Category Archives: Leadership

Posted on

Accountability is the Free Gift That Moves You Forward

Accountability is a free gift that is certain to move you forward. I’ve always known that. But I’ve come to know it even more acutely ever since my wife, Tammy, has taken up running. The two of us spent significant time this January setting goals by following Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever. One of the goals we both set had to do with our health and fitness. Tammy decided that she would be more committed to her running schedule, and would use the 7-Minute Workout app on her phone to do some strength training.

New York Runner

I gave up running years ago when I found it much more efficient and pleasant to get exercise on my bike. But when things turned “colder” here in Florida for a significant period of time, I decided to give running another try. Not only that, but I also committed to doing the 7-Minute Workout to supplement my non-existent strength training.

In order to accomplish all this I needed some accountability. Accountability is a free yet valuable gift. I built two kinds of accountability into my health and fitness goal for 2016:

  1. I put together a checklist. My checklist helps me track at least four cardio workouts each week, and at least three 7-Minute Workout strength training workouts per week.
  2. I used my wife’s activity to motivate my own. I’m competitive by nature, and every time I see her step out the door I have to do it myself. I have to keep up. I have to make sure I’m doing what she’s doing.

So how’s it going? I have begun to regain my (very slow) running form. I’m finding that running/jogging is a great cool weather activity. I also feel like, in a shorter period of time, I’m getting better exercise than I get on my bike. But don’t think I’m going to give up my bike any time soon. My running regimen has given me better cardiovascular strength when I’m on my bike. Even more, the 7-Minute Workout has made me stronger in muscles I don’t use on my bike, and it’s helping strengthen my core. That’s a key for my (sometimes) bad back, and for better biking.

An accountability partner in any goal is a free gift that keeps on giving. When someone else holds you accountable it’s much more difficult to give up when the going gets tough. In fact, a friend came into my office today after she committed to a year’s worth of good health as she follows the direction of a personal trainer. She said, “I told my daughter that if I ever don’t want to go to the gym, force me out the door.”

When you’re setting your goals, make sure to build in some kind of accountability. You will be much more likely to achieve what it is you set out to do. An accountability partner will provide help, motivation, and inspiration. And you, in turn, may just be providing motivation to the one who’s doing the same for you.

What provides accountability for you as you strive toward your goals?

Posted on

How Humans of New York Is Teaching Freedom from Weakness, Fear, and Need

Humans of New York is the brainchild of Brandon Stanton, a photographer who moved to New York City and began taking pictures of people, interviewing them, and posting it all on social media. Humans of New York is a revealing slice of the human condition. In the daily posts you can see the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. It’s a way to understand people, sympathize with them, and even question them. As a pastor, I can tell you that Humans of New York is not only fodder for sermons, it also helps me in the important work of understanding our culture and the way people live and think.

Recently the focus has moved from the streets of New York to prisons and prisoners. As the prisoners are interviewed it becomes clear that people don’t often set out to be criminals. They are often imprisoned before they even get to jail. Many find themselves captive to weakness, fear, and various kinds of need. Just listen to their words:

Humans of New York Prisoner

“I tried to make some money the honest way as a kid. I tried shoveling snow. I tried a newspaper route. I stuck with it for awhile, but one day I was collecting money on my route and these older kids robbed me. There were three of them. They were 16 or 17. I fought hard. I told them: ‘I worked hard for this money.’ But they held me down and took it anyway. It was $27. And that made me feel so powerless. And I remembered that I knew someone with a knife. And I thought: ‘I’m going to steal that knife and deal with this firmly.’ I found those boys at an arcade. Nobody got killed. But I hurt them. I wouldn’t say that I felt proud after stabbing them, but I felt like they got what they deserved. I felt vindicated. Even today, I have trouble sympathizing with them. It’s funny how that works. When someone wrongs us, we want the maximum amount of punishment. But when we do wrong, we want the maximum amount of understanding and forgiveness.”

Humans of New York Prisoner 2

“I was working at a nightclub in Honduras, making $4 a night, and some guy tells me that I can make $6,000 in twelve days just by working on a boat. There weren’t any jobs in Honduras. We didn’t have government benefits like you have here. It’s really tough to say ‘no’ when there are no other options for money. So I agreed. They put me on a small fishing boat. We transported cocaine from Colombia to Honduras. My job was to maintain the vessel and help load the cargo. I’ve never done drugs in my life. On our fourth trip, we were stopped in international waters by the US coastguard. We had 986 kilograms of cocaine. That was ten years ago.”

