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A Multiplication Model

In many organizations, growth happens (or doesn't) through adding people to the system. But some of the most dynamic stories of businesses and ministries start their work with a model that multiplies. Join us for our next "Fourth Tuesday" free webinar when we'll be exploring the difference between an "adding" model and a "multiplying" one and give key tips on how your organization can benefit by being more intentional about how you raise up and release people to carry out your organization's purpose.

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Tonight after work I painted part of the floor of my porch. It took me about an hour to finish the prep work that remained undone, paint the section of the porch floor, and clean up the brush and roller. It may not sound like much but we are painting the whole house this year and our house is a large, two and a half story home built in 1902. Painting the whole thing is daunting project. 

So I have reframed the project in my mind. 

A long, long time ago (like in the 1990's) leaders had the idea that it was their job to see the future and in many & various ways cast their vision to their people.

I'm only being a little snotty. 

This approach at least acknowledged that people need a vision. Nobody likes being told what to "do." They want something to believe in. They want to know that what they do matters. 

But across organizations - in both the for profit and the not-for-profit worlds - we have begun to realize that people rarely catch a vision they haven't participated in dreaming up. What's more, when it comes to the kinds of dreams that mean big changes in their organizational life, most people - about 85% of people in a typical organization - aren't natural dreamers. 

Check out this "Change Openness Distribution" graph to see what I'm talking about. We used it during our webinar on "vision" this week and lots of you requested it. Here it is: 

-Our webinar this week was a technological roller coaster - we spent about the first five minutes thinking people couldn't hear us when they actually could. Thanks, everyone, for the phone calls & emails letting us know you were hanging in there with us! Anyway, our topic this week was "pursuing vision" for the sake of organizational change. We argued that in today's culture, ideas (especially "moral ideas" that shape who we are, what we value, and what we are being called to do & be) - more than any other tangible or intangible factor - determine the effectiveness of an organization. Ideas matter because they motivate and mobilize people; without them nothing much happens.

How you measure success depends on what you were trying to accomplish. And the less clear you are about your purpose the less clear you will be about if you got it done. This may seem obvious but for many of us, we do what we do and simply keep doing it – just because we did it yesterday, too.

Too many organizations I know are writing their epitaphs in advance. One day, their tombstones will read: We talked ourselves to death. The reality is that, in the fast and ever changing environment most organizations are trying to navigate today, leaders have to be quick to act. And very often that means acting without a carefully constructed plan based on prior experience, perfect information, and somebody else's "best practices" because, frankly, those things simply do not exist.

I am returning from a defense of a student’s doctoral thesis (congratulations Dr. Jill – you passed!). And while the thesis involved assessment of the church and its effectiveness, it could have quite easily been done to assess any one of a number of businesses or organizations. Jill reminded me that there is a lot more we all could do as leaders if we were serious about determining if what we are doing is helpful or not.

A few weeks back I ran across an article on the front of the Life section in USAToday. The title of the article was "Losing is in the lesson plan" and it told the story of a group of teachers in Indiana who, collectively, dropped 300 pounds by inspiring one another into eating better & exercising regularly.

Dave Daubert - Three months ago I had never been to a webinar – since then I have helped lead two and we have one the fourth Tuesday of every month! Three months ago I had never spent a lot of time listening to podcasts – since then I have learned how to make them (including learning how to mix in music, narration, etc!). I have used a web/phone combination for meeting with a church council in Tennessee and conference calling for a meeting of a dozen leaders in a dozen communities along the border of Mexico and New Mexico. And in the last couple of weeks I have seen our functional A.R.E. web site nearly stop functioning due to servers crashing at our hosting company and we have had to scramble to get things back up again (I can take almost NO credit for fixing that – Kelly Fryer performed amazingly well doing things she didn’t know how to do, either!). My point is that if we (or you) are going to function in the new world in which we find ourselves, communicating effectively with a busy, fast paced and diverse world requires that we learn the medium of the day.

Phew! That's how I was feeling as we wrapped up our second online seminar. There were over 50 people online with us tonight for the first in a 4-part series on change. The largest number of participants were congregational lay leaders (awesome!). There were also lots of church professionals, a few judicatory leaders, and some nonprofit/business leaders, as well. Things got off to a rocky start when Dave, who was hosting tonight, couldn't get his call-in phone number to work. At 7:00 p.m. we were still on the phone with our provider, trying to get signed on to the call! That created a little confusion on our end when it came to slide & survey placement. All 3 of us were a little jittery. Thanks to everyone who is wading into these new waters with us. We value your participation and we look forward to your feedback!

