Two Notch Immersion Principle

“It doesn’t matter if you’ll never need calculus; you need to take it to learn to think in new ways.”

RJ Martoia, my dad.

Great leadership requires very good communication. This is no secret and has been stated in all the literature on the topic. There are two sides to the communication coin however. There is the “material I communicate” side and the “how well I verbally pass on the information” side. The material side is the focus of this little nugget.

Every communicator sooner or later (usually later) learns good communication down line or to teammates requires you having unusual clarity and command of your material. The 2 notch immersion principle says, to communicate well at a certain level requirees you to be conversant with the same material at least a couple notches above what you are passing on. Take an algebra teacher; algebra teacher training includes trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus training. Why? Because understanding two notches above gives deeper and greater insight into the fundamentals of what is being explained at the algebra level.

This approach to better communication requires some immersion in the topic if you really want to feel equipped and be prepared. This is true in almost every area of communication. Are you reading 2 notches up in theology and biblical material (you are going to be increasingly asked biblical and theological questions in our postmodern world)? Are you reading 2 notches ahead in how teams develop (you are starting to teach others how to develop teams aren’t you)? Here is the diagnostic question; where do I need clearer communication?

Start working toward that 2 notch higher mark.

THE 12 STEP PRIMER FOR MASTERING CHANGE

Change. Some hate it, others fear it, some sleep through it. But a few select – the achievers – welcome it and throw the rest of us into turmoil.
Erik Olesen – Mastering the Winds of Change

 

Erik Olesen in a recent book discusses the 12 non-negotiables of being change resilient. His 12 steps are discussion worthy.

1. View change as an exhilarating challenge. Turn the challenge positive, convert fear to energy, seize the opportunity. Your view makes the difference.
2. Build commitment to your job. Learn to have passion, love and compelling goals; no heart without these in place.
3. Stay committed. Persist and stay missionally focused.
4. Know when to control and when to let go. You can’t control everything, so let go of what you can’t.
5. Deal with set backs. They strengthen and teach you. Don’t bury them. That will be counterproductive.
6. Be optimistic. Hope based on realistic evaluation. This is not idealism or pie-in-the-sky responsibility.
7. Use humor – lots.
8. Learn from mistakes. Don’t over inflate. No self-pity.
9. Maintain perspective. Spiritual input & day retreats. Sitting and walking Meditations
10. Tune the body. Exercise is key to balance.
11. Build your confidence. Great preparation, knowledge and visualizing the result will be great rehearsal.
12. Communicate and help others. Get and give support. The Lone Ranger is a TV show – not reality. Even he had Tonto.

Starting Fires: Leadership and Pyrotechniques

Second order change always requires doing something in or to the system previously not done, everything else is simply a repeat performance.

Peter Berquist, The Postmodern Organization

We want to learn to start fires as often as possible. 1st order change, while periodically effective, rarely produces the kind of permanence we desire. Here are some of the things to look for:

When attempting to implement a change, and stubborn resistance seems to prevail, ask this question “Is my approach applying a ‘more of the same’ solution?” Are you simply yelling a little louder, applying a little more grease to the same squeaky spot or trying to motivate the same tired component into effectiveness? These are “more of the same” solutions.

Step back and refuse to look at pieces of the system and instead view the entire system. “More of the same” is usually inability to see the forest because of moving from tree to tree. Component enhancement, fixing and tweaking are always pendulums and never fire. Remember our Pendulums and Fire discussion? Ask instead how could the whole system or situation be altered? This usually occurs through the introduction of a new component into the system. This by definition changes the relationships through the system of the various components.

Last, always look at the place of greatest resistance in the system. This is generally the place the fire should be lit. Change will be massive and swift. Often a “why didn’t I see that before” will result once the change is implemented, proving you finally set a fire and are on your way to systemic 2nd order change.

And let me just say if you haven’t read Berquist’s book quoted above.  You are missing out.  Even as old as it is it might be one of the best to read on pomo orgs.

Limitations and Innovations

Let Limitations guide you to breakthroughs.
Price Pritchett

 

When we speak of doing things in a ‘new way’ for some this brings feelings of frustration and stymied paralysis. Every great discovery, invention, or breakthrough was previously thought to be ‘impossible.’ Simply stated ‘limitations’ are pathways to innovation, creativity and paradigm shifting. But they only function as pathways (instead of roadblocks) if we can reframe them as exciting catalysts and opportunities.

