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Structures and Systems in Low-Trust Cultures

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Stephen Covey describes these circumstances well in First Things First:

A low-trust culture is filled with bureaucracy, excessive rules and regulations, restrictive, closed systems. In the fear of some “loose cannon,” people set up procedures that everyone has to accommodate.

The level of initiative is low — basically “do what you’re told.” Structures are pyramidal, hierarchical. Information systems are short-term. The quarterly bottom line tends to drive the mentality in the culture.

In a high-trust culture, structures and systems are aligned to create empowerment, to liberate people’s energy and creativity toward agreed-upon purposes within the guidelines of shared values. There’s less bureaucracy, fewer rules and regulations, more involvement.

The Essential Companion to Your To Do List: A To-Don't List

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Good words from Dan Pink.

Here’s a key paragraph:

“It is the discipline to discard what does not fit – to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort – that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company or, most important of all, a life.”

Now, one qualification. I’ve seen people do this wrong — incredibly, horribly, terribly wrong.

The point is not about merely subtracting things. Some people get on this bandwagon and start chopping away, thinking they are being disciplined. They aren’t.

You need to get rid of the right things.

Lack of discipline is not merely doing a lot of things. It’s doing a lot of things outside of your hedgehog concept — the intersection of what you’re passionate about, what you can do with excellence, and (for organizations) what drives your resource engine.

I’ve seen people cut out a lot of great things that were inside their organization’s hedgehog concept and which there was staffing for, and the organization suffered. These people just didn’t know what they were doing. They got a hold of an important management concept, but they didn’t understand it rightly, and so misused it — to the organization’s detriment.

It is valuable to have a lot of things going on — as long as they are inside your hedgehog concept. The key to discipline is to stop doing the things that are outside of the overlap of those three circles.

Successful Careers Are Not Planned

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Peter Drucker, from his article “Managing Oneself” (pdf):

Successful careers are not planned.

They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person — hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre — into an outstanding performer.

A helpful resource that fleshes this out is Daniel Pink’s The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.

New from John Piper Next Month: Bloodlines

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John Piper’s latest book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, will be released September 30 and is available for pre-order.

Here’s a summary:

JOHN PIPER brings the light of the gospel to bear on racial issues in this groundbreaking book. Bloodlines begins with Piper’s confession of his own sins and experience with racial tensions, along with how God has been transforming him and his church. He enables readers to grasp the reality and extent of racism, and then he demonstrates from Scripture how the light of the gospel penetrates the darkness of this destructive sin. The book concludes with sections on what Jesus’s atoning death means for racial issues, interracial marriage, and prejudice. With great sensitivity and compassion, along with a careful reading of the Scriptures, Piper helps readers navigate the painful landscape of racial sin, showing that in the gospel we all have a common bloodline and that through the blood of Jesus, race and ethnicity become secondary for a common people of God.

Learn to pursue ethnic harmony from a biblical perspective, and to relate to real people different from yourself, as you take part in the bloodline of Jesus that is comprised of “every tongue, tribe, and nation.”

And here are a few endorsements:

“For years, I have yearned for a biblically sound, theologically anchored resource on race. God has answered that prayer. This is an important, foundational work and I am sure it will be used of God to remind all of us of the power and precious, priceless dignity of the gospel.”-  Crawford W. Loritts Jr., Senior Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell, Georgia; author, A Passionate Commitment

“John Piper has given us an exquisite work on the matter of race. He addresses the issue with biblical and theological soundness coupled with personal sensitivity and practical advice. This is a must read for those who wish to pursue unity God’s way.” – Tony Evans, Co-founder and Senior Pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship