LeadershipConneXtions

Creative Job Titles (What Could Yours Be?)

Every now and then I am reading an article and I notice the title of the person who wrote the article. Sometimes these titles/positions are real boring.  

Director of HR... Blah...
CFO... Double blah...
Consultant... Stick a needle in my eye, I am falling asleep

Here is a fun (and useful) little exercise. You'll need a piece of paper to do this well.

First - write down the title of the job position in which you spend the most time. You may have several positions.

Now - write down about a dozen phrases (short ones) that describe the core of what you do in that job position.  Look them over. Which ones grab you? Do you see any creative words that describe what you do? Play around with them... combine a few of them together.

Finally - out of this, come up with a Brand New Job Title that you think would perfectly describe your current job in the way you would like to do it.  And this title should be cool and energizing. And accurate as well.

For Example:

The Old  and  The New

Housewife (becomes)  Director of Domestic Experiences

Event Planner (becomes)   Fun MeisterBergerMeister

4th Grade Teacher  (becomes)  Creative Learning Architect

This is just a fun little exercise to see what you do in a different way. And this way be more energizing than your currenty title/position.

Here is one article that lists some creative job titles.

I have a friend whose team sometimes calls him The Woo Master (a reference to one of his To Five Strengths in the Strengths Finder test).

If you know this test, use one of your top strengths and see how you might define your position using one or more of those key words.

If you come up with something good, send it to me.

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

Good Stewards of Words and Ideas

Marilyn McEntyre's book,  Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is a wonderful contribution to the reclaiming of language and literacy. The chapter titles give you a good sense of the strategy she has to care for words.

Love Words

Tell the Truth

Don't Tolerate Lies

Read Well

Stay in Conversation

Share Stories

Love the Long Sentence (a hard chapter by the way)

Practice Poetry

Attend to Translation

Play

Pray

Cherish Silence

This book is probably not for most people. It is not a "how to" book. It is a well written series of essays that explore the what and the why of caring for words and using words.

Communicators may be interested in it. We should at least be interested in the subject.

For most of us, here is a simple "how-to" program.

• Watch less TV every day.
• During that saved time - READ.
• Interact withthe book - write, underline, jot down observations (in the book, or at the back of the book where there are often several blank pages).
• Look up words you don't know.
• Reflect on anything that grabs your attention.

If you are not a reader, set a goal to read one book a month. This is a very doable goal. If you spend 30 minutes a day, you can do this . . . easily!

Choose a book that is of interest to you.

Make sure it is not too difficult or too long.

You want to get several "wins" and "successes" before you start trying harder books.  Reading several basic books will help you strengthen your reading muscles.

And here is a huge idea. Get a notebook or a journal of some sort and keep track of your "learnings" as you read.  Write down interesting words, phrases, quotes, illustrations.

It will take some effort for us to care for words and use them well.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

The Idea of Primacy and Recency

Primacy and Recency

All this means is that people are mostly likely to remember the first thing and the final thing. Whether it is in a personal encounter with you, whether they are listening to a speaker, whether it is in a team meeting . . . the first and the final are what is most remembered.

So . . . we need to work VERY HARD at the first impression and the final impression. The introduction and the conclusion. The lead in and the take away. This is what is remembered. Unfortunately, we often tend to neglect both.

It is not that the middle, the in-between is unimportant, it is just that it is not the most remembered.

So, whether you are meeting a new customer, presenting a seminar, making a speech, leading a team meeting . . . put a lot more effort into the first and the final if you want others to remember.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions Interntional

Messy and Mysterious

Messy!

Mysterious!

These are two of my favorite words. I've been using them (often) for about ten years now.  They became my friends during the time of my renaissance as a Christian and as a leader. That was the time (1999-2001) when I was in transition from the world of modernity to post-modernity (or I used to be modern but now I am not quite sure what I am becoming, but I know I'm not in the Evangelical-Kansas-anymore phase of life.)

