• The language of metaphor—and a parade of suitcases that punctuated a “forgiveness” theme one Sunday morning.
• Note to Christian camping leaders—you’re mentioned frequently. (Must-read!)
• Samantha: “And I think churches have overestimated the extent to which my generation would prefer to engage online, creating snack-sized content and a social media presence that feels more sales-y than soul-sized.”

When I read Chapters 5 and 6, “When Harry Works With Sally: Men and Women Leading Well Together” and “The Mess We’ve Made: The Church’s History of Exclusion and Oppression,” I was saddened once again. As Nancy writes about visiting a liturgical church, “We spoke beautiful prayers and were led in a time of confession. My only complaint was that the time of silence to confess our sins was way too brief for my list!”

Oh, my. These two gutsy women want you to take a big gulp and reconsider why Christ died and rose again. They want you to remember what Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16, “You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.”

To order from Amazon, click on title for Next Sunday: An Honest Dialogue About the Future of the Church, by Nancy Beach and Samantha Beach Kiley. Listen on Libro.fm (5 hours, 19 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In A Diary of Private of Prayer, by John Baillie, the morning prayer for the 22nd day of the month reads in part, “Lord Jesus Christ, who bid Your disciples to shine as lights in a dark world, in shame and contrition of heart do I acknowledge before You the many faults and weaknesses of which we are guilty who in this generation represent Your Church before the world; and especially do I acknowledge my own part in the same.” So how can you and we, the church, “shine as lights in a dark world?”
2) Listen to the hymn, “I Run to Christ,” and then share a line from the lyrics that touched your soul.

The Results Bucket reminds you to abandon dead horses and sacred cows and focus on outside results.

Buckets Countdown:
The Results Bucket (#1) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Results Bucket Core Competency: “We focus on results. We are not activity-driven, we are results-driven. We measure what we value, so we celebrate both the writing and the achieving of team-blessed standards of performance for every staff member, board member, and volunteer. We also abandon dead horses and sacred cows.”

“Having an external focus” is one of seven distinctives in Next Sunday. Peter Drucker described this distinction as “outside results versus inside results.” Visit the Results Bucket and download Worksheet #1.1, "Where Are Your Priorities?" on the "Five Signs You Might Be More Focused on Inside Results Than on Outside Results" (Figure 1.1 from Chapter 1).

Bonus LOL! “Arrange to visit other churches to see how they ride dead horses,” is just one of 21 hilarious ways that teams often deal with “dead horses.” Visit the Results Bucket and download Worksheet #1.2, "When the Horse Is Dead, Dismount."

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your organization plagued with dead horses and sacred cows? Is it time for an experienced outsider’s view to help you regain your external focus and prioritize your attention on outside results? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: church, Nancy Beach

June 14, 2022

Diplomatic Gifts: A History in Fifty Presents

Issue No. 520 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features an amazing book on gift-giving. Caution! Re-gifting might backfire! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

“Dear Abby: More ambassadors are visiting next week. What gifts would be appropriate?”

Dear Abby:

Dear Abby...Our country will be hosting some rather important guests from abroad. When our king visited their king last year, we miscalculated and presented several expensive, but inappropriate gifts. (We were embarrassed!) Meanwhile, their king showered us with stunning gifts—including an elephant! (Did I mention we were really embarrassed?) Any ideas for this year’s visit and gift exchange? Thank you,

The 5th Ambassador in 5 Years!

POP QUIZ! If you were “Dear Abby,” How would you answer this anxious ambassador’s cry for help?

[ ] OPTION #1. Read Diplomatic Gifts: A History in Fifty Presents, by Paul Brummell.

[ ] OPTION #2. Recommend that the ambassador resign immediately!

[ ] OPTION #3. Suggest the ambassador read Chapter 10 in Diplomatic Gifts about the gift exchanges in the 14th century between two sultans. “…the latter was so incensed that he ordered the waterboarding of the unfortunate Timurid envoy.” (And then suggest the ambassador resign immediately!)

How often have you been perplexed over what gift to give a friend, a business colleague, a host or hostess—or if you’re a king, prime minister, president, or an ambassador—what’s the perfect gift for each unique person/country/culture?

Fortunately, you don’t need to wait for “Dear Abby’s” answer. Ambassador Paul Brummell has written a masterpiece on gift-giving. And he admits, it’s a perilous path sometimes. The waterboarding incident? The damage was done because “a gift of a robe of honour to a Mamluk sultan” was taken as an insult.

The author’s capacity for research is remarkable (incredible and memorable detail)—but the short chapters (just four to six pages each) ensure that each profiled gift, with an economy of words, is still wondrously described. Brummell’s wordcrafting is a delight. His British wit (often subtle) is present in every chapter, and frequently elicits satisfying chuckles. Example:

“Our next story concerns another pachyderm gifted in the year 1514, in this case not an elephant but a rhinoceros. It was to be gifted, regifted and then regifted again, although (spoiler alert) tragically dying in the course of its transportation to the final intended recipient. Its stuffed carcass then served as a less impressive replacement diplomatic gift.”

Who is this impressive author/researcher? Paul Brummell is a British career diplomat and currently the UK ambassador to Latvia. He’s served previously as ambassador to Romania, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Brummel was also the UK’s high commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. He also writes travel guides. (Imagine his frequent flier mileage!)

Who Should Read This Book?

• Corporate Gift-Givers. Caution! Chapter 9 highlights the expensive and rare silks given by higher-ups of the Byzantine Empire to popes and other rulers over several centuries. The author documents the gift of an embroidered silk in 1261 (specifically a silk now known as “The Pallium of St. Lawrence”). Fascinating. Yet…fast-forward a few years and we learn that not every silk was treasured by all. “…the Mongol ruler Nogai Khan was decidedly unimpressed by gifted silks, complaining that they had no practical value and offered no protection from the elements.”

• Nonprofit Gift-Givers. My nonprofit CEO and fundraising friends will glean new insights about the subtle levels of gifting—and what happens when Gift Recipient A learns that Gift Recipient B received a more favored gift. (Time to rethink the recognition levels and donor gifts for your next capital campaign—before your major donor invites you to a waterboarding reception!)

• Re-Gifters! OK, admit it—sometimes you “regift” a gift, hoping the original giver won’t find out! In Chapter 6, the author reveals the genesis of “white elephant” gifts—in this case, actual white elephants. “Exotic animals were gifts guaranteed to impress,” he writes. And “the impracticality of the gift of a wild beast ensured its exclusivity and added to its prestige.”

Brummell adds, “There are many examples of the regifting by monarchs of exotic animals received as presents, perhaps after the initial wonderment generated by the creature had started to pale, and the expense had started to bite.” (Ask Charlemagne about the cost of feeding and housing an elephant!)

• History Buffs. Oh, my. If you enjoy BBC World News, but maybe feel a tad guilty for skipping much of your World History required reading in high school or college, then Diplomatic Gifts will be your redemption. Brummell serves up 50 fascinating and short chapters that sweep history from c. 4 BCE (“Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, a Gift from the Wise Men from the East to Jesus Christ”) to more recent gifts:
--1973 - How a gift of diamonds from an African president in 1973 scuttled a politician's run for president of France in 1981
--2004 - Cuban cigars
--2007 - a stadium!
--2008 - a pair of R.M. Williams Boots

There’s much more. Don’t skip the conclusion (it will be on the test!). Enjoy this: “We started our journey with the story of the baby camel gifted to the French President Francois Hollande, a diplomatic gift whose fate was to be treated over-casually. It was a gift not intended to be consumed, but which was eaten by its custodians. We will end with a gift that reverses this tale: a diplomatic gift that was intended to be consumed, but was not. It was instead treated with far more reverence than was intended by the giver, becoming the object of veneration.” (See the section, “Chairman Mao’s mangoes.” LOL!)

Father’s Day is Sunday, June 19. Diplomatic Gifts is the perfect gift for your father, your mother, your grandparents, or the voracious lifelong learners in your family or organization. Enjoy!

To order from Amazon, click on title for Diplomatic Gifts: A History in Fifty Presents, by Paul Brummell.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Yikes! In 1948, according to Paul Brummell, a local radio station telephoned the British Ambassador to Washington and asked what he would like for Christmas. Sir Oliver Franks, “a man of frugal tastes, thought long and hard before replying.” That Christmas Eve, the radio station’s special holiday broadcast listed the gift requests from several ambassadors stationed in D.C. “The French ambassador had asked for world peace. The Soviet ambassador had requested freedom for those enslaved by imperialism. The British ambassador had asked for a small box of crystallised fruit.” So…what would you like for Christmas? (Careful!)

2) Diplomatic Gifts describes a 1571 faux pas. “Mehmed’s delegation left after a fortnight, and he was given a parting gift of 8,000 gold coins by Istvan, a present that reportedly reduced him to tears, though not in a good way. He had been expecting more.” Describe a gift you gave or received that brought you to tears! Share some insights from Diplomatic Gifts or read my review of Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More than 60 Countries.

The Customer Bucket reminds nonprofit fundraisers to listen to and understand the four types of givers. Not all givers are alike!

Buckets Countdown:
The Customer Bucket (#2) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Customer Bucket Core Competency: “We know our primary and supporting customers. We segment our customers to more effectively meet their unique needs. We listen to our customers. We are zealots for researching and understanding our markets.”

Nonprofit leaders who are serious about listening to and understanding their customers will also hyper-focus on the art and science of giving and gifting. According to R. Mark Dillon, in his helpful book, Giving & Getting in the Kingdom: A Field Guide, there are four broad segments of givers:

• THE GIFTED GIVER (2-5% of givers) will show up at the dedication of a new building and ask, “What’s next?” Dillon says “the gifted giver seldom needs to be asked.”
• THE THOUGHTFUL GIVER (15-25% of givers) tends to calibrate giving to current income “and rarely involves lowering their net worth to fund what they care about.”
• THE CASUAL GIVER (35-50% of givers) “possesses a vague understanding of their obligation to be faithful and generous stewards of their resources, but rarely seek out opportunities to give. They usually give in response to a specific request.”
• THE RELUCTANT GIVER (perhaps 33% of givers) may be “an overly generous description, because many in this category give very little of their resources for any charitable purpose.” Easy to offend, they’ve had few, if any generosity mentors in their lives. Their parents were unlikely to be kingdom stewards either.

Check out the books and resources in the Customer Bucket and the Donor Bucket. Do your newest staff members have a biblical theology of fundraising? Who is coaching them?

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

SYNERGY! The The Synergy Solution: How Companies Win the Mergers and Acquisitions Game.
Read just one line in this new book on mergers and acquisitions—and you’re hooked: “In most organizations, PMI is not a core skill.” PMI (post-merger integration) torpedoes many, many mergers. (Read the review at John's new blog, Pails in Comparison.)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Breaking News! When you incentivize donors with gift premiums, here’s a reminder: All Donors Are Not Alike! They fall into four buckets: Task-Oriented (Info-Sponges and Just-the-Facts) and Relationship-Oriented (Heartfelts and Share-Meisters). Each type might not appreciate the same vanilla-tasting gift. Learn more in our book, ReBrand: Workbook + Coloring Sheets For Ministry Branding. For more help, contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: diplomatic gifts

June 9, 2022

Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy

Issue No. 519 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a can’t-put-it-down, nonfiction, page-turner from two investigative reporters. The subtitle: “A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy.” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

Read Dead in the Water. It’s a page-turning mix of Captain Phillips meets Midsomer Murders meets The Wall Street Journal meets Lloyds of London meets Tom Clancy!

Lloyds of London Just Called! Yikes!

Quick! Add Dead in the Water to your summer reading list. (Or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere—Quick! Add Dead in the Water to your winter reading list!)

Two investigative journalists make bold promises in the subtitle of Dead in the Water: “A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy.” Hype or not?
• True. (Check!) But it reads like a Tom Clancy novel.
• Story. (Check!) So fast-moving, I couldn’t put it down.
• Hijacking. (Check!) Remember Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips?
• Murder. (Check!) Sadly, you’ll have to read this page-turner.
• Global. (Check!) Cyprus, London, Yemen, Manila, and more.
• Maritime. (Check!) Plan A: Transport $100 million of oil from Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula to China—and avoid Somali pirates.
• Conspiracy. (Check!) Lloyd’s of London called. They’re on the hook for a serious insurance payout. What really happened on the Brillante Virtuoso—and who really owns this oil tanker and the oil?

There’s no spoiler alert here, but Dead in the Water delivers as promised. Imagine navigating a ship—almost three football fields long—and staying clear of 11,000 other tankers chugging through the sea-lanes—outrunning those vicious pirates. Did I mention the maritime traffic also includes 5,300 container ships worldwide?

Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel, both award-winning business reporters for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine (and more) have serious credentials—and even more serious guts. This book is “the product of more than four years of reporting, drawing on tens of thousands of pages of court filings, witness testimonies, police records, military documents, emails, memos, and audio transcripts, as well as interviews with more than seventy-five people…” They add, “No scenes or dialogue have been invented or embellished…”

“More than once during our research, we were warned of risks to our safety if we continued to investigate,” they write. Whew! Did I mention guts? They caution readers about the “lawless seas” and weave our imaginations into this dangerous world where “the most audacious crimes can occur”—where “there are certainly no police, and often no consequences.”

Why does it exist? Maritime crimes are “enabled by the complexities of twenty-first century finance and, perhaps most of all, the collective indifference of a global population that wants what it wants, wants it now, and doesn’t want to know the human cost.” (You may need a gut check also.)

You will love this book—and on your reading journey, you’ll be intrigued with the intricacies of Lloyds of London (I had no idea!); you’ll learn who shows up when a distressed ship sends up the flares and why; and you’ll follow two ex-detectives from London’s Metropolitan Police as they try to unravel this complicated mess of a crime.

If Hollywood stays true to the true story and makes Dead in the Water into a movie, I’ll see it twice!

To order from Amazon, click on title for Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy, by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel. Listen on Libro.fm (9 hours, 22 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) What’s the value of reading nonfiction books that transport you outside your own culture and country—and into the abundant global leadership and management messes? (Example: click here to read my review of Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire, by Hans Greimel and William Sposato.)

2) Recommend a book your colleagues should read that is based outside of our country. Why should they read it? (Need suggestions? Here are two below.)
• Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank, by Weijian Shan (read my review)
• The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, by Anna Fifield (read my review)

What’s your coaching style? Word salads? Or five-word insights or questions—then silence? Watch the poignant scene in Top Gun Maverick and then re-read The Advice Trap. (Convicting!)

Top Gun Maverick:
Five Words. Then Generous Silence.

Stunning! That’s my one-word review of Top Gun Maverick, the long-awaited “Top Gun 2” that picks up from the original 1986 movie. I was captivated by this 2022 box office record-breaker on an IMAX screen (PG-13). And no surprise—numerous leadership and management moments popped out.

For fun, watch the Top Gun Maverick trailer:

Leadership Moment: Admiral Kazansky (Val Kilmer) shares five powerful words with “Maverick” (Tom Cruise) in the action-packed 2022 movie, Top Gun Maverick. View trailer.

My favorite scene: “Maverick” (Tom Cruise) visits his ailing friend, Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer). “Iceman” has lost his voice (sadly, also true in real life) and must type his comments onto a computer screen. His responses are few and brief. (Try that in your coaching!)

A big issue is holding Maverick back. Yet Iceman’s thoughtful response doesn’t require an essay or five jargon-filled paragraphs. Just five words:

“It’s time to let go.”

Then silence. No more typing. No meandering word salad. Just this poignant, wisdom-filled one liner: “It’s time to let go.” The IMAX moment of silence is powerful. (Try that in your coaching!)

The scene reminded me of the powerful page, “Generous silence,” in The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier (my 2020 book-of-the-year). He notes, “Generous silence can allow the delicate insights of a conversation to blossom and bloom.” (Read more wisdom on pages 181-182.)

GOD LOVES YOUR WORK! What if…God isn’t calling you to address poverty in Haiti, or dig wells in Africa? What if God is just asking you to love your nine-to-five work—and affirm your holy calling to your day job? Read my short review of God Loves Your Work: Discover Why He Sends You to Do What You Do, by Larry Peabody. Visit the new blog, Pails in Comparison.)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. The Coaching Habit recommends you “Cut the Intro and Ask the Question” in the same style that James Bond action-packed movies begin with “Pow!”—within the first 10 seconds of the movie. The author urges coaches to, “Cut the preliminary flim-flam. You don’t need a runway to pick up speed—you can just take off.” Whether you need help in your coaching or in creating action-packed, attention-getting media, we can help. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: nonfiction thriller

May 25, 2022

Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

Issue No. 518 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a book jammed with management and leadership insights—such as why the grand prize for winning the entrepreneurial pie-eating contest is (wait for it…) more pie! Plus listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast (bottom left) for Steve Macchia's interview with John. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

“Some people say leading a fast-growing startup is like winning a pie-eating contest: the grand prize is that you get to eat even more pie.”

A Mandatory Must-Read!

I love this book—but I almost didn’t read it. What could I, a nonprofit guy, learn from this new Wall Street Journal bestseller, Zero to IPO? On the other hand, I do enjoy watching and learning from those Shark Tank episodes. Maybe this book is similar—plus helpful and entertaining like the TV shows.

But…who would actually believe the hype in Frederic Kerrest’s subtitle? The author promises “Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”

Wow. Was I wrong! The entrepreneurial advice and counsel is stunning! You’ll be hard-pressed to find a page—any page—in this extraordinary book that doesn’t deliver practical, practical leadership and management insights. While the author, cofounder and COO of Okta, takes us on his journey from startup to IPO (the book’s framework), it is much, much more than that. Zero to IPO could just as easily have been titled:
• The Only Unforgiveable Sin in Business
• Your CEO’s 20 Most Important Meetings Each Year
• The Grand Prize of the Pie-Eating Contest
• Crashing and Burning (4 Crashing Chronicles)
• Why You Need a Stupidly Expensive Espresso Machine

I swiped those titles from the snippets in this fun-to-read book that delivers powerful management axioms (yet with humility) and so, so strategic counsel on building your organization or company. The author—clearly—is a lifelong learner and he generously shares his platform with dozens of entrepreneurs who have helped him and his companies along the way. I listed 40 favorite insights in my notes—but I have room for just 10. Enjoy!

#1. CHECKLIST FOR FOUNDERS: Broken Glass! While all founders are unique, the author lists 15 qualities that founders need, including “Resilience.” He quotes Sean Parker, Napster founder and early Facebook president who “famously said running a startup is like chewing broken glass—to succeed, you need to fall in love with the taste of your own blood.”

“You’re going to get punched in the mouth every day,” writes Kerrest. “Are you the kind of person who’ll just keep getting up? Or will it eventually flatten you?”

#2. PIE-EATING CONTEST! Founders report that life never, ever slows down—especially after the IPO. The author remembers one trip to Europe: “Over eight days, I went to five countries and somehow passed through London’s Heathrow Airport eight times. I remember thinking, Well isn’t this glamorous.”

Growth is pressure-packed. “Some people say leading a fast-growing startup is like winning a pie-eating contest: the grand prize is that you get to eat even more pie.”

#3. FIGHTING FIVE FIRES! Kerrest cautions team members at startups that “You’ll never stop racing.” (Yet…his insights on family life are helpful and memorable.) He notes, “Don’t let the jovial demeanor of the founders you see on stage at conferences deceive you. They might look calm and relaxed, but offstage, five different fires are raging.” (Solution: read how the most effective leaders prioritize and stay focused on the critical few—not the growing dozens of issues.)

