John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Miracle Wheels: The Story of a Mission to Bring Mobility to the World

Issue No. 545 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights Don Schoendorfer’s stunning story: PhD engineer launches a global nonprofit by reading Nonprofit Kit for Dummies! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, click here for my Top-10 book picks from 2022 and my 2022 Book-of-the-Year, and click here for four updated book lists.


How many PhD engineers does it take to give away 1.3 million wheelchairs in 94 countries? (One!)

Hell Freezes Over in India!

No problem! It’s 1974 in Cambridge, Mass., and Don Schoendorfer braces for the first question on his oral qualification exam for his engineering PhD at MIT. The brilliant professors on the committee begin with their best curveball:

“People mention that when they walk out onto the Golden Gate Bridge, they can hear humming. Could you please explain where that sound is coming from?”

Schoendorfer nailed it! And he nailed the follow-up questions about equations, first principles, and more. He writes, “By the time I was done answering every line of questioning from the committee members, my hands were covered in white chalk and the blackboard behind me, the one I’d been writing on, was filled with equations, drawings, and solutions.”

Fast forward. How did God orchestrate the journey of a shy introvert from Ashtabula, Ohio…to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…to the burgeoning bio-medical field of blood cell separation in Southern California…to becoming the founder of a global-impacting nonprofit that has given the gift of mobility (free wheelchairs!) to more than 1.3 million people in 94 countries on five continents…and counting? You must read:

Miracle Wheels: 
The Story of a Mission to Bring Mobility to the World
by Don Schoendorfer with R.C. George

Super Bowl Sidelight! In the book’s foreword, NFL Quarterback Nick Foles, the 2018 MVP of Super Bowl LII (his Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41–33), notes that an estimated 75 million people worldwide still need wheelchairs.

In this inspiring and very transparent book, Schoendorfer shares the poignant story of how his daughter urged her parents to return to church. In 1996, “over that first year attending Mariners Church, I went from being a ‘pedestrian Christian’—someone merely standing on the sidewalk and watching other people practice their faith—to wanting much more.”

After several failed attempts to serve others (tutoring, etc.), Don invites us into his conversation with God! Oh, my.

“I know you’re an introvert, God said. You don’t like people in general, I’ve really noticed that. You barely got through your psychology class in college. You’re not trained as an educator. You have no knowledge about being a mentor. And quite frankly, I’m discouraged that you’re not using the tools I gave you.”

“What tools would those be, Lord? I wondered.”

“You’re an engineer, aren’t you? As an engineer, can’t you come up with something that would help my kingdom?”

In church, he was convicted by a four-sentence story, “The Fool’s Game,” shared by his pastor, Kenton Beshore. (Read more in this 2006 Los Angeles Times interview. And note to pastors: It’s content—not length—that makes your sermons impactful! For example, read about a sermon Juan Carlos Ortiz once preached. Classic!)

What happened? From prototype in 1999, to 100 wheelchairs in Don’s garage, to the journey with four pilot test chairs to India in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission, the global nonprofit was launched. When was the last time you and three other volunteers hurdled the obstacles of airline schedules, visas, and the bureaucracy to travel to India—and checked medical supplies, medicine, and four wheelchairs as baggage? LOL! 

Fighting jet lag and in search of cold drinks during their first night in India, the team asked their hotel clerk to recommend a restaurant. The local establishment was named “Hell Freezes Over!” (The perfect metaphor for this 21-year journey!)

The India trip, for Don, was research-focused. He wanted to gather data to document and prove that his wheelchair prototype could be used in the developing world. “When I left California, this had been my expectation for this trip, to collect cold, lifeless data. But what I found instead were real people with real needs that I had the ability to meet face-to-face. I’d come to India with a paper on my mind. But I left India with people in my heart.”


Click here to view the 2½-minute video as Don Schoendorfer talks about his new book on ABC’s Good Morning America 3.

Update! According to Free Wheelchair Mission, through the generosity of their donors, “six containers of wheelchairs arrived at their destinations in Chile, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and the Philippines in January 2023. Soon, 3,178 people with disabilities in these countries will receive the gift of mobility.” To give the gift of mobility (one or more wheelchairs), visit FWM here.

Amazing! But, let’s back up a bit. Before FWM was incorporated as a nonprofit, checks began arriving from friends who shared Don’s passion for bringing the gift of mobility to the world. Generous checks! His garage was crammed with wheelchairs, but donors challenged him to purchase more materials for more wheelchairs. What to do?

One friend simply said, “Don, you need to start a nonprofit.” So what does this biomedical engineer, with a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT, do? The same thing you’d do. He bought a copy of Nonprofit Kit for Dummies! (I actually reviewed this book in 2014. Click here.)

The rest is history—but not really. There’s much more to come. Don Schoendorfer quotes global stats that indicate 75 million people still need wheelchairs. He invites you to help like our mutual friend, George Duff (1931-2023) helped. With his family and local church, George Duff (read my tribute here) was a longtime cheerleader in the Seattle area for Free Wheelchair Mission. To listen to Don Schoendorfer’s comments at George Duff’s memorial service on Jan. 14, 2023, click here and fast forward to Minute 40.00 for Don’s seven-minute tribute. Schoendorfer notes seven qualities that Duff modeled. (That will preach!)

I gave my grandkids this book so—I pray—they’ll connect the dots between life experiences (XQ) and God’s call. 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Miracle Wheels: The Story of a Mission to Bring Mobility to the World, by Don Schoendorfer. And thanks to Connie Salios (FWM board member) for sending me a review copy.



BONUS BOOK! While reading Miracle Wheels, I also read a new book on “XQ” (the third dimension of IQ and EQ). Don Schoendorfer could be the PhD poster boy for Experiential Intelligence: Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs. Soren Kaplan, the author, defines XQ as “…the combination of mindsets, abilities, and know-how gained from your unique life experience that empowers you to achieve your goals.” (Read my review over at the Pails in Comparison blog.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Who on our team and in our circle of family and friends should read Miracle Wheels? Who would be gutsy enough to share this book with selected donors of our favorite nonprofit? (Whoa! Would all their money then go to Free Wheelchair Mission—or would this God-story maybe inspire givers to be even more generous with more nonprofits?) John Pearson gave this book to his grandkids (all teenagers)—so they would learn how to connect the dots between life experiences (XQ) and God’s call. Whose life will you impact with this book? 

2) To drill deeper on XQ and how Don Schoendorfer leveraged his life experiences to create and implement the vision of Free Wheelchair Mission, read Experiential Intelligence: Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs, by Soren Kaplan. Think back: what experiences growing up, in school, and in your early career days, prepared you for the work God has called you to do now and in the future? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #16 of 100:
Necessary Endings

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #16 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Necessary Endings: 
The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships 
That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward
by Dr. Henry Cloud

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Necessary endings, writes Henry Cloud, “are the reason you are not married to your prom date nor still working in your first job.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Necessary Endings
• Listen on Libro (7 hours, 15 minutes)
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

Cloud lists 11 reasons why leaders and managers avoid necessary endings, including these four avoidance strategies:
   • “We are afraid of the unknown.”
   • “We do not possess the skills to execute the ending.”
   • “We have had too many and too painful endings in our own personal history, so we avoid another one.”
   • “We do not learn from them, so we repeat the same mistakes over and over.”

If your gut says it’s time to end a relationship, help an employee exit, dismount a dead horse, say farewell to a sacred cow, or drop a loser program, product or service, this “pruning book” will show you how.

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XQ - Experiential Intelligence
You’re familiar with IQ and EQ, but what about XQ? Read John’s review of the new book, Experiential Intelligence: Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs, by Soren Kaplan. And check out other new book reviews on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. How compelling is your story? Should your founder or CEO (or even a volunteer or customer) write your organization’s story? With self-publishing tools today and gifted writers, it’s faster than you think. (Read “You Should Write a Book” for several examples.) Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs

Issue No. 544 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers a “True or False” quiz with 13 statements about a hot-off-the-press handbook for entrepreneurs—relevant for CEOs and entrepreneurial team members. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, click here for my Top-10 book picks from 2022 and my 2022 Book-of-the-Year, and click here for four updated book lists.


“A start-up is a journey of failures,” writes Uri Levine. Good luck!

Entrepreneurial Wisdom: True or False?

“A start-up is a journey of failures,” writes Uri Levine, who describes himself as a passionate entrepreneur and disruptor, and a two-time “unicorn" builder. He quotes Albert Einstein, “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never tried anything new.”

Quick! You, or someone on your team, must read and report on this fabulous book, just published Jan. 17, 2023:

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: 
A Handbook for Entrepreneurs
by Uri Levine

The author notes that Ben Horowitz was a CEO prior to becoming a successful venture capitalist. Once Horowitz was asked, “Did you sleep well at night, being the CEO of a start-up?” The response: “Oh yes. I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried.” That’s actually true—but what about the following statements?

TRUE OR FALSE?

[   ] 1. WOZ TOOK NOTES! Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, loves this book! He writes in the foreword that he “read every word, taking handwritten notes on paper.” (True or False?)

[   ] 2. FIRE FASTER. Uri Levine said the “first trigger for writing this book” was when a CEO heard Levine speak about the hard firing/hiring decisions that CEOs must make. On the second day of the event, the CEO told Levine, “It’s done. I fired my cofounder. It was painful and I didn’t sleep all night long, but once I announced that to the company, everyone approached me and said, ‘Thank you, it was about time!’ So, I know I did the right thing.” (True or False?)

[   ] 3. UNICORNS DEFINED. Levine is the co-founder of Waze, the world’s largest community-based driving traffic and navigation app. Google acquired Waze for $1.15 billion (not a typo) in 2013. Levine is also a former investor and board member of Moovit, the “Waze of public transportation.” Intel acquired Moovit for $1 billion (not a typo) in 2020. By the way, start-ups which sell for $1 billion or more are called unicorns. (True or False?)

[   ] 4. PAIN! “A problem is easily defined,” writes Levine. “When you tell someone about it, that person should say, ‘Yeah, I have that issue as well!’” The author says problems fit into a two-by-two matrix with two axes: “Total Addressable Market” and “Pain.” And before you disappoint investors with your new idea, be sure you review the four quadrants in the matrix:
   • “Winners” (high usage/value and many users)
   • “Niche” (high usage/value, but few users)
   • “Losers” (low usage/value and few users)
   • “Dreams and Nightmares” - This includes everyone, but “low value or low frequency of use”—think of the DMV: a pain, but your visits are not frequent enough for someone to fix it. (True or False?)

[   ] 5. FAILURE IS OK. Oh, my! Chapter 2, “A Start-up Is a Journey of Failures” slams you with 35 pages of warnings! Expect failure and good luck in the “desert of no traction.” In the early days of Waze, “We turned the app on worldwide all at once, and it was a disaster. It was simply not good enough—except in four countries: Ecuador, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Latvia.” 
   • “Failure is not only OK but also necessary.”
   • “Failure is not a badge of shame.”
   • “Launch before your product is ready.”
   • “How much time should you allocate to your journey of failures? Years!” (True or False?)


View the book’s promo video (1 minute, 27 seconds).

[   ] 6. START-UP “STARTIPS.” Every chapter concludes with five or more summary bullet points, “Startips,” such as:
• “Make your mistakes fast.”
• “If you’re afraid to fail, you’ve already failed because you’re not going to try.”
• “Rule of thumb: Users convert on the third try.”
• “The proven lifetime value of a customer needs to be at least three times higher than the customer acquisition cost, otherwise you don’t have a sustainable business model.”
• “Price is determined in the market, and not by the company. The cost, however, is determined by the company, and the market doesn’t care about it.” (True or False?)

[   ] 7. FIRING/HIRING. Levine believes you’ll know if a new hire will fit in within one month—and that’s why he titles Chapter 6, “Firing and Hiring” (with the emphasis on firing). “Remember that a great hiring manager will have a hit ratio of about 80 percent and a miss ratio of about 20 percent. Even Golden State Warriors basketball star Steph Curry doesn’t score 80 percent from three-point range.” (True or False?)

[   ] 8. OPERATING IN PHASES. Whether you’re 24/7 on a for-profit start-up or a nonprofit start-up, this book is must-reading. Example: How do you discern what is your “MIT”—your Most Important Thing? If you get this wrong, says Levine, you’ll hire the wrong person for the wrong phase. “Be careful not to hire too early,” he cautions. (True or False?)

[   ] 9. PMF. Get ready to become a student of Product-Market Fit (PMF). “The most dangerous moment for a start-up is when you think you’ve figured out product-market fit even though you really haven’t." Peter Drucker would have loved this book—it’s all about listening to the customer and also watching the customer try out your new product, program, or service. Another warning: “You need to do iteration after iteration of your product before you ever hire a salesperson.” (True or False?)

[   ] 10. ROLLER-COASTER JOURNEY. “If building a start-up is a roller-coaster journey, then fundraising is a roller coaster in the dark. You don’t even know what’s coming. Closing a deal would be in the dark, upside down, and in reverse…” (True or False?)

[   ] 11. TEN-FOOT POLE! In 2010 when Waze was almost out of cash, Levine pitched a very successful venture capital fund. In an adjoining room, Levine heard one of the potential investors comment, “We wouldn’t touch Waze with a ten-foot pole.” Fast forward to the day Google acquired Waze, the Waze team discussed whether they should send those non-investors an actual ten-foot pole! “We didn’t, but we enjoyed considering it!” (True or False?)

[   ] 12. FAST GROWTH. How fast can, or should, you grow? Chapter 10, “How to Get to a Billion Users,” is absolutely fascinating—with 32 short topics (I counted them) on growing your enterprise, including “50 Other Ways It Didn’t Work,” and a very practical whiteboard exercise, “50 Ways to Bring Your Users.” (True or False?)

[   ] 13. FUNDRAISING! Levine believes funders invest for two reasons: they liked the story and they liked the CEO. “You need to be at your best, and appearance does matter. So, the CEO goes to the first meeting ALONE [boldface by the author]. That way, no one else is on the stage with the CEO to take away the spotlight." Note: This reminded me of the wisdom in the book, Backable. (True or False?)
 
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK? 
   • For-profit leaders and start-up wanna-be's.
   • Nonprofit leaders. (Very relevant insights!)
   • Any team member tasked with launching a new product, program, or service.
   • Anyone whose fear of failure has short-changed your organization’s growth.
   • Every CEO and board member.
   • Anyone who loves Shark Tank (including reruns!) – Note: Watch for my February review of Burn the Boats.  

LOL! I loaned my review copy of this compelling and comprehensive book to an entrepreneurial friend. He loved the detailed narrative, but I needed my copy back (with my notes!). So I ordered this book for him.

TRUE OR FALSE? SPOILER ALERT (in Spanish!). ¡Todas las afirmaciones son verdaderas!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, by Uri Levine. Listen on Libro (11 hours, 48 minutes).



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) According to Uri Levine, there are four different types of user categories: Innovators, Early Adopters, the Early Majority (afraid to try new things—don’t like change), and the Late Majority (“will use something only if they must”). So…per the “User Segmentation” chart on page 209, do we understand our users—and how different they are from you and me?
2) “A start-up, in order to be successful,” writes Levine, “needs to do one and only one thing right, and to increase the likelihood of doing so, it needs to say no to everything else.” He adds, “Focus is about doing one thing at a time.” So…let’s look in the mirror. How many times have we said “no” in the last 90 days?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #15 of 100:
The Advantage

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #15 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

The Advantage: 
Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
by Patrick Lencioni

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Patrick Lencioni says that “bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication.”  

• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: The Advantage
• Listen on Libro (5 hours, 25 minutes)
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

In Lencioni’s next to last chapter, “The Centrality of Great Meetings,” this best-selling business guru writes, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.”

Note: to read my reviews of four more Patrick Lencioni books, see Part 3, “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends,” in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

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“You’re Leading a Parade!”
George Duff, my friend and mentor, was welcomed to his heavenly home on Jan. 1, 2023. He was 91. A celebration of life service was held on January 14 on Mercer Island, Wash. I’ve been so blessed with rich memories of George this month, including this wisdom: “Remember, you are talking not to a crowd but to a parade that is changing all the time.” (Read my blog for ECFA here.) Read my tribute here. 

Note: George Duff was a volunteer champion of Free Wheelchair Mission (watch for my review of the new Miracle Wheels book). Visit FWM to send a tribute card to the Duff family.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Nervous about launching your new product, program, or service? Join the club! We’ll walk you through the “MIT” steps and, maybe, provide therapy along the way! Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Praying With the Early Christians: A Year of Daily Prayers and Reflections on the Words of the Early Christians

Issue No. 543 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests several conversation-starters for your morning meetings with Almighty God. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, click here for my Top-10 book picks from 2022 and my 2022 Book-of-the-Year, and click here for four updated book lists.


We’re over-blessed with resources to prompt our morning conversations with Almighty God. What’s your favorite?

Morning Music With the Master

In just 750 tightly-crafted words in the introduction to this short-and-significant 365-day devotional, Eugene Peterson winsomely pulls us into the grand life of conversation and prayer with Almighty God. His 1994 book (one of four in a series) is still a gem:

Praying With the Early Christians: 
A Year of Daily Prayers and Reflections on the Words of the Early Christians
by Eugene H. Peterson

He quotes Baron Friedrich von Hügel’s belief that prayer “is more like sucking on a lozenge than gulping a meal.” And he notes G.K. Chesterton’s view “that there was a great difference between the lively person wanting to read a book and the tired person wanting a book to read.”

If your daily discipline of meeting God for conversation and comfort is ever-growing and deeply satisfying in 2023—feel free to exit this issue and move on. But if you’re like me—and over the years, you’ve appreciated a variety of morning disciplines—keep reading.

In a dozen days, so far, in 2023, I’ve discovered renewed joy in the simple and short daily devotional readings from Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), the prolific pastor, professor, and author who also penned the beloved Bible paraphrase, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Each daily page includes:
   • The date
   • The topic (with two to five Bible verses to read)
   • Key verse
   • Short commentary (five to seven lines)
   • Short prayer

I’m so enjoying Praying With the Early Christians—which spotlights “a little over a quarter of our New Testament scripture” which was written by St. Luke. (Did you know that?) Luke’s Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Acts of the Apostle “are a two-volume work that provides a comprehensive account of the early Christians.” 

Peterson hoped to inspire us into this daily rhythm of readings from St. Luke—with the expectation “to get us modern Christians praying into step with the early Christians” so that we will be as “astonished as was the first-century world with their love and witness.”

As part of my conversations with the Lord, per the “ACTS” discipline (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), I’ve begun this delightful adoration/praise journey every morning with this book. 

But I've added one element. After reflecting on the daily reading, I wait for the Lord to remind me of a hymn or worship song. (Sometimes, the daily prayer is a line from a hymn.) Most mornings, with ear pods in, I listen to a new or favorite version of the hymn that comes to mind, thanks to Amazon Music, YouTube, or iTunes. Or sometimes I whisper, “Alexa, play ‘Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.’”


Listen to “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.’”

It’s the first thought I have when I wake up—“I wonder what hymn or song the Lord has for me today?” 

Example: Last week, when prompted about “hope” by Eugene Peterson, the Lord led me to this soul-touching rendition of “Whispering Hope” from the BBC Songs of Praise broadcast of Nov. 2, 2008, featuring Hayley Westenra and the Cornwall Male Voice choirs. Oh, my!


Click here to view this two-minute, soul-touching hymn, “Whispering Hope.”
 
Some mornings, I venture over to Hymnary.org to learn more about the composer and then hum along with the original lyrics. (See more on “Whispering Hope” here.)

Years ago, Bob Andringa reminded me of the wisdom in this proverb:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. 
The second best time is today.”

If you aspired to start a 2023 morning conversation/prayer habit with the God of the Universe on January 1, but you haven’t launched yet—no problem. Today is the second best time to start. (And I just checked—He still has openings!)

Over the years, I’ve appreciated a wide variety of resources for my morning meetings:
• A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie (read my review or read online here)
• Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence, by Sarah Young (read my review)
• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, by Arthur Bennett (Editor) - (read my review)
• Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (2005 Revised Edition), by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith (read my review)
• And click here to scan my list of “2020 Spiritual Growth Resources,” including Trust for Today: 365 Days of Encouragement – A Year With the Trueface Team and Silencio: Reflective Practices for Nurturing Your Soul, by Stephen A. Macchia, Editor. (click here for 12 resources)

And this caution from Silencio about one zealot:

“Deciding to read through the Bible in a year, at breakneck speed,
he completed his assignment … but he sensed very little of the voice of God in his life.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Praying With the Early Christians: A Year of Daily Prayers and Reflections on the Words of the Early Christians (Praying With the Bible series), by Eugene H. Peterson.



MORE OPTIONS! The “Praying With the Bible Series,” by Eugene Peterson, also includes three more titles: Praying With Moses, Praying With the Prophets, and Praying With Paul. Click on the titles or the books below to order from Amazon:
           
  

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
What resource do you use for inspiring team members at your weekly staff meeting? Some leaders feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment each week (see Mastering 100 Must-Read Books). Another resource is The One Year Mini for Leaders, by Jim Seybert. (Read my review.) What should we do in 2023 to make our weekly staff meetings enriching and with appropriate Hoopla?

AND THE WINNER IS! In Issue No. 542, I invited readers to submit their cartoon captions for the desert island survivor. The judges had a tough time deciding (and the rules book was thick), so…(drum roll)…there will be two Grand Prize Winners: 
• Dick Nelson: “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
• Sydney Romanov: “A fortunate result of the boat crash, he finally had time to figure out what his wife meant by ‘I’m fine.’”

Congrats to both winners—and, as they say, the “check” is in the mail! At your next staff meeting—photocopy the cartoon and invite team members to write their cartoon captions. (Why? This will help jumpstart your 2023 creativity for Hoopla! Bucket values.)  

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #14 of 100:
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #14 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: 
Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break
by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Good News: a client gave me this book in 2013. Bad News: a client gave me this book!
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
   • Listen on Libro (9 hours, 38 minutes)
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

Whew! This is one powerful, convicting book. Bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith says there are 20 workplace habits you need to break. He quotes Peter Drucker:

“We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.”