Humans of New York Prisoner 3

“My mom was a single mom and there were nine of us. All of the kids worked in the fields. I started when I was twelve. We picked cucumbers, apples, corn, strawberries, all of it. None of us went to school. Nobody cared– if you move around a lot, the system loses track of you. Whenever the harvest was done, we’d go somewhere else. We always signed a contract. The farmers would give us a place to live and a little bit of money, and we worked in their fields. But there was never any money left when we finished. One day when I was eighteen, a friend of mine asked me to hide some marijuana in our trailer. He gave me a little money. I gave it to my mom. And that’s how it all began.”

There’s no question about it: these people features on Humans of New York have committed crimes and deserve the punishment that comes as a result. They show us where weakness, fear, and great need can lead. It’s a warning for all of us just how easy it can be to slip into the wrong places, become part of the wrong crowd, and fall to our own evil desires. But the other side of the story is that in some sense, they are victims of weakness, fear, and need.

The old saying is, “There but by the grace of God go I.” And it truly is God’s grace that keeps many of us from failing and falling, from making mistakes that could destroy us, from leading us down a path that puts us in either a literal or figurative prison.

More than that, these Humans of New York stories give me the desire to do things that will prevent these tragedies from happening in more lives. Here are some ideas I have:

  • Encourage kids to remain connected to church. Youth pastors are willing and able to pour their hearts and lives into young people.
  • Volunteer at a homeless shelter, and show that you care.
  • Donate (new!) items to those who really need them.
  • If you’re a business owner, give under-qualified people training that will help them qualify for well-paying jobs.
  • Show love to someone who really needs it.

I’m not saying any of these things would have prevented the above Humans of New Yor stories. But maybe, just maybe, they would prevent one person from living behind bars, making poor choices, or leading an unloved life.

What suggestions do you have?

Posted on

How a Trivia Team Taught Me Something Not So Trivial

I’ve been learning lately that trivia isn’t so trivial. Let me explain. The congregation I serve has organized our inreach and outreach around groups of people that we call JCC (Joy/Community/Christ) Teams. Joy Teams are centered around having fun and fellowship with people both inside and outside our church. Community Teams are centered around serving the community or serving the church in one way or another. Christ Teams are all the various Bible studies that we have on a weekly basis.

Trivia Time

The Joy Team that I have been leading is called “Trivia Time with pastor T.” We’ve been meeting every Wednesday at a local Irish Pub where sometimes as many as twenty teams gather to play the game. Teams are not limited in any way, even by size. It’s a good thing, because we’ve had as many as thirteen people on our team, which has been to our advantage. Some are members of our church. Others are not. The staff at the restaurant are getting to know us as members of Ascension Lutheran Church.

The last time we played our team bested seventeen other teams and took away the trophy with a perfect score (see picture above). The really cool thing about the way our team worked together was that we had such a diversity of age, we had both men and women, and we had people who obviously have various and sundry interests. The final question of the game had us put in chronological order these four things:

  • The movie Saving Private Ryan
  • Britney Spears’ hit single, Baby One More Time
  • Super Bowl XXIX
  • Justin Bieber’s birth

Our team scrambled to work together. Some remembered these events from their ‘tween years. Others of us remembered things from the memory of our more advanced years. The whole group gathered around me and argued the position of each event. I was able to hear in each person’s voice the certainty of their tone. Within the allotted three minutes we finally put the four things together in this order:

  • Justin Bieber’s birth
  • Super Bowl XXIX
  • The movie Saving Private Ryan
  • Britney Spears’ hit single, Baby One More Time

It was correct! That’s what we needed to complete a perfect game and take the prize.