#4. A STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE ESPRESSO MACHINE! The author devotes two pages to “You’re Flush, Now What?” After your company or organization is funded, what are your most strategic purchases? He lists five essentials including “A really good, full-time, in-house recruiter. Your company is only as good as the people you have in it. A top in-house recruiter…will repay their cost many times over.”

What else? “A stupidly expensive espresso machine—seriously. No more productivity lost on staff trips to the local coffee shop. Plus, break areas often spark conversations, which lead to closer relationships and breakthrough ideas.”

#5. FIRING BEST PRACTICES. “…firing somebody is really hard to do. We’re human.” In one wisdom-packed page, the author delivers six best practices, including: “Always fire on a Monday and never on a Friday.” (Read why.)

#6. NO “HEAD OF…” TITLES. In startups, warns Kerrest, the tendency is to award prestigious, but unmerited, titles to early hires like “Head of Marketing,” or “Head of Sales.” DON’T! Later, when you bring in a more senior person—with years and years of relevant experience—you’ll be forced to have an uncomfortable conversation with your “Head of…” who will no longer be the “head of…”

#7. FOUR FUNDRAISING DOCS. By the way, almost every two-page spread of this creatively-designed book delivers succinct action steps on fascinating niche topics. Example: The two pages on the four fundraising pieces of collateral you’ll need for approaching investors (or in the nonprofit world—donor prospects) are memorable. They include: 1) The Elevator Pitch, 2) The Executive Summary, 3) The Business Model, and 4) The Pitch Deck. (Helpful Hints for the elevator pitch: “Be specific. Avoid jargon. Say it so an eighth grader could understand.” Note: I use Microsoft’s tools to measure readability. This eNews weighs in at an eighth grade level.)

#8. DEATH BY POWERPOINT! In your “Pitch Deck,” limit your presentation to just 12 slides. “No one will sit through a 30-slide deck” and “learn to tell your story without your deck.” This reminded me of Suneel Gupta’s storytelling insights on startups in Backable: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You. (Read my review.)

#9. THE ONLY UNFORGIVEABLE SIN. “As a founder,” the author admonishes, “…you have one job above all. One job that, if you fail at it, nothing else matters. And that job is: don’t run out of money.” Interestingly, that’s the exact counsel that Bob Buford (1939-2018) gave Dan Bolin many years ago, when Buford was a board member at Pine Cove Christian Camps. (Read this true story in the Budget Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets.)

#10. “GET USED TO GIVING STUFF UP: Especially, and most painfully, the stuff you like.” As I mentioned above, while this is a book tracking the pathway to an IPO, it’s really much more—and you’ll urge your colleagues to read this book. Example: “Early on, develop the ability to anticipate when some part of your work is going to get so big that you’ll need to peel it off and give it to someone else. Start the hunt for your replacement six to nine months ahead of that handoff.”

I gotta stop at these 10 favorite best practices—but you’ll be rewarded tenfold when you read and apply the street-smart principles. The 13 crisp chapters cover the journey from “Should You Be an Entrepreneur?” to Ideas, Teams, Fundraising, Sales, Culture, Leadership, Growth, Crashing and Burning, Managing Yourself, and Boards—plus a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the IPO process and what comes next. Dozens of helpful book titles are recommended and the quotable quotes are a feast, including:
• We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ MBAs (Yet)
• You’re going to be buried under a tsunami of tough decisions…
• Thinking of going it alone? Think again.
• Prioritization 101: The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
• Be stingy with your calendar—very stingy.
• [Contrarian counsel!]: Ditch Your 1:1s

Don’t make another mistake by skipping this book. It’s another must-read. If you’re too busy to read this—then it’s a mandatory must-read!

To order from Amazon, click on title for Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs, by Frederic Kerrest. Listen on Libro.fm (8 hours, 3 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending me a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In Frederic Kerrest’s enlightening two pages on “How to Push Past the No: A little chutzpah goes a long way,” he shares the true story of the startup team that asked for a meeting at an investor’s office. After hearing the pitch, the investors said “No!” and exited their conference room. “Let’s just sit here,” suggested the startup CEO! Then after multiple inquiries from the potential investors, “Are you guys going to leave?”—they, amazingly, were able to reengage with the investors—and got a deal! (LOL!) QUESTION: When should you NOT take “no” for an answer?

2) Zero to IPO suggests you “Max Out on Mini Teams: To get big, you might have to start small.” One company noted grows by constantly building small teams. Each mini-company “contains no more than the number of people who could fit in a van or a bus.” (Note: Amazon uses a “two-pizza” standard for cross-functional teams. See my review of The Amazon Management System. QUESTION: What is our business model for growth? Are our teams right-sized?

The Drucker Bucket affirms “We don’t just give lip service to management—we are disciplined students of great leadership and management thinkers like Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard and others.”

Buckets Countdown:
The Drucker Bucket (#4) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Drucker Bucket Core Competency: “We are privileged to be leaders and managers and we steward that privilege by being lifelong learners and practitioners in the art of management. We don’t just give lip service to management—we are disciplined students of great leadership and management thinkers like Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard and others.”

Zero to IPO features a very strong focus on the customer, much like Peter Drucker’s five most important questions, including: Who is our customer? and What does our customer value? And speaking of quotable quotes, click here to enjoy a few “Druckerisms” including these:
• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him [or her] and sells itself.”
• “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.”

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Drucker Bucket.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. The author of Zero to IPO quotes a founder: “Only 1 percent of interesting things have been invented yet. Ninety-nine percent have not.” If you agree—call us and we’ll work on the 99 percent with you! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: growth, leadership, management

May 17, 2022

Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life

Issue No. 517 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting trumpets a Laugh-Out-Loud book that promises humor can be a secret weapon in business and life—even for you! Plus listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast (see below) for Steve Macchia's interview with John. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

The “Global Humor Cliff” is featured in the LOL book, Humor, Seriously. For a taste, view “How to Make a Sense of Humor Your Superpower” in this “five lessons in five minutes” video from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The 4 Styles of Humor: What’s Your Style?

In their 2021 serious—but very humorous—book, Humor, Seriously, a Stanford Graduate School of Business prof and a business strategist/stand-up comedian describe how a business and board consultant puts his funny to work.

Using humor—instead of put-downs—to address organizational and boardroom dysfunction, this senior management consultant always packs a copy of the “CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual, a set of guidelines devised by U.S. government officials to sabotage terrorist organizations from the inside.”

That 50-page quick-read resource for your leadership toolbox is noted in the wonderful book by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, subtitled, “Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.)”

The authors laugh along with their readers: “Originally developed by the OSS during World War II, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual is a guide for, as the CIA puts it, ‘teaching people how to do their jobs badly.’” They add:

“Here’s a sample of some of the tactics our nation’s best intelligence officers recommend you use to undermine the operations and efficiency of a terrorist cell—or a typical American board meeting.”
• When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
• Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
• Haggle over the precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
• Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
• Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.

I’ve been in those board and staff meetings! LOL! But the sabotage resource is just one of dozens and dozens of creative ways to inject humor into our boring and lackluster workplaces (and Zoom calls!). The authors explain how the best leaders and managers use humor at work—and no surprise—the book has hilarious moments. But you’ll also discover that humor is very serious business. Start with the research.

Really—there’s research on humor? Of course—if you’re a Stanford prof, you survey more than 700 people to ask, “What’s holding you back from using humor at work?” Four myths popped out of the clown car (I mean...the research car):

MYTH #1: The Serious Business Myth. The authors bust this myth with research and insightful quotes—even from President Eisenhower (1953-1961), “the second-least naturally funny president after Franklin Pierce” (1853-1857). Bottom line: employees love humor.

MYTH #2: The Failure Myth. This erroneous belief often plagues team members who “express a deep, paralyzing fear that their humor will fail.” Aaker and Bagdonas come to the rescue again with a helpful four-quadrant chart (aka Boston Consulting Group Matrix)—positioning “appropriateness” on the vertical axis versus “laughter” on the horizontal axis. (See page 28, just three pages beyond my “Page 25” standard for charts that summarize great books.)

MYTH #3: The Being Funny Myth. Good news! You don’t have to be funny all the time—just look for “a moment of delight that leads to a smile, or an ‘aha’ rather than a ‘haha’ (or, if you work for a supervillain, a ‘mwahaha’).” And get this—Gallup has documented the “Humor Cliff,” when humor rises and falls. The authors note that “we tend to smile and laugh much more on the weekends than on weekdays.” They add, “So you’ve been practicing.” (That’s funny!) And more good news: my age group on the Gallup chart, “Humor Cliff, Weekend Edition,” documents that we laugh more on weekends than those stuffy 40- to 60-year-old people! But…then it's downhill until you’re in your 80s and 90s. Those folks, apparently, have more to chuckle about!

MYTH #4. The Born With It Myth. Even comedians “need both talent and training to succeed.” More good news—with training and exercise, you can learn how to use humor in your life and your workplace. Humor is a skill “…we can strengthen through training and use, much as we would strengthen our leg muscles by working out at the gym…and walking to and from the fridge during videoconferences when our ‘camera isn’t working.’” (See the “No One Is Born Funny” chart on page 31. It involves puppies!)

WHAT’S YOUR HUMOR STYLE? Of course, this business strategist/professor writing duo offer a “Humor Styles Questionnaire.” I completed the online assessment and received a three-page report (in color!). The book explains the four humor styles and begins with this: “First, like any good lumberjack, let’s understand our axes.” (Funny!)

Have you ever segmented your humorous friends and family members into four groups? (Not me!) The four styles:
• The Stand-up (Aggressive-Expressive)
• The Sweetheart (Affiliative-Subtle)
• The Magnet (Affiliative-Expressive)
• The Sniper (Aggressive-Subtle)

Sniper? Yes! “Snipers are edgy, sarcastic, and nuanced, unafraid to cross lines in pursuit of a laugh. They describe their humor as an 'acquired taste’—one that not everyone will acquire—with a delivery that tends to be dry and under their breath.”

Me? They tag me as a Magnet—but you’ll need to read the book to see why I enjoy injecting humor into my book reviews, my meetings, and my wardrobe (says my wife!). So…put on your own clown clothes and take the free HUMOR TYPOLOGY QUIZ. You’ll receive your own “Custom Humor Typology Report” and you’ll be on your way to injecting appropriate humor into your workplace. (I’m serious! Take the quiz!)

What’s your Humor Style? Stand-up, Sweetheart, Magnet, or Sniper? Click here to take the Humor Typology Quiz featured in the seriously funny book, Humor, Seriously.

YOU WILL THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HUMOR. There’s way too much in this book to mention here—but for the record—I made 45 notes in the front blank pages of my book. Very funny/serious stuff! You (yes, you!) and even your boss can learn how to leverage the power of humor in business (and life), based on the popular class at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Here’s a taste from the book:

• LOL. The late night TV writers for Seth Myers deliver 100 jokes each day. Myers thins it down to just 12 of the best. (I’d like to read the left-overs!)
• LOL. Read about the prank that the White House senior advisors pulled on President George W. Bush (2001-2009) during a policy meeting. (Everyone wore tan socks.)
• LOL. Chapter 2, “Your Brain on Humor,” highlights a student-written underground newspaper at West Point that emerged after 9/11. (The purpose: “lift the collective spirits” of the cadets.) This chapter reminded me of the brain science in Brain Rules for Work (read my review).
• LOL. In “The Anatomy of Funny” chapter, they note the classic humor technique of exaggeration—with Sarah Cooper’s “Airline Seating Chart” on page 83. Hilarious! Cooper reveals the real truth about your airline experience: First Class, Economy Comfort, Economy Discomfort, Economy Agony…and worse!

MORE LAUGHS COMING...
• LOL. When Deloitte consultants “like so many of us, had stopped speaking like humans,” the team developed software that called out the objectionable jargon—“holding a contest to see who could provide the most egregious ‘bullwords.’” (They list the top bullwords, like “bleeding edge,” “robust,” and "synergize”!) The winner won a trip to bullfighting school. For real! This reminded me of the classic mission statement video by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
• LOL.The authors highlight a company that “created a wall of ‘quotes of the week,’ where they would document the funniest moments and phrases, encouraging all employees to be on the lookout for moments of humor and joy throughout the workday.”
• LOL. Another company created enormous signs highlighting their core values. One sign to spotlight “AGILITY” was misspelled and read “AGLITITY.” (The fun-loving team reports that the typo is still on the sign and prompts chuckles every day!)
• LOL. In the chapter, “Creating a Culture of Levity,” read why one company has a budget line item for chicken-themed socks!” (Hilarious!)
• LOL. Don’t skip the laugh-out-loud footnotes like this one on page 124 referencing your pet frog: “If you got this deep-reach callback [a humor technique] to the negotiations study in chapter 2, we are proud of you.”

3 OPTIONS! Want to cannoball deeper into the humor pool? Here are three options. Oops! Four options! (See what I did there?)
[ ] #1. Read Humor, Seriously.
[ ] #2. Listen to Humor, Seriously.
[ ] #3. View “Class Takeaways: Humor Is Serious Business” from Stanford Graduate School of Business. The video: “Five lessons in five minutes — learn how to make a sense of humor your superpower.”
[ ] #4. Take the free HUMOR TYPOLOGY QUIZ.

To order from Amazon, click on title for Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.), by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas. Listen on Libro.fm (6 hours, 5 minutes). And thanks to Sydney Romanov for generously gifting this book to me and giving me many laughs (and insights). Note: The authors sometimes use what Trey Gowdy calls “non-church words”—so buyer beware!

Also, to order the 50-page declassified CIA resource from Amazon, click on title for Simple Sabotage Field Manual , by United States Office of Strategic Services. (Per above, consider bringing this book to every dysfunctional board meeting! LOL!)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Try a “Bad Idea Brainstorm” session with your team! Humor, Seriously suggests that “instead of just assuring your team that ‘there are no bad ideas,’ explicitly ask for the silliest, craziest, worst possible ideas they can think of—the ones they think have no chance of working.” Read the chapter, “Putting Your Funny to Work” and try this at your shop. DISCUSS: After taking the Humor Typology Quiz, discuss how the four humor styles might approach the “Bad Idea Brainstorm” session!

2) One of my many books of quotations includes this keeper, “Humor is God’s aspirin” (author unknown). Humor, Seriously notes that writing jokes can be a counter-intuitive way to create new ideas. In 2017, a global retailer asked a “pitch” company to write jokes on how brick and mortar stores should compete against e-commerce. One standout: “Amazon never lets you keep the hanger.” The authors noted, “But underlying each of these jokes was real insight.” ASSIGNMENT: Write some jokes your church could use to inspire members and attenders to exit online church and return to their favorite pew! (You might unearth some deeper insights with a few LOLs!)

The Book Bucket affirms that “leaders are readers” (and listeners). How about a pie-in-the-face award for managers who have read the LEAST number of books in the past 90 days?

Buckets Countdown:
The Book Bucket (#5) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Book Bucket Core Competency: “We believe leaders are readers! We create a culture that embraces a healthy appetite for leadership and management books, journals, articles and audio resources. We mentor team members with thoughtfully selected titles and chapters to help them leverage their strengths, grow in their faith and serve others with passion. We don’t just talk about books—we actually read them!”

LOL from the Book Bucket! We’ve chuckled over a few LOL books over the years, including these favorites that were featured in Issue No. 480 (click here):
• A Comedian’s Prayer Book, by Frank Skinner (order from Amazon)
• Laughter Therapy: Good Medicine to Make Your Heart Glad, by Jonny Hawkins and Bob Phillips (order from Amazon)
• Humorists: From Hogarth to Noel Coward, by Paul Johnson (order from Amazon)

LOL! SIGN ON A PASTOR'S DESK:
“Don’t feel totally, personally, irrevocably responsible for everything;
that’s my job—God.”
(From Quotes for the Journey, compiled by Gordon S. Jackson)

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Book Bucket.

THRIVE! “The Resiliency Diagnostic” in Arrive and Thrive is worth the price of the book. See the 20 statements on the “Effective Crisis Leadership Competency.” That’s just one of many helpful resources in this brilliant book by three women authors, subtitled, “7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership.” (Read the review at my value-added, jargon-filled, synergistic blog, Pails in Comparison.)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Know how to use appropriate humor in your marketing and communication pieces? Call us to learn why humor is a “secret weapon” in your storytelling. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: business, humor, LOL

May 3, 2022

Crazy Ambulance Tales

Issue No. 516 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a fun book by Emmy award winning writer, Chris Treece. Love those EMTs! Plus listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast (bottom left) for Steve Macchia's interview with John. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

What’s an ECNALUBMA? Crazy Ambulance Tales is a page-turner! Fun to read, well-written, plus there’s wit and wisdom in every colorful chapter!

Here Comes the ECNALUBMA!

“John, when are you going to read a book just for fun?” That was Joanne’s pointed question—and when your wife speaks, you should listen, right?

So “just for fun,” I read the new book, Crazy Ambulance Tales, by Chris Treece. This Emmy award winning writer reminisces about his college years in Vermont—learning and serving as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) on the fire and rescue squad of St. Michael’s College. From first-year “probate” to the crew chief’s seat on the ambulance runs—following the author’s tales (both hilarious and poignant) was absolutely fun and the title is perfect—CRAZY!

But, I need to push back a bit on my wife’s assumptions. I do read lots of fun books. To date, this is Issue No. 516 with another book review (but who’s counting?). My reviews tilt toward leadership and management books (business and nonprofits) and faith-based books. I’m a lifelong learner—and, at least for me, reading and reviewing books is FUN!

So, you’ll understand (even if my wife doesn’t) that I can find leadership and management insights (and deep spiritual content) in almost any book. To be clear—Crazy Ambulance Tales was exceptionally fun to read, but the leadership learnings popped out frequently. (Sorry, Joanne. I can’t help myself!)

LEADERSHIP/MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS: FUN!

SNOOPY! As part of the first-year training to be a certified EMT, the leadership softens the rigorous work by assigning nicknames to the probates. Chris Treece majored in journalism and so “Snoopy” (the Peanuts comics character—often on his doghouse roof with a typewriter) became the author’s new moniker. Fun! (How does your team balance critical training with light-hearted moments?)

ECNALUBMA. Huh? Yeah—"ECNALUBMA” was the in-house name for their rig. Get it? It’s AMBULANCE spelled backwards—per the large letters on the front of ambulances so it’s visible in your rear view windows—especially in emergencies. Fun! (What does your organization’s name read when spelled backwards?)

SAVED A CHICKEN’S LIFE! When interviewing to become an EMT, the panel asked Chris Treece, “Have you ever saved a life?” He thought through his Boy Scout years and came up empty, but then offered this: “Well…I saved a chicken.” (The panel almost convulsed in laughter!)

Treece added, “I got to be known in my neighborhood as a guy who was really good with bandages and iodine, mostly due to self-inflicted injuries via bicycles, go-karts and dog bites.” So a neighbor asked him to examine her chicken that had been attacked by a dog. He administered first aid on the left wing joint. A panelist asked, “And what was your level of success with the patient?”

“She lived,” Treece proudly said. “Still producing about two eggs at day, I’ve been told.” (More laughter by the interviewers!) Fun!

LEAD! Early on, his mentor (the crew chief) told Treece to take the crew chief command on a routine transport of a patient from a smaller hospital to a large medical center. Treece confesses the awkwardness of telling his chief what to do. He still remembers the valuable debrief: “You’re the chief. You’ve got to lead. Nothing is worse than a crew chief who won’t lead, and in fact you’ll never become the chief if you can’t lead.”

