Last week I was speaking with someone about the concept of “success to significance” and its associated terms. I was asked how I defined “success” within this idea. I thought about it and gave a long pause. I could only imagine if my wife was there and telling me to just give a simple answer or some of my friends telling me not to overanalyze and not to be a rabble-rouser.
I finally replied, “Sorry, I just don’t think within such a framework. Maybe I would say it’s more about influence and impact.”
After this afternoon chat, where we touched upon other topics, I came back to the idea of “success to significance” that evening. It had been several years since I read Bob Buford’s “Half Time.” It really didn’t speak to me back then and I realized even more so today. I’ve attended some conferences inspired by “Half Time” which primarily targeted very successful businessmen in their 50s and beyond, and gained a great amount of insight and inspiration. I was one of the thirty-something attendees blessed enough to attend and learn from those with more experience and wisdom from life.
The concept of “success to significance” does speaks well to successful business owners or Fortune 500 executives in their 50s and beyond, especially those who were consumed by their drive towards their goals of success. But the yearning question for me since that afternoon chat was, “Why is a successful life bifurcated?”
The big picture concept of “Half Time” is that there is the first half of life where people focus on achieving their successes and the second half where you can refocus (or recommit to God) on being significant in your life mission for God. This would typically translate into more time and commitment to church or some ministry. I don’t believe it was intentionally stated, but this transition lessens the significance of work.
In rereading “Half Time” this past week, I didn’t understand why these concepts couldn’t be applied to those in the “first half” of their lives. This bifurcation of church and work; business and nonprofit work; Sunday and the rest of the week are concepts I previously identified (“Cultural Cocktails: Biblical Faith and Work with a Splash of Eastern and Western Philosophies”) as fruits of dualism from Western philosophies and not a biblical perspective of living our lives. The idea of “success to significance” seems to be a continuation of dualism that is core to Western culture and which heavily influences the church in the U.S.
If I were to take a cynical viewpoint of this concept, I would say that it’s excusing successful people for placing God second or lower in their lives during their first half. In reality, I know that it does speak well to many, allows them to recommit their lives to God and creates an impact for God in many areas. But this is not a message or a model for a wider audience. This is not a concept to behold for future generations.
From the start of a career, people should constantly be seeking and praying for their calling whether a corporate career, tech entrepreneur, restaurant owner, physician, school teacher or missionary. This calling is a person’s ministry and sphere of influence. Not a means to a ministry, but how God will use you to reach others. People should be constantly defining their life’s mission and aligning their goals with God’s goals for their lives.
A few years ago my parents successfully sold their coffee chain, took a year off to travel, and began praying about their next business. My mother is definitely a person that wants to work until she passes. Both of them want to stay active, but they were patient about their next business and really wanted God’s hand upon it. I remember them telling me that they regret not being truly committed to God as they worked hard, stressed out and sold their last business. They really wanted to commit everything to prayer and rely on God in all matters of their next business idea. My parents told me not to wait until I was in my fifties to realize this truth, but to really submit to God now and seek out his will. After hearing their earnestness, I heard and understood the regret in their voices. So it echoes within my heart as I write this and say to myself, “I don’t want to experience a half time in my life or to find significance in my faith after success. I want my faith to be integrated into the life I lead today.”
Originally published at InsideWork.
Showing posts with label insidework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insidework. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, June 22, 2009
More Than Money Conference, July 17th-19th
One of our companies, InsideWork, is a niche media company focused on the intersection of faith and business and is hosting an event called More Than Money in San Francisco July 17th-19th. A summary is here:
"More Than Money is a major professional finance event focused on the global economy. The keynote presentations feature top flight private fund managers, economists and experts in international finance with first rate insights into the impact of current global economics on your business and investments and your intentions to transfer those assets and responsibilities to your business successors and heirs.
InsideWork® has constructed the More Than Money conference on a robust platform of spiritually enlivened business intelligence—the Financial Times in one hand; the ancient wisdom of the Bible in the other. That’s the context in which More Than Money presents a rich understanding of strategic risk management that encompasses the whole range of capital issues, including the multigenerational relationship of capital with our emergent company leaders and children."
We have an excellent line up of speakers that includes:
- Ted Lucas, Founder & Managing Partner at Lattice Capital.
- Os Guinness, Senior Fellow at EastWest Institute, who is an excellent commentator on culture, public policy and how it intersects with faith.
- Jay Richards, Director of Media, Acton Institute & Author of Money, Greed, and God
The event is crafted to be intimate and limited to 120 attendees. It's open to all and ideally targets boomers dealing with various issues around wealth management. If you're interested in attending, register here.
