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Four Crucial Skills of Human Systems by Joseph Grenny

9/7/2015

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Have you ever wondered what makes a human system work - whether it be a family, church, business, school or government?

One finding suggests that “the influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows….only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform possibilities into fact….and only a similar combination can make a culture take form over a thousand natural obstacles….man, not the earth, makes civilization.” Will and Ariel Durant

Therefore, we see that human factors are more important than other factors in creating a high performing human cultures.  So, what drives the ability to enjoy a high performance human system?  Know this, the synergy of innovation and execution will create something greater than the sum of their parts – and, this is the high performance we all seek.

What is your cultural operating system?  Does it provide constant, gentle pressure to continually bring things back to your core values and principles?  Can you speak truth to power?  Do you depend on a handful of people to drag the others along? Can anyone hold anyone accountable?  Do great ideas come to nothing?

Based on significant research on business operations, four crucial skills of a high performance human system were discovered.  These include:
  • Self-Directed Change – Are people continually engaged in self-directed change?
  • Interpersonal – Can anyone say anything to anyone?
  • Team – Can anyone hold anyone accountable?
  • Organizational – Are leaders skilled at influencing rapid, profound, and sustainable behavior change?

As these crucial skills are embraced, the ability to innovate and execute soars.  And, you will be better able to live your Godly destiny.
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Purpose - Why We Do What We Do by Daniel Pink

8/31/2015

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Purpose and a sense of destiny applies to your business decisions and everyday life.  By being aware of the effect of purpose on your personal motivation as well as on the behavior of others, you will be better able to live your Godly destiny.

There are three principles for engaging your destiny and the destiny of others.  They require understanding that:

Principle #1 - People will OFTEN, not always, do the right thing.
Principle #2 - It's important to remind people of their purpose.
Principle #3 - People at all levels of society respond to purpose.

Consider this, we overemphasize the "how" of doing things and we ignore the "why" of doing things.  By adjusting our conversations to include an element of why we do things, we enhance overall performance.

Finally, we need to understand the difference between the big "P" of PURPOSE and the little "p" of purpose.  The big "P" is the kind of purpose that makes a difference in the world and the little "p" is the kind makes a contribution to the people you work, live and play with.  People are wired to respond to both levels of purpose.


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Driving Employee Engagement by Daniel Pink

8/30/2015

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Would you agree that attaining a Godly destiny requires that you be actively engaged and motivated to discover, unlock and live that destiny? 

In this video, Daniel Pink boils down 50 years of research about how people are motivated in the workplace to accomplish tasks into a few words.

The concepts in this video apply directly to the workplace, but also can be applied to the process of staying motivated to walk out your destiny.

Daniel says that we need to update the way we motivate people. He suggests that for complex creative work, people must be beyond the worry about resources. He discusses how the traditional "if-then" motivators are great for simple and short term tasks, but not so great for complex and long term tasks.

So how do we stay motivated to walk out our destiny in Christ?

Daniel develops the concepts of autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Simply stated, autonomy is your dominion over your time, technique, team and task.  By combining high standards with autonomy (think of this as the freedom God gives us to be self-directed and independent, and not overly controlled by others), many have lived their God designed purpose. This happened because they were totally committed and engaged on the journey with Christ.

We pray that you would stay motivated, committed, and engaged on the journey with Christ. Be creative and have fun with the journey! :)
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Listen, Learn and Lead by Stanley McChrystal

8/16/2015

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This TED talk offers leaders some perspective.  General McChrystal tells his story of leading a diverse force across great distance with ever changing, life threatening, challenges.  In it we see how he adapts to the situation.  It is his devotion to relationship, humility and leadership that ultimately creates the environment for learning, change and victory.

From TED's website, "Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets?  By listening and learning — and addressing the possibility of failure.

With a remarkable record of achievement, General Stanley McChrystal has been praised for creating a revolution in warfare that fused intelligence and operations."

