John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Citizen Trump: A One Man Show - the 2021 book and 2020 documentary film

Issue No. 476 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a fascinating book just released today from Robert Orlando, filmmaker and author. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #2 below.


Orson Welles, writes Robert Orlando, “was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director.”
 
“Thank God for Movies!”

Filmmaker and author Robert Orlando confesses, “In the end, who’s to say this writer isn’t as subjective as [Orson] Welles and merely putting on another show just to entertain you? After all, just like Welles did with [Citizen] Kane, I am finding something familiar in Trump. As an author and filmmaker, I spend many hours competing for airtime and needing the stage as a place where we remind ourselves we are not alone.”

You gotta like this guy! (No, I don’t mean you gotta like Donald Trump. I mean Robert Orlando.) His fascinating book (and movie), Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, will challenge your deeply-held convictions—whether blue or red.

Robert Orlando focuses in on the dilemma of leaders who “lose awareness of their own corruptibility,” and the archetype of “the leader as trickster (or shapeshifter), one who can hold an audience without restriction.” He notes, “I wanted to capture that in this book, not only for those in my age group but with millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.”

“What I want to tell them is to be like Welles, bold and independent-minded. Forget the herd and find your own voice. And for God’s sake, watch the great films, the stories about ourselves and the hero’s journey. Thank God for movies,” he adds!

Last September 2020 (before the U.S. presidential election), Robert Orlando released his film, Citizen Trump, contrasting Trump with Citizen Kane—Trump’s favorite movie. Orson Welles’ acclaimed film received nine Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Writing.

The 2020 release date for Citizen Trump was intentional—before the election. Would the real ending matter? Would Trump rise or fall? Would the fall of the fictitious character, Charles Foster Kane (a composite character based on William Randolph Hearst and others), foretell Trump’s fall?

BREAKING NEWS! “Cancel culture” isn’t new. Hearst prohibited the 1941 film from being mentioned in his newspapers. Fast forward: many critics today still consider Citizen Kane to be the greatest film ever made.

View the trailer for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show here:


Click here to view the 90-second Citizen Trump trailer.

No spoiler alert needed. The 2020 election is history—and we know the results. Or do we?

Gratefully, Robert Orlando has now written the book (with 2020 in the rear-view mirror). And so with a historian/filmmaker’s insights, he spotlights key events in the Trump saga—skillfully positioning his camera to illuminate the Trump persona and the Trump/Kane contrasts. Did I mention it’s fascinating?

I’m addicted to U.S. presidential biographies (with Winston Churchill thrown in to properly position the grading curve). And while we don’t have five, 10, or 20 years for a proper look-back, Citizen Trump is a page-turner—and Orlando’s new book (just released today, June 15, 2021) prompted me to watch the Citizen Trump film one more time.

I’m more of a reader than a listener or viewer—so the Citizen Trump book is the perfect companion to the film. (Hmmm. The bibliography is immense. I wonder what all those authors think about Trump’s persona?) Orlando has done his research—extensive research—on our 45th president and it shows.

Orlando, the filmmaker and author of other works including Silence Patton and The Divine Plan, brings a unique voice to 2021. In my Sept. 9, 2020 review of the film, Citizen Trump (see the second article), I mentioned that Josh Shepherd, who covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets (and previously worked at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family), had recently interviewed Robert Orlando for The Federalist.

The headline: “Is Donald Trump Today’s ‘Citizen Kane’? ‘Citizen Trump’ Film Suggests Yes. Through the lens of the 1941 classic 'Citizen Kane,' a documentary filmmaker seeks to understand the life journey of President Trump and his successful venture into politics.”

Shepherd: “Watching the film, I kept waiting for it to shift. I thought, ‘This is where it’s going to become a Trump hit piece.’ Or, ‘Now it’s going to be a Trump ad.’ But it seemed to stick to facts and let the chips fall where they may. Why did you seek to avoid either extreme?"

Orlando: “As a filmmaker, I’m just telling a story about a person, warts and all. Why wouldn’t a documentary about real-life events reveal all sides of the narrative? It’s not for me to tell you how to make a political decision about it.”

The chapter titles in Citizen Trump are just too tempting! Thought-provoking chapters!
   • A Modern-Day Kane
   • Reality TV Kingpin
   • The Trickster Candidate
   • Channeling Trump
   • The Faceless Enemy
   • And more…

Many readers, I’m guessing, will equally appreciate the jam-packed appendix—with surprising background information and context. Orlando notes Trump’s appreciation for Carl Jung from Trump’s 2004 book, How to Get Rich. Trump writes, “I have to stress that I am not cynical, but I am aware. I hate being in situations where I’m asking myself, How could this have happened?" Trump adds, "This reminds me of my favorite quote from Napoleon about being surprised: A good leader shouldn’t be.”

So…if you’re a leader, maybe you won’t be surprised with the jewels in the appendix! Check out the mini-chapters:
   • Rosebud Works
   • The Mask Is the Message
   • The Forgotten City on a Hill
   • It’s the Media, Stupid!

Again, whether you lean red or blue—I urge you to read this book. Orlando’s intentions are trustworthy: “…my aim was not to produce a political film. As an independent filmmaker, I was more interested in pursuing a deep character study into one of the most controversial figures of our time. My template was not a Right vs. Left, faith vs. nonfaith, or even madness vs. sanity paradigm, but to explore the archetypes of storytelling as expressions of interior character, especially where Trump and Kane were so amazingly similar.”

After you read Citizen Trump (or view the Citizen Trump film), you’ll find it impossible not to view Citizen Kane again. Both films lend themselves to the perfect case study for your next weekly staff meeting—or perhaps late-night viewing at your next staff or board retreat.

Orlando writes, “My fascination with Kane began in film school when I first felt the power of sound, light, and action in the hands of a master. Welles—to me—was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director. He was also a theater and radio star.”

Orlando, again: “My pick for best film of all time goes to Citizen Kane, a seamless visual masterpiece and a technical inspiration. In this one film, Welles introduced myriad innovations, breaking form and storytelling in new ways. It was incomparable at the time, almost docudrama in style.”

He adds, “The film is a work of genius and also a cautionary tale.” We’ll wait another 80 years to see if the Citizen Trump film and book qualify for “a work of genius.” But…the Trump saga is clearly a cautionary tale. As I mentioned in my review and pop quiz of the book on White House staff conflicts, Fight House, remember this wisdom from Ecclesiastes:

“There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, ‘Hey, this is new’? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, by Robert Orlando. Are you a listener? Pre-order the audio book on Libro.fm. And thanks to the author for sending me an advance manuscript.



Click here to view the film:
Citizen Trump: A One Man Show.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a CBS News interview in 2008, Joe Biden’s favorite movie is Chariots of Fire (1981). Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. Does this give you any clue about these two leaders? What’s your favorite movie—and why?
2) Robert Orlando writes with “millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.” Why might the millennials on your team benefit from viewing Citizen Kane and Citizen Trump? And what movies might millennials recommend that old geezers view?
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Mistake #2 of 25:
Reading…But Not Learning
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I’ve always been a reader, but not a lifelong learner.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #2 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Reading…But Not Learning,” John quotes Peter Drucker:

“In the knowledge society, people have to learn how to learn. Indeed in the knowledge society subjects may matter less than the students’ capacity to continue learning and their motivation to do so. Knowledge society requires lifelong learning. For this, we need a discipline of learning.”

The Mistakes book also notes that “Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reads three hours per day. His goal is to find just one idea he can use to give him and the over 150 companies in which he’s invested an edge in the marketplace.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #2 is My Ideal Bookshelf (read John’s review here).

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the power of storytelling to lavishly communicate your organization’s message and mission? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams

Issue No. 475 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a must-read book about anxiety at work—and why managers and bosses must talk about it. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #1 below.


Think of staff growth as a climbing wall. “The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.”
 
Anxiety at Work: “Generation Paranoia”

Yikes! According to the hot-off-the-press book, Anxiety at Work, “In America, workplace anxiety is estimated to cost some $40 billion a year in lost productivity, errors, and health-care costs, while stress is estimated to cost more than $300 billion.”

It gets worse! “Though the problem is becoming more serious with older employees, it’s been particularly acute with millennials and Gen Z. According to a 2019 study published in the Harvard Business Review, more than half of millennials and 75 percent of Gen Z reported they had quit a job for mental health reasons.” But…apparently many bosses don’t want to talk about it.

According to co-authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (along with Anthony Gostick’s very transparent contributions to the book), “We’ve found that most young people want to be able to discuss their anxiety at work. Said one twenty-something employee in an interview, ‘My generation talks about anxiety all the time to each other.’ Rightly so, they believe that it’s impossible to fix something we are scared to talk about.”

They add, “And yet in a 2019 survey of one thousand employed adults with anxiety, 90 percent judged it would be a bad idea to confide their situation to their bosses. Sad.”

Attn: Bosses and Managers! This doesn’t work anymore:
   • “Don’t bring your personal problems to work.”
   • “Just fix yourself!”
   • “Of course you’ll fit in here. We have a great culture.”
   • “If you’re not physically sick, you must clock in.”

In early 2020, the authors were scheduled to speak to a company’s leadership team. The fast-breaking COVID news distracted the group from their scheduled topic and instead—prophetically—the authors talked about the workplace anxiety to come. Anxiety at Work is COVID-relevant with amazingly fresh insights and solutions. The subtitle is aspirational for every manager: “8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done.”

I had high expectations for this book, just published in May 2021, because I continue to appreciate and recommend the list of 125 practical employee recognition ideas from their 2007 book, The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance. (Idea #54 is my favorite: “Print out and present a team member a ‘long lunch’ certificate for a two-hour lunch.”)