"More Than Money is a major professional finance event focused on the global economy. The keynote presentations feature top flight private fund managers, economists and experts in international finance with first rate insights into the impact of current global economics on your business and investments and your intentions to transfer those assets and responsibilities to your business successors and heirs.
InsideWork® has constructed the More Than Money conference on a robust platform of spiritually enlivened business intelligence—the Financial Times in one hand; the ancient wisdom of the Bible in the other. That’s the context in which More Than Money presents a rich understanding of strategic risk management that encompasses the whole range of capital issues, including the multigenerational relationship of capital with our emergent company leaders and children."
We have an excellent line up of speakers that includes:
- Ted Lucas, Founder & Managing Partner at Lattice Capital.
- Os Guinness, Senior Fellow at EastWest Institute, who is an excellent commentator on culture, public policy and how it intersects with faith.
- Jay Richards, Director of Media, Acton Institute & Author of Money, Greed, and God
The event is crafted to be intimate and limited to 120 attendees. It's open to all and ideally targets boomers dealing with various issues around wealth management. If you're interested in attending, register here.
Monday, March 16, 2009
At $347,000 Per Baptism Maybe It’s Time To Rethink Church
(heads up since this is a religious post... a snarky religious post)
The absence of trust today is palpable. We don’t need to hear leaders, pundits and ordinary Joes talking about the breakdown of trust as the reality of the financial meltdown touches our lives—so many stories, of credit denied, of honest families victimized in financial scandals, of hardworking people losing their nest eggs in the stock market, of faithful employees laid off by companies they devoted themselves to for years… We can feel the distrust growing—in our banking system, government, corporations, even religious organizations.
How do we stop this? What treatment can heal these deep wounds? Wide sweeping federal policy? Complete reform of our banking system? State and local initiatives? Independent corporate reform through industry associations? Spiritual reformation?
There is also denial in the air. Last week in a board meeting of a nonprofit I am committed to the executive director stated that their umbrella association told them that even during downturns giving remains consistent. I silently shook my head but didn’t get a chance to remind them this isn’t just any downturn. When some of their wealthiest donors lose 50% of their wealth and 18% of overall American wealth disappears, it will affect their giving.
While contemplating on these larger scale issues, I narrowed my thinking to Christendom because I wanted to revisit a number that kept bothering me after reading Al Lunsford’s piece, Business is Our Mission. Al referred to research that indicated a global cost of $347,000 per baptism. What?? I had to do a double take. Of course you cannot put price a soul, and no one knows what the Spirt of God is doing or how long that work will take in a person’s life (or how long it has gone on already), but that’s not what this is about. When Nike states their customer acquisition costs are $100 per person against a lifetime customer value of x, are they placing a value on human life? Of course not. They are using financial tools to pursue efficiency and improve their understanding and intelligently utilize resources. And that, we have to assume, is what that $347,000 per baptism number is all about as well.
As I’ve been thinking about this, it was interesting to learn from a friend that a large parachurch organization ran a similar analysis and found their cost of conversion to be approximately $300,000. Whether cost per baptism or cost per conversion, these financial exercises bring important questions to the forefront.
“$347,000” bothered me so much that I contacted the International Bulletin of Missionary Research who put together the insightful study that produced this number. I haven’t heard back after my initial inquiry, so I decided to do my own back-of-the-envelope calculations.
The International Bulletin of Missionary Research estimated $410 billion/year in giving to “Christian” causes worldwide over the recent years. This was broken down to $160 billion to churches and $250 billion to parachurch organizations every year. Let’s assume that $347,000 per baptism is simply the total giving of $410 billion divided by the number of baptisms tracked. If this simple method was used, then the cost per baptism is tremendously overstated since we would have to assume a large portion is allocated to the operations of those churches and parachurch organizations.
I am assuming the primary mission of these organizations has something to do with making followers of Christ. The question is how much is being spent on the core mission of these organizations and how effective are they? A comparable question in the business world is asking how much do we spend on marketing and how effective is our program? For many companies, the benchmark is approximately ten percent of budget. Ten percent of $410 billion is $41 billion, which would make the figure $34,700 per baptism.
I would assume though that a church and parachurch organizations should be more focused to their mission than a companies, and, one could argue, their core mission should be their only focus. If a church were a business, would it really only devote 10% of the budget to getting out their message? Eyeballing, 30% or higher seems more appropriate. If this really is the case, I think $104,000 per baptism—or higher—is flabbergasting. And I suppose if one went with the argument that the only mission of a church or parachurch is making new Christians—a premise I don’t think stands up to biblical scrutiny—then the simple arithmetic of total expenditures ÷ number of new converts = cost/baptism, more or less. $347,000.