What can you do to better lead your family and organization toward its ultimate Godly  destiny?  What can you take from General McChrystal's talk to help you be a better leader?
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The 5 Intangibles of Leadership by Bill Hybels

8/9/2015

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Picture

Bill Hybels provides his notes on the 5 intangibles of leadership.  He pens:

#1 - Grit
  • GRIT-  Passion and perseverance over the long haul, they play hurt, they expect the hurdles and challenges to come but are relentless in getting over/around/through them… The Little Engine that Could…
  • Despite many losses, Abraham Lincoln had grit, Nelson Mandela…  Do you have grit?
  • Grit demands difficulty and is developed by “wins” in getting over hurdles or climbing the mountains.
  • What are we doing to develop our “grit”?
  • The enemy of grit is ease- we need to assign ourselves very difficult tasks and “will” yourself to achieve it.
  • Many elite leaders push themselves physically for the same discipline (exercise challenges)- one way to grow grit.
  • Volunteer for extra work assignments, don’t just deliver… over deliver and over deliver every time…. grit developer.
  • Hang out with gritty people.
  • When we are pushing ourselves hard, teammates and followers notice and some will push themselves to new levels.

#2 - Self Awareness
  • Unresolved issues in our past can lead us to poor choices- what is in our past that is unresolved that is rearing its head in our leadership? Do we avoid conflict? Are we trying to please the wrong person with the wrong motives?
  • Often a mess in an organization is represented by poor self-awareness by the leader…
  • Blind spots- Leader thinks they’re great at something when they’re not, weekly talks are firing up the team when reality it’s making no difference- what does our team see or experience that we completely are missing in ourselves?
  • Recognize blind spots-  Leader thought he held stress well and hid it- however, entire team knew when he was stressed and it extended it to everyone else.
  • When blind spots are identified, they can move into your “weakness” category but you can do something about it.
  • Everyone has blind spots- your spouse, direct reports, supervisor, closest friends, they may be able to help identify your blind spots.
  • How do you grow in self awareness? It demands input from others- not in isolation. Professional coaches and counselors. What do I do well? What don’t I do well? What’s true? Give some people permission to speak into this…

#3 Resourcefulness
  • RESOURCEFULNESS- quick learners, curious about how things work, experimenters, agile, they’ll figure it out
  • 
  • Our ability to grow in our resourcefulness will impact our leadership in the future.
  • How to develop resourcefulness- put yourself in confused, dysfunctional situations and figure it out.
  • Try to solve real problems with young leaders in your organization to see what may happen and how resourceful they are.
  • “Figure it out."

#4 Self Sacrificing Love
  • Vision (though important) is not the core of the core of leadership- self sacrificing love has always been at the core of leadership. Love changes the order of things…
  • We live in a day of celebrity, narcissistic leaders- there is more cynicism today than ever…. genuine lack of love.
  • Do workers feel personal concern from their organization and leaders?
  • Have you taken time out to spend time with someone else that changed the course of their future. What might if you did not take the time?
  • If we are without love- what do we really have and what have we really given? What is strategic planning and vision without love?
  • It starts with the leader in every organization.

#5 Create a Sense of Meaning
  • The what, how, and why in every organization…. Almost everyone understands the “what” and most understand the “how”….  The huge disconnect is the “why”… Why do we sell computers, why do we exist?
  • Be a Chief “Meaning” Officer.
  • What is at the absolute, white-hot core of why you do what you do? (What one thing would you put in your box of your purpose and why?)
  • We need clarity on our “why” in our lives…. we can invite people into a “why” in our organizations.
  • Help others find their core and “why."
  • WHAT IS IN YOUR BOX? WHAT IS YOUR WHY?  Money? What is it?
  • Pursue it will all your heart- find your why and live it out with all your heart

Leaders, find your white-hot “why” and turn over heaven and earth to go after it!
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The Purpose Driven Organization by Simon Sinek

7/6/2015

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In this brief video, Simon Sinek teaches us about the split that often occurs in organizations between financial success and satisfaction with one's work.  What if, the single most important thing you could do was to stay true to your organizational purpose?  What if, the focus on measuring results was why your people have the lost the passion they once had?  What if, as you focused on God's purposes for your job and/or business; God focused on providing an exceeding great abundance?  Can you say, "pressed down, shaken together and running over."