After seriously reviewing books for almost 15 years now, rarely does a book exceed my expectations—but this did. The authors knocked it out of the ballpark. I made more than 40 specific notes for this review, but I can only mention a few. You must read this book—and implement the practical strategies. Five big ideas:

#1. THE DUCK SYNDROME. This term “was coined at Stanford University to describe the masquerade of students at this high-pressure school, as at many colleges, working mightily to appear as though they’re doing just fine, gliding calmly along like a duck on a pond, keeping up with all of their work with effortless grace.” But—look under the surface—and those “smoothly gliding ducks are paddling like mad—just as these students are manically pushing themselves, frantically trying to stay afloat.” What’s needed? A new leadership style that combines “vulnerability with care for the individual.”

Managers: How would you know if the duck syndrome is alive and well in your organization? (Read the eight strategies.)

#2. GENERATION PARANOIA. “The fact is, this rising generation is a much more anxious group as a whole. Some have termed them ‘generation paranoia.’” The authors note an Atlantic article that “described a generation of young people who scan any room they enter for exit points and game out how they’d survive an active-shooter scenario.” According to Forbes, “four times as many millennials as Gen Xers list ‘fear of losing job’ as one of their top concerns at work.”

Managers: Since it’s inappropriate to ask, “Do you have anxiety?”—what should you do? Read Chapter 2’s “Six Methods to Meet Uncertainty Head-on,” including Method 1, “Make It Okay to Not Have All the Answers.” (See page 51 for creating a learning environment where making mistakes are standard practice. See “mistake-making” below!)

#3. COACH OPTIMIZERS TO BECOME TASKERS. “Crunch time has become the standard,” note the authors—and that’s not healthy. Taking a page from those who survive the Navy Seals “Hell Week,” managers can coach younger team members to be “taskers” (focus on the job at hand), not “Optimizers” (those who visualize and hyper-plan every job and every step). “The secret of success for the Taskers is they take this monolithic thing and break it down into chunks.
               It’s task, rest.
          Task, rest.”
The Taskers survive “Hell Week.” Optimizers don’t.

Managers: Don’t believe the myth that “overload is good for productivity.” Instead, read page 73 and a mid-level leader’s confession: “I made a mistake in pushing my team so hard on the last upgrade.” (They worked 16-hour days.) See the five check-in questions on page 87, including “What have you learned that we might do differently next time we are up against a task like this?”

#4. THE MOTIVATORS ASSESSMENT. “Employees who feel anxious about their career path may actually be on the wrong path,” note Gostick and Elton. They suggest that “caring managers can often help them know if that’s the case.” How? Collaborating with the authors of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, they built a very, very helpful Motivators Assessment tool—and urge managers to “Help Employees Assess Their Skills and Motivations” (Method 3 of 8 in Chapter 4). Click here for more information or to take the assessment.

Managers: Read Chapter 4 to help team members avoid mismatches in their work. Try “job sculpting” with three options: transferring work, altering work, or adding work that motivates each unique employee. (And this is obvious, but take the assessment yourself to see if you are in the right slot! Even at my age, I learned something new about myself when I completed the assessment this week.)

#5. DR. NO! I mentioned I wouldn’t list all 40 of my book review notes, so I gotta stop. But let me sneak in several more here:
   • Page 109 gives coaching suggestions for how to leverage the “Dr. No” persona on your staff. “Instead of coaching Brian out of that habit, a talent magnet leader [great concept!] would work with it.”
   • Page 139 is worth the price of the book to listen in on a goal-setting review between a CEO and the organization’s founder/board chair. The CEO reported that two goals were “epic failures,” but the founder’s response? “Darcy, if we had achieved all our goals, that would have been an indication that we weren’t dreaming big enough.” He added, “And I’m guessing we will apply the lessons we learned from any mistakes we made along the way?” The CEO said “yes.” Then exiting, the chairman said, “Awesome. Carry on. See you next quarter.”
   • If you avoid giving constructive feedback out of fear that a team member will react badly, read page 59 on why you should not use the “sandwich” approach of “offering a negative between two positives.”
   • At a hospital: “Each week one staff member received what they called the Grace Under Fire trophy, a fire hose mounted on a block of wood.” (See the five practical methods in Chapter 9, “Turn Doubts into Assurance,” including the fork-in-the-road difference between recognition and celebration.)

Managers: if you’re guilty of fostering a “socialism of gratitude” culture, see page 223—before you create more havoc by ignoring Method 4: “Provide Gratitude to High-Flyers, Too.”

Did I mention? This is a Must-Read—especially as you’re adapting to the realities of COVID, and we pray, post-COVID.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton with Anthony Gostick. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (6 hours, 29 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and Harper Business for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1)The authors quote the CHRO at Keurig Dr Pepper: “For a long time we thought about career paths as a ladder. It was all about how you move up. The imagery we’re moving to is a rock wall, where a person can move up, sideways, a little up, and a little sideways. Everybody can have their own destination. The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.” How could your team use the rock wall metaphor to create opportunities for growth in your organization?
2) The section, “Millennials and Conflict,” in Chapter 6, “From Conflict Avoidance to Healthy Debate” includes a 17-word text conversation between a boss and employee late on a Friday afternoon. It spoiled the millennial’s weekend, but the boss was clueless that he had created any anxiety. The authors noted the boss needed to update his “texting awareness.” Rate our communication effectiveness here: A, B, C, D, or F? 
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Mistake #1 of 25:
Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I needed more practice and more laps in the mistake pool.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #1 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature,” John confesses:

“'Don’t make mistakes!' has been drummed into our DNA since childhood. For many years, I was too careful and avoided risks. Later, as I read the mistake-making literature, I understood the value of taking calculated risks—and that failure is not final.”

John notes that BMW gives a “Flop of the Month Award” to employees whose innovative ideas fail during implementation. He quotes John C. Maxwell, “To get maximum attention, make a big mistake. To cause maximum damage, fail to admit it.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. (He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #1 is Call Sign Chaos, by Gen. Jim Mattis.)

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you learning from your own communication mistakes and the hilarious missteps of others? Jason has stories for you! Check in with Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Memorial Day Masterpiece: Call Sign Chaos

Issue No. 474 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks that you join me in this USA Memorial Day tribute to the heroes who keep us safe. If you missed my 2019 book-of-the-year, here are the highlights from Call Sign Chaos, by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. With Israel and Palestine in the headlines recently—this leadership-savvy book will also shed light on a general’s in-the-trenches insights on the Middle East. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of another hero's insights in Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t.

Memorial Day Masterpiece

EDITOR'S NOTE: Memorial Day Blessings! This review was first published on Oct. 18, 2019. Call Sign Chaos was my 2019 book-of-the-year.

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

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

To read the full review, click here.

2019 Book-of-the-Year! 

2 Books: Rooting for Rivals and Rethinking Competitive Advantage

Issue No. 473 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests you stage a big fight at your next staff meeting between two books—contenders between two leadership philosophies (or not?). Come out debating at the sound of the bell! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Fight House.

Are You Ready to Rumble?

Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you reeeeeeeady to rumble? From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, IN THE BLUE TRUNKS, it’s the counter-intuitive book that packs a punch, weighing in at 240 pages from the dynamic duo of Peter Greer and Chris Horst—it’s Rooting for Rivals!

AND IN THE RED TRUNKS…it’s the hot-off-the-press pugilist from humble beginnings (12 siblings and cousins living under one roof in a small town in northern India)…and now the bestselling author of more than four million books. He’s the author of The Attacker’s Advantage and numerous other brawling business books…please welcome Ram Charan! Weighing in at 224 pages—this strategic must-read for marketplace menaces has some new moves. It's……Rethinking Competitive Advantage!

Sorry. I couldn’t resist, but keep reading because you might discern that these two books are at war with each other: Rooting vs. Rethinking. Collaboration vs. Competition. Rivals vs. Relationships. (Or…can we learn something from both books? Hmmm.)

IDEA: WEEKLY STAFF MEETING DEBATE! Stage a robust ruckus between these two books at your next staff meeting. Debate these two sluggers!

   [ ] BLUE CORNER: Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey

   [ ] RED CORNER: Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan

ROOTING FOR RIVALS:
Cheat sheet for blue team debaters!

• GOAL. “The goal of this book is to equip leaders of faith-based organizations to become exceptionally generous leaders through a posture of radical openhandedness.”

• METAPHOR. “…in the curious, upside-down way of the Kingdom of God, God converts our competing into rooting and our rivals into allies. Rooting for Rivals is an invitation…to view our organizations not as grand murals but as pieces of a mosaic created by and for our Master Artist.”

• SHOCKER! When Hope International created a video of their Rwanda country director’s devotional on Exodus 4:2, “What is that in your hand?”—Peter Greer was shocked at the response from a “competitor.” They received “a voicemail from another organization with a very clear request to stop using this video. The reason?” The “rival” said that “they had trademarked the question God asks Moses.” (Greer was stunned and wondered, “Doesn’t God hold the copyright?”)

• BEST PUNCHES. What’s not to love about two-by-two quadrants that summarize the big ideas in a book? Greer and Horst deliver not just the one-two punch, but pummel faith-based leaders with four whacks and four quadrants with these competing values: Kingdom vs. Clan and Scarcity vs. Abundance.
   Quadrant I: Excessive Love (Scarcity + Clan)
   Quadrant II: Misdirected Love (Scarcity + Kingdom)
   Quadrant III: Deficient Love (Abundance + Clan)
   Quadrant IV: Loving Generously (Abundance + Kingdom)

• MOST CONVICTING CHAPTER. Whew! You may want to skip Chapter 4, “Seven Vices vs. Seven Virtues.” That’s the intro to the next seven wallops: Pride vs. Humility, Greed vs. Temperance, Gluttony vs. Temperance, Lust vs. Love, Envy vs. Contentment, Vengeance vs. Grace, and Sloth vs. Steadfastness.