$347,000, $104,000, even $34,700…all seem ridiculously high. It screams waste to me. How much is being spent on non-core programs or questionable activities? There are easy targets like some mega-church pastors who have private jets and chauffeur-driven limousines. I wonder if some of them have Ferris wheels in their backyards, rent out Disneyland for their children, or bought gold plated driveway gates with God’s money…
Most systemic problems are hidden and not so overt as that, so I don’t believe the bling bling pastors should carry the whole burden of waste. Over the past decades I’ve heard or read about pastors of small and medium size churches retaining secret slush funds or making questionable purchases for their families. But does this add up to billions in waste? Probably not.
I’m guessing most of these non-core expenditures are for ethical but non-essential purposes, so how do you make a judgment call on such things and who is held accountable? There is pressure to grow, to buy bigger buildings, build bigger parking lots, or to have a summer retreat lodge. Nowadays churches have to provide social services as much as delivering God’s word. Golf groups, open gym, counseling and so on. Nothing is wrong with these services but what do they have to do with extending the kingdom of God—especially if they pull followers of Christ out of the world to the supposed safety of Christian ghettos?
If churches were to model themselves after a business organization, I would say an ideal example is the advertising firm. Think Crispin Porter + Bogusky—a lean and mean organization with a team obsessed on their client’s ad campaign. Their creatives are up day and night sweating to develop the best methods of reaching into their client’s customer base. As in any great firm, they are conscience of their client’s dollar and how best to spend it.
Reality is different. Most churches wouldn’t be compared to an advertising firm. Maybe an auto manufacturer? Steel company? I’m thinking country club. High operational costs, high touch, and high service. Also they might be characterized as insular, having rigid semantic biases, and of course a snotty attitude towards non-members.
Maybe today’s financial crisis is a blessing for “Christian” organizations across the globe, but especially in the most developed nations. The larger scale issues point to systemic deficiencies across a our society that is crying for change. What are some of these changes?
Openness!
There needs to be a willingness to open up and reassess where these organizations stand. Leaders needs to ask hard questions and then to create change. This process takes wisdom, courage and humility. I was encouraged when I saw Bill Hybels’ 2008 leadership presentation on “the wake-up call of his life” when he and the Willow Creek Community Church staff discovered their programs were not effective in creating sustainable growth for believers. He asked the hard question: “Do you ever wonder if we’re using God’s money and God’s resources in ways that are really achieving the mission of our church?” Every church and parachurch organization should ask this question every month.
Transparency!
There should be transparency of organizational budgets. Technology allows for this, so why not put up detailed budgets on Google docs or a wiki for everyone to see? This transparency creates accountability beyond the pastor or executive director and maybe a board made up of long-time friends.
Focus!
It’s time to rethink the assumption that, if we build it—church campuses, religious non-profits, alternative communities within communities—they will come. Does God dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands? Do we really expect religious professionals, who are outsiders in the places we work, to communicate the good news of the kingdom of God to our colleagues, while we—the insiders—stand passively by, wishing we could contribute more?
Action!
It’s easy to criticize organizations in their inefficiencies, but I believe at least half of the problem rests in the people who fill up pews and fellowship meetings. Believers have become old country club members who love to lounge on the greens and talk shop with their buddies. Maybe some of us have had too many manicures and hate to dirty our fingers. Believers need to step out of the comfort zone and engage the world —not be afraid, not separate from the world, not arrogantly defying, but engaging the world as it is, not as it is supposed to be.
The tail is wagging the dog. Proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor does not require a 501(C)(3) corporation. The kingdom of God is not infrastructure dependent. New converts shouldn’t cost a nickel as they have already been paid for. At $347,000 per baptism, maybe it’s time to rethink Church.
Originally posted at InsideWork.
(HatTip to Al, Sam, Hamon, and Jim for insights, info and edits)
The absence of trust today is palpable. We don’t need to hear leaders, pundits and ordinary Joes talking about the breakdown of trust as the reality of the financial meltdown touches our lives—so many stories, of credit denied, of honest families victimized in financial scandals, of hardworking people losing their nest eggs in the stock market, of faithful employees laid off by companies they devoted themselves to for years… We can feel the distrust growing—in our banking system, government, corporations, even religious organizations.