Goldsmith agrees and then asks, “When was the last retreat or training session you attended that was titled, Stupid Things Our Top People Do That We Need to Stop Doing Now?”

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“You’re Leading a Parade!”
George Duff, my friend and mentor, was welcomed to his heavenly home on Jan. 1, 2023. He was 91. A celebration of life service will be Jan. 14 on Mercer Island, Wash. I’ve been so blessed with rich memories of George this month, including this wisdom: “Remember, you are talking not to a crowd but to a parade that is changing all the time.” (Read my blog for ECFA here.) Read my tribute here. 

Note: George Duff was a volunteer champion of Free Wheelchair Mission (watch for my review of the new Miracle Wheels book). Visit FWM to send a tribute card to the Duff family.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. We have strategized with numerous clients and helped them design eye-catching books and resources that tell their stories—and enrich the lives of their customers and/or donors. For example, here’s a unique resource for your visually-oriented team members: Michelangelo's Sacred Art of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: A Coloring Book Exploration. Order from Amazon. For more ideas, contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me: Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs (but Mostly Blunders)

Issue No. 542 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting launches 2023 with a LOL book to jumpstart your creativity. Hilarious, yet poignant. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my Top-10 book picks from 2022 and my 2022 Book-of-the-Year.


“He finally had time to…”
Zillions of cartoonists have reinvented this desert island cartoon. What’s your LOL caption? Complete the sentence and submit to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (There may be prizes!)

Jumpstart Your 2023 Creativity

OK, I admit it. I read the comics every day in the online editions of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. (I only read the funniest strips. My opinion: comics are trending towards unfunny, unfortunately.)

My favorite annual Christmas gift (Thank you, Joanne!) is the page-a-day Cartoons from The New Yorker 2023 Day-to-Day Calendar. The cartoon below is hilarious! The camper in the tent asks, "Do you hear something?"



And when a great humor book comes along, I laugh my way across every page. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) reminds us, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Comics, cartoons, and LOL books all share a DNA that inspires me: CREATIVITY!

Example: Are you creative enough to write an original punch line for the classic desert island cartoon? There have been zillions—but they keep coming. The creativity of many cartoonists and authors is stunning. So…when Jason Gay’s new book arrived last month, I savored it …slowly…miserly measuring out each chapter…as if I only had one treasured book on that lonely desert island. 

I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me: 
Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs (but Mostly Blunders)
by Jason Gay

This is the perfect book for the new year. Good medicine for the soul. Enjoy it—chapter by chapter, dose by hilarious dose—but warning! This Wall Street Journal sports writer sometimes shifts the gears in his clown car and very personal and poignant stories pop out. You’ll love this book!

MARS. Jason Gay predicts that we’re all going to wind up on Mars. Traveling there, you’ll receive “an insane amount of frequent flier miles.” It’s a long flight, but you can “look out the window” or “read the in-flight Mars Rocket magazine. It’s, like, eleven profiles of Elon Musk.” And this: “When you get to Mars, the jet lag is going to be unbelievable. I’m just warning you.”

Good news! “There will be pickleball, because those pickleballers are everywhere now.” And—this is a surprise!—“There are probably board meetings” to discuss septic systems and elevator problems. “Life is too short,” admits the author. “I’m not raising my hand for any Mars board subcommittees.”

ATTN: SWA SURVIVORS. If you survived a flight (or did not) during Southwest Airlines’ cancelled flights debacle, you’ll appreciate Jason Gay’s chapter, “Fighting While Flying.” He writes, “Somewhere along the way, flying stopped feeling like travel and started resembling . . . the internet, in real life.” (So true!) He suggests “doses of perspective” including:
• “Assume your flight is going to be a terrible experience.”
• “We need to widen the category of reasons we can ban people from the sky.” (Example: “Passengers who take off their socks.”)
• “Stop the window screen patrol” and “Recline humanely.”
• “Loud typing.” (He’s been shushed more than once while working on a column!) And: “Can we please take it easy on the jerky?”

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. Before you read this chapter—and to exercise your creativity competencies—make a list of the proper gift for each year of wedded bliss (Years 1 to 51). I had no idea that the rules have been updated! Here are some hints:
   • 7th Year: Phone charger
   • 10th Year: Typing lessons
   • 34th Year: Book about submarines
   • 44th Year: Tire jack

PUBLIC SPEAKING. Apparently, even after reading Public Speaking (one of my Top-10 books of 2021), I have more to learn. Jason Gay says he “had the shocking honor of addressing the graduating class” at his college alma mater. (He thinks the invite was actually meant for another person named Jason!) But he does dispense timely wisdom: “The main goal of any speech is to stop talking.” (He lists 23 short keepers. Give this book to your pastor!) 

SILENCE! Maybe my favorite short chapter was “Interview with a Man Who Lost His Phone on the First Day of Vacation.” (True story! He interviews himself. Hilarious.) Learnings:
• No iPhone camera? No problem. “Not every parenting moment needs to be exhaustively chronicled.”
• Instead of nonstop listening to podcasts, “I had to retrain myself to do chores in silence. Make the bed, put away clothes, clean the bathroom—these things had to happen in silence, like I was in trouble at a monastery.”
• “Also, I read a book.” On the plane ride home, he read another book. The interviewer notes, “Never see that anymore.” Jason: “The passenger next to me called for a flight attendant. She was concerned.”

OR MAYBE… my favorite chapters (three!) were about Baxter, his cat—and I’m not even a cat guy. (LOL: Must-read!) Or maybe the chapter, “Sitting Still”—the poignant tribute to a friend who died a year ago. Can you get teary-eyed reading a humor book? Yes.

NOT ACTUALLY FAIR. Is it fair for one author (a sports writer, even) to be gifted with such exuberant creativity and humor? Not really, but bravo to Jason Gay!

“A cheerful heart is good medicine.” I will read this wonderful book again.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me: Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs (but Mostly Blunders), by Jason Gay. Listen on Libro.fm (4 hours, 28 minutes, read by the author). And thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy.



P.S. When I read Jason Gay’s 2015 book, Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living, I wrote, “I can hardly wait for Little Victories 2.” Now…I can hardly wait for his next book.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) To enjoy Jason Gay’s hilarious sports (and more) insights, read the Wall Street Journal columns on his 2023 resolutions, his “22 More Rules for Thanksgiving Family Touch Football,” and this Jan. 4, 2023, poignant piece, “Football Can Wait for Damar Hamlin”). Do you have the right balance of humor and hoopla! to spark your team’s creative juices?
2) I reviewed three “humor” books in 2021, including A Comedian’s Prayer Book, by Frank Skinner. In 2022, I reviewed Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.) The authors describe four styles of humor. What’s your style? What’s the upside (and LOL side) of studying humorists, cartoonists, and funny sports writers? How do you exercise your creativity muscles?   

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #13 of 100:
Leadership Briefs

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #13 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Xenophon's Cyrus the Great:
The Arts of Leadership and War, by Xenophon
(Larry Hedrick, Editor)

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. When Peter Drucker was asked for the best book on leadership, he responded: “The first systematic book on leadership—the Kyropaidaia by Xenophon, himself no mean leader of men—is still the best book on the subject.”
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: Xenophon's Cyrus the Great
   • Listen on Libro (6 hours, 31 minutes)
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

Many of my reading colleagues tilt towards the skinny management books, not 295-page tomes. But this is neither. This is readable. This is exciting. Leadership, coaching, mentoring, innovation, psychology, motivation, crisis management, social styles, cultural hiccups. Plus: stunning acts of kindness. And generosity—AMAZING generosity. The case studies in generosity (on and off the battlefield) will shock you. Wow.

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SCRAPPY ORGANIZATIONS!
Watch for my “Zoom Review,” March 7, of The Four Workarounds: Strategies from the World's Scrappiest Organizations for Tackling Complex Problems, by Paulo Savaget (Pub. Date: March 7, 2023, 304 pages). Pre-order from Amazon. David Schmidt and Jason Pearson will join me on Zoom with their color commentaries. Visit the Pails in Comparison blog for a short list of books on my 2023 review list. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Even serious work can be communicated with humor. (We buy insurance from a gecko!) As you position your story in 2023, consider how the four social styles and the four humor styles will respond to your communication strategies and tactics. Check-out our book, ReBrand: Workbook + Coloring Sheets For Ministry Branding. We can help you. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

2022 Book-of-the-Year and Top-10 Books

Issue No. 541 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers my Top-10 book picks from 2022 and my Book-of-the-Year. Also, Happy New Year! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. And if you’re behind on your reading, click here for my top picks from 2021.


Help! My wife thinks I may have too many books. But I don’t think so, do you?

TOP-10 BOOKS FOR 2022
This issue features selected books I reviewed in Issues No. 501 to 540. To read other 2022 book reviews from Your Weekly Staffing Meeting eNews, visit the archives at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog.
 
In 2022, I published 40 issues. (But I thought Your Weekly Staff Meeting was published weekly? Fake news?) Certainly not all 10 books will have popular appeal—because all of us are at different levels of competencies and curiosity across the 20 management buckets. 

In 2022, I also launched the Pails in Comparison blog, with shorter book reviews—comparing and contrasting new titles to other books and buckets (buckets, pails…get it?). I published 27 “PIC” issues. Some issues in both blogs included more than one book, so I reviewed about 75 books in 2022.

As author Steve Leveen reminds us in The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life (Book #1 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books), “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.” What were your Top-10 books in 2022?

2022 BOOK-OF-THE-YEAR

#1. THE DISCERNING LIFE: AN INVITATION TO NOTICE GOD IN EVERYTHING, by Stephen Macchia. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 7 minutes). Read my review. In recent years, I’ve slowly munched on one book for up to six months (just on weekends)—seeking to go slow and deep. Examples: Packer’s Knowing God and Blackaby’s Experiencing God. But…the deep end of the pool can be threatening. Nevertheless, The Discerning Life was my weekend book for half of 2022.



Favorite Quote: “Far too often, spiritual discernment has been pigeon-holed,” Steve writes, “into the exclusive realm of decision-making, learning how to make good choices and know God’s will methodically and predictably. We want a simple system to follow: set up the room, put people in place, consider the right options, add a prayer, and then press the button of discernment.”

2022 TOP-10 BOOK LIST: The Other 9
(With brief excerpts from my reviews, these nine books are listed in alphabetical order by author.)

#2. ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER: MEMOIRS OF AN ATTORNEY GENERAL, by William P. Barr. Listen on Libro.fm (22 hours, 1 minute). Read my review. When Ed Levi, Dean of the University of Chicago Law School (and then president of the university), was asked to describe his stint as Attorney General under President Gerald Ford, he responded, “It’s just one damn thing after another.”



Favorite Quote: The metaphors are enlightening and memorable. “Getting [Trump] to accept good advice was like wrestling an alligator.” And when asked how he felt beginning his first term as the AG, Barr commented, “Like I’m about to run across a river on the backs of alligators.”

#3. BEFORE AND AFTER JACKIE ROBINSON, A STORY OF THE BROOKLYN DODGERS TOLD THROUGH THE LENS OF TICKETS AND PASSES, by Dan Busby. Read my review. Note: Amazingly, Dan Busby (1941-2022) was able to complete this book before his homegoing. Click here to read the tribute to my good friend and his legacy of books.



Favorite Factoid: “Number 42 is now the most celebrated number in baseball. Each year on April 15, every player in the Major Leagues wears 42 and no one wears it the rest of the year.” (That’s just one of 22 “Quotable Quotes” in the book’s introductory appetizers.)

#4. MAKING NUMBERS COUNT: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF COMMUNICATING NUMBERS, by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Read my review. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 35 min.). This bestselling author says that “our brains process stories better than statistics.”



I know. Why read a book about numbers? First—the authors are hilarious! Rather than giving a meaningless number like $1 billion, they break it down to spending $50,000 per year, for fun, for 55 years...adding, it would take you about two generations to spend $1 billion. They add further, “Almost 14 presidential terms” or “one wait to hear your name called at the DMV.” Lol.

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

#5. LEADERSHIP: SIX STUDIES IN WORLD STRATEGY, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). Read my review. Invest just five minutes and listen to the first two pages of Leadership, by Henry Kissinger, and then discern: Have you ever heard a more eloquent description of leadership? (Click here for the 5½-minute audio on Libro.fm.)



Favorite Review: Kissinger writes that leaders are either prophets or statesmen. (Did I mention he wrote this book at age 99?) Just this week, Walter Russell Mead’s column in The Wall Street Journal features his recent interview with Henry Kissinger. Click here to read “Kissinger Sees a Global Leadership Vacuum. A dearth of statesmen has left the world misruled by populists and technocrats.” (Dec. 26, 2022)

#6. THE 6 TYPES OF WORKING GENIUS: A BETTER WAY TO UNDERSTAND YOUR GIFTS, YOUR FRUSTRATIONS, AND YOUR TEAM, by Patrick M. Lencioni. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 11 minutes). Read my review. You will love this hilarious story, told in the classic Lencioni business fable format. (Really, it’s hilarious!) And it’s extremely helpful—three stages of work and six types of working genius. (Yes! Look in the mirror and repeat after me, “I’m a genius! But…I’m not a genius in all six types.”)

 

Favorite Frustrations! The book is eye-opening—you will quickly understand why you and your team members are often frustrated with work projects. And it’s transformational—when you learn what brings you joy and when you should say “no.” And…the Working Genius model is applicable to work, home, and church. (See my review for the link to the online assessment.)

#7. ROAD TO FLOURISHING: EIGHT KEYS TO BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND WELL-BEING, by Al Lopus with Cory Hartman. Listen on Libro.fm (6 hours, 52 minutes). Read my review. The authors ask you to pick one: 
   [  ] Life-giving work.
   [  ] Life-sucking work.



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

#8. PARADISE FOUND: A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM'S RISE FROM THE ASHES, by Bill Plaschke. Listen on Libro.fm (8 hours, 2 minutes). Read my review. I couldn’t put it down. Literally. Even though I’m “retired” (whatever that means), I took the day “off”—and read the book in one day. Never done that before.



Favorite Overcomer Story! On Nov. 8, 2018, the friendly folks in Paradise, California, watched their town burn to the ground at the rate of 80 acres per minute. The devasting toll:
   • 84 lives lost!
   • In a day, the population dropped from 26,800 to 2,034!
   • 20,000 burned-out cars, 19,000 homes lost!

Of the 104 football players, 95 of the Paradise High School Bobcats had lost their homes. A playoff game for the next night was cancelled. Coaches, athletes, faculty, students, and parents—lives and futures in total disarray. Could the town and the team recover? No way.

#9. IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE: THE GRAND AND TERRIBLE POLAR VOYAGE OF THE USS JEANNETTE, by Hampton Sides. Listen on Libro.fm (17 hours, 28 minutes). Read my review. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Recruit a crew of 32 outstanding men—and set sail from San Francisco to explore the North Pole—one of the few unmapped areas on the globe (as of 1879).


 
Favorite Quote: Stuck! Marooned! Incapacitated! Yet… “[Captain] Delong appeared to accept that he was locked in for the winter. He seemed, indeed, to embrace adversity—and to hunt for its possible meanings. ‘This is a glorious country to learn patience in,’” he wrote in his journal. “My disappointment is great, how great no one else will probably know. There seemed nothing left but making a virtue of necessity and staying where we were.” Imagine! For 21 months, the ship—stuck in ice—just drifted.

#10. DON’T MISS YOUR LIFE: THE SECRET TO SIGNIFICANCE, by Aaron Tredway. Read my review. This former professional soccer player (now pastor and ministry leader) quotes D.L. Moody: “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”

 

Favorite Gut-check: “Have you ever noticed, Jesus doesn’t say we should aspire to hear God say,
   • ‘Well done, good and successful servant!’
   • ‘There’s no mention of a good and famous servant or a good and wealthy servant.’
   • ‘Jesus doesn’t say we should seek to hear the words, good and powerful servant either.’”

Bonus Book: Special Mention!

THE GIFT OF DISILLUSIONMENT: ENDURING HOPE FOR LEADERS AFTER IDEALISM FADES, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Brianna Lapp and Jill Heisey. Listen on Libro.fm (6 hours, 7 minutes). Read my review. Of course—you’ll agree—idealism is always inadequate, so do we really need this book? But then why am I so drawn to the stories? So captivated by the big idea—and the practical (not preachy) way that the Old Testament words of Jeremiah are fleshed out in this book?



Favorite Quote: “And no amount of positive thinking or inspirational Christian wall art promising a hope and a future would change their circumstances. Yet Jeremiah remained faithful and hopeful throughout his journey.”

BOOK BUCKET LISTS!
I love lists and the core competency in the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to create your own Top-100 Books List. I’ve curated my list using the 20 management buckets categories. Download the template from the Book Bucket and start your list this week!

For more Books-in-Your-Bunker ideas, check out these lists:
• Spiritual Growth Books  – click here
• Leadership Growth Books – click here
• Best Board Governance Books – click here
• 30 Books to Delegate During a Crisis (a 12-page PDF with links to 30 book reviews) – click here
• 8 Leadership Flicks – click here
• New in 2022: Mastering 100 Must-Read Books – click here

COMING IN 2023. I'm reviewing some fascinating books in 2023 (click here), including a hilarious book by The Wall Street Journal’s sports writer: I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me: Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs (but Mostly Blunders), by Jason Gay (2022, 208 pages) - Order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (4 hours, 28 min. - read by the author)

Visit the Book Bucket webpage to download four lists of books (updated through 12/31/2022) that I’ve reviewed since 2006, including my just updated Top-100 books list.   

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #12 of 100:
Leadership Briefs

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #12 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Leadership Briefs:
Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity
by Dick Daniels

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. I could have used this book 30 years ago—and saved myself and my team members from unnecessary leadership pain!
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: Leadership Briefs
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

In my review, I included Daniels’ gut check on employee disengagement: “When the problem is organizational,” says the author, leaders fix it. “When the problem is a team member’s personal baggage, they find a way to help. At last resort, leaders will carefully calculate if it is necessary to release and replace the disengaged. How this transition is handled impacts the attitude and engagement of every other team member who is watching.”

Breaking News! Watch for my review of Dick Daniels’ latest book (available in February), Hardwiring New Leadership Habits: Does Development Develop? Also, see Book #99, by Daniels, Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity (Leadership Multipliers).

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SPOTLIGHT ON 2023!
Watch for my review in 2023 of You're the Leader. Now What? Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic, by Dr. Richard Winters (2022, 320 pages). Visit the Pails in Comparison blog for a short list of books on my 2023 review list.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. This new year, 2023, will bring new trends, new fads, new colors, new “take-it-to-the-bank” social media and communication strategies and tactics. But before your newly-appointed committee gets carried away with the 2023 Pantone color (it’s “Viva Magenta”) and all the new media gimmicks—take a breath! This new year is a good time to invest a day or two in discerning what’s enduring versus what’s old, boring, and inadequate. What aligns with your mission? Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything

This issue was originally published on March 15, 2022.

2022 Book-of-the-Year!
See Issue 541 (12/31/2022) for the Top-10 Books of 2022.

Issue No. 509 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a book (published on March 15, 2022) by Steve Macchia, who confesses, “The older I get, the harder it is to pray.” (I love his authenticity—and the book!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of my latest “PICs.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Discerning Life: An Invitation to Notice God in Everything, by Stephen Macchia. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 7 minutes). 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Issue No. 540 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features eight leadership case studies from an 1879 expedition to the unmapped North Pole. True survival story! Oh, my. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (a perfect Christmas gift for a leader/reader).     


The foremost cartographers in the 1880s believed that the unmapped North Pole featured warm currents that “sustained a verdant island at the top of the world.” So in 1879, a crew of 33 men sailed from San Francisco to claim the area for the U.S.A. Read more about “The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette.”

“This Is a Glorious Country to Learn Patience In”

YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT:
• Recruit: a crew of 32 outstanding men—and set sail from San Francisco on the newly commissioned USS Jeannette.
• Explore: the North Pole—one of the few unmapped areas on the globe.
• Verify: if Germany’s August Petermann, the world’s savviest mapmaker, is correct. True or false? There really are warm waters that feed into a vast Open Polar Sea at the top of the world.
• Rescue: Oh, and along the way, look for other “Artic Fever” explorers and sailors who are still missing (or long gone) in the land of snow blindness, polar bears, ferocious storms, and frigid temperatures (Brrr!).

Did we mention…your sailing date is July 8, 1879? (No iPhones or GPS available!) Oh, my. Do you still need a Christmas gift for the leaders and readers in your family or on your team? Here it is!

In the Kingdom of Ice:
The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette,
by Hampton Sides
Listen on Libro.fm (17 hours, 28 minutes)

This phenomenal true story reads like a page-turning novel. The writing—superb. The suspense—breathtaking. The visionary hopes—stunning. The suffering—unimaginable. The leadership lessons—remarkable. If I were teaching a graduate school course on leadership, I’d use these case studies from In the Kingdom of Ice.

CASE STUDY #1. Recruit Your Team. Lt. Commander George Washington De Long, a young officer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, had led a successful rescue operation off the coast of Greenland—and was captivated by the beauty and adventure of the Artic. Now as the USS Jeannette’s captain, he needed 32 men (the best of the best) for a harrowing journey to the North Pole in 1879.
• You’re the captain. Describe the process you would use to recruit the best talent (sailors, navigators, chefs, naturalists, a journalist, a doctor, and more).
• List 10 friends and colleagues that you might invite to join you—and how you’ll persuade them to be away from families for up to two years perhaps.

CASE STUDY #2. Be Prepared! Captain De Long, of course, had not heard of Eisenhower’s belief that “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Intuitively, De Long assembled an unbelievable inventory of provisions, scientific equipment, and more. 

“He ordered 54,000 pounds of pemmican (a jerky-like mixture of dried meat, berries, and fat) and assorted canned goods.” He wanted the crew to “lack nothing in the way of comfort and equipment. The ship would have a well-stocked library, a first-class infirmary, an arsenal of modern rifles and revolvers, a choice collection of games and entertainments, even a small organ for musical concerts.” De Long’s wife noted, “His watchfulness was comprehensive and minute; no detail escaped him.” (This reminded me of the WW2 book and the movie, Operation Mincemeat.)
• Make a list of everything you will need for your two-year voyage to the Artic. (Reminder: you may get stuck in ice for prolonged periods.)
• Note: Leave room for 40 dogs and their two handlers, plus three dog sleds (to be purchased in Alaska). What will the dogs eat?