• BEST EXAMPLE. Instead of clobbering each other to get the upper hand (or duplicating services), the authors affirm the 2017 partnership collaboration of 10 Bible translation agencies. Stunning! By working together (a New Testament concept!) under the banner of illumiNations, the 10 have accelerated the translation of the New Testament into 99.9 percent of the world’s population by 2033 (100 years ahead of the original timelines!).

Blue Team: good luck and may the best book win!

RETHINKING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
Cheat sheet for red team debaters!

• GOAL. “This book has two main purposes: to fully explain the sources of a digital giant’s formidable competitive advantage [Amazon, Facebook, Google, Alibaba, and others], and to help other companies see a path to building theirs.” Ram Charan adds, “These new rules explain what any company—whether it is a digital giant or a traditional company—must do to prosper in this digital age.”

• 6 NEW RULES. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every book has six this, seven that, and eight axioms…yada, yada, yada. But…the author argues that when thinking about your “competition” (or rooting for your rivals per Peter Greer), the world has changed so dramatically that Chapter 2, “New World, New Rules” is a must-read. (And just in time. This hot-off-the-press book was published just last month.)

Attn: Old School Leaders! “The old adage, ‘stick to your knitting,’ for example, a colloquial version of ‘build on your core competence,’ tends to narrow a company’s imagination.” As much as I appreciated In Search of Excellence, Charan is very convincing on this point. Wake-up call!

• THE ECOSYSTEM. Rule 3 is also noteworthy: “A company does not compete. Its ecosystem does.” Hmmm. Ram Charan wants your organization to rethink competitive advantage—and he focuses on customers and ecosystems. What’s an ecosystem? “In the digital age, competitive advantage goes to those who build an ecosystem, or network, that leverages digital technology for the benefit of the consumer and paves the way to multiple streams of revenue.”

His counter-intuitive message: “Digital giants pay no attention to what industry they should or should not be in. They focus relentlessly on the consumer and are determined to provide a new consumer experience when they see an opening.”

• STARBUCKS. Maybe you should have this debate at Starbucks, but is the line at your Starbucks too long? Perhaps it’s because “…it offers 170,000 possible beverage options at its stores, according to the company’s website.” (Attn: Nonprofits! While you’re rooting for rivals, you might also want to give your donors and clients more choices, maybe?) Charan notes that the use of data by Starbucks, plus “…sensors, the cloud, and artificial intelligence now allows it to engage with customers in an even more personalized way.”

• MIND-BENDING! Almost taking a page from Rooting for Rivals, Ram Charan features the dramatic changes in the auto industry—and get this—how they are collaborating with competitors in new and stunning ways. (The full-page chart on page 90, “A Complex and Changing Ecosystem,” from Drive Sweden is mind-bending! Did I mention I’m Swedish?) Using graphic symbols and interconnecting lines, the chart documents how BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, GM, Tata Motors, Honda, and other auto companies are now partnering!

Charan mentions this 2018 Bloomberg article, “BMW, Mercedes Pivot from Enemies to Partners in a New Auto Era.” Hmmm—even for-profits should partner?

The point? It’s about the customer. “The famous line from professor and marketing guru Ted Levitt in 1969—that nobody really wanted a quarter-inch drill, they wanted a quarter-inch hole—became newly relevant.” Today, says Charan, “People didn’t necessarily want to own a vehicle; they simply wanted to get from one place to another. The ride-hailers met that need with algorithmic platforms that matched people who needed to go somewhere with drivers who were willing to take them there.”

PUNCHIEST CHAPTER. The winner is…Chapter 7, “Teams Instead of Organizational Layers.” In fact (don’t quote me, please)—read this chapter first and you’ll have a born-again awakening about the new rules for teams, including this team project:

   • THE 20-FOOT SUSIE! The section on “Reinventing the Workplace at Fidelity Personal Investing” is a must-read and features “customer design personas.” The team researched every aspect of “Susie,” who was 37, digitally-savvy, and married with two kids. “Her life was mapped out on a twenty-foot stretch of wall covered with charts and dozens of Post-its. The pain point in her journey was identified, as were the metrics associated with them.” It is a team member’s “full-time job to curate the wall and keep it up-to-date.” (By the way, that “Susie” is a go-getter. While writing this blog, “Susie” called me about my vehicle’s warranty program! Honest!)

   • HARRY AND SALLY. FPI also created two more personas: “Sally,” a widow from Scottdale, Ariz., and “Harry,” an active trader. (Reminds me of Lee Strobel’s early book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary.) At Fidelity, “Those three personas…became the reference points for mapping the end-to-end customer experiences of three major segments of customers.”

   • 250 SQUADS. Instead of multiple organizational layers, the author highlights “A Three-Layer Team-Based Organization” at FPI that includes the president, 10 domains, 60 tribes, and 250 squads. “The work of the domain is divided into tribes, each of which focuses on an objective that its domain is trying to fulfill.” (What a concept! Organize your team around your objectives!)

   • DIFFERENT ASSUMPTIONS. Digital giants, says Charan, have “fundamentally different assumptions” about their people and “how best to lead them.” As you lead your teams, don’t risk ignoring those assumptions. “A boss with a command-and-control leadership style is likely to drive them right into the arms of a recruiter.”

Note: Watch for a future review of The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business Is on Fire!, also by Ram Charan, and three others. Recognizing that “sustainable competitive advantage is a myth,” the book offers a new methodology for orchestrating a radical debate around strategy.”

Red Team: good luck and may the best debater win (or maybe…it’s not a debate?).

Hmmm. As you prepare for your debate, consider this: Maybe it’s not as much about rooting vs. rethinking—as it is about more collaboration between nonprofits and for-profits—and learning the best from both? Bob Buford quoted Peter Drucker in the foreword to Mastering the Management Buckets. Drucker: “The purpose of management is not to make the Church more businesslike, but more Church-like.”

To order these books from Amazon or Libro, click on the links below:

[ ] Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 45 minutes). Check out the three-minute audio teaser.



[ ] Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 17 minutes). Check out the three-minute audio teaser. And thanks to Fortier PR for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) The authors of Rooting for Rivals quote Jesus from Matthew 5:9 (MSG): “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” Share an example when we collaborated with a “rival” recently.
2) The book, Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope Through Kingdom Partnerships, by Phill Butler, lists 15 critical partnership questions. Can you name five? (Read my review.)
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The Digital Dozen: Rethinking Leadership
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



In the powerful chapter, “Leaders Who Create What’s Next,” Ram Charan delivers a dozen bullet points on “What Is a Digital Leader?” He says it has to do with “their cognition, skills, and psychological orientation.” They can “link big-picture thinking with pragmatic matters of money-making, execution, and speed.” (See pages 164-168.)

Plus, in the chapter on “Teams Instead of Organizational Layers,” Charan writes:

“Digital giants expect people to be idea generators, problem solvers, team players, and learners. At Netflix, for example, the stated expectations for salaried employees are not what you would see among most Fortune 500 companies. They explicitly include things like:
• ‘You create new ideas that prove useful.’
• ‘You inspire others with your thirst for excellence.’
• ‘You are ego-less when searching for the best ideas.’
• ‘You learn rapidly and eagerly.’
These traits are recurring themes in the digital world. They guide hiring decisions, and their frequent repetition helps shape the culture.”

Have you articulated what you’re looking for in your next hire? For more resources, visit the People Bucket and the Team Bucket webpages. And read my review of You're Not the Person I Hired! A CEO's Survival Guide to Hiring Top Talent. Note the list of “Useless Interview Questions.”

More Boxing!
BILLY CRYSTAL TRIBUTE TO MUHAMMAD ALI



“Board experiences should leave all participants better than they were,” is the big idea in Lesson 40 of the Busby/Pearson book, More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. We borrowed that thought from what Billy Crystal said in 1979 to boxing great, Muhammad Ali, along with 20,000 of Ali’s closest friends! Click here to read. To view Billy Crystal’s tribute, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Do your communication vehicles embody a spirit of collaboration or competition with your “rivals?” Do you know what your donors would desire about your partnership strategies? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Citizen Kane: Millennial Must-View

This Special Edition of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog features a fascinating book coming June 15 from Robert Orlando, filmmaker and author. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and, speaking of filmmaking, click here for my 2020 list of eight leadership flicks (including comedy) with 11 ½ hours of movies, videos, and YouTube features.


Orson Welles, writes Robert Orlando, “was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director.”
 
“Thank God for Movies!”
Note! The updated review of this book was posted on the book's release date, June 15, 2021. Click here.

Filmmaker and author Robert Orlando confesses, “In the end, who’s to say this writer isn’t as subjective as [Orson] Welles and merely putting on another show just to entertain you? After all, just like Welles did with [Citizen] Kane, I am finding something familiar in Trump. As an author and filmmaker, I spend many hours competing for airtime and needing the stage as a place where we remind ourselves we are not alone.”

You gotta like this guy! (No, I don’t mean you gotta like Donald Trump. I mean Robert Orlando.) His fascinating book (and movie), Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, will challenge your deeply-held convictions—whether blue or red.

Robert Orlando focuses in on the dilemma of leaders who “lose awareness of their own corruptibility,” and the archetype of “the leader as trickster (or shapeshifter), one who can hold an audience without restriction.” He notes, “I wanted to capture that in this book, not only for those in my age group but with millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.”

“What I want to tell them is to be like Welles, bold and independent-minded. Forget the herd and find your own voice. And for God’s sake, watch the great films, the stories about ourselves and the hero’s journey. Thank God for movies,” he adds!

Last September 2020 (before the U.S. presidential election), Robert Orlando released his film, Citizen Trump, contrasting Trump with Citizen Kane—Trump’s favorite movie. Orson Welles’ acclaimed film received nine Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Writing.

The 2020 release date for Citizen Trump was intentional—before the election. Would the real ending matter? Would Trump rise or fall? Would the fall of the fictitious character, Charles Foster Kane (a composite character based on William Randolph Hearst and others), foretell Trump’s fall?