Limitations and constraints, the seeking of the better approach, force us out of standard operating procedure. They often force us to look to the experts – whether in the print of podcast versions. But here is the downside of that solution approach, it may slam the door to creativity and make us rut ridden if the experts haven’t encountered our scenario. Only 5% of us can innovate a new model of anything says Stanford Research. Why? My guess is we have wrongly conceived that innovation and new paths are the domain of the genius. Instead, let limitations or the quest for a better way push you toward greater cleverness, solutions of simplicity and elegance. This is the domain of the spirit inside us all, this is the arena of the imago dei.

Feel cornered by a tough situation, pressured to cut a new path? Look for the trap door of innovation, resist the temptation for over-the-counter mass-produced solutions, and use the escape route of creativity to write a new recipe or redesign the blue-prints. Creativity is more exhilarating, productive and fits the context much better than the pre-packaged ones off the shelves.

This is the new leadership download, not established repertoire leadership, but the in-the-moment-make-it-happen inspiration rooted in the image of God at our core.

Pendulums and Fire

Most change in organizations is 1st order change, the change of the pendulum. We seek 2nd order change, the transformation of fire. Peter Berquist, The Postmodern Organization

Growth, life development and organizational change have at least one thing in common; they all face the potential rubber band cycles of movement to the new and then reversion to the old. Each time a change forward happens it has to fight the gravitational pull backward of the old. This back and forth pendulum-like motion is labeled 1st order change. You look at almost anything in life and this initial change forward can only ‘stick’ if it gets out of the gravitational field of the old orbit. Pendulums are predictable, cyclical, and pictures of entropy. Pendulum change is essentially system tweaking, members of the system doing more or less of something they have always done before, as a result 1st order change is reversible and threatened by the pull of yesterday.

The change of fire however is quite different. This 2nd order change is transformation that occurs through being forced to do something new that has never been done before. This is the exact opposite of more of the same.  This is an effort to intentionally do something of a totally different sort.  The problem? Fire is unpredictable, chaotic, gravity defying, linear and irreversible. What is the point of this paradigm of change?

In any transformation, we are usually working with 1st order change tools when we actually need 2nd order change. We almost always prefer pendulums to fire.  Pendulums are clean, elegant, predictable and listen carefully…hypnotic.  They makes us think something is happening but slowly bring us back to a hypnotized stupor.

Evaluate how much change you make in your area of ministry or life that is 1st or 2nd order change. You will probably find the greatest changes made were almost always by fire, but most solutions you’ve explored are pendulums.

Pulled or Pushed

Change happens when we become discontent enough with the status quo to actively take steps.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The above stated catalyst for change is now well known. Typically, say the experts, some discomfort must be felt to move humans and organizations off the comfortability of dead center. Why would any of us spend the time and feel the pain that change brings when things are nicely coasting along?

This model of how change is initiated essentially says change happens when we are EJECTED from the present due to some crisis, pain, or discontent. This paradigm may in fact be accurate. But the question is, should it be? Should we always be PUSHED form the present as if growth is always driving us away from something or should we instead look ahead in the cool and calm of current peace and seek to be PULLED into a preferable future?

My desire is to see us create through visionizing prayer future scenarios that are so compelling and so motivating that we are pulled toward them. This seems to be a far cry from the “ejection from the present” model of most change theorists. If we can be pulled to the future instead of pushed from the present, we are setting ourselves up for significant momentum and health.

Key steps:
1.    Constantly envision your preferable future.  Are you operating from a quiet center where intuition emerges from the future?  (this is the topic of a book I am writing for release in late 0
2.    Daily build architecture that prepares for that future. Are you constantly positioning yourself for that future when it arrives?
3.    Keep others motivated toward that future instead of motivated by crisis.
4.    Keep your pulse on “am I being pushed or pulled?”
5.    Keep fresh input in your life to prevent rut formation.   New knowledge streams stand as the single most important habit of my life.

VISION EVAPORATES

Vision is the big picture of the preferable future you are painting for your organization or team. But vision evaporates. People simply have so much on their individual platters that here is no way or them to keep the important things constantly in the forefront of their minds. That is the job of leadership. One organization when compiling all forms of communication with their employees for the last year found that only 1% of it was about the visionary company-wide change initiative they were about to undertake. Huge stop sign there, uh?

I am working with a church in South Bend right now that has just gone through the challenging process of crafting a clear and articulate vision statement.  No one would have ever calculated the important ripple this would have throughout the ranks for leadership into the congregation.  The excitement and ethos this is creating is nothing short of remarkable. But without this great vision being spread around, talked about, hired to, and the tape measure of success it will simply evaporate like the morning dew.

What is the cumulative exposure your team has had to the mission and vision? Never minimize the now famous trickle-down effect.

How often do you assess mission drift in your area? Here is a crucial leadership task. Ruthless, frequent evaluation keeps the troops from wheel-spinning frustration and precious time waste.  How often are you evaluating what you do in your ministry areas and initiatives against whether it advances the cause of vision accomplishment?

