My article at the Catalyst website, which is an excerpt from my upcoming book.
The article is in two parts. This is the first part, with the first five myths. The second part should be posted tomorrow or so.
(Update: Here’s part 2.)
Supplementing Good to Great
Jim Collins’ book Good to Great is widely regarded and used by businesses and non-profits around the world, and with excellent reason. I regard it as one of the most important books ever written.
However, understanding the principles of Good to Great is not enough — and I think Jim Collins would agree. This is because Good to Great is about taking a good organization and making it great. It’s about principles of excellence. As such, it does not focus on or go into detail on the basics of how to run an organization at all. It assumes those things. Its focus is the next level — namely, once you know those things, how do you take a good organization and make it great?
Let me say this again: Good to Great assumes you know the basics of how to run an organization. Hence, it’s not enough simply to read it or even implement it. You also need to actually understand those basics.
To get those basics, here are the three chief books I would recommend. Interestingly, the first two are about entrepreneurship, or starting an organization. They’re on the list because knowing how to start an organization familiarizes you with the basics of how to run an organization at all (even though the start-up phase is very different from the ongoing phases). The third, on the other hand, is about the central concepts you need to know for understanding and running an organization.
Here they are:
It is Possible to Stay on Top of Your Work!
As I wrote my book, I thought hard about the question of whether it is truly possible to stay on top of our work. Sometimes, there is so much coming at us that it seems like it actually might not be possible at all, and that the solution is to give up the hope altogether. Further, in one sense that solution can sound very “spiritual.”
There will always be times in our lives where the realities of the situation exceed our capacities. The process of writing the book was one for me. I simply was not able to keep up with all of my work during that time. If I had more money, I would have hired lots of help to keep my day-to-day non-book routines and actions in motion. But given the limitations I had, I often had to let my email and other tasks build up. I eventually got through them all, but it took a long time to catch up.
Extreme situations aside, it is indeed possible to stay on top of your work. This is our natural instinct to believe, and if we reflect on it a bit, we see that it is indeed correct.
For example, if I’m at McDonalds and the lines are going really slow, I don’t think to myself “well, it doesn’t matter; I’m just glad I’m able to get lunch at all.” Not at all. Unless there is a crisis, emergency, or other extreme need, that would be a truly horrible over spiritualization; a denial of the doctrine of vocation. I don’t have that mindset, and the manager of the restaurant, let alone the corporate offices, doesn’t have that mindset either. If things are going really slow and are held up, they find a way to fix it and resume their standard of providing fast service to people. That’s part of the reason they exist. If you look at most successful companies, they’ve developed systems that enable them to meet customer needs in a timely way. This is one of the callings God has given to businesses.
And if businesses are able to keep up with demand, you are able to, as well.
What I’ve found is that the key determinant in whether you are able to keep up with your work is whether you believe that you can keep up with your work.
If you don’t believe you can keep up with your work, then you’ll never be able to do it. But if you believe you can, you will be able to figure it out.
The challenge is this: the practices for keeping on top of our work are not widely known. Developing the capacity to keep up with things takes effort and creative thought. It doesn’t come automatically. But if you take the time to step back, retool, and learn the practices for managing your work effectively in the knowledge era, you can do it.
Though I didn’t start our writing this post with the intention of pointing to my book, one of the reasons I wrote my book is to help you with this. The book will be coming out in March, and hopefully you will find it helpful practices for getting on top of your work and, even more than that, an overall framework of thought for how to do all of your work, in every area of life, for the glory of God and good of others — which is, ultimately, the essence of true productivity.
If you’d like to keep up with plans for the book launch, receive any early excerpts, or otherwise stay in the loop on things, I’d love for you to be a part of things as we get ready for the launch. Subscribing to the blog would also be the best way to do that at this point, and I’ll have more details for how you can be involved down the road.
Using Iterative Scheduling to Navigate Complex Projects
In traditional project plans, you scope out the major pieces of work in detail and then carry them out in a very well defined, predetermined sequence.
Sounds great. But the problem is that this only works well in stable environments. In unstable, ambiguous environments of volatile change, these predetermined schedules continually get thrown off — resulting in frustration.
What’s the solution? Iterative scheduling. Iterative scheduling is based on the recognition that in complex environments, the information you need in order to make detailed plans for tasks beyond the immediate future is simply not available. The result is that, if you do make those plans, they will often be inaccurate. The only tasks for which detailed plans can be made are those tasks that are right before you in the near future.
Hence, iterative scheduling proceeds by planning in smaller buckets of work. You have a clear vision and goal towards which you are working, but you do not create detailed plans for the upcoming tasks further out in the future until the current tasks before you are completed. Only then will you have the knowledge you need to do that detailed planning, not only because the environment will be different once you get to that point, but also because completing those buckets of work itself changes things.
Detailed planning is great. But when you are in an ambiguous environment and find yourself unable to create those detailed plans, take heart that the problem is not with you. Rather, you just need to adapt your planning method to your circumstances. Keep the large goal before you, and then proceed in smaller buckets of work by planning in detail the tasks that are right before you, but resisting the temptation to get too detailed about the tasks beyond that until you finish those items that are right before you.
