The Leadership Summit 2009

Day 2, Session 3 – Switch (Chip and Dan Heath)

Books “Made to Stick” and “Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard”

For effective change align the goals of the elephant and the rider. There must be an emotional appeal, convince that there is a reward for changing.

Look for what is working, find out why, and duplicate it.

Big problems are rarely solved by big solutions. They are solved by a series of small solutions. Big problem, small solution.

Shrink change in order to increase motivation. Okay, we get it: “Baby Steps”. Next…

In ministry, start small and do it well. If you can’t deal with the magnitude of your own plan, start thinking smaller.

Prepare people for the dip in the plan (Hope-Insight-Confidence)… called “The Valley of Insight”

People like Tiger Woods treat their talent as a muscle… growth mindset… which is why at the peak of his playing he decided to overhaul his swing.

We get stronger by pushing ourselves to failure. Good quote: “Failure may be an early warning sign for success.”

Man loses $10,000,000 on a company project, expects to get fired. Boss says, “Fire you? I just spent $10,000,000 educating you!”

Leaders should look at people’s situations to better understand their actions.  It may not be a “people problem” at all. It may be a “situation problem”. Behavior is more influenced by situation than character.

This session provided the least value for me so far…

Day 2, Session 2 – Eyewitness to Power (David Gergen)

“Gergen has long had a seat at the table at the highest levels of power and influence.

Lead and serve each other. It’s great to learn things but the best part is going out and doing what you’ve learned.

Hybels asks:  How does a leader get better at leading?
- Whether born with it or not, you must learn to get better.
- We learn as we go.
- Be a reflective practitioner… meaning… you learn leadership in the doing of it, by reading, by reflecting, and then doing more. Do the autopsy.
- Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a leader.

Don’t confuse motion with progress. Motion does not = leadership. Choose big goals and pursue them relentlessly.

[Just mentioned Peter Drucker – WATCHBLOGGER KEYWORD ALERT!!!!!]

When you’re on the dance floor dancing, occasionally you need to go up to the balcony and look down. Take time away in order to see things more clearly.

Hybels asks: What did you admire most about each of the presidents you worked for?
Nixon
-    best strategist, could bend the forces of history.
-    He was a reader, believing that, “someone who can see farther back, can see farther ahead”

Ford
- The most decent president he ever worked for. Never had to stand with your back to the wall in the White House around Ford. He looks better and better through the rearview lens of history

Clinton
– very bright, quick, tactical.  Admired his resilience., he was knocked down a lot and brought himself down but always got back up

Reagan
– Best leader in White House since Roosevelt. A principled man with a contagious optimism – a great quality in a leader. A gifted communicator who was tempered by the war.

Hybels asks about the underbelly and dark sides of these presidents

Nixon
-    Only saw the bright side at first
-    Once he trusted you, he removed the veil and there was a dark side
-    The struggle was between the people appealing to his dark side and others appealing to his bright side
-    A decent man with demons he could not control

Ford
-    Could be a little naïve
-    Others took advantage of this

Reagan
-    Weakness was his detachment
-    Would take his hands off the wheel and would let others drive, which was fine when he had a good staff, but awful when that staff left

Clinton
-    Parallel to Nixon: cracks in his character

Hybels asks: “Great leaders carry with them great flaws” True?

Not all leaders… not Jesus. Gergen: “You look at Christ, hard to find flaws there.” Hybels: “You keep looking! You CNN guys.” [laughter]

Growing to maturity is about trying to come to grips with your flaws. Realize that we all have a dark side. You must know yourself. You have to have your flaws under enough control so that they don’t derail you.

Sometimes good public leaders have very messy private lives. Martin Luther King, for example, had a very dark private life, quite immoral and chaotic. But realize, he never claimed to be a saint. Same with Mandela.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

Symbolism in Leadership
Leadership is working with others in pursuit of shared goals. You have to persuade, not order. Trust and communication.

Symbols matter to people. Churchill’s “V for Victory” gave people hope and inspiration. Ghandi wore a loincloth even though he was a trained leader.

Reagan said: “There’s nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse.”

If you want to inspire people with public speaking there must be a call to action. Will you make people think, or make them act?

Hybels: Personal habits of leaders – do they matter?

They matter a lot. Self-discipline is very important. Control of your life and who you are as a person. Need physical fitness because you need endurance.

Final question: You’re a church going person… when you go to your church, what do you hope is going to happen to you or in you in that service?

