LeadershipConneXtions

What Does Our Customer Truly Value

It is no good knowing who your target audience / customer is. You must also know:

What do they truly value?

Now, this is a tricky matter!

What do they value?
What do they want?
What do they need?

Not what do you think they value, want and need . . .

And this is where many organizations get into trouble. They believe that they know what is best for the target audience (and indeed, you may indeed know), but then they assume that is what the audience believes, values, wants and needs.

NOT NECESSARILY SO . . .

What does your target audience value?

This is a challenging questions that can only be answered by talking to the "customer" and finding out what they want, need and desire.  

Way too many churches have "gone out of business" because they thought they knew what the customer wanted and it turns out, the church was wrong. They were offering something that the customer didn't want and so they stopped coming. 

Many battles have been fought and lost in churches, as leaders tried (unsuccessfully) to get the congregation/audience to buy into a vision/mission that the congregation did not want!

We were scratching where they didn't itch.

(By the way - this is a huge issue and what to do when this happens is quite complex.)

"The customer is always the boss" is a Druckerism. They vote with their feet and their wallets. 
 

Deeply pleasing your core, loyal customers, so they become Raving Fans -- Vital and Essential. Customer loyalty is shorter than its ever been. Options are endless. If you don't meet their needs well, they will quickly find someone else who can.

It is hopeless protesting that THIS IS NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE . . .

Protest all you want, but THIS IS HOW IT TRULY IS . . .

At LCI, we believe we know what leaders need, but we also know that leaders are not always willing to make the investment for what they truly need. So we do a lot of work to stimulate awareness and a sense of deep need, along with repercussions of not moving in these personal developmental directions; and finally, giving what we hope is an inspiring vision of who they can become!

We wrestle with offering a produce/service/relationship that we know they need, but they may not desire or want enough. In some cases, we say, "If you don't want this, that's okay, there are others who do." 

Then in some cases, we believe is worthwhile to be patient with the process of creating awareness and desire.

Navigating the tension of faithfulness to God and His mission and doing so in a way that attracts and keeps the target audience - that tension is going to be with us a long time.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Who is Your Customer

Okay, I know many people don't like the language of "customer." They think it is too much of a business term, a marketing or sales term.  Don't let that get in your way. If you don't like that word, pick one of the following, or come up with your own:

• client, 
• patient, 
• student, 
• target audience, 
• mission field, 
• fan base, 
• receiver of services . . .

Here is the key point:

This is the group of people who will be interested in your mission, and more specifically, what you have to OFFER TO THEM.

Too often, we don't have clarity about our "target audience." We drift and collect and expand endlessly to accommodate many audiences... and as that happens, we lose our focus. Many churches especially have this problem, finding it hard to "say not" to all audiences.

I love this image (which is found here, check out the site with its great ideas) because it means there is a real focus on who your target audience is.

So, as you think about your mission, you have to do so in terms of your target audience. Who is it you want to help, change, add value, and make a difference?

Focus is needed.

Leadership ConneXtions, our mission is to resource under-resourced global leaders.

We have two essential audiences. There is that large group of under-resourced leaders out there and everywhere.  But, to reach them, we have a more CORE audience. That audience is senior leaders who are developmentally minded and looking to be resourced so they can, in turn, develop other leaders.

So our "tag line" is leaders resourcing leaders. Or, "mentors equipping mentors." Or, "trainers empowering trainers." You get the sense of our core audience.

Who is your customer/audience?
 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Among Six Types Of Failure, Only A Few Help You Innovate | Co.Design

Fail early and fail often. I use that phrase over and over again in teaching the design process. Borrowed from the world of computer programming, it expresses the urgency of getting iterations out into the world early in the process so that they can be tested, debugged, redesigned, and refined. The sooner in the process one does it, the more likely one can bake meaningful adjustments into the final product. To me, this is a golden rule of design.

via www.fastcodesign.com

Tis is a nice article on FAILURE which shows that some types of failure are useful in the learning process, while others are counter-productive.

What is Our Mission?

