John Pearson's Buckets Blog

SUBSCRIBE to Your Weekly Staff Meeting

Free subscription!
Your email address will be used ONLY to send you issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (1-3 issues/month).

04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 10, 2020

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

Issue No. 445 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends (get this!) a book on how to read a book! The author asks: Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist? And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and if you’re homeschooling again, click here to read my 2012 review of A Class With Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher.

“Give Yourself the Gift of Empty Shelves”

This is funny! Next month I’ll begin the 15th year of publishing Your Weekly Staff Meeting. The first issue was August 28, 2006, and I recommended Jim Collins’ easy-to-read 35-page booklet, Good to Great and the Social Sectors.

So after reviewing more than 450 books (some issues have highlighted multiple books), I took time to read a book about how to read a book! LOL! And it’s August in the Year of Covid, so here’s another “summer shorts” issue.

Summer Shorts No. 2:
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books, by Steve Leveen

“Do not set out to live a well-read life but rather your well-read life. No one can be well-read using someone else’s reading list.”

Wham! Immediately, author and entrepreneur Steve Leveen lets you off the hook—no guilt. Just a boatload of ideas on navigating your own well-read life. The book features dozens of PowerPoint-worthy quotations, including this from Atwood H. Townsend:

“Never force yourself to read a book that you do not enjoy. There are so many good books in the world that it is foolish to waste time on one that does not give you pleasure.”

To uncover the books that will change your life (the big idea of the book), the author suggests you have two libraries:
#1. The Library of Candidates (based on your List of Candidates)
#2. The Living Library (your library of well-read friends)

Leveen did massive research and one-on-one interviews with readers and book clubs before writing this book. He notes that John Armato, a PR executive, “cherishes his growing Library of Candidates. When people ask him if he’s actually read all those books, he asks if they’ve actually eaten all the food in their kitchen. ‘It is good to put up a supply of books; it increases the odds that you’ll have what you want when you’re hungry for it,’ he says.” Leveen adds:

“Give yourself the gift of empty shelves. Like an open road, they hold the promise of your future examined life.”

The chapter, “Seizing More from Your Reading,” gave me several new ideas—and affirmed several of my best practices. “The advice-givers all agree that you should not start by reading the first sentence of a book and then plow your way through to the end.” His practical suggestions (start at 35,000 feet and conduct three tours of the book) include this: “Then take a third tour, and read a few introductory and concluding paragraphs from each chapter. That is where most writers sum up their major points.”

When should you give up on a book? “A few years ago I gave up on Crime and Punishment. I found it not enough crime and too much punishment.” Generally, Leveen votes for the 50-page rule: “…if you don’t like it after fifty pages, close the book and move on.”

Where do you find the meat of a book? Usually in the middle, but don’t forget my rule-of-thumb for striking gold on page 25 also. In Leveen’s book on page 25, you’ll find his generous recommendations of other books on how to read a book, including a classic, Good Reading: A Helpful Guide for Serious Readers.

I ordered The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life for the five scholars/grandchildren in my life. (Three are ready to begin their senior year in high school—whatever that might look like at Covid High.) Students and serious readers will appreciate Leveen’s “proven techniques for remembering” content. Example: In the 1940s, Ohio State University professor Francis Robinson conducted the psychological research that created the system, SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.

Our granddaughter, Zuzu, keeps a list of the books she’s read. So far in 2020, she’s knocked off 130 books! Zuzu affirms Leveen’s suggestion: “Another way to help your long-term retention is by keeping a reader’s journal or annotated Bookography.” He also notes that “Some of the most satisfying reading of all is re-reading. The Bible is the most re-read book of all in the West.”

Every year, my friend and mentor, George Duff, re-reads Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive. Click here to read Jim Collins’ foreword to the 50th anniversary edition, “Ten Lessons I Learned from Peter Drucker.”

If you love books—and love the lifelong nourishment that good books deliver—you’ll feast on The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life (121 delicious pages), including a tempting bibliography of 86 books. (I borrowed a few titles for my List of Candidates and my Library of Candidates.)

Footprint Leaver or Preservationist? Don’t miss the pros and cons of Footprint Leavers (those who write in books—I’m in the marginalia camp) and the opposing group, Preservationists (no writing allowed). Leveen received more than 2,000 responses to his blog on this Big Argument, including “A book unmarked is a book unloved.” Read his follow-up 2009 blog post, “Why You Should Write in Your Books Now.” Also, learn why speed reading isn’t that important (the difference between reading speed versus thinking speed).

He quotes Mortimer Adler, coauthor of How to Read a Book: “Whereas a bookplate indicates financial ownership…writing in a book indicates intellectual ownership.” Leveen is encouraging. “If you have led an active reading life, your reading power at age eighty will tower over your reading power at age thirty.” And this:

“If you are not setting some books aside unfinished, you are not sampling enough books.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books, by Steve Leveen.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Do you write notes in your books? David McCullough noted that John Adams “wrote no fewer than 12,000 words inside the covers of Mary Wollstonecraft’s French Revolution (mostly disagreeing with the author).”
2) Peter Drucker would ask: Are you a reader or a listener? Leveen devotes 15 pages to the joy of audiobooks, “Reading with Your Ears.” Bestselling author Jerry Jenkins, a fan of audiobooks, told Leveen that he was such a fan of Frank Muller’s narration expertise that Jenkins asked Muller to record some of his Left Behind book series. Listen to Desecration (Book #9) on Libro.fm (9 hours, 38 minutes).
_________________________________

A Blogger and an Aussie Visit Powell’s!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Book Bucket affirms, “We believe leaders are readers! We don’t just talk about books—we actually read them!”

In Issue No. 5 (Sept. 30, 2006), I wrote about “The Perpetual Power of a Perfect Gift.” After making a contribution to a national ministry in the 1980s, I received a book that I still treasure: A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie. I continue to read selections in this book every week.

I now treasure another book! Several years ago, my colleague and friend, Gary Williams, and I had a free evening together in Vancouver, Wash., following a training event hosted by Murdock Trust. Gary, the very effective National Director of Christian Management Australia, was visiting the U.S.

His research on Portland (just across the Columbia River) had prioritized a visit to Powell's City of Books, reputed to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. So we journeyed to Portland (for his first Uber journey!) and trekked the 1.6 acres of retail floor space. Powell’s has nine color-coded rooms and over 3,500 different sections. What fun! When we exited the bookstore, Gary presented me with a gift.

You guessed it—a book. But it was a very special book. And LOL! I finally read this gem during Covid-19! Confession: I shoulda/coulda read it sooner, but I didn’t. So finally, Gary, thank you! The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life is a remarkable book!

For more resources in the Book Bucket, check out this webpage.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CFO PODCAST: John was interviewed by CFO David Beroth for the July podcast, Christian Nonprofit CFO. The topic: “7 Critical Financial Insights the Board Needs from the CFO.” Click here to listen.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Read any good books lately on branding and persuasion? Pearpod Media has the top titles. Contact 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.

03:07 PM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: books, reading

August 01, 2020

Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

Issue No. 444 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends some bunker reading on persuasion. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams says catchy slogans have a “percussion rhythm” to them. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click on the title to read my 2017 two-part review of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.

31 Persuasion Tips From Scott Adams

Really, John? You want me to read a 2017 book by Scott Adams, the Dilbert cartoonist? And is that really a caricature of Donald Trump on the cover? (You fool! You’ll lose half your readers!)

Actually…I’m going to persuade you to read a powerful book on the art of persuasion. Yes, Scott Adams colorfully sketches out the 2016 Trump campaign as his case study, but it’s much, much more than that. I read this persuasive book in November 2017—and just did a second read in February 2020.

It’s now August 2020—but during this Covid-19 lockdown, does it really matter what month it is? In August, I often take a break and feature summer reruns of books you’ve long forgotten. But not this August. Instead I’m calling August 2020 “The Month of Summer Shorts.” I’ll give you my best book recommendations, but short (or shorter) reviews. So you’ll have to do the hard work yourself—actually read the book! After all, you’ve got the time there in your bunker.

SUMMER SHORTS NO. 1:
Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, by Scott Adams

If your day job involves persuading people, customers, clients, donors, members, or anyone else to move from Point A to Point B—you will absolutely love this book. You’ll also chuckle frequently as you read sections to your coworkers, friends, and family.

My favorite snippets:

• Entertaining. “I invite people of all political perspectives to enjoy this book without getting sidetracked by politics. I won’t be discussing policies except in the context of persuasion. This book isn’t designed to change your mind about politics or about Trump. All I hope to do is teach you some things about persuasion by wrapping it in an entertaining first-person story.”

• Prune Your Sentences. In “How to Be a Better Writer” (see the two-page Appendix B), Scott Adams suggests: “Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence in this blog. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.”

• 31 Persuasion Tips. Adams fertilizes every chapter with one or more persuasion tip call-outs, including Tip 5: “An intentional ‘error’ in the details of your message will attract criticism. The attention will make your message rise in importance—at least in people’s minds—simply because everyone is talking about it.”

• Cognitive Dissonance. “Our egos prevent us from imagining we are irrational 90 percent of the time.” (Don’t skip this 12-page chapter or the two-page chapter on “Confirmation Bias.”)

