Monday, January 31, 2011

Victim of eliminationism? Will it drag you down or make you better?

Ask your ego.

When I was in college, I worked for a company that was owned by a brilliant keeper of power.

He was a self made millionaire type with an eighth grade education.

He learned somewhere along the way to keep power, you had to marginalize others to the extent necessary while still keeping them productive.

He, I think, suffered from hystrionic personality disorder, among other things, and when I say suffered: I mean suffered.  Most of the people who worked with him suffered because of it.

The guy that I worked for in the company told me about the scenario.  It was my first beginnings of understanding wisdom.

He told me at first, it made him really mad to be left out of things.

He knew that not only was he being left out of things, that it was intentional and that he was made to know it.

At first it made him mad.  He was supposed to be in the loop.

But then he started to work with this strategy of his boss.

He realized that all things being equal, he was one of the only people in the world who could endure being intentionally left out of decisions, ideas, and discussions that he was a prime stake holder in by the person who should be the first to include him.

He explained it as his value proposition.

He didn't worry about his power stake and if or how it was affected by being left out of stuff.

He redoubled his efforts at engaging and caring for his customers.

It made all the difference.

What ever the picadillos of your head person:  look at them as opportunities for value proposition development and not sources of frustration.

Keep you enemies close and the head of the organization (or at least her ideas and objectives) closer.

Monday, January 24, 2011

You always come through- this time won't be any different

What I was trying to tell you is that I've seen you in so many situations where you faced a challenging situation,

And even though there were a few set backs and a good amount of give and take: as time went by you (your desire and your heart) prevailed more than you were vanquished.

I just don't think overall--and we may have to zoom out a ways to see it-- this time will be any different.

Who knows what distractions came along and how you might have reacted differently?

Why does it seem to come so easily to others sometimes?

I read recently that people see groups that they aren't a part of to be much more homogeneous than they really are.

People who seem successful probably have the same fears, anxiety, and self doubt about their thing as you.

What they have been able to do is work harder.

I think Terry Bradshaw's dad told him that there will be people who are better athletes and smarter quarterbacks, but there aren't people who will work harder.

It isn't a question of "Can you do it?"

It's a questions of "Will you put in the work to do it?"

The bad news?

It's really a hard question.

The good news?

You get to answer it.

I'm with you.

I'm answering the same question.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Doing your job well might be getting in the way of your work

A member of our church told me with some concern that there was a large amount of water pouring out of our air conditioner cooling tower.  It was Sunday morning and folks were arriving for service and there was water pouring out all over the parking lot.

I knew from previous experience that the air conditioner tower did this from time to time.  When I told the maintenance team about it, I learned that air conditioner towers need to do this from time to time.  I could tell it was a complex dynamic.  There was a reservoir that normally the water goes into, but sometimes it gets full or a valve gets stuck or something so the water pours out.

So essentially my response when somebody tells me that water is pouring out of the air conditioner tower is: "Move along.  Nothing to see here.  That's just what air conditioner towers do."

I think everything is OK and it's normal for water to pour out.  I'm sure everything is fine with our air conditioner tower.  Probably.  Not the point anyway.

People expect you as a leader in discipleship to be able to explain things.  Complex things of faith and interpersonal relationships and air conditioner towers are opportunities not to just assuage concerns and allay fears: they are opportunities to establish and affirm trust and to connect with people.

I often get caught up in assuaging and allaying and don't do nearly enough connecting.  I want to have the answers.  The right answers.  I want to anticipate what can happen (especially what can go wrong) and be there to take care of things.  I want to do my job well.

I can, in fact, gather and distribute proper knowledge and correct information so well that I fail to do the real work of ministry.

We need to understand things and we need to be able to explain things and make things accessible.  Always of course without falling to that greatest of all temptations in such scenarios...the dreaded dumbing done effect.

The limiting factor isn't information.  You can google why water pours out of cooling towers and understand the dynamics easily enough if you spend the time to do so.

The bottleneck is realizing that just because you understand something doesn't mean that someone else is going to.

That's assuming we can somehow bust down the barrier of thinking that people ask about water pouring out of air conditioner towers because they want to bring a problem to your attention.

People ask about water pouring out of the air conditioner towers or what your budget is for global missions or why God seems to be so angry sometimes but what they are really asking you for is for you to "hear my story and understand me".

And that is really, really complex.

Why does such a large amount of desire pour out of us sometimes?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

How a cell phone cover kiosk operator can inspire ministry

My wife needed a cell phone cover and we headed to the mall "because they have the best selection at those kiosk things."

There was one particular kiosk that we visited because the young lady working there connected with Kim the last time she visited.

Kim came from work where she wears scrubs.  It was the end of the day and the kiosk operator as she helped Kim find a suitable cell phone cover seemed desperate, tired, fried.  The kiosk operator began to ask Kim about where she worked and how she got the necessary education and how one becomes somebody who does what Kim does.

On our visit together, we visited the same young lady and the same kiosk.  She was very helpful and seemed in better spirits and didn't seem so desperate to do something, anything different that what she was doing.

I identified with the plight of the kiosk operator.  I too have periods of time where I find myself tired, desperate, fried in my efforts at professional church work.

I was thinking about how the kiosk operator could without having to go to school or wear scrubs maybe find more happiness and purpose.

What I pondered if she began thinking of herself not as a kiosk operator, but someone who helps others "find the right thing".

I would imagine lots of people bug her about where is this and where is that.  Maybe she could print up little maps of the mall (with her contact info and website link on it of course) and help them find what they are looking for.  Where do you think they will come the next time they do need a cell phone cover?

Are there different cell phone covers that work better in certain situations?  When is squishy right and when is hard right.  She probably always knows this, but when I ask which is better, she says, "hard".  Maybe she could ask me what is my particular situation- do I keep the phone in my pocket mostly, am I blue collar or white collar, etc. and make a specific recommendation based on that.

What is the future of cell phone covers?  What might I experiment with to see if people will try? What are other kiosk operators doing?  Who else feels burned out and desperate.  Maybe she could organize a small group of burned out exhausted kiosk operators who could meet regularly and adopt of cause of being the most helpful, connected network of mall kiosk operators there are.

I have already started to incorporate these ideas as they relate to ministry and church work.

I will see myself as someone who helps others "find the right thing" in their spiritual journey.

But I realize the most important thing the kiosk operator is already doing that I aspire to in ministry:  she allowed herself to be venerable to someone she didn't know.

It created such a strong bond in a few moments of interaction with a random customer that her kiosk was the first place that customer wanted to go the next time she needed a cell phone cover.

So it turns out that it wasn't the superior selection that made my wife think of that little kiosk in the middle of that huge mall after all.