Here are some misc. ramblings of events, experiences, and ideas from the month of May that never made it on a post.
ONE: The word entrepreneur did not exist until about 1950! Covert and Sattersten say, "entrepreneurship is hip, treacherous and vital." Three intriguing words. When I think of some of the entrepreneurs I know, I think they are accurate.
TWO: In 2007, there were about 11,000 business books published. That includes books on leadership and management! Good luck if you are planning on trying to get published in that field in 2009.
THREE: We have been using the language of "growth engines" quite a bit in recent months at Living Word. A growth engine is simply the strategy or means or way that your organization is going to grow. It can be a product, an experience, or anything your customer/consumer wants. It is very difficult to find good, sustainable growth engines.
In the business world, only 25% of new initiatives actually create value and add to the growth of the organization. The average success for new products is a little less than one third. And only 10% of start companies succeed! Wow.
I would guess that in the world of church and mission, our successful, new initiatives would not be any higher in their percentage. In a cultural era where Christianity is on the decline in the United States, we better start becoming a lot more creative with growth engines.
FOUR: As I work on this Podge of Hodge, I am listening to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Their album Places is playing right now. Tales From the Acoustic Planet comes up next on my iTunes library.
If you have never listened to Bela... get on Pandora Radio and create a Bela Fleck station.
FIVE: Here is a great "trinity" of qualities that are needed for any new program, any new ministry, any new church that we begin. Anything new must be:
Fundamentally Innovative
Morally Compelling
Philosophically Positive
I found that list intriguing as a litmus test for anything new I begin. The issue of innovative and creative is a growing theme in the literature I read. One of the interesting lists of books that was in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time was the number of books on creativity. Somewhere I have heard that the MFA (Master's of Fine Arts) is the new MBA! I am currently reading,
The Back of the Napkin which describes how to be creative through visual thinking.
And morally compelling. I think that is more true than ever in light of the financial collapse of 2009 that was in part due to moral shortcomings in almost every sector of American life.
Philosophically positive - I'm not sure I quite know what that exactly means! But I am going to think about it for a while.
SIX: And speaking of fine arts and creativity, one of my friends, Vince Butera, is a master florist. Once you buy from Vince, from that point on, it is
"nothing but Butera" for my wife. Vince creates masterpiece floral arrangements. He is truly an artist and his medium is flowers. You can check them out at
Butera's website. Vince also has a
blogsite where he does some occasional posting.
SEVEN: If I could attend any one conference this year, I would choose the TED conference.
Here is the TED website link and if you go there, you can find a link for their annual conference. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It is a think tank of sorts. Their annual conference is by invite only. 50 speakers are invited to talk for 18 minutes (and that is it). Everyone listens to every speaker. There are no breakout sessions, so everyone has the same experience. Listening to 50 of the smartest people give their best talk in 18 minutes. First, I would die just to be able to hear these superb examples of communication. Second, their content would be amazing. If you ever want to just get major intellectual stimulation, check out the resources on TED. I also have this as a link on a sidebar, so you can always find this site later.
EIGHT: May was "mulching" month. While it is hard work (we spread 12 cubic yards of mulch, a good size dump truck almost full), it is well worth it. Mulch makes the garden look great, but it does much more than that. It helps the soil hold moisture and it cuts down on weeds. That means less work watering throughout the summer and less work weeding.
Read about The Scoop on Mulch. NINE: I have been in a better rhythm for working out at Strictly Fitness. My knees have been hurting so I haven't done as much running, so I upped the weight workout. For the most part, I do moderate weight with medium reps (8-12) and low weight with high reps (14-20). This 52 year old body doesn't handle the weights the way the young bucks do at the gym. But the 52 year old ego tries anyway.
TEN: The new Star Trek movie rocks. Awesome. Of course I am an old Trekkie and this one is the best movie yet. And for a leadership angle, read leadership lessons from the Star Trek Bridge at this Fast Company link.
ELEVEN: Here are few websites to check out.
Change This. A new kind of media for the spreading of ideas.
The 100 Best Business Books. If you don't have time to read, you can get summaries through this site.
Gentle Teaching. This is a way of teaching those who have disabilities. Very interesting.
digg.com. If you want to get information, this is a great place to start digging. Read the About section first.
If you want to read some of the top business cliches, this is the place to go.
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Okay, that's all the Podge of Hodge and Bits of Tid for the month of May.
Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