A.B.C. Reading this book, I thought back to the First Aid class in my college days (and the final exam in a live triage setting!) and many years of summer camp staff training with counselors and lifeguards. So I appreciated this refresher on the helpful memory devices employed by the St. Michael’s crew.
• A.B.C. – “What is most important in the patient’s care? Their A.B.C.: airway, breathing, and circulation.”
• O.P.Q.R.S.T.U. – “What are the questions for a patient exam? Onset, provokes, quality, region, severity, times, undoes.”
• And this: “What is your first job on the scene? To make sure it’s safe. A dead rescuer saves nobody.”

Plus, sometimes the author would wander into an EMT night class “…greet everyone cheerfully, then promptly flail about and keel over on the floor.” Every student remembered the instructor’s immediate response.

So…with that introduction and context—you'll dive deep into Crazy Ambulance Tales—and you won’t stop talking about this book. The chapter titles are way too tempting!
• The Double Forking
• God Smiles on Drunks and Babies
• The Patient Is Hiding in the Closet
• A Bit Too Much Creamed Corn with Lunch
• No Public Displays of Affection (PDA), Please!
• Transporting Buddha and John Lennon
• 25 Below at 5 a.m.

Whew! You’re right there in the ambulance (I mean the ECNALUBMA) on those 2 a.m. calls to horrific traffic accidents, fires, and dangerous encounters. My appreciation for first responders just skyrocketed. Oh, my. I’m so, so grateful that women and men are called to serve on the front lines. This book also reminded me of the courageous officers profiled in L.A. Cop, by Bob Vernon.

Somehow, though, the author’s masterful storytelling blends unbelievable danger with (almost) a stand-up comedy narrative tucked cleverly into those pages when you wonder out loud—“How do they deal with these challenges, day after day, and often at night and working holidays?” Not fun! But…the author’s humor is refreshing—which is what we should expect from an ECNALUBMA crew chief named Snoopy! Fun!

CENSORED! Treece wrote a weekly column, “Fire & Rescue Blotter” for the college newspaper—detailing the crew’s “more colorful calls.” He admits the blotter was rather dull, so he tried to spice it up. “Monday, May 26, the rescue unit responded to a nearby home where a heavily bearded individual in a ruffled pink dress lay unconscious on the kitchen floor due to a diabetic coma.” While true, the editors and squad superiors wouldn’t accept his more colorful accounts! Fun!

RECRUITMENT SAVVY. The author was named “Membership Chairman” (the title “sounded like a frumpy, elderly woman in a gigantic, flowered straw hat”) so he changed the title to “Recruitment Officer” (without getting permission!).

His unique approach in recruiting other students to consider joining the rescue squad is textbook savvy. Like a Peter Drucker disciple, he analyzed his potential customers and zeroed in on them. “So we had to find these rare birds on campus, probably by looking at their scars, vehicles, or colorful hobbies, and share heart-pounding and bonding experiences with them, in between their signing up for the ECA class and trying out for the squad.” Each crew member took the ECA (Emergency Care Attendant) class—a semester course required to work on the ambulance.

Note: My camp and conference colleagues, members of CCCA, will find stunning parallels to their current challenges of recruiting college students for summer camp positions. Must-read!

MEMORABLE WRITING. You’d expect an Emmy award winning writer to turn a phrase or two—but every chapter surprises with eye-catching and soul-catching one liners.
• The elderly man—cheerful—but in need of help. Treece writes, “..he had an expression on his face, like he was seeing a beautiful place we could not. Like his spiritual luggage was packed and ready to go—right now.”
• The elderly patient when asked why she called for help, “I’m not sure what’s wrong. Maybe I just had a bit too much creamed corn with lunch.”
• The five myths of ambulances, sirens, and inattentive vehicles on the road. Treece colorfully describes The Guy in the Knit Hat, “driving an ancient coupe”—bopping along with earphones and a Walkman (illegal, by the way). Myth #4: “Everyone who hears a siren pulls to the right. Ha ha! Oh boy! I love this one. No.” The author’s perfect label for The Guy: “Oh boy. Future customer.”
• The chapter describing the love and care that EMTs often provide and how it is sometimes reciprocated—“Even EMTs need a little love.”
• And the lonely 80s-something woman who would call in on those dark Vermont winter evenings—and the crew would arrive, cheerfully, and just hold her hand. Treece notes, “What you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me.”
• Treece’s “theology of the ambulance”—important and insightful.
• Why the author needed “an upper room”—and why you need one also.

DEEP CAMARADERIE. Poignant! Up until now, you’d find the best example of teamwork in the bestseller, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown (read my review). However, I have a new winner! Read Chapter 25, “The Warm Hood of the Rig.” You’ll yearn for a team that embodies what Chris Treece reminisces about.

“I miss the camaraderie. That sounds cliché, but I mean deep camaraderie, the kind that is based on seeing the absolute worst that life has to offer and facing it together as a team.” He adds, “I miss being part of an organization of people who loved me, supported me and knew me better than anyone else on the planet—even my parents, who could never really bring themselves to ask me for details of what I did on the rig.”

The author also notes what he does not miss about those long nights, sleep deprivation, and more.

Who should read this book?
• My Christian camp and conference center colleagues and rescue mission team members. (Must-read!)
• Team leaders and train-the-trainers
• Thoughtful leaders and readers (you’ll have a new appreciation for first responders)
• Anyone who wants to be better prepared for emergencies (first aid, Heimlich maneuver, and more). Note: Treece was trained by, and worked alongside, Michael O'Keefe, the co-author of Emergency Care (the classic EMT textbook).

To be clear—this really was a FUN book to read—but the insights and wisdom were a special bonus. This is a spectacular book. I bought three copies of Crazy Ambulance Tales to give to first responders, including my local fire department team in San Clemente. They recently aided my neighbor who had fallen, sadly, on his 89th birthday. I was so impressed with our EMTs—and so grateful.

To order from Amazon, click on title for Crazy Ambulance Tales, by Chris Treece.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Here’s a great exercise for your team. Chris Treece chronicles two areas: What he learned going in to this opportunity—and what he learned going out (four years later). He writes, “I went on the rig believing in God. I came off the rig believing in God and the power of goodness, but also the power of evil.” (This reminded me of Daniel Henninger’s recent WSJ column when he writes, “Putin’s war is forcing a re-evaluation of evil in the world and our response to it.”) What did you learn in an earlier position—going in and going out?

2) Oh, my. Chapter 24, “Maple Farm Road,” describes—some years later—Treece bringing his wife back to Vermont and to the tragic scenes he experienced on Maple Farm Road—events which still plagued the author. At that sad location, his wife, Helen, took his hand and prayed—for the families who lost loved ones and for her husband, Chris—that the dark spirits and nightmares would vanish. And this is stunning: “…they never came back.” Have you had a spiritual encounter that took your breath away?

The Program Bucket standard: “We research and understand our customer before launching new programs.”

Buckets Countdown:
The Program Bucket (#6) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Program Bucket Core Competency: “We are zealots for program effectiveness and so we research and understand our customer before launching new programs, products or services. We measure program results. We feed our primary programs and drop the losers—all in the spirit of discerning where God is at work.”

Top 10 Questions to Ask About Program Capacity and Sustainability. Download this worksheet (PDF) from the Program Bucket and identify the three most important questions for your organization. (Suggestion: Read Luke 14:28-30 in The Message.)

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Program Bucket here.

BONUS! Listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John Pearson (Episode 4, April 21, 2022). And click here to read John's review of Steve's new book, The Discerning Life.

SELF-COACHING! “First and foremost,” write David Novak and Jason Goldsmith, “good managers are good coaches.” Click here to read my review of Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career. Visit my new blog, Pails in Comparison, for more book reviews

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Knock! Knock! The media is here! Is your team prepared for PR emergencies? Have you conducted Crisis Bucket practice drills so you know what to say—and who can and cannot say it? We can help you practice. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: ambulance stories

April 25, 2022

The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope for Leaders After Idealism Fades

Issue No. 515 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a new book from Peter Greer and Chris Horst on what leaders do after idealism fades. Stunning stories, plus listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

“Trite Jeremiah 29:11 memes assuring us our hardships are NBD (“no big deal”) because God has a plan aren’t helpful,” write Peter Greer and Chris Horst. “’It will all work out’ is not just untrue: It is hurtful.”

Bring Your Bible and a Wet Towel
(for the Tear Gas!)

NO WORDS. Really—no words. I don’t have an adequate vocabulary to persuade you to read The Gift of Disillusionment. But I’ll try.

First…there’s the title. The GIFT of disillusionment? No thanks! Then the sub-title, “Enduring Hope for Leaders After Idealism Fades.” Of course—you’ll agree—idealism is always inadequate, so do we really need this book? But then why am I so drawn to the stories? So captivated by the big idea—and the practical (not preachy) way that the Old Testament words of Jeremiah are fleshed out in this book?

Maybe…because trustworthy authors Peter Greer and Chris Horst have never disappointed. (Must-read: Rooting for Rivals.) Maybe…because the authors have diagnosed the current dilemma—there’s an epidemic of discouraged and disillusioned leaders. Burnout. Pain. Heartache. Quitting time!

So just in time, these two transparent leaders share their own vulnerabilities and stunning stories as they introduce us to more than a dozen heroes—in-the-trenches people who are beautifully positioned around the globe to meet needs. Their narratives (you guessed it) feature idealism, disillusionment, but finally—enduring hope.

The authors “sought leaders with a minimum of twenty years of service in their fields and interviewed those who demonstrated staying power, sticking around long enough to experience the thorniest and knottiest difficulties.” They add, “We intentionally sought leaders who had wounds and setbacks that could have forced them to give up—but who pressed on anyway.”

Are you discouraged—or know someone who’s burned out? Read this book and learn from these pioneers who lead organizations and demonstrate what Eugene Peterson terms “long obedience in the same direction.”

Greer and Horst issue this invitation to readers and leaders: “We want to be, as the book of Jeremiah puts it, ‘serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit in every season.’” With “The Weeping Prophet” (aka “The Persevering Prophet”) guiding and interpreting, these in-the-trenches stories of women and men ministering in oh-so-challenging settings…well, no words. Simply stunning! Memorable page-turners!

Noting Jeremiah’s prophetic challenge, the authors write: “Their leaders failed them. The city walls no longer protected them. Their security, safety, and certainty evaporated. Their hope ran very thin. Many gave up on God.”

OK. This is real life. I can relate. No Pollyanna here! They add, “And no amount of positive thinking or inspirational Christian wall art promising a hope and a future would change their circumstances. Yet Jeremiah remained faithful and hopeful throughout his journey.”

The true leadership stories are incredible:

• Jo Anne Lyons—deep disappointment in her own denomination’s position on social justice, yet she became its leader!

• Farai Mutamiri—a pastor (now bishop) in Zimbabwe (harassed, jailed, and more). When his congregation was removed from their church building, they met outside for five years (as did other churches). “We became so strong. People would come to church with their Bibles and with wet towels, so they were prepared for tear gas.”

• Tita Evertsz—abandoned a life of drugs (living in the U.S.), left her abusive husband, and with three young children returned to Guatemala. God uses her to live and minister in a 60,000-person slum. Disillusioned? Yes—neighboring churches outside the slum rejected new converts. Hope? Read her story.

• Dr. Phil Thuma—gratefully stuck with his calling to do malaria research in Zambia and launched a nonprofit in his basement. He’s featured in the “Discernment” chapter—a prevailing theme across every narrative. (See my review of The Discerning Life and The Discerning Leader Podcast with Steve Macchia and yours truly.) The authors quote Henri Nouwen, “Discernment is a life of listening to a deeper sound and marching to a different beat, a life in which we become ‘all ears.’”

• Camille Melki—founder of Heart for Lebanon, one day realized he was demanding answers from God about his difficulties, but was asking the wrong question. “Most of the time when you ask the why question, God won’t give you an answer. Should you try the how question…you better have a notebook and a pen, because the answer is very, very long.”

Amazingly, in this compact book (but also deep book), you’ll thank God for the other dozen hope-filled leaders from Poland, Philippines, Palestine, Haiti, Oklahoma, India, Detroit (whew—what a story!), and other neighborhoods where leaders are Jesus-in-the-flesh.

You’ll be convicted also. When Camille Melki was earning his master’s degree in the U.S., he agreed to serve as a youth pastor—but only on one condition. “He made the hiring committee commit to firing him the day he graduated” so he could return to Lebanon where God had called him to minister.

The themes from Jeremiah and real life will touch your soul: False Hope, Faint Hope, Forgotten Hope, Suffering, Surrender, Commitment, Justice, Sacrifice, Forgiveness (powerful!), Discernment, Obedience, Perseverance, and Community.

The writing is superb and a delight—and helps soften the hard themes. A Haitian leader recommends, “If you don’t have patience, don’t go into ministry. Especially in this country, we need barrels of it.”

It’s impossible to read this book without a pen. The quotable quotes from Eugene Peterson, Tim Keller, and others jump off the page, like this one from C.S. Lewis: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Or this from Oswald Chambers at the beginning of the “Discernment” chapter: “The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God.”

If it’s been a while since you’ve read a gritty, honest book—read this one. It’s contrarian. “The sun will come out tomorrow”—not always true. And this: “We’ve all heard that ‘failure is never final.’ But for many, it is final.” But—there’s hope! (Read the powerful poke-in-the-ribs questions at the end of every chapter, like this one: “Is your tendency to live inwardly or outwardly? Why?")

Note: Kudos to Greer and Horst who had numerous opportunities to promote their organization, Hope International—but they didn’t. They shared the platform with other heroes. (So well done—and another shout-out for their book, Rooting for Rivals.)

If cynicism and lost hope have you by your ankles—read this book. (There is enduring hope.)

To order from Amazon, click on title for The Gift of Disillusionment: Enduring Hope for Leaders After Idealism Fades, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Brianna Lapp and Jill Heisey. Listen on Libro.fm (6 hours, 7 minutes). And thanks to Bethany House Publishers for sending me a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Have you moved from being an idealist to a cynic? “Cynicism prompts us to slip back from the dance floor and move to a place of safe distance in the balcony, where we can smugly critique the moves of others. Look at those ridiculous dance moves, we criticize.” Where are you today? Idealist? Cynic? Disillusioned? Hopeful?

2) The authors remind us that we are in a grueling battle. “We don’t wear sandals to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and we don’t show up to push back darkness without the Light. While there are plenty of surprises in life, we know one thing for sure: This journey will be exceedingly difficult. We all have firsthand experience and the promise of Jesus to confirm it: ‘Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.’” Are you wearing sandals or combat boots as you battle evil?

ASSIGNMENT! Read The Gift of Disillusionment and identify each hero’s social style!

Buckets Countdown:
The People Bucket (#7) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The People Bucket Core Competency: “We celebrate the God-designed uniqueness of our team members, our customers, our donors, and our volunteers. We are diligent about understanding the four social styles—Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables and Expressives—and helping our people find their comfort zones as they grow in their interpersonal versatility skills.”

ASSIGNMENT! Download the chart in the People Bucket, “General Overview of the Four Social Styles,” and then as you read about the heroes in The Gift of Disillusionment—discern each person’s social style: Analytical, Driver, Amiable, or Expressive?

And…as you lead and manage your team (or connect with family and friends), discern if you are leveraging your versatility in finding your comfort zone—and also adapting to others’ styles and comfort zones. (Example: I’m a Driver. My wife, Joanne, is an Analytical. Versatility required!) Read Mistake #16 in Mastering Mistake-Making.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the People Bucket here.

Well…this is encouraging! Even inspirational! The author of ROAR says that he’s “fond of asking eighty-year olds, What is your favorite future?” He’s on the constant search for role models “who are doing extraordinary things in their seventies and eighties, ignoring self-imposed ageism or the refrain that ‘you are too old to do that!’” Visit John’s PIC blog to read Roar: Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late), by Michael Clinton.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. We’ve “rebranded" the four social styles into these four descriptors: Info-Sponges, Just-the-Facts, Heartfelts, and Share-Meisters. (Read more.) To communicate effectively to all four social styles, contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

06:15 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: disillusionment, idealism, leadership

April 19, 2022

Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being

Issue No. 514 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a new book (published today) that asks, “PICK ONE: Life-Giving Work or Life-Sucking Work?” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

In one organization in Road to Flourishing, “…when compensation became the last remaining complaint and nothing was done about it, it stuck out like a sore thumb.”

PICK ONE: Life-Giving Work or Life-Sucking Work

Right now. Clear your calendar. (Really!)

Next, order multiple copies of Road to Flourishing and schedule a day—or an offsite retreat—with your team members. If “collaboration is the secret sauce of a high-performing culture” and “eating together is a sacred thing,” as Al Lopus notes, then use this powerful book to assess and enrich your organization’s culture.

Unlike any book you’ve ever read, this practical, practical roadmap oozes with both best practices and worst practices from the trenches—and you can learn from both!

EXAMPLE #1: “THE LAST 10 PERCENT.” Lopus writes, “One of the best conflict-resolution principles for teams that I’ve heard comes from Rock Point Church in Arizona. They call it ‘the last 10 percent.’

“As lead pastor Bill Bush explains, ‘When we’re in a tough meeting, we always ask around the room, ‘Hey, did everyone say the last 10 percent?’ Because I know there are a lot of people who will say 90 percent of what’s bothering them. And the problem is, that last 10 percent is usually the real problem. And so you keep having meetings that sound so good. We high-five each other—‘Hey, we got through. We communicated so clearly. That was great.’ And then everybody walked out of there with the real problem still tucked away.’”

As the CEO and Cofounder of Best Christian Workplaces Institute, Al Lopus has seen it all! (Oh, my!) BCWI launched in 2002 as an employee engagement ministry dedicated to helping Christian leaders and organizations achieve their full potential by creating flourishing staff workplaces. BCWI helps measure and improve the health of organizations through surveys, a unique 360 Leadership Review process, and consulting services. (Visit their website here.)

Road to Flourishing is no pie-in-the-sky, trendy book from academic idealists. On the contrary! Research-based, the book delivers what Lopus and the team at BCWI have learned from “the most widely used Christian-based engagement survey” across the globe. And get this! They have actually inspired more than 1,000 churches, ministries, and Christian-owned businesses to measure the health of their workplace cultures.

Using the helpful “FLOURISH Model,” Road to Flourishing goes deep on “Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being” (the book’s subtitle). So…how would your team members rate these eight factors—and have you ever discerned an objective, quantifiable way to measure overall engagement at your shop?
• Fantastic Teams
• Life-Giving Work
• Outstanding Talent
• Uplifting Growth
• Rewarding Compensation
• Inspirational Leadership
• Sustainable Strategy
• Healthy Communication

EXAMPLE #2: COMPENSATION CONUNDRUMS. I don’t need to urge you to read the chapter, “Rewarding Compensation,” because you and your team members will skip to Chapter 6 first (like I did!). Lopus describes two Christian organizations that “committed the same classic error in opposite ways.”

• Classic Error #1: Sore Thumb! Seven of the eight “FLOURISH” factors improved in one organization—“but when compensation became the last remaining complaint and nothing was done about it, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Despite how far the organization had progressed, poor compensation yanked employee engagement back like a bungee cord around its waist.” (Memorable metaphor!)

• Classic Error #2: Bribed to Cause Mayhem! In another organization, employee pay and benefits did receive high marks—but the staff “gave their employer low marks on most keys to a flourishing culture.” The problem? “…there was a disturbing number of disengaged employees, people who weren’t just unenthusiastic at work but were actively pumping toxicity and dysfunction into the culture.” Lopus notes that “…they were being paid so well that they were sure never to leave on their own. They were being bribed to keep causing mayhem, and they were not about to kill the golden goose.”