More importantly, here’s what I’ve learned about playing team trivia that’s not so trivial:

  1. The camaraderie of the team has come from working toward a common goal. Everyone wants to win. The more competitive amongst us need to win (….don’t look at ME!). So everyone works together to reach that goal.
  2. Striving toward a common goal brings people together. Some of the people on the team had never met each other ever before. Now they are beginning to consider themselves friends. They look forward to being together each week.
  3. Diversity is our strength. It’s a blast to see people of various ages and backgrounds come together  and really enjoy each other’s company. The diversity has also helped us succeed.
  4. Outsiders are welcome. An informal and fun environment has allowed members of our church invite others to the game who are not members of our church. Every person has felt welcomed and has desired to come join us again.
  5. A non-threatening atmosphere outside of church has made people more apt to join us for worship. Some non-church members of the trivia team have not yet joined us for church, but have indicated some willingness to do so in the future. In their own time.

A game of trivia isn’t always so trivial. It can most certainly have lasting implications…maybe even eternal implications.

Where have you seen something fun have a not-so-trivial impact?

Posted on

The Not-So-Surprising Way God Creates Teams

It’s not very surprising how God creates teams that serve and work for Him. The ministry team and staff of our congregation recently held our annual planning and goal-setting session. In preparation for the meeting I had all the members of our team do the “How to Fascinate” assessment. This personality brand analysis identifies one’s own personality’s top advantage at work. It doesn’t measure how you see the world. It measures how the world sees you. It’s a completely different perspective.

Team

According to the How to Fascinate website: 

Your personality has one primary Advantage. It’s how you add value. It’s what makes you different and better. Think of it like a natural superpower. When you communicate using this Advantage, you earn more attention, and more revenue.

I thought it would be fun for each of the members of our team to discover the personality advantages of all of the other members. One by one we watched the video that described each Personality Advantage. Every single one was spot on. When each description was complete every single person in the room agreed that the description pegged that particular person.

  • I am “The Ringleader.” The Ringleader is marked by the terms Power and Passion. The Ringleader is seen as energetic and compelling in drawing people in, casting a vision, and getting people to buy into it. The Ringleader energizes others, sees the big picture, but needs help with follow-through.
  • Our Business Manager is “The Talent.” The Talent is marked by the terms Passion and Prestige. The Talent is expressive and a perfectionist. The Talent is engaging, passionate, and draws people in with personality.
  • Our Director of Media Relations is “The Quick Start.” The Quick Start is marked by the terms Innovation and Alert. The Quick Start executes plans with innovation. The Quick Start can find a new path. The Quick Start is detail oriented, prolific, and reliable.
  • Our Plant Manager is “The Authentic.” The Authentic is marked by the terms Trust and Passion. The Authentic is dependable and solid. The Authentic is dedicated to others. The Authentic is sincerely gentle and makes people feel at home.
  • Our Assisting Pastor is “The Mediator.” The Mediator is marked by the terms Alert and Trust. The Mediator is dedicated, punctual, and steadfast. The Mediator protects the status quo, is a practical and organized thinker, and protects others.
  • Our Volunteer Administrative Assistant is “The Intrigue.” The Intrigue is marked by the terms Passion and Mystique. The Intrigue is perceptive and selective about what parts of him/herself he/she wants to show. The Intrigue avoids delivering mixed messages by being both engaged and observant.
  • Our Choir Director is “The Coordinator.” The Coordinator is marked by the terms Alert and Passion. The Coordinator understands how people interact. The Coordinator motivates people, inspires a team, and keeps projects on track. The Coordinator takes a step-by-step approach to every goal.

Read that list again thinking about what it takes to deliver ministry and run a local church. Our team sat around the table in shock and awe as each short video described every person to a T. But as we sat there and thought about it a little more, we began to understand how uniquely qualified was every single person on the team for his or her position and vocation.

In other words, the team that sat around the table that day was no mistake. There is no question in my mind that God knew what He was doing when he put these people together as the servant-leaders of our local congregation. Each person has the gifts that uniquely qualify her or him for their own particular duties and tasks.

More than that, the gifts of each person complement the others on the team. There’s no way any one person on the team could deliver to our congregation all the gifts represented by the entire team. When this team works together our congregation is blessed in many and myriad ways. The team is a unit that brings care, comfort, service, and ministry to a wonderful group of God’s people who are members of His kingdom.

No human being could have as perfectly formed this team. God knows what He’s doing when He puts people in place to serve Him, His church, and the world at large. He knows what He’s doing when He gives gifts. If you think about it, it’s really not so surprising at all that God knows what He’s doing when He creates teams.

How have you seen God’s work in the teams that serve you?