Note: “cancel culture” isn’t new. Hearst prohibited the 1941 film from being mentioned in his newspapers. Fast forward: many critics today still consider Citizen Kane to be the greatest film ever made.

View the trailer for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show here:


Click here to view the 90-second Citizen Trump trailer.

No spoiler alert needed. The 2020 election is history—and we know the results. Or do we?

Gratefully, Robert Orlando has now written the book (with 2020 in the rear-view mirror). And so with a historian/filmmaker’s insights, he spotlights key events in the Trump saga—skillfully positioning his camera to illuminate the Trump persona and the Trump/Kane contrasts. Did I mention it’s fascinating?

I’m addicted to U.S. presidential biographies (with Winston Churchill thrown in to properly position the grading curve). And while we don’t have five, 10, or 20 years for a proper look-back, Citizen Trump is a page-turner—and Orlando’s new book (coming June 15, 2021) prompted me to watch the Citizen Trump film one more time.

I’m more of a reader than a listener or viewer—so the Citizen Trump book is the perfect companion to the film. (Hmmm. The bibliography is immense. I wonder what all those authors think about Trump’s persona?) Orlando has done his research—extensive research—on our 45th president and it shows.

The filmmaker and author of other works including Silence Patton and The Divine Plan, Orlando brings a unique voice to 2021. In my Sept. 9, 2020 review of the film, Citizen Trump (see the second article), I mentioned that Josh Shepherd, who covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets (and previously worked at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family), had recently interviewed Robert Orlando for The Federalist.

The headline: “Is Donald Trump Today’s ‘Citizen Kane’? ‘Citizen Trump’ Film Suggests Yes. Through the lens of the 1941 classic 'Citizen Kane,' a documentary filmmaker seeks to understand the life journey of President Trump and his successful venture into politics.”

Shepherd: “Watching the film, I kept waiting for it to shift. I thought, ‘This is where it’s going to become a Trump hit piece.’ Or, ‘Now it’s going to be a Trump ad.’ But it seemed to stick to facts and let the chips fall where they may. Why did you seek to avoid either extreme?"

Orlando: “As a filmmaker, I’m just telling a story about a person, warts and all. Why wouldn’t a documentary about real-life events reveal all sides of the narrative? It’s not for me to tell you how to make a political decision about it.”

The chapter titles in Citizen Trump are just too tempting! Thought-provoking chapters!
   • A Modern-Day Kane
   • Reality TV Kingpin
   • The Trickster Candidate
   • Channeling Trump
   • The Faceless Enemy
   • And more…

Many readers, I’m guessing, will equally appreciate the jam-packed appendix—with surprising background information and context. Orlando notes Trump’s appreciation for Carl Jung from Trump’s 2004 book, How to Get Rich. Trump writes, “I have to stress that I am not cynical, but I am aware. I hate being in situations where I’m asking myself, How could this have happened?" Trump adds, "This reminds me of my favorite quote from Napoleon about being surprised: A good leader shouldn’t be.”

So…if you’re a leader, maybe you won’t be surprised with the jewels in the appendix! Check out the mini-chapters:
   • Rosebud Works
   • The Mask Is the Message
   • The Forgotten City on a Hill
   • It’s the Media, Stupid!

Again, whether you lean red or blue—I urge you to read this book. Orlando’s intentions are trustworthy: “…my aim was not to produce a political film. As an independent filmmaker, I was more interested in pursuing a deep character study into one of the most controversial figures of our time. My template was not a Right vs. Left, faith vs. nonfaith, or even madness vs. sanity paradigm, but to explore the archetypes of storytelling as expressions of interior character, especially where Trump and Kane were so amazingly similar.”

After you read Citizen Trump (or view the Citizen Trump film), you’ll find it impossible not to view Citizen Kane again. Both films lend themselves to the perfect case study for your next weekly staff meeting—or perhaps late-night viewing at your next staff or board retreat.

Orlando writes, “My fascination with Kane began in film school when I first felt the power of sound, light, and action in the hands of a master. Welles—to me—was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director. He was also a theater and radio star.”

Orlando, again: “My pick for best film of all time goes to Citizen Kane, a seamless visual masterpiece and a technical inspiration. In this one film, Welles introduced myriad innovations, breaking form and storytelling in new ways. It was incomparable at the time, almost docudrama in style.”

He adds, “The film is a work of genius and also a cautionary tale.” We’ll wait another 80 years to see if the Citizen Trump film and book qualify for “a work of genius.” But…the Trump saga is clearly a cautionary tale. As I mentioned in my review and pop quiz of the book on White House staff conflicts, Fight House:

Remember this wisdom from Ecclesiastes: “There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, ‘Hey, this is new’? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”

To order this book, to be released on June 15 from Amazon (available for pre-order), click on the title for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, by Robert Orlando. Are you a listener? Pre-order the audio book on Libro.fm. And thanks to the author for sending me an advance manuscript.



Click here to view the film:
Citizen Trump: A One Man Show.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a CBS News interview in 2008, Joe Biden’s favorite movie is Chariots of Fire (1981). Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. Does this give you any clue about these two leaders? What’s your favorite movie—and why?
2) Robert Orlando writes with “millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.” Why might the millennials on your team benefit from viewing Citizen Kane and Citizen Trump? And what movies might millennials recommend that old geezers view?
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Leadership Case Studies
From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



After a heart attack in 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower complained that the doctors had told him to take it easy—and in that we get a humorous picture of Ike. He wrote a friend that he had been ordered “to avoid all situations that tend to bring about such reactions as irritation, frustration, anxiety, fear and, above all anger.” So he had snapped at the doctors, “Just what do you think the presidency is?” (See Eisenhower 1956 below.)

I mentioned above that I’m addicted to books on the U.S. presidency and White House “gatekeepers” and more—and I have at least one more "White House" leadership review coming this year. If you enjoy the ultimate in leadership case studies—delegate your reading to a few wanna-be leaders on your team. Read my reviews for:

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

[ ] Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump, by Tevi Troy (read two reviews)

[ ] The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, by Chris Whipple (read two reviews, plus view a four-hour documentary)

[ ] Barack, Inc. – Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign, by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk (read my review)

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

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

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

For more resources, visit the Crisis Bucket webpage here.
___________________________________________________________

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your organization’s storytelling focused on your customer or yourself? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

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

Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day

Issue No. 472 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a new book from Bob Phillips with 57 leadership success principles—and a 10-minutes-per-day challenge! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2020 list of eight leadership flicks (including comedy) with 11 ½ hours of movies, videos, and YouTube features.


“The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.”
(from Rumsfeld’s Rules, by Donald Rumsfeld)
 
The Stunning Power of 10 Minutes a Day!

I’m a big believer in the power of a well-prepared 10-minute segment. And LOL—after writing this lead sentence, I wondered what might pop up if I googled “the power of 10 minutes!” Apparently, others have thought about this also, including a blogger who listed 50 things you can accomplish in 10 minutes or less.
   #23. Call your grandparent!
   #39. Do a whole-house declutter sweep.

So…I was thrilled when Bob Phillips sent me his latest book (March 2021), Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day. Brilliant! Here’s his big and helpful idea:

“Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day is a collection of thoughts about leadership written for both first time and seasoned leaders. These concepts can be read in ten minutes or less and then put into practice. The concepts are designed to alert you, encourage you, and challenge you not to quit as a leader.” He quotes Erwin Lutzer:

“Better to have failed when serving God than to have succeeded when serving the devil. What a tragedy to climb the ladder of success only to discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.”

With 57 succinct chapters, the wisdom, pithy quotations, charts, and practical leadership savvy is slotted under four major categories:
• Qualities Every Leader Needs (time management, courage, accountability, the power of faith, and seven more topics)
• Dealing With Leadership Challenges (bad news, problems, boredom, the ugly side of leadership, getting the monkey off your back, and 11 more 10-minute refreshers)
• The Life Cycle of Every Organization (getting ready to change and adapt—plus the four stages enroute to excellence)
• Tools for Every Leader (attitude checklist, 80/20 principle, leading vs. managing, delegation, conflict management, Godly leadership, and 19 more tempting topics)

CONGRATS! You Just Found Three Extra Months! I often appraise a book by what I find on page 25. By this point, many authors have delivered the intro, the outline, and the context—and page 25 often delivers a gem. Bingo! Chapter 3 (just three pages) gives several non-guilt producing “Managing Your Time” insights and this from Einstein, “Out of clutter, find simplicity.”

Phillips suggests you can find the equivalent of a free month by just getting organized. A colleague at a conference convinced him to go home and reorganize his life. “I cut my schedule back and began to say no.” He promises you two more months by getting up just one hour earlier every day. (The math works.) He suggests you set some new goals with this reminder from Benjamin Mays, “Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.”

Bob practices what he preaches. He went home from that conference—and 11 million books in print later (authored or co-authored), his definition of “avocation” is stunning! (I’ve reviewed four of his books including Overcoming Conflict and How to Deal With Annoying People.) Bob is also a licensed marriage and family counselor. He previously served as executive director of Hume Lake Christian Camps in California and is also a joke book author. (As a former camping guy myself, I’m thinking those two may be connected.)

ZOOKEEPER PRAYER. Every short chapter includes an opening quotation, practical content, a relevant Bible passage, and a prayer. In Chapter 22, “Getting the Monkey Off Your Back,” Phillips writes, “As a leader it’s not the best idea for you to readily become a zookeeper for everyone’s monkey.” And his closing prayer includes, “Thank You in advance for helping me clean the zoo of unnecessary monkeys. Amen.” (Note: for more on the monkey/delegation metaphor, read my review and order The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, by Ken Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr., and Hal Burrows.)