Please kindly consider these points as you listen to Simon explain, in just a few minutes, why purpose matters.  And remember, "Seek 1st the Kingdom of God and all other things will be added to you."
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The Hormone that Will Revolutionize Your Business by Paul Zak

7/3/2015

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In this video Paul Zak explains how serving others with purpose releases happiness.  He further explains how God designed us to be fulfilled satisfied in this role.  The more we understand of God's design and the nature of Godly destiny, the more excited we become.  It is as if everything is pointing to this grand idea of being Christlike, so that Christ's destiny through you is fully released in the earth.  What could be more interesting than that?

The Center for Neuroeconomic Studies shares,"Question: Can neuroeconomics work for individual businesses?

Paul Zak: There are direct applications for organizational leaders on how you design an environment in which you can be both profitable, productive and have very fulfilled employees. So one way to do that is to lead by fear. So if your business is about exploiting individuals, taking advantage of people, making the biggest profits possible, this is the kind of "greed is good" model, then you kind of just want to whip people into doing things that are not fun, not interesting, it’s a nine to five job.

If instead, the oxytocin research is correct, that individuals normally connect with each other, that’s our motive being as social creatures as human beings, and it means that if business is about service to others then business itself is a virtue – you are engaging in a virtuous activity by serving the needs of somebody else. When you do that, when you serve the needs of your employees, of your customers, you will induce oxytocin release and they will want to reciprocate. So can you say, “Customer loyalty?” This is how you do it.

Okay, so if you can induce this oxytocin rich environment, if you can create this environment, then you have a way to drive productivity and drive individual satisfaction for being part of this organization. We have a purpose, we are here to serve others and we see this as some endeavor that we do together. When do it together we feel good about ourselves and about the people that we’re helping. So what this means is that in the old model, "greed is good," the measurement technique is: lead with fear. In the model, empower individuals to be the best they can be in an organization with purpose, you’re going to lead with love. So if you lead with love then you have this oxytocin environment that will motivate people going beyond, exceeding expectations and leading to delighting the customer, delighting the people around me. And delight is what we really want from a customer experience."
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How Will You Measure Your Life by Clay Christensen

6/24/2015

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Are you living the life you had hoped you would live?  Do you know that it is far more blessed to give than to receive?  Might your Godly destiny be measured by how many people you helped and how many lives you blessed?

"It's actually really important that you succeed at what you're succeeding at, but that isn't going to be the measure of your life." - Clay Christensen
"Too often, we measure success in life against the progress we make in our careers. But how can we ensure we're not straying from our values as humans along the way? Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and world-renowned innovation guru, examines the daily decisions that define our lives and encourages all of us to think about what is truly important." (Tedx Talks)
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Nick Craig on The Power of Purpose Driven Leadership

6/15/2015

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In the real world, after all the seminars and research dust settles - the one thing that makes the biggest impact is knowing your unique purpose - also known as your unique destiny. 

Do you know your purpose personally, professionally, or socially?  Let's find the real purpose inside of you.
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Create a Life with Purpose by Clay Christensen

6/15/2015

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Is there something you can leave the world that is bigger than yourself that will help other people become better people?  How will you measure whether you are achieving the goal of making the world a better place?  Do you start the day thinking, "Who can I help today?"

Society will become prosperous and peaceful as individual people live their purpose with some degree of accountability.  
Your purpose and your internal moral compass go hand in hand.  Everybody plans to live a life filled with honor and integrity but that life plan can quickly degrade if you are not following a morally sound personal and organizational purpose.
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