• Master Persuader. “You should never take financial advice from cartoonists, but let me tell you one thing that feels safe to share: If the CEO of a publicly traded company is routinely described as having a ‘reality distortion field’—as was the case with Steve Jobs—keep an eye on that company. That’s a sign of a Master Persuader.”

• The Persuasion Talent Stack. “He sucked all the attention away from his sixteen competitors, rendering them uninteresting by comparison.” And…“It was pitch-perfect technique, and it leveraged most of his persuasion talent stack.”

• Facts and Reason. “Persuasion is all about the tools and techniques of changing people’s minds, with or without facts and reason.”

• Persuasion Tip 26. “Repetition is persuasion. Also, repetition is persuasion. And have I mentioned that repetition is persuasion?”

Yikes. I promised you a “Summer Shorts” issue—but there’s too much good stuff in Win Bigly. I’ll end with 12 teasers:
• Trump’s provocative style: that’s what New Yorkers call “talking!” (p. 11)
• Intentional typos (p. 23)
• The “McGurk Effect” video (p. 36) [Editor’s note: see also this short video by the author of Brain Rules.]
• CNN’s list of 24 explanations why Trump won in 2016 (p. 52)
• Why plumbers don’t use analogies (p. 58)
• An enormous persuasion mistake during the Republican debates (p. 81)
• “Concepts without images are weak sauce” and “Think past the sale.” (p. 138)
• The border wall: examples of good and bad persuasion (p. 139)
• “Red is the boss of all colors.” (p. 156)
• On catchy slogans that have a “percussion rhythm” to them. “A good sentence sounds good—in a way that music sounds good—independent of the meaning.” (p. 156)
• “How to Use the High-Ground Maneuver” (p. 194-197)
• “Why Joining a Tribe Makes You Powerful and Blind” (p. 205-255)

If I’ve persuaded you, then thanks for ordering from Amazon. Click on the title for Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, by Scott Adams. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (9 hours, 1 minute, narrated by Scott Adams).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Does your team have sufficient appreciation for differing viewpoints to discuss books (and concepts) from both sides of the aisle? Then have one team member read about persuasion in Win Bigly and another present insights from my 2009 review of Barack, Inc. – Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign, by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk.
2) For a broad, historical sweep on Washington politics, read my 2008 review of The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington, by Robert D. Novak. The slant—how does an opinion writer persuade?
_________________________________

The Mindset of the College Class of 2023
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Customer Bucket affirms, “We are zealots for researching and understanding our markets.” Over the years, I’ve linked to the Beloit College Mindset List that captured the worldview of each year’s freshman college class (and this mindset list of American history). A year ago, the list was handed off to Marist College (New York) and on Aug. 21, 2019, they published the 22nd edition, The 2019 Marist Mindset List for the college class of 2023 (students born in 2001).

The list is a brilliant customer analysis and I’m wondering why every industry/profession doesn’t’ publish their own annual “mindset” list. By the way, the Class of 2023, variously known as Gen Z, Gen I, Gen Tech, and “The Plurals,” is the first class born in the 21st century. What do you call this generation?

Here’s a sample of 18 of the 60 insights that made the 2019 list:

THE 2019 MARIST COLLEGE MINDSET LIST
FOR THE ENTERING COLLEGE CLASS OF 2023

Shoes, Siblings, and Sex:
• Like Pearl Harbor for their grandparents, and the Kennedy assassination for their parents, 9/11 is an historical event.
• The primary use of a phone has always been to take pictures.
• Nearly half of their generation is composed of people of color.
• There have always been indecisive quadrennial debates regarding the future of the Electoral College.
• Because of Richard Reid’s explosive footwear at 30,000 feet, passengers have always had to take off their shoes to slide through security on the ground.
• They are as non-judgmental about sexual orientation as their parents were about smoking pot.
• Apple iPods have always been nostalgic.
• They may well not have a younger sibling, as the birth rate in the U.S. has been dropping since they were in grammar school.
• They have witnessed two African-American Secretaries of State, the election of a black President, Disney’s first black Princess, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Baseball, Blackboards, and Books:
• Only two-thirds of this generation identify as exclusively heterosexual.
• YouTube has become the video version of Wikipedia.
• By their sophomore year, their generation will constitute one-quarter of the U.S. population.
• Quarterback Troy Aikman has always called the plays live from the press booth.
• The Apple Power Mac Cube has always been in a museum.
• Most of them will rent, not buy, their textbooks.
• They have probably all been “gaslighted” or “ghosted.”
• Blackboards have never been dumb.
• Cal Ripken, Jr., has always been retired.

Stay tuned. The 2020 list for the entering college class of 2024 will be released before school opens, or shall we say if/when school opens? For more resources and books in the Customer Bucket, visit this webpage.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. How persuasive is your branding? Do your written and spoken words sound good? Do they have a “percussion rhythm?” Need persuasive inspiration? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

01:00 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: persuasion

July 18, 2020

How Will You Measure Your Life?

Issue No. 443 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a 2012 bestseller with three profound questions. (Sorry I’m eight years late on this!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here to read my recent review of Leighton Ford’s book, A Life of Listening: Discerning God's Voice and Discovering Our Own.

How to Stay Out of Jail!
Clayton Christensen’s 3 Big Questions

While locked down here in the Pearson Bunker, we’ve been talking about writing another book. No title yet, but here’s the big idea—If I’d Only Read This Book EARLIER in My Career, I Could Have Avoided This BIG Leadership Mistake!

But should I write about my Top-10, Top-50, or Top-100 big leadership mistakes? (Yikes. I have an abundance of examples.) Much too late, I’ve often read a book that would have given me greater clarity—and sooner.

Today’s book would certainly be on the list. Had I read this book in 2013, I would have given much better counsel to younger (and some older) leaders over the last eight years. I would have given less advice and simply said, “Just read this book!”

LOL! On Jan. 15, 2013, Chasz Parker, a faithful leader and reader, emailed me with this book recommendation:

HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE?
by Clayton M. Christensen,
James Allworth, and Karen Dillon

Good News. I immediately ordered the book back in 2013 (as Chasz instructed!).

Bad News. I set this gem aside and didn’t read it until this year during lockdown. Yikes. I wasted eight years! (Sorry, Chasz!)

Good News. I still have the two-page email from Chasz Parker—and, yes, he was right. This New York Times bestseller is amazing. I can’t stop talking about it. And gratefully, Chasz’s 2013 email included his review!

Note: On Jan. 24, 2020, an obituary in The Wall Street Journal reported that Clayton Christensen had died the day before. He had leukemia. They noted that Christensen was “a Harvard Business School professor and management guru…an authority on what he called disruptive technologies who became more widely known for offering his life as a case study.”

So here’s a summary of How Will You Measure Your Life? from Parker and Pearson. In the book and in his MBA classes, Christensen asked three big questions:

“How can I be sure that...
1. I will be successful and happy in my career?
2. My relationships with my spouse, my children, and my extended family and close friends becomes an enduring source of happiness?
3. I live a life of integrity—and stay out of jail?”

On the last day of class each year, Prof. Christensen discussed these three questions with his Harvard Business School students. Word got around and he was then invited to give the talk to the entire study body at the 2010 graduation ceremonies. Next, Karen Dillon, then editor of Harvard Business Review, asked him to write the article, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” for HBR. (Click here to read.) The book was released in 2012 (and yes, I finally read it in 2020!).

Chasz notes that when Christensen, also a HBS grad, attended his own class reunions—it concerned him that some classmates were experiencing personal and/or work traumas. Some stopped attending reunions out of embarrassment.

I appreciate bullet point book reviews and Chasz didn’t disappoint in his 2013 email to me. He wrote:

• We often find our life’s direction by following an “emergent” path. We make our plans and start out in what we believe is the way to go, but to be successful (like most businesses) we deviate from the plan to the opportunity. Christensen’s career aim was to be the editor of The Wall Street Journal! But he ended up as a prof at Harvard Business School. (And perhaps he had greater influence there. See two more books below.)
• Integrity is holding the line on key commitments. Many people who cross the line naively think they will only cross it once, and will step over and come back “just this time.” But then having crossed that line (which was once a monumental decision), further line-crossing seems insignificant—and each subsequent “small” infraction eventually erodes a person’s integrity—compounding into major losses (family, career, etc.).
• Read why Christensen says, “100 Percent of the Time Is Easier Than 98 Percent of the Time.”
• Must-read: Christensen’s insights on why “outsourcing” may undermine your family’s values (and your organization’s values)—and why you must keep certain competencies in-house, even if difficult.
• You must pursue your life purpose by determining what it is you are going to reflect in your character (whose image will be seen in you?), then commit to what it will take for this to happen, and create a means to track how you are doing in becoming more like your desired image.

Chasz suggested that this would be a great CEO book study—especially for young leaders. Interestingly, Christensen himself didn’t sense that his last-day-of-class talks to MBA students were getting much traction—until he announced he had been diagnosed with the same cancer that had taken his father. Then students engaged—and this book is the result.

Christensen quotes C.S. Lewis:
“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

In addition to the powerful life lessons (poke-in-rib quotes on mistake-mistaking), every leader and manager will find delightful sidebars and rabbit trails on growing people and businesses in complex environments.