The best thing I can do is just give you some good questions to ask. Then, what will matter is if you spend some time reflecting on these questions. So pull out some paper, get your journal, if you need, print this page out and keep it with you.

For right now, don't worry about distinctions between mission, vision, purpose... While those things are important, for many of us, it bogs us down.

Here is a site that gives some help on drafting a mission statement if you don't have one. It is also the source of this image. Check them out.

*  What is your mission?

*  How memorable, succinct, clear and compelling is it?

*  Is it current and up-to-date?

*  Does this mission generate deep passion and radical commitment?

*  Does it add value to the world in a way that makes you want to dedicate yourself fully to its accomplishment?

*  Is it worthy of your life?

*  Is it a mission from God?

*  Is it a small or grand mission?  (A comfort zone vision or out of the comfort zone way of living.)

*  How much time have you spent this week thinking about, praying about, dreaming about, and above all, working toward your mission?

*  Who is on board with this mission/vision? (Who is partnering with you for this dream?)

*  What are you doing to promote and spread the mission?

Such BASIC stuff... but it must be revisited constantly, for mission drift/leak is constant. 

Without profound self-awareness about MISSION, it will be virtually impossible for you to live a HIGHLY INTENTIONAL life.

Here is one mission statement that grabbed me.
 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Back to the Basics . . . Always Going Back

Peter Drucker reminds us that the basics are essential, foundational, core, central . . . and without constant diligence, attending to them - organizations suffer. 

About a month ago I read a little book by the Leader to Leader Institute which had Drucker and others talking about:

The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization.

It was a deceptively short, simple book -- and yet, launched hours of assessment and reflection for me.

In one sense, thinking about these questions is how you will "make the most of the time that has been allotted to you."

Here are those five most important questions:

1.  What is our Mission?

2.  Who is our Customer?  

3.  What does the Customer truly Value?

4.  What Results are you Getting?

5.  What is your plan?

I am going to have brief thoughts on each of these important questions in the days that follow.

After those posts, I am going to shift gears and talk about learning and creativity.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com 

Satisfice . . . Let the Buyer Beware (and a sad story about Apple customer service)

SATISFICE...

I hadn't heard the word before.

But now I know it and I like it.

Satisfy + Suffice = Satisfice

Satisfice: It means that when we look for solutions to problems, we tend to take the FIRST OPTION that seems GOOD ENOUGH . . . instead of looking for the BEST OPTION.

Why do we do this?

*  Because finding the best option is more time and work.

*  Because we are in a hurry and have deadlines to meet.

*  Because time is money and immediate profit is our highest value.

*  Because we are lazy and undisciplined (only wear this if the shoe fits . . .)

*  Because our North  American culture has a "get it done quickly" mentality.

*  Because we are addicted to the mediocrity of "good enough."
 

Note: Not my particular Genius Bar

I recently had a HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE with Apple Computers. I won't go into all the details, but in the end, they were satisfied with a "good enough" diagnosis of what was wrong with my computer. This was one that would cost them the least. They went with it . . . and it didn't work.

My three trips to the store... the first time to have the problem inaccurately diagnosed... the second time (about 8 days later)  to leave my computer at the store... and the third time (having lost a work week without my computer) to pick it up... only to find out that they had been satisfied with good enough...

Which then required another trip back... and then another trip later to drop off the computer again... and then a final trip back to pick it up... (but I jump ahead).

And in this case, good enough wasn't even close.

I am a Raving Fan of Apple Computers.

At this point - I am NOT a raving fan of their service.

Then I thought, hmmm, how many times have I offered what I thought was "good enough answers, good enough service, good enough mentoring, good enough curriculum, good enough teaching..." and in truth - it is not good enough.

Not nearly good enough . . .

After all, Jim Collins did not write a best seller called:

From Average to Just About Good Enough!
 

p.s.  At this time of this writing, it is more than a week since I "hassled" with their Genius Bar people and they told me they would order the other part and call me as soon as it comes in.  Hmmm...  I guess slow inventory processes are also "Good Enough for Apple."

p.p.s.  To be fair... the other day they busted themselves to give me better service and they did... Two more trips later... but things are working very well now.

p.p.p.s.  I apologize to everyone to whom I have ever given just about good enough service to.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

You Are NOT a Good Multi-Tasker

I love the Internet, but . . .

