I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
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Church Marketing Sucks
August 2008 Archives
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August 27, 2008
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
Filed under: Reading Room
I've been on a book-reading binge with my Kindle! Next up, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees) by Patrick M. Lencioni. First things first, the title of this book is misleading. It appears the publisher—in all of their marketing wisdom—attempted to appeal to a mass audience of miserable workers. That may work for book sales, but it's why I stayed away from reading it for so long. I don't feel like my job is miserable so why did I need this book? Boy was I wrong.
Three Signs is really about how to help the teams that work for you have a fulfilling job and avoid the misery that often sets in with so many people in the workplace. The premise of the book is so simple you feel dumb for your delay in living out its wisdom. Somewhat empathetic to this, Lencioni affirms us with words from Samuel Johnson. “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
In typical Lencioni fashion, as he has done with his other books, Three Signs is a fable, so you're soaking up the principles by learning and living them through a story. Simple. Genius.
Lencioni's three signs are:
1. Anonymity: People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known.
2. Irrelevance: Everyone needs to know that their job matters to someone.
3. Immeasurement: Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves.
The prescription to these three signs, in my own words that begin with the letter "m" so that I can remember, are:
Continue reading "The Three Signs of a Miserable Job"
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August 25, 2008
The Starfish and the Spider
Filed under: Reading Room
One of the first books I read on my Kindle was the The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafmanand and Rod A. Beckstrom. It's "a book about what happens when there's no one in charge. It's about what happens when there's no hierarchy."
The metaphor of a starfish and spider is spot on. Spiders can only operate when the central system (the head) is alive and intact. If you cut off the head of a spider, or cripple its legs, it will die or be destroyed. Starfish, on the other hand, do not have a centralized command system. If you cut off one of the "arms" they will either grow back or learn to function without it. There is not a head to a Starfish, rather an interdependent decentralized system that adapts and mutates.
Using this metaphor, the authors explore centralized and decentralized systems throughout history. They pay special attention to decentralized systems—including Alcoholics Anonymous, eBay, Kazaa and eMule—since the point of their book is the rise in power of powerless (or leaderless) organizations. "The absence of structure, leadership, and formal organization, once considered a weakness, has become a major asset."
Continue reading "The Starfish and the Spider"
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August 23, 2008
Ode To Silence
Filed under: Stuff I Like
I don't remember how or when I became a subscriber to Ode magazine, but it's been coming to me for the past year or so. Although it's not my favorite magazine—I notice myself skimming it more than reading it—the July 2008 issue really grabbed my attention. The whole issue was built around the theme of silence. The first two spreads were all white pages with a minimal amount of gorgeous copy that set the tone for the rest of the issue. The last page was a reprint of the musical score by John Cage titled 4'33".
On August 29, 1952, at a concert hall in Woodstock, New York, pianist David Tudor sat down to play avant-garde American composer John Cage's creation, 4'33". The piece requires the performer to sit at the piano for four minutes and 33 seconds without touching a key. "Played" in three movements, 4'33" is considered one of the most revolutionary compositions of modern times. What audiences hear may be the pianist turning pages of sheet music, someone succumbing to a coughing fit, or—in the case of the 1952 debut—the shuffling sounds of people walking out in disgust. Nonetheless, 4'33" lives on: in a silent song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono and the lyrics of rapper MC Paul Barman, who brags in Excuse Me that he "can rock the mic to 'Silence' by John Cage." In case you want to play it at home, here's the sheet music. Tacet is Latin for "silence." —Josey DuncanI
Tacet
II
Tacet
III
Tacet
My love for magazines began a few years before starting my own magazine 12 years ago. I've been a student of the industry ever since. I love to see how they evolve and innovate (or not). This might explain why I have so many subscriptions coming every month!
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August 21, 2008
Edward Tufte, Presenting Data and Information
Filed under: Wisdom
I had the opportunity yesterday to attend a one-day course taught by former Yale and Princeton professor Edward Tufte. The New York Times calls him "The Leonardo da Vinci of data."
Although the seminar itself was a little underwhelming, the content was great. And because Tufte's main point is that content is all that matters, it kind of works for him. You gotta give him some credit for getting 300 people paying $380 for a one-day lecture that he'll do 16 times around the country in the next few months. And he's been doing this for years. Cha-ching.
The four books he wrote—included with registration—are really all you need. Tufte spent the majority of his time reading and referring to them anyway.
A few highlights for me:
- In good data presentations, nothing should be able to be erased. In other words, eliminate non-relevant information that doesn't support your point.
- At the same time, include as much information as possible to support your data. Every presentation of data should provide reasons to believe. Your audience isn't dumb.
- If you're tempted to remove stuff from your presentation because it's looking too cluttered, it's a design problem not a content problem. Overcome the clutter with better design.
- Those boxes on org charts (the black lines around people's names) mean nothing. Eliminate them.
- Presenting data--or any presentation--should not be authoritarian. Your points are not meant to give you power, they're meant to help educate the audience. Why do we do the slow "reveal" in our presentations? We should send everything we have ahead of time so people can start to get familiar with the content.