Example: Noting “the problem with principal-agent, or incentives, theory…” (why some managers still think money motivates), Christensen discusses Frederick Herzberg’s work on the psychology of motivation—another topic I wish I had known about years ago. Read “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” in the January 2003 issue of HBR. (In the book, Christensen also gives a nice compliment to nonprofit managers.)

Click here to view Clay Christensen on YouTube at a TEDx Boston presentation in 2012:

View Clay Christensen: “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

Picture this on your business card! Clayton Christensen was twice “Ranked #1 in the Thinkers50,” the global ranking of business leaders. He was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2019. You’ll appreciate his wisdom throughout the book. He writes, “There are no quick fixes for the fundamental problems of life. But I can offer you tools that I’ll call theories in this book, which will help you make good choices, appropriate to the circumstances of your life.”

Christensen writes that instead of telling Intel’s Andy Grove what to think during a consultation, “I taught him how to think. He then reached a bold decision about what to do, on his own.”

The co-authors add richness to this remarkable book. In the Acknowledgments section (who reads that?) I got teary-eyed reading the warmth expressed between the three authors (pages 207-221). James Allworth writes to Christensen, “Short of my parents, you have done more to change the way I think about the world than anyone.”

After meeting Christensen and learning about his three questions, co-author Karen Dillon recalls, “I stood in the parking lot of HBS a few hours later and knew I didn’t like my answers to those questions. Since then, I have changed almost everything about my life with the goal of refocusing around my family.”

Trust us—you will not stop talking about this book and it will cost you! I just ordered another copy for a younger leader today.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 34 minutes).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) When coaching and mentoring others (including family members), Christensen notes “…there is no one-size-fits-all approach that anyone can offer you. The hot water that softens a carrot will harden an egg.” What carefully selected books are you recommending this month to younger leaders (and other lifelong learners)?
2) Let’s be blunt here: How will you measure your life—and stay out of jail?
_________________________________

Clayton Christensen on “Hiring a Milkshake to Do the Job”
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Customer Bucket affirms, “We know our primary and supporting customers. We segment our customers to more effectively meet their unique needs. We listen to our customers. We are zealots for researching and understanding our markets.”

Clayton Christensen’s work on “What job did you hire that product to do?” disrupted the way organizations think about their customers. Enjoy these resources:

[ ] 7-MINUTE VIDEO: Clayton Christensen’s work on disruptive innovation opened doors to a wide array of businesses and organizations, including McDonald’s. Invest seven minutes and view this fascinating YouTube video, “Hiring a Milkshake to Do the Job.” (Nov. 2019)

View on YouTube: “Hiring a Milkshake to Do the Job”

[ ] BOOK: The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, by Clayton M. Christensen (2002). (Order from Amazon.) “It is in disruptive innovations, where we know least about the market, that there are such strong first-mover advantages. This is the innovator’s dilemma.”

[ ] BOOK: Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, by Clayton M. Christensen, Karen Dillon, Taddy Hall, and David S. Duncan (2016). (Order from Amazon.) The introduction, “Why You Should Hire This Book,” notes the importance of asking the right question: “What job did you hire that product to do?” (View the milkshake video.) And how about this on co-author David Duncan? “The clients he’s worked with tell me they’ve completely changed the way they think about their business and transformed their culture to be truly focused on customer jobs. (One client even named a conference room after him!)”

[ ] CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN (1952-2020) WEBSITE. In 2011, in a poll of thousands of executives, consultants and business school professors, Christensen was named as the most influential business thinker in the world. Click here to visit his website.

For more resources and books, visit the Customer Bucket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. When you ask, “What job did you hire that product to do?”—your marketing and communication plans must also align with your answers. Need someone to coach you in how to think about this? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

02:00 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Clayton Christensen

July 09, 2020

The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials

Issue No. 442 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends another “Thank God It’s Monday” book. Invest 15 minutes every Monday morning—for 52 weeks—to read 52 mini-chapters of Ravi Zacharias’ remarkable book. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here to read my review of the just-in-time book, Fearless Innovation: A No-Nonsense Guide.

A Worldview Answers 4 Questions

In the previous issue, I suggested a crazy idea (whether you’re back at the office or still in your bunker): every Monday morning, before you look at your email—invest 15 minutes in reading. If you have the right book, you’ll have a “Thank God It’s Monday” experience.

Option #1: Select a book with 52 mini-chapters and start every Monday with a bang. (Sorry…I still have 4th of July firecrackers reverberating in my skull.)

Option #2: Or, delegate your reading and ask team members (on a rotation basis) to give a five-minute chapter summary of the book at your weekly staff meeting.

52 MINI-CHAPTERS FOR MONDAY MORNINGS
OR YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING
The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind, by Ravi Zacharias

I picked up the “Thank God It’s Monday” tag from a fascinating 2019 interview of apologist Ravi Zacharias (who died this past May at age 74). He told Eric Metaxas that he wanted to name his latest book, Thank God It’s Monday, but (as they poke fun at the publisher on the broadcast), the final title for his book became The Logic of God.

Click on this link to enjoy this inspiring one-hour interview. About 10 minutes into the video, you’ll be stunned at the true story Zacharias shares—he’s 17 and in the hospital. (I urged my 17-year-old triplet grandkids to view this powerful segment.)

View the one-hour Eric Metaxas Radio Show with Ravi Zacharias.

The Logic of God is Ravi Zacharias’ first “devotional” book. Published in 2019, the book was selected for the 2020 ECPA Christian Book Award for the Bible Study category. It is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

The 52 mini-chapters (four to five pages each) address why Christianity, the Bible, and God are still relevant. Christ-followers will appreciate the refresher course. Seekers will have both their minds and their hearts challenged. Each chapter is concise, but meaty.

Zacharias: “Because these readings will consistently challenge your mind and stir your heart, and the questions and applications will take time to process, I recommend that, if possible, you spend a week with each ‘experience.’ If you start on a Monday, think of it as a kind of ‘Thank God It’s Monday’ summons, add that cliché to your intention, and thus help make your usual Mondays actually something to look forward to. Whatever motivates, right?” Here’s a taste:

Chapter 1: Behind Every Question (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). “I always bear in mind that behind every question is a questioner. The convergence of intellectual and existential struggles drives a person to a brutal honesty in the questions he or she has.”

“Whether religious or irreligious, everyone has a worldview. A worldview basically offers answers to four necessary questions: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. In turn, these answers must be correspondingly true on particular questions and, as a whole, all answers put together must be coherent.” (Read more about “the three tests for truth” that must be applied to any worldview.)

Chapter 2: The Ultimate Calling (1 Peter 3:8-9, 15-16). “The British evangelist Rodney ‘Gipsy’ Smith once said, ‘There are five Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, but most people will never read the first four.’ In other words, apologetics is often first seen before it is heard.”

Chapter 3: Point of Exclusion (John 14:5-6). “The law of noncontradiction does apply to reality: two contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense. Thus, to deny the law of noncontradiction is to affirm it at the same time. You may as well talk about a one-ended stick as talk about truth being all-inclusive.”

Chapter 4: The Pathway of Pain (Psalm 22:1-2). “But why do we even ask these questions about suffering within the context of morality? Why have we blended the fact of physical pain with the demand for a moral explanation? Who decided that pain is immoral? Indeed, almost every atheist or skeptic you read names this as the main reason for his or her denial of God’s existence.”

OK…I’m four Mondays ahead of you already. I love the format of each mini-chapter: just the Bible verse on the first page, then two or three pages of brilliant and tightly-packed commentary, then two reflection questions and two personal application questions—designed for thinking about over the next six days. Then repeat with another “Thank God’s It’s Monday.” Brilliant and doable—for 52 Mondays.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind, by Ravi Zacharias. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, narrated by Ravi Zacharias).

Reminder: In the previous issue, I reviewed another excellent book with 52 mini-chapters, It's the Manager: Gallup Finds the Quality of Managers and Team Leaders Is the Single Biggest Factor in Your Organization's Long-Term Success, by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter. Read my review.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Ravi Zacharias quotes G.K. Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Share your faith journey. Are you a believer, a seeker, a skeptic, or what?
2) In Chapter 38, “The Books We Read,” in The Logic of God, Zacharias quotes Groucho Marx, who once responded to an author, “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.” How many books are on your “intend” list? What book (or books) are you reading now?
_______________________________

3 Paths Ahead: Check Only 1
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Strategy Bucket affirms: “We’re systematic—never negligent—in our strategic planning. We know our mission statement by memory, and our programs, products and services are in alignment with the mission.”

J. David Schmidt of Wise Planning writes: “A social disaster within a financial disaster within a health disaster has suddenly reframed our work as leaders in the months ahead.” In his thoughtful style, Schmidt writes about “Embracing Redemptive Disruption.” He outlines three possible paths as you look ahead, and offers practical next steps for guiding your organization into the future.

CHECK ONE:
[ ] Path #1: The Path Back to the Land Called Familiar. Safe. Comforting. And No Difficult Conversations.
[ ] Path #2: The Path to Thoughtful, Organizational Decluttering. Getting Free From Some Stuff.
[ ] Path #3: The Path to a Fresh Start. Rich Rewards but Not for the Faint of Heart.