Give me three to five minutes of your time and attention and permission to annoy you a bit, perhaps stimulate your synapses and even provide a bit of perspective.

**********
Part One:  The Urban Myth/Legend. 

We've all heard of Urban Myths.

Those fictitious stories that are told so often and by so many that we simply assume they are true. Their volume and frequency (and sensationalism) are just accepted as so.

But an Urban Myth is, well, a myth... not true... in fact - made up... actually False.

It is also easier than ever for Urban Myths to spread like wildfire thanks to the Internet. But give an anthropologist/sociologist a little time and they will track these myths down and back to their originating sources (or real close).

Here is an URBAN MYTH of sorts. 
It is one you have repeated.
It is one you believe.

Urban Myth #1:  We are getting better and better at multi-tasking. The advent of the internet age and communication technologies in general has created a new generation of multi-taskers unlike anything in previous history. 

Urban Myth #2:  I (fill in your name _________) am good at multi-tasking. I can surf the net, chat with a dozen facebook friends, IM to half dozen friends with my phone, even talk to one of them, while I listen to my iPod... etc.

I like to call this an Uber Urban Myth.
Ubiquitous and False.

You are not a good multi-tasker. You are not even a multi-tasker. Brain research and studies of cognition, learning, memory, etc. show that the brain does not multi-task.

Your brain does not multi-task.

Now, let me annoy (even irritate) you for a moment. Research consistently refutes your biased and wrong interpretation of your personal anedoctal experiences. No matter what you think about what you are doing (and how well you are doing it) you are not the rare exception. In fact, to be honest, you are just one of the crowd, just like everyone else.

You can't escape your physiology . . . or what culture is doing to it.

You are not a good multi-tasker!

 

*********
Part Two:  Switch-tasking. 

That is what your brain actually does. It doesn't work on things simultaneously, it works on them sequentially. Your brain is constantly switching things from the environment that is presenting itself to you, into your actual Working Memory. You switch your focus and attention from one thing to the next.

But, the news is not so rosy on Switch Tasking. Again, research is consistently showing that:

(1)  Your brain has the capacity to switch between fewer tasks than originally thought. Probably 3 or 4 is the number... and some think that is generous. That is all the working memory can hold or better, switch back and forth between.

(2)  You pay a "switching cost" every time you "switch tasks" from one thing to another. In one sense, your Working Memory has to reload or reorient. The brain needs time to change goals, to remember the rules needed for a particular task and to block out cognitive interference.

(3)  Too much switch tasking impairs brain functioning and literally, short-circuits understanding, which means learning is diminished, memory is lessened and of course, reforming of one's way is minimized.

Today, our world is an endless experience of switch-tasking, in greater frequency than ever. In fact, it is virtually non-stop. And, contrary to Urban Myth, you are not getting better at it, you are not taking the next step up in evolutionary cognitive development. Actually, you are regressing in important ways.

 

**********
Part Three:  Tag Lines to Ponder

Now, here are some great one-liners to consider. They all come from researchers who are describing what our internet world is doing to us. (They can all be found in The Shallows or in Distracted.)
 

The Internet is a "concentration fragmenting machine."

The Internet is an "interruption system for dividing attention."

The Internet is an "ecosystem of interruption technologies."

The Internet has taught us to be "skillful at being superficial."

The Internet "seizes our attention only to scatter it."

"We are training our brains to pay attention to crap."

"We are relentless seekers of irrelevance."

We live in a permanent condition of "continuous partial attention."

"We are devolving from being cultivators of personal knowledge
to being hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forrest."

 

**********
Part Four:  Me Personally . . .

Am I against the Internet?
Selectively not!

Am I concerned about what the Internet does to us and our lack of awareness of what it is doing?
Sincerely YES!

I use the Internet a lot. It is a vital tool. I don't ever want to even remotely go back to pre-Internet times.

But, I spend several hours a day:

in reading, study and learning;
in prayer, reflection and discernment;
in personal journaling and professional writing; 
in meaning making and soul shaping . . .

and all of that is apart from the Internet or the larger ecosystem of communication technologies.

Out of those above activities emerges a LIFE that is primed for ACTION, Missional Engagement with our world. A life, that I trust will be responsible, authentic, meaningful and ultimately fruitful and pleasing to Christ.

I am fully concerned about the growing disappearance of those activities from our Networked New World.

Therefore, I am just as concerned about whether, we as a community will sustain faithful, substantial lives who bear the Image of Christ in that world. 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

 

 

 

Oratory

How would you like to listen to this preacher, whose preaching about the Apostle Paul, was described with these words:

"I found myself hanging on the lips of the orator, fascinated by his boldness, his grace, his energy, and his art, his sincerity and his talent . . .

He made the whole St. Paul, martyr, apostle, and man - his grief, his charities, his tenderness - live again before us, and this with a grandeur, an unction, a warmth of reality, such as I had never seen equalled."  (Henri Amiel)

St. Paul Preaching in Athens

Communication is a gift that is essential for effective leadership. And communication that appeals to the intellect, arouses the affections and moves the will . . . Whether preaching, teaching, motivating, or any other of communication . . .

May God increase the number of those who communicate with a new unction.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

"F" Reading on the Internet

This post is what is called an "internet page."
Do you know how long the "average view" of any internet page is?

10 Seconds !!!

So, if you are like most people, then you will give ten seconds of your time to reading this post.

And how you read material on the internet is different from how you read a book. They call it:

F Reading.

It is F reading, because the letter F is the pattern for how your eyes move through internet presented information.
 

We know this: You don't read internet presented information in a way that is methodical and comprehensive. 

You don't read line by line.

Instead, you skim and scan, quickly, through text.

You skip and dip down the page.

You glance across the first few lines entirely.

Then your eyes drop down the page. You scan about halfway across a few more lines.

Then you drift down the rest of the page, catching only a few of the first words.

 

Get this . . .

For every 100 words of text, you spend 4.4 seconds reading them! 

18 words in 4.4 seconds!

That's what accomplished (really good) readers can read

That means your internet reading engages less then 20% of the content of a page! And this is a very generous overstatement of how much you get.
 

Net Reading is actually a misnomer.

Internet reading is not reading as the word has been defined.

Even less is it reflective and contemplative of what is being read.

Let's call it what it is.

Net Browsing.


 

Let's mourn what is lost in the act of browsing . . .

*  Comprehension . . .

*  Enlightenment . . .

*  Integration . . .

*  Transformation . . .

Whatever else we may gain from Power Browsing and Net Reading, I'm not sure it is worth the exchange!

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 internet surfing image found here

power browsing image found here

 

True or False: Experience is the Best Teacher...

Experience is the best teacher.

Really?

Who decided that?

How did they come to that conclusion?

I could give you a dozen reasons why this isn't true and a dozen stories to illustrate what it's not true.

But since people don't read long posts, I won't! Instead, let me suggest what is true.
 

Experience that you reflect on deeply and from which you extract the vital lessons that can be applied - now that is a real good teacher.

But experience by itself - a teacher?  NOPE... not even is experience not the best teacher, it isn't even a very good teacher.

It's all to common for us to NOT LEARN ANYTHING from experiences.

It is all to common to completely MISINTERPRET our experience.

And to misunderstand WHY a particular experience happened.

And to KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW . . . experience by itself doesn't show you the way. 

Not only is experience NOT the best teacher, but the tuition costs are very high and the degree awarded isn't very impressive.
 

Experience isn't really a teacher. 
It is the occasion for learning.
Learning depends entirely on what you do with your occasion.

Successful leaders have an "extraordinary tenacity in extracting something worthwhile from their experience and in seeking experiences rich in opportunities for growth." (McCall, Lombardo and Morrison, Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job) 
 

You are going to have a truckload of experiences every week. May they become the occasion and opportunity for you to EXTRACT vital lessons.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions Interntional  
www.lci.typepad.com

The First Responsibility of a Leader . . .