How often do you point the way for your team? Vision evaporates and without constant vigilance here, fuzzy thinking will set in. Many will tell you vision casting is THE fundamental leadership necessity.

How often do you make others on the team cast the vision? This is forced 3rd party learning. This shows how well you are pushing vision out into the rippling concentric circles of your team and organism.

New Discourse for Our Day

Realize that old communication patterns are less and less effective in the new (postmodern) world, and discover new, appropriate models of discourse.
Brian McLaren
The tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet are not only signs of subterranean movement but of a new emerging landscape that will require new maps. Every quadrant on both sides of the sacred/secular line, a line that shouldn’t even exist,  tells us “story” is THE postmodern way to communicate. Points and principles aren’t as effective as they used to be. Experience wins the day and story is experience.

Of course, Jesus is the master storyteller captivating the masses with parables, allegories, and illustrations. Here are five pointers toward a new rhetoric for post modernity:

1.    Words will have to be authenticated with a life-story. Authenticity is necessary in the crucible of the experiential 21st century. Practical transformation is “story” proof.
2.    Truth will be just as important but it will be clean, simple and with an earthiness often illusive in today’s cumber-some techno-babble and christianese.
3.    Our new narrative will allow others to enter in and tell their own story and see how they are part of God’s overarching story. This will allow a left brain/right brain balance and be more inclusive, compelling and creative.
4.    We will seek to move away from the propositionalizing tendency that reduces the biblical story to a bunch of biblical stories with the same weight as Bill Bennett’s Book of Virtues or Aesop’s Fables.
5.    We will recognize the power of the biblical narrative is to invite us to constantly reinterpret our life story, with all it’s brokenness, pain and incompleteness against the wholeness and hope bringing narrative of the biblical story.  It is this that makes Christianity unique.

REMEMBER THE THREE C’S

Don’t confuse openness with ownership. Owning a vision comes through labor intensive repetition. There is no other way. Many are open – only the repeatedly exposed fan come to own it.
Max DuPree

For some reason the importance of vision falls on hard times periodically. But I have to say, I am a fan. I still don’t know an organization or church that accomplishes anything without some vision. Every church I am working with these days is getting big bang out the hard spade work of reflecting on their vision. So a couple questions for you as you think about this topic.

Are you certain on the big picture for the organization and your area? Is it clean, compelling and creative in your mind? If not re-tool, revamp and reconsider. In a word or phrase – what is your role in implementing the organization’s mission? What do you do day in and day out that moves the team toward the summit?

CLEAR – You must have crystal clarity on your organizational and departmental mission. Are you totally certain and exacting about your role? Is your time missionally invested? Clouds and haze shroud moutain peaks. If you aren’t sure of the direction, the expedition will die on the mountainside.

COMPELLING – Can you paint the picture to others? What colors do you use? Most of our palettes are black and white with a few shades of gray for variety. Brainstorm a new color scheme. Think bigger. No one will give their life to summit a molehill.

CREATIVE – How many different ways can it be said, preached, illustrated, graphic-ed, and slogan-ed. One of your jobs is to make sure your fellow climbers don’t nod off to sleep due to the numbness of boredom. Missional freshness is a monstrous leadership task and essential to a successful climb. How much time and how do you log fresh, exciting, and creative ways to point others to the peak?

The Retention Factor

All great minds have learned how to learn and how to retain.

John Gardner, Harvard Professor

Why do some people just seem to have great memories and others of us struggle to remember where we put our car keys (well that could be an aging issue there)? The answer? All of us remember what we deem important and then store away for recall. While everyone has unconscious ways they store and retrieve important items, here are some of the strongest tips for peak performance in recall and using information you are learning or reading. And can I share with you a secret…I didn’t make these up, I was taught these by two people who I thought were genius and had amazing memories.  You know what they told me?  Both said, “I am not a genius, just disciplined at remembering what I want to remember.”  That is a big nugget.  Was it Einstein that said “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?  Well there you go…start some new habits.

1.    Take the 3rd party learning approach as much as possible. This means learning and reading as if you were going to teach the same material to someone tonight.
2.    Within 48 hours of learning something you want to seal in your memory go find someone and share it with them. No one available? Tell the cat. And you know what I hate cats
3.    Associate a memorable key word or phrase with that material, and place in a visible location for 1 week.
4.    Review your new learning once a week for 4 weeks. People don’t review.  You don’t review you won’t remember, it is that simple.

If you diligently do these four things your retention will dramatically rise and people will think you are a genius. The kingdom implications are enormous – your command of scripture, leadership principles, parenting nuggets to pass on will surprise even you.