Messy and mysterious were the two words that defined my life, my emerging spirituality, my developing theology and an increasingly complex understanding of life. Pretty soon I began to feel comfortable using these words in my teaching and I found they were resonating with a lot of (but not all) people.

The formulaic approaches to the Christian faith that were largely over-simplified, mainly pragmatic how-to's, were over for me.  The days of reading about 21 Irrefutable Laws and 21 Irreversible Maxims and 21 Inevitable Problems and 21 Irresistible Formulas were over as well. 

God... life... spirituality... leadership... love... people... sin... the heart... the journey... suffering... all this and more could only be described as messy and mysterious.

This didn't mean I stopped trying to understand these things. Of course not. If anything, I was reinvigorated in revisiting everything. But the attitude with which I approached everything and the "findings" of all my visits - now this had definitely changed.

This was the time when I came across Winston Churchill's words describing the Soviet Union for the first time.

Soviet Union foreign policy  is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

I liked this (a lot)! Just take away the first four words and insert anything else you wanted and you were good to go . . . off exploring in fresh, wonderful ways.

 

God is . . .

 

Life is . . .

 

Spirituality is . . .

Above all, I came to understand that  Brian is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

More on this manana.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Reunions

About a week ago, I was at the memorial service for an old friend who had tragically died. Our paths use to cross a lot, but in recent years, not so much.

At his service were many friends from long years ago. Though the occasion of our reunion was sad, there was quite a bit of joy at seeing one another and having even some brief conversations to catch up on the years that had gone by.

Feelings of nostalgia, fondness for old friends, some sadness at saying goodbye... were all there.

As I was driving home, I realized that this was just the teeniest, tiniest taste of what heaven is going to be like. Then we will have all the time we need to reconnect with friends and be joyful together.

I think this hit me all the more since I have re-read several times now, the final chapters of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. Those words of early explorations of heaven and the reunions that are taking place are beautiful.

I agree with N.T. Wright that the hope of heaven is more than the future restoration of all things, surely it is never less than that.

As the old Phil Keaggy song said, "Oh what a day that will be."

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

On Perspective

Someone has said: Perspective is worth at least 50 IQ points!

I agree.

Perspective matters.

One problem is that most of us, most of the time have a short-term perspective (maybe this is hyperbole, but maybe not!). The immediate is what counts for us. We have limited patience and minimal ability to wait. The delay of gratification is anathema to our attention deficit, waiting deficient souls (ADWD). We live preoccupied with the present and absorbed in our experience of the moment. Right here, right now, right away.  That's us.

Which is why suffering is so difficult for us (or one reason why). It is happening to us right here, right now and it hurts. It is uncomfortable. We want it over right away. The pain of the moment overwhelms the possibilities of tomorrow.

I believe that God has wired the world with the need for a long-term vista. We must have that long term view to embrace the short term inconveniences, hardships, anomalies and hurts.

I don't like the short-term pain of exercising (my muscles hurt when I do) or dieting (my cravings for sugar and salt and MSG scream at me when I do). But I do want the long term benefit of being healthy. (Being buff is impossible so I am now content with reasonable health.)

I don't like the short-term pain of conflict but I want the long-term benefit of patience in relationships, the heart of forbearance with those with whom I disagree and the joy of reconciliation.

Most women (usually) don't necessarily enjoy the short-term problems of pregnancy nor the pains of labor, but they do look for the long-term joy of children. (Now teenagers is another matter altogether.)

I want wisdom, maturity, grace, love, the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ, the power of God... I deeply desire these things in the long haul of life. So, I endure the actual living of life that will bring those things to pass.

How's your IQ these days?

And if you want to increase your spiritual IQ by at least 50 points, perspective is the way to go.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Stuck on Stupid

Two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.  Who said that? To find out, see the end of this post.

Sometimes I am just a mystery to myself. Sometimes the messy side of my humanness really wins the day. Sometimes I just get "stuck on stupid."

Does that ever happen to you?