EXAMPLE #3: “CULTURE IS A BUCKET OF PURE WATER.” The book shines well-deserved spotlights on healthy organizational cultures, including Joni & Friends, where Doug Mazza, the former president and CEO, used a “bucket” metaphor (nice!):

“Culture is a bucket of pure water,” says Mazza. “If it’s polluted, dropping in a great strategy is not going to clean it. Great strategies flourish in clean water. Get the culture right, point to it constantly, and new strategies will evolve and are invented in healthy cultures.” Lopus adds, “Put another way, while a sustainable strategy nourishes a flourishing culture, a flourishing culture irrigates a sustainable strategy.”

(Note: Chapter 8, “Sustainable Strategy” mentions why the Joni & Friends team followed Henry Blackaby’s approach in Experiencing God.)

BONUS PODCAST!
Click here to listen to Al Lopus interview Doug Mazza on The Flourishing Culture Podcast, “How Flourishing Workplace Culture Fosters a Thriving Mission,” (Season 7, Episode 16).

Lopus doesn’t mince words when writing about the toxic work cultures he’s observed. But Road to Flourishing is also upbeat—you can create “life-giving work” for every team member. You have two options: (1) continue to apply inappropriate Band-Aids to your sick workplace, or (2) go deeper and discover how your organization’s culture will flourish with God-honoring and intentional best practices. Reading this book with your team members is a no-brainer.

PICK ONE:
[ ] Life-giving work.
[ ] Life-sucking work.

To order from Amazon, click on title for Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, by Al Lopus with Cory Hartman. Listen on Libro.fm (6 hours, 52 minutes). BULK PRICING: Use the discount code BCWI at ivpress.com to receive 40% off 10+ books or 50% off 25+ books.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In the foreword to Road to Flourishing, Peter Greer, president and CEO of Hope International, urges organizations to invite BCWI to assess and measure their organizational cultures. “You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken…” writes Greer. How are we measuring employee engagement and well-being? (Note: Watch for my next eNews with my review of The Gift of Disillusionment, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst.)

2) Of the eight factors in a flourishing culture, Al Lopus notes that “The strongest overall influence on workplace culture is inspirational leadership, closely followed by life-giving work.” List the eight factors (see above) in F.L.O.U.R.I.S.H. and discuss: What do we do well? What needs dramatic improvement? And…what’s our plan?

The Culture Bucket Core Competency includes this zinger: “We invite those who won’t live out our values to exit.”

Buckets Countdown:
The Culture Bucket (#8) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Culture Bucket Core Competency: “We strive to create a corporate culture with core values that are crystal clear. We yearn for a God-honoring workplace where grace and trust are alive and well. 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. We experience true joy at work.”

QUESTION: Why do you think that more than 1,000 churches, ministries, and Christian-owned businesses invested time in measuring the health of their workplace cultures? What would be the upside of achieving recognition as a Certified Best Christian Workplace? Check it out here!

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Culture Bucket here.

10 BIGGEST TAX AND FINANCIAL MISTAKES! Do you know the “10 Biggest Tax and Financial Mistakes Made by Churches and Nonprofits?” Read the short reviews of the 2022 tax and financial guides from ECFA in John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC).

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. “Outstanding Talent” is one of the eight factors on the “Road to Flourishing.” We can help you identify, recruit, train, and inspire the right people for the right spots on your communication and marketing teams. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: culture, engagement

April 13, 2022

The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

Issue No. 513 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests a book for your soul—for Holy Week and every week. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

Arthur Bennet’s spiritual classic, The Valley of Vision, is a stunning collection of almost 200 Puritan prayers. Balm for your soul!

“My mind is a bucket without a bottom…”

This Holy Week, I’m recommending a sobering book that has touched my soul. Over the last four months, I’ve read, prayed, and reflected on the one-page prayers in The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, by Arthur Bennett (Editor). Below is the last half of the prayer, “Paradoxes.”

Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be
an evangelical hypocrite,
who sins more safely because grace abounds,
who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood
cleanseth them,
who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell,
for he is saved,
who loves evangelical preaching, churches,
Christians, but lives unholily.

My mind is a bucket without a bottom,
with no spiritual understanding,
no desire for the Lord’s Day,
ever learning but never reaching the truth,
always at the gospel-well but never holding water.
My conscience is without conviction or contrition,
with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power of decision or resolution.
My heart is without affection, and full of leaks.
My memory has no retention,
so I forget easily the lessons learned,
and thy truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet carries home
the water of grace.

Click here to read the entire prayer.

Oh, my. If you’re gutsy enough to read the 193 prayers, your soul will have some serious work to do. (Trust me.) Published by Banner of Truth in 1975, Arthur Bennett (1915-1994) wrote these original prayers, borrowing from the prayers and poems of Puritans (and others), including: John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, David Brainerd, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Augustus Toplady, and Isaac Watts.

For a spiritual taste, you’ll find numerous YouTube videos online, including this introduction from podcaster Tim Wildsmith with the title prayer, “The Valley of Vision.”

View the 3-minute prayer and introduction to “The Valley of Vision.”

Trust me—this is not a “one-and-done” devotional book. Those Puritans understood sin’s ugly hold. Whew.

“Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin
Lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed,
As in the greatness of the Person sinned against.”

But the Puritans were also enthralled with Grace (read the “Sleep” prayer here):

“Show thyself to me as the God of all grace, love and power;
Thou hast a balm for every wound,
a solace for all anguish,
a remedy for every pain,
a peace for all disquietude.
Permit me to commit myself to thee awake or asleep.”

If you’re a listener (not a reader), you might find some cassette recordings of The Valley of Vision (ask someone over 70 what a “cassette” is). Here’s a two-minute YouTube video, “Longings After God," read by Max McLean:

View the 2-minute prayer, “Longings After God.”

In this Easter Week, I’ll close with the final lines from the “Love Lustres at Calvary” prayer:

O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,
my every step buoyant with delight, as I see my
enemies crushed,
Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,
sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,
hell’s gates closed, heaven’s portal open.
Go forth, O conquering God, and show me
the cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

I will read this treasured book again and again and again. To order from Amazon, click on title for The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, by Arthur Bennett (Editor). Note: There are two editions available: Paperback and Bonded Leather. (And thanks to Jon Ortlip and the Ambassadors Football team for gifting this book to me. Forever grateful!)

PAPERBACK BONDED LEATHER

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In the four-minute endorsement video on Amazon, Ligon Duncan, Chancellor & CEO at Reformed Theological Seminary, notes that “…the prayers of The Valley of Vision help get me praying when there’s nothing in my tank.” In his new book, The Discerning Life, Steve Macchia writes, “The older I get, the harder it is to pray.” So…what do you do—when there’s nothing in your prayer tank?
2) The prayer, “Penitence,” concludes with this: “My soul is often a chariot without wheels, clogged and hindered in sin’s miry clay; Mount it on eagle’s wings and cause it to soar upward to thyself.” How would you describe your soul today?

Like the above lifelong learners, the senior global leaders for Ambassadors Football meet on Zoom to study Experiencing God (2021 Edition). What is your team studying—so they experience more fulfillment and joy?

Buckets Countdown:
The Team Bucket (#9) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Team Bucket Core Competency: “We believe that a balanced life honors God, each other, our families and our friends, so we leverage the unique set of talents and strengths given to each person by God. Thus we serve with more fulfillment and joy. We also leave work on time, physically and mentally.”

How do you inspire your team members to honor God? Jon Ortlip, president of Ambassadors Football (soccer ministry in 28 countries), is leading his global team in studying the 2021 book-of-the-year, Experiencing God (2021 Edition)—every time they meet together online.

And (ironically), when I had the privilege of facilitating a leadership enrichment experience for Ambassadors Football’s senior global leaders in January 2015, Ortlip and the team presented me with The Valley of Vision book. (LOL! It only took me seven years to go deep on it, but I’m so, so grateful for their thoughtful gift!)

How will you “serve with more fulfillment and joy” in 2022? Gift your team members with a significant book study and—as Jon Ortlip does—rotate the leadership of the study every time you meet.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Team Bucket here.

10 FATAL FLAWS! Do you know the “10 Fatal Flaws That Consistently Lead to Failure in Leadership?” Read John’s short review of The New Extraordinary Leader in his new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC).

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Need a unique gift and study book for your team members and/or your customers? Consider going deep on this creative book, designed by Pearpod, 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God (Full Color Edition), by Father Darrin Merlino, CMF. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: prayers, Puritans

April 5, 2022

Ending Human Trafficking: A Handbook of Strategies for the Church Today

Issue No. 512 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks you pray about who should read this handbook, Ending Human Trafficking. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

I first read this poignant quote in Steve Macchia’s book, Crafting a Rule of Life.

“Without a plan, it is hard to put empathy and compassion into meaningful action.”

Do you resonate with Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight? “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I remember the first time I read Buechner’s quote in Steve Macchia’s book, Crafting a Rule of Life. Then that same year, I noticed it again in Parker Palmer’s short book, Let Your Life Speak. Buechner’s insight is convicting—yet liberating. He reminds us that we don’t have to be passionate about every need on the globe (Ukraine, poverty, homelessness, crime…the list is endless). Compassion fatigue and burnout will break us—if we foolishly try to care for every social need around us.

Within that context, I so appreciate the tone and helpful wisdom in the new book (just published today): Ending Human Trafficking: A Handbook of Strategies for the Church Today, by Shayne Moore, Sandra Morgan, and Kimberly McOwen Yim.

But before you say, “Not for me, please!”—please read further.

The authors have crafted a handbook so those in your church who are open to caring about ending human trafficking—have a clear roadmap for next steps. The book is a warm mix of compassion, education, inspiration, and toolbox.

Right now—stop and pray. Pray that our God of Compassion, Justice, and Love will bring to mind one, two, or three people in your church who should read this book. (And maybe you should read it also.)

Ambassador John Cotton Richmond, who served as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons for the U.S. Department of State, writes in the foreword:

“Have you ever felt overwhelmed by an important task, perplexed about how to take action, or doubtful that your best efforts could make a difference?” He admits, “I have. It is a mixture of preemptive fatigue, profound confusion, and learned hopelessness.” He notes that people of faith understand “the unmistakable directive to care for the oppressed and to seek justice. But without a plan, it is hard to put empathy and compassion into meaningful action.”

THE PLAN! Shayne Moore, Sandra Morgan, and Kimberly McOwen Yim (all with impressive credentials) have thoughtfully packaged the problem, the context, and the solutions into a very readable book—using six P’s (five of which are universally used in fighting human trafficking; and three highlighted by the U.S. State Department):
• Partnership: Connect, Engage, Collaborate
• Prevention: Inform, Identify, Intervene
• Protection: Recover, Restore, Reintegrate
• Prosecution: Investigate, Litigate, Obligate
• Policy: Legislate, Governance, Capacity Build
• Prayer: Stand Firm (Ephesians 6:12)

All of the above is introduced on page five (most authors don’t get warmed up until page 25!). Each “P” has a goal in the “Enhanced collaborative model for human trafficking task forces.” (Figure 1.) The overall goal: “Prioritize people over process.” (Amen!)

After reading Ambassador Richmond’s succinct foreword and the “Build a Safety Fence” introduction (see the frequent safety fence "signposts" noted), I skipped to Chapter 7, “Policy,” to learn how churches and nonprofits can make their unique contributions. The authors clearly understand church leaders and offer this:

“Our hope for this book is not to overwhelm. Not every church has to have a separate ministry addressing human trafficking, but in providing information and language around the problem, we hope to help leaders see strategic ways their church may already be addressing this problem.”

Why a chapter on policies? “Policies that create opportunities for review will build dynamic change that may eliminate time-consuming or expensive programs in order to pour into another ministry that is more effective.”

The chapter on partnership is a short course—applicable to numerous causes—on how to create lasting change through collaboration. The authors reference a survey tool that will measure a task force’s partnership effectiveness in three arenas: value, trust, and density. (“Density is measured by how many lines there are between partners and how strong those connections are. If the density score is low, the trust and values lines may be strong but few.”)

Note: To go deeper on partnerships, I encourage leaders to read Phill Butler’s excellent work, Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope Through Kingdom Partnerships (read my review). His “15 Critical Principles” of partnership are excellent, including #8: “Effective partnerships are even more challenging to maintain than to start.”

THE WACKO CHURCH PEOPLE!
I should mention that the book opens with an awkward moment when a Department of Justice official was moderating a conference for human trafficking task force leaders. The table topic: “Discuss one of your biggest task force challenges.” Dr. Sandie Morgan (co-author, ordained minister, and administrator of the Orange County, Calif., Human Trafficking Task Force) listened to a Texas police sergeant respond: “Easy! The wacko church people.”

When a conferee told the police officer that Dr. Morgan was “one of them,” Sandie quipped, “Yes, I can marry you and bury you.” What happened? “Everyone laughed and the awkward moment passed, but the point was made: in the public square, when it comes to issues of human trafficking, churches and people of faith are often viewed as a problem.” (The authors give examples. Oh, my.)

The “prayer” chapter is superb—and the confession page is convicting. There are also stunning resources in Appendix A, B, and C, including the “Faith and Freedom Policy Brief” and a helpful glossary. The authors also include the important role of “local faith actors.”

Who in your church will read this book, hear from God—and begin (or improve on) establishing partnerships to battle the horrific evil of human trafficking?

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Ending Human Trafficking: A Handbook of Strategies for the Church Today, by Shayne Moore, Sandra Morgan, and Kimberly McOwen Yim. Foreword by Ambassador John Cotton Richmond. (And thanks to IVP Academic for sending a review copy.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) The authors of Ending Human Trafficking very effectively use the “safety fence” model and metaphor to paint a picture of the 6 P’s plan. What model or metaphor does our organization use to succinctly describe our mission and program outcomes?
2) Are egos and logos obstructing the Biblical mandate for unity in John 17? Could we more effectively partner together for Kingdom causes? Is it time to revisit our organization’s partnerships—and/or to launch more partnerships? Who will read Ending Human Trafficking? (Extra credit! Read Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey.)

You likely need celebration and LOL-experiences even more to combat compassion fatigue and workplace stress—so plan some hoopla!

Buckets Countdown:
The Hoopla! Bucket (#10) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Hoopla! Bucket Core Competency: “We harness the power of hoopla! for celebration, recreation, intentional food and fellowship gatherings, and just plain fun. We thrive on knock-your-socks-off spontaneity. We believe hoopla! honors God. We budget funds for hoopla! to mitigate workplace stress and most importantly, to show our team members how much they are loved and appreciated!”

Really? Can you take on the evils of the world, like human trafficking, and still create a culture and environment where hoopla! is practiced? YES! You likely need celebration and LOL-experiences even more to combat compassion fatigue and workplace stress.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal highlighted innovative ways that companies and organizations are enriching workplace experiences with creative recognition practices. Click here to read, “Have You Praised a Colleague Today? Go On, Say Something Nice. Companies roll out new ways for workers to compliment one another; ‘Your empathy is like Kool-Aid, the way it adds flavor to a boring call.’”

Check out John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with book reviews on self-coaching, customers, team-building, the “second half” of life, and yes…a book about books!

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is it time to revisit your strategic partnerships? We’ve also helped clients launch creative and meaningful campaigns to address human trafficking. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

07:37 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: human trafficking

March 31, 2022

The Generosity Factor: Discover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, and Treasure

Issue No. 511 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a quick-reading business parable by Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

I asked Ken Blanchard to mention our conference theme in his keynote, but he would not accept my thank you gift! LOL!

Ken Blanchard Wouldn’t Take My Money!

Picture this! Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager and the author/co-author of more than 60 books, is 10 minutes into his keynote address at Christian Management Association’s 1997 national convention in San Diego. He mentions the conference theme, “Management Survival/Leadership Revival,” and then winks at me. (I’m in the front row.)

Just Blanchard, me, and his Raving Fans co-author, Sheldon Boyles, were in on the joke. My keynote speaker invitation letter to this bestselling author and management guru included this request: “If you’d be gracious enough to mention our conference theme in your keynote, I’ll give you $20 cash!”

Blanchard concluded his outstanding talk and joined me in the front row. I whispered my thanks. “Fantastic presentation—and here’s the $20 for mentioning our theme. Thank you!”

Blanchard refused the cash. “Put it in the offering,” he laughed. He had previously refused our honorarium. Instead, he invested heart and soul into the lives of ministry leaders and managers from across the country that evening. We learned that he did enjoy In-N-Out Burgers back then, so I slipped him a gift card with our thanks.

Now 25 years later, I was reminded again of Ken Blanchard’s generosity. Back in 2002, I read The Generosity Factor: Discover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, and Treasure, by Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy. I immediately bought more copies to give to friends.

Blanchard (now 82) and S. Truett Cathy (1921-2014) practiced what they preached! Cathy (founder of Chick-fil-A) was a memorable keynote speaker at Christian Management Association’s 2003 national conference in Colorado Springs. (CMA is now CLA.) He came to give, not take. Every person in the audience received a gift card for a tasty Chick-fil-A sandwich!

So…it was a joy to re-read The Generosity Factor—another business “parable” in the mode of The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey (my favorite book in the Delegation Bucket).

WHO SHOULD READ THE GENEROSITY FACTOR?
• CEOs and Senior Leaders—on the fast track, but maybe the wrong track. A less-than-humble business owner (the Broker) meets a thoughtfully generous business leader (the Executive). You’ll follow their conversations through the Four T’s: Time, Talent, Treasure, and Touch.

• Not-Yet-All-In Givers—especially those who are grasping too tightly to their resources and may be blind to the needs around them (as was the Broker).

• Pastors and Church Board Members—who perhaps build stewardship campaigns based on budget needs (“Today is Stewardship Sunday! Here’s the pledge card!”), versus teaching Biblical generosity because it’s…well…Biblical!

• Chief Development Officers and fundraisers—who prioritize methodology over motives. The Generosity Factor is a critical reminder that true generosity is a commitment to all Four T’s. Just checking the “Treasure” box doesn’t let you off the hook for Time, Talent, and Touch. (You’ll miss the joy of generosity.)

Along the way, you’ll also have a few nostalgic flashbacks to real life 20 years ago, including: palmtop computers, Yellow Pages, CNN Sports, Headline News (24/7), and more! The “Gratitude List” exercise is just as relevant in 2022. (Try it—and discern if your first draft is more God-directed than the Broker’s first draft. Yikes.)

Another player in this parable is the Reporter—a timely reminder about the power of the written word and the opportunity to influence others. She shares an acronym that’s a pretty good summary of The Generosity Factor:
• He Owns It All.
• Every Day Is an Opportunity.
• Action Is Required.
• Remember Your Blessings.
• Thank Him.

H.E.A.R.T. (That’ll preach!) Who in your circle of influence might appreciate reading this book?

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Generosity Factor: Discover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, and Treasure, by Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (2 hours, 25 minutes).

P.S. Read my recent review of The Discerning Life, by Stephen Macchia. And to go deeper, read more about his wisdom-filled twist on the Three T’s. In his book, Crafting a Rule of Life, Macchia recommends you focus on Five T’s—Time, Trust, Temple, Treasure, and Talent. Check out the book’s resource-rich website here.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Dick Towner often mentions that one of his favorite generosity quotes is from Ben Patterson who observed, “There is no such thing as being right with God and wrong with your money.” What's one of your favorite generosity quotes?