Click here to download the nine-page PDF. And let me add this note—three times in my CEO leadership days, I invited Schmidt to facilitate a strategic planning process. The results—and spiritual breakthroughs—were stunning, by God’s grace. Contact J. David Schmidt via email at David@wiseplanning.net

Schmidt asks: “What are we not doing that if we did—it would fundamentally change the trajectory of our mission results?”

For more resources and books, visit the Strategy Bucket

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Measure your communication strategy against the three paths above. Safe? Some uncluttering? Or…ready for a fresh start with rich rewards? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

05:15 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Christian apologetics

July 02, 2020

It's the Manager

Issue No. 441 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests you invest 15 minutes every Monday morning—for 52 weeks—to read 52 mini-chapters of a culture-changing book. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here to read my review of the brilliant coaching book, The Advice Trap.

The One Single Lever to Create Change—It’s the Manager

“Setting aside just 15 minutes a day will enable you to read up to two dozen books in a year. Keep it up and you will have read 1,000 books in your lifetime. That’s the equivalent of going through college five times.” (Books Are Tremendous)

Here’s a crazy idea (whether you’re back at the office or still in your bunker): every Monday morning, before you look at your email—invest 15 minutes in reading.

Option #1: I’m not asking you to do this every day—just every Monday. So here is a “Thank God It’s Monday” book with 52 mini-chapters.

Option #2: Or, delegate your reading and ask team members (on a rotation basis) to give a five-minute chapter summary of this book at your weekly staff meeting.

52 MINI-CHAPTERS FOR MONDAY MORNINGS OR YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING
It's the Manager: Gallup Finds the Quality of Managers and Team Leaders Is the Single Biggest Factor in Your Organization's Long-Term Success, by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter

Don’t allow the mini-chapters (four pages or less each) to delude you into thinking this is light-weight content. The 52 short chapters are readable, to-the-point, and packed with promise for thoughtful implementers.

Starting next Monday, what if…you invested 15 minutes to read and think about Chapter 1, “What Exactly Should CEOs and CHROs Change?” Even if you’re not the CEO or the Chief HR Officer, you will learn (and remember) the six changes recommended by Gallup, including #3, “Millennials and Generation Z don’t want bosses—they want coaches.” Sneak peek: it’s time to retire the old-style boss who leads by command and control.

With your 15-minutes-every-Monday discipline, look at what awaits you for the next 52 weeks:
2) Why Organizational Change Is So Hard
3) Two Non-Negotiable Traits for Leaders
10) Hiring Star Employees
21) The Five Coaching Conversations
25) Make “My Development” the Reason Employees Stay
30) The Five Traits of Great Managers
47) Gig Work: The New Employer-Employee Relationship

Based on roundtable interviews with CHROs from 300 of the world’s largest organizations, the content covers Strategy, Culture, Employment Brand, Boss to Coach, and the Future of Work.

The robust appendix (pages 189-378) includes major sections on: “Leading With Your Strengths: A Guide to the 34 Clifton Strengths Themes,” (including one unique code to take the online assessment), “Q12: The 12 Elements of Great Management,” and “The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes,” plus more.

“The Future of Work” section, Chapters 32 to 41, addresses diversity and inclusion topics—and the critical “lever” of the manager, a discussion of the gender gap, women in the workplace (work-life flexibility, etc.) and for us old guys, “Are Boomers a Burden?” Breaking News: “74% of Americans plan to work past age 65.”

You have my permission to start with Chapter 26, “Moneyball for Workplaces: 12 Elements of Team Success.” Here are three:
• I know what is expected of me at work.
• In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
• There is someone at work who encourages my development.

Why this book? Gallup’s extensive research (extensive!) has concluded this:

“Of all the codes Gallup has been asked to crack dating back 80 years to our founder, George Gallup, the single most profound, distinct and clarifying finding—ever—is probably this one: 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager.”

They add, “Usually, there isn’t a single lever to create change. In this case, there is: It’s the manager.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for It's the Manager: Gallup Finds the Quality of Managers and Team Leaders Is the Single Biggest Factor in Your Organization's Long-Term Success, by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Positive responses to the statement, “At work, my opinions seem to count,” is one of the 12 elements of team success in It’s the Manager. How would each of your direct reports answer that question on a scale of one to five (5 = strongly agree)?
2) According to Gallup, “about one in four full-time and one in two part-time workers have a gig job.” If that were true of our employees—is that a good thing or not? And, is this “Uber economy” going to grow or decline—and how will that affect our team?
_________________________________________

NEXT ISSUE: I picked up the “Thank God It’s Monday” tag from a fascinating 2019 interview of apologist Ravi Zacharias (who died this past May at age 74). He told Eric Metaxas that he wanted to name his latest book, Thank God It’s Monday. But instead (as they poke fun at the publisher during the broadcast), Zondervan titled Zacharias’ first devotional book—The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Read my review in the next issue. This might also be your Monday morning reader for the next 52 weeks. Incredible book.
_____________________________

30 Books to Delegate During This Crisis...And the Next Crisis
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Book Bucket affirms: “We mentor team members with thoughtfully selected titles and chapters to help them leverage their strengths, grow in their faith, and serve others with passion. We don’t just talk about books—we actually read them!”

During this COVID-19 marathon, I curated a list of “30 Books to Delegate During This Crisis...And the Next Crisis.” You’ll find them on LinkedIn and Twitter and this week I compiled them into one master list. To download from the Book Bucket, click here.

The nominees include some obvious gems, including The Checklist Manifesto and How the Mighty Fall, plus a few unexpected picks, such as The Boys in the Boat and Leadership Prayers. The 12-page PDF includes links to my reviews of all 30 books.

According to Murphy’s Law Book Three: Wrong Reasons Why Things Go More!, by Arthur Bloch, here are the things that can be counted on in a crisis:
• Marketing says yes.
• Finance says no.
• Legal has to review it.
• [HR] is concerned.
• Planning is frantic.
• Engineering is above it all.
• Manufacturing wants more floor space.
• Top management wants someone responsible.

During this—and your next—crisis, are you relying on the limited experience of your in-house team, or are you going deep in your reading? Read and learn how others have weathered the complexities of the convoluted crises in past years and generations.

For more resources, the 30 books, and other lists, visit the Book Bucket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Should your communication and marketing teams rely on more or less gig workers? Are there policies in place governing outside work performed by your full-time team members? Talk with someone who has seen it all (the good, the bad, and the ugly!). Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

02:18 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Gallup, managers

June 25, 2020

Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the Now

Issue No. 440 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a timely book that pushes back on visionary leadership. Surprising and convicting! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my Zoom Review of The Art of Writing with commentary from four scholars/grandkids.

“Blah, Blah, Blah, Jesus”

Ready for a poke-in-the-ribs? After reviewing several decades of “visionary” church vision statements, John Koessler, author of Practicing the Present, came to three conclusions. Gulp—he nailed it in just one:

“Although their aim is to inspire, most vision statements are tedious in reality. My heart doesn’t beat any faster when I read them. They don’t make me say, ‘Yes, I want to be a part of that!’ When I read them, all I see is ‘blah, blah, blah, Jesus.’”

I’m guessing—during this COVID-19 era—that you’ve had enough with the “present,” are eager for the future (whatever that may be), and you’re a tad nostalgic for the past. Breaking news: THIS IS THE BOOK YOU SHOULD READ RIGHT NOW.

But first, hear my confession. With inappropriate motives, I began reading Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the Now, by John Koessler. Good title. Solid publisher (Moody). Solid author (blogger/podcaster, Moody faculty, theologian, former pastor, 13 books and more). Well-respected endorsers.

“Yeah,” I thought. “My readers need this. I’ll breeze through this baby—no pen, no underlining. One and done.”

Oh, my. I needed this. By page 11, I grabbed my pen. I didn’t release that holy tool until I had underlined almost the entire book. This. Book. Changed. My. Thinking (and my heart). Oh, my.

Koessler writes, “My training as a leader taught me to focus mostly on the future. I thought my main goal should be to help the church become what it was not. Once our goals were met, I felt it was my job to find new goals and aim for those. Whatever we were doing could be done better.” So he focused on “more people, more programs, and more projects…”

But being future-focused has a downside. “I have been scattered in times I do not understand,” St. Augustine complained, notes Koessler. “He saw his life as one that stretched in many directions at once.” Augustine was “distended”—a good word “because it conveys the notion that time is not only stretched between the past and the future, but also distorted.”

The danger? “Unfortunately, the beauty and the value of the present is often lost. We are here in body but not in mind. We are only halfhearted in our attention and sometimes in our service.” (Published a year ago, I’m thinking Practicing the Present was prophetically written for 2020.)

The dilemma?
• If you focus on the future…the present “is only a way station. Its primary function is to serve as a staging ground for what comes next.”
• If you focus on the past…“the present becomes a cemetery filled with monuments to the glory days that will never come again…”

The author adds, “For the future-oriented, the past is a drag and the present an obstacle. Either way, the present is where we are but not where we want to stay.”

