Issue No. 268 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a simple, but poignant 32-page book of photos and commentary from Dieter Zander and LaDonna Witmer. (Wow! ...times 10!) Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. And…if you missed it, here is a link to Issue No. 265 with my Top-10 book recommendations of 2012.
King of Cardboard and Spoils
A few days shy of five years ago, on Feb. 4, 2008, Dieter Zander, a pastor and friend, suffered a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of his brain.
He writes, “When I woke from my coma in the hospital six days later, my right hand was crippled and I could barely speak.” Now five years later, “a conversation that should take three minutes becomes an hour-long ordeal.”
Why might this be an important book for you to read? Consider Dieter’s headline:
“What Was Is No More.”
This book touched me. Frequently, when I leave home to join the road race that is the Interstate 5 Freeway in Southern California, I remind Joanne that this could be my last day. But (gulp)…I have never seriously considered that I might be invited to a middle destination between life and death—a debilitating stroke. This book rocked my well-planned world.
So I’d like you to consider reading A Stroke of Grace. You may not need it. My wife, Joanne, had an early dose of the middle track when she worked the bed pan shift at nursing homes during her college years. Bless her! I pray that wasn’t practice for her future caregiver role. (Gulp again.)
But if you do read this remarkable book with co-author LaDonna Witmer (who gives voice to Dieter’s mind and heart), you’ll see that Dieter divides his life into two buckets (and who doesn’t appreciate buckets?):
Bucket 1: Before the Stroke
Bucket 2: After the Stroke
Bucket 1: “Dieter the Star.” Talented musician, successful author, well-known minister and popular speaker.
Bucket 2: “No stage. No limelight.” No myth-making. No more preaching or leading people in God-honoring worship. (Platforms don’t warm to “bungling mouth” syndrome.)
Aphasia (the disturbance in formulation and comprehension of language) horribly interrupted Dieter’s life with what the book describes as “solitary confinement inside your own head.”
So what if this happened to you? Most of my readers are leaders—many well-known. Dare you take the time to read this? You already have dozens of books yet to read, people to inspire, sermons to preach, plans to execute—but what if this happened to you?
I urge you to read and reflect on Dieter’s journey. He’s found a new voice—photography. This coffee table quality book—32 stunning pages of Dieter’s photos along with LaDonna Witmer’s sparse, but poignant prose—will stop you in your tracks. Unless you have a cold-stone heart, the impact will shake your soul.
What if this happened to you? What if, as Dieter relates, your first job in Bucket 2 was as a school crossing guard? What if your current job was joining Dieter in the backroom at Trader Joe’s?
Dieter notes that Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy, defines kingdom as “a realm that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens.”
Then Dieter adds, “If I am the king of all I survey, then I am the king of cardboard and spoils.” His backroom job at Trader Joe’s: mopping the floor, baling the empty cardboard boxes for recycling, and sorting the food spoils for a local food bank. His life-lessons (he’s still learning) from Bucket 2 are unsettling and profound.
His walk with God (Bucket 1 vs. Bucket 2)? If you read this, it could touch you deeply and you will savor each day forward—as Dieter savors his new normal.
Because “out of sight is out of mind,” I plan to keep this book in plain sight on my desk—for a long, long time.
To order A Stroke of Grace, by Dieter Zander and LaDonna Witmer, go to Dieter’s page on the Etsy Store website.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Dieter says that after a day at Trader Joe’s, he arrives home and says, “It’s good today.” What changes must happen for you to join Dieter’s band and sing, “It’s good today.”
2) “I can’t talk with people very well,” confesses Dieter, “but God hears me. He talks to me.” God hears you too. So what is He saying to you?
Counsel for Hassled Managers - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in Chapter 4, The Drucker Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to follow Peter Drucker’s counsel: “practice, practice, practice the art of management.”
Drucker, the father of modern management, said management is like any other discipline. World class musicians hone their gifts up to eight hours a day. Athletes practice, practice and practice. Professional golfers finish 18 holes and head to the driving range. The top PGA golfers all have coaches.
What do hassled managers do? After the nine to five battle (more often 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.), they overeat, drink or distract their joyless days with mind-numbing entertainment.
The great managers, said Drucker, stay at it—always digging for fresh insights and solutions. He wrote,
“We now accept the fact that
learning is a lifelong process
of keeping abreast of change.
And the most pressing task
is to teach people how to learn.”
I suggest several ways to master the management buckets in the introduction to my book. To practice and execute the art of management, you must commit time and thought. Create your own disciplined process for mastering the 20 management bucket competencies.
Your plan might involve 20 days, 20 weeks, 20 months or 20 years (Lord willing). Just have a plan. Just do it! (And as you reflect on Dieter Zander's story, be sure to read Chapter 9 and the admonition: "Your work will never be done--so go home!")
For a link to more Drucker quotes (impress your colleagues) and four of my favorite must-read Drucker books, visit the Drucker Bucket on my Management Buckets website.
P.S. If you serve on a nonprofit ministry board, join Cameron Doolittle and me for the ECFA Webinar, Feb. 12, on "Results from the 2nd Annual ECFA Governance Survey."
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