2) Towner reminds pastors and church leaders: “Every church has a stewardship culture, either by design or by happenstance—a set of beliefs and values regarding an individual’s relationship to their money and possessions. A sub-biblical stewardship culture creates behavioral expectations for Christians that hinder a scriptural response to the culture’s mores about wealth and property.” (Noted in “The Church’s Leadership Role in Bringing Stewardship Front and Center” from the book, Revolution in Generosity, Wesley K. Willmer, General Editor.) Describe your church's stewardship culture.

The Donor Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets notes,“We believe that extravagant generosity is the biblical norm, not the exception.

Buckets Countdown:
The Donor Bucket (#11) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The well-chosen book given at appropriate times can spark generosity in both current givers and non-givers. Martin Luther said, "People go through three conversions: The conversion of their head, their heart and their pocketbook. Unfortunately, not all at the same time." What book will you order today for yourself or a friend? Check out these classics:

[ ] The Treasure Principle, by Randy Alcorn. He writes: “God owns everything. I’m His money manager.” (read my review)
[ ] Joy Giving, by Cameron Doolittle. I’ve never (never!) read a book that includes so many biblical insights from generous givers across the globe. (read my review)
[ ] The Third Conversion, by R. Scott Rodin. He writes, “Never tell God what to do, and never tell God’s people what they are to give. You just might end up underestimating the generosity of both.” (read my review)

[ ] Being Generous, by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch. “The story is told that when a friend heard that [C.S.] Lewis had given money to a beggar in Oxford, the friend remarked that he shouldn’t have done so because the beggar would only spend the money on alcoholic drink. Lewis replied, ‘If I kept the money, I would only have spent it on drink!’” (read my review)
[ ] Revolution in Generosity, by Wes Willmer, General Editor. Three cheers for Willmer and his labor of love by inspiring 20 thinkers to contribute chapters to this important book. (read my review)
[ ] Igniting a Life of Generosity, by Chris McDaniel. In my review, I ask, “What if…before your organization mailed the monthly appeal letter, hundreds and hundreds of generous givers—prompted by the Holy Spirit—sent in their checks and made online gifts BEFORE you asked for the contribution?” (read my review)
[ ] 40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life, by Brian Kluth. “No church ever has a money problem, only a faithfulness problem.” (Read my review and order from Amazon.)

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For a list of books I’ve reviewed in the Donor Bucket, visit the Book Bucket.

Check out John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with additional book reviews including Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career, by David Novak and Jason Goldsmith. Learn why Tom Brady is a big fan of “self-coaching.”

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. If you lead a church or nonprofit (or serve on its board), have you taken time to discern the generosity messaging that you’re communicating? Helpful? Harmful? Biblical? Need help? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: generosity

March 22, 2022

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest

Issue No. 510 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a potential 2022 book-of-the-year (just published this month). The three McKinsey senior partners suggest you create a “Hall of Failures” and organize funerals for failed projects! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

The co-authors of CEO Excellence note that some companies create a “Hall of Failures” and organize funerals for failed projects!

Will You Read 1 Book or 20 Books?

Yikes! According to the new book, CEO Excellence, “Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months.”

If you’re a CEO—perhaps slipping off that perilous perch—take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Or…just read this remarkably well-researched book by three senior partners at McKinsey & Company. Subtitled, “The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest,” CEO Excellence is an early contender for my 2022 book-of-the-year honors.

2 Options for Studying the BEST Leaders:
• Option 1: Read 20 leadership books (see my suggestions below).
• Option 2: Read CEO Excellence (the equivalent of 20 books).

MY TOP-20 LIST. Here are my Top-20 takeaways from CEO Excellence:

#1. EXCEPTIONALLY PRACTICAL. Trust me—this outperforms any book you’ve read recently. I made 51 notes, but I could have made 251. Jam-packed with serious CEO thinking—the authors looked at 2,400 CEOs of public company, then zeroed in on 67—using their criteria for the “best leaders.” (The appendix includes 36 pages of CEO bios.) After “in-depth, multihour interviews,” this book popped out. You’ll love it.

#2. MANAGE BY MILESTONES. The book’s “six mindsets” launches with the Direction-Setting Mindset, “Be Bold.” In Chapter 3, CEOs are encouraged to “Act Like an Outsider” when allocating resources. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase (who is quoted often), urges CEOs to “manage by milestones (not annual budgets).” The authors note, “In essence, Dimon’s approach is never to let an annual budget cycle get in the way of making good business decisions.”

#3. CORPORATE FUNERALS & HALL OF FAILURES! In the section, “Kill as Much as You Create,” the book describes how savvy CEOs eliminate sacred cows and dead horses. One CEO “set up a ‘Hall of Failures’ where the company organized funerals for failed projects. The idea was to show that trying and failing would be honored as long as lessons were learned and shared…” The ceremony also communicated “that no more resources would be allocated to the effort—that the projects were dead.”

#4. PRACTICAL WORKSHEETS. In my first browse through CEO Excellence, I discovered three practical worksheets in the appendix (nine pages)—worth the price of the book:
• Worksheet 1: My CEO Mandate: What is the degree of change you aspire to lead? (Rate the six mindsets on a scale of 1 to 5.)
• Worksheet 2: How Am I Leading Today? (Rate how you’re currently leading, within the six mindsets: Challenged? Able? Excellent?)
• Worksheet 3: Prioritizing Improvement Areas and Related Actions (five assessments/action steps)

#5. ENGAGE THE BOARD (Mindset #4). The worksheet asks CEOs to rate their engagement with the board in three areas: Relationships, Capabilities, Meetings. You can rate your appropriate involvement in board meetings on a three-level continuum. (Hint: Excellent CEOs help the board focus on the future.)

#6. EXIT BOARD MEMBERS. Jamie Dimon, when he was the new CEO of a contentious merger, amazingly inspired the two merged boards (22 members) to exit eight members to a more workable board size of 14. Read how he approached this delicate dance in the section, “Tap the Wisdom of Elders.” McKinsey’s research notes: “A full 82 percent of executives think at least one member of their company’s board should be replaced, citing reasons such as diminishing performance due to advanced age, serving on too many boards, and reluctance to challenge management.”

#7. HEART PADDLES. In Chapter 2, “Strategy Practice,” we learn the importance of “applying ‘heart paddles’ to create a series of performance-enhancing S-curves.” Why keep an eye on your organization’s downside? “The average lifetime of an organization in 1935 was ninety years, in 2015 it was eighteen years.”

#8. DO WHAT ONLY YOU CAN DO. There are three convicting chapters for CEOs on the Personal Effectiveness Mindset, “Do What Only You Can Do.” Did you know that when he was “urged to spend longer stretches of time on his masterpiece The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci immodestly responded, ‘The greatest geniuses accomplish more when they work less.’” Chapters 16, 17, and 18—huge gut-checks for all leaders!

#9. VACATION PROTECTION! When the CEO of Mastercard is on vacation—get this—he gives his cell phone to his wife. “My wife locks the device in the safe with a code that she sets, so I have to get her to open the thing and give it to me!”

#10. CHIEF OF STAFF ROTATION. To both mentor key people (and ensuring the COS role does not become too powerful), the CEO of Mastercard intentionally changes his chief of staff every 18 to 24 months.

#11. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY? “In year six of my eleven-year journey,” reported Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, “one of my 360 feedbacks came back with, ‘Brad is lowering the standards in the company because he’s being too kind in reviews and isn’t willing to call anybody out.’” While many CEOs are flexible in their coaching, per Ken Blanchard’s situational leadership approach, Smith changed. “I started to coach business performance in public and personal performance in private.”

#12. OH, OH! WHY DOES OUR CEO HAVE A COACH? Initially fearing that if he retained a coach, people would wonder if he was on the bubble, Best Buy’s CEO soon embraced coaching. “Now I realize an executive coach can help successful leaders get better. One hundred percent of NFL teams have a coach—in fact, a coaching staff. Why on earth should CEOs and management teams not have a coach?”

#13. IF YOU WERE CEO…? To enrich continuous learning, Netflix’s CEO asks his top 50 people, “If you were CEO, what would be different at Netflix?” Intuit’s CEO met twice a week with managers several levels down—and asked three questions, including: “What’s getting better than it was six months ago?”

#14. ZOOM MOMENT. The CEO of Electronic Arts—hosting a Zoom meeting of 7,000 employees during COVID—was interrupted by his five-year-old son who asked his dad to make a paper airplane! The CEO paused the Zoom call and—of course—made the paper airplane! (It took just 30 seconds—but the response from work-from-home team members was worth gold. Said one, “Thank you. You just gave us permission to be parents.”)

#15. STAY HUMBLE. Every chapter begins with a “I-must-memorize-this” quotation. Chapter 18’s message, “Stay Humble,” begins with a Sudanese proverb, “A large chair does not make a king.”

#16. SUCCESSION BEGINS ON DAY ONE. Throughout the book, intentional succession and the need for humility oozes out. One CEO noted, “My kids used to say, ‘I’m sure people laugh at your jokes at work because they have to, but you’re honestly not as funny as you think you are.’ When you leave the job…people don’t laugh at your jokes and they don’t call anymore.”

#17. STAY GROUNDED. The CEO of Cadence noted: “Every morning [my wife] reminds me to bless the people I work with. She tells me, ‘It’s not your work; you’re just doing your part. Give the glory to God.’ That keeps me grounded.”

#18. ELEGANT SIMPLICITY. In the helpful conclusion, the authors summarize: “…a third theme is to convey the new direction with elegant simplicity. Virtually every CEO we spoke to could describe their strategy in an elevator ride. They also often had a ‘one pager’ that told the whole story crisply.” (Note: every chapter ends with very helpful bullet-point summaries.)

#19. BEST CEO DESCRIPTION: CONDUCTOR. U.S. Bancorp’s CEO believes a symphony conductor is the perfect metaphor for CEO excellence—noting that at no time in a performance does the conductor [CEO] “actually play an instrument.”

#20. “(DON’T) PUT PEOPLE FIRST!” Chapter 6, “The Talent Management Practice,” is a contrarian and must-read chapter—DON’T put people first. Instead, define the role first. When interviewing the CEO of “an average-performing health care company,” the authors asked three questions:
• “Who are your top twenty most talented leaders?”
• “What are the twenty most important roles in the company?”
• “How many people on the first list are filling roles on the second list?”

The CEO’s response? “He went pale.”

Oh, my. I could add another 20 reasons why this book is so helpful. Must-reads: the difference between winning vs. victory, the lottery ticket effect, “Treat the Soft Stuff as Hard Stuff,” pendulum swing lessons, the matrix organization vs. the helix organization, left tackle positions, categorizing talent into four buckets—and the six months rule, the Law of Triviality, plus why Netflix uses a Chaos Monkey and another CEO uses a “Wreckoon” (a small mnemonic) to stress-test thinking in meetings. And don’t miss the “Moments of Truth Practice” (aka crisis stories). “The best way to manage a crisis is, of course, to prevent it in the first place.”

You can’t always eliminate the crisis—but you can inspire your board and your team to read this book. And by the way, McKinsey & Company is a writing machine. Read my review of Fast Times (on digital winners) by four McKinsey partners.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest, by Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (11 hours, 37 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and Simon & Schuster/Scribner for sending me a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Imagine! The former CEO of Home Depot would regularly write 200 hand-written notes to employees every Sunday—thanking them for a specific customer service story that made its way to the CEO’s office. What might be the powerful result if our team members (and volunteers and donors) received hand-written notes from our CEO?
2) Have you read another book recently (or some years back) that was a comprehensive summary of multiple competencies? What’s your style? Read or listen to one comprehensive book—or read niche books (or niche chapters) to go even deeper?

The Book Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets, suggests you recommend “niche chapters” to your team members.

Will You Read 1 Book or Niche Chapters in 20 Books? Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The hot-off-the-press book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest, is unusually comprehensive in its scope. Will you read one book or 20 books or 20 niche chapters? For your lifelong learning, here are 20 other books I’ve reviewed—each one related to the Top-20 takeaway topics above:

#1. Exceptionally Practical. Read my review of The Practical Drucker.
#2. Manage by Milestones. Read my review of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0).
#3. Corporate Funerals. Read my review of Necessary Endings.
#4. Practical Worksheets. Read my review of Leadership Core.
#5. Engage the Board. Click here to browse the four governance books co-authored by Dan Busby and John Pearson.

#6. Exit Board Members. Read my review of Boards That Lead.
#7. Heart Paddles. Read my review of Myself and Other More Important Matters.
#8. Do What Only You Can Do. Read my review of What You Do Best in the Body of Christ.
#9. Vacation Protection. Read my review of Margin.
#10. Chief of Staff Rotation. Read my review of The Gatekeepers.

#11. No More Mr. Nice Guy. Read my review of Emotional Intelligence 2.0.
#12. Why Does Our CEO Have a Coach? Read my review of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
#13. If You Were CEO. Read my review of The Advantage.
#14. Zoom Moment. Read my review of Remote, Inc. and Working Remotely.
#15. Stay Humble. Read my review of Humility.

#16. Succession Begins on Day One. Read my review of How Will You Measure Your Life?
#17. Stay Grounded. Read my review of Experiencing God.
#18. Elegant Simplicity. See my review of Owning Up (and read Chapter 5 on strategy).
#19. Best CEO Description: Conductor. Read Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening.
#20. (Don’t) Put People First. Read my review of You’re Not the Person I Hired!

Check out John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with additional book reviews including Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In. Patrick Lencioni said, “Every leader and manager needs to read this.” Shark Tank guru Daymond John labels Connectable “a must-read.” I agree.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Need one or 20 book suggestions for enriching your marketing and communication strategies? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: ceo, excellence, leadership

March 15, 2022

The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything

Issue No. 509 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a book (just published today) by Steve Macchia, who confesses, “The older I get, the harder it is to pray.” (I love his authenticity—and the book!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

Steve Macchia on discernment: “We want a simple system to follow: set up the room, put people in place, consider the right options, add a prayer, and then press the button of discernment.”

“God, what fabric softener do you want me to buy at the store this week?”

Wait! Is this a book on discernment—or an entire PBS season of This Old House? With delightful humor and humility, Steve Macchia’s troubles and travails with his 75-year-old house create the stage for learning and listening—and noticing God’s heart for us.

Don’t skip Steve’s true stories (and memorable old house metaphors). “Apparently, tomato sauce can expire, and when it does, it explodes.” The porch of heaven (beautiful). Low water pressure issues. Ice dams on the roof from a long winter (dubbed “snowmageddon” and “snowpocalypse”). It gets worse, of course! (The poor guy!)

But, really, this is a hopeful book. The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything emits the same respectful tone that oozes out of Macchia’s other books (see Crafting a Rule of Life and others). Steve writes with high regard and aspirations for readers and leaders—fellow pilgrims. He confesses, “The older I get, the harder it is to pray.” Steve admits he’s “just a beginner” in this discernment journey, and so with that honest humility, he invites me in. I love this book.

TAP. TAP. TAP. I’ll never forget the moment when Steve Macchia, speaking to several hundred ministry leaders, asked us to “Tap, Tap, Tap” on a colleague’s shoulder. We faithfully followed his directions, chuckled, and then stopped. And then this classic response from Steve: “Wait! I didn’t tell you to stop tapping!” (More chuckles.) And with that, Steve gifted us with a lifelong metaphor of God as a loving initiator.

BONUS! Listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John Pearson (Episode 4, April 21, 2022).

Macchia asks, “But are we aware of his presence? He’s tapping on the shoulder of our hearts all the time: tap, tap, tap . . . tap, tap, tap. As Christ- followers, it’s incumbent upon us to notice the tap and not brush it aside, shun God’s presence, or be so numbed or hardened or oblivious as to miss it altogether.” This book rekindled that moment. I’m so grateful.

“FAR TOO OFTEN, SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT HAS BEEN PIGEON-HOLED,” Steve writes, “into the exclusive realm of decision-making, learning how to make good choices and know God’s will methodically and predictably. We want a simple system to follow: set up the room, put people in place, consider the right options, add a prayer, and then press the button of discernment.”

He adds, “For some people, spiritual discernment is reserved for major ministry or organizational decisions, like calling the right pastor or determining where to plant a church. For others, it’s a tool used to spiritualize every single decision: God, what fabric softener do you want me to buy at the store this week?”

Why a book on discernment? “There is no more important topic for the church to wrestle with today than to know God, notice him at work in, through, and all around us, and to aid others in embracing and fulfilling the discerning life.”

With several helpful definitions and commentaries on “discernment,” I especially appreciated this one: “Perceiving and noticing the present, attentive to the now, and in anticipation of the next—like holding hands and looking both ways before safely crossing the street.”

Tall order? Yes! “All of this will take a lifetime to rehearse,” promises Macchia.

LOL! “On a spiritual retreat a handful of years ago, I was sitting with a spiritual mentor, detoxing my hurting soul. I was sharing about feelings of abandonment from those I thought had my best interests in mind but had turned against me. I was not in a good place. After listening to my story, this godly man encouraged me to do one of the strangest things ever suggested to me:

“Wink at myself in the mirror. At least once a day. For the foreseeable future. That sounded so bizarre! But his point was to do this as a reminder of God’s unconditional love for me each day. This spiritual leader shared that our lives will be filled with disappointment, heartache, suffering, and sorrow. That reality we cannot change. But the inner reservoir of our soul can indeed be opened to receive love once more, over and over and over again. That’s the way of God, and if we’re to live a discerning life, it’s to become our way too.”

ALLERGIC TO SPIRITUAL DEPTH. Macchia is just warming up when he reminds us that “Without a prayer closet, we are destined to live an inch deep and a mile wide. For any number of reasons, we are highly allergic to spiritual depth. We’re guilty of a self-ordained, self-empowered, self-absorbed life. And although we value the priority of prayer and believe in the importance of a prayer closet, we are far too busy for such a notion to be fully realized in our lives. It reeks of weakness. It smacks of ritual. It sounds boring. I used to need it, but it’s no longer necessary. Been there, done that, moving on.

“DEPTH IS SUBTRACTIVE. IT IS NOT ADDITIVE. We don’t dig a hole high; we dig it deep,” writes Macchia. “Similarly, in the spiritual life, depth relates to what’s going on underneath the surface. A deeper life isn’t measured by accumulation, unless what’s gained is more of God. Depth is hidden and mysterious. Depth is experienced most abundantly in relation to what we lose or sacrifice or release. Even depth of knowledge, depth of compassion, depth of character, depth of insight, and depth of contentment require some form of letting go in order to fully receive.”

Macchia continues, “Preconceived notions need to be released in order for greater knowledge to be received. Creature comforts need to be released in order for compassion to be offered. Humility creates character. Wisdom forms insight. Contentment comes from letting go of that which previously defined you. In spiritual depth, we find life at its fullest by letting go. In so many profound ways, the spiritual life is all about letting go—not always complete detachment (as in the love of our spouse or child), but by holding people and things with a much looser grip, in order to mature as God desires.”

In recent years, I’ve slowly munched on one book for up to six months (just on weekends)—seeking to go slow and deep. Examples: Packer’s Knowing God and Blackaby’s Experiencing God. But…the deep end of the pool can be threatening. Nevertheless, The Discerning Life is my weekend book for the next six months.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything, by Stephen Macchia. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 7 minutes). Note! LTI is offering a limited time discount on bulk orders of five copies or more with free standard shipping within the continental USA. Click here.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Here’s an idea—go deep on this book with your team members. The stories are page-turners (think This Old House—the perfect discernment metaphor). The “Practicing a Preference for God” succinct summaries (see “Tap, Tap, Tap”) are so helpful. And the lists…oh, my…the lists! Steve Macchia resists formulaic pious claptrap—and instead—delivers deep and soul-challenging content: discernment definitions (5), discernment postures (12), soul-neglect causes (10), stumbling blocks to listening (10), poignant discernment questions (11), Jesus’ favorite topics (17)—you’ll love the lists! And this reminder: “All of this will take a lifetime to rehearse.” OK team—who will summarize the first chapter at our next staff meeting?