Getting Things Done

Tonight after work I painted part of the floor of my porch. It took me about an hour to finish the prep work that remained undone, paint the section of the porch floor, and clean up the brush and roller. It may not sound like much but we are painting the whole house this year and our house is a large, two and a half story home built in 1902. Painting the whole thing is daunting project. 

So I have reframed the project in my mind. 

Becoming A Vision Collaborator

A long, long time ago (like in the 1990's) leaders had the idea that it was their job to see the future and in many & various ways cast their vision to their people.

I'm only being a little snotty. 

This approach at least acknowledged that people need a vision. Nobody likes being told what to "do." They want something to believe in. They want to know that what they do matters. 

But across organizations - in both the for profit and the not-for-profit worlds - we have begun to realize that people rarely catch a vision they haven't participated in dreaming up. What's more, when it comes to the kinds of dreams that mean big changes in their organizational life, most people - about 85% of people in a typical organization - aren't natural dreamers. 

Check out this "Change Openness Distribution" graph to see what I'm talking about. We used it during our webinar on "vision" this week and lots of you requested it. Here it is: 

The Power of Vision

-Our webinar this week was a technological roller coaster - we spent about the first five minutes thinking people couldn't hear us when they actually could. Thanks, everyone, for the phone calls & emails letting us know you were hanging in there with us! Anyway, our topic this week was "pursuing vision" for the sake of organizational change. We argued that in today's culture, ideas (especially "moral ideas" that shape who we are, what we value, and what we are being called to do & be) - more than any other tangible or intangible factor - determine the effectiveness of an organization. Ideas matter because they motivate and mobilize people; without them nothing much happens.

Re-Imagining Success

How you measure success depends on what you were trying to accomplish. And the less clear you are about your purpose the less clear you will be about if you got it done. This may seem obvious but for many of us, we do what we do and simply keep doing it – just because we did it yesterday, too.

Talking Yourself To Death??

Too many organizations I know are writing their epitaphs in advance. One day, their tombstones will read: We talked ourselves to death. The reality is that, in the fast and ever changing environment most organizations are trying to navigate today, leaders have to be quick to act. And very often that means acting without a carefully constructed plan based on prior experience, perfect information, and somebody else's "best practices" because, frankly, those things simply do not exist.

How Do You Measure Success?

I am returning from a defense of a student’s doctoral thesis (congratulations Dr. Jill – you passed!). And while the thesis involved assessment of the church and its effectiveness, it could have quite easily been done to assess any one of a number of businesses or organizations. Jill reminded me that there is a lot more we all could do as leaders if we were serious about determining if what we are doing is helpful or not.

Lesson Plan For Change

A few weeks back I ran across an article on the front of the Life section in USAToday. The title of the article was "Losing is in the lesson plan" and it told the story of a group of teachers in Indiana who, collectively, dropped 300 pounds by inspiring one another into eating better & exercising regularly.

ARE you techno-phobic?

Dave Daubert - Three months ago I had never been to a webinar – since then I have helped lead two and we have one the fourth Tuesday of every month! Three months ago I had never spent a lot of time listening to podcasts – since then I have learned how to make them (including learning how to mix in music, narration, etc!). I have used a web/phone combination for meeting with a church council in Tennessee and conference calling for a meeting of a dozen leaders in a dozen communities along the border of Mexico and New Mexico. And in the last couple of weeks I have seen our functional A.R.E. web site nearly stop functioning due to servers crashing at our hosting company and we have had to scramble to get things back up again (I can take almost NO credit for fixing that – Kelly Fryer performed amazingly well doing things she didn’t know how to do, either!). My point is that if we (or you) are going to function in the new world in which we find ourselves, communicating effectively with a busy, fast paced and diverse world requires that we learn the medium of the day.

Why Change?

Phew! That's how I was feeling as we wrapped up our second online seminar. There were over 50 people online with us tonight for the first in a 4-part series on change. The largest number of participants were congregational lay leaders (awesome!). There were also lots of church professionals, a few judicatory leaders, and some nonprofit/business leaders, as well. Things got off to a rocky start when Dave, who was hosting tonight, couldn't get his call-in phone number to work. At 7:00 p.m. we were still on the phone with our provider, trying to get signed on to the call! That created a little confusion on our end when it came to slide & survey placement. All 3 of us were a little jittery. Thanks to everyone who is wading into these new waters with us. We value your participation and we look forward to your feedback!