Gergen answer this with “Not as often as I should…” to which Hybels responds with a look of restrained horror… “Dude, that is NOT what you were supposed to say…”

Then he answers…
1.    A place to find inner peace [“Inner Peace” WATCHBLOGGER KEYWORD ALERT!!!]
2.    A place to find a moral compass
After which he began rambling… I have no idea what 3 and 4 were or if he even gave them. The answer was pretty flaky and was more appropriate for the Oprah show than for a leadership event of this magnitude. The rest of the interview was great though… I love listening to political insiders.

His book sounds pretty interesting… check it out here.

Day 2, Session 1c – Leveraging Your Past (Wess Stafford)

Wess is Pres. And CEO of Compassion Intl.

How do we leverage the pain and hurts in our lives for ministry?

They are catalysts for integrity and passion.

His passion for children comes from his own painful story. He received his calling, his mission at the darkest moment of his life at the age of 10. He was tortured at the missionary kids boarding school he spent 9 months a year at in Africa when he was a child.

“There were a million ways to get a beating in that place…” Wherever evil reigns unchecked, sexual abuse is a favorite tool of Satan.

Wess is telling a very painful story of abuse and torture. Get his autobiography here.

How has this affected his leadership?

Satan intended it for evil, but God redeemed it and leveraged it for good.

What is your cause?
What do you lead?
Does it move you?
Does it bring you to tears?

Nothing is wasted; everything can be redeemed.

Homework assignment: Spend 30 seconds in front of the mirror and ask, “Who is this person I’m looking at? What are you all about? Where are you going?”

“If you don’t forgive, you’re allowing your offenders to live rent free in your heart.”
“You took yesterday – YOU CANNOT HAVE TOMORROW. Get out – I forgive you.”

Unforgiveness is an open invitation to bondage in your life.

“My prayer is that as he wipes the tears from my eyes that he will also have to wipe the sweat from my brow!”

Day 2, Session 1b – Thinking Forward: Aid vs. Trade (Andrew Rugasira)

http://www.goodafrican.com/

No country in the world is developed through handouts. Handouts will not develop Africa

We use trade to develop because it is the only proven way to societal change

Trade their way out of poverty, allow people to help themselves.

Offer equal opportunities, not pity.

Aid: how has it been sustained in the face of all the evidence that it has been ineffective?
Aid undermines accountability

See Africa as consumers, innovators, a continent with potential

Africans have to stop believing that help comes from outside.
Kindness is not demonstrated through handouts. It is demonstrated by helping people to help themselves. Believe that help comes by trade, not aid.

Day 2, Session 1a – Thinking Forward: Third Culture Leadership (Dave Gibbons)

Living Third Culture means adaptation, painful adaptation. The mindset and will to love, learn, and serve in a culture regardless of the pain you encounter.

Third Culture Leader:

1. They focuses on the fringe, on the misfit more than the masses
a. Margins lead movements
b. Go for early adopters – Jobs/Apple understand this
c. The masses don’t lead us, the fringes do
d. Vision should start on the fringes and work toward leadership

2. They have a different set of metrics (How do you define success?)
a. Not “Up and to the right” on an X-Y axis. This is an illusion
b. “Failure is success to God” Failures and weaknesses are gifts from God
c. Weakness will guide you
d. How do we quantify vision?
i. Love God. Love your neighbor.
ii. Relationships trump vision
iii. Fewer visionaries and more relationaries
e. People say “It’s not about the building; it’s about what happens inside the building.” Not true. Maybe it’s about what      happens outside the building.

3. They make priority shifts
a. Rather than sermon prep, leadership development
b. Now spends only 5-8 hrs on weekend services
c. Hang out with people who are not like you, read things you don’t agree with
d. Multiple domains brings great illumination
e. Design / space shifts
f. Don’t franchise, allow indigenous leadership

4. They understand obedience, obedience is more important than passion
a. The do things even when they don’t ‘feel’ it
b. Acts of obedience
i. Deeper collaboration – with other congregations
ii. Communal living, in a house or in a neighborhood
iii. Prayer – do we REALLY believe in the power of the HS
iv. Radical sacrifice for the outsider

“If we live this out, the world will see our great God.”

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 1

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 2 – Bill Hybels

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 3 – Hiring, Firing, and Board Meltdowns

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 4 – Gary Hamel

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 5 – Tim Keller

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 6 – Jessica Jackley / Kiva.org

Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 7 – Harvey Carey

Session 4b – Against All Odds (Harvey Carey)

Carey is a pastor in Detroit. His story is here:

What do you do when the odds are stacked against you? Believe that God’s word is true.

We are to train others to do ministry, not hire staff to do it. The staff are to be primarily equippers, not ministers. Our job as leaders is to equip people to do the work of the church. Genuinely engage them in the work.