You know what I mean don't you?

You hear yourself saying something, and as you say it, you are thinking - well that's stupid. But instead of saying that out loud, now you kick into a "stuck on stupid" mode. Now you begin to justify the stupid thing you just said, because you don't want to look stupid. You start piling up the hapless arguments to justify your position - because you are "stuck on stupid."

Or you do something stupid. Bad judgment call. Wrong decision. Out of character behavior. However, no matter... you did it. But now - what do you do? Chances are you move into justifying, explaining, defending, supporting the stupid thing and as soon as you do, yep, you guessed it - you are "stuck on stupid."

People get "stuck on stupid."

Families get "stuck on stupid."

Teams get "stuck on stupid."

Churches get "stuck on stupid."

A nation can get "stuck on stupid."

STUPID HAPPENS.

(I think I am going to copyright that phrase.)

But "Stuck on Stupid" doesn't have to happen. Get unstuck by using this real simple tool. Just say out loud - well that was stupid. Sorry. Acknowledging stupid, confessing stupid, owning up to stupid, renouncing stupid . . . do that and you won't get "stuck on stupid."

In fact, maybe you need to give your friends, your family, your team, your organization permission to say whenever it is needed.

Hey, we're Stuck on Stupid. Let's get unstuck.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

p.s.  it was Albert Einstein who said the quote at the beginning of the post.

On Fences and Their Reasons

A long time ago I was intrigued when I first heard this little quip:

Before you take down a fence, you better find out why it was put up in the first place!

The Fence! It marks a boundary. It establishes a limit. It marks and it protects. It keeps something in and keeps something out. Not all fences are good. Not all fences are properly drawn. (Legalism is one generic example of this.) But nevertheless, the fence is important.

We live in a time of the dismantling and removal of all Fences. We live in an era when the Fence is seen as archaic, restrictive, inhibiting. 

Remember the Jurassic Park movie? Three movies built around the simple theme that the Fence was a great idea to keep something constrained and when the Fence came down, all heck broke loose.

Fence Crossings and Fence Dismantling goes back to the garden. God created a Fence. Not a big one, but an important one. Everything was permissible, everything was available save for one little item. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Fence was stated in the form of a Prohibition: Thou Shalt Not Eat . . .

The Fence was there to remind Adam and Eve of the Creator-creation distinction. All they needed to do was honor that one Fence and they could live in great joy and freedom and the fullness of shalom. Just one Fence to honor!

They tore down the Fence, they transgressed the boundary, they ignored the prohibition and they lost their joy and their freedom. And then God put up a bigger Fence with a stronger guardian.

Ever since, we have been Fence Crossers and Fence Removers. Rarely bothereing to ask why it was put up in the first place. Usually convinced that we know better and we can reason on our own, to cross or not to cross, to remove or not to remove. Our natural thought (like that of Adam and Eve) is that if we remove this Fence, then we will have real freedom.

Paradoxically, tragically . . . the more we remove Fences, the more we lose our freedom and joy. Remove the Fences and we move into the fields of brokenness and sorrow. Perhaps the single greatest area where we are Fence Crossers and Fence Removers is in the area of sexuality. There are (almost) no Fences left forus to cross or remove. And my simple question is this: Are we happier? Are our relationships better? Are we healthier, more loving, deeper, wiser people for the crossing and removing of all these Fences?

I wonder if one more way to understand the work of the Leader is the Mender of Fences. Rebuilding what has been removed and a Watchman over what is being rebuilt.

It won't be popular. It certainly won't be easy. It may seem to be an endless task, much like that of Sisyphus. But then, when has leadership ever been popular, easy or quick and finished?

Are there any Fences in your life and your place of work/ministry that need some mending and protecting?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

I Know the Panic . . .

I know the panic of that wish to save

the vital knowledge of the old times, handed down,

for it is rising off the earth, fraying away

in the wind and the coming day.