Posted on

How Jim Collins Used a Crossed Out Sentence to Make Something Great

Jim Collins, author of the mega-bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, tells the story of how a crossed out sentence changed his life. For the last twenty-five years Jim Collins has written or co-written six books that have sold more than ten million copies, become a wildly sought after speaker, and an award winning teacher. But it all began with a crossed out sentence.

Hand with pen is writing " Business Plan" on transparent white board.

In 1988 Jim Collins was asked to teach a class on entrepreneurship and small business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was taking over for another prof who had taught the class previously, and was looking over the former prof’s syllabus. The syllabus said:

This will be a course on the mechanics and challenges of the new business venture entrepreneur and the small business manager.

On some kind of impulse, Collins crossed out the sentence. In its place he wrote this:

This will be a course on how to turn an entrepreneurial venture or small business into an enduring, great company.

As soon as he wrote it, Jim Collins thought to himself: I don’t know anything about that! He decided he’d better figure it out so that he could teach the class. Not only did he do that, but crossing out that sentence and rewriting it began 25 years of research and six best-selling books. It all came from discovering what it takes to turn a small business into an “enduring, great company.”

It got me to wondering how a change in thinking, or a crossed out sentence, might change the way I look at things. If I’m bold enough to cross out a sentence and rewrite it, using a concept I don’t yet know anything about, it could lead me into learning and discovering new things that could change my life, my family’s life, or even the direction of the church I pastor.

For instance, my wife, Tammy, and I are in the midst of creating and writing our goals for 2016. (I know we’re almost at the end of January, but…better late than never.) What I have discovered from writing down my goals is that I have figuratively crossed off notions that I’ve had in previous years. I have discovered that I haven’t been nearly bold enough in my goal setting. I’ve crossed out the weak goals of the past and replaced them with more audacious goals. Some of the goals I’m setting are going to stretch me far beyond my comfort zone. I will be forced to learn new things. I will be stretched in directions that will probably bring growth in ways that I never expected.

I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Try this:

  1. Write down five goals for yourself. Make sure they are SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
  2. Now re-write them, stretching yourself just enough to make you uncomfortable. For instance, set a deadline that’s sooner than you think you’d be able to do it. Or let the measurable aspect of the goal be more than you wrote down the first time around. Or write it so that it seems just a bit, a tiny little bit, beyond attainable.
  3. Read your goals once more and discover what new things you will have to learn, what new direction you will need to take, or which free time you will have to use to accomplish them.

Jim Collins grew an entire career and venture by crossing out a sentence. It’s simply another way of looking things. Crossing out sentences could lead to great creativity in discovering and learning new things.

What sentence will you cross out today?

Posted on

How to Supercharge Your Productivity This Weekend

One key to moving forward toward your goals is to supercharge your productivity every weekend. Not too long ago a friend asked me where I found the time, as a pastor, to do the amount of writing I do: the first draft of a book last year (now editing it), three blog posts every week, and producing a new meme that goes out by social media every day. My first response to him was that I have cut down on watching TV (except for when the Packers are on, and an occasional look at the national news), and added to my book reading.

Contemplate

The second thing I told him was that I try to supercharge my productivity every weekend. I see the “off” hours I have on a weekend (I have a church service every Saturday evening, and services every Sunday morning) as productive and creative times because things are a bit more relaxed, I can put together hours to work on things outside of my workplace items, and I have the opportunity do things that are different from the work week.

So here are the steps I take to supercharge my productivity every weekend:

  1. Date night. It all starts with Friday night when I don’t do any work at all. My wife, Tammy, and I reserve every Friday evening for our date night. We love to spend time together, and we love relaxing by going out to dinner, sometimes meeting friends, or walking down beautiful Park Avenue in Winter Park, Florida. It’s the one time every week that neither of us work and neither of us have to go to work the next day. A productive weekend begins with a time to relax and enjoy, reflect on the week, and look forward to what’s ahead. Even if you don’t have a “date,” Friday night can be a great time to relax and enjoy.
  2. Get a good night’s sleep. I never like to sleep the day away on Saturday morning, but I don’t get up at the crack of dawn, either. We don’t set the alarm, and we are usually up by 8:00 or sometimes a bit later. Every other day of the week we have to get early. I find it helpful to my productivity to get to it when I’m not tired. I know there are people out there promoting getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day of the week, but I’m not one of them. I think it’s important to have at least one day of the week when the alarm isn’t set. It puts me in a good frame of mind.
  3. Do things outside of the weekday routine. Weekends are a time to fill the creative tank. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. It can be doing a Target run, a bit of grocery shopping, a stroll around a farmer’s market, getting some exercise, or spending some time at a coffee shop. I find that these things get my mind flowing. Different and unusual environments mixed with a bit of relaxation are good for the creative juices. Don’t skip this step.
  4. Use blocks of time. You may think that since I have slept in a bit on Saturday morning and have run a few errands that I wouldn’t have time to get anything accomplished before I have to go to church on Saturday evening. It’s not the case at all. When we get home from errands or other things outside of our weekday routine, I’m happy, no…I’m inspired and anxious, to sit down and produce some “art” or do some serious writing. And though I’m pretty wiped out after church on Sunday mornings, Sunday afternoons and evenings are another opportunity to utilize a block of time.

You can supercharge your productivity every weekend, too. Set your mind to it. Have someone hold you accountable. Follow these steps. Make the time. You’ll be happy you didn’t fritter it away watching TV.

How do you supercharge your weekend productivity?

Posted on

Why New Goals Will Change Your Life

It’s a new year so it’s time for new goals. My wife, Tammy, and I have buckled down at the start of this year and are working on Michael Hyatt’s 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever. We’re right in the middle of it, so we haven’t finished yet, but on Day 1 we were coached to gain some clarity in our lives by doing away with cynicism that comes from past trials and failures, and taking note of the things for which we are grateful. In one session it made me think of new goals in ways I never had before.

Beauty smiling sport child boy showing his hand biceps muscles strength white isolated

What I’m really learning is the a new way of thinking and doing things propels us toward completing goals we previously thought impossible. This all came to light the other day when I decided to exercise with Tammy. Since my exercise of choice is bicycling, and since it was a bit cold by Florida standards, I thought it would be a good idea to run two miles and do the 7 Minute Workout App with her, like she usually does. Mind you, I haven’t run for about three years. If you see me running, it’s usually because I’m running away from something. I have a muscle condition that makes it difficult for me to run.

But run I did. I stepped out the front door with Tammy and started down the path with her. We hadn’t even gone a mile and my thighs began to burn. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “I exercise all the time. What’s the matter with me?” Needless to say, the muscles one uses for running, and ones used for biking, are completely different. Not to mention, I went out and attempted to run two miles without working my way up to it. I won’t be able to get up from writing this post because my muscles are so sore that they feel like they’re being stabbed by knives from the inside.

The more I thought about it, however, the more I decided that I should make a more regular habit of running and doing some strength training. It will help my biking. I will gain better lung capacity. I will be strong for longer rides. I will be less apt to injure myself. I will most likely lose weight more efficiently.

This new goal will change the way I exercise, the way I retain my health, the way I control my weight, and the way I feel about myself. This is just one example about a way in which new thinking regarding new goals will change your life. Do something different. As you’re setting or accomplishing your new goals, come at them from a different perspective and look at them from a different angle.

How are your new goals coming in this fresh, new year? Try assessing that question in this way:

  1. Are they SMART? All goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. If they aren’t, you can’t call them goals, and you most likely won’t reach them.
  2. Are you writing them down? Studies show that people who write down their goals have a much higher chance of accomplishing them.
  3. Will they stretch you? Are your new goals just a repeat of the ones you’ve had in the past, or are you stretching yourself and thinking bigger?
  4. What’s your motivation to keep going? How will you reward yourself when you hit certain milestones? Do you have someone to help hold you accountable? That’s what Tammy and I are attempting to do by working through Best Year Ever.
  5. How will you feel when you’ve accomplished these goals? Paint a picture in your mind or put an actual picture on your wall that shows what your goal will look like when you get there. For instance, if your goal is to get out of debt, cut out a picture of something you could pay for with cash once your debt is paid.

New goals will change your life, because they will put you on the path toward accomplishing things you never thought you could.

What strategies do you think are important in accomplishing goals?