MY IDEAL JOB. The assignment in Chapter 11, “Creating Your Ideal Job,” was new to me (and just 50 years too late, but maybe not). Prepare three sheets of paper and number to 12 on each page:
   1. My Ideal Job
   2. My Present Job
   3. Avocation
Then…list 12 aspirations for your ideal job, 12 responsibilities in your present job, and 12 possibilities in perhaps a new avocation or hobby—something outside of your day job that ignites your creative juices perhaps. Then—draw lines to see any connections between the three lists. In just three pages, Phillips just might inspire you to think differently about your future.

What distinguishes leaders from their followers? The author quotes Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus, “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills…”

POP QUIZ! Stop reading—right now!—and create a blank Word doc. Now…make a list of “The Signs of Possible Decline From Excellence in Our Organization.” We’ll wait…and enjoy this music while you’re thinking and writing (click here):


Click here for the 30-second Jeopardy clock to start!

STOP! Pencils down. How many “signs of possible decline from excellence” did you list? Five? Ten? Fifteen? Yikes…Bob Phillips lists 30 signs of decline in Chapter 32, “Stage Four [of the organizational life cycle]: Coping With Challenges.” Ask your boss for a Starbucks gift card if you listed at least three of these signs. (Read the chapter for the complete list of 30 convicting signs.)
   • Demands for service decline
   • Leader not the right fit
   • Living in the past
   • No succession plan
   • Ostentatious facilities
   • Pride and arrogance
   • Stops taking risks
   • Well-oiled social club

And speaking of conviction, this amazing book includes zillions of quotations, including the following in the first chapter, “Essential Traits of a Great Leader.”

“One man [woman] with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who only have opinions.”
(Winston Churchill)

“Hold strong to your convictions. Remain humble in your speech. Let your actions tell your story.”
(Pope Francis)

“God’s calling requires action. When God calls you, he calls collect…you better be willing to accept the charges of your calling.”
(Steve Maraboli)

FORMULA FOR CHANGE. “Change is the price we pay for growth,” writes Phillips. And Chapter 46, “Dealing With Change,” is a must-read. He adds, “The rate of change will be faster than in the past.” I agree. See my recent review of Fast Times which notes, “the pace of change will never be this slow again.” Phillips list 10 reasons that people (your team members?) resist change, including “people are afraid of the unknown.”

The “formula for change” concepts on pages 202-203 are just begging me to create two-by-two quadrants! Quadrant #1: Four factors: The Change Agent, The Main Person, The Decision Makers, and The People Affected by Change. And here’s a second quadrant idea on timing:
   • “The wrong decision at the wrong time is a DISASTER.
   • The wrong decision at the right time is a MISTAKE.
   • The right decision at the wrong time is UNACCEPTABLE.
   • The right decision at the right time leads to SUCCESS.”

With apologies to the author, here’s my completed homework!

UGLY SIDE OF LEADERSHIP. When is the last time you’ve read a chapter on “The Ugly Side of Leadership” (Chapter 21)? Probably never? Phillips quotes James Baldwin: “The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” That coming crisis is not if—but when—and the author quotes the brother of Jesus in James 3:17-18 (TLB), including this: “And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day, by Bob Phillips. And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) Bob Phillips includes TWO chapters on conflict management (maybe it’s a problem for leaders?). Chapter 45, “A Matrix for Understanding Conflict,” includes a helpful lexicon and a three-column chart on four levels of conflict: Spat, Quarrel, Fight, and War. Do we have agreed-upon “rules of the road” for addressing conflict on our team?
2) Phillips is blunt! On the “Sandwich Technique” of addressing employee performance (two positive statements, one negative statement, then one or two more positive statements): “It doesn’t work.” He labels it a “Baloney Sandwich” and suggests a better way in Chapter 13. Do we need more training (or more guts) in addressing employee performance issues? 
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10 Minutes for Governance in Every Board Meeting 
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook


Bob Phillips believes that leaders can become more effective with a daily dose of leadership principles. (“These concepts can be read in ten minutes or less and then put into practice.”)

Ditto your board of directors! Lesson 39 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, by Dan Busby and yours truly, is another must-read. Click here, courtesy of ECFA, to read and share: “Invest ‘10 Minutes for Governance’ in Every Board Meeting. We are all guilty of bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience.”

We write, “The number of years served on boards may not be a good indicator of meaningful board experience. That’s why board members must be lifelong learners. That’s why many boards enhance the board member experience by featuring a ‘10 Minutes for Governance’ segment in every meeting.

“The big idea: In every board meeting, we want to remind board members that good governance does not happen by osmosis. It happens only with intentionality, training, and keeping critical governance topics (like focusing on policy, not operations) on everyone’s radar.”

The chapter suggests possible topics for each board meeting’s 10-minute segment. And this reminder: “There are no dysfunctional organizations—only dysfunctional boards.”

For more resources, visit the Board Bucket webpage here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Confused about your communication strategies? Need help with “the right decision at the right time?” Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

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

Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are

Issue No. 471 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers (no extra charge) a cut-and-paste memo ready to send to your remote-working team members. No question: Remote, Inc. is the most practical book you’ll read in 2021.And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. (See also the Brain Rules videos here.)

The authors of Remote, Inc. note that when you manage remote workers, you're like Ginger Rogers—doing everything Fred Astaire is doing, “except backward in high heels!” Enjoy this 2 ½-minute video.
 
Work From Home:
Good News and Bad News!

Raise your hand if…when you began working from home a year ago, you immediately read a book on how to work from home.

Raise your hand if…you’re much smarter and more clever than your colleagues (and your competition), so there’s no need to read a book about working remotely.

Raise your hand if…the next person you hire or supervise will be magically gifted with all the skillsets needed for the hybrid future (working remotely and at the office).

Hmmm. I thought so. No worries because I’ve got just the book (or audio book) for you. Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are, by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel, is already the Most Practical Book You’ll Read in 2021, maybe even the decade.

As a public service to my faithful readers, just cut-and-paste this memo and send to your work-from-home (WFH) team members today!
_______________________________________________
MEMO TO: All Remote Team Members

#1. Good News! You can continue to work in your PJs! It looks like remote working will be here for a while, according to the hot-off-the-press book from Harper Business, Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are. (Your new best friend, the Amazon driver, will deliver the book to you this week.)

#2. Bad News! A year ago, none of us were prepared to work at home, or at Starbucks, and (how shall I say this graciously?), many of our remote working skillsets need improvement—especially our meetings. (I’ve already picked up a dozen practical pointers on improving my competencies.)

#3. Good News! You’ve been promoted! Robert Pozen and Alexandra Samuel, the authors of Remote, Inc., recommend you launch your “Business of One.” It’s a brilliant concept and I’d like your help to rethink our “notion of productivity so that it’s no longer defined by the dated concept of a workday.” You’ll love it! (See Chapter 1: “Your Business of One.”) I’m asking ______ to give us a 10-minute summary of Chapter 1 at our next weekly staff meeting. (Who would like to volunteer to review Chapter 2 the following week? Sixteen weekly staff meetings—16 chapter reviews!)

#4. Bad News! You’ve read the surveys. Micro-managing bosses (not me!) and our ill-suited remote workspaces created instant burnout for team members. (One survey found that “45 percent of employees were feeling burned out”—after just one month of remote working.) Couple that with what the authors call our “obsession with the eight-hour workday…an obsolete leftover from a previous era,” and it’s no wonder that ______, ______, and ______ exited our organization during COVID. (Yikes!)

#5. Good News! Fewer and better meetings ahead! (Did I mention “good news?”) I skipped right to Chapter 10: “Making the Most of Meetings” and you’ll see some new features—already—in our next weekly staff meeting. This 20-page chapter is a must-read. Start with the 10 “Takeways” on pages 161-162 (the takeaways are a brilliant feature of every chapter), then read the “From a Remote Worker” testimonial (the book has 16 windows into real life remote workers), and note what they call “The Three Stages of a Meeting” (appetizer, main course, and dessert). Important! Please skip the section, “Three Ways to Avoid a Meeting.” (LOL!)

#6. Bad News! Let’s face it, our PowerPoints go on…and on…and on. As ______ recently observed, “Death by PowerPoint!” So…please also read “Five Alternatives to a Slide Deck” and to go deeper, read Chapter 15, “Presentations: Making an Impact,” including “Three Slide Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them.” Be honest now—have any of us ever read even one chapter on slide decks or PowerPoints? The summary has nine takeaways and there’s a short recipe for creating a universal deck. Plus this breaking news: “Not every presentation needs slides!”

#7. Good News! Based on my last 360 feedback, you’ll be ecstatic to learn that I’ve already read Chapter 3, “Managing a Remote Team.” My goodness! I could have used this practical wisdom a year ago. (I can hear the “Amens” already!) This might be my favorite blurb:

“There’s a reason people talk about the ‘art’ of management. It’s never easy, but managing a remote team makes it even more complicated. Being an effective manager means knowing how to delegate, how to foster team collaboration, and how to motivate individual employees.”

The authors add, “Managing all of that for a distributed team makes you Ginger Rogers to the conventional workplace’s Fred Astaire: you’re doing everything he does, except backward in high heels.”

#8. Bad News. Chapter 3 was convicting—and I need to apologize (which, I guess, is good news!). The authors suggest we leverage four tools/expectations. So, a year late (did I mention I’m sorry?), let’s talk about:
   • Ground Rules (pages 49-50)
   • Hours and Contacts (see Chapter 7)
   • Meetings (see Chapter 10)
   • Email and Messaging (see Chapter 13)

Note: I’m asking ______ to be our champion for “Onboarding a Remote Team Member” (per pages 51-52). I love the suggestion to “give your newbie a digital welcome pack.” No whining, ______, the book says I should delegate more!

#9. Good News. Whew! This book is absolutely jam-packed with just-in-time wisdom, practical ideas, and dozens of productivity apps I’d like us to try. The street cred of the co-authors is impressive! Robert Pozen taught law and economics at NYU Law School and then rose to the president’s role at Fidelity Investments (where he helped grow assets under management to almost $1 trillion). He’s also the author of the bestseller, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours. I’m asking ______ to read and report on his book, and especially his insights (mentioned in both books) on “OHIO” (Only Handle It Once) and how to focus on results, and “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.”