“Interestingly, C.S. Lewis saw both perspectives as strategies of Satan, pointing out that humans live in time but are destined for eternity. God wants us to attend to both. But this can happen only if we understand the importance of the present moment, which Lewis calls ‘the point at which time touches eternity.’” (Read more in The Screwtape Letters.)

Like me perhaps, your morning prayer during COVID-19 goes something like this. “Lord, teach me what you want me to learn during this present hour…and umm…gotta go now…oh, one more thing—how soon will my favorite restaurant be open? And when should I book those airline tickets?” Yikes.

Here are some more pokes-in-the-ribs from the nine meaty chapters:

#1. Practicing the Present. “Pastor and theologian Helmut Thielicke observed that Jesus Christ ‘always lingers in the darkest places of the world.’” Koessler adds, “…Jesus is equally present in the common places.” And “…the bulk of Jesus’ earthly life was spent living an ordinary life.”

#2. Take No Thought. “…our fears reflect a secret suspicion that the God who should be in control is actually asleep at the wheel.” And “…the root of our anxiety does not really lie in our circumstances but in our souls.”

#3. Race Among the Ruins. “Jesus’ reminder that every day has enough trouble of its own is not a warning. It is a road sign. Jesus points us in the direction of God’s presence.”

#4. Living on Daily Bread. “Since many of us presume we are not rich, we conclude that we are not greedy.”

#5. The Art of Being Self-Conscious. “No wonder Screwtape advised Wormwood: ‘You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts that about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.’”

#6. Inspired Intuition. “We do see something like intuition at work in the lives of God’s people in the Bible.” One fat paragraph documents people who were guided by intuition, including Abraham and Paul.

#7.The Opportunity of the Immediate. “The basic command in James 1:2 is not to suffer but to consider. ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

#8. Leading from the Middle Space. “The church we are dreaming of is a false church. It did not exist in the past. It will not exist in the future. It is certainly not the church of the here and now. Ultimately, it is not a Christian vision.”

#9. Disciplines for Living in the Present Tense. “The practice of these disciplines does not make God present. We practice them to learn that He is already present.”

Breaking news!
THIS IS THE BOOK YOU SHOULD READ RIGHT NOW.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the Now, by John Koessler. (Note: As an Amazon Vine reviewer, I received a review copy of this book in exchange for a fair-minded review.) Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 46 minutes).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) In a section on “selective listening” (a discipline in chapter nine), John Koessler writes, “When we choose to be silent, we find that God is able to manage things without our help. The things that we anxiously want to say are suddenly on the lips of someone else. Those who have not been permitted to speak, because we usually control the floor, now express themselves.” Give yourself a grade (A, B, C, D, or F) on your listening competencies.
#2. Where do you hang out the most: the past, the present, or the future? Thoughts?

_________________________________________

_____________________________

Slow Down!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

The core competency in the Team Bucket says you should probably slow down—and be still. “We believe that a balanced life honors God, each other, our families and our friends…” So slow down for four minutes and listen to this YouTube video, a soulful affirmation from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” Click here.

Chuck Girard sings Slow Down.

For more resources, visit the Team Bucket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you back to work with your team—or going stir crazy in your bunker? To refresh your communication strategies for this unprecedented time in your organization—you’ll likely need outside thinking with fresh ideas, insights, and frank feedback. Don’t go it alone! Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

02:00 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Practicing the Present

June 18, 2020

The Art of Writing - Zoom Review

Issue No. 439 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a refresher on improving your writing—with the assist of four grandkids on a first-ever “Zoom Review.” And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of eight movies and videos—some eligible for your lifelong learning goals, including the two-hour 2019 film, Harriett.

4 Grandkids Join Me for a Zoom Review on Great Writing!

Zig Ziglar writes, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily."

Ditto the art of writing. Perhaps eons ago, you devoured a book on the craft of writing—but maybe your passion has now plummeted. Time for a refresh?

Trust me—no decent book on great writing would dare bore you. So in this Zoom Era, I invited (motivated, cajoled, and/or incentivized) four of my five grandkids to join me in reading and reviewing The Art of Writing: Four Principles for Great Writing that Everyone Needs to Know, by Peter Yang.

Click here to enjoy this YouTube video, a 23-minute lively conversation and commentary on four principles of great writing, featured in this 84-page writing-refresher book!
• Principle 1: Economy (Anders Pearson)
• Principle 2: Transparency (Emelia Pearson)
• Principle 3: Variety (Zuzu Pearson)
• Principle 4: Harmony (Annika Pearson)

Note: See below for the other books and links mentioned in the video.

Pop Quiz! What are your four principles of great writing? I doubt you would land on the author’s fascinating four: Economy, Transparency, Variety, and Harmony. (Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant!)

Gratefully, Peter Yang has come to the rescue with an easy-to-read book that checks all the boxes: motivating, inspiring, fun to read, new nuances, and great reminders (but not preachy!)

My favorite phrases:
• Crush Your Crutches
• Write with Conviction
• Write in the Positive
• Write to the Layman
• Save the Best for Last
• The Error of Arrogance

There’s so much more, including “Stop Making the Reader Do Arithmetic” and why you should take writing breaks. I urge you to read and savor this refresher course in great writing.

And THANKS to the four scholars who shared their colorful commentary on today’s video! Way to go, Grandkids!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Art of Writing: Four Principles for Great Writing that Everyone Needs to Know, by Peter Yang.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Peter Yang says that “Writing is about prioritizing the reader, not the self! Never lose sight of your purpose in your writing. Doing so is the ultimate form of indulgence.” Assignment: read two or three pages on our organization’s website. Are we prioritizing our readers/customers—or are we indulgencing ourselves with hype and selfies?
2) If you could write a book on any subject, as an influencer, what would the book be about? What would you title it? Who would buy it?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Punch Line of Great Writing
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Printing Bucket (aka the Communication Bucket) is to “elevate the power of the written and spoken word and leverage communication tools to create synergy and alignment between our mission, BHAG, strategic plans and programs.”

When is the last time you’ve invested one or more hours on improving your writing and speaking? We mentioned these resources in the Zoom Review (above):

[ ] PUNCH LINE. Keys to Great Writing, by author and writing coach Stephen Wilbers, notes: “Think of the last part of a sentence as a punch line to a joke: It counts more than the beginning and the middle. Your success—both as a writer and a comedian—depends on it.” (Read my review.)

[ ] BUMPER STICKERS. Joey Asher, author of 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, says your talk should have three big ideas and your three points should be like bumper stickers: short and memorable, supported by stories. “Great speakers [and great writers] use lots of stories.” (Read my review.)

[ ] BELIEVABILITY. “The most important dimension of communication takes place not at the conscious level, but the unconscious level. We’re talking about trust, believability and likeability—the emotional connection.” That’s from Bert Decker, who coaches and trains politicians, Fortune 500 company CEOs and thousands of other people in effective public speaking. Must-read: You’re Got to Be Believed to Be Heard: The Complete Book of Speaking…in Business and in Life. Listen to the audio at Libro.fm—just 5 hours and 8 minutes. (Read my review.)

[ ] FACTS = BOREDOM. In his 107-page quick-read, How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations, Jeremey Donovan warns: “If you would like to bore people to tears until they tear out their hair and claw their eyes out, then hammer them with facts for the entire 18 minutes of your TEDTalk.” (Read my review.)

[ ] PAINT A PICTURE. Which sentence grabs you? “Deficits will badly affect the economy,” or “Deficits will spread a subtle, devastating poison through the economic bloodstream.” Even if you’re not interested in deficits, the “poison” picture has arrested your curiosity. That’s from the “Paint a Picture” chapter in Milo O. Frank’s 128-page power book, How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds—or Less. (Read my review.)

Note: We also mentioned two other books and a WSJ article on the Zoom Review:

[ ] MY IDEAL BOOKSHELF. This is a gorgeous coffee table book for your office or home by Thessaly La Force (editor) and Jane Mount (illustrator). One hundred people share their ideal bookshelf in two-page spreads: narrative and color drawings of the book spines. You’ll treasure the art and the wisdom, including this from writer David Sedaris: “Sometimes I meet ministers, and I always say to them, ‘If I had a church, I’d read a Tobias Wolff story every week, and then I’d say to people, “Go home.”’” (Read my review.)

[ ] Europe from a Backpack: Real Stories from Young Travelers Abroad (From a Backpack series) by Mark Pearson and Martin Westerman.

[ ] “Arnold the Grammarian,” column by Jason Gay in The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2020.

For more resources and books, visit the Printing Bucket (aka the Communications Bucket).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your communication strategy one-size-fits-all or precisely targeted to these four niches: the Info-Sponge Customer, the Just-the-Facts Customer, the Heartfelt Customer, or the Share-Meister Customer? Read REBRAND: Workbook + Coloring Sheets for Ministry Branding, by Jason Pearson, a fun and creative starter kit for nonprofit ministry and church marketing teams. Millennials will appreciate the fresh approach (a coloring workbook!) and marketing veterans will have a good laugh and a new coaching tool. Plus, check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. 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.

09:29 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: improve your writing

May 28, 2020

Faith for Exiles

Issue No. 438 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the latest book from Barna—and their robust research on Millennials and growing “resilient disciples.” Must-read. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Fearless Innovation: A No-Nonsense Guide.