Marvin Gaye sang about it many years ago:

"What's going on . . . what's going on?" 

One leader picked up on this and said:

"The first responsibility of a leader is to figure out what is going on . . . This is never easy to do because situations are rarely black and white. They are a pale shade of gray . . ." (Admiral Trent).

Don't assume you know what is going on. 

In fact, it is probably safer to assume you DON"T KNOW what is going on.

So find out.

HOW?

*  Ask questions.

*  Poke around and explore.

*  Challenge assumptions.

*  Hold your biases "loosely."

*  Try a bold experiment or two.

Yes it's hard work. Yes it takes some time. But that's what leaders do. Or rather, that's what good leaders do. Great leaders do this really, really well.

So, "what's going on.... what's going on.... what's going on..."

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

 

It's Changing Fast All Around Us

It’s really changing, hard and fast all around you.

Here is what is changing for me:

*  iPad technology and learning a new system

*  the communication possibilities using the iPad.

*  The rules of communication with contemporary audiences.

*  How people learn (or better, how they prefer to learn).

*  What people think about the Christian faith. I have been in several settings where it is obvious that once again, the majority are the “cultured despisers of the Christian faith.”

*  What emerging spirituality looks like.

*  New ways of leading in a post-modern (or whatever language we decide to use) world.
 

The common sense, conventional wisdom of leadership is neither common or sensible or conventional or wisdom any longer.
 

My world is changing, hard and fast . . . how about your world?

Look around – what do you see?

And – what are you doing about it?

My recommendation: Be a first adopter and not a late responder. Step out in faith and courage. 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 

Working Harder...Working Smarter

"I've had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good. That's just the way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you'd be surprised by how much fun you can have"  (Woody Hayes).

I certainly understand how Woody Hayes feels.

I've always been around people much smarter than me. But I rarely found people who exceeded my hard work to learn. 

I've been around people who had much more going for them then I did. But I rarely found someone who was as intentional about their personal development as I was.

The Apostle Paul affirms this mindset of being highly intentional when it comes to working hard. He said, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

You've heard it said, "Work smarter not harder."

That is a false dichotomy which will lead you astray.

Back to Jim Collins who affirms the BOTH/AND.

So let's say it this way

"Work smarter AND work harder."

-or maybe-

Work smarter BY working harder.

Work harder BY working smarter.

Today is a good day to get started on this.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Being Lost, Walking in Circles and Having Maps

What happens when we don’t have a destination, a map and/or a compass?

Seth Godin, in Poke the Box, shares this thought from Dr. Jan Souman

Simple – we walk in circles.

Literally!

Lost people walk in circles!

Research literally shows that we walk in circles. 

Are you walking in circles these days?

Closely related is back-tracking and retracing well trod paths.

Even worse, camping out, unable or afraid to venture on.

Are you doing any of this?

 

I was lost the other day. I had my google map quest directions printed out. The road I was suppose to turn on to had a different name then the MapQuest name. So I kept driving, for several more miles, looking in vain for the next part of the directions. So I stopped, got out the DROID and used my navigational app to find out where I was, where I was supposed to be and how I could get there.

 

Leaders can't afford to be lost.

Leaders are those who have their bearings, their orientation, their direction, their goal and who know the way.

Leaders need a map that will help you get to where you’d like to go.

Call it a plan… a way… a process…

These days, I am helping a lot of leaders with “Way-Finding” and “Way-Making.”

To really maximize this post, get out some paper.

What is your current location?

What would you like to be?

What roads will take you to where you’d like to be?

Don't be lost in circle walking.

 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 

Down to Earth Wisdom

Life is tough. But it’s even tougher if you are stupid.  
(John Wayne)

 

So . . . get smart…

become a learner (if you aren’t already)…

start asking questions (lots of them)…

read (PLEASE read and read good stuff)…

double check on what you are learning, the ideas, the insights…

get second opinions…

live accordingly…

 

‘Nuff said’

 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 

A Lament

More often than not, I feel out of step… out of sync…  disconnected… something of an anomaly, a misfit, an oddball.