Alexandra Samuel, author of Work Smarter with Social Media (HBR Press), has worked remotely for most of her career, juggling work, marriage, and two sons. She describes herself as “a passionate technologist who has worked with some of the world’s biggest tech companies.” With a Ph.D. from Harvard, her writing on digital productivity appears frequently in Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal (see “How to Manage the Hybrid Workplace,” March 22, 2021). More than 7,000 have taken her Skillshare course, “Email Productivity: Work Smarter with Your Inbox,” and I’ll pay the course fee for the first person who implements one new idea from Remote, Inc.


Does email drive you nuts? View this 90-second video (and therapy!) from Alexandra Samuel on her Skillshare course on email productivity.

#10. Bad News. Oh…if only our team had read Remote, Inc. sooner! We would have made better decisions about what the authors call the “Goldilocks Plan.” Some surveys document that 65 to 77 percent of workers expressed a preference for the hybrid model—"not too much time at home, and not too little.” (Read the “Ten Reasons to Go to the Office” and the “Ten Reasons to Work Remotely.”) And don’t skip the conclusion with “Seven Quick Wins for Remote Workers” and “Seven Big Wins for Organizations.”

Warmly,

Your New-and-Improved Boss!

P.S. When Amazon delivers your copy of Remote, Inc.—please take a photo of yourself, and your dog, while reading this book in your favorite WFH setting—and text the photo to all of us! (Warning: Do not read page 113!)

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Attn: All Bosses! To order this book for your team members from Amazon, click on the title for Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are, by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 32 minutes). And thanks to Harper Business for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) After you read Chapters 10, 11, 12 in Remote, Inc. (essential skills for remote workers: Meetings, Reading, and Writing), re-read 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher. Maybe—we’d have less “Zoom fatigue” if our presentations included the author’s “three bumper sticker points” and all of us would “take our faces out of park,” as Asher admonishes!
2) In the extremely practical chapter, “Email and Messaging,” the authors of Remote, Inc. suggest you “unsubscribe from at least one email list every day. It will keep your email volume in check, and it’s incredibly satisfying.” (But do NOT subscribe from Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews!) Who will volunteer to read and report on Chapter 13 (email) and Chapter 14 (social media)?
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MEMO TO: Neighbors, Dog Walkers, & Cell Phone Talkers!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook


LOL! The co-author of Remote, Inc. commissioned this cartoon for John’s front yard sign! (Read why below.)

This is funny! Last December, I read Alexandra Samuel’s insightful WSJ article, “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home.” It suggested you walk around the neighborhood and make your office calls then. I couldn’t resist—so I submitted a letter to the editor with a tongue-in-check mention about listening in on my neighbors’ calls when they walked by my WFH office!

The author emailed a hilarious response to me and she commissioned her husband/cartoonist to create a cartoon! LOL! (So, naturally, I erected a sign in my front yard—to needle my neighbors!) That prompted several more laughs—and I met more neighbors, including Harsh and his friendly dog, Rufus!

Click here to read my “Bonus Blog.”

SOCIAL STYLES REMINDER! Each of the four social styles likely view remote working from different perspectives. Analyticals and Drivers (more task-oriented) might be thriving at home. Amiables and Expressives, likely, are missing the day-to-day relationships. To download two social styles cheat sheets, click here for these resources in the People Bucket.

BREAKING NEWS! On April 20, 2021, Tracom announced the release of SOCIAL STYLE® v3, “The Best Behavioral Skills Model Updated for the Virtual Workplace.” Click here to view the five-minute video.


View the new 5-minute video on the four social styles assessment, “The Best Behavioral Skills Model Updated for the Virtual Workplace.”
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod’s creative descriptions for the four social styles include: Info-Sponges, Just-the-Facts, Heartfelts, and Share-Meisters. Do your communication and online strategies address all four styles? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers

Issue No. 470 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting reports that “advertising (as we know it) is dead!” New in February and already a Wall Street Journal bestseller—trust me—Quantum Marketing is a must-read for your marketing team and senior leaders. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my recent review of Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt and learn why the founder of Spotify says, “We aim to make mistakes faster than anyone else.”

Quantum Marketing predicts 5G in the Fifth Paradigm will be "the difference between a tricycle and a motorcycle!"

Quantum Marketing: AI Writes My eNews!

Mind-Blowing! I can’t stop talking about Quantum Marketing, the new bestseller from the global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard. Raja Rajamannar warns that “65% of CEOs have some or no confidence in their marketing teams.” But help is here as the author guides us in “Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers” (the subtitle).

“The world is changing with such unprecedented speed and disruption that classical marketing theories, strategies, and practices are failing. Quantum Marketing is the new framework for that brave new world of tomorrow. Here, every aspect of classical marketing is challenged and frontline strategies are outlined for marketers to thrive.”

Hype or reality? It’s reality, folks. The author documents three dynamics that have fueled “the crisis of confidence in marketing.”
#1. Huge technology transformation—“tremendous advancement in data analytics, and changes in consumer behavior driven by mobile and social media. Collectively, these have shocked business models and upended traditional strategies.”
#2. Little connection between business outcomes and marketing investments and actions—“their contribution and value became increasingly dubious.”
#3. Marketing execs are stuck in a narrow view of marketing—most are at either ends of a continuum (“obsessed with A-B testing” and those with “no clue about business models, digital technologies, or data analytics”).

While the book is not a puff piece at all for Mastercard, I couldn’t resist doing my own research on how Mastercard’s “quantum” marketing leverages all the senses (see chapter 9). After discussing “How Our Brain Functions” (primal brain and cognitive brain—marketing appeals to just one), the author adds, “Today, marketers need to go way beyond jingles.” He references Mastercard’s case study of its “sonic brand creation.” It will blow your mind! (Must-read: Fast Company’s Feb. 13, 2019 article, “Mastercard Just Launched a Sonic Logo. Here’s What It Sounds Like.” Must-listen: the two-minute “audio press release.”)

For more, check out the short videos on Muse by Clio, “Hear Mastercard's New Brand Melody in Various Apps, Styles and Places.” And did you know that in 2019, Mastercard dropped its name from their logo?

To test the author’s claims, I selected—at random—this 30-second video from Mastercard. Listen for the “sonic logo” and enjoy:


Dance along with this 30-second video, “Tap & Go with Your Mastercard.”

But let me back up now for some context. The author says organizations are unprepared for what’s coming: the Fifth Paradigm. You’ll remember the first four:
• First and Second Paradigms—Product Marketing and Emotional Marketing: print, radio, and TV, commoditization, (and doctors endorsing Lucky Strikes!), attitudinal metrics, celebrity testimonials, etc.
• Third and Fourth Paradigms—Data-Driven Marketing and Digital & Social Marketing: World Wide Web (Aug. 6, 1991), Big Data, mobile, social media, “the segment of one,” Facebook, iPhone (June 29, 2007), “average human attention span is less than eight seconds,” average time on digital devices: six hours/day, “no time for prime time,” and “social media heaven and hell.” And more: the “trust” problem!

What’s coming in the Fifth Paradigm? Fasten your seatbelts! Take my Pop Quiz to see if you’re prepared. Can you define these Fifth Paradigm terms—and does your marketing team understand them?

POP QUIZ! Define the following:
1. The 3 types of AI (Chapter 5—“the ultimate propellant of Quantum Marketing”)
2. Blockchain (Chapter 7: immutable and smart contracts)
3. 5G (“the difference between a tricycle and a motorcycle”)
4. AR and VPS (p. 67)
5. VR trade shows (p. 71)
6. 3-D printing and product prototyping (p. 77)
7. IoT (p. 74)
8. The Hierarchy of Loyalty (see Chapter 10)
9. The 4 Ps
10. The Fourfold Mission of Marketing (p. 27)
11. “Case studies…used in many MBA schools are outdated.” Why? (p. 28)
12. FMCG (p. 30)
13. The 3 buckets of data (p. 35)
14. The Slew of Sensors (p. 37)
15. CCPA (p. 45)
C'mon, man! Do the Pop Quiz. Don't skip it!
16. OTM (non-annoying, p. 57)
17. “In the Fifth Paradigm, digital IDs will be the equivalent of holograms.” (p. 85)
18. BE—“the way individuals process, think, feel, and then decide.” Which works best? Two $100 jackets for $150, or the first jacket for $100 and the second for only $50? (p. 89)
19. Neuroscience: “Ninety percent of decision-making takes place in the subconscious.” (p. 91)
20. Merry Go Round (p. 103)
21. QEM: 8 key points (p. 125-126)
22. Chapter 12: “We Are Not Consumers, We Are People”—BAU, CX, UX, “holistic people research,” kids as “R&D managers of the family”
23. Purpose Washing: 2 reasons to pursue purpose
24. Ethics creep
25. Coronacrisis: The Risk Heat Map Template; use humor cautiously in a crisis: “Humor can be mistaken for mockery or tone deafness.” (Chapter 17 is must-read: “Marketing through Crisis”)

For a gut check, read page 38, “A Day in the Data Life.” Early on, the author raises the ethics flag on consumer privacy and a company’s “quasi-unethical or exploitative tendency” when asking you to accept the “reams of terms and conditions.” And this: “Honestly, who thinks that anyone reads them, other than the lawyers and geeks?”

Why does Marriott use “signature scents?” How high did Nike increase sales when they added scents to their stores? (See page 106.) Chapter 9, “All the Senses,” made me wonder if churches and faith-based organizations are delivering adequate sensory experiences? See Psalms 34:8 (MSG), “Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him.”

