From the Mind of MandoRon

Yesterday, I embarked on a journey to read through the entire Bible in 2010.  (I’m using the Life Journal Reading Plan on YouVersion.com, in case you’re curious…)  Part of today’s reading was Genesis 3.

Something in verse 6 really jumped out at me.

“The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.”  Genesis 3:6

I had never noticed this before, but Eve was looking for a shortcut to wisdom…

How many times do we get in trouble because we take a shortcut? 

We think we need a new TV or sofa or jeans today, so we buy them on credit rather than taking the time to save up the money.  We buy the house of our dreams at 30, and our quality of life and finances suffer because we bit off too much.

We want to get in shape and lose weight but rather than hitting the gym and eating right, we go to the store and buy the latest “Exercise in a Bottle” pills.  We invest in the latest “3-Minute Workout” videos.

Discontent to work our way up the corporate ladder, we work 60+ hours at work, constantly switch jobs, and backstab our peers to get ahead faster.

Unwilling to invest our money smartly and wait for wealth to accumulate, we lose our money in Ponzi and other get-rich-quick schemes.

Eve was unwilling to gain wisdom over the course of a lifetime’s worth of experiences.  She wanted it now.  And she suffered.  

We all suffer.

Instead, maybe we should all pray for patience and ask the Lord to bless us in His timing…

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I was recently offered a copy of Bill George’s latest book, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, to review.  I heard Bill speak at the Leadership Summit in 2008, so I jumped at the chance.  Just in case you don’t know who he is… Bill George is a  professor at Harvard Business School and former CEO of Medtronic, as well as being an author and blogger. 

In 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Bill uses the recent financial crisis to explore how leaders should respond when faced with a crisis.  Perfect timing!  This recession has put a lot of people in some tough spots.

While I don’t think there are any Nobel-prize winning ideas in the book, there is a lot of very useful and challenging advice.  Leadership isn’t rocket science, but it’s not easy either.

It’s important to know how to effectively lead in a crisis, because a crisis is a sink-or-swim situation.  As Bill points out, there exists both danger and opportunity.  The key to succesful leadership in crisis is being able to seize the opportunity without succombing to the danger.

Here are some of my main takeaways from 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis:

• Leaders must be willing to face reality in a crisis
• The best leaders are not afraid to fail.  (While I’m not afraid of small failures, I have to acknowledge that I’m afraid of failing big…)
• Leaders need to be able to express vulnerability.
• Assume that the situation is going to get worse.
• Things will probably never return to the “old” normal.  Stop waiting for normal to return.
• Don’t declare victory too soon.  Bill points out the epic example of George W. Bush landing on the USS Lincoln back in 2003 to declare the War in Iraq over.
• “Never waste a good crisis!”  A crisis provides the opportunity to create major change in the organization.
• “Keep your head up during a crisis rather than hunkering down.”

7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis is definitely a must-read for any leader.  It’s inexpensive and only 127 pages.  How can you beat that?  Be sure to check out Bill’s blog too.

I shared these verses with the band earlier this week, and I thought I should share them with you, as well.

10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

1 Peter 4:10-11 (NLT)

We’ve all been given gifts, talents, and abilities from God.  Sometimes, identifying those gifts can be difficult.  But once you’ve discovered your gifting, these verses challenge us with two things.

1. Am I using my gifts to serve myself?  Or am I using my gifts to serve other people?
2. Am I letting God multiply my gifts by using them within His plans?  When we’re serving within His will, he provides “strength and energy” to do more.

Thoughts?

As you can tell by the title, what you are reading is not my original post.

Yesterday, I went on a bit of blogging tirade.  It all started when I received a bit of mail that touched on a nerve… stepped on one of my pet peeves, if you will.

So I wrote a rather scathing rebuke for all the world to read and agree with. 

Was I right? Probably.  Was airing it out in public the right thing to do?  No.

Luckily, I have a rule never to post anything while I’m ticked and my wife lectured me about why I shouldn’t.

1 Peter 3:8 says “Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.”  He was talking to me too.

I recently came across a great article on creativity from Patrick Leoncini that I wanted to share.  In case you don’t know, Patrick is an incredible author and a great speaker on the subject of leadership and business.  His books include: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Silos Politics and Turfwars, The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family, and Death by Meeting.

I highly recommend subscribing to his free email newsletter called Pat’s Point of View.  You can sign up on The Table Group’s homepage.

Pat’s most recent POV is titled “The Enemy of Innovation and Creativity”.  He argues (successfully, in my opinion) that the business world spends so much time trying to improve efficiency, that creativity and innovation get squelched.  The creative process, by definition, is woefully inefficient.  You end up wasting a lot of time when you’re trying to create something.  But he points out that some inefficiency is necessary in order to successfully innovate. 

Go read the article, then come back.

A few quotes that I want to point out:

“I’ve become convinced that the only way to be really creative and innovative in life is to be joyfully inefficient.”

“Few people have the self-esteem and courage to continue being inefficient when others are calling them out as being flaky, irresponsible and unreasonable.”

“If we’re serious about innovation, we have to celebrate—yes, celebrate—the inefficiency of the people who we rely on for new ideas, even if it means they are late for meetings, they waste a little time or money and they leave the lights on when they go home. “

Interestingly… when I first read the article, my first thought was to my own songwriting endeavors.  Not my daily job.

I focus so much energy on trying to be efficient with my time, trying to learn to play new songs, and trying to organize schedules and setlists for the band at church, that I leave myself very little time (if any) to just plink around with my mandolin or guitar and create something new.  It’s almost like I need to schedule some “free time” just to mess around with no purpose. 

Interestingly, most of the songs that I’ve written have come out of a time like that.  I’ll accidentally play a chord progession that I like, and then lyrics pop into my head while playing the accidental chords over and over.

So I’m trying to make time for me to be creative musically.  And I’m trying to encourage the “flaky artists” that I know to keep being “flaky artists”, and not worry about the details.  Let someone else handle them.

How about you?  Do you set aside time to be inefficiently creative?  Or does it just come naturally?