Posted on

Why There’s No Such Thing as a Sure Thing

There’s no such thing as a sure thing. Just ask Blair Walsh. Walsh is the kicker for the Minnesota Vikings who was set to kick a field goal that was a “sure thing” with just 22 seconds left in a playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. A 22-yard kick for a professional kicker is a chip shot. They can make them in their sleep.

Field Goal

All Walsh had to do was make the chip shot field goal and the Minnesota Vikings would have won the game and gone on to the next round of the playoffs. To miss it would mean a heart breaking end to the season. But there was no way that could happen. This was, after all, a sure thing.

You could tell that the Seahawks had pretty much given up. All they could do was offer up a prayer, go through the motions of the play, and hope against hope that somehow, some way Walsh would inexplicably miss the field goal. Their entire playoff life rested on this one kick. They were all but making their golf reservations for Monday.

Blair Walsh missed a sure thing.

The ball was snapped. The holder set the ball down with the laces facing the kicker (a big no-no for a holder). Walsh took three steps. He kicked the ball.

The football flew to the left of the goal post. Walsh immediately knew he had missed it. He hung his head. The game ended. Walsh walked off the field all by himself. Later, he was interviewed by reporters and held up pretty well. He answered all the questions and took complete blame and responsibility.

Then he went back to his locker and sobbed.

Who could blame him? The hopes and dreams of a whole team, an ownership group, and an entire fan base who haven’t ever seen their team win a Super Bowl rested on him. And he missed what was supposed to be a sure thing.

But (outside of God Himself) there’s no such thing as a sure thing. This is a world filled with uncertainty. Just ask an investor. Ask a teacher. Ask a dieter. Ask a goal-setter. Ask a Minnesota Vikings fan.

There’s no such thing as a sure thing. But there are proper ways to respond when the “sure thing” fails, falls through, or ends up in a way that no one expected:

  1. Learn from it. If you’re not learning, you’re not living. Blair Walsh is certainly learning many lessons from this debacle. He will practice harder. He will know better how to deal with defeat when it comes along again. He will better know how to speak to reporters in both good times and bad.
  2. Don’t suppress your emotions. Blair Walsh, a grown man, was crying at his locker after his missed kicked ended his team’s season. Some may have criticized him for doing so, but no one could argue with the way he was feeling. After a life changing event, it’s OK, even recommended, to express one’s emotions. To suppress them, or hold them in, has the potential for doing damage to one’s own psyche. Let it out. Let it go. Don’t be afraid to be who you are and to express your emotions in a way that makes you feel better (within reason).
  3. Move on. There will come a point probably in the very near future, when Blair Walsh will have to move on. He can’t live under the cloud of this one missed kick forever. He will have to continue to earn a living as a professional football player for as long as he can. And when that’s no longer possible he will have to move on into another career or station in life. Life will go on. Blair Walsh will be a better person for it.

How would you respond if you missed what is supposed to be a sure thing?

Posted on

Are You Orbiting the Giant Hairball?

In the midst of a giant hairball is not where you want to be. Gordon MacKenzie makes that case in his book, Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. Mackenzie’s boss once used the term in a meeting of department heads at Hallmark Cards. His boss said, “This (department) is a giant hairball.” “What a disgusting term!” thought MacKenzie. But he reasoned that there is a time when a hairball doesn’t exist, so there has to be a place from which they come.

Orbit

He reasoned:

Well, two hairs unite. Then they’re joined by another. And another. And another. Before long, where there was once nothing, this tangled impenetrable mass has begun to form.

Over the course of Hallmark’s history, policies and procedures grew and grew. The more they grew, the bigger the policy manuals became, and the more gravity there was in the giant hairball. The whole organization had become a “tangled impenetrable mass.” And as the bureaucracy grew, creativity diminished.

MacKenzie later cherished working for the one division at Hallmark that retained a loose connection to the “hairball.” But that division was able to orbit around it just far enough away so that they didn’t get tangled up into it. They followed the basic rules, policies, and procedures of the organization, but they stretched and bent them far enough that they were able to retain true creativity and become the most profitable division of Hallmark Cards.

Rules may not always be meant to be broken, but a case can certainly be made that there are times they crush creativity. When things are too restricted, when there is no freedom, when thinking is “inside the box” rather than outside of it, it’s tough to come up with new ideas, it’s difficult for new pathways in the brain to form, it’s hard to make things that are risky.