CASE STUDY #3. Funding. Amazingly, the over-the-top owner and editor-in-chief of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, promised De Long and the U.S. Navy an almost unlimited budget. He bought the ship, paid for the substantial reinforcements of the ship (for the Artic ice), the crew’s wages, and all the supplies. His quid pro quo: his newspaper would get the breaking news on this heroic and dangerous voyage. (Bennett was the third richest man in America—and a character.)
• Describe how you will communicate regularly with your benefactor (no email in 1879). When challenges overwhelm you—will you share the unvarnished truth or sugar coat the news to your one and only major donor?
• Oh, did we mention…that a reporter for the NY Herald is one of your crew members? What's your policy on fake news?

CASE STUDY #4. Elevator Speech! Doubleday, the publisher of In the Kingdom of Ice, summarized De Long’s entire expedition in 60 seconds. Click here to view the one-minute video.


 View the 60-second “elevator speech” from the publisher of In the Kingdom of Ice.

• It’s 1879 and you’re the guest speaker at The Explorers Club in NYC (not yet founded!). What’s your one-minute elevator speech? (Or as Duct Tape Marketing calls it, your “Talking Logo.")

CASE STUDY #5. Crunch! Yikes! On Sept. 7, 1879, the USS Jeannette was entrapped by polar ice—“cocked at a queer angle, so that the men could not stand straight, or sit normally, or lie in their bunks without fear of rolling out.” The ice “was turning into cement,” according to the detailed journals kept by the captain and others. 

Stuck! Marooned! Incapacitated! Yet… “Delong appeared to accept that he was locked in for the winter. He seemed, indeed, to embrace adversity—and to hunt for its possible meanings. ‘This is a glorious country to learn patience in,’” he wrote in his journal. “My disappointment is great, how great no one else will probably know. There seemed nothing left but making a virtue of necessity and staying where we were.” Imagine! For 21 months, the ship—stuck in ice—just drifted.
• Good luck, Captain! What will you do, day after dark day, night after night, to keep morale high and every crew member healthy? 
• What’s your leadership style? A) Plan for this eventuality, or B) Be nimble and adapt to the every-changing and horrific circumstances?

CASE STUDY #6. Love Letters. De Long wrote frequently to his wife, Emma, and their young daughter back in the States. And Emma wrote frequently and patiently to her husband. Yet, most of the letters were never delivered. Years later, the letters were found and the author includes a selection of these poignant messages in his book.
• You’re Captain De Long. What do you write to your wife, week after week?
• You’re Emma De Long. Are you an encourager or a complainer?

CASE STUDY #7. Abandon Ship! Oops! The USS Jeannette sinks, but no problem. The crew was prepared with emergency knapsacks, three small boats, and minimal provisions—just 1,000 miles north of Siberia. Click here to view “Hampton Sides Talks at Google” (52 minutes) and ponder the life-and-death decisions that Captain De Long was required to make. Oh, my. 


View the author’s fascinating color commentary on In the Kingdom of Ice, “Hampton Sides Talks at Google” (52 minutes).

• You announce “Abandon ship!” You have just an hour or two. Your ship is laden with journals, maps, and scientific botanical finds, and food. What do you take with you?
• It’s 2022 and you need to immediately evacuate your home due to a natural disaster. Read what The Wall Street Journal noted about what others are packing in a crisis. What's on your short list?

CASE STUDY #8. Top Down or Decentralized? When the crew abandoned their sinking ship, Captain De Long made an excruciating decision. Plan A: Keep all three boats under his command (about 11 crew members and 10+ dogs in each boat). Plan B: Delegate the survival responsibilities to one officer per boat. (Let’s try to stay together—but you’re the captain of your own ship.)
• Mutiny had raised its ugly head on previous polar expeditions—so maybe you should keep everyone close to keep morale high? What are the pros and cons of Plan A?
•  You’re the Captain: Top-down leadership or delegate survival to three capable officers? (Note: Read why one officer selected this slogan for his small boat: Nil desperandum—"Never despair.")

Caution! Don’t read this book when you’re hungry or cold!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, by Hampton Sides. Listen on Libro.fm (17 hours, 28 minutes). And thanks to Jim West for recommending this stunning book!


 
P.S. If you prefer the South Pole to the North Pole, perhaps someone on your team should read and report on the 10th Anniversary edition of the bestseller/business fable, Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions, by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. Listen on Libro.fm (2 hours, 9 minutes). It’s a classic by the Harvard Business School author of Leading Change. And thanks to Dick Bahruth for reminding me of this “iceberg” fable on change management.

 

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Character and courage are not formed in the Crisis Bucket, but they are revealed. For another case study in leadership-under-fire, view the classic 1949 film, Twelve O’clock High. Gregory Peck plays an Air Force general tasked with rejuvenating an exhausted and demoralized bomber group in World War II. Click here to read my review of this and seven other leadership flicks. Recommend another film or book in the Crisis Bucket genre. What did you learn?
2) If page-turning 400-page historical adventures are not your thing right now—but you need another case study in teamwork—read The Boats in the Boat (Book #61 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books). What’s your leadership style when you’re in stress mode? What have you learned about yourself during tough times?  

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #11 of 100:
The ONE Thing

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #11 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

The ONE Thing: 
The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Gary Keller’s big idea (perhaps practiced by the crew of the USS Jeannette): "What's the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?"
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: The ONE Thing
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

LOL! In my review, I promised to deliver 10 tweetable quotations. (Yet…it’s somewhat ironic that I included 20 quotations in a book review about The ONE Thing.) Some of my favorites: 
   • "If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one." (Russian proverb)
   • "...it turns out that high multitaskers are suckers for irrelevancy."
   • "A 'balanced life' is a myth—a misleading concept most accept as a worthy and attainable goal without ever stopping to truly consider it."
   • "'Don't put all your eggs in one basket is all wrong.' I tell you ‘put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.'" (Dale Carnegie)
   • "When Arthur Guinness set up his first brewery, he signed a 9,000-year lease."

   • “Someone once told me that one ‘yes’ must be defended over time by 1,000 no’s.”
   • In the two years after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, “he took the company from 350 products to ten. That’s 340 no’s, not counting anything else proposed during that period.”
   • "Build a bunker. Turn off your phone, shut down your email, and exit your Internet browser. Your most important work deserves 100 percent of your attention."
   • "To experience extraordinary results, be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon. Your goal is 'ONE and done.’ But if you don't block each day to do your ONE Thing, your ONE Thing won't become a done thing."

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GIVE BOOKS THIS CHRISTMAS! Give niche books to the team members and family members you’re mentoring. They’ll learn contrarian insights like this from Harold Geneen, “In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” Visit the Pails in Comparison blog for a short list of books John is reviewing in 2023.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. This Christmas, are you inspiring your team to creatively THANK the key marketing and communications people who help you tell your story? Here’s a creative idea: check out the Saints and Sneakers website and custom order a pair of sneakers for your favorite vendors or team members. Pearpod created the website to add fun and significance to gift-giving. Visit Saints and Sneakers. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Don’t Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance

Issue No. 539 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting includes a Pop Quiz and recommends the perfect book for your Christmas gift-giving from Aaron Tredway. He asks: Is your target success or significance? And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (a perfect Christmas gift for a leader/reader).    


How might your day be different if every step reminded you of Mother Teresa and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “S.D.G.” signature, Soli Deo Gloria? Order the shoes from Saints and Sneakers! Men's shoe. Women's shoe.

Tredway’s Treadmills or S.D.G.?

Several years ago, when I reviewed Aaron Tredway’s book, Outrageous, I thought, “Aaron’s outdone himself. He couldn’t possibly write a book better than this one. The stories are…well, so outrageous. Stunning, really.”

Example: Read the eyebrow-raising account in Outrageous of Aaron’s professional basketball career debut as the only American on the Tajikistan National Basketball Association team. (It’s scary hilarious!) Aaron notes: “As it turned out, I also got paid to play in that basketball game. The payment? One live goat. Apparently that made me one of the highest paid players in the league!” (Read more here.)
  
So when I read Aaron’s latest book—I was amazed. More outrageous stories. More insights. And deep. (Few authors score multiple must-read books.) My suggestion: order several copies as very special Christmas gifts for staff members, emerging leaders, family members, and others. You’ll resonate with the truths and the stories in Don’t Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance.

Aaron Tredway warns that it’s way too easy to aim for the wrong target in life. His new book is so, so timely. The FIFA World Cup final game is Dec. 18, 2022. (Oops. The U.S. didn’t make it.) While Tredway is now a pastor and ministry leader, he also invested 20 years as a player, coach, and executive in professional soccer on six continents. He is also the founder of the Cleveland City Stars soccer team. His first book, To Who, was written for players and fans at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Weary of the “success” treadmill, Tredway’s personal target evolved towards God-honoring significance. His goal became this Scripture: “So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” He adds,

“I used to write that Scripture verse on my cleats when I played soccer. Sometimes I’d write in Latin—Soli Deo Gloria—it means the same thing. I stole the idea from the seventeenth-century composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He would never sign his name on any musical score, he’d simply write the initials S.D.G. in the bottom right corner when he was satisfied with his work.”

S.D.G.

“I started writing it on my cleats long before I lived it as my purpose.”

So Tredway asks us, “Do you live for the significance of God or the significance of yourself?” (Do you see why his book is the perfect Christmas gift?) For more on Bach and S.D.G., click here to listen to “5 Minutes in Church History.” (LOL!)

Tredway writes about the time he flew from Africa to Singapore. “The Singaporean Professional Soccer League isn’t one of the best in the world, but they pay well.” Yet on his first day on the practice field, he heard God’s voice.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“That’s what God said,” admits Aaron, but… “I didn’t pay attention.” God spoke to him again, “You don’t have to do this.” 

“I’ve noticed God doesn’t use a microphone, but he does speak,” adds Aaron. “It wasn’t audible. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t condemning. But only God could know my greatest goal was approval.” (Aaron explains.) The result?

“‘Thanks for having me, Coach.’ That’s what I said as I walked onto the field for my first practice in Singapore. I never actually touched the ball. I flew back to Africa that night.”

I’ve rarely read a book that is both convicting and fun with both poignant stories and pregnant pauses—occasional moments to drink deeply from a diversity of authors and notables such as Mother Teresa, Homer, C.S. Lewis, 50 Cent, Deion Sanders, Kobe, and many others. Reflect on this from D.L. Moody:

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, 
but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”

And speaking of treadmills (hmmm…Tredway’s Treadmills?), Aaron invests several pages in “The Hedonic Treadmill.” The two charts are memorable. He quotes Shakespeare: “Happy thou art not, for what thou hast not, still thou striv’st to get, and what thou hast, forget’st.” Aaron summarizes:
   • “Thou striv’st.
   • Thou get’st.
   • Thou like’st.
   • Thou forget’st.”

That’s the hedonic treadmill (Desire, Strive, Obtain, Enjoy—then repeat). Read more here. The treadmill reminded me of a recent Wall Street Journal article that asked, “How would you feel if an anonymous benefactor gave you $10,000 to spend within the next three months, no strings attached? Would suddenly being flush with cash fill you with joy?” (Read more.)

In the book, Tredway describes his visit to Mother Teresa’s home for terminally ill women. The home radiated joy! He notes Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s “calling card” and mantra: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”


Order these Mother Teresa/S.D.G. shoes from Saints and Sneakers. Women's shoe. Men's shoe.

So what’s your calling card? What’s your target—success or significance? Tredway points us to Matthew 6:21, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” He continues, “I don’t know if Jesus ever did archery in high school, but I’m pretty sure he’s saying that whatever you aim at, what you most pursue, that’s where the majority of your attention, affection, and effort will be.”

“Have you ever noticed, Jesus doesn’t say we should aspire to hear God say,
   • ‘Well done, good and successful servant!’
   • ‘There’s no mention of a good and famous servant or a good and wealthy servant.’
   • ‘Jesus doesn’t say we should seek to hear the words, good and powerful servant either.’”

“It makes me wonder,” writes Tredway, “will anyone arrive in heaven and say to God, 
   • ‘I wish I had kept my house cleaner!’ 
   • Or, ‘I wish I had mowed my lawn more.’
   • Or, ‘I wish I had a more prestigious title.’
   • Or, ‘I wish I had been more consumed by my job.’”

Not you? Not convicted yet? No problem. Tredway has a pop quiz for you. He asks: how addicted to success are you? He lists 10 symptoms of “Success Sickness.” They include: Insecurity, Insomnia, Loneliness, Dissatisfaction, Workaholism, Perfectionism, Burnout (see the new book below), Addiction, Risk-Taking, and Imposter Syndrome.

His color commentary for each symptom is…well, convicting. How many symptoms did you check? Tredway surmises, “I’m guessing the over-under on this little assessment is six or seven. Maybe you got eight?” He adds: 

“The point here isn’t to shame you but to show you that success as the target of life is woefully inadequate. In a recent study, over 60 percent of American adults said they are too busy to enjoy life. Parents, it’s worse for you. Seventy-four percent of American parents say they are too busy to enjoy life.”

As you consider who on your Christmas gift list would appreciate this book, include yourself. Don’t Miss Your Life is well worth the read. Twice. Aaron Tredway is the real deal (and he’s also climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro—all 19,341 feet! Oh, my. You must read that story!). To learn more about Ambassadors Football International, where Tredway also serves as vice president, click here. To view his message, “Don’t Miss Your Life,” click here. And to listen to the unSeminary podcast interview with Aaron, click here.

If you still need a push, Tredway offers this from D.A. Carson:

“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Don’t Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance, by Aaron Tredway. And thanks to Jon Ortlip of Ambassadors Football for hand-delivering a review copy! Click here for the creative World Cup 2022 resources available from Ambassadors Football.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Is your target success or significance? Pick one of the 10 “Success Sickness” symptoms and describe how that one might be an obstacle to focusing on God-honoring significance.
2) In Chapter 9, “Give Your Life Away,” Aaron Tredway shares the story of Mahatma Gandhi when he was in law school in London. In those days (circa 1888), the British Rail Company had a policy to stop at rail stations only “if there were white passengers waiting at the station.” When the train didn’t stop for Gandhi, he sprinted after the train, losing one shoe in the process—before successfully jumping on board. “Gandhi immediately reached down, grabbed his other shoe, and threw that shoe onto the train track as well.” Why? Gandhi’s response: “The one who finds my shoe shall now have a pair.” What was Gandhi’s target? Why?  

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #10 of 100:
The Power of Moments

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #10 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

The Power of Moments: 
Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Reading Book #10, I wondered how pastors could best inspire a congregation—weekend after weekend, 52 weeks a year. (Is that even possible?) You’ll learn that creative teams can create extraordinary experiences along the way—by defying “the forgettable flatness of everyday work and life by creating a few precious moments.” (p. 265).
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: The Power of Moments
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

Don’t skip the insights about a weeklong program, the Course Design Institute (CDI). “The dirty secret of higher education [and maybe seminaries?] is that the faculty aren’t taught how to teach,” says Michael Palmer, a chemistry prof at the University of Virginia. So Palmer invites groups of 25 to 30 profs, per course, to meet the ugly truth in the mirror. Read how he does this! 

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THE BURNOUT CHALLENGE.  This new Harvard University Press book cautions that there are six “mismatches” that create hazards in the “Burnout Shop” (your office!). They include: Workload, Control, Rewards, Community, Fairness, and Values. Inspire your team members to read The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships With Their Jobs. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.  

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. This Christmas, are you inspiring your team to creatively THANK the key marketing and communications people who help you tell your story? Here’s a creative idea: check out the Saints and Sneakers website and custom order a pair of sneakers for your favorite vendors or team members. Pearpod created the website to add fun and significance to gift-giving. Visit Saints and Sneakers. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

3 New Books on the WHY of Outdoor Ministry

Issue No. 538 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights "the power of camp" and three new books on growing emerging leaders. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (a perfect Christmas gift for a leader/reader).    


Inspire your family members and friends to WORK AT CAMP next summer (or year-round)! CCCA’s Venn Diagram (used by permission) spotlights “Work at Camp” at the center of who you are, your dreams, what you love, and making a difference. Visit FindACampJob.com. 

3 Books: Growing Leaders

Oh, my. It was 53 years ago in the fall of 1969, as a very young camp director in Illinois, that I attended the fourth Christian Camping International Convention at Ridgecrest in North Carolina. Christianity Today reported on that gathering and quoted a camping leader: “You can accomplish more with a kid in one week of camp than in a whole year of Sunday school.”

Now today, the U.S. expression of CCI, Christian Camp & Conference Association, is back at Ridgecrest Conference Center for their National Conference, “Together ’22.” With pent-up demand to leave COVID in the rear view mirror, camping leaders have swarmed the place and the Dec. 5-8 conference is sold out! And still today, “the power of camp” continues to pack a punch. Visit CCCA’s website.

Little did I know during that 1969 conference what God was planning. CCI’s executive director, Ed Oulund, happened to sit across from me in the dining room—and oh, my! Ten years later, I was privileged to build on Oulund’s legacy and serve as CCI/USA’s executive director from 1979 to 1990. (CCI/USA is now called CCCA and Christian camping worldwide is thriving.)

So…in this issue, I’m fanning the flame for this amazing global ministry blessed by God—and urge you and all parents, pastors, educators, business leaders, and college students in search of spouses (I’ll explain below!)…to consider the powerful impact of Christian camps and conference centers. 

Three new books/workbooks were published this year that effectively articulate the why and how of outdoor ministry and leadership development. Do your pastors and church leaders leverage the power of camp? Consider giving your church leaders one or all three of these new books:

[  ] Blueprints: Biblical Designs for Christian Camping—Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, by Dan Bolin



Dan Bolin served 11 years as the International Director of Christian Camping International, plus 25 years at Pine Cove Christian Camps in Texas—so he’s the perfect person to write this treatise on the why of the Christian camping movement. Bolin has inspired and encouraged camping leaders in more than 30 countries and speaks with authority on why “Christian camping is mushrooming around the globe.” 

Bolin notes that “the casual observer wonders, what does it take to be a camp director besides a whistle and a clipboard?” (Yikes! Was I supposed to own a whistle?) Using a thoroughly biblical approach to his thoughtful book, he quotes Henrietta Mears, the founder of Forest Home, who said “Camp is where people make up their minds.” (Watch for my review of Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears.)
 
Bolin's book also addresses “the elephant in the room.” He writes that “sympathetic yet patronizing friends from the business world often wonder (sometimes to themselves and sometimes aloud) why can’t this camp be run like a business?” (If I had the proverbial $10 every time I was asked that question…well, you know the rest.) Bolin’s answer is excellent and he quotes Peter Drucker’s response to that question. And LOL...later on in the book, Dan mentions elephants again—but this time camping leaders in Kenya are teaching him!

[  ] Latin American Voices on Leadership: Their Emergence and Growth, by Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña



In this must-read resource by Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña—written for all Christian leaders and pastors (and camping leaders especially)—James Plueddemann doesn’t mince words in the foreword. He writes:
 
“Thousands of organizations and schools around the world claim to be ‘producing’ leaders. Huge amounts of money are being spent on training leaders, and when students demonstrate mastering of the content, they are certified as leaders. Dr. Anderson-Umaña undercuts this dangerous assumption. None of the outstanding leaders she interviewed identified a training course as having a significant effect on their growth as a leader.” Yikes!

Plueddemann, the author of Leading Across Cultures, adds, “Toxic self-centered leadership is a curse in the worldwide Church. Dr. Anderson-Umaña’s research demonstrates that healthy servant leaders grow as they learn to serve in the company of other servant leaders.”

Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña is the Director of Leadership Development for Christian Camping International, Latin America. A missionary for 40 years, Lisa says she “married the culture” (her Honduran husband, Alfredo). A teacher and writer, her curriculum projects have been used by thousands of leaders in 12 Latin American countries.

As part of her research for this workbook, she asked Latin American leaders to share their leadership growth experiences. Anderson-Umaña’s research identified “four specific ways you can co-participate with God to help leaders emerge and grow.” They include:
   • Accompany them
   • Open up spaces for them to serve
   • Create developmental experiences
   • Promote self-leadership from the start of their journey

Research-based, but immensely practical, this workbook features 58 (not a typo!) exercises/questions to help leaders flesh out her findings and the practical next steps. And this warning: “If you’re someone who thinks that leaders can be formed through training courses, you’re in for a surprise!”

The voices of Latin American leaders: remarkable! Example: Adriana, “a pastor of a congregation of almost six-thousand members.” In the section on how to open up spaces for emerging leaders, the author describes the journey of Marcos, who inspired a Catholic priest and a Presbyterian minister to form soccer clubs in “hot” (gang-influenced) barrios.

“Marcos established strict discipline with the teams, charging one dollar if a player committed a foul, five dollars if a player said a bad word, and fifty dollars if a player attacked a referee.” (“We made a lot of money,” he joked!) But the bigger point: Marcos found a way into leadership through a side door, since his denomination insisted, “You must prove yourself first. You are young.”

Preferring direct communication and “giving more weight to the exact words” of others, Lisa learned that her “low-context” culture, as a North American, didn’t always align with the high-context culture of Latin America. One time in Mexico City, at the end of a camp counselor training session, she asked if everyone would be returning for the next session in a week. “Without exception, every single person said yes.” Yet… “No one showed up for the next meeting.” Must-read: Chapter 2, “The Role Culture Plays in Leadership.”

[  ] Leaders Yet Discovered: Experiential Development for Emerging Leaders, by Greg Robinson and Rob Ribbe



Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña (see above) writes a generous recommendation for Leaders Yet Discovered, noting that “the streams of literature the authors have consulted stretch farther and wider than most of us have time to study and form applicable concepts.” I agree—and I’m grateful for these two leaders who have the intellectual and academic chops to deliver a concise, but comprehensive, leadership book on both the theory and the practice of growing authentic Christian leaders.

