CONSTANTS

There are certain constants in life.  One of those constants is time.  We are all bound to a 24 hour day and a 7 day week.  No matter your vocation, passion, and effort, you have limits.  Steve Jobs was bound to these limits.  President Obama is bound to these limits.  Every single person, regardless of how productive or unproductive they may be, is bound to these constants.

So as you dream big and work towards creating more beauty, shalom, and justice in the world, consider the following:

What can you (and only you) do?
What were you created to do?
What are your passions?

Do that!

But what about all of the other random tasks that are required to pull off said passion, job, project, and dream(s)?

That's where being a leader comes into play.

Good leaders surround themselves with other individuals that resonate with your dreams and momentum.  Good leaders never hoard vision and work.  Good leaders delegate, empower, and turn loose the passions and dreams of other people.

So the next time you find yourself against a time-crunch, ask yourself what can you (and only you) do.  Ask yourself what you were created to do.  And finally ask yourself if you have appropriately surrounded yourself with individuals that you trust to carry the torch of your passion.

The world may be full of constants, but you don't have to be bound by them.  

Peace,
Ross

The Starfish and the Spider

Maybe its weird, but I really enjoy organizational dynamic and leadership books. Here's one that's an important read, because it shows the nature of these dynamics and (I believe) offers a hopeful future for the Church.

Beckstrom, Rod A., Brafman, Ori.  2006. The Starfish and the Spider. New York: Penguin Group.
 
Ori Brafman holds a BA in peace and conflict studies from the University of California at Berkley and an MBA from Stanford Business School.  He has been an entrepreneur all of his life, ranging from wireless startups to public benefit projects.  Rod A. Beckstrom is the chief catalyst of Twiki.Net and founded CATS Software Inc.  He serves on several boards, including the Environmental Defense and Jamii Bora Africa.  He holds a BA and MBA from Stanford and was a Fullbright Scholar.
   
Beckstrom and Brafman argue that, “decentralization has been lying dormant for thousands of years.  But the advent of the Internet has unleashed this force…the rules of the game have changed” (6-7).  It is from this notion that the authors show the unstoppable power of an organization without a head and headquarter.  They provide 9 chapters of examples and strategy that support their claim.  

In Chapter 1, they show the victory of the Apache’s as a result of their decentralized structure.  Because there was no perceived hierarchy or headquarters, the power was distributed and fluid.  Chapter 2 shows the difference between a spider and starfish.  Both look similar – legs coming from a central area.  But whereas a spider dies if you kill its head, the starfish replicates as it is cut.  An organization, that is similarly decentralized, will replicate over and over, never dying if the supposed head is killed (because there is no real head).  In this chapter, we also find that the intelligence is “spread throughout the system” and that these systems “can easily mutate” (39-40).
  
 Chapter 3 uses several examples: Skype, Craigslist, Apache, and Wikipedia, to show that in an open (starfish) system, “people will automatically want to contribute” (74).  Chapter 4 shows the power of standing on five legs.  It defines these legs as: circles, the catalyst, ideology, preexisting network, and the champion.  Each of these works in tandem, allowing a decentralized organization to flourish.  Chapter 5 focuses on the catalyst.  Unlike a spider-system, the catalyst (of a starfish) let’s go and trusts its community.  The catalyst inspires by listening to interest, connecting, mapping, inspiring, and trusting others to work towards the goals and vision.  The catalyst is the antithesis of the CEO.  Chapters 6-8 look at more mechanics of the decentralized organization, hybrid organizations, and warns against centralization.  Finally in chapter 9, we discover the power of networks, chaos, fringe knowledge, and the impetus for passing on an ideology.
  
 I believe Beckstrom and Brafman’s book to be a critical guide for the future work of the church.  It is incredibly similar to the notion of a priesthood of all believers.  As the church recognizes its ideology as Missio Dei, it can (and should be) a starfish organization.  Each church or ministry is then functioning within its own unique context to contribute to Missio Dei. 

Peace,
Ross

VISION & FUTURE

If you've been a reader of the blog for a while, you'll know I frequently discuss leadership, vision, creativity, etc.  Today I felt it necessary to discuss 2 vital leadership components: VISION & FUTURE.