Crossway's Greek-English New Testament
A few weeks ago I posted on Crossway’s new Hebrew-English Old Testament.
It turns out that they now also have a Greek-English New Testament, which is perhaps even more useful, since Greek is a much easier language.
So, as I said regarding the Hebrew-English Old Testament, I say regarding the Greek-English New Testament even more:
If you went to seminary, made your way through your Greek classes and then forgot most of it, this is for you. You can start to recover a lot of the Greek you’ve forgotten by simply seeking to read the Greek naturally, in conjunction with the English to help assist your memory.
This, in turn, can perhaps build your habits and capacity to the point where you will want to dig even deeper to recover the Greek skills you’ve lost. But even if it doesn’t, simply reading more in the Greek, even with the assistance of the English, will in itself be of great help and use.
Here’s the summary from the Crossway site:
Combining Greek with the English Standard Version text, the Greek-English New Testament is an essential resource for students, pastors, and scholars who work with the Greek New Testament. On each spread, one page displays the Nestle-Aland Greek text, 28th edition, while the adjacent page contains the corresponding ESV text. Simply formatted and easy to use, the Greek-English New Testament will be an invaluable resource for anyone studying and working from the New Testament in its original language.
So, what are you waiting for? Go get it!
What's With This Militant Commitment to Mediocrity?
In several projects I’ve worked on over the last few years, I’ve noticed people going out of their way not to make the project great, but to make it mediocre.
It’s the strangest thing in the world.
I’ve even seen people undo important, great, accurate work and make it worse, when they could have just left it alone.
What is with this?
The strangest things is this: excellence is actually easier.
At least, it’s easier when the strange commitment to mediocrity is not there.
The main obstacle to excellence is not the effort it requires to be excellent. Rather, it’s the effort required to stand up against the strange folks in this world that seem to be utterly devoted to taking excellent projects and turning them into average.
As Churchill said, “The challenge is not winning the war. The challenge is persuading them to let you win it.”
Lecrae and the Doctrine of Vocation
This part of my series of posts on Catalyst 2013.
I loved listening to hip-hop artist Lecrae at Catalyst. He didn’t perform but rather gave his testimony. Interestingly, his testimony was about far more than his story — it was just as much about some core theological truths that are at the foundation of his life and faith. Especially helpful was hearing him talk about the role of the doctrine of vocation in his thinking (the truth that we can serve God in all areas of life, not just the “religious” sphere), though he didn’t call it that.
Here are a few of my key notes from his message in that vein.
“As Christians, we’ve tended to say of late that we just care about “religious truth.” Then we leave every other area of life to the world, and don’t seek to think about them in a Christian way. We’ve rejected the concept of total truth. We are refusing to think about _all of life_ from a Christian perspective.”
“We limit spirituality to salvation and sanctification. And so we are missing out on the opportunity to glorify God in every area of life.”
“This idea of this split was started with guys like Plato who thought there was a problem with matter. But we know that ‘the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.'”
“How dare I, after being redeemed, sit back and leave this world untouched.”
Q&A With Malcolm Gladwell
This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.
After Malcolm Gladwell was done with his message at Catalyst, there were a few minutes left so Andy Stanley did an impromptu Q&A with him on the book. It was incredible.
Here are some of the key points Gladwell made, without the questions (which I didn’t write down for some reason!).
Weakness: The Foundation of Innovation
David’s ability to win the battle begins with his weakness. That forces him to be creative and come up with an innovative strategy. This is the foundation of innovation. Being barred from the normal way of doing things and having to come up with a solution to the challenge.
Your obstacles and moments of weakness are your greatest opportunity.
I found that when I interviewed people for this book, when I asked them to explain their journey, they always started with an obstacle or weakness. No one ever said “when I was eight years old, I was given a million dollars.” You never hear that.
The Refusal to be Passive
Is there anything that demarkates the person who says “we aren’t going to let this stop us” versus the one who says “I give up”? David is remarkable by his refusal to be passive. And the second thing is, he is the only one who correctly understood the strength that his faith gave him. Just like the people in the village.
The Freedom to Fail
There is no question that the David position is a high-risk position. He had a very small target on Goliath, for example. We need to keep this in the back of our mind and be forgiving of those who have failed. Part of what gives people the courage to go up against Goliaths is the knowledge that if it doesn’t work, they can get another shot. This is essential to making this all possible.
Update on Catalyst Blogging
This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.
The wifi connection in the event center wasn’t so great, so I wasn’t able to post anything on Friday. I’ll be posting the rest of my notes throughout the day today.
For some sessions you’ll see I took a minimalist approach and took very few notes, in contrast to the messages I’ve posted on so far (Piper, Gladwell, and Stanley), which are more detailed. I think there’s value in both. The value in the shorter notes is that it is perhaps easier for the chief points to make their impact, since they are right there without much else. So, I tried to do that with some of the sessions.
Malcolm Gladwell: David and Goliath
This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.
Malcolm Gladwell’s message today was excellent and full of counterintuitive insight, as always. I’m very appreciative also that he chose to be here. With his new book out this week (David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Here are my notes.