You’re probably not leadership material yourself if you can scan these pages and not be drawn deeper into these critical topics. Check out:
   • Pages 21-29: Chapter 3, “Who Am I as a Leader?” details the book’s “leadership identity formation” model—and the progression it follows: Observer (“Leadership is a thing”), Explorer, Performer, Delegator, Developer, and Sage. (This will preach!)
   • Pages 124-125: Two charts on the “Vicious Life Cycle” and the “Virtuous Life Cycle.” Vicious: “Staffing and Operating Budget Cuts: Program offerings cut; remaining staff must work harder to support existing programs.” Virtuous: “Program offerings are supported with the right level of infrastructure.”
 
Plus...see page 134 for the four quadrants chart assessing impact and viability:
   • High Mission Impact/Low Viability: Keep but contain costs
   • High Mission Impact/High Viability: Invest in continuance and growth
   • Low Mission Impact/High Viability: Enhance impact
   • Low Mission Impact/Low Viability: Discontinue or give away
Note: See my related review of Nonprofit Sustainability.

While this book is targeted to Christian camp ministries (with dozens of examples), the authors also suggest a new paradigm for all those working with emerging adults. Greg Robinson is the Associate Professor of Outdoor Leadership Ministries at John Brown University. Rob Ribbe has served at Wheaton College as Executive Director of HoneyRock, Center for Leadership Development since 2000. He’s also a faculty member of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership.

ABOUT THAT MEET-YOUR-SPOUSE-AT-CAMP IDEA! Parents and grandparents: while helping your future leaders pay for college—it can be expensive. If one of your goals is to help them find a future spouse, you may be surprised to learn that serving on the summer staff of a Christian camp or conference center—often leads to special relationships and, sometimes, matrimony! (Just ask any camp director how many wedding gifts he or she purchased in the last five years!) Think about it! For more, visit: FindACampJob.com. 

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Is it time to rethink how emerging leaders become authentic, servant leaders? What’s our plan?
2) Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña, on opening up spaces for emerging leaders, asks, “Are the voices of those who are crying out to serve, or those whose voices are soft and tentative, being listened to? Does each department or ministry have a system in place to listen to these voices?” What’s our plan?
3) Read the chapter, "The Trucker Driver Was No Match for the Faith-filled Board Chair," about the board chair at SAMBICA in Bellevue, Wash. (from Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom). What's our prayer plan? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #9 of 100:
Scaling Up

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #9 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0
by Verne Harnish

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. The best quote in Book #9 is this one: “Senior leaders know they have succeeded in building an organization that can scale—and is fun to run—when they are the dumbest people in the room!”
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: Scaling Up
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

My review listed 12 reasons this book is a must-read, including Reason #12: Sloppy Execution! Verne Harnish says if you don’t execute the Rockefeller Habits, “It just means you’ve been leaving massive amounts of money and time on the table. And if you have a killer strategy and/or heroic people willing to work 18-hour days, eight days a week, these will make up for the messes created by sloppy execution and lack of discipline.”

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A WELL-PLANTED FAITH.  What are you growing in the next 30 days? How about your own personal growth? Read Ed McDowell’s devotional guide, A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture: A 30-Day Devotional with Guided Journal Entries. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Ready to scale up? What's the right-size staffing for your 2023 communications and marketing projects? Full-time staff, part-time staff, or contract help? We can help you think this through. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results

Issue No. 537 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting details the contrarian and unconventional leadership best practices at Hobby Lobby. Stunning, really. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.  


This “CLOSE COUNTS” billboard-sized reminder from David Green, Hobby Lobby’s Founder, is positioned in the warehouse hallway at the company’s campus. Read why “too many choices” will harm your business.

Hobby Lobby’s Leadership Manual

Really? So you’ve been preaching (bragging?) that you lead your company or organization with God-honoring principles? Sure you do. But what happens when you come face-to-face with a company that actually walks its talk? Yikes!

You will be shocked (shocked!) at the contrarian and convicting biblical standards that guide the leadership at Hobby Lobby. Caution! More must-reading ahead: Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results, by David Green and Bill High.

I spotlight five books in Part 7, “Contrarian Thinkers,” in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. Stop the presses! Here’s another must-read contrarian book—with 10 contrarian examples:

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #1: Deep Generosity, Not PR Giving. The more we read about the implosion of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, the more we’re stunned. According to The Wall Street Journal, FTX employees “…thought that they were part of this idealistic enterprise because Sam Bankman-Fried was so associated with philanthropy and the movement called Effective Altruism. He pledged to give 1% of the exchanges fee revenue to charity.” One percent is “effective altruism?” (Give me a break! I call that “PR giving.”)
 
Contrast that with Hobby Lobby, now an $8 billion privately-owned company with 1,000 stores and 50,000 employees. They give 50 percent of their profits to nonprofit ministries. According to a 2021 internal report, Hobby Lobby has given to 364 ministries over 25 years. Yet…“The top seven of them have received 80 percent of our funding, which reflects our philosophy of going deep with a few rather than shallow with many.” (And… “We almost never give to a new or failing ministry.”)

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #2: Better, Not Best. David Green, CEO and founder, coaches his buyers to focus on “better” not “best.” Why this contrarian approach? “I tell our buyers that we want to be ‘the best at being better.’” That’s where 80 percent of the sales are. “If ‘good’ is the bottom and ‘best’ is the top, we’re in the middle at ‘better.” Note: Hobby Lobby stores have 12 departments, so the corporate office has 12 merchandise managers with about six buyers per team. Why? Each store carries about 100,000 items (30% is seasonal). Imagine!

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #3: Simplicity, Not Perfection. Talk about unconventional! This fascinating book by David Green and Bill High delivers a contrarian roadmap for leaders—with 12 principles in 12 short chapters. (Hmmm. Might make a great 2023 staff meeting resource: one principle a month.)

Green has known co-author Bill High, a former attorney, for about 20 years. High’s organization focuses on generosity and donor-advised funds and “consults with families to help them create thriving family legacies and to see lives changed by Jesus.” Read more here. He also emcees Hobby Lobby’s two-day seminars for CEOs and business leaders. High poignantly asks, “What would happen if generosity became less about transactions and more about transformation?”

In Chapter 11, “Choose Simplicity, Not Perfection,” Green explains how he pushes back on decision-making overload. Example: How many nativity sets should they ship to each store for Christmas? The traditional way: in painstaking detail, calculate each store’s numbers. But wait! “Multiply thirty thousand items by one thousand stores and you’ll see we’d saddle ourselves with thirty million decisions every year! No, thank you.” (Ditto their year-round inventory: 70 million decisions every year. “Again, no thanks.”)

So Green countered (no pun intended) with this. At their Oklahoma City campus, a warehouse hallway features a billboard-sized sign in bright white letters:

“Keep it simple. CLOSE COUNTS! 
Too many choices are harmful to business.”

Green notes, “It’s the only sign in our entire complex with my name on it. I want this reminder front and center as all of us go about our workday.” (Brilliant!)

This chapter is must-read and it will help you streamline your leadership and management decision-making process. Every report need not have exact numbers. Close counts. Green’s own style is contrarian (and bare bones—no cell phone and no email!). He reminded me of the contrarian style of the former president of USC. (Read my review.) Green explains, “I operate this way because I want to run a thousand stores one time, not one store a thousand times. To accomplish this feat, I need to keep things simple.”

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #4: Stewards, Not Owners. Priceless! When David Green was interviewed by Stuart Varney on Fox Business, Nov. 14, Varney did a double take when he learned Hobby Lobby gave away 50 percent of its profits—and was also closed on Sundays! Plus, the company is controlled by a seven-member trust. Only family members that work at Hobby Lobby receive compensation (no trust fund babies)—and a special committee approves all family member promotions and annual salaries. Contrarian! Click here to view the Fox Business interview.


Watch Stuart Varney on Fox Business do a double take when David Green mentions that Hobby Lobby gives away 50 percent of their profits! Click here.

Why? Green discerned, after a few years of struggling, that God owns the company and “If God owns Hobby Lobby, then how do we operate differently than those who believe they own their business?” Read Chapter 3, “Give the True Owner the Vote,” to learn why “when you’re an owner, wealth can easily become a curse. When you’re a steward, wealth becomes a tool. When family members see themselves as stewards, they don’t feel entitled to wealth. Unlike owners, they know they must earn their income through their labor.” (For more on owner/stewards, read my review of The Steward Leader.)

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #5: This Book, Not That Book! While David Green does mention helpful books by Patrick Lencioni and Jim Collins—he’s not a big fan of what is taught at Harvard Business School or the often “conventional” thinking of Harvard Business Review—with one exception. HBR’s “How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years” piqued his interest because the principles align with Hobby Lobby’s vision to impact the next five generations. (Oh, my. I thought I was doing well just to influence my five grandchildren!) 

The HBR article identified the principles of companies that lasted more than 100 years (“Centennials”). They had “three primary elements about both the core and the disruptive edge,” including: a stable purpose, a stable stewardship, and a stable openness. The disruptive edge side of Centennials featured: disruptive experts, disruptive nervousness, and disruptive accidents (their people mingle to share problems and explore opportunities). Would Green be satisfied with 100 years? No! His plan is for 150 years—thus impacting his great-great-great-great grandchildren. (Listen to the three-minute blurb on Libro.fm.) 

Interestingly, Centennials “deliberately open themselves up to invite scrutiny and create pressure” and also “find great things to do and then share them with the world through books, articles and films.” (Memo to Disney's Iger and Chapek: read this HBR article for insights on succession!)

Important! In the book’s epilogue, “Leadership by the Book,” Green emphasizes the “uncommon business practices” adopted by Hobby Lobby and why “Not” is in the book’s title. “As you’ve learned by now, every one of the ingredients in our secret sauce comes straight out of the Bible. In addition, most of the pivotal moments in our history took place after I experienced some divine episode engineered by the Holy Spirit." Don’t skip the first chapter detailing Hobby Lobby’s early days when Green thought of himself as the “Einstein of business!” Once proud and cocky, he was humbled (Daniel 4:37) and burdened in debt. (The company has zero debt today and opens about 50 new stores every year.)

MORE CONTRARIAN, UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM:
#6. “Stock, Say, Salary.” See the appendix for the unconventional approach to family wealth. No “…family member receives money from Hobby Lobby unless they work for Hobby Lobby.” (See who has the say and who owns the stock. Contrarian!)

#7. The Trio of Three Crucial Traits. “God says he looks with favor on those who are humble, who are contrite in spirit, and who tremble at God’s Word.” (These three keys to divine favor are from Isaiah 66:2.)

#8. “None of Our Competitors Do That!” Whew! In the must-read chapter, “Put Employees First, Not Money,” David Green outlines what that looks like. Hobby Lobby closes their stores at 8 p.m. They are closed on Sunday. Stores are open for just 66 hours per week. The minimum wage is $18.50 per hour. Plus…you won’t believe this: all salaried managerial employees (and their spouses) “have an opportunity to attend a first-class weekend retreat on marriage enrichment, most often a ‘Weekend to Remember’ event hosted by FamilyLife.” Hobby Lobby covers airfare, hotel, and all incidentals. “None of our competitors do that.”

#9. “Defer to Your People, Don’t Just Listen to Them!” Green writes, “Today we hear all the time, ‘Hire people smarter than you,’ which I consider excellent advice. But when I see how some of us lead, I want to ask, ‘If the people you hire are smarter than you, then why don’t you listen to them?’” Read why Green goes beyond listening…to deferring. (Excellent! And this reminds me of Dennis Bakke’s wisdom in Joy at Work and The Decision Maker.)

#10. Anointing Versus Calling. In addition to learning about Green’s wisdom on “The One Thing,” you’ll slam on the brakes—to think and pray about the difference between your purpose and your calling and God’s anointing. He writes, “An anointing is a special, God-given empowering that enables us to serve and honor the Lord in a unique way.” Consequently, Green is also the company’s senior vice president of marketing. I love that and I think more CEOs should align their special anointing from God with their job description. (See Chapter 9, “Remember Your One Thing, Not the Shiny Things.”)

Note: I quote Scott Rodin in an ECFA blog on this topic. Rodin writes, “I know of few Christian leaders today who were anointed before they were appointed.” Think about this!

There’s so much more: stunning answers to prayer, the Post-it Notes decision-making methodology for their giving, Hobby Lobby’s 2021 partnership with others to serve 1,800 Afghan refugees in Oklahoma—plus rules, exceptions to rules, and more. This is another must-read!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results, by David Green and Bill High. Listen on Libro (5 hours, 36 minutes). Note: Jim Seybert, who narrates this book, is also the author of The One Year Mini for Leaders. (Read my review.) And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Read the section in Chapter 11 on “Close Counts” and why investing time on exact numbers is often counter-productive. Balance this with the decision-making styles of the four social styles (Drivers, Analyticals, Amiables, and Expressives). Drivers believe “any decision is better than no decision.” Analyticals preach, “No decision is better than the wrong decision.” So…how do you honor God-given social styles, while helping your people learn versatility (a key component of social styles)? For more, see Book #51, How to Deal With Annoying People, in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.

2) What other books have you read by company founders/CEOs that relate to your current leadership position? (I’ve recently appreciated books by the founders of Texas Roadhouse, Trader Joe’s, and Chick-fil-A.) Contrast these leadership styles with the "NOT by the book" values at Hobby Lobby.

3) Read these recent WSJ articles about the failed bank, GloriFi, and Tyson's CFO, and then discuss this question: Why does Hobby Lobby invest in marriage enrichment retreats for their store managers? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #8 of 100:
Call Sign Chaos

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #8 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
by Jim Mattis and Bing West

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Book #8 pairs perfectly with Leadership Not by the Book (see above).
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

General Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, writes: “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”

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

And I appreciated his humorous humility: “Memo to young officers: I can appear brilliant if I fight enemy leaders dumber than a bucket of rocks.” (I like the bucket reference!)

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BLIND SPOT!  If…I were a pastor, I would put my current sermon series on pause. Then I’d use my Bible and this hot-off-the-press book from Gallup—with 20 thought-provoking chapters. Read Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. What level of communications and marketing do you need: Good, Better, or Best? (Hobby Lobby focuses on “Better.”) You’ll save time and resources when you can accurately define your customer or donor niche. Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

You Should Write a Book!

Issue No. 536 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks if you've preserved your memories and defining moments for future generations? Six ideas on why "You Should Write a Book!" And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my two-part review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.  


Don’t wait until it’s too late. You should write a book now!

You Should Write a Book!

Looking back, I wished I had asked my grandparents more questions. Learned more about their Swedish heritage. Their defining moments. Their joys. Their mistakes. Their Christian faith. 

I do have a framed black-and-white photo of then U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon talking with my Grandpa Carlson (1889-1966) at the Bit of Sweden Restaurant in Portland, Ore. I do remember my grandpa’s hand-written Sunday morning letters to Nixon and President Eisenhower! Oh…to have copies today of those weekly epistles! If only…my grandfather had written a book.

How about you? Are any of those memories and defining moments preserved for you? Perhaps you could still inspire your parents or grandparents to write a book—sharing their hopes and dreams for the next generations. (David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, is thinking ahead to five generations: his great-great-great-great-grandchildren.)

In this issue, I’ve curated a collection of sample books and methodologies to inspire you, your family, your colleagues, and maybe your boss—not to write the Great American Novel, but something more personal and meaningful. Enjoy reading how others have blessed the next generations of lifelong learners and listeners. Six ideas and templates:

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #1: 
Fasten Your Seat Belts!



Some years back, I was in the crowded jetway for a full flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Next to me was a tired, middle-aged passenger—a double for Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He was talking to a young, uniformed soldier and as we boarded, he gave this serviceman a poignant benediction:

“Young man, thank you for your service
—and please enjoy yourself.
These years will be the best years of your life.”

I thought of that moment when reading Ed Sabol’s page-turning narrative from his U.S. Air Force service years (1954-1958). While Sabol had a very meaningful life well beyond those post-high school years (FAA leadership roles, consulting, and more)—you’ll be amazed at the sights, sounds, and serious reflection that this short chronicle delivers. I couldn’t put it down!

A Life In The Day Of: A Strategic Air Command Veteran's Memoirs of The Cold War invites us back to the 1950s. Fasten your seat belts!

• The Flying Coffin. More than 200 crew members “lost their lives in the B-47 and RB-47 by crashing or being shot down by the Soviet Union.” (Your odds: “One in eight airman would not return to base.”)
• SAC. You’re onboard in the cramped quarters of the most modern planes the Air Force used in the 1950s for reconnaissance missions for the Strategic Air Command.
• See the World! Sabol’s passport in his four action-packed years was stamped in Japan, Okinawa, the Marshall Islands, Alaska (not yet a U.S. state!), Turkey, England, and other stops.
• Fill-‘er-Up! Imagine this: gas was 18 cents per gallon in 1955!

Hush. Hush. One dark night in Turkey, Sabol returned to the base with two airmen to finish a project for a morning flight. Yikes! An overzealous guard, protecting the RB-47 planes, fired at Sabol and his buddies! (They survived.) Why? “At three different times during my tenure on this base, Soviet spies dressed in Turkish uniforms were caught on base asking questions related to the U-2 and our RB-47s. They were all caught when they were asked questions that a Turkish military man would have known.”

There’s so much more in this quick-reading book, including almost 100 photos. When you read the last page, you’ll be grateful for the thousands of young men and women who enlisted during those perilous Cold War years. My five grandchildren are now reading this fascinating book because it was written by their other grandfather, Grandpa Ed Sabol. (Thank you for your service, Ed, and thanks for the autographed review copy!)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for A Life In The Day Of: A Strategic Air Command Veteran's Memoirs of The Cold War, by Edward D. Sabol. 
 
YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #2:
And God Did It!


 
Pastor Robert Palmer is now in his 90s and his family is so grateful that he and his wife, Eleanor (1927-2018), wrote this labor of love in 2017 for family members, the legion of church members they served, and pastors everywhere. (Yikes! Being a pastor is tough duty and often involves a moving van or a church member’s pick-up truck!)

Just 140 pages and populated with family photos and memorable stories, Faithful: The Robert & Eleanor Palmer Story is the perfect template for other pastors and ministry leaders who are inspired to write their stories. There are many highlights, including:
• “I was very young—only 18—when I became a pastor. I had so much to learn…”
• His prayer: “I prayed for a wife who could play the piano, sing alto, and love me.” (She did so much more!)
• In 1943, Palmer’s father was the Caretaker/Manager for FA-HO-LO Park—the Assemblies of God camp meeting grounds now called Faholo Conference Center (Faith-Hope-Love). “At that time, we had a 1941 Plymouth. The gas ration board allowed us gas stamps for only 60 gallons of gas. Mother and I drove the whole trip from Kansas…to Grass Lake, Michigan, at 35 miles an hour, and averaged 25 miles per gallon.”

SERMON TOPICS! 
• While pastoring in Galena, Mo., Palmer was bi-vocational and worked at the courthouse—a strategic location for meeting people. The church invited a young evangelist to preach. “There was some interest because some people didn’t believe in women preachers. So, one night she preached on ‘Should a Woman Preach?’”
• He pastored 11 years in Lee’s Summit, Mo. His first Sunday’s sermon title: “Expectations: What You Can Expect From Me, What We Can Expect From You—What We Can Expect From God.” (Brilliant!)
• While pastoring in Ottumwa, Iowa, Palmer hosted the “Happy Hunters.” Charles and Francis Hunter preached on “Divine Healing: Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Deliverance From Smoking.” 

92 BOARD MEETINGS!
• Clearly a lifelong learner, Pastor Palmer attended the “Pastor’s School” in Hammond, Ind., where Jack Hyles was pastor at First Baptist Church. (And yes, Palmer’s church then started a bus ministry with four buses and two vans.)
• Upon retiring in 1992 from their pastorate in Santa Maria, Calif., the Palmers ministered widely to Assemblies of God pastors and churches. He writes, “In one given year, I attended 92 board meetings.” Oh, my!
• Working across the globe in their “retirement” years, they visited almost 50 countries, including Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Russia, and Ukraine.

What a gift this book is to the next generation of Palmers and Christ-followers. My big take-away? Frequently, throughout these inspiring pages, the memorable stories conclude with one line:

“And God did it.” 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Faithful: The Robert & Eleanor Palmer Story, by Robert E. Palmer and Eleanor M. Palmer. (And thanks to Paul Palmer for sending me a review copy.)

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #3:
Grandpa Conversations on Character Traits
 
 

Picture this! A fictional grandfather engages with his twin grandchildren, Nate and Nancy, in a robust conversation that germinates their Top-30 list of character traits. In the process, they learn about the YOUquation toolbox and “the universe’s simplest and most magical secret formula”—and why traits like love, self-respect, control, humor, curiosity, and gratitude are essential for a happy and successful life (What a great exercise with your children or grandchildren!)

The learning is two-way and the twins add a creative wrinkle to “The Serenity Prayer,” retitling it, “The Serenity, Courage & Wisdom Prayer.” That conversation prompted me to search for this toe-tapping number, “The Serenity Prayer Song.”

 
Listen to "The Serenity Prayer Song" (4 minutes).

Bonus Video! By the way, you’ll also appreciate this hilarious/poignant sketch by The Skit Guys, “The Serenity Prayer” (13½ minutes). Click here.

Read the full review here. To order the book from Amazon, click on the title for YOUquation: Living Your Dream—Your Happiness + Your Success, by Thomas M. Dean and  Linda B. Awar. (And thanks to John Moorlach for inspiring Tom Dean to send me a review copy.)

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #4:
Weekly Emails = Keepsake Book

Last month, The Wall Street Journal featured a “write-your-own-book” process from Storyworth. The headline: “How to Preserve Your Family History, No Awkward Interviews Required. Instead of having to make sense of a recording or spending your weekends digging through public records, try Storyworth, a service that gets your loved one’s memories down in writing.”
 
Storyworth fashions the process “like a conversation.” Step 1: Once a week, choose a question to inspire them to write. Step 2: They'll simply reply with an email, which is shared with you. Step 3: At the end of a year, their stories are bound into a beautiful keepsake book. (Current price for the process and one book: $99.) Visit Storyworth.

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #5:
“Reach Millions!”

