All posts tagged business

Leading in a New Reality

by Tim Schraeder on 08/06/2009 in Leadership Summit 2009, Notes with 4 Comments

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL, and the chairman of the board for the Willow Creek Association. He convened The Leadership Summit in 1995, following a God-given prompting to help raise and develop the spiritual gift of leadership for the local church. Both visionary and passionate about seeing every local church reach its full God-given potential, he speaks around the world on strategic issues to Christian leaders and is a best-selling author of more than 20 books, including Courageous Leadership and Axiom: The Language of Leadership.

  • The responsible thing for a ship captain to do is to check the weather forecast, namely the wave forecast.
  • There’s one set of conditions that will keep ship captains glued to the deck… rogue waves.
  • Oceanographers aren’t sure what cause rogue waves to occur.
  • We’ve been broadsided by an economic rogue wave.
  • We are all leading in a new reality.
  • We’re not going to experience the “old normal” anytime soon.
  • Romans 12:8 leadership gifts works best in moments of trial and testing.
  • Seasoned leaders know rogue waves provide the perfect conditions for greatness to emerge.
  • In the middle of the storm, leaders can hear the whispers of God and know how to change course, re-allocate resources, become creative, etc.
  • Leaders know these conditions produce our deepest learning curves, strongest bonds with team members, deepest faith testing.
  • Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don’t.

1 – Philosophical Lesson

  • Do we still believe the local church is the hope of the world?
  • No matter how long or how deep the downturn goes, we need to challenge our church to be the Church to one another.
  • Live out the Acts 2 dream in our day, especially how radically the early Christ-followers loved one another.
  • The church needs to be the Church… in calm seas and during the storm.
  • We need to hold the powerful accountable to what they should be doing.
  • There is nothing like the local church when the local church is working right.
  • Willow has seen an influx in volunteering, giving, baptisms, etc. in the past few months. They’ve “blurred” the end of their services, giving people time and space to reflect and respond.

2 – Financial Lesson

  • Deciding to “be the church” during a storm is difficult, especially during an economic storm.
  • We’re forced to walk more by faith than by sight.
  • Revenue lines go down, need goes up.
  • We’d rather work with souls than spreadsheet… but (Luke 14) we need to keep our eye on the cost.
  • Jack Welch on leading in tough times: In a crisis, cash is king. (Christ is King!) But when an organization is hit by a rogue wave, but it helps to be sitting on healthy cash reserves so you can have time to form a new plan, ways to decide what to expand and cut back, staffing, etc. Cash gives you time.
  • This isn’t stuff they teach you in seminary.
  • Senior pastors are bold when they talk about finances on an individual level but don’t have a philosophy for their churches/ministries.
  • Questions to consider: What can we NEVER stop doing? What would we keep going? What has God called us to do at our core?
  • Golden Rules of Staff Reductions: 1 – Give lots of notice to the entire organization (months, not weeks or days) about the process. 2- Be very clear about the cause of the staff reductions. 3 – Be generous with severances and services. Be the Church to your staff.
  • What if 50% of your revenue went to staff + benefits; 10% given away to missions, etc.; 10% to “winds of the Spirit”… margin for resources for growing initiatives; 15% to ministry budgets; 15% to facilities, utilities, debt service, insurance, etc.
  • During an economic downturn, people are hungry to hear about debt management. There’s a lot of humility and people want to know God’s way.
  • Even if you don’t have the faith the believe it, during an economic downturn, people will still give generously and sacrificially to a white-hot Kingdom vision.
  • Willow gave 22 water filtration systems to Water Missions International!

3 – Relational Lesson

  • Habakuk 3:2 – “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known.”
  • We know God has done some great things, but we need to look for God to do great things in OUR DAY… end human trafficking, war, AIDS, etc.
  • God usually does His great work through people… who are totally yielded to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)
  • Are we creating a working environment/culture where people can work at their fullest potential in God?
  • Check out How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
  • How many critical leadership positions are there in your organization?
  • Are those seats filled with the right people?
  • What is our plan to fill those seats with the right people?
  • Are we developing back-up people for each seat if people leave?

4 – Personal Lesson

  • Storms require a lot of energy and extra work…
  • This might be the new reality.
  • We have make our lives sustainable.
  • From Bill’s journal during a crazy time: “The pace at which I’m doing the work of God is destroying God’s work in me.”
  • Romans 8:6 – when you are in sync with the Holy Spirit, it leads to life and peace.
  • Some of us have been depleted by the rogue waves and extra work it requires.
  • We need to practice self-leadership… we need to re-invent new strategies of replenishment in our new reality.
  • You’ve got have planned neglegence… learn what you say no to so you can connect with God.
  • We need to reorder our priorities, responsibilities and relationships.
  • The temptation during these times is to work 24/7.
  • Single most bucket-filling change has been how he starts his day… more gently, with no distractions.
  • He listens to God more gently.
  • When you listen to God gently, you hear Him more frequently.
  • Whenever anything feels uncertain, the best thing you bring to the table is a filled up bucket and a heart that’s right with God.
  • Let go of the trapeze of the old routine and embrace the new motions and disciplines of the new reality.