- Get people to use their own cognitive flow and style. Genuine exploration. It's how we learn.
- Anytime you're making presentations, continually come around to these three questions: 1) What is the problem? 2) Who cares? 3) What's my solution?
- Find or develop a "super graphic" that you use all the time and continually refer to.
- Don't pitch. Instead, explain and inform.
- Use whatever it takes to show the data. Three-dimensional objects are the best when you can.
- Put your name on your work. People make presentations, not committees or boards or teams. Individual names lend credit and provide accountability.
- Beware of featureitis, the disease that says more bells and whistles are better.
One of the most impressive examples of a good data presentation is the graphic from Napoleon's ill-fated Moscow campaign by Mindard. Wow.
For those unfamiliar with Tufte, he hates PowerPoint with a vengeance and is full of reasons why.
I look forward to spending some time with Tufte's books and digesting more of the information. They're a gold-mine of wisdom and examples.
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August 19, 2008
Kindle, Devil, Vacation
Filed under: Abare News
Jamaica and I returned last week from our mini-vacation to Seattle and Victoria, B.C. We had a great time doing very little and being with each other very much. The weather was perfect and we even got a little rain which is what we were hoping for. Really. Also got to hang out with some extended family, including one of my younger brothers, and celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. We rented electric scooters in Victoria and rode all around the coast with the Olympic mountains in the background. Beautiful.
I took my Kindle along and loaded up a couple books before I left. It was the first time since I bought the Kindle last year that I gave it a decent second chance because I was not taking a liking to it as much as I had hoped to. That may have been because I had a defective Kindle and it crashed every time I used it. Amazon was gracious to send me a replacement which arrived just in time for vacation.
One of the books I Kindled on vacation was The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson. It came recommended to me by a friend but it's not the type of book I am typically drawn to. This book was fascinating and had it not been on the Kindle, I would probably not have read it. For one, it's 447 pages in print. That is too intimidating for me. On the Kindle, you don't pay attention to page count. Although there is a subtle status bar at the bottom that shows progress, it feels like you're reading fast because the pages on the Kindle are short and you progress quickly. Good writing helps too.
The Devil in the White City is the convergence of two disparate stories happening at the same time in Chicago during the time of the World's Fair there. One is the impossible story of the Fair and the other is the unimaginable story of a psychopath of Jack the Ripper proportions. The book reads like a novel but the whole thing is true. I love reading history this way and I learned so much about Chicago, the city where I lived for several years and where Jamaica and I met. I did not know the Ferris Wheel was introduced/invented there. (I wonder if Ed Stetzer did when he rode it yesterday with his wife?)
Great vacation. Great book. And I am really liking the Kindle.
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August 8, 2008
Seattle and Victoria Here We Come
Filed under: Abare News
Vacation 2008 starts now. Jamaica and I are flying up to Seattle this afternoon. We're going to be there through the weekend and then head to Victoria on Monday through Wednesday. We'll visit with some family who live in Seattle, hopefully experience a little rain, and just enjoy one another's company!
It's a rather short vacation, but it's about all we could squeeze in this summer. We come back Wednesday night and then I head to Dallas the next morning for the Echo conference where I have several meetings and I'll lead a session on Saturday morning.
The remainder of this year is looking pretty full so I'm looking forward to unplugging for the next several days. No laptop, no email, no nada.
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August 7, 2008
Marriage is Church and State
Filed under: Hot Topic
I don't typically write about hot-button politically charged issues mostly because it's not the way I'm wired, but I do enjoy healthy conversation and debate about such topics! One of the reoccurring conversations I find myself in, especially living in California, is the subject of gay marriage.
For a while now, I've been seeing two dimensions to marriage. One is the spiritual perspective and the other is the State perspective. More to the point, I've never understood how marriage became a State issue. It has always been a spiritual issue.
A union between two people (regardless of gender) can be recognized by the state. This doesn't mean the Church has to recognize this.
It appears I'm not alone in my thinking as Oliver Thomas wrote about this very subject in USA Today earlier this week. It's a great read.
The conversation continues.
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August 1, 2008
Bastards, Series and Speaking
Filed under: Brad Works
For the past year or so I've been researching and writing about the topic of identity and soul, and why that matters for individuals and organizations. It's been a fascinating journey, especially since so much of what I do revolves around this topic. For example, at Personality, our whole profiling process is built around the ability to understand who an organization is and what to do as a result of that knowledge.
This issue of identity is also a significant pursuit at Foursquare because without a shared understanding of who we are, tribes are difficult to keep together or sustain.
A good chunk of my studying has stemmed from the book The Soul of the Corporation by Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly. I reviewed this on the Personality blog.
I also wrote a 4-part series for Church Marketing Sucks that has resulted in a lot of good feedback--both in the comments section and directly to me via email. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
For my keynote during the Echo conference later this month in Dallas, I'm looking forward to sharing the "live" presentation of this series, including some great videos to drive home the point.
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