Future and vision, I believe, are the 2 most important factors in leadership.  Understanding these and making them the drivers of everything else deemed "leadership," will create an organization, business, etc that is vision focused, rather than management focused.

When a group or organization is driven by vision, it affects everything and is usually looking to create something for the future.  Vision is seldom worried about what happened yesterday, or how your past failures are affecting you today. 

From personal experience, I build vision that attempts to create culture.  By that, I mean if I see something lacking in a given community, I want to create something to fill the void.  When I dream something beautiful, I want to make it an experience for culture, so that the future is brighter by it.  But whatever that "something" is, that is my vision, it's partnered with a future thought of how its moving people, the organization, and/or culture.

Conversely, if you run your business or organization by pure management, you'll find yourself managing a response (both positive and negative).  You'll manage opinions until you're riddled with ulcers, trying to please people.  And being a purely response-driven group or organization doesn't create vision.  It manages expectations, and executes based on the feelings of any given day, survey, or angry/pleased email(s) that hits the in box.  It does get things accomplished - sometimes with laser like precision.  But I'm always more interested in vision.  The future is most interested in vision.

Vision will always drive management.
Management will never drive vision.

So make sure that the vision you're creating is future-thinking, and don't fall into the easy trap of simply managing people, tasks, and ideas.

Peace,
Ross

The Vitality of Irrational Thought

Last week I was reading a book by Freeman, discussing the psychology of adult learning.  Given the history of adult learning throughout the Western world, one will find that the church was once the hub. It was pushing and leading a systematic approach, viewed as "just as necessary for development of human reason as revelation and grace were necessary for salvation and maturity." 

These assumptions and discoveries have informed adult learning paradigms which are still in practice today.  What I kept seeing as the focus however, was rational thinking.  It has become the teacher's role in helping students to "think rationally."  This however seems to add major hurdles to pursuing a biblical faith.

Let me elaborate...

True grace is not rational. It makes no sense. But yet, God's economy doesn't work like ours. Rational thought and understanding seeks judgement and punishment for offenders, yet God seems to work in other ways. The way of the world seeks redemptive violence, yet God works through restoration and reconciliation. Both of these are difficult and contrary to rational thought and practice. Even stories of miracles and virgin births become suspect when we pursue rational thought. Because God is increasingly mystical, works beyond the limits of understood physics and biology, rational thought becomes a hurdle in faith formation.


Even today, many across the country are celebrating the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death.  People are simply acting rational - good overcame evil.  But looking at God's economy and being irrational enough to suppose that my wishes, hopes, and desires are not greater than, or even equal to, God's, gives room to grace, restoration, and love.

So what now? 

As we're increasingly a post-modern culture, certain rational thoughts of the past are suspect. There's room for irrational thought in understanding and learning. And I believe, as teachers to adult learners, we must create environments that accept and produce irrational thinkers, to create new realities, and to move closer to the image we were created, and to tell better stories that include grace, reconciliation, virgin birth, miracles, seas parting, burning bushes, the Holy Spirit, death, and resurrection.

Peace,
Ross

ENNEAGRAM & CREATING CULTURE.

So hopefully you took THIS ENNEAGRAM TEST yesterday. It was very self-revealing to me. This was quite possibly the most revealing personality test i've ever taken.

I scored Type #4.

Fours are unique and create their own distinct culture. They experience the highs and lows of life intensely. They take great pride in their aesthetic tastes...

It's a great descriptor of the creative artist.

What was revealing though, was not the "creating their own distinct culture" part, but the "experiencing the highs and lows with intensity" part.

This is completely me!

This answers my ULCER questions...I'm either WAY up, or WAY down.

I could call this a curse, but instead i'll explain my take...

I hate plateau. I have no interest in status quo. If you look at my music catalogue (the stuff I write, or the stuff I listen to), there's very little mid-tempo, mid-intensity, music in the playlist(s). I either like stuff that's in your face and over the top, or stuff that's extremely minimalist and subdued. I listen to progressive stuff, risky stuff, that people either love or hate.

As I tackle leadership, momentum, change, pace, etc, I try to stay in the poles - either really high, or really low. Let me explain.

Some risks end in failure (the low). Some risks end in home runs (the high).
I'm ok with both of those places. I just love to try new things - to risk new things.