Amazon’s company, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), promises that you can “self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free…and reach millions of readers on Amazon.” (Well…maybe not millions.) I’ve self-published on KDP (Mastering Mistake-Making, 100 Must-Read Books, Buckets Workbook, etc.) and it’s fast, free, and easy—even for an old, non-tech guy like me. OK, I did have a little help from my son, Jason.) Visit KDP and view the how-to video here:

 
View the 2-minute video on Kindle Direct Publishing.
 
YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #6:
Fill-in-the-Blanks on 52 Topics!



Here’s the fastest/simplest/niftiest version of passing along your history, wisdom, and faith to the next generation. Our son, Jason Pearson, teamed up with prolific author Doug Fields, to write THIS, as in… “I just want you to know THIS.”

Beautifully designed as a tool (really a treasure) for parents and grandparents to think, write, and then pass along to each child or grandchild—you’ll be prompted to share meaningful messages on 52 topics in this fill-in-the-blanks journal. (Read my review.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love, by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) While Steve Macchia has written many books, including his latest, The Discerning Life, he waited until he was 60 to write Legacy: 60 Life Reflections for the Next Generation. Chapter 3, “Mistakes Regretted,” is perfect for sharing with teenagers and helping them to avoid a few of life's pitfalls! So…should you write a book? 
2) Judges 2:10 (MSG) reads, “Eventually that entire generation died and was buried. Then another generation grew up that didn’t know anything of God or the work he had done for Israel.” How are you inspiring the next generation to know God, as described by J.I. Packer? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #7 of 100:
Doesn't Hurt to Ask

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #7 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and Persuade 
by Trey Gowdy

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Trey Gowdy’s book shared the 2020 honors with Book #6.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Doesn't Hurt to Ask
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

Trey Gowdy, who served eight years in the U.S. Congress (2011-2019), confesses, “The mistakes made early in my career were many and largely rooted in two areas: not understanding the dynamics of persuasion and not understanding the nature and characteristics of those I was trying to persuade.”

His book is persuasive, not political. Although Trey Gowdy interjects numerous stories from the House committees he served on (or chaired), including Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence, and the Select Committee on Benghazi, this book is not political—it’s persuasive, in the same way Rumsfeld’s Rules (Book #69) is not political.

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INSIDE MARINE ONE. The World’s Most Amazing Helicopter. What's not to like about a 10,000-foot view of four U.S. presidents from the cockpit of Marine One, the president's high performance helicopter? Read Inside Marine One: Four U.S. Presidents, One Proud Marine, and the World’s Most Amazing Helicopter and you'll have dozens of quotable facts and fun for impressing your friends. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. OK, you just refreshed your website—but is it persuasive? Your elevator speech: clever and concise—but is it persuasive? Your Rotary Club talk: short and sweet: but is it persuasive? We can help you persuade! Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential

Issue No. 535 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a new book for women on smart career moves. It’s also a wake-up call for men! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my two-part review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.  


 Is career advancement more challenging for women? Yes…says Shanna Hocking, author of One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential.

Career Counsel for Women:
Must-Read for Men!

What are two of the worst sentences a boss should never use?
• “Can we talk?”
• “Let’s discuss.”

Why? Shanna Hocking coaches bosses to never use these sentences because they are “almost always misunderstood” by staffers. “Always add a second sentence explaining the nature of the discussion so your team members don’t start packing up their offices.”

That’s from the insightful chapter, “Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For,” in Hocking’s new book, One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential.

While that’s good counsel, I wondered if a book targeted to women was really needed? Men in the workplace also misunderstand glib comments from their bosses! (Example: I chuckled reading Henry Kissinger’s recent book profiling six leaders, including Nixon. “…Bryce Harlow’s pithy explanation for the Watergate debacle: ‘Some damn fool got into the Oval Office and did what he was told.’” The advice: don't do everything your boss suggests!)

Whoa! The author set me straight! She believes women do have different hurdles in the workplace. So…is this a book for women—or also for men, especially men in boss and supervisory roles? My gut: this is also a must-read for men. And speaking of those hurdles, I’m reminded of another “bold” book published this year, Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott. I titled my review, “Ball and Chain, Barbwire, Tall Grass, Terrain to Conquer, a Wall to Climb Over, and a Swamp To Swim.” Oh, my!
  
I was intrigued by Shanna Hocking’s story because her career path was in philanthropy. She has “20 years of experience raising hundreds of millions of dollars and leading large teams at organizations such as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Alabama, and Duke University.” Her clients include nonprofits, universities, and family foundations. She keeps an "AttaGirl" folder for notes and accolades, including "the envelope from the first seven-figure charitable gift I closed."

Hocking is very transparent about her early days. In my favorite chapter, “Grow as a Leader,” she confesses that moving “From Peer to Supervisor” was challenging. Before you say yes to your next promotion, read this about managing people “who were formerly your peers.” She writes:

“I lived this: in my first big management role, I went—overnight—from being the friend you went out for margaritas with, to being the boss who did your performance evaluations.” She notes that during her interview process, she was repeatedly asked the same question, “How will you handle the transition from peer to manager?” To get ready, she “read every book and article on this topic, attended multiple seminars, and talked to mentors and trusted advisors.”

The result? “In the first week, I realized none of the advice or learning truly prepared me for going from peer to supervisor.”

The book’s title, One Bold Move a Day, is the author’s approach to lifelong learning. What can you do—every day—to move your confidence and your career forward? She suggests big and small steps. The book is practical, not formulaic. 

In the section, “Decision-Making Strategies for Any Situation,” Hocking administers both therapy and strategies. “It’s not overdramatizing to worry about being wrong. Research shows that women are penalized more harshly than men when they make a wrong decision. In one study by Victoria Brescoll at Yale School of Management, women were consistently judged by their failures, even when they received positive evaluations for their leadership.”

Her six strategies on decision-making include: “Coach yourself as you would a friend,” propose three options—not just two, “Acknowledge the role of emotions,” and more. On preparing for mistakes, Hocking writes, “It’s not the falling, but rather the getting back up (which often makes you more determined and focused on learning) that will support you in advancing as a leader.” 

If you are mentoring an early career woman at work or in your family, this is a helpful book to read together. Look for these gems for bosses and team members:
   • “If you’re not sure how to support a working mother, ask her!”
   • When receiving a compliment, say thank you and no more. “That’s it. It’s about time we all remember that ‘Thank you’ is a full sentence.”
   • On “Clarifying Your Purpose,” in the chapter, “Achieving Your Goals,” the author lists seven days of writing prompts. Example for Day 4, “What projects bring you energy?” (This aligns well with Patrick Lencioni’s latest wisdom in The Six Types of Working Genius.)
   • On “Applying for a Job as a Woman,” Hocking writes, “There is one thing I want to tell all women: you don’t have to meet all the qualifications to apply for a job.”
   • “Who will your new boss be?” (Read why this is so, so important.)

The author provides a helpful template—an “About Me” document covering her leadership approach, leadership philosophy, communication styles, and bullet points on “You Get the Best of Me When…” and “What People Misunderstand About Me.” This reminded me of Marshall Goldsmith’s “Memo to Staff: How to Handle Me” from his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break (my 2013 book-of-the-year).
 
Note: I encourage leaders and team members to also keep “The 3 Powerful S’s” on their radar (the four social styles, the 34 Gallup strengths, and spiritual gifts). Download my two-page template, “Weekly Update to My Supervisor,” from the Meetings Bucket. And on communication styles, note whether you and your boss are readers or listeners.

MORE!
   • Imagine if more workplaces adopted Hocking’s helpful “NNTR” subject line for emails: “No Need to Respond.” (See the email template in her book.)
   • Have you ever read three pages on “Office Politics?” (Me neither.)
   • “Authority may get the job done, but you’ll find yourself alone at the finish line.” 
   • For a taste of Shanna Hocking’s coaching wisdom, read her numerous articles for Harvard Business Review, including “What’s Making You Miserable at Work?”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential, by Shanna A. Hocking. Listen on Libro.fm (5 hours, 41 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
Does your team need to go deeper on how to enrich your workplace—so both women and men thrive and fulfill their leadership potential? In addition to One Bold Move a Day, delegate your reading (or listening) to team members with these other resources:
[  ] Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott (Read my review.)
[  ] Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership, by Susan MacKenty Brady, Janet Foutty, and Lynn Perry Wooten (Read my review.)
[  ] Jump: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life, by Kim Perell (Read my review.)
[  ] The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right, by Gorick Ng (Read my review.)
[  ] Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) - (Read my review.)
[  ] What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break (my 2013 book-of-the-year), by Marshall Goldsmith (Read my review.)

Note: If you’re a listener, visit Libro.fm.  

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #6 of 100:
The Advice Trap

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #6 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever
by Michael Bungay Stanier

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that have been named my Book-of-the-Year (2006 to 2020). I began my review of The Advice Trap with this: “Hello. My name is John and I’m an Advice Monster.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: The Advice Trap
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

If you’re still thinking you’re a great coach—and this would be a great book for everyone else—check out page 43, the “Mix ‘n’ Match Advice Monster Table.” The author says “you can’t tame your Advice Monster until you know what sets it off.” There are 12 types of people who activate your monster persona (pick one!)—coupled with 12 situations (pick one!).
   • My deadly combination: someone who asks me for advice—paired with a “time is short” situation.
   • Yours might be: someone who challenges you—coupled with “they keep making mistakes.”

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WHEN WOMEN LEAD. “No single best way to lead.” Julia Boorstin says "We should throw all our preconceived notions about leadership out the window. There's no single best way to lead..." Read John's review of When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them. Visit the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Are you looking for a new role in communications and marketing? One Bold Move a Day (pages 58-61) suggests you ask four questions before you take that new job. We have more questions you should ask. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (Part 2 of 2)

Issue No. 534 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting revisits Henry Kissinger’s new book on six world leaders and six strategies. He says great leaders are either statemen or prophets. Kissinger is 99 this year! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  


 Margaret Thatcher said Singapore's prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, was “one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished practitioners of statecraft.” Read more in Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

PART 2 OF 2: “A Posse of Half-Dedicated Inadequates”

It was challenging to title this review since Henry Kissinger delivered so many great one-liners. Runners-up included:
[  ] “This was no time to go wobbly.”
[  ] “I introduced him, as he asked, simply as a friend from Singapore.”
[  ] "He spent more time in prayer than at the podium."

This is Part 2 of 2 of my review of the expansive book by Henry Kissinger, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy. Click here to read Part 1 of 2, spotlighting three world leaders and three unique strategies: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, and Richard Nixon.

As I mentioned in my first review, I could have written eight reviews and you wouldn’t tire of Kissinger’s commentary and private conversations with six strategic world leaders:

PART 1 OF 2:
• Introduction: “The Axes of Leadership” (listen to the first 5½ minutes)
• Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1959-1969)
• Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. (1969-1974)
PART 2 OF 2:
• Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981)
• Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)
• Conclusion: “The Evolution of Leadership”

So here's a quick look at Kissinger’s analysis of two ideal leadership types: the statesman and the prophet. In this issue: the other three world leaders and their unique strategies. 

PART 2 OF 2: Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher

THE STRATEGY OF TRANSCENDENCE
Anwar Sadat (1918-1981), President of Egypt (1970-1981)

Imagine! More than 25 years of Middle East conflict—and you think you can be a peacemaker? Kissinger notes this about Sadat: “The combination of his quietist personality and his friendship with [President Gamal Abdel] Nasser had limited the usual incentives to develop a political base of his own—and he was never a natural politician. He spent more time in reflection, and in a way at prayer, than at the podium.”
   • Kissinger writes of the Israel/Egypt peace process, “Sadat had just finished reading the letter and folding it when an assistant entered the room and whispered something in his ear. Sadat walked over to me and kissed me on both cheeks: ‘They have just signed the disengagement agreement at kilometer 101. I am today taking off my military uniform—I never expect to wear it again except for ceremonial occasions.’”
   • “Of the individuals profiled in this volume, Sadat was the one whose philosophical and moral vision constituted the greatest breakthrough for his time and context.”
   • Oh, my. Sadat spoke joyfully to Kissinger about a planned celebration in Cairo when “the Sinai will come back to us.” He invited Kissinger to attend, but then said, “No, you shouldn’t.” He explained, “It will be too painful for the Israelis to give up this territory. It would hurt the Jewish people too much to see you in Cairo celebrating with us.” So Sadat suggested Kissinger come a month later. Sadly, Sadat was assassinated on 6 October 1981, before that event could occur.

THE STRATEGY OF EXCELLENCE
Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever read anything about Lee Kuan Yew, who created the powerhouse city-state, Singapore. (Me neither.) His Chinese heritage and his Cambridge University education “gave him exceptional insight into the dynamics of the interaction between East and West—one of the essential fulcrums of history.” Lee Kuan Yew was a guest in Kissinger’s home (in later years). This “inside baseball” chapter about Lee is absolutely fascinating.
   • “When he became leader of independent Singapore in August 1965, he took charge of a country that had never before existed—and hence, in effect, had no political past except as an imperial subject.” Note: Lee visited 50 countries in 1965!
   • “Greening the city became a high priority.” And this: “Singaporeans (or foreigners, for that matter) could be fined for jaywalking, neglecting to flush a toilet or littering. Lee even requested a weekly report on the cleanliness of the restrooms at Changi Airport—which, for many travelers, would provide a first impression of Singapore.”
   • “In the process, he grew into a world statesman and sought-after adviser to the great powers.” Margaret Thatcher called him “one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished practitioners of statecraft.”
   • Singapore became an independent nation in 1965 under Lee’s “strategy of excellence.” By 1973, “Singapore had become the world’s third-largest oil refining hub.”
   • Built on the shoulders of Prime Minister Lee’s leadership, Singapore was ranked as the second-least-corrupt country in the world for 2021 (a place it shares with Norway and Sweden). Note: Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand are tied for first, according to Transparency International. Visit the website to see where your favorite country ranks!
   • Lee often said that Singapore’s territory was “some 224 square miles at low tide,” and “smaller than that of Chicago.” Then 1.9 million people, the 2022 population is 5.9 million.
   • “Lee was respected by leaders of states far more powerful than his own to a unique degree because he furnished insights that enabled them to grasp their own essential challenges.” In a toast to Nixon at a White House dinner in 1973, Lee said,

“We are a very small country placed strategically at the southernmost tip of Asia, and when the elephants are on the rampage, if you are a mouse there and you don’t know the habits of the elephants, it can be a very painful business.”

   • “On his four visits to our weekend house in Connecticut, he would always bring his wife and generally one of his daughters.” And this! “Twice, at his request, I took him to local political events: one, a fundraiser for a congressional candidate; the other, a town-hall meeting. I introduced him, as he asked, simply as a friend from Singapore.” Oh, my!
 
THE STRATEGY OF CONVICTION
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)

With the UK so prominent in the news recently (Liz Truss is out and now Rishi Sunak is the new prime minister), you’ll be tempted to read this chapter first—and it’s worth your time. Known as the “Iron Lady,” Thatcher was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. Kissinger’s analysis is part history, part leadership-under-the-microscope, and part British Political System 101.
   • Yet, in 1990 when Thatcher’s lack of support was imminent, Kissinger communicated his urgent counsel to Thatcher. He writes, “My suggestion did not find favor: Thatcher believed her duty lay on the world stage,” so Thatcher continued with her planned travel schedule to Northern Ireland and Paris. The result: “Thatcher left the management of her campaign to what may only be described as a posse of half-dedicated inadequates.” Having lost the confidence of her party, she resigned.
   • “General Norman Schwarzkopf spoke for many friends of Britain when he demanded of his British counterpart: ‘What sort of a country have you got there when they sack the Prime Minister halfway through a war?’”
   • Believing that the British people would “recognize the difference between sturdy principles and passing fads,” Thatcher said this in a 1983 interview:

“There would have been no great prophets,
no great philosophers in life, no great things to follow,
if those who propounded their views had gone out and said,
‘Brothers, follow me, I believe in consensus.’”

   • “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” Thatcher introduced that famous remark into the political lexicon after meeting Gorbachev for lunch. But did you know that Konstantin Chernenko (1911-1985) was still the Soviet Union’s head of state in 1984? Strategically, she was building relationships with the likely future leader of the Soviet Union.
   • You think Ukraine is unique? Kissinger’s book was published in July 2022, so he has some late-breaking insights on Ukraine. Thatcher had her fair share of squabbles to resolve: the Falkland Islands, plus Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Kissinger describes Thatcher’s leadership as “steadiness” and “steeliness.”
   • There was more on the crisis front: Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Encouraging George H.W. Bush, Thatcher told him, “This was no time to go wobbly.” Kissinger notes, “The firm tone that Thatcher helped to set during the early days of the conflict was an important factor in the eventual liberation of Kuwait.”
   • While Thatcher was a major player in the historic fall of the Berlin Wall (see Robert Orlando’s documentary and book, The Divine Plan), she “feared that not all the demons of Germany’s past had been exorcized.” Kissinger notes that Napoleon is said to have observed, “To understand a man, look at the world when he was twenty.” Thatcher turned 20 in 1945.

NOTE: In Mastering 100 Must-Read Books, I squeezed in a mention of this Kissinger book while reviewing Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, Leaders: Myth and Reality (Book #81). Using the compare-and-contrast methodology from Plutarch’s Lives, he spotlights 13 leaders and contrasts Margaret Thatcher with “Boss” Tweed. (Read my review.)

KISSINGER'S CONCLUSION, "The Evolution of Leadership" (22 pages), is prophetic. All six leaders, he writes, "understood the importance of solitude" for "reading a complex book carefully, and engaging with it critically..." Nixon traveled to San Clemente, Calif. (where I live), for solitude and "deep literacy." Kissinger cautions, "Small wonder that on many contemporary social-media platforms, users are divided into 'followers' and 'influencers'; there are no 'leaders.'"

While I urge you to read Kissinger's fascinating and important book, it would also make a spectacular Christmas gift for a team member, friend, or family member. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. 



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990), wrote in his 2000 book, From Third World to First: “I discovered early in office that there were few problems confronting me in government that other governments had not met and solved. So I made a practice of finding out who else had met the problem we faced, how they tackled it, and how successful they had been.” Does our team have a plan to discover how like-minded organizations have tackled problems that we’re currently facing?

2) Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981), flew to Israel on Nov. 19, 1977, “to global astonishment.” Kissinger writes, “Sadat’s journey to Jerusalem was that rare occasion in which the mere fact of an event constitutes an interruption of history and thereby transforms the range of the possible.” Does our organization have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or if you prefer, a Big HOLY Audacious Goal) that would be recognized as an interruption of history?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #5 of 100:
Know Can Do!

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #5 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How into Action
by Ken Blanchard, Paul J. Meyer, and Dick Ruhe

“The gap between knowing and doing,” declares one of the characters in this short business story, “is probably wider than the gap between ignorance and knowledge.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How into Action 
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

Ken Blanchard, and his co-authors, deliver the gap solution: the power and practice of repetition, repetition, repetition. Plus, “people should learn less information more often, rather than learn more information less often.”  Read fewer books, they preach, and read them not once, but four times. 

They recommend that you follow-up seminar attendance with a weekly one-hour coaching call for six weeks. There’s much, much more—and this 115-page book is a foundational book that will impact everything you read. It’s a must, must, must-read-read-read-read.

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CONVERTED: THE DATA-DRIVEN WAY TO WIN CUSTOMERS' HEARTS  “How to Ask Questions.” Neil Hoyne, the author of Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts, pleads, “Before you ask a question, ask yourself how you’ll respond based on the answer.” If you’ve already read this book (published in February 2022), Ken Blanchard would urge you to read it again—in fact, read it four times! Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Have you studied the science of repetition and frequency in communicating your mission and message? (Click here for an HBR article.) Do your customers (and donors) want more messaging or less? How do you know? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (Part 1 of 2)

Issue No. 533 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights an expansive book by Henry Kissinger (age 99!) on six world leaders and six studies in world strategy. Profound!  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  


POP QUIZ! Identify the six world leaders from Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

PART 1 OF 2: Kissinger on Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, and Richard Nixon

Help me out, here! I can’t decide which lead sentence to use for my review of Henry Kissinger’s phenomenal 2022 book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy. So pick one: 

[  ] Yikes! Henry Kissinger wrote this 528-page book at age 99. (What are you doing with your life?)
[  ] Maybe…if Liz Truss had consulted with Henry Kissinger (like Margaret Thatcher did), she wouldn’t now own the dubious world record for serving the fewest number of days (49) as the U.K.’s prime minister.
[  ] “The two questions Konrad Adenauer put to me during our final meeting in 1967, three months before his death, have gained new relevance: are any leaders still able to conduct a genuine long-range policy? Is true leadership still possible today?”
[  ] Invest just five minutes and listen to the first two pages of Leadership, by Henry Kissinger, and then discern: Have you ever heard a more eloquent description of leadership? (Click here for the 5½-minute audio on Libro.fm.)
[  ] Breaking News! Perhaps…Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger, will be my 2022 book-of-the-year.

OK, you’ve selected your favorite lead sentence (thank you)…so what’s the rest of the story? Simply this. Henry Kissinger’s voice at age 99—with his expansive sweep of history, relevancy, and insightful wisdom—is needed now more than perhaps ever before. 

Frankly, I could write eight reviews (eight!) and you wouldn’t tire of Kissinger’s commentary and private conversations with six strategic world leaders:
• Introduction: “The Axes of Leadership” (listen to the first 5½ minutes)
• Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1959-1969)
• Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. (1969-1974)
• Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981)
• Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)
• Conclusion: “The Evolution of Leadership”

Kissinger’s big idea: these six world leaders (none from upper class backgrounds), forged new paths after World War II by leveraging six unique strategies. Five of them had devout religious upbringings and “all were known for their directness and were often tellers of hard truths. They did not entrust the fate of their countries to poll-tested, focus-grouped rhetoric.” To his complaining parliament on the Allies’ terms for a post-war Germany, Adenauer asked, “Who do you think lost the war?”

TWO TYPES OF LEADERS. Kissinger discusses “fortunate societies,” during times of crisis, and that “such times call forth transformational leaders. Their distinction can be categorized into two ideal types: the statesman and the prophet.”

So here's a taste of those two leadership types and six strategies. (Note: While I urge you to read this fascinating and important book, it would also make a spectacular Christmas gift for a friend or family member.)