What are your followers and colleagues seeing when they look at you these days?

  • God wants to do great things in our day and through our leadership.
  • We must believe it and we must walk in it.

Made to Stick :: Chip & Dan Heath

by Tim Schraeder on 06/12/2009 in Notes, Willow Creek Arts Conference 2009 with No comments

Brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath are the co-authors ofMade to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and are regular columnists in Fast Company magazine.

Chip Heath is a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is the co-author of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, andBusinessWeek bestseller. Chip has spoken and consulted on the topic of “making ideas stick” with organizations such as Nike, the Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, Ideo, and the American Heart Association.

Dan is a Consultant to the Policy Programs for the Aspen Institute. He is the co-author of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which has been a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller. Dan has spoken and consulted on the topic of “making ideas stick” with organizations such as Microsoft, Nestle, the American Heart Association, Nissan, and Macy’s.Thinkwell in Austin, TX. Dan has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BA in the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.

  • Sticky ideas are understood, are remembered and change something.
  • Every culture has its own proverbs.
  • Sticky ideas have things in common…
    • Simple – easy to understand, remember (i.e. “Just Do It”)
    • Unexpected – something about it that surprises.
    • Concrete – you can visualize what’s happening.
    • Credible – convinces us to believe it.
    • Emotional
    • Stories – often told as stories… Aesop’s Fables, parables in the Bible, etc.
  • We all spend tons of time and energy making art because we want to change minds and hearts.
  • We have ideas that our precious to us and we take time to make them matter and make them last.
  • SIMPLE – Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A designer knows he’s achieved perfection not what there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
    • Simplicity is not about dumbing-down. It’s about finding the core of an idea and stripping everything else away so the core can shine through.
    • Journalism is about finding the real heart of the story… not regurgitating facts.
    • Our role is to find the core of our idea.
  • UNEXPECTED – A sticky idea breaks a pattern.
    • Voodoo Doughnut, Portland … gets press attention because they broke the pattern. They made remarkable doughnuts!
    • The Sermon on the Mount … broke patterns… blessed are the meek, don’t store up treasures on earth, don’t do your good works in front of men, love your enemies, sex is not required on the 3rd date (haha!).
    • If you want to get people’s attention, our role is to find what’s unexpected.
    • Don’t let the profound truth fade into the background.
  • CONCRETE/STORIES – Concrete ideas form a picture and stories make the ideas come alive.
    • Too often we tell stories in the language of expertise. 
    • Too often we use abstraction in communicating messages.
    • Subway’s previous marketing campaign was “7 under 6″… because people didn’t get what they met. Then came Jared.
    • When you talk in abstraction, you haven’t told your story yet.
    • Our role is to find a story and find a visual.
  • EMOTION – How do we get people to care about our message?
    • Our role is to find something to make people care.
  • The Curse of Knowledge – as we become experts in our fields, it’s hard for us to imagine what it is like not to have our expertise.
    • Experts talk in complex jargon.
    • Even when experts are trying to connect with others, they will speak a different language.
    • The things we’re most passionate about can cripple us.
    • Experts talk in complex language… we need to use simple language.
    • Experts tell lists and facts… we need to give a concrete idea.
  • In the context of church, there is an abundance of information about the Gospel, God, etc and we get anxious to tell everyone everything… we have to learn to strip things away… and make it simple.
    • We need to  go after exclusion without sacrificing depth.
    • We need to get realistic about how much people can really retain.
    • What’s the one simple idea or truth we want people to remember about God?
    • Stories make ideas tangible.
    • 5 out of 100 people will remember a statistic, 60 will remember a story.
    • Be collectors of stories to unveil the truth you are trying to communicate.
    • What do you want people to know? (Truth) what do you want people to feel? (Emotion) What them to do? (Application)
    • The unexpected… Do people know what’s going to happen in our church services before they get there?Is there a pattern?
      • There is room for tradition… but if we get into a tireless, relentless routine, people are no longer engaging.
      • Curiosity is a great tool to use. We need to create space between what people know and what they want to know.
        • There’s got to be a gap between what people know… not a chasm.
    • “A credible idea makes people believe. An emotional idea makes people care.”