Here are a few suggestions for avoiding the giant hairball:

  1. Respect the rules of your organization, but don’t let them stifle you. Find loopholes. Look for ways to stretch the rules. Band together with others frustrated by the corporate culture (but do it in a way that brings value to the organization). The people in MacKenzie’s division of Hallmark went on tangents that fueled their creativity, but their boss would, “with his own unique brand of gravitational pull, transform our tangents into Orbits, allowing us to travel paths related to the system…but not of the system.”
  2. Discover ways to become indispensable to your organization. Make your own job secure by learning and doing things no one else can do. Become what Seth Godin calls the “linchpin.” The more value you bring, the more difficult it is for the organization to exist without you. Gordon Mackenzie brought so much value to Hallmark Cards that later in his career he was asked to train new hires in his own creative way.
  3. Don’t let your own tactics and procedures become a new hairball. MacKenzie was once asked to run a seminar for Hallmark’s new creative managers called “The Creative Manager.” He changed the title of the seminar to “Grope,” and used it to train managers to handle the many off-the-wall experiences they would face as supervisors. There was no structured agenda, their was much confusion, but the problem-solving that came out of the workshop was off the charts. Unfortunately, the next two times MacKenzie led the workshop, he just pulled out his old file and ran it again according to the first time he had done it. The results were less than stellar. He had created his own hairball. From there on out he allowed agenda-less, creative problem solving reign.

How do you avoid becoming a part of the giant hairball?

c7b26f6b766a316dcf2cf0ce464c2e40a6406e80e6102265a8

Posted on

3 Questions to Ask as You Start a New Year

Happy New Year! You’ve made it. The past year is but a memory. The new year is but a baby. You finished last year strongly by reflecting, retracing, readjusting, reaffirming, and reconciling. You’re set to go; set to hit the ground running; set to get off to a fast start…

…Or are you? Whether you’re stumbling into the new year, rudderless heading into the new year, or fired up to get going, there are three good questions to ask yourself as you kick off the new year. Grab a pencil or pen, a piece of paper, and a cup of coffee, tea, or soda.

Happy new 2016 year card. A girl standing on a beach, watching the sunset, standing as a part of 2016 sign

Now ask yourself these three questions:

  1. Where do I want to go? If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there. I love the Waze app GPS for my car because it helps me get to places with which I am unfamiliar. I’ve lived in Orlando for three-and-a-half years now, and am still having trouble getting around. It’s a big city. It takes time to learn roads and communities. I could spend all my time getting lost…or I could get precise direction that helps me arrive with an economy of time. Waze knows where I am starting and where I want to finish. That’s the key for my personal life, too. As I enter the new year, I want to know where I am going, so I’m going to set my personal GPS to a number of different “places.” These “places” will be my specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals. How do high achievers set and accomplish goals? Check out this FREE PDF that shows you how. Take a moment right now to write down your goals for this year.
  2. When do I want to get there? When I have an appointment I always want to make sure I arrive on time. I’m funny like that. I can’t stand being late. I often have people comment on my timeliness. So I put the address into my Waze app and find out how long it will take me. Then I leave with enough time in order to arrive in a timely manner. I want to do the same thing as I set my goals for the new year. If I don’t set a deadline, a specific date when I want to accomplish my goals, they will pass me by. That happened to me this past year. I didn’t set a deadline to finish the first draft of a book I’m writing. In the end it took me longer than it should have. I have learned my lesson. This year I will arrive on time. Take a moment right now to write a deadline next to each of the goals you wrote down.
  3. How am I going to arrive? When I head to an unfamiliar place, I need to know how I’m going to get there. That’s how my Waze app really helps me. It gives me turn by turn directions. It even warns me of speed traps, hazards on the road, and construction zones. When I set my goals for this new year I’m going to make a plan. To the best of my ability, I’m going to map out my direction for each goal. I’ll try to foresee hazards and bumps along the way so that I can try to avoid them. I’m going to give myself “turn by turn” directions in the form of steps that I will need to take in order to accomplish each goal. I’m going to map it out so that I know how I’m going to arrive. Take a moment right now to write down the steps you will take to achieve your new goals.

If you want some really great help in making this your best year ever, join me as I follow Michael Hyatt’s goal setting program called “5 Days to Your Best Year Ever.”

What questions will you ask as you start the new year?