Issue No. 132 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a wake-up call on character development, courtesy of an ex-con who learned defining life lessons from five years at San Quentin. It’s the perfect book for your staff meetings. And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Starbucks to Instant Folgers
“San Quentin dislodged my perception of the church as an institution and redefined it as a unified group of sinners who were so thrilled to be accepted by God that they accepted everyone who wanted to join them on the journey. Their emphasis was love, not rules; character, not attendance; spiritual fruit, not information retention.”
Caution! If you read this book, you might have a strange yearning for a prison experience. Bill Dallas had an extreme makeover—but not one of his own choosing. A high-roller in real estate, he ended up a convicted felon in California’s infamous San Quentin prison. His fall from Boy Wonder to Boy Whiner (including deep depression inside the walls) eventually became the impetus for a remarkable spiritual transformation. That journey was aided with massive help from the most unlikely of new friends: the Lifers at San Quentin.
I was intrigued that Dallas wrote the book with George Barna, wondering what shape and tone Barna’s research expertise would add. The duo delivered a seamless story and 16 short chapters on “Everything I Needed to Know About Life I Learned in Prison.” Dallas and Barna did not disappoint. How could you resist reading this?
The book and the life lessons grow on you as you dig deeper and reflect on your own life and the challenges your colleagues are facing. Could Dallas survive five years without Starbucks? He switched to instant Folgers, which he still drinks today on the outside. Eventually the rawness of prison life for “H64741” subsides and he begins to hear the voice of Jesus. In chapter 13 on making life simple, he writes, “Ironically, the problem with living simply is that it’s so complicated.” He quotes another Dallas, Dallas Willard, who counseled John Ortberg to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Not hard in prison. Very hard on the outside.
I noted five favorite chapters that would be perfect launching pads for a five-week “Lessons from San Quentin” staff meeting series: Embrace Your Trials, Get Rid of Self-Absorption, Shape Your Attitude, Give Respect, and Make Life Simple. On attitude, “Marriages are saved by partners who shift their attitudes. Jobs become tolerable when we change our attitudes about them.”
After reading chapter 15, “Life after Prison,” I had ruthlessly eliminated the need for my own prison experience and concluded that I could continue my spiritual and character pilgrimage on the outside. Gratefully. Amazingly, today Bill Dallas is the CEO of Church Communication Network (CCN), which serves thousands of churches across North America. As of this writing, Lessons from San Quentin is one of my Top-10 books for 2009.
To order this week’s book from Amazon, click on this title: Lessons from San Quentin: Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned in Prison, by Bill Dallas with George Barna.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) At San Quentin, Bill Dallas learned a simple, but stunning life lesson, “Listen when others speak.” (The Lifers modeled this behavior. They had the time and took the time to listen.) Think of someone on our team who is an excellent listener. What can we learn from him or her?
2) What part of your character would be severely tested if, for whatever reason, you ended up in prison for five years? How could you work on your character now, while you have the freedom to do so?
Eradicate the Dichotomy - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Operations Bucket, Chapter 17, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to affirm the high and noble calling of management and administration—and to eradicate the ironic dichotomy between leadership and management. After all, leaders must manage and managers must lead.
Romans 12:6-9, one of the classic texts on spiritual gifts, says in part, “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you . . . administrative ability and put you in charge of the work of others, take the responsibility seriously” (TLB). The Bible says that teachers should teach, leaders should lead and administrators should administer. It’s all about spiritual gift alignment. Yet somehow, the spotlight focuses on leaders and “internationally known speakers” and rarely (if ever) on managers and the gifted team members in operations.
Leadership and management—in truth—are inseparable. Olan Hendrix writes that “Leaders must learn to manage, and managers must learn to lead.” Unfortunately, we often use simplistic definitions and differentiations between the two that minimize the God-honoring work of management.
One of the worst statements I’ve ever heard is “Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing.” What CEO would stand in front of her staff and attempt to inspire team members with that management put-down?
In their book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy, a Fortune 500 company chairman, and Ram Charan, author and consultant, write:
“Lots of business leaders like to think that the top dog is exempt from the details of actually running things. It’s a pleasant way to view leadership: you stand on the mountaintop, thinking strategically and attempting to inspire your people with visions, while managers do the grunt work. This idea creates a lot of aspirations for leadership, naturally. Who wouldn’t want to have all the fun and glory while keeping their hands clean? Conversely, who wants to tell people at a cocktail party, ‘My goal is to be a manager,’ in an era when the term has become pejorative? This way of thinking is a fallacy, one that creates immense damage.”
Do you want exceptional execution in your organization? Then affirm the high and noble calling of management and administration—and set the bar high. Encourage and mentor people who are called by God to deploy the spiritual gift of administration.
For more resources, visit the Operations Bucket page of my website and download Olan Hendrix’s article, “Management That Leads,” and order the book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
CLA TeleSeminar With John Pearson on March 27, 2009
Join other nonprofit leaders, board members and pastors for a one-hour TeleSeminar on Friday, March 27, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time, hosted by Christian Leadership Alliance, on “Six Best Practices for More Effective Boards.” I’ll present six very practical tools you can use (and download) to improve your board governance practices and speed up board meetings. Visit CLA for registration details.
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