5 Years in the Paint Aisle Won’t Make You a Painter!

The authors of Faith for Exiles leave no cherished church practice unrebuked. They write:

A few years ago, the Barna team was conducting research among teenagers who had left the church. While interviewing a young woman about her relationships with the church before she left, David asked, “Did you have good friendships at the church?”

“No, not really. I guess a couple of my age group were my friends, but not close.”

“None of the adults?”

“No.”

“What about the youth pastor?”

“The youth pastor was paid to be my friend.”

David needed a couple of seconds to catch his breath. “What do you mean?”

“That was part of his job. He’s paid to be a marketer of church to teenagers.”

Ouch.

Whoa. We have a big problem—and David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock are gutsy enough to talk about it. My words (not their words): Sunday morning at 11 a.m., while helpful, is not the whole enchilada. And the more we persist in adding more bells and whistles to the one-hour per week “main event”—putting most of our eggs into this basket—we are deluding ourselves. The king has no clothes, colleagues. It’s time to admit it.

The authors’ research concludes that “many young people (and older adults, for that matter) are dutiful churchgoers while remaining spiritually inert. Church involvement is a necessary but insufficient condition for resilient discipleship.” They add, “It is difficult if not downright impossible, to shape hearts and minds with only a few hours a week to work with.”

Yikes! “Let’s say you show up at a home improvement store and stand in the paint aisle every week for five years straight. You even attend a couple of demonstrations by the experts in the orange aprons. That doesn’t make you a painter.”

The good news: this book is hopeful, not disparaging. Subtitled, “5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon,” Faith for Exiles delivers on its bold promise—and along the way, you’ll experience all the emotions: mad, sad, glad. (I got teary-eyed reading some of the Kinnaman and Matlock family stories to my wife.)

Until Faith for Exiles was published last September, I had not seen such thoughtful segmentation thinking since The Engel Scale (see “Segment Your Customers Prayerfully” in the Customer Bucket of my book). High fives to the authors!

The Barna research reveals that “Resilient faith is not easy to sustain in any context, but it’s even harder for young people in digital Babylon. Among today’s 18- to 29-year-olds, here is what’s happening among those who grew up Christian.”
• 22% are Prodigals (Ex-Christians)
• 30% are Nomads (Unchurched)
• 38% are Habitual Churchgoers
• 10% are Resilient Disciples

The book defines each segment and notes that “Habitual Churchgoers” have attended church at least once in the past month, “yet do not meet foundational core beliefs or behaviors associated with being an intentional, engaged disciple.”

You might be discouraged upon learning that 90% (the first three groups above) are not on the disciple path, but Kinnaman and Matlock will, in fact, encourage you. They see great promise in the 10% and their research and practical next steps will inspire you to focus on the few. (Hmmm. Reminds me of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. If you’re a leader at a Christian college or camp, youth ministry or church—and/or you’re a fully devoted parent or grandparent—this is a must-read.)

So…the authors share their robust research and recommendations in five meaty practices for growing resilient disciples:
• Practice 1: To form a resilient identity, experience intimacy with Jesus.
• Practice 2: In a complex and anxious age, develop the muscles of cultural discernment.
• Practice 3: When isolation and mistrust are the norms, forge meaningful, intergenerational relationships.
• Practice 4: To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for vocational discipleship.
• Practice 5: Curb entitlement and self-centered tendencies by engaging in countercultural mission. (For example—read about 18-year-old Katie’s amazing Ugandan adoption adventure on page 201. Eighteen!)

So what’s with the Babylonian exile metaphor? “Ancient Babylon was the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, imperial crossroads that became the unwilling home of Judean exiles, including the prophet Daniel in the sixth century BCE. But digital Babylon is not a physical place. It’s the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, imperial crossroads that is the virtual home of every person with Wi-Fi, a data plan, or—for most of us—both.”

“In digital Babylon, where information (and any thing we could ever want or need) is instantly available at the godlike swipe of a finger, Almighty God has been squeezed to the margins.” They add, “That transition—from faith at the center to faith at the margins—is happening in North America and other societies in the cultural West. Our data show widespread, top-to-bottom changes from a Christianized to a post-Christian society.”

Yikes…I had highlighted more than 100 quotable quotes for this review. Way too many. I identified more than a dozen zinger, attention-getting titles for this review. I could only use one! I was ready to wax eloquent on Practice 4’s “vocational discipleship” and why it was my favorite chapter—but it was replaced by Practice 5, which was replaced by the “What’s Next” conclusion. Killer insights: hard truth delivered with hopeful hearts. You’ll just have to read or listen to this book yourself. Don’t settle for the paint aisle at Home Depot.

Well—OK—if you insist. I’ll end with five teasers:
• “If, in trying to build our ministries, churches, and impact, we have contributed to the inoculation of a generation, how can we repent?” (See pages 56-57).
• “When Christians capitulate to the zeitgeist of cultural norms—if we cannot articulate a countercultural biblical morality, for example—we leave the next generation immunodeficient.” (Relevant metaphor!)
• David Medders at a seminar with Christian college students: “I’d like to personally repent for my generation, the Boomers, and how we’ve let these negative perceptions [about Millennials] take root.” (Must-read: pages 141-142)
• Three Buckets! Barna research identified three major career aspirations of practicing Christian teens: Entrepreneurial, Science-minded, and Creative. “Skye Jethani points out that, according to the book of Genesis, God ordains work to accomplish three things: to generate abundance, to bring order, and to cultivate beauty.” (Read more on this alignment in “What’s My Calling?” on pages 154-157.)
• “At one point in his life, Mark wrote down every biblical proverb on an index card and sorted the cards into thematic piles. As he did so, he discovered that each proverb falls into one of seven broad categories.” (See page 169 for the seven marks of a wise person, according to Proverbs.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon, by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock. Click here to listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 52 minutes). And thanks to Tom Matlock (Mark’s father/raving fan) for providing a review copy.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) The Barna team “invented” the phrase “vocational discipleship.” Brilliant. Re-read the review of Non-Obvious Megatrends and how to “name” a trend. Then read about “vocational discipleship” in Faith for Exiles. Identify something we’ve recently named well—and something we’ve botched when naming it.
2) According to Kinnaman and Matlock, “Many pastors admit they don’t enjoy developing younger leaders—but ensuring the transfer of leadership to the next generation is a requirement, not a choice.” Read “Mentoring in Digital Babylon,” pages 169-174, and then re-read the reviews of nine mentoring/coaching books. Rate our organization (1 to 5, with 5 being high): How effectively are we mentoring emerging leaders?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

COVID-19: Customer Segmenting 2.0
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Customer Bucket is to segment our customers to more effectively meet their unique needs. Faith for Exiles focuses on a high priority 10% of today’s 18- to 29-year-olds who grew up Christian—but it’s a potentially high Kingdom impact segment—“Resilient Disciples.”

In Mastering the Management Buckets, we highlight “The Engel Scale,” named by an appreciative grad student who studied under Jim Engel. (Read What's Gone Wrong With the Harvest? by James F. Engel and Wilbert Norton.)

The scale begins with a -8 (a person with an awareness of a supreme being, but no effective knowledge of the gospel). It moves down to a -1 (repentance and faith in Christ), and then to a +1, +2, +3, +4, +5 and beyond (demonstrating growth in being a Christ-follower).

We note, “Fifty-two weeks of Sunday sermons may be 52 weeks of miscommunication if the message is targeted to +3 Christ-followers when 50 percent of the congregation is still at -1. Yikes!”

During this COVID-19 era, you and your team will likely move to Customer Segmenting 2.0—to go deeper on more research-based customer segmenting. Most organizations will need to drop some programs, products or services—and hone others. You’ll likely create new programs. But before you join the what-everyone-else-is-doing band wagon—and squander money down a black hole—read the Customer Bucket chapter.

And to fill in the blanks on your customer research, check out these jam-packed trend reports:
• Barna Trends 2018: What's New and What's Next at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (read my review)
• Barna Trends 2017: What’s New and What’s Next at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (read my review)

For more resources and books lists, visit the Customer Bucket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Look at your recent marketing campaign. Was it targeted to the Info-Sponge Customer, the Just-the-Facts Customer, the Heartfelt Customer, or the Share-Meister Customer? Read REBRAND: Workbook + Coloring Sheets for Ministry Branding, by Jason Pearson, a fun and creative starter kit for nonprofit ministry and church marketing teams. Millennials will appreciate the fresh approach (a coloring workbook!) and marketing veterans will have a good laugh and a new coaching tool. Plus, check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

10:09 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: customer segmenting

May 18, 2020

9 Mentoring and Coaching Books

Issue No. 437 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends you focus on the narrow mentoring window—before it’s too late. Here are nine books to help you. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Non-Obvious Megatrends.

Hall of Fame-level Blunders

I’m guessing the Library of Congress will need another building by the end of the COVID-19 era. Much has been written by experts and non-experts! But unless I missed it, I’ve not seen anything about the emerging managers, new CEOs, and just-appointed senior team members, who may be forgotten or ignored due to—yes—more challenging, but perhaps, misplaced priorities.