The “No More Binders” rant was hilarious.

Churches are like a sports teams who stay in a huddle for an hour and then dismiss. We huddle but never play the game.

His church uses Sunday mornings as action times.

Urban Camping – find the crack house or most dangerous house in the neighborhood and camp in front of it – sing Kum-Bay-Yah and make smores. They’ve shut down 8 of the major drug houses in their community this way.

We’ll never see what the text can do if we don’t create a context where for it to work.

Transformation happens not by what you say you’re going to do, but by what you actually do.

Excellent preaching…. will have to get the audio up when its available.

A great first day. Looking forward to tomorrow. I’m beating the system and bringing portable internet access with me tomorrow so hopefully I can blog as-it-happens.

Thanks for reading.

Session 4a – The KIVA Story (Jessica Jackley)

www.kiva.org is a microlending site of which Jessica Jackley is the co-founder. She is infectiously chipper… and cute – and smart.

You can go to www.kiva.org and make a small loan to a two-thirds world entrepreneur. Started with 7 people and $3000. Today on average, $100,000 is loaned on the Kiva site every 24 hours – and most of that is loaned $25 at a time.

Repayment rate of 98.5%

“We believe that people want to good, they just need an easy and convenient to do so.”

Mission of Kiva: To connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.

Common purpose is the best way to predict an outcome.

Sacrificial giving produces change in the giver. If you give people the opportunity to give sacrificially they will exceed expectations.

For a modern organization to survive, high experience leaders with old ideas need to work with low experience leaders with new idea.

Two-thirds world people can now lend to American entrepreneurs as well.

Session 2b – Manage Differently NOW (Gary Hamel)

Wow – John Ortberg is a dead ringer for a middle-aged Edward Norton. I’ve never noticed that before. Ortberg is introducing Gary Hamel (WSJ’s 2008 “World’s Most Influential Business Thinker”). I took a lot of notesduring this one because he’s talking about something I spend a lot of time reading and talking about.

Our non-Christian friends can see that we’re not really different (confirmed by Barna study)
Is the Gospel failing us or is it our institutions?

Should we decry secularism or thank God for the opportunity?
Talks about big corps and how they are faring badly because they got stuck in the mud

Their employees are “locked in a cell by the custodians of convention”. The Custodians of Convention – nice phrase.
Turbulence is not met with resilience – there is more turbulence and less resilience meeting at the same point.The incumbents get left behind.

“Success s a self-correcting phenomena.”

Cultivate the ability to change and morph and evolve.

In most of our orgs, the only path to change is the same as in a badly governed dictatorships. The leaders must be violently overthrown.

Four Keys to Outrunning Change

1. Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial
- “Every organization is successful, until its not.”
- Avoid the cycle of – Deny Rationalize Mitigate Confront
- Show people the hard data
- Face the facts and be open to questions

2. Listen to the renegades
-    Do we welcome dissent or try to stifle?
-    Learn from the positive outliers

3. Generate more strategic options
-    We get stuck in the present because we fixate on what we have
-    Generate crazy ideas, diverge a lot
-    Invite participation “How do we increase our impact?” from church as well as community

4. Deconstruct what you already believe
-    Question your orthodoxies (not meaning creedal ones)
-    If things aren’t changing, ask why?
-    Open-source the sermon – put scripture out there, allow people to contribute to the sermon prep (check – doing that)
-    Take notes during sermon (“Why not? It happens in every university class.”)
-    Be unconventional
-    Are we more committed to redemption, renewal, reconciliation or policies and procedures?
-    Surrender cherished orthodoxies

Organizations fail because the mental models of leadership team depreciate faster than their authority. Their understanding of the world is past its expiry date. Don’t give a small number the ability to hold back change.

Change comes from bottom up. Are there structures other than top-down?
Yes – Gore-tex management system
-    no hierarchy
-    no corp language
-    cards say “leader”
-    You become a leader when your team asks you to lead them
-    “A leader with no followers is just a guy taking a walk” (From West Wing last night)
-    Mobilize, connect, support is now the leader’s job

Most orgs are not built to be adaptable. They were built when we were working on making people into robots

Authority is derived from the quality of output/content – nobody asks on YouTube if you are a filmmaker, Flickr – photographer (you are these things, the question is how good are you?)

People want to work in orgs that reflect the ethos of the web.Churches are trying to work like F500 companies. This is typically 25 years behind.

The early church was communal, organic, and institutionally weak.

We won’t get better at changing lives until we get batter at changing our churches.

The church is God’s hope for humanity. No plan B – we’re it!

Great session!