PART 1 OF 2: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon

THE STRATEGY OF HUMILITY
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)

Kissinger met with Adenauer about 10 times, including when Kissinger was a consultant to the Kennedy White House. He notes that “by an ironic twist of fate, more than twenty years after fleeing with my family from Nazi Germany,” he participated in the shaping of America’s policy toward Germany, then part of the NATO Alliance. Time magazine honored Adenauer as their 1954 Man of the Year. But imagine the task of bringing a defeated Germany back into the European community.
• HABITS. “As a student at the University of Bonn, he achieved a reputation for commitment through the habit of plunging his feet into a bucket of ice water to overcome the fatigue of late-night studies.”
• HUMILITY. After World War II, “instead of indulging in self-pitying nationalism once again, Germany should seek its future within a unifying Europe. Adenauer was proclaiming a strategy of humility.”

THE STRATEGY OF WILL
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), President of France (1959-1969)

Do you know the backstory on Charles de Gaulle? (There’s hope for all of us.) Kissinger writes that “…leaders who alter history rarely appear as the endpoint of a linear path.” The “resistance movement” was hardly resisting and not yet a movement at the beginning of World War II, but “…arriving in London with effectively nothing but his uniform and his voice, de Gaulle catapulted himself out of obscurity and into the ranks of world statesmen.” His ultimate goal: “the renewal of the soul of France.” (No small BHAG!)

• BISHOPS. “Occasionally exasperated, Churchill once quipped: ‘Yes, de Gaulle does think he is Joan of Arc, but my…bishops won’t let me burn him.’”
• BOLDNESS. “De Gaulle defined his goals in the visionary mode of the prophet, but his execution was in the mode of the statesman, steely and calculating.”
• BOREDOM. “After ten years in the presidency, de Gaulle had achieved the historical tasks available to him and was left with the management of day-to-day events. But such mundane matters were not what had motivated his legendary journey. Observers began to detect the settling-in of boredom, almost melancholy.”

THE STRATEGY OF EQUILIBRIUM
Richard Nixon (1913-1994), President of U.S. (1969-1974)

Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor (“the second-highest-ranking presidential appointment not subject to Senate confirmation”). Kissinger also served both Nixon and Gerald Ford as secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam. The Nixon chapter runs 80 fascinating pages.

• SECRETS. Under Nixon’s direction, “The first secret meeting between the Nixon White House and Vietnamese officials took place in [the French ambassador to Hanoi Jean] Sainteny’s elegant apartment on the rue de Rivoli. He introduced us to the Vietnamese with the injunction not to break any furniture.”
• SOVIETS. Seeking to align the Soviet Union with U.S. goals for Vietnam, Nixon met with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. “Pulling a yellow legal pad from his desk in the Oval Office, Nixon handed it to the ambassador, saying, ‘You’d better take some notes.’”
• SUITS. “Crisis management sometimes produces incongruities.” When Kissinger informed Nixon of Syrian’s invasion of Jordan, the President was bowling in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “Characteristically, Nixon was not prepared to manage a crisis in the White House in bowling clothes. He disappeared for a few minutes to change into a business suit to join [Assistant Secretary of State Joe] Sisco and me in the Situation Room.”

Memo to any and all 2024 U.S. presidential candidates (and future UK prime ministers!): Drink deeply from this Kissinger well of wisdom.

Next Blog - PART 2 OF 2: Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher
(Stay tuned. Three more strategies/three more leaders.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. 



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Note: Play the 5 ½-minute audio from Kissinger’s introduction on leadership and then ask your team this question. Kissinger says that leaders must have courage and character. “Courage summons virtue in the moment of decision; character reinforces fidelity to values over an extended period.” What else must leaders have?
2) Kissinger writes that those close to Charles de Gaulle “began to detect the settling-in of boredom…” Have you noticed this in some leaders—or even in yourself after X years in the same position? What should you do? (Note: Perhaps read The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team. Too bad Lencioni wasn’t yet writing books during Charles de Gaulle’s era!)

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #4 of 100:
Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #4 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Besides the Bible:
100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture
by Dan Gibson, John Pattison, and Jordan Green

I’m a sucker for book lists, such as Book #3 of 100 which featured a list of 100 business books. Today’s Book #4 highlights 100 faith-based books—with a few surprises.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture 
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

The list of books in Besides the Bible spans the centuries and culture:
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
• The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
• The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The Apocrypha
• The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom
• A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren
• Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller
• The God Trilogy, by Timothy Keller

I was delighted they included one of my all-time favorites, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson (see my Book #91). Are you reading profitably? I appreciate this quotation from Orison S. Marden on “Intention, Attention and Retention” (noted by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones):

“To read profitably one must keep these three things in mind: intention, attention, and retention. It is worth noting that the word retention comes from the Latin retces, a net. Nets are made so that the smaller and worthless fishes may slip through the meshes. So the mind trained to retention allows trivial things to escape and holds in memory only things of greater importance.” 

 

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THE UNICORN WITHIN: HOW COMPANIES CAN CREATE GAME-CHANGING VENTURES AT STARTUP SPEED Launch in Just 12 Weeks! I was very skeptical of Linda K. Yates’ claim that a large corporation could harness the entrepreneurs in their company to launch a new product, program, or service in just three months. Then…I read The Unicorn Within. It’s very compelling. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Angel for Higher

Issue No. 532 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the true story of a dad’s two greatest fears—and how Angels for Higher, an extraordinary faith-based nonprofit, popped out of this family’s poignant journey. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  



“He’s a boy!” Those words marked the happiest moment of Robert Hendershot’s life. But five minutes later…

“What I Feared Has Come Upon Me”

Picture this scene. Trevor Hendershot is interviewing for his first job—and it’s in Major League Baseball! The Los Angeles Angels are hiring an “Angel Team Store Greeter” at Anaheim Stadium. It was a long shot for Trevor, but he was game. And the anticipated 15-minute interview was just rounding second base after almost an hour.

Would Trevor make the cut? Eddie, the store manager, looked over Trevor’s very thin resume (retail training at Trader Joe’s and Walgreens in a “transition” program). So Eddie told Trevor:

“Frankly, I can teach almost anyone how to stock, face products, and do go-backs. That would be simple enough.” Eddie continued, “However, I know from my years in the retail business that there a few things I cannot teach—things like natural friendliness, a cheerful disposition and an engaging personality . . . all wrapped around a beautiful smile. And you, Trevor, have all of that and more! Our first home game is against the Kansas City Royals on Friday, April 6. Can you be there?”

You just gotta read this inspiring, true story! Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor, captures this homerun moment in 2012—and you won’t believe what’s happened in the last 10 years (actually the last 32+ years).

Robert Hendershot, Trevor’s dad, identifies with Job’s story in the Old Testament. Chapter 1 in Angel for Higher is titled, “What I Feared Has Come Upon Me” (see Job 3:25a). Chapter 2 continues Hendershot’s losing streak (or is it?), “What I Dreaded Has Happened to Me” (see Job 3:25b).

Oh, my. Along with the eye-popping, amazing, and inspiring true stories (and laugh-out-loud humor), you’ll wonder—have you ever met a more transparent author? Gutsy. Honest. 

Robert Hendershot struggled with two huge fears. He admits: “I was forced to at last acknowledge that I’d definitely become the alcoholic I’d always feared becoming; that there wasn’t any person, place, or thing that could save me; and that suicide offered itself as the only possible solution to the nightmare of my miserable existence.”

His second fear: “I had all these hopes and dreams that our child would be everything I never was in life: a great leader, a tremendous athlete, a skilled musician, an outstanding scholar. At the very least, I hoped that our child would be happy and content with who he or she was in life and not have to resort to alcohol or drugs in order to feel comfortable in his or her own skin.”

The happiest moment of his life? It was on May 4, 1990, when the doctor announced “He’s a boy!” Trevor’s parents, Robert and Melissa, were joyful.

But five minutes later—“by far one of the saddest moments of my life” writes Robert—the doctor asked, “Do you know what Down syndrome is?”

And thus you’re drawn into this powerful, powerful story. (I read half the book to my wife, Joanne, and she’s recommended the book to others.) You can’t put it down.

Robert Hendershot writes that Angel for Higher “…seeks to explain how synergizing the lessons I learned from my struggles with alcoholism together with the challenges of raising my son with Down syndrome resulted in tremendous blessings, not only in Trevor’s life and mine…” but also in the lives of his wife, Melissa, and Trevor’s younger two brothers and their wives. 

Trevor is now 32. And since that successful interview in 2012 to serve as the Angel Team Store Greeter, he has also welcomed thousands of sports fans to Anaheim Stadium and other venues including the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and the University of Southern California’s Trojans. Trevor is “an ‘Angel for Higher’ if you will.”

But…wait. Read the rest of the story. Robert Hendershot was convicted when he listened to a men’s retreat speaker who said, “Consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.”

This reminded me of Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

So in 2018, the Hendershots launched a faith-based nonprofit, Angels for Higher, “to inspire, encourage and help many more sports teams and university campuses to hire many more individuals with Down syndrome.” 

The hope: “AfH was formed with the hope that the lives of many more pre-born babies with Down syndrome would be saved by changing the public perception of young adults with Down syndrome through their employment as Greeters in public venues.”

To learn more, view this short video highlighting the work of Angels for Higher.


Click here to view this 2½-minute video featuring Trevor and the inspiring work of Angels for Higher. 

Today, Angels for Higher is gracing an amazing number of sports venues across the country—and still growing. Those teams have hired extraordinary greeters (Angels for Higher/Hire—get it?). Visit their “Success Stories” pages to view short clips from the Golden State Warriors, Chicago Cubs (my favorite!), Ohio State University, Notre Dame, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, and more. And read this Associated Press article.
 
I won’t spoil the fun for you—because, wonderfully, Robert Hendershot can take a serious story and make it both poignant and hilarious (often on the same page). 

Read the book to learn:
   • Why Trevor...loved his high school classmates so much, that even though he was bullied at first, the students elected him Homecoming King. (Read his hilarious question to his dad!).
   • Why Trevor...initially refused to provide a sample for his drug test. (Hilarious!)
   • About...Trevor’s impromptu song at a weekend men’s retreat (“for five excruciatingly painful minutes,” writes Robert) and why Trevor and his dad reversed their early morning check-out plans. 

With a confessional—yet redemptive—tone, Hendershot winds in and out and back into his AA journey, and puts flesh on the bones of one of the 12-step mandates—making amends. In Chapter 3, “Even More Undignified Than This,” Robert faced a dilemma on how to communicate his new heart and mission to Trevor. “I knew I had to come up with a way of making a more earnest apology to him through my actions (known in twelve-step programs as a living amends) because actions do speak louder than words.”

So—get this! Robert observed that Trevor always cracked up watching a video of the Three Stooges. In one favorite scene, one Stooge hurts his foot and is painfully hopping around, another (for comedic effect) is doing a slow, Cossack-style dance, while the third Stooge claps and chants, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” You will not believe what Trevor’s dad humbled himself to do every morning with Trevor at his bus stop. 

Funny? Yes! Life lessons for the rest of us? Oh, my!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor.

 
NOTE: To go deeper on how you, your church, and your colleagues might better understand recovery programs, I recommend the 2021 book, Why Can't Church Be More Like an AA Meeting? And Other Questions Christians Ask About Recovery, by Stephen R. Haynes. The author quotes a blogger, “Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” (Read my review.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Robert Hendershot was challenged to “consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.” So…what breaks your heart?
2) If you work or volunteer in an organization or ministry where the obstacles and challenges often outweigh the “success stories,” perhaps you need an inspiring dose of God’s miracle stories—like Robert and Trevor. Who, on our team, should read this book and report on it?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #3 of 100:
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #3 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #3:

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You
by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten

I read and reviewed this book in 2009 and I suppose it influenced me to create my own list of 100 must-read books (but not limited to just business books).
• Read John’s review.
• Order The 100 Best Business Books of All Time from Amazon.
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

The co-authors are like fine surgeons in the art of reviewing business books. As of 2009, I had read 21 of the 100 books. I was familiar with another 25—and had always wanted to read about half of those. So the value of this book, for me, is having at my fingertips a two-page morsel on each of the 54 books I’ve never read. If your favorite book is missing, you can recommend it on their website like I did. 

Each book summary includes a memorable quote in big, bold type. Example from The Balanced Scorecard: 

     “If you can’t measure it,
      you can’t manage it.”

Just reading the summary of The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker (one of my personal Top-20 books), gave me new insights and a new one-liner: 

     “Effective executives 
      solve problems once.” 
 

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WHY CAN’T CHURCH BE MORE LIKE AN AA MEETING? "First Church of Sinners!" Author Stephen R. Haynes quotes blogger R. Brad White who calls AA a place of “healing, support, encouragement, and accountability.” He wonders why “this description does not apply to more churches. Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Dan Busby’s Legacy of Books

Issue No. 531 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights the immense legacy of nonprofit books and resources available today because of the vision of Dan Busby (1941-2022). We miss him.  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. Will the Dodgers face the Yankees in the 2022 World Series?


Dan Busby (1941-2022) authored more than 70 editions of 14 different books—nine of them written when he was in his 70s, including Trust: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness.

Dan Busby’s Board Books & Baseball Books! 

Many leaders and readers of Your Weekly Staff Meeting have graciously reached out to me upon hearing the sad news that my close friend, Dan Busby, lost his battle to cancer on Sept. 28, 2022. He was 81. Heaven’s gain! (Read ECFA’s tribute here.)

So in this issue, I’d like to spotlight and remind you of the immense legacy Dan left for leaders and readers. As a CPA, then a denominational CFO, Dan served ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) for 30 years as a volunteer, senior staff member, and then president from 2008 until his retirement in 2020. He was ECFA’s sixth (and to date, longest-serving) president.


Click here to view the video recording of the one-hour Memorial Service for Dan Busby, Oct. 21, 2022, from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

ECFA’s tribute noted that by his retirement from ECFA, Dan “had authored or co-authored more than 70 editions of 14 different books—nine of them written when in his 70s. He also published many ECFA eBooks.” I’m spotlighting five books below, including four that I had the huge privilege of co-authoring with Dan.

[  ] Trust: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness, by Dan Busby (2015)
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.

In the opening chapter, Dan describes “The Low-Trust Penalty.” In low-trust organizations, Busby warned, you’ll see:
   • Internal dissension. “Without trust, the office dissension machine runs at full speed—and divides a ministry against itself.”
   • Disengagement. Staff work in silos and “they shift from joyful service to turf protection.”
   • Turnover. “When trust is low, turnover is disproportionately high—ministries lose the people they least want to lose.”
   • Fraud. “Low trust encourages a small theft; if they don’t get caught, they may take it to the next level.”

The quotations are numerous and memorable—click here for 100 trust quotes for your PowerPoints, speaking notes, coffee break conversations, and tweets, including this from Richard Blackaby: “Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That’s not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do.”

[  ] Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2018). Lesson 1 asks, “Would you trust a surgeon who stopped learning? How about a board member who stopped learning?” 
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.

[  ] More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). In Lesson 39, we quoted Donald Rumsfeld, “Meetings are a good place to discover whether an organization might be suffering from groupthink. If everyone in the room seems convinced of the brilliance of an idea, it may be a sign that the organization would benefit from more dissent and debate.”
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.

[  ] Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). Lesson 3, “Guarding Your Pastor’s Soul,” quotes Andrew Murray: “Humility is the only soil in which the graces take root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.” 
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.
• View the short videos.

[  ] ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). To introduce the 22 tools, we quoted Peter Drucker: “Although I don’t know a single for-profit business that is well managed as a few of the nonprofits, the great majority of the nonprofits can be graded a ‘C’ at best. Not for lack of effort; most of them work very hard. But for lack of focus, and for lack of tool competence.”
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 22 descriptive blogs.
• Download the tools and templates.

2 More From Dan Busby—The Baseball “Ticketologist!”

Like all great leaders, Dan Busby also enjoyed hobbies and interests outside of his demanding leadership roles. (Donald Rumsfeld wrote, “I lean toward people who have lives outside of work—an interesting hobby, perhaps, or fluency in a foreign language, for example.”)

Dan's friends described him as a baseball “ticketologist” because of his research, stunning ticket collection, and authorship of books about baseball tickets. I’ve reviewed two of his baseball books.

[  ] Before and After Jackie Robinson, A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by Dan Busby (August 2022). Just barely, the Lord gave Dan time to finish this 400-page full-color gem before his homegoing. Noting the colorful history of  the Brooklyn Dodgers (including rare photos and even rarer baseball tickets), only Dan Busby could also carve out 10 leadership principles (with commentary) in a book about baseball! It’s the perfect coffee table book for your office or home.
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• View the short YouTube videos.

[  ] Before and After Babe Ruth: A Story of the New York Yankees Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by Dan Busby (2018). In the 1950s, Dan began collecting World Series programs (the mail order company attached actual World Series tickets!). Inspired, Dan upped his game and in 1962 began collecting opening day tickets from every major league baseball team. He often consulted with the National Baseball Hall of Fame concerning memorabilia acquisitions. I've told friends, “Dan was in a league of his own—he was a walking Wikipedia!” You’ll love this book on the Yankees.
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• View the short YouTube videos.

ONLINE MEMORIAL SERVICE. Join Dan’s family and friends on Oct. 21, 2022, for the online memorial service, where along with Gary Hoag and Steve McVey, I will also have the privilege of sharing some brief comments about my very special friend.

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #2 of 100:
My Ideal Bookshelf

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #2 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #2:

My Ideal Bookshelf
by Thessaly La Force and Jane Mount

The book’s big idea: invite over 100 leading cultural figures (Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, and others) “to share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world.”
• Read John’s review.
• Order My Ideal Bookshelf from Amazon.
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list.

The authors quote David Sedaris: “Tobias Wolff is America’s greatest short-story writer. 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.”’ There’s nothing else you would need to say. Every story is a manual on how to be a good person, but without ever being preachy. They’re deeply moral stories; the best of them read like parables.”

NOTE: See Part 11 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. “Hall of Fame Sports Stories” features reviews of five sports books including Dan Busby’s Before and After Babe Ruth. Busby’s latest, Before and After Jackie Robinson, is included in the “Index to Bonus Books,” a curated list of 91 additional books you can read—once you complete the 100 Must-Read Books! 

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CHURCH & NONPROFIT FINANCIAL GUIDES Do you know the “10 Biggest Tax and Financial Mistakes Made by Churches and Nonprofits?” Read ECFA’s 2022 Church & Nonprofit Tax & Financial Guide, and the 2022 Minister's Tax & Financial Guide, both by Michael Martin. The nonprofit guide also includes a list of "10 Must-Read Lessons…” and "10 More Must-Read Lessons…” for board members—featuring content from the Busby and Pearson books. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. We had the very special privilege of designing book covers for Dan Busby and ECFA, including the Trust book and four board governance books. We also produced the videos and designed the read-and-engage viewer guides for the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1, 2, and 3. Do you need some video or design ideas? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

Issue No. 530 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights Patrick Lencioni’s new book, The 6 Types of Working Genius. Yes! You’re a genius! His book will help you avoid frustration at work, home, and church. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. 


Patrick Lencioni believes that “too many people are frustrated and unfilled in their work.” His new book has solutions!

Do We Really Need Another Assessment? YES!

Breaking News! You’re invited to have lunch with Lencioni! 
Sept. 27, Tuesday 12 noon PT (3 p.m. ET)

Bestselling organizational health guru Patrick Lencioni’s new book is available tomorrow! It’s another must-read: The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team.

So schedule lunch with Lencioni! Just register for the “Working Genius Book Launch Event” with Patrick Lencioni. (Well actually, it’s online and you’ll need to bring your own lunch—but, trust me, the event, the book, and the assessment could be transformational for you and your team.) Click here.

4 OPTIONS FOR ELIMINATING WORK FRUSTRATIONS!
[  ] Option 1: Read this review.
[  ] Option 2: Skip the review and click on the 4-minute video (below).
[  ] Option 3: Enjoy an online lunch with Lencioni (Sept. 27, Tues. noon PT)
[  ] Option 4: Lunch-on-your-own! Read the book and/or listen to the book (4 hours).

If you picked Option 1, keep reading.
You will love this hilarious story, told in the classic Lencioni business fable format. (Really, it’s hilarious!)
• It’s extremely helpful—three stages of work and six types of working genius. (Yes! Look in the mirror and repeat after me, “I’m a genius! But…I’m not a genius in all six types.”)
• It’s eye-opening—you will quickly understand why you and your team members are often frustrated with work projects.
• It’s transformational—when you learn what brings you joy and when you should say “no.” And…the Working Genius model is applicable to work, home, and church.

NOT ANOTHER ASSESSMENT! I must admit, I was skeptical.

Really, Lencioni?
The world needs another assessment?
Really?

I’m a big fan of what I call “The 3 Powerful S’s.” I’ve learned and leveraged the 4 social styles, the 34 strengths, and the 23 or more spiritual gifts. (Read more.) Then (oops!), I added one more S: self-awareness and social-awareness (EQ). OK…to be honest…I included a fifth assessment in my new book, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (See Part 9, “Five Powerful Assessments.”)

True. Assessments can be helpful—but, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s the rare person that can remember their own assessment results. I’ve tested this in workshops with over 1,000 leaders, managers, and board members over 20 years. It’s only cost me less than 20 Starbucks gift cards. (Sad, actually.)

But…I’m betting that The 6 Types of Working Genius book, and the 10-minute assessment, will change the global organizational health landscape. This is not hype—it’s hallelujah! 

To view an overview of The 6 Types of Working Genius, here’s Patrick Lencioni with his short-and-sweet descriptions of the three stages of work and the six types of genius (4 minutes). Click here.


Amazing! Lencioni can summarize his new book in just 3 minutes and 52 seconds! Click here.

Lencioni says there are three stages of work: Ideation, Activation, and Implementation—and that staff meetings often go off the rails because there’s no clarity on which stage is being discussed. The three stages pair with the 6 types of Working Genius:
   • IDEATION: Wonder and Invention
   • ACTIVATION: Discernment and Galvanizing
   • IMPLEMENTATION: Enablement and Tenacity

The book and the website deliver crisp definitions and—gratefully—the theory is outgunned by the humor. This is the funniest book I’ve read all year! (Lencioni’s 2021 book, The Motive, had perfect-timing humor. But this book is hilarious!)