By the way, Rajamannar notes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) “is also writing articles in very authentic styles of various journalists and writers. It studies the works of an author, and when given a topic, it researches on the internet for relevant content and writes, in a matter of a few seconds, an article that mostly makes sense, in a style that seems authentic.”

I’ve asked Anders (18), my favorite grandson, to harness AI to write future issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting. I’m expecting a generous use of “Yikes,” plus “Must-read,” plus “Delegate your reading,”—coupled with frequent car chases from the other John Pearson’s bestseller, James Bond: The Authorised Biography.

You’ll remember, of course, the 4 Ps of marketing (price, place, products, and promotion). The author alerts blue chip companies that they are “fragmenting the 4 Ps…and distributing them across multiple areas outside of marketing.” The result: “Currently, marketing is in a crisis.”

Highly readable (as a good marketing book should be!), the author sold me in the preface. By page 100, I had more than 20 critical notes to include in this review. When the book concluded on page 198, I was fired up—and searching LinkedIn for Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) positions!

THE QUANTUM CMO. The 10 pages in chapter 18 are worth gold. Raja Rajamannar warns again: “Marketing is at a point of inflection, and the opportunity ahead is truly once in a lifetime. If embraced, it can take off from here brilliantly. Or it can totally implode. Here is where the Quantum CMO comes in. And here are what characterize Quantum CMOs…” So the author includes 21 short paragraphs of the ideal CMO (really, a narrative position description).

If I were a CEO again, I would turn those pages into a quarterly checklist—and use it to coach and inspire my CMO. What are we doing well? What are we missing? Examples:
#1. “Quantum CMOs are like Leonardo Da Vinci.” They are “both right brained and left brained, creative and analytical.”
#2. “Quantum CMOs are primarily business leaders who understand business.”
#4. “Quantum CMOs understand the basics of human psychology, sociology, and anthropology. They grasp every one of the 4 Ps of marketing.”
#9. “Quantum CMOs are strong, empathetic leaders, because they are literally driving teams through this transformational phase, which is not easy.”
#10. “Quantum CMOs are evangelists for marketing, particularly if they are in companies that are not marketing driven.” And, “they speak the language of the CEOs and the CFOs…”
#11. “Quantum CMOs have tremendous curiosity and agility. Many of us have gone to management schools, many moons ago. Life has changed a lot since then.”

Read the book to leverage all 21 insights—what the CMO in your organization needs to be and to do in this Fifth Paradigm. Don’t forget that agencies “are not our servants, but our equal partners.” And learn why your Quantum CMO must have a good mix of IQ, EQ, CQ, and DQ. (See page 197.)

There’s so much more, but I gotta navigate a way out of this review! Finally, while I’m not a marketing genius, I’ve considered myself to be above average—fairly savvy in the Customer Bucket. Yikes. I’ve been depending on old school paradigms—helpful, yet way behind the curve. Examples:

I’ve often quoted Ogilvyisms from The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising, such as my favorite: “You can’t save souls in an empty church.” (Read my 2009 review.) But now, after reading Quantum Marketing—it’s time to move on to post-graduate level marketing.

Ditto the book I co-authored 30 years ago (Yikes!) with Bob Hisrich, a true marketing/entrepreneurial genius, Marketing Your Ministry: Ten Critical Principles. While many of these “Hisrichian Principles” are still valid (even if the examples are pre-Internet!), it’s time to go deeper. However, the 10 axioms are still fresh, including:
• “Don’t be the 8th lemonade stand in a row of 9.”
• “If you have $10,000 to spend, invest $5,000 in researching and understanding your market.”

You get the picture (and the sound): Quantum Marketing is a must-read. Who on your team should read this first?

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers, by Raja Rajamannar. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (6 hours, 12 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) In the “Loyalty Transformed” chapter, Rajamannar writes, “Give me affinity. Give me chemistry. Give me context. Give me relevance. Give me experience.” He says those things can “move a brand in the right direction in the quantum future.” On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is high), rank those five factors in your organization’s top loyalty program. What needs fixing?
2) Quantum Marketing reports: “Today, it is estimated that the average human’s attention span is slightly less than that of a goldfish, at under eight seconds!” Is your organization’s marketing ready for the Fifth Paradigm—or are you still back in the First Paradigm? How do you cut through the noise and the clutter?
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Year 2040 Pop Quiz!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook


POP QUIZ SPOILER ALERT! Listed above: the 2035 population
projections for the five largest cities in Latin America.

Yikes! Need another mind-blowing resource? Download the FREE report, GLOBAL TRENDS 2040: A More Contested World, a publication of the National Intelligence Council (here in the U.S.). Click here to download the 156-page PDF or click here to visit the online report.

And thanks to trends spotter and consultant David Schmidt at Wise Planning for alerting us to this gem—a full week before it was covered by The Wall Street Journal. Schmidt suggests, “at 156 pages, it’s best to brew a full pot of coffee if you plan to read it cover to cover.” Implications for your organization? Contact David Schmidt via his website.

POP QUIZ! In 2040, according to Global Trends 2040, will the percentage of Christians be UP or DOWN from 2020 in each of these nine regions?
• Latin America and Caribbean
• Europe
• Russia and Eurasia
• Middle East and North Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• South Asia
• Northeast Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Oceania

EXTRA CREDIT: List the five largest cities, by population in 2035, in each region. (Answers: pages 120 to 140)

According to the website, this is the “7th edition of the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends report. Published every four years since 1997, Global Trends assesses the key trends and uncertainties that will shape the strategic environment for the United States during the next two decades.”

For more resources in the Strategy Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod helped the Roe v. Wade movie team create fundraising opportunities for organizations and churches. If you need creative add-ons to your projects—to build loyalty—check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

L.A. Cop: Peacemaker in Blue

Issue No. 469 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a new book by Bob Vernon, Former L.A.P.D. Assistant Chief of Police. L.A. Cop is a page-turner—with gutsy lessons in every chapter. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2019 review of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and learn why “CEOs, on average, have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace.”



“The More You Sweat Here, the Less You’ll Bleed on the Streets”

Dum - - - de - DUM – DUM. Ladies and gentlemen: the book review you are about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

If you remember “Dragnet,” the radio, TV, and motion-picture series featuring the dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday (played by Jack Webb, 1920-1982), then you’ll definitely appreciate the true stories in L.A. Cop: Peacemaker in Blue, by Bob Vernon.

But first, click here and listen to the “Dragnet” theme (or find your old 78 record):

Listen to the iconic theme music from “Dragnet”
which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Oh, my. Read Bob Vernon’s first person narrative of being a peacemaker in the streets, alleys, and drug busts of Los Angeles—and you will think differently about law enforcement.

Just published last month, I read several pages of L.A. Cop to my grandchildren (four teenagers and an 11-year-old) at our Easter gathering. Zuzu, the serious reader in our family (she read 175 books in 2020) plans to read L.A. Cop this month.

Why should you read Bob Vernon’s book? The news for peacemakers has not been good lately: riots, the denigration of good cops, the misguided “defund the police” movement, and who knows what will happen…when the verdict is announced in the Derek Chauvin trial regarding George Floyd's death.

Bob Vernon retired in 1992 as L.A.P.D. Assistant Chief of Police, after serving 38 years with the department. His pastor, John MacArthur, notes that Vernon “was really a combination of cop and preacher.” Think it’s easy addressing crime and violence every day—and being a Christ follower? Try combining the rough and tumble Policy Academy training with the regimen Eugene Peterson delineates in his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. Peterson describes disciples as “people who spend our lives apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ.”

Originally, with a passion to be a pilot, and between semesters at Biola, Vernon passed the preliminary cadet screening tests and joined a group of 30 for an intense week of exams. He qualified for the final five, but a young psychiatrist pushed back on Vernon’s convictions. “Do you believe that Jesus was born without an earthly father—all that stuff?” The shrink, after a three-minute conversation, concluded that Vernon’s “hyper-religiousness” would not be a good fit in Korea. Sadly, Vernon was disqualified and his piloting career never took off.

So God redirected his path to the L.A.P.D. and while enduring the battery of tests to become an L.A. cop, Vernon interviewed with another psychiatrist. I’m always looking for the meat of a book by page 25—and I was not disappointed. Vernon shared his angst over his disqualification by the first psychiatrist. So in this interview, “I decided to be totally honest and let the chips fall where they would. I answered the questions openly and fully; I even volunteered that I knew Jesus personally. If this doesn’t do it, nothing will,” Vernon thought!

In response, the L.A.P.D. psychiatrist was elated. “I’m glad to see a young man who knows what he believes in. I was especially impressed when I tried to get you to back down and you wouldn’t.” He said that during the Korean War, the government had learned that those U.S. servicemen in enemy camps who had strong religious faith were faring better. (Read the encouraging insights on page 25.)

I’ve never been a crime writer or beat reporter, so I will not attempt to describe the powerful drama (and surprising humor!) in L.A. Cop. (Once, however, for a sixth grade school assignment, I wrote that I aspired to work for the FBI. I came close when I played an FBI agent—actually just one scene—in the 2008 movie, The Genius Club, starring Stephen Baldwin.) But let me tease you with nine Bob Vernon stories and some insights for your weekly staff meeting:

• What was she wearing? Vernon is the son of a cop and now the grandfather of four cops. His dad prepped him for the interview exam—to be ready for the classic observation question, “Describe the secretary who brought you into the interview room.” Oops! It backfired on Vernon—to much laughter—but he passed. (What’s your best interview question?)

• L.A. Policy Academy. Vernon learned this: “The more you sweat here, the less you’ll bleed on the streets.” (What’s the most memorable saying at your organization—and does it involve blood?)

• Rigorous Training. “Many of us were ‘killed’ by an instructor playing the role of a bandit. The instructor would fire a blank from his gun when we were careless during a vehicle pull-over or body search.” Read more about “pursuit syndrome” and why police behavioral patterns are so critical during those 90-mph car chases through residential areas. (How do you assess and address job-related stress?)