2) Steve Macchia writes, “A consistent visit to your prayer closet fulfills your soul’s deepest longings. A prayer closet can be as simple as a dedicated time and space where you go with Bible, journal, and pen in hand to meet with God, as unhurried, unhindered, and uncluttered as possible. That’s all that’s needed—nothing more; nothing less.” Is “closet” a metaphor here—or does Steve Macchia expect us to actually find a closet for prayer times?

Communicate your annual S.M.A.R.T. Goals for volunteers using the one-page G.N.O.M.E. Chart. Read the Volunteer Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets.

The 20 Buckets Countdown:
The Volunteer Bucket (#12) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Volunteer Bucket Core Competency: “We reject the notion of a two-tiered Kingdom workforce. Instead, we seek to treat our paid volunteers (staff) and our unpaid volunteers with equal passion and intentionality. We will never have enough paid staff to accomplish our Kingdom assignments, so we continually hone our skills in volunteer cultivation, recruitment, orientation and engagement.”

Tap! Tap! Tap!—Discernment for Volunteers (i.e. Board Members). Steve Macchia’s “Tap, Tap, Tap” theme is featured in two books by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Read Macchia’s blog commentary on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (Lesson 11), and read Peter F. Clements’ blog commentary on Lessons From the Church Boardroom (Lesson 11). And click here for the five-minute video conversation with Busby and Pearson, “Tap! Tap! Tap!”

Enhance Volunteer Satisfaction and Mission Results! Visit the Volunteer Bucket webpage and download Worksheet #12.1, “The G.N.O.M.E Chart: Annual Volunteer Goals.” In just one page, you and your volunteer team can establish Annual S.M.A.R.T. Goals for your volunteers in four key areas: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation, and Engagement. Click here.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

Check out John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with with additional book reviews including this fascinating read:
• PIC #5: Inside Marine One: Four U.S. Presidents, One Proud Marine, and the World’s Most Amazing Helicopter, by Col. Ray L'Heureux and Lee Kelley - (read review)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Need help discerning next steps in your communication strategies? Is prayer and discernment an integral part of your team’s process? It can be! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: discernment

March 10, 2022

American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020

Issue No. 508 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks if you should switch from binge watching to binge reading—especially in a crisis. Columnist George Will says he is “paid to do what I would do without pay.” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with four new book PICs.

19 Hours of Binge Reading (or Listening!)

So…did you do anything interesting or uplifting from 2008 to 2020? Do you even remember the key events and issues during those 13 years? (Well…we actually remember 2020, don’t we? We’re still living it.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will can help you remember with his latest collection of 750-word columns in American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020. His masterful writing will tempt you to set aside your “B” priorities and drink deeply from his opinions and insights.

Good news: You’ll agree with many of Will’s conclusions. More good news: You’ll disagree with many of his conclusions. (That’s what “deep reading” is all about.)

I’m sure you know that George Will writes a syndicated column on politics, plus domestic and foreign affairs, for the Washington Post. His twice-a-week meanderings through the jabs and joys of front page issues is sliced and diced rather eruditely in his columns—as would befit a PhD from Princeton with a side trip to Oxford.

SECOND INNING STRETCH
Yet…George Will’s midwestern roots (Champaign, Illinois) and baseball keep him grounded (no pun intended). Enough so that his love of baseball and the Chicago Cubs pop out often. Click here to read my review of his book, A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred. Will quotes sportscaster Red Barber, “Baseball is dull only to dull minds.”

And speaking of dull minds, how can you not read American Happiness and Discontents when George Will thinks so highly of you? In the required-reading intro, the author nostalgically notes that upon arriving in New York City for the first time in 1958, at age 17, he “plunked down a nickel for a New York tabloid in order to see what was going on in Gotham. This purchase of a New York Post was a life-changing event because in it I found a column by Murray Kempton.”

Will says Kempton “paid a compliment to his readers”—he held them in high esteem. “Furthermore, Kempton knew that reading newspaper columns is an optional activity, so a writer must make the most of his ration of words—in Kempton’s case, often fewer than 700 of them.”

Will waxes eloquent with a similar admiration for his readers: “However, the fact that most Americans do not read newspapers, let alone the commentary columns, is actually emancipating for columnists. The kind of people who seek out written arguments are apt to bring to the written word a fund of information and opinions.”

He adds, “Having a self-selected audience of intellectually upscale readers allows the columnist to assume that his or her readers have a reservoir of knowledge about the world. So, he can be brief—most of the writings in this book are approximately 750 words long—without being superficial.”

I’ll accept that compliment, but it’s convicting. Yikes. Do I hold high the readers of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (i.e., you) with appropriate admiration?

Oops! I haven’t hooked you yet on why you should read American Happiness and Discontents. Nine reasons (within my new 750-word rule!):

1) 19 HOURS IN 192 DOSES! In your car, or while peddling on your Peloton, you can listen to George Will’s insights—one column at a time in just 19 hours of listening pleasure (actually 18 hours and 55 minutes). I recommend Libro.fm audio books and CLICK HERE for a free audio book offer.

2) A JOY TO READ. George Will—whether you agree with his worldview or not—is a joy to read. “Writing—forming sentences and paragraphs, producing a felicitous phrase in the service of a well-made argument—is, for me, a metabolic urge, and more fun than I can have anywhere outside of a major league ballpark.” (He adds that he is “paid to do what I would do without pay.”)

3) 50 YEARS/6,000 COLUMNS. Whew! In January 1973, the author began writing columns for William F. Buckley’s National Review and the Washington Post. Total output over 50 years—about 6,000 columns! (That dramatically exceeds Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours standard.)

4) BOOKS HAVE CAREFUL EDITORS! George Will believes the importance of books is increasing—so many of the 192 columns in his book are well-crafted reviews of important books. “The velocity imparted by the new media [he labels the new media “the instantaneous and essentially cost-free dissemination of thoughts, most of which should never have been thought, let alone given written expression”] somehow is an incentive for intemperate discourse. Books, however, have long gestations and, usually, careful editors.”

5) BINGE READING! For an in-depth staff meeting discussion, assign the column, “In Praise of Binge Reading” (April 19, 2020) to team members. George Will urges us to “mute Netflix long enough” to read several think pieces on deep reading. He quotes Adam Garfinkle’s work that suggests “government’s problem-solving failures reflect not just hyper-partisanship and polarization but the thin thinking of a political class of non-deep readers who are comfortable only with the shallowness of tweets.”

6) “THE PAST IS NOT DEAD.” Will’s fascinating look-backs at selected columns from 2008 to 2020 are, ironically, forward-looking. He quotes William Faulkner, “The past is not dead. It is not even past.” You’ll appreciate these issues under the George Will microscope:
• “A Nation Not Made by Flimsy People”
• “The Perverse Fecundity of a Perfect Failure”
• “The Announcement of a Presidential Candidate You Will Never Hear”
• “How Not to Select Presidential Candidates”
• “Anti-Capitalist Conservatives versus Progressives: The Narcissism of Small Differences”
• “Bootleggers and Baptists, Together Yet Again”

7) TOO MUCH POTUS! “There is very little in this book about recent presidents. What William Wordsworth felt about the world—that is ‘too much with us’—is how I feel about almost all presidents.” From a presidential message (tweet?) you will never hear: “I will not ruin any more American evenings with televised State of the Union addresses. I will mail my thoughts on that subject to Congress from ‘time to time,’ as the Constitution directs.”

8) FOOTBALL/BASEBALL. Interestingly, the author has strong feelings about football (remember—he’s a baseball guy), especially the brutality, concussions, and brain injuries. His first of 11 columns in Section 11, “Games,” features his 2012 column, “Are You Ready for Some Autopsies?” He bookends the sports section with a sweet column for Dodgers fans, “Vin Scully, Craftsman” (Sept. 4, 2016), marking Scully’s final season in the broadcast booth (eight years in Brooklyn and 59 in Los Angeles!).

9) CRISIS COACHING. George Will highlights his fair share of CRISIS issues in the book—and the historical look-backs are helpful in making sense (if we can) of the current crisis in Ukraine. Section 9, “Darkness Remembered” features 10 columns on the German resistance, Eichmann, falsification, China and Churchill, fascism, and authoritarianism. Not recommended for light beaching reading. In fact, sobering!

If you read or listen to one column every day for the next 192 days, you’ll widen your interests, deepen your insights, and enjoy fascinating conversations with family and friends. Email me on September 19, 2022 (192 days from now), when you’ve read (or listened to) the final pages of the book and the poignant column, “Lieutenant Colonel Jim Walton” (July 6, 2008)—about a solemn CACO (casualty assistance calls officer) visit to deliver sad news. (And sadly—being repeated every day now in Ukraine.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020, by George F. Will. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (18 hours, 55 minutes). And thanks to Hachette Book Group for sending a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Not every George Will column solves society’s deepest dilemmas. At your next staff meeting, invite a team member to read “The Plague of Denim” (2009). He quotes a WSJ writer who writes that wearing denim is a manifestation of “the modern trend toward undifferentiated dressing, in which we all strive to look equally shabby.” DISCUSS! Why did Vin Scully wear a coat and tie in the Dodgers broadcast booth for 67 years (not a typo!), yet denim (with unholy knee holes) is the accepted clerical vestments in many Protestant churches today? What’s the deal? Has anyone thought deeply about this enigma?

2) In The President’s Club (read my review), the authors note that John F. Kennedy asked Clark Clifford for counsel on how to navigate the transition into the White House. Kennedy’s team, said Clifford, “behaved as though history had begun with them. The new elite did not appear to show much interest in history.” He added, “I regarded this as a form of arrogance.” So…in your next transition, how do you avoid the triple sins of ego, ignorance, and arrogance?

Warning! Failure to prepare—in advance—for a crisis will exacerbate the crisis. Read The Crisis Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets.

The 20 Buckets Countdown:
The Crisis Bucket (#13) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Crisis Bucket Core Competency: “We are prepared for most crises. We have plans in place and a crisis facilitator trained, and we drill our team members frequently and spontaneously. Yet we trust in God, who is our Protector, Comforter and Sustainer."

Harry Truman said: “The only thing new in this world is the history you haven’t read.” To sharpen your competencies in the Crisis Bucket, consider reading how other leaders and columnists have addressed American and global crisis moments:

• See the four books highlighted on the Crisis Bucket webpage, including: Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War, by David A. Nichols.

See also:
• The Time of Our Lives, by Peggy Noonan (read my review)
• The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington, by Robert D. Novak (read my review)

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Check out John’s new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with new reviews of four books:

[ ] PIC #1: Books Are Tremendous: What They Represent to Some of Those Who Have Written, Read and Loved Them, by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, Editor – (read review)
[ ] PIC #2: Roar: Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late), by Michael Clinton – (read review)
[ ] PIC #3: Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In, by Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen – (read review)
[ ] PIC #4: Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts, by Neil Hoyne – (read review)

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Do you have a deep and historical understanding of your customer? Do your communications compliment your customer’s intelligence? Is your social media uplifting, informative, and inspiring—or just boring? Do your customers wear denim? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: George Will

February 23, 2022

Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier

Issue No. 507 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights the tenth book I’ve reviewed by Ram Charan, the esteemed business consultant, author, and CEO adviser. He warns “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is terrible advice! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here my review of Fit at Last, by Ken Blanchard.

Worst Advice Ever: “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It”

Pssst! Here’s a little secret. Please keep it quiet.

When reading a new book, I’ll often scan the chapter titles and pick one chapter to read first. If it’s satisfying, enlightening, or inspiring—I’ll keep going. If not, I’ll close the book and move on. I only review and recommend books I’ve read thoroughly for Your Weekly Staff Meeting. Unlike other critics, I won’t waste my time and your time on a book that isn’t helpful. (Click here to read why one book guru gives a book only 50 pages to rope him in.)

So…for this issue’s book, I started with Chapter 6, “Rethinking the Myth ‘If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.'” Bingo! It sucked me in—and I devoured the entire book. Every CEO and board member (including nonprofit leaders) will find fresh insights in Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier, by Ram Charan and Anish Batlaw (168 pages, Jan. 25, 2022).

Ram Charan’s commentary in Chapter 6 cautions that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is faulty thinking. “This has been the worst wisdom for centuries.” In one of six “real-world case studies” featured in Talent, co-author Anish Batlaw describes his work with Hemnet, Sweden’s dominant online site for real estate listings. Was the current CEO (they called him “John”) capable of growing the company? Was “John” a growth-oriented CEO?

Ram Charan notes that Hemnet was not “broken” when General Atlantic invested in it, “so many might have said it needed no repairs. This would have been an error. It faced some great opportunities, but, to seize them, it needed some fixes.”

Yikes! Imagine…if your organization had a “90 percent market share and about 88 percent awareness among consumers,” and had “an implicit value of $214 million.” “John” is doing a great job, right? If it ain’t broke…

NOPE! (Or as they say in Sweden, NEF!). General Atlantic, with a 61 percent stake, believed a new growth-oriented CEO could rocket Hemnet to new levels. So…the Hemnet board said adjö (goodbye) to “John” and, with the help of the lead deal partner at General Atlantic, they recruited a growth-oriented CEO—in less than 100 days!

Not easy! Ram Charan comments, The lead deal partner “sensed that something was not right, and he had the conviction to trust his instinct and engage Anish [co-author of Talent]. He trusted the data that Anish presented to him and eventually made the tough decision to agree to replace the CEO. This took incredible courage, as he had to go back to the Investment Committee just after completing the deal and tell them the company needed a new CEO.”

He adds, “You have to make tough decisions at times. Too often, leaders hang on to talent for too long because they are loyal or have performed well in the past. The loyalty needs to be to the business. The company comes first.”

That’s my favorite chapter, but the other short chapters all tie for second place! (Did I mention my Swedish heritage?) Here’s why you’ll devour and quote from this book in future staff and board meetings:

THE TALENT PLAYBOOK. The introduction paints a new vision for the Chief HR Officer’s role—with a nod to COVID—and “reinvents the C-suite operating manual.” Anish Batlaw’s approach “parts way with old practices, gut instinct, and speculation, and drills down into operational reality…”

Why the focus on talent? The authors document how, with the right talent, organizations can speed past sleepy, incremental growth and experience 2X, 3X, 5X and greater growth (over two to five years or so)—with the right talent. But this warning: there will be “bumps” and “jolts” along the way.

Chapter 1: EVANGELIST FOR TALENT. Bill Ford, General Atlantic’s CEO, is quoted in Chapter 1 with this: “Before, we focused on having the right investment, the right price and deal structure. But we’ve learned talent is as important as all of those things.” The authors add, “By his own account, Bill has become something of an evangelist for talent…”

“True leaders,” believes Bill Ford, “don’t have irrational goals—they’re rational, even when they seem unattainable.” And this: “I think about succession all the time.”

Chapter 2: TALENT BANK. Anish Batlaw’s unique approach to building a “Talent Bank” will change your thinking about building your executive team. “A great CEO establishes high standards for the leadership team and builds the team in the context of not where the company is today, but where it will be in the future.”

The case study on Oak Street Health includes Batlaw’s six-point evaluation of Oak Street’s CEO which included: Track Record, Strategic Thinking, Learning Agility, Drive for Results, Team Leadership, and Interpersonal Influence. (Not a bad list!) Don’t skip Ram Charan’s comments about the “War for Talent” and why compensation was benchmarked against larger companies—where Oak Street would eventually be. The right talent enabled Oak Street Health to build "an outstanding patient experience with a 90 percent Net Promoter Score." Click here for more on NPS.

Chapter 3: PREPARING A CEO FOR HYPERGROWTH. I’ve mentioned my “Page 25 Standard” in previous reviews. Talent waits until Page 55 to deliver a fascinating three-column implementation chart on the UK fashion company, Depop: Phase 1: Planning, Phase 2: Workshop, and Phase 3: Adoption. Ram Charan’s commentary follows Anish Batlaw’s case study at the end of each chapter. Charan’s insights: “Fundamental to Anish’s approach is hiring talent ahead of the curve.” Plus, the benefits of moving quickly. Charan is no stranger to the talent topic. See his books below.

Chapter 4: NO WAY…WOULD YOU TAKE THIS JOB! “A Risk-taking Leader Lifts a Corporate Phoenix From the Ashes” is must-reading for board members. If your organization is struggling, why would a highly qualified CEO candidate risk saying yes to you? And…how do you inspire a search firm to begin a search without a compensation agreement? This case study on Vishal Retail, a chain of Indian hypermarkets is beyond fascinating—and instructive. (It took me back to my 2009 review of the equally fascinating book, Being Indian.)

THERE’S MUCH MORE. I’ve already highlighted Chapter 6 for you (“If It Ain’t Broke…), and you’ll find more gems in the remaining chapters:
• Chapter 5 - “To be successful at Johnson & Johnson, you have to be exceptional at strategy but at the same time, immerse yourself in detail and nail execution.”
• Chapter 7 – Four themes from General Atlantic’s deal makers on what makes an “A” CEO. Example: “Makes decisions with speed and conviction, but pauses for decisions that are ‘high impact and irreversible.’”
• Chapter 8 – Read about the key role that the CHRO played in “Building a Leadership Team for a Successful Merger.”
• Chapter 9 – Maybe the most important reason to read the authors’ conclusion is this: “…the War for Talent will only get more intense. Proven leaders with demonstrated records of high performance are going to be pursued as never before. It will be more difficult, and more expensive, to recruit and retain them.”

REMINDER: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” has “been the worst wisdom for centuries.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier, by Ram Charan and Anish Batlaw. (And thanks to Fortier PR and IdeaPress Publishing for sending a review copy.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) It takes courage for a CEO and/or a board to make gutsy talent decisions. In his book, Owning Up, Ram Charan asks, “Are we well prepared to name our next CEO?” He adds, “There is nothing more important for a CEO than having the right strategy and the right choice of goals, and for the board, the right strategy is second only to having the right CEO.” Question: Do we have the right strategy and right choice of goals?
2) In the chapter, “Vision Growth Must Equal Leader Growth,” in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, Dan Busby and I include a lesson from my early days as a very young camp director. The subtitle: “Caution! Vision-casting often backfires.” (Read the chapter online here.) Question: Do we have growth-oriented senior leaders? If not, what’s our next step?

Wisdom from the Board Bucket! Master the four phases of board recruitment: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation, and Engagement.

The 20 Buckets Countdown:
The Board Bucket (#14) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Board Bucket Core Competency: “We believe that board members must sense God’s call to serve on the board of directors. We invest time in cultivating, recruiting, orienting and engaging board members in their strategic role as stewards of our organization. The first step in organizational sustainability is to inspire board members to be highly committed and generous partners in ministry.”