The experience of being anachronistic is uncomfortable. (Note: Not anarchistic, but I often wonder if there is a connection, for me, between these two?)

Counter-cultural is the polite, positive way of describing myself.

I feel deeply, the tension of being rooted in a culture that is not my home, longing for a better country (Hebrews 11).

The conflict of being in the world and yet not of the world (John 17:15-17)…

Contextualized but not syncretistic (in missiological terms)…

Different but not irrelevant…

As Christ was, the mystics, prophets, poets and artists have always been on the periphery, listening to a different song, touched by another reality, moving to a different heartbeat, seeing an alternative way;  restless, discontent, misunderstood. It is a hard way to make a living.
 

I feel out of step.

J. I. Packer says our North American Christian experience is being 3000 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep.  (A Quest for Godliness)

A pancake culture. Spread wide and thin.

Relationally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually - wide and thin!

Out of step, I long for depth of soul, spirit, intellect, relationships and fortunately, I feel I regularly move into and experience what I long for.

My tension and my lament is that I am an apostle of these realities, an artist/communicator of strange tidings to a world that really is not that interested.

We prefer to have a thousand Facebook Friends (really Acquaintances) who know us shallowly, through the surface impressions we offer, the fleeting glimpses, the chattering of our experiences and the disconnected hodgepodge of our being that is randomly displayed in fragments that make little sense.  This image can be found here.

But, to tell the truth, your Facebook Acquaintances really don't care (much), for they are already updating and refreshing their screen and your comments are 15 minutes out of date.
 

I am a deep reader living in the Age of Power Browsers.

Power Browsers who spend most of their time in the Internet world which is an "ecosystem of interruption technologies."  (quoted in The Shallows)

Power Browsers who want to be distracted. T. S. Eliot speaks of being "distracted from our distraction by distraction" (The Four Quartets)" How prescient are his words, who knew not the age of the ubiquitous, interruption technologies of the internet.

Daily I spend leisurely, lingering time in silence and solitude:  reading, reflecting, discerning, praying and encourage others to do the same.

A Sociology report (2005) described such activities as diminishing and now the experience of what was called a minority reading class, who are viewed as the:

"eccentric practitioners of an increasingly arcane hobby!"

 

I love the wizardry of the well turned phrase, but I live in a Twitter World where writing has been reduced to "a means of recording chatter" (The Shallows).

Virtuosity, poetry and word-smithing are giving way to much mindless, chattering ado about nothing. Which is forgotten as quickly as it is skimmed and scanned. All that we really have is the "illusion" of having been connected to the chatterer.

Interesting, isn't it, to think of the images of two birds, one tweeting and one reading!

 

And spirituality?

What can we say of emerging spirituality in this world?

What of the wisdom of the ageless classics, the guidance of past sages and saints, the hard won experiences of the devout seekers of God? It languishes in obscurity in a world that prefers sound/image bytes delivered in entertaining ways.

Distracted surfing and surface skimming has replaced slow, engaging, soaking and immersing in texts…

Jesus asked his followers, if they were unable to stay with him in wakeful attentiveness for extended prayer? Our spiritual attention spans today seem to be 10-15 seconds (really, that is what internet studies reveal). So, in truth, we must say to Jesus - no, we can't be with you in intentional, deep ways of intimacy.
 

So . . .

I am torn…

I am troubled...

I am tempted…

For this is my world, my culture, my context…

And my mission is to engage this world in which I keenly experience myself as a stranger. Engage this world with wisdom it needs but no longer wants.

And I don't want to be a relic or fossil or the latest in the line of technological Luddites.

So I dispense diet soda ideas that appeal to our cultural tastes, when our need is the nourishing, thick, heady draughts of heavenly nectar (but that full bodied drink is now quite beyond the digestive capacity of our malnourished hearts and minds).

So . . . I water down the truth of the ages and package it in entertaining ways.

And I lament . . .

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 This powerful image can be found here.