As the machines come and the people go

the old names rise, chattering, and depart

 

That old man speaking you have heard

since your boyhood, since his prime, his voice

speaking in his own, by winter fires, in fields and woods,

in barns while rain beat on the roofs

and wind shook the girders. Stay and listen

until he dies or you die, for death

is in this, and grief is in it. Live here

as one who knows these things. Stay, if you live,

listen and answer. Listen to the next one

like him, if there is to be one. Be

the next one like him, if you must,

stay and wait. Tell your children. Tell them

to tell their children. As you depart

toward the coming light, turn back

and speak . . .

This poem "The Record" (and there is more to it) by Wendell Berry set me to thinking and feeling something within . . . for I know of that panic also. The panic of wanting to save the wisdom of the old times.

The forgotten ways. The ancient that may not become the future. The ones who speak of those things. Loving them. Preserving them. Guarding them. Passing them on. It seems very hard, so very hard.

The panic I feel is the panic of obscurity, the panic of becoming a relic, a remnant of belief in a dying way, and for now living as a spiritual exile, perhaps even a fool for that which is fading, rejected, scorned.

So I must stay, listen, answer if I can, speak if I may and even in the departing, turn back and speak.  Even if they would have none of it.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

 

 

The Illusion of Getting Somewhere

I've got some thoughts rumbling around for this post and I'm not sure I have them really organized, in my mind or on the paper where I scribbled them down. So this post may "ramble" a bit.

I read a line in Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life by Bonzo and Stevens that set me to thinking.

Under the illusion of getting somehwere, we are consumed by the effort to figure out why we aren't there yet.

So, here come the random, meandering thoughts that arose out of my reflection on those words. I'll talk about it in personal terms rather than projecting it out to you.

I define myself by what I lack, what I don't have and what I think I am missing.  (By the way, this picture is not me lounging in a hammock, by the ocean, under palm trees, reading a good book, drinking a cool beverage of my choice . . . this is some of what I am lacking in the middle of December.)

In doing this, I feel diminished. I feel less than I should be. I know life is not the way it is supposed to be and I am not the way I am supposed to be (Plantinga).

I experience life then in terms of loss, estrangement, faiure, disappointment. The cup is half empty and not half full.

This becomes even worse, for according to Mark Sayers, my cultural setting is one of Hyper-Reality where so much is promised, so much is dangled before my yes, that expectation is heightened to inordinate levels. In leadership terms, the world constantly over-promises and always under-delivers. So my sense of lacking is even greater.

One more thought on that one. Reality is so hyped up that reality is no longer reality but hyper-reality. It is an impossible reality. An "ideal" reality, although the ideal is that of materialistic, hedonistic, consumerist pop-culture. It is ubiquitous. It is there at every turn, in every commercial, on every billboard, in every magazine, in every TV show...

Because I live in a world of comparisons, I tend to compare myself to those who have what I lack and that makes my lacking even more difficult.

I live in a world that intentionally heightens and emphasizes what I lack. It does this to spur me on to purchase what I lack. Whether it is a possesion I lack or an experience I lack, the cultural marketing machine encourages me to buy it so I can experience satisfaction and fulfillment.

I have the illusion I am getting somewhere. It is an impression, and a misguided one at that. It is misguiding, illusionary impression because I live in a time that is seriously confused about both destinations and the journey.

A well worn mantra of our time is that the destination does not matter, only the journey counts. That is patently false. Destinations are the purpose of the journey. And then the journey prepares you for the destination. In fact, I'd say we are confused about both destinations and journeys, and therefore, struggle with both hope (about the destination) and love (what we do on the journey).

If we don't know where we are headed, then we cannot possibily know how to get there. So we unconsciously "buy into" an alternative destination suggested by our culture. And that destination is the illusive "fulfilled self in terms of possessions and experiences."

And we/I (sorry, I started projecting a paragraph or so back) have the sense that it is not what it should be, I have not received what I think I should have, I am not where I should be. And my sense of life is basically - it is lacking something.