Ram Charan has written 31 books and, so far, I’ve reviewed 10 of his insight-packed resources, including:

BOARD GOVERNANCE
• Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan (read my review)
• Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way, by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem (read my review)

TALENT
• The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan (read my review)
• Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis, by Ram Charan (read my review)

PLANNING AND EXECUTION
• The Amazon Management System: The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value for Both Customers and Shareholders, by Ram Charan and Julia Yang (read my review)
• Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan (read my review)

Note: If you’re a listener (not a reader), you’ll find many of Ram Charan’s audio books at Libro.fm.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. If you’re thinking “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is still smart wisdom—what if you’re wrong? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: Ram Charan, talent

February 20, 2022

Working Remotely: A Framework for Success

NOTE! An updated version of the book I reviewed in Issue No. 486 (new title and new cover, etc.) was published on Jan. 23, 2022. Click on the title to order from Amazon: Working Remotely: A Framework for Success, by Nick B Nicholaou, General Editor (Jan. 23, 2022).

Issue No. 486 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features an expert-loaded book on working remotely—and a 30-minute interview (live today). Listen as George P. Wood interviews John on mistake-making for the Influence Podcast. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book John wrote with his son, Jason, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned.

Working from home? Nick Nicholaou and 10 colleagues deliver a framework for success in their new book.

Working Remotely: Accountability & Measurements

Yikes! Recent news reports say many organizations will continue to allow staff to work remotely—due to COVID. But there are downsides.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL REVIEW, published on Sept. 2, 2021.

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Tags: working remotely

February 17, 2022

Fit at Last by Ken Blanchard and Tim Kearin

Issue No. 506 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests a book by Ken Blanchard with a do-over option for your unfulfilled January fitness goals. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here an excellent companion book to this issue’s topic, How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters.

“Would you rather exercise for 1 hour a day or be dead for 24 hours a day?”

When Ken Blanchard’s son noticed that his dad was “gimping around and looking a lot like Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Scott admonished him:

“Dad, I’ve heard you kid around and say to mom that when a tour bus unloads passengers at a hotel in Hawaii, 35 women will get off the bus and only 5 men, because the rest of the guys are dead.”

So…Ken Blanchard, bestselling author and management guru, knew it was time to adopt a healthier lifestyle—so he’d be one of those 5 men on the bus!

Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and for All chronicles Blanchard’s three-year “Fit at Last” journey from 2010 to 2013—with the savvy help of his co-author, Tim Kearin, a fitness coach and former director of strength training and conditioning at the United States Military Academy.

Perhaps…your New Year’s Resolutions commitments (remember those?) are a dim memory and your scale is barking back at you this February? You’re not alone! Ken Blanchard (now 82) confesses to a history of failed commitments—and this is NOT his first book on getting fit.

Back in 1986, Blanchard and his wife, Marjorie, wrote The One Minute Manager Gets Fit, along with co-author D. W. Edington. Just 128 pages in the classic one minute manager story format, that book covered fitness basics including a dozen healthy lifestyle habits such as 1) “I love my job (most of the time),” and 4) I know three methods to reduce stress that do not include the use of drugs or alcohol.”

Perhaps…you can identify with Blanchard. In fact, Fit at Last (2014) is stunningly transparent. Writing about his good intentions—yet soft on long-term commitment—Blanchard even anticipated your push-back!

“Come on, Blanchard. I’m sick of hearing about this yo-yo weight and exercise thing with you. You write about motivation, you speak about motivation, and you even wrote a book about fitness. Why couldn’t you keep your commitment to your commitment and keep on going with your fitness journey?”

You probably already guessed—I also needed a February pep talk. Hence…this book. While I’ve been working with a personal trainer for five months (amazingly helpful), I’m ready to move from short-term goals to a long-term healthy lifestyle. (And at my age, “long-term” may be subject to discussion.)

Fit at Last surprised me. The book is innovative and inspiring and the approach can be customized to your individual needs. Here are four elements that will capture your attention (and maybe your commitment):

#1. DO OR DIE? “Would you rather exercise for 1 hour a day or be dead for 24 hours a day?” That’s from page 23 about the importance of having three reasons or purposes to help you keep your commitment to your commitment:
• A health-driven purpose.
• A cause-driven purpose.
• A personally-driven purpose (the most difficult).

#2. MEMORABLE COMMENTARY. Each chapter includes a “Ken” commentary followed by a “Tim” commentary. Both are truth-tellers! Tim Kearin had worked with Blanchard numerous times before—but was unsuccessful at inspiring Blanchard to keep the faith year-round. “Ken and I had been down this road many times before. In years past, on or about Groundhog Day, I would get ‘that call’ from Ken.” But this time, Ken called Tim in November 2010—not in February! The back-and-forth format makes for lively and entertaining reading—just 126 pages, plus three back-of-the-book resource sections (about 50 pages), including:
• Pearls of Wisdom from five experts
• Understanding Exercise and Fitness: Tim’s Toolbox
• Developing Your Own Fitness Program

#3. SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP® II MODEL. After reading The One Minute Manager, or The New One Minute Manager, you likely also read Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership®.

Fit at Last is brilliant! Blanchard and Kearin discuss Ken’s fitness journey using the four Development Levels from Situational Leadership. Where are you?
• D1—Enthusiastic Beginner: Low competence, high commitment
• D2—Disillusioned Learner: Low to some competence, low commitment
• D3—Capable but Cautious Performer: Moderate to high competence, variable commitment
• D4—Self-Reliant Achiever: High competence, high commitment

Next…what leadership style (help) will you need to succeed—long-term? Once you set SMART goals (their acronym: Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable), you can discern the help you need along the S1 to S4 continuum: Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating.

Applying this leadership/management approach to fitness is…well, brilliant. It opened my eyes (and body) to assessing where I was in my journey and—most importantly—why.

BONUS! In 2012, Ken Blanchard gave a TedX Talk in San Diego on the three aspects of collaboration (a question he is often asked). While he didn’t talk about fitness, you’ll immediately see how a collaborative approach to fitness will better ensure success. Blanchard notes, “You can’t learn everything by yourself.” Click here to view the TedX Talk—and how to collaborate effectively with different personalities and egos.

View Ken Blanchard’s 16-minute TedX Talk on collaboration. Fascinating!

#4. BEFORE AND AFTER. Honest! The dust cover of the hardback book includes Blanchard’s “Before” and “After” photos! And on page 125 for all the world to see—Kearin spotlights Blanchard’s vital statistics in three columns: Nov. 25, 2010, Nov. 25, 2011, and Nov. 25, 2013. (Email me when you’ve posted your own three-year stats on Facebook!) Example:
• Body weight (Blanchard lost 44.5 pounds!)
• Height (he gained one-half inch!)
• Balance on left foot (2010: 2 seconds; 2013: 120 seconds)
• Waist: navel level (Blanchard dropped from 45 to 40 inches)

Ready to get fit? To order from Amazon, click on the title for Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and for All, by Ken Blanchard and Tim Kearin.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Ken Blanchard has written over 65 books and when he celebrated his 70th birthday, he invited all of his co-authors to a special party—celebrating their collaborative work. Name five to 10 collaborators you would invite to your 70th (or 80th!) birthday party.
2) Blanchard and Kearin emphasize the importance of building a strong support system to help you accomplish your fitness SMART goals (friends, colleagues, coaches, etc.). Are you ready to get fit? If so, who is in your support system?

Wisdom from the Budget Bucket! “When you’re in a hole—stop digging!”

Buckets Countdown:
The Budget Bucket (#15) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Budget Bucket Core Competency: “We operate with integrity and are accountable for best practices in our financial management. We mentor our team members so they understand the financial implications of our programs. We monitor our progress monthly.”

Over the years, I’ve collected my favorite financial axioms, including:
• “We’re nonprofit—but we didn’t plan it that way.”
• “Nonprofit is a tax designation—not a management philosophy.”
• “When you’re in a hole—stop digging.”
• “You didn’t end the year in the black—if your roof is still leaking.”

Visit the Budget Bucket to view several finance book recommendations, including the 2022 book, Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers, by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Click here to read my review.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Out-of-date or out-of-shape? Do your Design, Digital, Marketing, and Social Media tools need a fitness review?. Contact Pearpod Media.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: fitness, Ken Blanchard, situational leadership

February 8, 2022

The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness

Issue No. 505 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers a laugh-a-page treatise on wokeness from the editors of The Babylon Bee. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my 2021 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936): “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”

“Blessed are those who don’t feel like working, for they shall be given free money.”

I’m thinking that readers of Your Weekly Staff Meeting fit nicely into two groups:
• Group 1: Halfway through this book review, you’ll unsubscribe. (Nice knowing you.)
• Group 2: You’ll blame me again for another must-read book you just ordered.

The authors of The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness don’t hold back. They urge you to check all the boxes to certify your wokeness. “It’s important to remember that your problems are not your fault. They are the fault of the oppressor class." They add:
• “Your parents? Oppressors.
• Your teachers? Oppressors.
• People with a different skin color than you? Oppressors.
• Anyone who disagrees with your woke worldview? You guessed it. Oppressors.”

With hilarious (and woke) graphics on every page (I double-checked: every page), the authors list other oppressors in your life: “your neighbors, your boss, white people, Elon Musk, Amazon, your babysitter, that guy who cut you off in traffic, and everyone who has it better than you.”

WAIT! Before your unsubscribe…hear me out.

If you’ve lived on Planet Earth for more than a week, you’ve likely chuckled over the Babylon Bee’s satirical tongue-in-check headlines and stories. Their brand: “Fake news you can trust.” Recently:
• “To Ensure No Sex Scandals, CNN Replaces All Anchors With Mike Pence”
• “9 Signs You're Watching Too Much Fox News” (“Your bedroom pillow, your throw pillows, and your couch cushions are all MyPillows. Oh no! You've been brainwashed!”)
• “'The Generation After Mine Is The Worst,' Says Every Generation In Human History”
• Visit the Babylon Bee website for more.

WAIT! Maybe you should read a LOL book that also makes your blood boil. (After all, you’re a big fan of “tolerance,” right?) The authors promise to teach you “How to Take Your Wokeness to the Next Level by Canceling Friends, Breaking Windows, and Burning It All to the Ground.” (That’s the book’s subtitle.)

“'It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it,' G.K. Chesterton observed more than 100 years ago.” That’s the opening salvo in Kyle Mann’s Nov. 9, 2021, opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. The Babylon Bee’s editor-in-chief added, “The Laughing Prophet, as he was known, pointed out that people who are secure in their beliefs need not fear mockery. It’s those with shaky doctrines who can’t tolerate laughter. Today’s political radicals hold their views with the fervor of a religion, and by Chesterton’s measure they’re rather weak creeds.”

In Mann’s WSJ piece, “Why the Woke Can’t Take a Joke,” he writes, “Satire in all its forms—from online satirical papers like the Babylon Bee and the Onion to the pre-Trump days of Stephen Colbert and John Oliver—is the little boy turning the world on its head by pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. The kid isn’t scheming to start a political revolution or even really telling a joke. He’s dryly stating the obvious, not having yet learned the rules of polite society.”

If you’re ancient enough to also remember and appreciate The Wittenburg Door (the typo was unintentional, they say) or Lark News (funniest piece: “Church members struggle to memorize mission statement”), then maybe you’re a Group 2 zealot.

Sorry—before you unsubscribe—I should tell you more about the book. The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness leaves no sacred worldview unskewered. My favorite chapters:
• “The True Story of American History” (“Learn how you were brainwashed into thinking America is an OK place.”)
• “Fighting the Culture War” (What to do if a company won’t serve you chicken sandwiches on Sunday? Boycott!)
• “How to Make Sure Your Church Is as Woke as Jesus” (“He fed five thousand people by raiding a nearby village and forcing them to pay their fair share.” The authors spotlight a dozen woke Bible characters, including the robbers in the good Samaritan story.)
• “Follow the Science” (“The divine words of SCIENCE are brought down to us by infallible people in white coats called ‘scientists.’ Scientists are always in complete agreement with each other, forming a vast consensus.”)

With a few woke edits, several Bible verses have been “updated to reflect correct thinking,” such as Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are those who don’t feel like working, for they shall be given free money.”

There’s more, but I’ll get canceled if I say too much. By the way, don’t skip the 17-page “Glossary of Wokeness.” Example: “Systemic: A magic word that makes any kind of oppression sound much worse. Racism? Meh. Systemic racism? Scary!”

While the authors include everyone’s new favorite word, “equity,” I didn’t find my favorite woke word, “existential.” But then Peter Funt came to the rescue in his Feb. 1 WSJ feature, “Roll Over, Kierkegaard, It’s All ‘Existential.’” He writes, “Here’s my question: Why are writers and politicians today trying so hard to shoehorn the word existential into sentences?” Another must-read!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness, by Kyle Mann, Ethan Nicolle, Joel Berry, and Gavin Yee. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (4 hours, 20 minutes).

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Pop Quiz #1: OK…around the room—and everyone must answer. Name a book you read (or listened to) in the last five years that you still disagree with—but you read in order to learn the other person’s viewpoint or worldview.
2) The authors note that “in his woke instruction manual, 1984, author George Orwell wrote about how important it is to control the dictionary. The one who controls the language controls the past, present, and future.” Pop Quiz #2: Define the following: hate speech, mansplaining, socialism, justice, climate change, and Dr. Seuss.

Great Idea from the Delegation Bucket! Start a DON’T-DO LIST and delete dumb delegation!

Buckets Countdown:
The Delegation Bucket (#16) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Delegation Bucket Core Competency: “We are experts at appropriate delegation. We invite team members to accept assignments based on their strengths. We value organized delegation and believe in the Point Person Principle. We track our to-do lists and we add to our don’t-do lists."

Visit the Delegation Bucket to download the one-page “Dysfunctional Delegation Diseases” (Gut-Check Assessment). Where are you on the continuum?
• Code Green. I’m pretty healthy. This isn’t a problem.
• Code Yellow. I have this disease occasionally.
• Code Red: Yikes! I need to see a Delegation Doctor!

Delete Dumb Delegation! You’re probably working off your To-Do List today, but do you have a Don’t-Do List? Read the Delegation Bucket chapter and then download the “Delete Dumb Delegation” poster for your cubicle, office, or break room (or the refrigerator in your home office, maybe?).

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. All humor aside, where is your organization positioning itself on the wokeness continuum? Are you offensive—and turning people off? Are you authentic—and growing your base? Who’s telling you the truth? You may need outside counsel. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: Babylon Bee, woke, wokeness

January 25, 2022

Exponential: Transform Your Brand by Empowering Instead of Interrupting

Issue No. 504 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting quotes branding author Jeff Rosenblum: “When every brand is trying to be emotional, sometimes the bravest thing a brand can do is be boring.” (Wait! What…?) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my 2021 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year.

Exponential author, Jeff Rosenblum, says that "the greatest advertisement of all time” was the iPod billboard, “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

Move From Interrupting to Empowering Customers
Oh, my! What’s not to like about an author who includes his father’s endorsement in his new book? (Today, Exponential remains at “#1 New Release in Marketing and Consumer Behavior” on Amazon—more than a week after it was released.) Jeff Rosenblum’s father writes:

“I thought my son was a complete knucklehead who couldn’t construct a sentence, but this book is legitimately good. He said if I write a recommendation, he’ll buy me lunch. So, get this book.” (Neil Rosenblum, author’s father and market research teacher)

Author Jeff Rosenblum attacks his topic like a James Bond villain! His premise in Exponential: you can “transform your brand by empowering instead of interrupting.”

And speaking of James Bond, numerous chapters—including Chapters 1, 3, and 8—almost explode off the page with heart-beating action (blood and more blood!). But his literary device has a point (he admits to a bait-and-switch). “We began with a gory story about how I nearly severed a kid’s thumb. From here on, I promise that the blood spilled will be more metaphorical than literal. But the disruptions to the status quo will be no less dramatic.”

Who should read this book?
• Marketing, PR, and Fundraising team members
• Savvy CEOs (who intuitively have recognized the insanity of their same old/same old marketing blunders and blah/blah/blah messaging)
• Board members (The book will shock you! The author says that those in the Gen Z age bracket “ignore the vast majority of TV advertisements.”)
• Consumers (if you want confirmation about the dismal state of advertising and marketing today)

Jeff Rosenblum socks-it-to-you:
• “Brands stand naked in front of their consumers. They are now defined by their behavior, not their messaging.”
• “Advertising is shifting from technology-fueled messages that interrupt the consumer journey to data-connected content that carries people through the consumer journey.”
• “After many years of grinding that builds an army of evangelists, most don’t realize that a different set of processes will be needed when exponential growth kicks in.”

Before your next marketing team meeting delivers the worst of group-think recommendations, post this on your wall: “This new type of advertising doesn’t need to be a Patagonia-inspired public service initiative promising to save the world. While those efforts are great, most people don’t wake up in the morning expecting brands to hug the trees and save the manatees. They simply want their own lives improved, one small step at a time.”

To be clear, Rosenblum affirms, “Advertising is not dead.” But…the current dead end path of advertising is “institutional insanity.” He’s stumped why more people in the ad industry don’t understand the new path: empowering the consumer. “So they keep doing the same old things—variations on interruptive ads—with results that get worse and worse.”

Instead, check out the Transport for London videos, such as “WhoDunnIt.” The author notes the clever attention-grabber line—repeated in the series of videos: “This is an awareness test.” Click here for the scene—reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery.

WHO DUNNIT? Test your awareness competencies with this very clever two-minute ad from London Transport. Click here.

The author spotlights best and worst advertising practices. Alarming—but delicious reading!
• Department store guru John Wanamaker’s quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” (Rosenblum’s research puts that figure at 90 percent wasted! Yikes!)
• Early in his agency career, Rosenblum “became obsessed with using data to tell stories to help my clients take action. I turned the walls of our office into boards that looked like a scene in a TV police show.”
• How an empowerment approach conceived of a rap contest for a motorcycle client that turned the tables on who pays who—and drew hundreds of thousands to the website. (Did you know Michael Jordan owned a motorcycle racing team?)
• Why the upcoming Super Bowl ad spend-a-thon is pure insanity—and how Jeep’s Groundhog Day commercial, starring Bill Murray, won high marks. Yet (gulp!) when wanting to buy a Jeep, the author discovered that Jeep’s website “felt completely disconnected from the hoopla” of the commercial. View the video here.

View Jeep’s Groundhog Day commercial starring Bill Murray (1-minute).

When COVID triggered a recession in the spring of 2020, learn why discount shoppers (those who thrive on Sale! Sale! Sale!), ultimately “abandoned retailers that they didn’t feel emotionally connected to, and why J. Crew had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While many may blame that outcome on the pandemic, other retailers like Restoration Hardware, who built their entire models around empowerment, doubled their market cap during the same period.”

Hmmm. Perhaps members and attenders at your own church have demonstrated similar behaviors—due to little, if any, emotional connection before COVID. So next weekend perhaps, they will get their coffee and donuts—and check off the box, “I Attended Church Today!” from the comfort of their Lazy-Boys.

Note: This “empowerment” insight is not just more mumble/jumble ad copy rhetoric. After the publisher of The Wall Street Journal penned his annual “Report to Our Readers” message, I read four letters to the editor in the Jan. 22 print edition—oozing with love and appreciation for their Monday to Saturday reading rituals. Stunning!

You will resonate with Rosenblum’s brutal analysis of advertising interruptions. “Even today, I’m amazed at how many people in my industry act as if folks are still patiently sitting through TV commercials, admiring the flashy banner ads on their laptops, or watching closely as a YouTube pre-roll delays the video they really want to see. This kind of institutional insanity in corporate America is based on faith in a reach-and-frequency model, which the advertising industry has spent decades perfecting.”

He adds, “It’s a numbers game where the score is kept by how many people you can reach and how frequently you can interrupt them with a brand message.” Then this: “Marketers keep making ads, and the audience keeps running away.”