In their thoughtful article on March 20, “Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup,” Praxis leaders Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard, note that COVID-19 may disrupt organizations for 18 months or more. They write:

“But 18 months is not a season—it is, for many purposes, more like an age or an era. Just to choose one example, the Tufts scholar Maryanne Wolf has theorized that there is a roughly three-year window, from ages 7 to 9, when children can transition from ‘novice’ reading to ‘fluent’ reading. Children who miss this window, for any number of reasons, seem never to acquire genuinely fluent reading skills no matter how much additional instruction they receive later in life.” (Click here to read their April 23 follow-up.)

With crises everywhere—and it’s very, very tough—let me encourage you to think about the mentoring window. If your new team members (those who arrived just before lockdown) are neglected, they may never catch up—never unlearning inappropriate leadership and management bad habits from their early months or years. But—if somehow—you can invest time in this formative window in their careers, the results can be transformational.

Letters to My Younger Self!

Now in her sixth decade, Michelle Hoverson has just published a brilliant coaching tool, Mentoring Moments with Myself. She writes to her “younger self,” reflecting on life lessons learned. Whew—talk about transparency! Must read: “Chapter 2 or Chapter 22?” She reflects on her early CEO years:

“Comparison will be an ever-present trap.”

After 23 years in ministry (compassion pastor in a large church) and several corporate communication positions ranging from a law firm to the White House, Hoverson became the executive director of an international missions ministry. But, she had never been the fundraiser. Her aha moment: “This will take you swimming in the deep end of the pool.”

So this new CEO connects with a friend who led “a massive international ministry,” and his response unleashed “a downward spiral of self-doubt.” She didn’t have the experience, the staff, the network, or the volunteers.

The conversation haunted her for 24 hours—then she prayed. So today, she writes to her younger self. “You will realize that your friend’s nonprofit is experiencing chapter 22 in its development. You, however, are just writing chapter 2. Nothing will steal the hope and joy from your heart more quickly than comparison.”

That’s from page 11 and she’s just warming up. What a brilliant idea (did I mention that?). Write letters to your younger self: counsel, thoughts, reflections. Hold nothing back. And thus inspire other leaders to write “Dear Younger Me” letters. (There are blank pages at the end of every short chapter.) Her insights abound:

• “In an effort to avoid mistakes, you will want to retreat from making daring and bold moves. When you find yourself deliberating too long or waiting for one more sign from God, you will risk missing the miraculous if you choose safety and don’t go up the mountain.”
• “As you age, you will see culture slowly releasing its grip on the importance of faithfulness.” (Read Psalm 31:23, Proverbs 3:3-4, and Luke 16:10-12. Question: “Why does God place a high value on faithfulness?”)
• On grumbling and complaining: “Don’t do it. Ungratefulness is socially unbecoming and spiritually limiting. No one is inspired by a grouch. You will do well to remember that the Israelite’s 11-day journey through the wilderness took 40 years because of their ungratefulness.” (Attn: COVID-19 pilgrims!)

The one-liners are convicting:
• “Listen instead of lecture.”
• “Let failure influence you, not define you.”
• “Stay in your own lane and not run the race someone else is winning.”
• “Take it one step at a time and not try to skip the steps.”
• “Oh my gosh, you are going to make so many mistakes! Some will be minor, and others will be real doozies—Hall of Fame-level blunders.”
• “People will pressure you to conform. Choose to be a prototype, not a stereotype.”

Who are you mentoring (or should be mentoring) that needs this book? Hoverson’s chapter, “The Aging Advantage,” is wisdom-filled. “The more you age, the more you realize…the value of the pause.”
“When in doubt—pause.
When making a big decision—pause.
When angry—pause before responding.
When tired—pause before reacting.
And when you pause—pray.”

The author’s humility is arresting. She’s says she’s not really a writer, but her wise words are colorful and memorable. After a defining moment: “In a parking lot, you will wage a spiritual battle in prayer. Like never before, you’ll turn into a scriptural machine gun, firing relentlessly at the adversary of your soul and declaring the promises of God for your life.”

This is a keeper!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Mentoring Moments with Myself: Letters to My Younger Self about Life, Faith, Love and Leadership, by Michelle Hoverson.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) List the emerging leaders on your team that are currently in the “mentoring window.” What’s your coaching plan for them?
2) Michelle Hoverson writes, “When Jesus encountered future disciples and said, ‘Follow me,’ imagine what they would have missed if one replied, ‘Thanks, but I’m comfortable catching fish. I think I’ll just stay close to my boat.’” In this COVID-19 marathon, what does it mean to follow Jesus outside your comfort zone?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Resources for the “Mentoring Window”
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Culture Bucket is to assess your team members through the filter of “The Ultimate Values Test” (page 94 in the workbook). This quadrant identifies four groups based on values and performance. Group 2, for example, includes people who live the values, but have unsatisfactory performance—so give them another chance. But here’s the big question: As you mentor your people on the importance of living your values—are you willing to “cut the cord” for people in Group 4?

These coaching books will help you address your culture—and your values. Share the books below and inspire every team member to have a coach/mentor—or be a coach/mentor:

[ ] Legacy: 60 Life Reflections for the Next Generation
Steve Macchia wrote 60 life lessons upon turning 60. (John Maxwell postponed writing Leadership Gold until he was 60. Catch the theme here?) I asked my son, Jason (not yet 60!), for his review of Macchia’s mentoring book:

Review by Jason Pearson: This book is a must-buy for any parent or grandparent who is intentional about their family’s spiritual growth [and their team’s growth]. Each two-page chapter gives practical, inspiring, and even some very powerful “soul care” lessons to reflect on with your own family [or team]. It isn't just a book—it’s an interactive journal that can be used around the dinner table.

If you were gone tomorrow—what are the key things you would want to pass on to your kids? Yes, we do think about those things, but Legacy provides an easy way to actually start doing them. Use the blank pages to share your own life experiences. Your family will keep and treasure your thoughts, we hope!

Warning! Legacy is not for the faint of heart. You may be asked to be vulnerable and bare your soul. Chapter 3, “Mistakes Regretted,” is perfect for sharing with teenagers and helping them to avoid a few of life's pitfalls!

What would you invest if you knew that your kids would have a consistent walk with Jesus? Certainly more than the price of this book! This book should be on every spouse’s wish list—and it’s a great resource for every team member.

GRANDPA JOHN’S NOTE: And while you’re in your bunker this month, it’s the perfect time to invest in your family (children and grandchildren) by completing the fun and meaningful journal by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, This. Customizable Journal: 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love. Click here to read my review.

MORE COACHING/MENTORING TOP PICKS:

[ ] 20 MENTORING SESSIONS: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break, by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter (2013 Book-of-the-Year). This world class coach says that a “minor” workplace foible can become a major crisis. Why? “More often than not, it’s because people’s inner compass of correct behavior has gone out of whack—and they become clueless about their position among their coworkers.” (Listen to an abridged audio edition of the book at Libro.fm—just 6 hours.)

[ ] 11 MENTORING SESSIONS: The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead, by Eugene B. Habecker. The author quotes Henri Nouwen about blind spots: "The interruption…forced me to enter the basement of my soul and look directly at what was hidden there.”

[ ] 8 MENTORING SESSIONS: Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss, by David Cottrell. What if every person on your team had a Monday Morning management mentor for the next eight Mondays? Cottrell writes, “As a leader your job is to keep everyone’s bucket filled. You are the Chief Bucket-Filler, and the best way to fill buckets is with excellent communication.”

[ ] 10 MENTORING SESSIONS: The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders, by Steve Moore. PowerPoint worthy insights throughout!
• “Pride hides from the consciousness of leaders behind a mask of overconfidence. Overconfidence isn’t just annoying to followers. It is dangerous for leaders.”
• Did you ever read this parenthetical note in Numbers 12:3? “(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.)”
• “I find it easier to admit my lack of patience than my lack of humility.”

[ ] 14 MINUTES! The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier. View the author's 14-minute TEDx Talk (March 13, 2020), “How to Tame Your Advice Monster.” It’s meaty, funny, and might be your best use of 14 minutes this week!

[ ] STOP WORKING SO HARD! The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier. Follow his three memorable points on coaching:
• BE LAZY: Stop working so hard.
• BE CURIOUS: Stop giving so much advice.
• BE OFTEN: Stop waiting to coach.

For more resources and books lists, visit the Book Bucket.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Who is mentoring and coaching the creatives on your team? Need help? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

06:55 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: coaching, mentoring

May 06, 2020

Non-Obvious Megatrends

Issue No. 436 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights an obvious Top-10 book for 2020, Non-Obvious Megatrends. Incredibly, the author grades himself with a “trend longevity rating” to the 135 trends he’s predicted since 2011. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, by Dan Heath.

Be Observant, Curious, Fickle, Thoughtful, and Elegant

“At least 50 percent of pundits seem wrong all the time,” wrote Dan Gardner. “It’s just hard to tell which 50 percent.”

Can leaders spot trends—in advance? By page 28, the author of Non-Obvious Megatrends dramatically (dramatically!) shifted my thinking about trends. (Many books deliver pay dirt by page 25, but this was worth the extra effort.) Consider:
• “Trend spotting isn’t the same as identifying actual trends.”
• Definition: “A trend is a curated observation of the accelerating present.”

