Seth Godin

These are my summary reflections from the Catalyst East Conference in Atlanta, GA.  The theme this year was “The Tension is Good”, so the speakers mostly used their talks to explore various tensions we all feel in Leadership.  I don’t summarize every speaker.

seth-godinSeth Godin first spoke at Catalyst two years ago and really impressed everyone with his Tribes concept.  This year he was back and blew us out of the proverbial with some thoughts from his newest offering, Linchpin.  Get ready…

The Economy always drives our culture (and our religion).  When our society was hunter/gatherer, our religion was a lot more portable (think Tabernacle).  When we had monarchies, we had a strong, hierarchical church.  And now that we’re all capitalists, our church is strongly consumer.

The interesting thing is, however, that our system (of organizing and maximizing) is just that, a temporary system (that’s only about 200 years old).  And in this current (but failing) system, if you have something you want to sell, you advertise (which is basically just trying to yell louder than everyone around you, which ought to make you think of tract or bullhorn evangelists).

Modernism created the Factory system, which requires people to be interchangeable.

So the system created schools that train us to be identical, interchangeable people who obey the system.  No one teaches us how to solve interesting problems or to be creative.  The Factory wants you to conform so it can ignore you.  But in the world of Google, competence isn’t a scarce commodity.  It’s easy to find someone else to do your job better than you can.

Because we’re all more connected than ever before, all that’s left is to matter.
  1. Are you doing work people will miss when you’re gone?
  2. Todays ‘win’ is being more connected.
  3. Failure isn’t scary; in fact, it’s necessary to succeed!
No one joins a boring tribe.  You create a movement by doing something people are talking about.

In a world without bosses, who is setting my agenda?  Art is a human act that changes someone; it’s a generous gift.  Untamed generosity is the heart of genuine relationships.  So in your teams and organizations, ask What are we rewarding?

BUT

There’s a small part of our brain that’s afraid of risk-taking, afraid to step out and embrace new opportunities.  Seth calls it the Lizard Brain.  It’s the enemy of progress and growth as our culture shifts because staying where it’s safe creates deniability.  If I don’t step out, if I don’t risk, then it’s not my fault.

If I stay where it’s safe and don’t grow, then it’s the company’s fault, not mine.

Seth ended by encouraging us not to be afraid to step out and do something radical and different.  He closed with this idea:

As the community gets more orthodox, the outliers will always outnumber the insiders.

Dan Pink

These are my summary reflections from the Catalyst East Conference in Atlanta, GA.  The theme this year was “The Tension is Good”, so the speakers mostly used their talks to explore various tensions we all feel in Leadership.  I don’t summarize every speaker.

Session two featured Dan Pink, author of the very excellent Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.  His talk was sort of an executive summary of the findings he presents in Drive.

Every leader has a motivating tension that emerges from one of three spheres:

  1. Biological drives (Andy’s appetites)
  2. Rewards/punishments
  3. Contribution to the larger world

What’s surprising is that the second drive is only effective in a small range of circumstances.

The best way to motivate someone is to make him/her feel as though s/he is contributing to the world at large.

Caveat: Money is a motivator.  If you don’t pay someone enough, you won’t get quality work.  But more isn’t more.  Once someone is earning ‘enough’ (whatever that looks like), a higher salary isn’t an effective motivator.  So pay your people enough to take money off the table.

So what does motivate people?

1. Autonomy

We think management is a force of nature, but it’s not.  Management is a technology from the 1850s.  How many other technologies from the 1850s are we still using?

Imagine that you had the best, most functional telegraph (built in the 1940s) in history.  You still wouldn’t use it because an outdated technology you refine is still outdated.

Management achieves compliance.  But we want engagement, not compliance.

We want autonomy over our time, tasks, teams and techniques.  How can we create systems that encourage autonomy in our people?

Examples: Google, Dell, Best Buy (corporate)

2. Mastery

Being able to see that we’re making progress is what motivates us, and feedback is the best way to chart mastery.  The younger generations live in a feedback rich world – everything we do from turning on the TV to sending a text gives us immediate feedback.

Even so, our work environments are feedback deserts.  What the older generations often perceive as a deep-seated insecurity is actually a hunger for feedback in one of the places it matters the most: our work.

Annual performance reviews are a joke, and almost completely ineffective.  Consider the DIY Performance Evaluation.  At the beginning of each month, create clear, measurable goals for yourself and then at the end of each month, evaluate yourself.

3. Purpose

A great person has one simple sentence that states his/her purpose, not a convoluted paragraph.

Examples: “Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union and freed the slaves.”
“FDR led us out of a depression and helped us win a world war.”

So ask, “Am I better today than I was yesterday?”

Carrots & Sticks are so last century.  For the 21st century, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery and purpose.

BONUS! Here’s a sweet video of a similar talk:

Andy Stanley (pt. 1)

These are my summary reflections from the Catalyst East Conference in Atlanta, GA.  The theme this year was “The Tension is Good”, so the speakers mostly used their talks to explore various tensions we all feel in Leadership.  I don’t summarize every speaker.

Andy’s first talk was brilliant, as always.  He explored the tension we feel because of our appetites – drives for food, fame, sex, etc.  He gave us this framework for understanding appetites:

Our appetites create tension in our lives because they always want more.
  1. God created appetites.  Sin distorted them.
  2. Appetites are never fully satisfied.  We live as though there’s something or someone out there who can, so we always experience tension.
  3. Appetites always whisper ‘Now’, never ‘Later’.