Lencioni’s quick-reading story follows a small team’s aha moment when they discover transformational insights about their personalities and their productivity. The book (and the assessment) will help you discover:
   • Your Working Genius—the two activities that give you “joy, energy, and passion.”
   • Your Working Competency—the two activities we can do “fairly well, perhaps even very well”—yet “we will eventually grow weary if we are not allowed to exercise our true geniuses.”
   • Your Working Frustration—you probably already know these two, but if a good portion of your work is here, “…we are bound to experience misery at work, and ultimately, struggle or even fail.”

I plan to inspire one of my granddaughters to take the assessment. She's a part-time team member at a local coffee shop and I'll enjoy watching her in action with her team members! (And speaking of coffee, don’t skip the metaphors describing how the three categories are like a coffee thermos, a regular coffee cup, and a cup that has a hole its bottom!)

Last week, a friend who is just changing jobs (I’ll call him “Joe”), shared his assessment results (a customized 18-page report):
   • Joe’s areas of Working Genius: Invention and Galvanizing
   • Joe’s areas of Working Competency: Wonder and Discernment
   • Joe’s areas of Working Frustration: Enablement and Tenacity

Note to Joe’s new boss! If you’re looking for Joe to bring a project to the finish line (Tenacity), he may be frustrated. (Read the book to learn how to reconfigure his role so it leverages his areas of Working Genius.)

There’s so much more in this fast-reading book:
• A fascinating example of the six types of genius at work in a church committee meeting! (Meet “Mrs. Church Lady!”)
• How working in your God-given area of genius will dramatically improve your team’s work and your organization’s morale.
• Why “cultural fit” is a big factor—if a team member is currently in the “Frustration” area.
• The four kinds of work conversations: brainstorming, decision-making, launch, and status review and problem-solving (aligned with the six types).
• Genius Gaps: what happens when your team has a lack of Wonder, or a lack of Invention, etc. (Brilliant—and just three pages.)
• Why when you’re working at the wrong elevation of a project, you’ll need a barf bag!
• How the 6 Types of Working Genius will improve engagement and employee retention. (That alone is worth the price of the book.)

Bottom Line: Do we really need another assessment? YES!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team, by Patrick M. Lencioni. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 11 minutes).


NOTE: To take the 10-minute “Working Genius” assessment (not included with the book), visit the website where you can also view a sample report, listen to Lencioni explain the genius model, and listen to the podcasts.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) When hiring new people, the CEO in the story leveraged the six types of Working Genius to focus on the skills needed for each position and then identified them in the people they interviewed. The result? “…we’d never hire again without using the six types.” How does your organization ensure that the people you’re hiring will not be assigned to roles that align with their areas of Working Frustration?  

2) Sure, everyone assumes when you’re new on a team, you have to do the grunt work and pay your dues—before you’re assigned meaningful work. Pushing back—with very strong words (!!)—the CEO changed the culture with this: “What I mean is that people paying dues is ********. Especially if it means doing things they’re not good at in order to prove that they’re worthy of doing what they’re great at. . . . Does that make any sense?” What’s the culture in your organization? Are your new hires doing work that aligns with their areas of Working Genius?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #1 of 100:
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #1 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #1:

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

The author asks, “When should you give up on a book?” He writes, “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.”
   • Read John’s review.
   • Order The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life.
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list.

NOTE: Don’t miss Part 3 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends (Patrick Lencioni)” features reviews of four books by Lencioni (Books #22-25). Also featured is Book #15, The Advantage, by Lencioni, which John named his 2012 book-of-the-year. 

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How to Work a Room! Have you ever read a book on how to work a room? Guy Kawasaki suggests you “buy this book if you want to be a savvy socializer,” and adds, “buy a second one for a shy friend!” Read How to Work a Room, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Making Lasting Connections—in Person and Online, by Susan RoAne. Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Does your communication team have the right mix of Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity? We can help you assess. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Mastering 100 Must-Read Books

Issue No. 529 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting announces a new book from the “Son and Pearson” team of Jason and John, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. 

Read the “Q & A With Son and Pearson” as Jason pokes his Dad, “Another book? Another forest?” See their list of 100 Must-Read Books here.

Q & A With Son & Pearson on 100 Must-Read Books

Listen in on the conversation that I had recently with my son, Jason, about our new book, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life. 

Jason: So, Dad…we wrote our Mastering Mistake-Making book during the COVID marathon in 2021. And now in 2022, another book? (Another forest? 405 pages?) Way to go, but how are you coming on cleaning out the garage? Wasn’t that your High Priority Project after the Mistakes book?

John: LOL. Um. Er. Ahem. The garage is my next project. But…this book was already written (kinda) and so I just had to pull it together, get your ideas/edits/deletes…and endure some gut-wrenching decisions (which 100 books to include—and which books wouldn’t make the cut)—and presto! Another book.

Jason: If my math is correct at publication time, you’ve reviewed over 529 books since 2006—so you’re saying it was challenging to narrow your list down to just 100 Must-Read Books?

John: Exactly! Many books become like old friends. Even now I can remember helpful insights and best practices from many, many books. “That counsel was so, so helpful—how can that book be excluded from my Top-100 list?” Halfway through the selection process, I seriously thought of re-titling this book, “200 Must-Read Books!”

Jason: I get it. You love books. But…can I be honest with you, Dad? I can’t possibly read (or listen to) all of the books that you think I should read! I mean, seriously! I have a day job, a wife, and a family of five teenagers. I do listen to books—but even 100 must-read books would be a daunting challenge! 



John: I know, I know—and, maybe, you’ve just articulated why I’m hoping Mastering 100 Must-Read Books will be so helpful to many leaders and managers. I’ve selected my list—but my hope is that readers and leaders will be inspired to select their Top-100 Books list. I appreciate the wisdom in my Book #1, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life:

“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.”

Jason: That makes sense. I certainly have some books that would qualify for my “100 Must-Read Books.” Many of those, definitely, would not be on your list!

John: Let me guess. You’ve quoted Marshall McLuhan since you could talk! “The medium is the message” and “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” But…until you caught my typo in the book’s introduction, I had no idea that his 1967 book was actually titled, The Medium Is the Massage. And until I recently read his bio, I had no idea that his mother was a Baptist Sunday School teacher and his father was a Methodist—but McLuhan converted to Catholicism by reading G.K. Chesterton.

Jason: Good guess—I appreciate McLuhan. Another book on my Top-100 list would be A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, by Roger von Oech.
 
John: Ah, yes! I remember! That book that was an automatic entry in every paper you wrote in high school! Your one-man crusade to educate teachers about right brain/left brain students was inspiring!

Jason: You were inspired—but most of my teachers (except one) were annoyed! But you should mention more about the two kinds of libraries every person should have. That inspired me. And Melinda and I are trying to inspire our five teenagers (although two of our voracious readers actually inspire us!).

John: Good idea! Steve Leveen is the creative author of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books (see Book #1). He recommends a very simple—but profound—approach to building your library:
   • The Library of Candidates - Based on your List of Candidates
   • The Living Library - Your library of well-read friends
   • The Gift of Empty Shelves - “Like an open road, they hold the promise of your future examined life.”

Jason: So, I know your “Living Library” has over 500 “well-read friends.” How many books are on your “Library of Candidates” shelves?

John: Are you asking how often the Amazon driver shows up at our house? (LOL!) Actually, I’m over-blessed with friends, publishers, and publicists who send me a constant supply of books for my “Library of Candidates” shelves. And no—I have not yet given myself the “gift of empty shelves”—but that’s an aspirational goal this year (after I tidy up the garage).

Jason: I noticed that you organized Mastering 100-Must Read Books into 18 parts—and you seem to cover the waterfront from “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” to contrarian thinkers, to classics…then assessments, and sports stories…and then an interesting collection, “In Search of Global Perspectives.” Do you have a Top-1 favorite book?

John: Nice try, Jason—but I have way too many friends/authors who I would disappoint if I singled out just one book—including the books you’ve authored! I’ve already lost some friends by not including their books in the Top-100. Please tell them I’m sorry…but if they were better writers… (No, don’t say that!).

Jason: If I had to guess, I was wondering if Book #78, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, might be in the running for your favorite book—since you recently saw the 2022 movie starring Colin Firth. I was also intrigued with your five picks in the section, “Leadership & Management at War.” Or maybe J.I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God, in the “Feeble Faith and Flabby Worship” section? 

John: Both books are good guesses and worthy picks on my short list of favorite books. But I’d also have to mention the quartet of books in “The Final Four” section (#97 to #100), especially the 2022 gem from Steve Machia, The Discerning Life. And, as you know, we had no deadline for this book—and that was a problem, because readers will see I kept adding “Bonus Books” as sidebars. Really, some incredible books arrived in the last half of 2022, and I’ve included some of them—such as Henry Kissinger’s new book—in the “Index to Bonus Books.”

Jason: Some of my clients at Pearpod have asked me to recommend books for their board members, the CEO, and even new employees in their first management positions. What do you recommend?

John: That's really the motivation behind Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. In the study guide (in the appendix) I list seven ideas for all-staff meetings and department team meetings, including:

   [  ] 10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning at Every Staff Meeting: To banish boredom at your weekly staff meeting (or department meeting), feature “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning.” You’ll increase staff engagement and enrich the leadership and management competencies of your team members. At every staff meeting, invite one team member to prepare in advance to spotlight one of the Top-100 books. Over just one year of weekly staff meetings, you’ll introduce about 50 books (and insights) to your team.
   [  ] New Team Members: Browse through this book and pick five books that you have not read, including one book that your supervisor (or CEO) wants you to read. If the books are not on our resource shelf, go ahead and buy them, underline them, and write your name and date in the front of the book—and note your favorite chapter and why.
   [  ] First-Time Managers: Look over the list of books by “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” (Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, and Peter Drucker) and read at least one book by each author, including one book your CEO recommends from those lists. Follow the same instructions (per above) for noting your insights.
   [  ] Experienced CEOs and Senior Team Members: You’ve probably coached and mentored others, using some of these books, over the years. But lifelong learners know that, as Ken Blanchard and C.S. Lewis recommend, there is great value in re-reading a book twice or even three or four times. 

Jason: You’re saying that the discipline of investing just 10 minutes per week on lifelong learning at your staff meeting will expose every team member to leadership and management insights—and, perhaps, make the organization more effective? And…that many of these books will be on the organization’s resource shelf so team members can go deeper?

John: Bingo! Hopefully, leaders have recruited and hired self-motivated team members who are already lifelong learners. They don’t need carrots or sticks—but it’s always fun to throw in a few hoopla! ideas. See the Hoopla! chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets, Book #94. That chapter recommends a book, The Carrot Principle, which features 125 staff recognition ideas. I encourage managers to recognize staff members who model lifelong learning.

Jason: Anything else…before leaders and readers jump into Mastering 100 Must-Read Books?

John: Maybe just one thing. When veteran leaders (who are in the “Leaders of Leaders” category) scan this book, I’d encourage them to review my “Books-of-the-Year” picks (Books #6 to #21 and #99 and #100). Those gems are especially helpful books/reminders for experienced leaders—and also helpful tools when they are coaching and mentoring others. 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life (405 pages), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. To download the table of contents (listing all 100 books), visit the book’s webpage here.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Pop Quiz! Name five books that would be on your “100 Must-Read Books” list.  
2) Many teams have a designated “Leaders Are Readers Champion.” This person will order Mastering 100 Must-Read Books and then inspire one team member (rotating leadership at each staff meeting) to prepare a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment—featuring one of the 100 books. (Idea: Offer a generous Amazon gift card to inspire your “volunteer” champion!) 

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Preach It! Read Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It, by Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup. See John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog—and why Pearson notes, “If…I were a pastor, I would put my current sermon series on pause. Then I’d use my Bible and this hot-off-the-press book from Gallup—with 20 thought-provoking chapters.” 

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Wondering what book will inspire your communications team? We have recommendations! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Thriving on Overload: The 5 Powers for Success in a World of Exponential Information

Issue No. 528 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features three options for reading my review of Thriving on Overload: 1) One sentence, 2) One paragraph, or 3) Ten golden nuggets! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. 


“We need to acknowledge we are information addicts,” confesses Ross Dawson, author of Thriving on Overload. “There is no shame in it. This allows us to act on it, to work to control our addiction.”

3 Options for Reading My Review of Thriving on Overload

Here’s my problem, friends. According to Ross Dawson, author of Thriving on Overload, “We need to acknowledge we are information addicts.” He confesses, “I certainly admit to being an addict, not adequately able to control my craving for the latest in news and my networks.” Ditto. How about you?

I have another problem. This hot-off-the-press book may be the most important book you read this year—but it would be sinful to serve up a substantial book review for you. I’d just be adding to your information overload! I’d be feeding your addiction. Yikes!

So I’ve thought about three review options. Just pick one option—and move on. Don’t miss the breaking news on your favorite network or news feed!

OPTION #1: Short and Sweet (one sentence)
Trust me—just read the book!

OPTION #2: Motivational (one paragraph)
What if I promised you that this book will dramatically change how you read, view, and listen to the world? (It will.) What if you could transform information overload into an opportunity—not an addiction? (You can.) What if you delegated the reading of this book to a team member—and asked for a summary at your next staff meeting? (You should.)

OPTION #3: Ten Golden Nuggets (for info addicts!)
If you’re still reading—I’ve got some really good stuff for you:

#1. FAST COMPANY says Thriving on Overload offers "the five best ways to manage our information-drenched world.” I agree. The subtitle gives hope: “The 5 Powers for Success in a World of Exponential Information.” 

#2. SIX ATTENTION MODES. The author gave me permission to read the chapters in any order, so I started with Chapter 4, “The Power of Attention.” He writes, “Attention is not one thing; there are six different attention modes that we need to understand and use judiciously to maximize our minds and capabilities.” The six:
   • Scanning
   • Seeking
   • Assimilating
   • Deep-diving
   • Exploring
   • Regenerating

News Alert! No one (including you) can multi-task, per brain science. “The longer you remain in a single attention mode at a time, the more effective you will be.” And this: “How you allocate your attention is a defining choice in life.”

#3. THE FIVE POWERS. Not a blah/blah/blah list of productivity hacks, the book seriously organizes the problem and the solutions around “The Five Powers of Thriving on Overload” (see the page 5 chart). With "Purpose" in the center, the author suggests we “frame our information quests as journeys to help us refine our intentions and discover our path.”
   • PURPOSE: Know why.
   • FRAMING: Map your thinking.
   • FILTERING: Discern what serves you.
   • ATTENTION: Allocate awareness with intention.
   • SYNTHESIS: Cultivate creative integration.

#4. TIMEBOXING. Along with the theory (must-read: “timeboxing”), Dawson delivers helpful habits from leaders and professionals. The founder and CEO of Spotify doesn’t begin his “work” day until 10:30 a.m. He quotes the author of Indistractable who calls timeboxing “the nearest thing we have to productivity magic.”

#5. ZERO VALUE: LAST WEEK’S NEWS. “…one useful rule of thumb to assess the potential value of information is its age. Most of the news that comes out today will have almost zero value or importance past tomorrow. Nassim Nicholas Taleb says ‘to be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.’ Doing this highlights the unimportance and transience of the vast majority of the news.” (Note: The author, however, believes print newspapers still have merit.)

#6. FAKE NEWS AND BAD DATA. Did you know that the University of Washington has a course to help students “learn to detect and defuse” BS? The course was so popular the profs wrote a book with this subtitle: “The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.” Per the book promo: “Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data.” Dawson’s call-out, “A Content Filtering Framework” (page 89), lists nine questions for finding gems, including, “Do other authoritative sources corroborate?”
 
#7. OOPS! Noting that “the most credible newspapers in the world make mistakes despite sometimes rigorous fact-checking standards,” the author acknowledges that even “editors are humans not immune to championing their beliefs.” For example, “To take just Nature, by some measures the world’s most reputable journal, there were 49 retractions of published articles in the decade to 2021, and that doesn’t mean that every other article was completely correct.” (For more “oops,” see my review of Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations.)

#8. “UNSUBSCRIBE MONSTER.” In the chapter on the power of filtering, the author quotes a Nokia team member who relies on newsletters extensively to scout for relevant trends. “I’m paying somebody else to do the scanning for me . . . except the newsletters are free.” (Smart person!) Leslie Shannon says she will “look at everything once…” to assess them. BUT! She adds, “I’m an unsubscribe monster…” (I kinda hope you’ll skip this nugget!)

#9. FIND 20 GOOD PEOPLE. “Many of the information masters I interviewed for this book mentioned numbers around 20 as a guideline for their tightly curated lists.” (What 20 do you religiously follow on Twitter, social media, podcasts, etc.? Or is it 100?)

#10. DOOMSCROLLING! You may know people who compulsively follow upsetting news—not a good thing! (“Doomscrolling” was named a word-of-the-year in 2020!) What information serves you? “The ability to discern the information that best serves you shapes the quality of your life,” writes Dawson. Thus, his entire book functions as a trail guide for a more disciplined and effective use of information in a “world of exponential information.” 

NOTE: Halfway through this book—it dawned on me. The concepts and ideas (especially on the power of purpose) are so helpful, I’ll do a second read of this book—applying the principles that I just now learned. (Did I mention? This is an important book.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Thriving on Overload: The 5 Powers for Success in a World of Exponential Information, by Ross Dawson. Listen on Libro. (And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending me a review copy.)



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Oh, my. This will blow your mind. In the chapter, “The Power of Framing,” Thriving on Overload mentions a website, “Jerry’s Brain,” the largest public “brain” in the world. Visit the website and view the 13-minute YouTube video. OK, team—how do we (and how should we) organize the zillion pieces of information we review, scan, skip, or do deep-dives on?
2) “What is the one thing you can do to improve your relationship with information in the six spheres of your life (Identity, Expertise, Ventures, Well-being, Society, Passions)? That’s just one of several powerful questions/exercises at the end of each chapter in Thriving on Overload. On the same fill-in-the-blanks exercise, the author asks you to allocate a percentage of your attention that goes to each of the six spheres of your life. Read the chapter on purpose and then discern where your faith-based priorities might land—and how much time you allocate to improving your relationship with faith-based information.

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4 Resources for Info Overload!

Over at the Pails in Comparison blog, I feature a main book and then “compare and contrast” it with other books I’ve reviewed. So…I’m borrowing that methodology for this issue. Four books:

• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, by Steven B. Sample (1940-2016) – (read my review) - The author, former president of USC, was addicted to newspapers. He once went six months without reading one—but stayed current through the art of listening.

• Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Richard A Swenson, M.D. (read my review) - The margin doctor suggests you record this message on your phone: “Please wait for the beep and hang up.”

• 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 (read my review) - 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.”

• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan (read my review of my 2016 book-of-the-year) - On time-blocking: "My recommendation is to block four hours a day. This isn't a typo. I repeat: four hours a day. Honestly, that’s the minimum. If you can do more, then do it."

By the way! According to Thriving on Overload, “…our lasting love for print books suggests they will be with us for decades to come. In 2021 over 825 million print books were sold in the United States, the most since the rise of e-books, and more than four times digital format sales.”  

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An Idea Machine! Ready to read outside your narrow niche? Enjoy this one: A Game Maker's Life: A Hall of Fame Game Inventor and Executive Tells the Inside Story of the Toy Industry, by Jeffrey Breslow. Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you learning from 20 “good people”—those who are savvy and thoughtful communicators? We can help.   We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Before and After Jackie Robinson: A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes

Issue No. 527 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a colorful and massive book, Before and After Jackie Robinson: A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by “Ticketologist” Dan Busby. Fascinating! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”

NOTE: Author Dan Busby (1941-2022), amazingly, was able to complete this book before his homegoing. CLICK HERE to read the tribute to my good friend about his legacy of books.


View the 3-minute tribute to Jackie and Rachel Robinson at the 2022 MLB All-Star Game at Dodgers Stadium on July 19. (With cool graphics!) 

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“Ticketologist” Dan Busby on Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers

“Chills!” That’s how fans described Denzel Washington’s tribute honoring the trailblazer, Jackie Robinson, at the 2022 MLB All-Star Game at Dodgers Stadium on July 19. It just happened to also be the 100th birthday celebration for Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel (she wore No. 42). 

Denzel Washington’s solemn salute to both Jackie and Rachel commemorated that monumental day on April 15, 1947, when Robinson broke baseball’s modern color barrier. Washington spoke of Jackie’s “supreme talent and unshakable character." (See the three-minute tribute above.)

But there’s more to the Jackie Robinson story—more than you ever knew. So with impeccable timing, my good friend, Dan Busby, has just hit a homerun with his stunning hot-off-the-press book, Before and After Jackie Robinson, A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes. 

 

 

Baseball tickets? Yes. Remember the concept of actual tickets (before the turnstiles demanded proof on your digital device)? The New York Times recently asked Dan Busby what he thought about the transition to digital tickets. His response, “Save a tree, lose a memory.”

And the memories. Oh, my. As Busby showcases in his colorful stroll through Brooklyn’s baseball history, baseball tickets and passes are a unique and fascinating gateway into the cheers, jeers, fears, and more of Major League Baseball. Play ball! (And by the way, the 2022 MLB World Series begins on Oct. 28. The Los Angeles Dodgers are lookin’ pretty good!)

Before and After Jackie Robinson, however, creates a huge problem for me! The book is 400 pages (with hundreds of photos and images) and there’s so much I want to spotlight. Yet calling this gem a “book” is sorely inadequate. This full-color massive masterpiece is one-of-a-kind. You’ll give it a place of honor on your coffee table at home and your reception area at work. But I need a double-header eNews to do this review justice. Or maybe I can knock out a double or a triple—or even a few poignant bunts—to entice you to order the book. It’s absolutely fascinating! I had no idea!