Rohit Bhargava, founder and chief trend curator of the Non-Obvious Company, shares this helpful metaphor: “When you focus on spotting stories that stand out, you gravitate toward collecting interesting ideas without understanding the broader context of what they mean. Calling the multitude of ideas spotted the same thing as a trend is like calling eggs, flour, and sugar sitting on a shelf the same thing as a cake. You can see ingredients, but true trends must be curated to have meaning just as a cake must be baked.”

Curated is the perfect word—and you will never, ever, read a book quite like Non-Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future. Five reasons:

#1. Research Methodology Unmasked! The author gives away the store in the first 67 pages. Actually, you could stop right there—read no further—and you’d already have a ROI more than 100 times the cost of the book. Example: You’ll rarely find a needle-in-a-haystack, but follow the author’s “Haystack Method” of curating trends—and you’ll find gold. Five steps:
1. Gathering—save interesting ideas.
2. Aggregating—curate information clusters.
3. Elevating—identify broader themes.
4. Naming—create elegant descriptions.
5. Proving—validate without bias.

The “Naming” step is brilliant—how to wordcraft memorable trend titles. He delivers five questions that will scorch your first five trend-naming attempts! Example: “Does it make sense without too much explanation? Could you imagine it as the title of a book?”

Click here to watch a one-minute video of Rohit Bhargava’s Haystack Method. (See—he does give away the store and note that in this digital age, he’s old school.)

Click here to view this one-minute video of the Haystack Method.

#2. Five Mindsets Unmasked! Bhargava makes a bold claim: “Non-obvious thinking can make you the most creative person in the room, no matter what your business card says and help solve your biggest problems.” He quotes Isaac Asimov (author/editor of nearly 500 books): “I’m not a speed reader, I am a speed understander.” Bhargava summarizes “The Five Mindsets of Non-Obvious Thinkers” on page 15 (he’s an over-achiever!):
1. Be Observant. See what others miss.
2. Be Curious. Always ask why. [See also The Advice Trap.]
3. Be Fickle. Learn to move on.
4. Be Thoughtful. Take time to think.
5. Be Elegant. Craft beautiful ideas.

Those five points will preach at your next weekly staff meeting. But he doesn’t stop with this well-designed page. He then summarizes the big ideas for each point (two pages per point, again, beautifully designed)—and lists three practical disciplines for each big idea. To be fickle, he suggests, “take shorter notes” and use a Sharpie marker so you note only the most useful observations. You’ll also appreciate his warning to avoid “the temptation to fixate on assigning meaning to every idea instantly.”

#3. Intersection Thinking Unmasked! Chapter 3 is a must-read. “Trends might offer a signal that you should consider abandoning an existing product line or staying the course in a direction that hasn’t paid off yet. Or they could suggest that you should pivot the focus of your career to learn new skills.”

He adds, “What gives you the power to receive these signals and reach these conclusions is intersection thinking, a method for connecting disparate concepts and beliefs from unrelated industries to generate new ideas or products.” The author lists four ways to leverage intersection thinking effectively:
1. Focus on similarities.
2. Embrace serendipitous ideas.
3. Wander into the unfamiliar.
4. Be persuadable.

Bhargava’s personal discipline is to read widely (off-beat magazines, A to Z industry publications, etc.). He takes a cue from the 1980s bestseller by John Naisbitt, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (14 million copies sold in 57 countries!). (See also the board retreat trend exercise, Tool #15, in ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Busby and Pearson.)

And here’s a non-obvious aha! When you leverage trend insights effectively, you will strengthen your culture (one of five tips for using trends—see the graphic on page 57). How? Trends will help you “improve your employee engagement and recruiting.” Brilliant.

#4. Four Tips for Running a Trend Workshop Unmasked! The author, apparently, can’t stop giving away the store! Also in Chapter 3, he elaborates on the five tips for using trends with a “Trend Action Guide” featuring five brief case studies (including one of my favorites: Zappos). He scolds us for the boring “About Us” pages on our websites (I agree!), and explains his “Lovable Unperfection” trend from 2017. (Another example of elegant wordsmithing.)

The case study for “Tip #2: Share Your Story” features the self-described “worst hotel in the world,” The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, which has been “proudly disappointing travelers for forty years, boasting levels of comfort comparable to a minimum-security prison.” (Did I mention you’ll annoy everyone in your sheltered-in-place family by your incessant reading of half-page snippets—both funny and profound—all day long?)

There’s more—and this is crazy. The guy who makes his living giving keynote talks and workshops, tells you how to run a trends workshop! Tip #4: “Always Have an Unbiased Facilitator.” He writes, “It’s easy to assume that the person closest to the problem you hope to solve is the one most suited to lead the workshop. This is never the case.” Must-read (pages 64-67).

By the way, on page 56—there’s a tantalizing fork-in-the-road:
• Option 1: Remain here and continue reading.
• Option 2: Jump to the 10 megatrends starting on page 71.
Oh, my. What will you do? Hilarious and brilliant. I stayed with Option 1 and feasted on the delectable details that delineate how Bhargava and his team curate the trends. If you’re more A.D.D., you’ll likely jump to the 10 trends for 2020—all worth the read.

#5. Trend Longevity Rating Unmasked! Bhargava devotes pages 187 to 230 for “Part III: Previous Trend Reports (2011-2019).” Yes, he’s been publishing non-obvious trends since 2011. (How did I miss them?)

But who does this? He rates his own track record for every non-obvious trend he’s identified since 2011. Honest. I counted 135 trends, and humbly, he gave himself some D’s and C’s, but (in his view) scored dozens of A’s and B’s. You gotta love the honesty—and this models something to all of us.

This week, I ran across Leadership Gold, John Maxwell’s “lessons I’ve learned” book (which he didn’t write until age 60!). My favorite chapter: “The Secret to a Good Meeting Is the Meeting Before the Meeting” (read my review). But I also reread this pithy pointer (just $1.99 on Kindle): “Your Biggest Mistake Is Not Asking What Mistake You’re Making.” So high fives to Rohit Bhargava for his well-documented process for soliciting feedback on his trend-naming—and the guts to publish his “Trend Longevity Ratings.”

OOPS! My mistake—I ran out of room and I didn’t give you my color commentary on the 10 trends for 2020. You’ll have to buy the book to learn more about Amplified Identity, Ungendering, Instant Knowledge, Revivalism, Human Mode, Attention Wealth, Purposeful Profit, Data Abundance, Protective Tech, and Flux Commerce.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Non Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future, by Rohit Bhargava.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Does your organization’s uniqueness stand out? In his book, Rohit Bhargava highlights the worst hotel in the world, the world’s best umbrella, and the world’s smartest building. What are we famous for?
2) The author writes, “By some expert estimates, a whopping 90 percent of the data that currently exists in the world was created in the past two years and it will continue to multiply exponentially.” The 2020 trend, “Data Abundance,” addresses “how to make it useful, who owns the data, and who should stand to profit from it.” The author asks us, do we have a data strategy? And the answer is…?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Secret to a Good [Zoom] Meeting
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

One of the big ideas in the Meetings Bucket is to “design meetings like an architect designs buildings.” Are you as intentional about designing Zoom meetings as you are in face-to-face (mask-to-mask) settings?

Download (just $1.99 on Kindle), John Maxwell’s short chapter, “The Secret to a Good Meeting Is the Meeting Before the Meeting,” from his book, Leadership Gold.

In 16 quick-reading pages, Maxwell builds the case for turning routine meetings into productive action-oriented gatherings. Following the counsel of Olan Hendrix, he writes that the meeting before the meeting: 1) helps you receive buy-in, 2) helps followers to gain perspective, 3) increases your influence, 4) helps you develop trust, and 5) avoids your being blindsided.

The “no surprises” rule is critical for the key people in each meeting—and typically that means you must meet with them in advance. Maxwell preaches:
• “If you can’t have the meeting before the meeting, don’t have the meeting.
• If you do have the meeting before the meeting, but it doesn’t go well, don’t have the meeting.
• If you have the meeting before the meeting and it goes as well as you hoped, then have the meeting!”

For more resources for more effective meetings, visit the Meetings Bucket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your organization the “best” or the “worst” in the world? Or just lost in the sea of online anonymity and overload? Need help? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). And while in your bunker this month, it’s the perfect time to invest in your family by completing the fun and meaningful journal by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, This. Customizable Journal: 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love. (Read John’s review here.)
___________________________________________________________________________________

10:44 AM in Your Weekly Staff Meeting | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: megatrends

John Pearson's Buckets Blog

The archives of "Your Weekly Staff Meeting" eNews. Free subscriptions: www.managementbuckets.com

About

SUBSCRIBE to Your Weekly Staff Meeting

August 10, 2020

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

August 01, 2020

Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

July 18, 2020

How Will You Measure Your Life?

July 09, 2020

The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials

July 02, 2020

It's the Manager

June 25, 2020

Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the Now

June 18, 2020

The Art of Writing - Zoom Review

May 28, 2020

Faith for Exiles

May 18, 2020

9 Mentoring and Coaching Books

May 06, 2020

Non-Obvious Megatrends

Recent Posts

Archives