What I'm not ok with, is maintaining. I see plateau as slow death. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that's how I operate.

I cringe at the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

On a cultural level, you'll never hear me say, "those were the days..." But even more distasteful, is the attitude of trying to be in the current fad. Fads fade. Fads are temporal. And if you focus on the current, you waste a lot of creative time on what might just be a fly-by-night trend.

I'm much more interested in creating future culture (even if that means I misread trends and context, and what I create is discarded and forgotten). At least, I'm looking ahead and working creatively to create newness, richness, and hope. Because nothing in the future-minded creative process is lost. It all sharpens and refines.

I hope you'll take the test if you haven't already, and that it's as meaningful to you, in connecting the dots, as it has been for me.

Peace,
Ross

Tension.

Today, I just want to post a handful of questions surrounding TENSION...

Word Animation - Tension from Andrea Blanco on Vimeo.

How do you effectively live in tension without the aide of Pepcid AC and other ulcer meds?

If you're a leader, when conflict and tension arise, how do you deal with it?
-do you immediately quell it?
-do you immerse yourself into it?
-do you work to create it?

What does the perfect leadership scenario look like?
-is it mostly lived IN or OUT of tension?

If you're an artist, how often are you in tension?
-when aren't we?


Please leave some comments & embrace the tension!

Peace,
Ross

You Don't Have to Re-invent the Wheel...

Are you an artist, a business, a church, an organization constantly scratching your head trying to figure out the best way to capitalize on what people (your community) want, need, and desire?

You might spend countless hours doing your homework, brainstorming, and creating just the right slogan, method, song, or campaign to speak their language, and connect.

But are you using your resources?
Are you capitalizing on amazing technology and tools that are already right at your finger tip?

Consider this...

Search LOCAL FAVORITES & LOCAL POPULARITY on Amazon.com and you'll instantly know what's on the minds of your community. This information will tell you what interests they have. If you're trying to break into a new market, do the same. Look at reviews and understand the language of the community and utilize it!

Do the same with Pandora, Netflix, etc.

It's all there.

So take a deep breath and relax...you don't have to re-invent the wheel!

Peace,
Ross

Outsourcing God - book excerpt #19

Here's another excerpt from my upcoming book, Outsourcing God. Enjoy!

© 2010 Ross Christopher Donaldson.

I’ve since learned that surrounding myself with passionate people and giving them freedom to take chances (win or lose) is the way to truly lead. One specific area that excels in this arena is our creative planning and brainstorm process. This is the team of people that are passionate about communicating vision, mission, and making a difference through art and beauty. But the group is also intentionally composed of individuals that are first, second, and third time visitors.

What I soon learned was the more I could tap the mind of our un-churched and dis-churched community, the more accurate questions we could ask, the closer our language resembled the community’s, and the more authentic we were. Not to mention, there is immediate buy-in when you’re on the creation side of things.

And in one afternoon huddled around dry erase boards and empty pizza boxes, I know without a doubt that this amazing network of people are asking and addressing the questions that are on the minds of our un-churched and dis-churched community.


Peace,
Ross

What Else is Life For?

If you've read the blog before, you'll know that i'm currently in the process of writing a book that discusses leadership, vision, strategy, etc. I also read a lot of books on the subject matter and last night read an interesting insight on the concept of time.

As individuals, we all have witnessed a leader emerge, power brokered, and influence made. And we could spend hour upon hour discussing his/her qualities that made this leadership come to fruition. But one thing that we all have in common is time. No matter how powerful the individual, influential the leader, or creative the artist, we all are dealt the same amount of time (Sanders).

It's something I had really never stopped to think about. I can complain that I haven't been given equal opportunities, experiences, resources to strengthen my leadership, craft, or art. But I cannot say the same about time. The ways in which I spend my time are crucial to what is produced. If you find yourself glued to the tv, hulu, or XBox; I apologize if i'm hitting too close to home.

So make what you can of the time you're given. Learn, expand, dream, and do!

I'll leave you with a quote/story more poignant than mine...Michelangelo was pressed to finish a large project on time, and someone warned, "This may cost your life!" He replied, "What else is life for?"

Peace,
Ross