As a friend of mine use to say, "I'm so confused." He said that about himself, but I am saying it about myself and, what the heck, I'll project, "We are all so confused."

If this is the experience of so many, then LEADERSHIP involves discerning our times (and I would call them our diseased and dis-eased times), having clarity about our destination, learning how to be a guide for others who have lost their way, helping them recalibrate their expectations for the journey.

It's a little hard for leaders to help others do that if they (the leaders) have not generally figured it out for themselves.

Ok, that was a ramble . . . Did it make any sense?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Airplane Windows and Strange Thoughts

Take offs and landings - the best part of the flight. Especially if you have a window seat with no airplane wing in the way to obstruct your view. I was lucky. This time I had a great seat with a wonderful view . . . of everything.

If you've never flown (and how odd to think that you might not have, since it is such a part of my life), it is hard to imagine the perspective that flying provides. I really enjoy the night time flights for the cities lit up are spectacular and mysterious.

Perspective. The higher I go, the further I see and yet the less I see. The sprawling mall, so large at 1000 feet, shrinks as the plane speeds onward and upward. Houses, then developments, then neighborhoods, the bigger picture is emerging. The super highways becoming spaghetti thin. Their traffic barely visible, still the undulating movement is there to see.

It is all so big. And so networked. I am amazed at how we do it. How do we keep it running? How do we hold it together? How is it sustainable and how can it grow still further? It is all - so big!

I wonder how God sees our world. He takes it in, all with a glance. When God looks at us, he sees the big picture in all its bigness and yet sees the smallest detail at the same time. I can only have one or the other. Details or big picture. God has both.

I wonder how the Great Descent of the Second Person was when He visited our planet. Seeing it all, closer, closer, shedding divinity with each descending mile until Immanuel lodged in a womb. From stellar to cellular. What did He see in His descent?

I wonder what it was like when He returned . . .

The Glorious Ascent? Did he face High Heaven with its worshiping angels the whole time He was leaving? Or did he glance back from time to time to see Terra Firma and its peoples shrinking small? Part of me wants to think He ascended backing His way out of our once Forbidden but now Visited Planet, watching us the whole time.

It's strange, sometimes, the thoughts I have, when I look out the window of an airplane.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International

The Terminal

I've spent a lot of time in airports. I was sitting in one again . . . a familiar airport . . . my preferred airport for international travel - Baltimore-Washington International. It is easy to get to. I can usually make it in about 70 minutes with normal traffic. And once you are there, it is an easy terminal to navigate.

I love watching planes take off.  The big ones slowly, almost serenely lift into the air. Perhaps even ponderously moving into the skies. I pretend to be a "pre-modern" who knows nothing of physics, about thrust, air resistance (in truth, when it comes to this stuff I am a pre-modern because I just told you all I know). So I marvel watching these steel monsters take flight.

But the ones I love the most are the smaller jets. The zippy ones. They hurl down the runway and then seem to leap into the air. Quickly, nose going vertical they zoom into the sky . . . their upward climb so fast they are soon out of sight.

Since I've arrived early, about 90 minutes early, I watch fifteen, twenty planes take off . . .

I like airports because they are "down time" for me. From the time I leave home until I meet my host - it is down time. I move into introvert mode. The crowds of people, coming, going . . . fussy babies . . . noisy children . . . the babel of foreign tongues . . . the cell phone chatter of businessmen and clients, of spouses and their families . . .

And then there is the ubiquitous, distorted, crackling sound systems announcing arrivals, departures, delays, notifications . . .

It is all there, surrounding me, enveloping me, but it is the background of my introversion. This is the time when I relish being alone in a crowd of strangers. No one knows me, no one interrupts me. It is the replenishing of my energy. For four days I'll move into extrovert mode which I love to do. I love being with people and friends, having delightful conversations, laughter, serious words. But for now, I go back to reading my book, reading, reflecting, waiting for the distorted announcement that it is time for me to board.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International