So he pushes back: “…who feels good about being interrupted?” He skewers the financial services industry—you’ll endure about 1,000 digital ads from them! He admits, “the data proves that the approach gets some results, but I equate it to trying to kill a grizzly bear with a BB gun.” (I’m guessing PETA is not one of his clients!)

If I were still a CEO today, I’d bring four books and four Chick-fil-A gift cards to my next weekly meeting and inspire four people to each report on a book over the next four weeks. ("Please contrast and compare.") To add a little Hoopla! (aka "bribe")—I might create a Super Bowl theme and ask everyone to rate the TV ads and the company’s approach: Interruptions or Empowerment? The four books:

[ ] Exponential: Transform Your Brand by Empowering Instead of Interrupting, by Jeff Rosenblum (order from Amazon)
[ ] Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers (read my review)
[ ] Brain Rules for Work (read my review and also Chapter 3 of Exponential, “This Is Your Brain on Advertising”)
[ ] From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers...into Lifelong Fans (read my review)
[ ] Bonus Book! The Care and Feeding of Ideas, by Bill Backer. Last year, Paul Palmer recommended this 1993 book by the creative mind behind the Coca-Cola commercial, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” (Sorry…that earworm is now stuck in your head!)

There is SO much more in Rosenblum's book, but you'll have to read it. Learn why the classic "beer test" interviewing technique is misguided. How to spot people who pad their resumes by asking Elon Musk's interview question. And...how "stack ranking" almost destroyed Microsoft.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Exponential: Transform Your Brand by Empowering Instead of Interrupting, by Jeff Rosenblum. And thanks to Fortier PR and McGraw Hill for sending me a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) The author writes, “The key to exponential growth is actually being great, not saying you’re great. Behavior over messaging. Authenticity over image.” So…do we believe our own press releases? Are we truly empowering our clients and customers—or are we incessantly interrupting them and not blessing them?
2) Rosenblum notes, “When every brand is trying to be emotional, sometimes the bravest thing a brand can do is be boring.” (Wait! What…?) He adds, “Are you using your time and talent to create a modern version of spam, or are you creating content that people would actually go out of their way to enjoy?” OK…let’s confront the brutal facts of our current advertising and marketing strategy and tactics.

Great Idea from the Operations Bucket! “Every Friday morning with coffee, host a Bagels & Bureaucracy stand-up meeting. Award Starbucks gift cards to the best ideas for ruthlessly eliminating bureaucracy in your organization!” Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

Buckets Countdown:
The Operations Bucket (#17) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Operations Bucket Core Competency: “We affirm the high and noble calling of management and the spiritual gift of administration. We reject the fallacy that leaders lead and managers manage. We relentlessly pursue both effective and efficient operational solutions to organizational challenges. We are experts at ruthlessly eliminating costly bureaucracy that impedes results. We are yes men and women!”

Bagels & Bureaucracy: Great Idea from the Operations Bucket! “Every Friday morning with coffee, host a Bagels & Bureaucracy stand-up meeting. Award Starbucks gift cards to the best ideas for ruthlessly eliminating bureaucracy in your organization!”

Visit the Operations Bucket to read why Olan Hendrix writes, "Leaders must learn to manage, and managers must learn to lead.” Plus, check out the book recommendations including this WW2 thriller, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victor (watch for the April 22, 2022, movie and view the trailer here).

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Whew! The advertising world is changing. If your marketing team is under pressure—but still using worn-out strategies, we can help. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: empowering marketing

January 19, 2022

How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters

Issue No. 503 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting says that you can probably do one big project every five years. Here’s how to begin the process and the project. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my 2021 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year.

BAD NEWS/GOOD NEWS. Bad News: my future co-author and I have cancelled our celebration cruise. Good News: Michael Bungay Stanier’s new book, How to Begin (on creating Worthy Goals), was just released!

Memo to “Mike” – Cancel the Cruise!
I have a good friend. We’ll call him “Mike.” So anyway… “Mike” and I had big dreams of co-authoring a book on SMART goals. Then in 2018, I noticed a bestselling author stole our dreams and had the audacity to write his own book on SMARTER goals.

But…there’s always room for another book—especially with our expansive platforms, branding, and unique positioning. Right, “Mike?”

Not anymore. The train has left the station. It’s the final nail in the coffin. It’s… (OK, I’ll stop).

MY MEMO TO "MIKE"
Hey, “Mike.” Remember that bestselling book we were going to write? The good news: it’s done. The bad news: bestselling author Michael Bungan Stanier (aka MBS) just wrote it. And frankly, it’s at least 10 times better, 20 times funnier, and easily 100 times more helpful than anything we could have cobbled together. (We’ll have to cancel that “got-the-book-done celebration cruise” with our wives. I haven’t told Joanne yet.)

How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters is the complete package. The author of The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap (my 2020 book-of-the-year) released How to Begin last week. And apparently, he couldn’t wait to begin his book—so his first paragraph is on the front cover! (“Mike,” why didn’t you think of that?)

“Mike,” here’s the big idea. MBS says you can do maybe one “big” project every five years. But don’t meander into it. Don’t procrastinate. Just begin—but use a process. (He says that a good process is “a thing of beauty.” I resonate with his passion!)

The author has tested his process with thousands of people—and, he says, “A good process is scalable. That means it’s understandable, can be taught and learned, and can spread. You can take it, adapt it, and make it your own. You can use it by itself or work it through with others.”

“Mike,” you’ll remember my “page 25 standard”—that a book needs to deliver the meat and potatoes no later than (and often on) page 25. MBS showcases his Venn diagram for his Worthy Goal on page 34. (Close enough.)

Also for me, the measure of a great book, seminar, sermon, or process is this: Are the labels memorable? Can I do this? Answer: The How to Begin process checks all the boxes.

First…find a Worthy Goal. (He defines it brilliantly: “Thrilling, Important, and Daunting.”)

Second…Commit. (You gotta read about “False Starts” and “Mosquitoes.”)

Third…Cross the Threshold. (The “This/Not That” comparison chart on page 171 is…OK, I’ll say it again…brilliant. I could have used that in my consulting every day.)

But…here’s the kicker, “Mike.” Rather than rhapsodizing on and on with those annoying word salads—and blue-skying it—the author applies the process to his own two big projects. A work project and a non-work project. (Brilliant!) His marching orders for himself (and you): write three drafts.

So, like a fly on a wall (or maybe a mosquito—see below), we watch MBS walk through his three drafts. (Brilliant!)
• NON-WORK PROJECT (Draft #1): Create a new, top-notch podcast.
• WORK PROJECT (Draft #1): Stop being CEO of his company.

I won’t spotlight a spoiler here, but…Breaking News…MBS admits he was “an accidental CEO” and he isn’t that great at the job (“I don’t have the skills or the focus to grow and scale the company…”).

His second draft is very transparent on the why question. “…I’m committed to learning about, and role-modelling, how to give up power…” He worries about making an insincere fake power transfer “which is really a dump of all the things I don’t want to do, while holding on to all the cool bits and pieces.”

Yikes! I’m tempted to buy this book for dozens of “accidental CEOs.” Powerful! Watching MBS agonize over his drafts will release energy for shaping your own Worthy Goal—using his three-draft process.

DRAFT #1: The crappy draft! (“Brené Brown suggests ‘stormy’ as a gentler adjective.”) MBS says that his first attempt is always mediocre, tepid and confused. “It’s overstuffed and underbaked,” and it’s funny, “but not in a way that’s at all amusing.”

DRAFT #2: The active draft. Before you nail down the second draft, MBS has three tests for you: Spouse-ish (Thrilling), FOSO (Important), and Goldilocks Zone (Daunting.) He says you’ll likely get one of three responses from your “spouse-ish” person (spouse, friend, etc.). The Goldilocks Zone chart on page 52 is very helpful. Does this draft have a “just right” feel to your Worthy Goal?

Note: Your active draft needs active verbs and (no surprise) he delivers a list of 75 verbs. The book’s frequent QR codes rocket you to a resource-rich website. Check out the “Give a Verb, Take a Verb” section!

DRAFT #3: The final draft. Here…you’re further defining your project. Don’t strive for perfect. “Good enough” will often do. To arrive, MBS suggest you add a key word or phrase to fine-tune and intensify your Worthy Goal.

“Mike,” I’ve mentioned the brilliant labels in this book. My new word/concept of the year is “Mosquitoes.” They are “tiny and mighty.” MBS quotes Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop:

“If you think you’re too small to have an impact,
try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”

MBS adds, “Your Worthy Goal comes with a cloud of its own Mosquitoes. These Mosquitoes are all the things you’re currently doing and not doing—secular sins of commission and omission—that are contrary to this Worthy Goal you’ve set for yourself. You’ll find they’re numerous. Some are tiny, others more significant. No single Mosquito is fatal in and of itself, but together they irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract from your Worthy Goal.”

There’s so much more he packs into this gem: who you’re traveling with and who to leave behind, who’s in your Brain Trust group, the four archetypes you need around you (plus a “trickster” who “provokes you, challenges you, mocks you”), the 10-minute exercises (did I mention this book is both brilliant and practical?), and the humor. LOL humor!

While MBS acknowledges insights from authors (Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Liz Wiseman, David Allen, and others), I had to laugh out loud when he wrote this (one of dozens of creative call-outs):

“’Originality is just unacknowledged plagiarism.’ Appropriately, I haven’t been able to find the originator of this quote.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters, by Michael Bungay Stanier. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (3 hours, 11 minutes). And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.

P.S. So anyway, “Mike,” I guess the book we envisioned writing together is a success—likely a bestseller. (Except…we didn’t write it.) We both love branding. How about a book on branding? Oh, wait. An extraordinary book on branding, Exponential, was just published this week! (Read my review in the next issue.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) MBS says you can tackle, perhaps, one “big” project every five years. What’s your big work project and your big non-work project? Have you done the heavy lifting (three drafts) to write your Worthy Goal for both projects? Will you read How to Begin?
2) “Notice your Mosquitoes,” writes MBS. He labels our secular sins of commission and sins of omission as those things that “irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract from your Worthy Goal.” He describes his own Mosquitoes swarm (quite an honest list!). What does your swarm look like?

The 20 management buckets (core competencies) are highlighted in three broad arenas of Cause, Community, and Corporation. Has anyone on your team mastered the Systems Bucket? Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

Buckets Countdown:
The Systems Bucket (#18) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Systems Bucket Core Competency: “We are passionate about systems thinking and process management. We encourage systems people to use their gifts and mentor others for the benefit of our Cause and our Community arenas. We are careful not to tinker or over-tweak, yet we are tenacious about tickler systems. We have a heart to create systems that serve people, not the bureaucracy!”

Ball #1 in the Systems Bucket reads: “Add Process Management to Your Resume. Mentor your people to ‘think systems.’” My oldest brother, Paul (1939-2015), was one of those wonderful MBA types: trained as an engineer, but happiest when serving people in a general manager's role. He had brains and a heart. He mentored me often through the years, but I still need the brain transplant. Visit the Systems Bucket to read the “systems tribute” to Paul that was shared at his memorial service in 2015.

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Inspire your team to begin a buckets refresh over 20 days, 20 weeks, 20 months, or (if you’re young enough!), 20 years! Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Have big ideas and big projects—but need an outside nudge and the expertise to actually BEGIN the project? We have helped dozens of clients move from idea to implementation. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

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Tags: goals

January 12, 2022

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers

Issue No. 502 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting notes that “our brains process stories better than statistics.” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my 2021 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year.

Translate Dry Stats Into Emotional Moments!

Chip Heath, bestselling author, says that “our brains process stories better than statistics.” I was hooked on this brilliant concept in the introduction, but by page 25 (my measure of the “meat and potatoes” of a book), he nailed it—and I’ve already repeated this example to friends and family!

THE STATISTIC: “40% of U.S. adults do not always wash their hands after using the bathroom at home.”

THE STORY: “2 out of every 5 people you shake hands with may not have washed their hands between using the toilet and touching your hands.” (Yikes!)

You MUST read or listen to this book (hot-off-the-press yesterday): Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers, by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. I’ve already recommended this book to two CEOs, one national association executive, and a chief development officer. Just look at the tempting section and chapter titles on why you must “translate everything” to up your communication game:
• “Avoid Numbers: Perfect Translations Don’t Need Numbers”
• “Convert Abstract Numbers Into Concrete Objects”
• “Human Scale: Use the Goldilocks Principle to Make Your Numbers Just Right”

On using “emotional numbers—surprising and meaningful—to move people to think and act differently,” check out:
• How to avoid dry statistics by using transferred emotion (Florence Nightingale did this!)
• “Bring Your Number into the Room with a Demonstration” (brilliant!)
• “Selecting Combos That Hit the Right Notes Together”

EXAMPLES (Stats vs. Stories):
What’s the difference between a million and a billion? You could give the dry statistics—but where’s the fun in that? (And who would remember?). So the authors create a story. You enter a lottery to win either $1 million or $1 billion—with a catch. If you win, you must spend $50,000 per day. How long will it last?
• You win $1 million—and “you go bust after a mere 20 days.”
• Your friend wins $1 billion—and it would take her 55 YEARS to squander $50,000/day!

I know. Why read a book about numbers? First—the authors are hilarious! Noting that it would take about two generations to spend $1 billion, they add, “Almost 14 presidential terms” or “one wait to hear your name called at the DMV.” Lol.

The genius of this book (less than 150 fast-reading pages, plus almost 50 pages of fascinating notes) is in the mouth-watering examples of stats versus stories. (Oh, my. I could have used this during my CEO years. Just brilliant.)

STATISTIC (Accidental Deaths): “There are a little more than 50 million people in England, and around 50 deaths each day via accidental causes (slipping in the tub; being swept away in a flooding river; falling from a ladder). The daily risk of dying there in an accident is roughly 1 in a million.”

STORY (Accidental Deaths): “Your risk of dying unexpectedly in England on any given day is the same as your odds of having to guess which date someone is thinking of between 500 BC and August 1, 2200.”

ATTN: CDC AND NEWS ANCHORS! Please, please, please—read Making Numbers Count. Retain Chip Heath as your consultant. Most of your COVID statistics make no sense at all—there’s no context. Dry stats—meaningless. We can’t relate. Chip Heath can help you! Please!

Example: Remember the container ship, Ever Given, that ran aground in a sand storm and blocked the Suez Canal in 2021? Here’s the stat vs. story comparison by two news outlets describing the size:

STAT: “The container ship Ever Given is almost a quarter-mile long.”

STORY: “Imagine the Empire State Building tipped over on its side and blocking the canal. The container ship Ever Given is actually longer than the Empire State Building if you take off the tiny, needle-like antenna at the very top of the building.”

You get the idea: what’s more effective? Dry, mind-numbing stats or “Wow! That’s Amazing!” stories and examples that relate to your own experience?” (I’ve been to the Empire State Building.)

What stats should you turn into stories?
• Homeless meals served
• Enrollment comparisons (students, campers, inmates, church attendance, etc.)
• Year-to-date donor comparisons for the board
• Budget vs. Actual reports
• Inventory excesses?

STAT (true story on inventory procurement): “We’re wasting millions, perhaps 10s of millions on an inefficient procurement system. Here’s a 9-tabbed spreadsheet that summarizes my findings.”

STORY (bringing the demonstration into the room): “Come see my collection of the 424 different gloves that our company is currently ordering. This represents just one minor product that we purchase…”

The demo: Jon Stegner, a business exec, recruited an intern to “track down one of each glove, attached price tags to them, and brought them into a conference room where senior leaders met. Then he poured the gloves out onto the conference room table and invited the leaders, one by one, to come see the ‘Glove Shrine.’”

The result: “The minute anyone saw the Glove Shrine, they immediately jumped to a question, the very one Stegner had wanted them to ask: ‘If we’re wasting this much money on gloves, what else are we wasting money on?’”

I gotta stop, but I could list the dozens and dozens of the book’s STAT vs. STORY examples for the next 20 issues… Wait! Maybe Chip Heath and Karla Starr would say: “In the time it will take you to listen to this book, you’ll drink just 7 cups of coffee (aka 7 trips to the restroom—and please wash your hands) and you and your team will easily have stumbled upon at least 17 ways to leverage the art and science of communicating numbers. That’s the equivalent of…” (Well…you get it.)

OK…just one more—on how to “Recast Your Number in Different Dimensions: Try Time, Space, Distance, Money, and Pringles.” (Yikes! “In order to burn off the calories in a single Pringle, you’d have to walk 176 yards, or almost 2 football fields.” Uh…I’ll have just one, thank you.)

STAT (NEA budget): “In 2016, the $148 million allocated to the National Endowment for the Arts accounted for .004% of the federal budget expenditures ($3.9 trillion). Suppose we eliminated it in response to criticism?”

STORY (NEA budget): “Trying to balance the budget by eliminating the NEA would be like editing a 90,000-word novel by eliminating 4 words.”

Ready…set…SPRINT! Gather your team together and start reshaping your dry stats into memorable stories! Suggestion: read the demonstration stories about the speed of a baseball pitch. (Strike Three!) Plus, marvel at Usain Bolt’s speed (19+ seconds) in the 200-meter race at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (and the narrow margins). If you can clap your hands four times in a second, Bolt crosses the finish line on Clap 1…and by Clap 3, the eighth-fastest person in the world crosses the finish line—“hopelessly out of contention—and the race is over.”

Enjoy! To order from Amazon, click on the title for Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers, by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (4 hours, 35 min.). And thanks to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, Inc. for sending me a review copy.

Note: Chip Heath is also the co-author, with Dan Heath, of The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact (my 2017 book-of-the-year). Read my review.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) I couldn’t help myself! Reading Making Numbers Count reminded me of an early comparison question—first asked by Steve Allen on the 1953 TV quiz show, What’s My Line? (He asks the question of the last guest: “Is it bigger than a bread box?”) Click here. Florence Nightingale was “ahead of her peers, by more than a century, she started by equating basket size.” So instead of describing cold stats following the Crimean War in the 1850s (“…in its first 7 months, 7,857 troops died out of 13,095”), she “translated” that into this memorable line: “We had 600 deaths per 1,000 troops”—“a rate of mortality which exceeds that of the Great Plague of London.” What stats in our organization need to be basket-sized—and appeal more to the emotions?

2) If you’re a “Six Sigma” zealot, you could say: “Six Sigma is 3.4 defects per million objects.” Or…use a memorable story: “To achieve Six Sigma as a baker, imagine baking a batch of 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies every night. You could do that for 37 years before finding a cookie that is burned, raw, or doesn’t have the perfect number of chips.” OK, team! In groups of two…here’s one of our boring organizational stats. Turn it into a memorable story! (Winning team gets these chocolate chip cookies!)

Oops! Has attention to detail and clarity been replaced by fuzzy thinking and leaky buckets? Time for a refresh? Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

Buckets Countdown: The Printing Bucket (#19): aka The Communications Bucket - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.

The Printing Bucket Core Competency: “We elevate the power of the written and spoken word and leverage our communication tools to create synergy and alignment between our mission, BHAG, strategic plans, and programs. We believe proofreading and style matters!”

FUZZ NOTE! “I learned to write to burn the fuzz off my thinking,” commented Fred Smith in his pithy book, Breakfast With Fred. The big idea in the Printing Bucket: Use print deadlines to burn the fuzz off your organization’s blue sky plans that otherwise would rarely be committed to the printed page (or the website).

The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Inspire your team to begin a buckets refresh over 20 days, 20 weeks, 20 months, or (if you’re young enough!), 20 years! Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Need help “translating” your dry and boring organizational stats into memorable stories—ones that your raving fans will repeat frequently to others? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.