• Sobering. “The ‘Officer Survival’ and ‘When to Shoot’ lectures were among the most sobering experiences.” Vernon adds, “Those sessions shook me.” (Does your new employee orientation touch hearts and guts?)

• Pick One. Vernon learned rapidly from partners and other veterans. When a “belligerent and bull-strong arrestee didn’t want to go,” Vernon noted, “They knew how to choose from psychology, humor, and physical persuasion.” (What’s your go-to competency in your persuasion toolbox?)

• No GPS! Imagine—try doing effective police work without GPS, iPhones, and other modern resources. Vernon consulted his Thomas Street Guide to locate his assigned trouble spots. (Raise your hand if you still have a Thomas Street Guide in your car!)

• Timing Is Everything. “Those days of car patrol taught me the importance of being in the right place at the right time.” On one occasion, before the dispatcher had radioed a robbery alert, Vernon had the suspect in custody! The foot race ended with a serious whack on the suspect’s head—just one of dozens of scary, sometimes hilarious, cop stories. (Share a story when God put you in the right place at the right time.)

• The Incredulous Judge. One of Vernon’s early partners, Nick, “had an uncanny sixth sense.” Nick had even more than that. As the arresting office, Nick asked a judge to give him custody of a young man. “The judge was incredulous.” Caseworkers approved and “York” moved in with Nick and his wife. “York” eventually got a job and married. Redemption! (That’s what Max De Pree called a “tribal story.”)

• Pattern of Prayer. During Vernon’s 45-minute oral exam for deputy chief, he was asked how he had turned around a difficult environment when he was captain in the Venice neighborhood. His answer, “Well, I prayed a lot.” He then explained how his pattern of prayer gave him new insights and ideas for that challenging situation. (Read this book and you’ll pray differently every time you see a law enforcement officer—and perhaps how you approach your current job.)

You’ll be blessed and encouraged when you read L.A. Cop and your street-smart vocabulary will also be enriched: D.B. (dead body), u.o.’s (unusual occurrences), rat’s alarms, and righteous busts. You’ll appreciate even more: law enforcement chaplains, preventive media relationships, and split-second life or death decision-making competencies.

Though retirement would have been well-deserved after 38 years, Bob Vernon’s next assignment from the Lord was to launch Pointman Leadership Institute with a mission “to provide ethics training worldwide in character-based, principled leadership.” To date, more than 70 certified instructors have served more than 100,000 leaders in 75 countries with seminars on the power of character and preventing corruption. 

“This is the city. Los Angeles, California. I work here.” After you read L.A. Cop, check out the classic “Dragnet” TV dramas posted on YouTube.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for L.A. Cop: Peacemaker in Blue, by Bob Vernon, Former L.A.P.D. Assistant Chief of Police. And thanks to Three Sixteen Publishing for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) When working with the L.A.P.D.’s gang task force, Vernon and the team created a strategy to focus on one gang’s hardcore leadership—about 15 percent of the gang. It was very effective. Does your organization’s strategy include a laser-like focus on key leaders and influencers?
2) Are you prepared for the next crisis? It’s not if, but when. Bob Vernon had been lieutenant in the L.A.P.D. accident division for about two weeks in 1965 when the Watts riots hit the nation’s front pages. (Read his chapter, “Shoot?”) Is it time, again, to update our crisis plans?
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John Grisham meets Tim Keller
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



Here’s the core competency in the Crisis Bucket: “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.”

If my review of L.A. Cop has you searching for more books in the crime genre, you would enjoy The Ambition, Lee Strobel’s first novel in 2011. I called it “John Grisham meets Tim Keller.” Set in Chicago (where I survived 21 winters), the novel has it all and doesn’t disappoint. Murder. Mayhem. Megachurch. The mob. And Chicago politics! How I’ve missed Chicago politics! (Read my review of The Ambition.)

What’s the most important competency to bring to a crisis? Many would answer “JUDGMENT.” Read my 2017 mini-review of the book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, by Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis.

Judgment, preach the authors, is “the essence of effective leadership.” It involves three domains: people, strategy, and crisis. (Interestingly, those are three of the 20 management buckets: the People Bucket, the Strategy Bucket, and the Crisis Bucket.) They call judgment the proverbial elephant on the table—because it’s rarely addressed.

For more resources in all 20 buckets, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod helped the Roe v. Wade movie team create fundraising opportunities for organizations and churches. If you need creative add-ons to your projects, check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Roe v. Wade Movie

Issue No. 468 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a powerful movie that left me speechless—and a very comforting song. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God.



What Can One Person Do?

Exactly one year ago today, I spotlighted eight “leadership flicks” that you and your work-from-home team members could profitably view. (Click here.) I quoted Cecil B. DeMille: “Give me any two pages of the Bible, and I'll give you a picture.” Aristotle said, “The soul never thinks without a picture.”

I asked, “Why do you think the right film, at the right time, for the right reason—can be so powerful?” Today, April 2, 2021, I’m urging you to view another film—the online premiere of Roe v. Wade. I viewed the final full cut earlier this week and as the credits rolled…I was speechless. Oh, my.

Whether you’re “pro-choice” or “pro-life,” I’m wondering if what you believe could pass a FACT CHECK? The U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade landmark decision made history on Jan. 22, 1973. If you’re a regular reader, you won’t be surprised to know that I’m an advocate for the unborn. I believe the unborn are precious souls—made in the image of God. Please view the movie trailer (two minutes) here:

Click here to view the Roe v. Wade movie trailer (2 minutes).

Nick Loeb, the co-director, recently told The Hollywood Reporter, “What we tried to do is really just lay out the facts of how Roe v. Wade came to be and how it was decided. People can take one view or another. I've had a lot of people who think it's in the middle. We tell it from the pro-choice perspective because the story is told through the eyes of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who was the biggest abortionist of all time. He did more than 70,000 abortions.

“Why some folks may think it's a conservative film or why it aligns with those views is because the protagonist actually converts. He starts off pro-choice and becomes pro-life through his journey. It's a true story.”

POP QUIZ: FACT OR NOT?
Here are just five of the 11 claims noted on the Roe v. Wade website. Fact or not?

[ ] #1. “Supreme Court justices switched their votes in favor of ‘Jane Roe’ by striking down laws that restricted abortion.”

[ ] #2. “At the time the Supreme Court was hearing and deciding on Roe v. Wade, family members of some Supreme Court justices were volunteering for Planned Parenthood, the abortion provider and advocate for full legalization of abortion, or pushing to legalize abortion.”

[ ] #3. “Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is shown speaking at a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan with a burning cross nearby, and making racist statements.”

[ ] #4. “Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Lawrence Lader, on a trip to the Caribbean island of St. Croix, discussed strategy to target the Catholic Church and use fabricated statistics on abortion.”

[ ] #5. Note: In that decade, some Americans were willing to speak up for the rights of the unborn. Dr. Mildred Jefferson, the first African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, is featured prominently in the film.
Fact or Not? “Dr. Mildred Jefferson mentions that the producers of the TV series, Maude, were paid by activists $10,000 for an episode favorable to abortion.”

POP QUIZ ANSWERS:
Click here to visit “Fact Check” on the Roe v. Wade movie website.

WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO? After viewing this powerful film, I’d suggest you discuss these questions:
   • What did you learn?
   • You cannot have passion for every cause—for every issue—so how do you discern if/when you should harness your energies and resources on this issue?
   • What is God calling you to do now?
   • What can one person do?

HOST A VIRTUAL MOVIE FUNDRAISING EVENT. The producers of Roe v. Wade have an innovative way for your organization or church to view the movie online—and also inspire viewers to give to your organization. Click here for more information and to learn about the three simple steps. You can schedule your event anytime until April 26, 2021. (Note: If an official representative of your organization would like to view an online screener, before you reserve your online event, click here.)

VIEW ROE V. WADE: DIGITAL AND ON-DEMAND (available now)
(1 hour, 51 minutes, PG-13). “Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Dr. Mildred Jefferson square off in a national battle in this untold conspiracy that led to the most famous and controversial court case in history.” Click here to view online.



VIEW ROE V. WADE: DVD (available May 4, 2021)
1 hour, 51 minutes, PG-13, Jon Voight (Actor), Nick Loeb (Actor). Click here to pre-order the DVD from Amazon.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
Do you know someone who needs encouragement? Has COVID (and now a very heavy topic like Roe v. Wade) affected a friend or family member deeply? There is hope. Listen to this blessed song by The Issacs, “Does Jesus Care?” They sing, “When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.”

Click here to listen: “Does Jesus Care?”
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What Can One Person Do?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



In The 5 Book, Dan Zadra asks a convicting question: “Where will you be five years from now?” (Read my review.) He notes:
   • “In just under five years, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.”
   • “At age 30, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was living in a 500-square foot apartment. Five years later his net worth was $10 billion.” (Today: $182 billion!)
   • “In 1961, Julia Child graduated from cooking school with a quirky idea for a TV show. Four years later she won an Emmy as America’s favorite TV chef.”

So…what can one person do? Think about a five-year plan. And think about Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood leader. Read her story here.

• Click here to read my review of Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line, by Abby Johnson.

• Click here to view Unplanned, the movie, on Amazon Prime.

What can one person do? John Baillie prayed, “What I desire for myself I cannot attain, but what Thou desirest in me Thou canst attain for me.” He also prayed, “I would hold myself in readiness today for Thy least word of command. Give me the spirit, I pray Thee, to keep myself in continual training for the punctual fulfillment of Thy most holy will.”

Click here to order A Diary of Private Prayer from Amazon, featuring Baillie’s 31 morning prayers and 31 evening prayers. For more resources in the Strategy Bucket, click here. And for more on prayer, visit the blog I wrote one year ago for ECFA. Click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod helped the Roe v. Wade movie team create fundraising opportunities for organizations and churches. If you need creative add-ons to your projects, check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

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