Brad Lomenick (preisdent of Catalyst): “Gladwell could have been anywhere in the world today, and he chose to be here, with Catalyst.”
Gladwell: “It’s great to be back. I think this is my third time. It’s always a pleasure to come to Catalyst.”
Gladwell begins by retelling the story of David and Goliath, highlighting details we often overlook and pointing things out that we often don’t pay attention to.
Was David Really the Underdog?
David had a slingshot. Goliath was a heavy infantry. Most people favor the heavy infantry because of their size. But heavy infrantry–Goliaths–are sitting ducks for slingers. Slingers are quick and nimble. Goliath is large and slow.
Everyone was thinking David would be going up to fight hand-to-hand with Goliath, according to the heavy infantry model. Even Saul was assuming this when he tried to give David his armor. But David wasn’t planning on hand-to-hand combat. Why would he? He was planning on fighting with his sling.
“So we have a lumbering giant operating under a false assumption, and a nimble kid with superior technology and filled with the Spirit of the Lord. And yet we think of David as the underdog. Shouldn’t we think of the person filled with God’s Spirit has having every advantage in the world?”
Doesn’t the verse tell us not to look on outward appearances, but the heart, as God does? And if you look at the heart, isn’t David the favorite?
“We radically understimate the power of the heart.” [My note: Amen!!!!]
The Underdog Town that Stood up to the Nazis
Gladwell then tells the story of a town that famously stood up against the Nazis during WWII.
The most extraordinary story from the history of the town was when the false government that was opposing it and in league with the Nazi’s during WWII came with a large, complicated itinerary, and nothing went according to plan. The people in the town made sure the food at the banquet was really, really terrible. Half way through someone “accidentally” spills soup down the false government minister’s suit; no one shows up for the parade; a guy preaches on “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
Then the kids, talking to this senior minister from the fake government, reads a letter to him stating they are hiding Jews, and they will not turn them over.
The story of this town is famous for its resistence to the Nazis, and the incredible courage of the people who lived there, and how they were one in a million during a time when real courage and bravery were in dire need.
But the way the story is often told is misleading. There is nothing extraordinary about the people who lived there; they were simply people who had an accurate assessment of where power truly lies. They knew themselves. Most people would say “you versus the Nazis is a lopsided battle.” But they didn’t see it that way. They would have said “we have a whole bunch of weapons of our own.” Ex: half the year, the mountains were filled with snow, making it hard for the Nazis to hunt Jews. And there were all sorts of people willing to help hide the Jews. “Shouldn’t they have been concerned the Nazis would just obliterate the whole town?” The Nazis had bigger fish to fry.
But the most important weapon the people of the town had is that they had been through this before. 100 years before the Catholic church and ruthlessly persecuted the Protestants in the area. The Hugenot pastors were rounded up and murdered by the state, their children put in orphanages, the church was banned. They were forced to conduct all of their worship services in secret. But what did they learn during that process? How to band together, how to be strong, and most of all the power of their own faith. The French threw everything at them you can, and God protected them. So the Nazis came, and they were like “we’ve seen worse.” They were ready.
A woman tells the story of the first time a Jewish person came to her door asking for refuge. It never occured to her to say no, or that it would be dangerous. She didn’t think of herself as an underdog.
Now, here’s the question: There were millions of Christians in France during WWII, singing many of the same hymns, worshipping the same God. Why was this village the only one that gave refguge to the Jews?
Because the other Christians didn’t understand how powerful their faith made them. They thought they were underdgos. They looked at “Goliath” and said “there’s no way I can beat that guy.”
We under estimate the power of our faith, and that has real-world consequences.
If the millions of Christians had stood up against the Nazis, how many millions of Jews might have been saved? [My note again: Amen and well said.]
Misunderstanding Goliath
We not only misunderstand David; we also misunderstand Goliath. We think of him as this mighty warrior. But the Bible shows us that there are all sorts of things inconsistent with this notion.
For example, he has to be led down to the battlefield by an attendant. What? Why is that? And there is a mention of how slowly Goliath moves. That’s odd. Why is the writer of this account pointing out these things? Then there’s the fact that it takes Goliath so long to figure out what David is up to. Goliath sees David coming and is insulted. He shouldn’t be insulted, he should be worried. But he is oblivious to what is happening. And Goliath says “am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks [pluarl]?” But David didn’t have sticks. He had a sling. He had one stick, not two.
There is a growing consensus that Goliath was suffering from a disease of [My note: I can’t remember the term–I’ll call it Giantism]. And one of the symptoms of this is sometimes double vision, for example. This is likely why Goliath thought he say stick_s_ in David’s hands. And why was David led by an attendant to the valley floor? Because he couldn’t see well; so he needed a guide.
What people did not understand was that the very thing that made the giant so intimidating was actually the source of his greatest weakness.
The Key Point: You Are Not an Underdog
We live in a world full of Goliaths. But we need to remember two things. First, that giants are not always what they same. And second, that someone with nimble feet and the best technology who is filled with the Spirit of the Lord, is not an underdog.
(For more on Gladwell’s book, and to see the video of the TED talk he recently have on it, see my post on his new book.)