TRUE OR FALSE?
[   ] T/F #1: Jackie Robinson’s achievements—against all odds—were many, including Rookie of the Year in 1947 and six-time All-Star in his 10-year career. He played in six World Series, including 1955 when the Brooklyn Dodgers won the Series. 
[   ] T/F #2. In 1947, sportswriter Tommy Holmes wrote, “Opening day has come and gone and nothing at all terrible happened because a colored man played in a big league lineup....” 
[   ] T/F #3. Jackie Robinson wore Number 42 (see the movie). “Number 42 is now the most celebrated number in baseball. Each year on April 15, every player in the Major Leagues wears 42 and no one wears it the rest of the year.” (That’s just one of 22 “Quotable Quotes” in the book’s introductory appetizers--or is it? True or False?)

Many of my readers will remember that Dan Busby served as ECFA’s president from 2008 until his retirement in 2020. But many will be surprised to learn that he’s also been a baseball memorabilia collector and researcher for over 60 years. He’s recognized as one of the premiere baseball “ticketologists.” 

BUSBY’S “TICKETOLOGY” RESEARCH delivers fascinating snippets and Dodger memorabilia on almost every page:

• Musical Depreciation Night? An upper grandstand ticket for Aug. 13, 1951, cost just $1.75. But free admittance was offered to any fan who brought a musical instrument for “Musical Appreciation (or Depreciation) Night.” Read more on page 269 to learn why the local musician’s union had issues with the Dodgers’ popular “Sym-Phony Band” and why the union “had threatened to throw a picket line around Ebbets Field.” (Will this tuba fit through the turnstile?)

• The Mystery of Norman Rockwell’s “The Three Umpires.” According to Busby, Norman Rockwell painted five covers for The Saturday Evening Post in 1949. (Lifetime, he painted 259 covers for The Post!) Yet Busby (aka Detective Busby!) surmised that the Dodgers-Pirates game at Ebbets Field that Rockwell depicted, featuring three umpires and impending rain, wasn’t quite accurate. Had Rockwell perhaps taken “poetic license” with the finer points of baseball? Busby wrote to Rockwell and the famous illustrator sent Dan a personal and gracious response on Dec. 1, 1970. (Norman Rockwell’s letter is featured on page 385.)

• Last Game at Ebbets Field. On page 375 is a ticket for Sept. 24, 1957—the Dodgers’ last game in Brooklyn. Organist Gladys Gooding, known sometimes to greet the umps with “Three Blind Mice,” had entertained the fans at Ebbets Field from 1942 through this final game. (Interestingly, the Dodgers had the first organ in MLB.)

In addition to narrating Dodger history—and MLB history—“through the lens” of the thousands of baseball tickets that Dan has collected over the years, Before and After Jackie Robinson is a chronological cavalcade of culture, history, leadership, management, the art of the deal, fundraising, real estate management, civil rights, the economy, advertising, finance, and so much more. (In 1919, a war tax was added onto U.S. professional sporting event tickets priced at 40 cents or more to help fund the $25 billion budget for World War I.)

10 LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES. Only Dan Busby could carve out 10 leadership principles (with commentary) in a book about baseball! He lists 10 favorites, including:

“Leaders know that fundamental decisions must always allow for the changes that inevitably come.” Busby adds, “When Ebbets Field in Brooklyn was constructed in 1912-13, Charles Ebbets made a major planning decision. He assumed transportation would always be by trolley in Brooklyn and/or he thought automobiles were just a passing novelty.” (Oops!) More leadership insights:
• “Leaders know that dwelling on negatives is counter-productive.” (In 1938, Larry MacPhail became the GM. “He joined a sinking ship.”)
• “Leaders keep their eyes on the goal during tough times.”
• “Leaders briefly enjoy honors but quickly return to accomplishing what will become their legacy.” (“Little did Jackie know that black parents would soon name their children, boys and girls, after him.” And this: “Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played; Jackie Robinson changed the way Americans thought.”)
• “Leaders are willing to accept criticism.”
• “Leaders know that hearts can change.”
• “Leaders Innovate! Innovate! Innovate!” (Examples: Lights for night games and radio broadcasts with Red Barber.)
• “Leaders focus on big issues but they don’t ignore the small ones.”
• “Leaders take calculated risks.”

“Leaders recognize the power of God” is Busby’s tenth leadership principle. “More than a pastor to Jackie, [Rev. Carl Downs] became his close friend. With his help, Jackie understood that faith was not only about praying; it was also about struggling daily to overcome social injustices. Jackie started praying each night before he went to sleep. When he reached the Major Leagues, Robinson developed a nightly ritual of praying and kneeling at his bedside. ‘It’s the best way to get closer to God,’ Robinson said, and then he added with a smile, ‘and a hard-hit groundball.’”

Last year I resolved to venture out into the fertile fields of other disciplines (see my Mistake #3: “Reading Too Narrowly—Stuck in My Lane”) and while I so appreciate leadership and management insights, I’m becoming an enthusiast for a wider lifelong learning journey. Dan Busby’s book checks all of those boxes—and more! Play ball!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Before and After Jackie Robinson, A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by Dan Busby.

BONUS BOOK! Dan Busby is also the author of Before and After Babe Ruth: A Story of the New York Yankees Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes (see below).  

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Before and After Jackie Robinson features dozens of quotable quotes you’ll share with friends, including this one from announcer Harry Caray, following Game 7 of the 1955 World Series: “As if carrying a personal crusade, [Jackie Robinson] succeeded in breathing life into a Dodger team which from the start of this Series seemed destined for the embalmer.” While your organization probably preaches “There is no ‘I’ in team”—are you intentional about recruiting those gifted men and women who can be catalysts for breathing new life into your programs, products, and services? 

2) While baseball is serious business to many—it’s also highly entertaining and Before and After Jackie Robinson is loaded with memorable ideas for the Hoopla! Bucket. Abe Stark was 22 when he opened his clothing store. In 1924, his big sign in the outfield at Ebbets Field “…offered players a suit of clothes if they could hit the sign with a fly ball.” Many did! Does your organization have the right mix of fun and hoopla! for your team members and customers?  

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Before and After Babe Ruth
by Dan Busby

In the 1950s, Dan Busby began collecting World Series programs (the mail order company attached actual World Series tickets!). Inspired, Dan upped his game and in 1962 began collecting opening day tickets from every major league baseball team. This ticketologist now consults with the National Baseball Hall of Fame concerning memorabilia acquisitions. I tell friends, “Dan is in a league of his own—he’s a walking Wikipedia!”

Before and After Babe Ruth: A Story of the New York Yankees Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes (2018) is a gorgeous coffee table book that features baseball tickets and season passes on every page—and the remarkable colors, shapes, sizes, fonts, and advertising (yes—advertising was alive and well in the early 1900s) are outdone only by the page-turning narrative on owners, managers, players—Babe Ruth, of course—and Yankee and MLB history, in all its virtues and vices. You can’t put it down! Click here to read my review.

For more on Busby’s fascination with baseball, visit his Baseball Ticket Man website and his YouTube channel of short videos.
 
P.S. And for my fellow Chicago Cubs fans (I endured 21 winters in Chicago, but some wonderful days at Wrigley Field)—just a reminder that we won the World Series in 2016 (on my birthday!). Click here to read my review of The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci. 

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For the Umps and Us! Read Why We Argue and How to Stop: A Therapist’s Guide to Navigating Disagreements, Managing Emotions, and Creating Healthier Relationships, by Jerry Manney. The author’s counsel: “…practice not going to every argument you’re invited to.” Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Dan Busby writes that leaders “innovate, innovate, innovate!” If you’re singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but no one’s coming—it may be time for fresh innovation.  We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

Paradise Found: A High School Football Team's Rise from the Ashes

Issue No. 526 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a contender for my 2022 book-of-the-year honors. (It’s a poignant page-turner.) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”


The Paradise High School football team after the Nov. 8, 2018, devasting fire: “The first workout since the fire was filled with a bunch of kids with no sweats, no cleats, and no chance.” (No way!)

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No. No. No Way. (Way!)
Last week, after reading the prologue and the first chapter of Paradise Found—I couldn’t put it down. Literally. Even though I’m “retired” (whatever that means), I took the day “off”—and read the book in one day. Never done that before.

Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke has gifted us with a stunning book, Paradise Found: A High School Football Team's Rise from the Ashes. On Nov. 8, 2018, the friendly folks in Paradise, California, watched their town burn to the ground at the rate of 80 acres per minute. The devasting toll:
   • 84 lives lost!
   • In a day, the population dropped from 26,800 to 2,034!
   • 20,000 burned-out cars, 19,000 homes lost!

Of the 104 football players, 95 of the Paradise High School Bobcats had lost their homes. A playoff game for the next night was cancelled. Coaches, athletes, faculty, students, and parents—lives and futures in total disarray. Could the town and the team recover? No way.

Paradise, a mountain village in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (90 miles north of Sacramento and 12 miles east of Chico), was also the home of the right person at the right time: Head Football Coach Rick Prinz. A former youth pastor with a master’s degree from Biola University, he discovered his calling was coaching. 

Bill Plaschke’s narrative launches like a James Bond movie. You’re in those cars and trucks fleeing the fires—nearby propane tanks are exploding while students arrive at school and parents arrive at workplaces. What to do? For many:
   • No time.
   • No time to return home and pack.
   • No cell phone connection to family members.
   • No carpool lane—jammed, bumper to bumper traffic. Chaos!
   • No escape route—heavy, suffocating smoke.
   • No chance to get gas. Yikes.
   • No way.

But earlier that morning, before the panic and evacuation, Coach Rick Prinz was still hopeful. At 8:10 a.m., he texted the varsity team that football practice would still begin at 3:00 p.m. No way.

In a flash, everything changed and—trust me—you won’t skip a page in this page-turner. Eventually, some families moved to San Diego and to Arizona and some to nearby Chico—but snagging even a modest apartment was nearly impossible. Could the team and the town recover? Would there be a 2019 football season—perhaps a revenge/redemption mission? No way.

But…the coach with the calling prayed. And in borrowed buildings and a distant hope and more prayer, the high school rose from the ashes: Paradise Found. Kinda. The powerful themes in this breathtaking account prompt both hallelujahs and tears. (Last week, I tried to read several poignant paragraphs to my wife, Joanne. No way. Too choked up.)

Fast forward to February 2019 and the school’s new location in an industrial warehouse in Chico. However. “Once school restarted…many of the teens drifted away or just plain disappeared. They couldn’t take the ninety-minute drive from some distant town where they lived in some tiny mobile home. Some of them moved out of state. Some of them couldn’t get out of bed.” Most lived within a three-hour radius of the new school location “…in a variety of accommodations—apartments, trailers, rental homes, hotels—that were paid through insurance or life savings. The players were everywhere and nowhere.”

In 2018, the varsity squad was 76 strong. Now…just 22 showed up—“exactly enough for one offense, and one defense, with no subs.” The first varsity football practice landed on a borrowed vacant lot next to the Chico airport. 

“The ‘field’ was a weed-choked lot filled with rocks and trash, food wrappers and soda cans, and giant holes next to piles of dirt. ‘Football’ was also a misnomer, as most of the kids were wearing old blue jeans and casual shoes. Even if they had gear, there was no place to dress.” The author adds, “The first workout since the fire was filled with a bunch of kids with:
   • no sweats,
   • no cleats,
   • and no chance.”

Honest…when their first practice began—you guessed it:
   • No football!

But…maybe hope could eke out. The San Francisco 49ers invited the team to their Nov. 12, 2018, Monday night game against the New York Giants. After a three-hour rickety bus ride to the game, those tired, disheveled young athletes emerged into the cold air (low 40s) with no coats. “They didn’t forget them; they simply didn’t have them anymore. Their winter clothes had burned up in the fire.” (No way! The Bobcats athletic director “swooped to the rescue” with a box of mismatched Paradise sweatshirts “pilfered from the student store earlier that morning.”)

Not the 49ers, but the Paradise football team was cheered by the 69,409 fans that night. Eli Manning’s team beat the 49ers in a heartbreaker, 27-23. “…but the Paradise Bobcats didn’t care. They knew loss, and this wasn’t it. This was relief. This was escape.” 

Invited to appear on the postgame show, the players met “a tearful Jeff Garcia, a retired quarterback who’d been the franchise’s field general in the early 2000s.” He, like them, had experienced being “a tough kid in a small town.” So Garcia gently inspired them to rebuild and “…rally the troops and rally the town, right? Rally the town!”

Coach Prinz and the team wondered, “Rally the town? But didn’t they need a place to sleep first?” And suddenly…a bigger challenge emerged, perhaps a movement. “Rally the town!”

And so with prayer and persistence (did I mention prayer?), the former youth pastor now head football coach began strategizing both the plays and the process for the rebirth of Paradise.

At the Green and Gold intrasquad scrimmage (public invited), two weeks before the fall opener, “…a recording of singer-songwriter Phillip Phillips took over, the wistful sounds of his song, ‘Home,’ playing over the public address system.” Listen here.


Powerful! Phillip Phillips sings, “Just know you’re not alone, ‘cause I’m gonna make this place your home.” Listen here.

One reviewer called this book, “Friday Night Lights meets Unbroken.” My summary: “If you appreciated The Boys in the Boat—and the stunning master class on teamwork—you won’t stop talking about Paradise Found.” Could this be my 2022 book-of-the-year? (Stay tuned.)

The leadership moments in virtually every short chapter are beacons of hope, such as the players’ commitment ceremony: “…the annual Prinz ritual in which each kid stands in front of the group and states his personal goal, team goal, and character goal for the coming season. They write down these goals on cards, which Prinz saves.”

But in 2019, there’s a twist: “When the players finished their commitments, the coaches took over the microphone. They’d also filled out cards. In past years, their part in the ceremony had been subdued. But this year was different. This year they turned the simple declarations into sermons.” A young assistant coach affirmed, “I’m proud to be part of this history that’s going to happen. This program is a huge part of rebuilding this community. I take it not as a burden but as an honor.” Whew!

Another coach wore sunglasses to hide his emotions. His words punctuated the moment: “I feel like God chose us.” Powerful!

I’ve read hundreds of Plaschke’s sports columns in the L.A. Times over the years and he never disappoints (read the tribute to his Mom). Ditto this book. Plaschke masterfully weaves the sobering survival stories of players, coaches, and cheerleaders into, over, and around the team’s 2019 season. (Spoiler alert: the Bobcats were a very good team!)

You must read this book—and when you do, watch for these gems:
   • SLOGANS. The team slogans: “CMF: Crazy Mountain Folk” and my favorite, “We Just Hit People!”
   • SKILLS. The athletic director’s persuasion skills in cajoling other football teams to compete against the Bobcats. (Lose/Lose: If other teams beat the up-from-the-ashes Bobcats, that’s not a good look. If other teams lose, it will look worse!)
   • SPEECHES. The incredible, inspiring, and uplifting pre-game and halftime speeches by Coach Prinz and other coaches and the traditional “Glory Hill Run” with the motivational talk about Cortés and the 1519 conquest of Mexico. “And here the players shouted from the bottom of their ragged shoes to the top of their donated T-shirts: ‘Burn the ships!’”
   • STADIUM. Returning (amazingly) to their own stadium for their first home game (on new grass!) with 5,000 ecstatic fans, yet...no restrooms (Porta-Potties only).  And no full marching band (just half-the-size with three tubas, a lonely trumpet, the band instructor on the drums—and only 14 other instruments!)
   • STILLNESS. The pregame team prayers (did I mention prayers?)
   • SHE! Read how coach Prinz inspired and encouraged a trainer’s assistant to try out for the field goal kicker position. She (yes, she) earned the job—after following Coach Prinz’s contrarian counsel.
   • SPIT. The “Paradise Medical Plan” vs. the Immediate Care Plan. Injured? Don’t go to Immediate Care—you’ll be out for two weeks. Instead see our trainer: “Us mountain boys, we put a little mud on it, a little spit on it, and we go back to work.”
   • SCARS. Must-read: the 21 quotations, from John Milton’s Paradise Lost—appetizers for the meat to follow in every chapter including, “Purge off this gloom, the soft delicious air, to heal the scar of these corrosive fires.”

And the cheerleaders! Oh, my. “In some ways the Paradise cheerleaders faced greater challenges than the players did. They had to stifle their anger and stomach their personal losses while putting on smiles for a town that desperately needed smiles.” The senior cheerleading captain, while running for her life on Nov. 8, dashed back into her house to retrieve her cheer uniform. 

At games, she led the cheers: “Circle up, P-Town, you know, you know; P-Town, the green and gold…” and the captain “shouted those words as if they were Scripture” and “clung to those words as if they were salvation.” Hope found? No way! Way!

Wow! I can’t imagine that any other book could so captivate my heart and mind for an entire day. I couldn’t put it down. Maybe Paradise Found touched those warm and raw emotions when I earned my varsity letter as #35 on Seattle’s Queen Anne High School football team (ACL injury and all). Or maybe…it was the sometimes rough “locker room” language? (Warning: the author quotes people verbatim, yet my Baptist values gave the crude vocabulary a pass. What angry words would I spew in similar circumstances?) But…maybe it was the praying. A plethora of prayers.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Paradise Found: A High School Football Team's Rise from the Ashes, by Bill Plaschke. Listen on Libro.fm (8 hours, 2 minutes). 



P.S. BREAKING NEWS! Read more about this devasting fire in the article, “Inside the Investigation," in the Aug. 27, 2022, edition of The Wall Street Journal. “The fire was entirely out of control. At its fastest, it engulfed the equivalent of 80 football fields a minute, by some estimates. As the evacuation process began, thick black smoke took on the hellish orange hue of the flames. Escape routes became choke points, lines of cars inching along melting asphalt.” (Excerpted from the new book, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid,” by Katherine Blunt.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) High school football coach Rick Prinz was the right person at the right time. A former youth pastor, he discovered his calling in coaching—and he embraced it. Frederick Buechner (1926-2022) wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” How intentional are we in helping and inspiring our team members to embrace their callings?

2) CRISIS BUCKET EXERCISE! Oh, my. Most of your staff just lost their homes and their possessions in a horrific flood. Your entire office is underwater. You’ve assembled the team on high ground to assess, plan, and bring comfort. With no time to prepare (no way), you pull out your best motivational pep talk. Will it be adequate? Will it be enough? (It’s a little late to learn character in a crisis.) Are you ready?   

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From the YouTube interview with Bill Plaschke: “That’s crazy! How you gonna have a football team with no town?” Watch the entertaining interview with Bill Plaschke on the story behind the story of Paradise Found. (Click here for the 51-minute interview.)

Bill Plaschke chats about writing Paradise Found
What he learned from Coach Rick Prinz, his favorite column ever, Kobe and Shaq, the craft of writing, and his biggest fan—his mother! 

Fascinating! On Nov. 17, 2021, just after Paradise Found was published, Bill Plaschke was interviewed by Christian Stone, L.A. Times executive sports editor.

In addition to his color commentary on this unique writing project, Plaschke talks about his amazing 33 years with the L.A. Times, including 25 years as a columnist. (It’s a master class for writers and communicators.) And get this: already an experienced sports writer when he joined the L.A. Times team, the editors rewrote his story leads for Plaschke’s first eight articles! 

Listen to “Ask a Reporter” with columnist Bill Plaschke (51 minutes on YouTube). Click here. 

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Get Ready for Your Next Crisis! Read Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In, by Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen. Why? Patrick Lencioni urges, “Every leader and manager needs to read this.” Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Prepared for your next crisis? You’ll need more than a clever slogan. Is your communication contingency plan in place to bring hope to your team and your constituency?  We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

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

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

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


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

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2 CONTRARIAN BOOKS ON THINKING!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strategy Quartet - Summer Shorts on Strategy

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


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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

If I were on your team—I’d pick The Crux to read and report on. Hot-off-the-press. Fascinating. Practical. Witty. Humble. (Even some mountain climbing references—per the author’s personal experience.) Using real life consulting examples (names have been changed, of course), Rumelt also shares what he learned from clients and from Donald Rumsfeld in 2004, then U.S. Secretary of Defense. (Read my review of Rumsfeld’s  Rules.)
 
Rumsfeld believed leaders were neglecting a key element—the need for a coherent strategy. When Rumsfeld asked Rumelt if his academic colleagues had fixed that problem, Rumelt admitted they had not. The professor’s plan: “Basically, you put a small group of smart people in a room and see what they come up with.” (See Chapter 18, “Rumsfeld’s Question.”)

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

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



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

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

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

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

If someone on your team enjoyed reading/viewing other business novels (graphic-type) such as The Goal and StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad, they will love this illustrated edition.
 
BARITONE:
[  ] #3. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter). Click here to order from Amazon.



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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General

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


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

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Bill Barr on Malice or Stupidity!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#5. CHIEF OF STAFF/LION TAMER. Barr notes that Trump’s fourth chief of staff, Mark Meadows, would sometimes take the heat for helping Barr and Cipollone protect the DOJ from “the President’s frequent bad ideas or his impulsive mistakes.” So what’s the job description of the chief of staff? “Before the election, Mark’s job was like a high-wire act; after Trump’s defeat, he was like a lion tamer without a whip and chair.” (Resource: read Rumsfeld’s Rules and his description of the job as “javelin catcher!”)
 
#6. MEMORABLE METAPHORS. My opinion: outstanding leaders have a steady supply of metaphors and well-crafted labels for describing challenging and complex issues. Barr is a master at this. When arguing with the Treasury Department that ATF (not a revenue source) belonged in the DOJ, Barr told Treasury Secretary Nick Brady (during Bush 41’s term), “Things that go Clink belong to you; things that go Bang should belong to me.” (Hilarious!) Other memorable metaphors and wordcrafting:
   • “Hissy Fit” (Really…someone emoted inappropriately in our government?)
   • Space Cowboys (the Clint Eastwood movie about geriatric astronauts): a moniker the younger DOJ staff assigned to Barr and two of his senior team members!
   • Bamboozled: “Yet the FTC, bamboozled by economic mumbo jumbo, approved the acquisition.” (See the “Taking on Big Tech” chapter—brilliantly written.)
   • Alligators: “Getting [Trump] to accept good advice was like wrestling an alligator.” And when asked how he felt beginning his first term as the AG, Barr commented, “Like I’m about to run across a river on the backs of alligators.” 
   • Skunk Works: Barr assembled a "skunk works" of key players to create “a specific plan of action to step up the fight against the Mexican cartels.” (See more about skunk works in the book, In Search of Excellence.)

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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