He then took us into the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25.  Esau, the older brother, trades his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew.  Andy asks, “Who would trade his birthright for a bowl of stew?”

Actually, most of us would, thanks to how our brains manage our appetites.

Andy cited two psychological phenomena that make it hard to say NO to our appetites:

  1. Impact Bias – When we want something, our brains magnify that simple appetite out of porportion.  Essentially, our brains tell us that the object of our desire will satisfy said desire to a far greater degree than it actually will.
  2. Focalism – When we want something, our brains focus our attentions on the object of our desire to the exclusion of everything else.

So given that the temptation we all have to give into our appetites, how bad is that really?  Andy asked us to consider how history could’ve changed if Esau had reframed his desire for a bowl of stew in the larger context of his birthright.  Eventually, God would’ve introduced himself to Moses like this:

I AM the god of Abraham, Isaac and Esau.

But since Esau took the bowl of stew, it all changed.  No one was there for Esau to reframe his appetites.  And no one will be there for us either.

So ask yourself, Where do I want to be in 10 years?  And what’s my bowl of stew?

We have no idea what God wants to do with our lives.  So when it comes to our appetites, we have to reframe and refrain.

Knowing the bigger picture is a cure for our appetites.  What a way to start the conference!

The Fourth Church

This is the next installment of my reimagining of the Revelation to John.  You can catch the first piece here.  These short pieces draw from Revelation 2-3, and I’ll post once for each of the 7 churches.  These installments really helped me to see how provocative John’s letter would’ve been in its original context.  I’d love to know what you think.

To the angel of the Mainline Protestant churches write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes that burn with intelligence and tough, sturdy steel-toed work boots on his feet:

I know what you’ve done – your love, faith, service and patience. I know that you’re doing things now that are greater than anything you’ve ever done. But I have this against you: you tolerate the likes of Ahab and Jezebel, who call themselves prophets and teachers and who are duping my servants to welcome and even celebrate fornication. I’ve given them time to repent, but they refuse to repent of their perversion. Watch out: I’m going to throw them onto a bed, and anyone who commits adultery with them I’m going to throw on the bed of suffering too (unless they repent!). I’m going to kill the children of her adultery. And all the churches will know that I am the one who explores your minds and hearts, and I’ll give each person and church what your works deserve. But to the rest of you Mainline Protestants who don’t hold to these teachings, who haven’t learned what some call ‘the open mind’ of Satan, I’m not going to burden you with anything else. Just hold on to the faith and works you have until I come. To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works until the end, I will offer the invitation,

“Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet,”

since it is my Father’s party. To the one who conquers I will also give the whitest wedding dress ever. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

The Third Church

This is another installment of my reimagining of the Revelation to John.  These short pieces  (this 3 of 7) draw from Revelation 2-3, and I’ll post once for each of the 7 churches.  These installments really helped me to see how provocative John’s letter would’ve been in its original context.  I’d love to know what you think.

To the angel of the Black churches write: These are the words of the one who has the platinum gavel:

I know your struggles, what you face every day, right in the heart of where Satan seems to be working the most, your struggles that don’t have an end in sight. Even still, you’re holding tightly to my name, and you didn’t turn your back on your faith in me even in the days of Martin Luther King, Jr., my faithful witness who was killed among you – clearly Satan’s work. But here’s my problem: some of you are listening who Achan, whose lust for wealth brought destruction on all of God’s people. And others among you have embraced the Universalists’ teachings. So repent! If you don’t, I will come soon, and when I do, I’ll crush you with the gavel of my mouth. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I’ll show the hidden doors to my treasury vault, and I’ll give you a megaphone that has a battery that will never run out and that no one can find.

The Second Church

This is the next installment of my reimagining of the Revelation to John.  These short pieces draw from Revelation 2-3, and I’ll post once for each of the 7 churches.  These installments really helped me to see how provocative John’s letter would’ve been in its original context.  I’d love to know what you think.

And to the angel of the Arab churches write: These are the words of the first and last, who was dead and came to life, the ultimate immigrant:

I know your suffering, poverty and rejection (even though you’re actually rich). I hear the slander coming from those who say they are God’s chosen nation and are not – they’re actually a Satan’s nation. Don’t be afraid of what you’re about to suffer. Get ready: the devil is about to put you through the wringer – he’s testing you, and it’s not going to be pretty. Or short. Stay strong. Stay faithful even if it means death and I’ll give you the gold medal in Life. Let anyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers won’t be caught in the second death.

The First Church

This is the second installment of my reimagining of the Revelation to John.  The next few pieces will pull from Revelation 2-3, for each of the 7 churches.  These installments really helped me to see how provocative John’s letter would’ve been in its original context.  I’d love to know what you think.

To the angel of the Reformed churches write: These are the words of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden pulpits:

“I know what you’re doing, how hard you work and your faithfulness. I know that you can’t stand false teachers; you have tested those who claim to represent God but don’t, and you’ve found them to be false. I also know that you’re working hard in my name, that you’re not giving up or getting tired. But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first. Look back and see where your system has tripped you up; repent and let what you do now look more like what you did at first. If you don’t, I will come to you and remove your pulpit from its place (unless you repent!). I’ll give you this: you hate the teachings of Universalists, which I also hate. Let anyone who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.”