How do we stop this? What treatment can heal these deep wounds? Wide sweeping federal policy? Complete reform of our banking system? State and local initiatives? Independent corporate reform through industry associations? Spiritual reformation?
There is also denial in the air. Last week in a board meeting of a nonprofit I am committed to the executive director stated that their umbrella association told them that even during downturns giving remains consistent. I silently shook my head but didn’t get a chance to remind them this isn’t just any downturn. When some of their wealthiest donors lose 50% of their wealth and 18% of overall American wealth disappears, it will affect their giving.
While contemplating on these larger scale issues, I narrowed my thinking to Christendom because I wanted to revisit a number that kept bothering me after reading Al Lunsford’s piece, Business is Our Mission. Al referred to research that indicated a global cost of $347,000 per baptism. What?? I had to do a double take. Of course you cannot put price a soul, and no one knows what the Spirt of God is doing or how long that work will take in a person’s life (or how long it has gone on already), but that’s not what this is about. When Nike states their customer acquisition costs are $100 per person against a lifetime customer value of x, are they placing a value on human life? Of course not. They are using financial tools to pursue efficiency and improve their understanding and intelligently utilize resources. And that, we have to assume, is what that $347,000 per baptism number is all about as well.
As I’ve been thinking about this, it was interesting to learn from a friend that a large parachurch organization ran a similar analysis and found their cost of conversion to be approximately $300,000. Whether cost per baptism or cost per conversion, these financial exercises bring important questions to the forefront.
“$347,000” bothered me so much that I contacted the International Bulletin of Missionary Research who put together the insightful study that produced this number. I haven’t heard back after my initial inquiry, so I decided to do my own back-of-the-envelope calculations.
The International Bulletin of Missionary Research estimated $410 billion/year in giving to “Christian” causes worldwide over the recent years. This was broken down to $160 billion to churches and $250 billion to parachurch organizations every year. Let’s assume that $347,000 per baptism is simply the total giving of $410 billion divided by the number of baptisms tracked. If this simple method was used, then the cost per baptism is tremendously overstated since we would have to assume a large portion is allocated to the operations of those churches and parachurch organizations.
I am assuming the primary mission of these organizations has something to do with making followers of Christ. The question is how much is being spent on the core mission of these organizations and how effective are they? A comparable question in the business world is asking how much do we spend on marketing and how effective is our program? For many companies, the benchmark is approximately ten percent of budget. Ten percent of $410 billion is $41 billion, which would make the figure $34,700 per baptism.
I would assume though that a church and parachurch organizations should be more focused to their mission than a companies, and, one could argue, their core mission should be their only focus. If a church were a business, would it really only devote 10% of the budget to getting out their message? Eyeballing, 30% or higher seems more appropriate. If this really is the case, I think $104,000 per baptism—or higher—is flabbergasting. And I suppose if one went with the argument that the only mission of a church or parachurch is making new Christians—a premise I don’t think stands up to biblical scrutiny—then the simple arithmetic of total expenditures ÷ number of new converts = cost/baptism, more or less. $347,000.
$347,000, $104,000, even $34,700…all seem ridiculously high. It screams waste to me. How much is being spent on non-core programs or questionable activities? There are easy targets like some mega-church pastors who have private jets and chauffeur-driven limousines. I wonder if some of them have Ferris wheels in their backyards, rent out Disneyland for their children, or bought gold plated driveway gates with God’s money…
Most systemic problems are hidden and not so overt as that, so I don’t believe the bling bling pastors should carry the whole burden of waste. Over the past decades I’ve heard or read about pastors of small and medium size churches retaining secret slush funds or making questionable purchases for their families. But does this add up to billions in waste? Probably not.
I’m guessing most of these non-core expenditures are for ethical but non-essential purposes, so how do you make a judgment call on such things and who is held accountable? There is pressure to grow, to buy bigger buildings, build bigger parking lots, or to have a summer retreat lodge. Nowadays churches have to provide social services as much as delivering God’s word. Golf groups, open gym, counseling and so on. Nothing is wrong with these services but what do they have to do with extending the kingdom of God—especially if they pull followers of Christ out of the world to the supposed safety of Christian ghettos?
If churches were to model themselves after a business organization, I would say an ideal example is the advertising firm. Think Crispin Porter + Bogusky—a lean and mean organization with a team obsessed on their client’s ad campaign. Their creatives are up day and night sweating to develop the best methods of reaching into their client’s customer base. As in any great firm, they are conscience of their client’s dollar and how best to spend it.
Reality is different. Most churches wouldn’t be compared to an advertising firm. Maybe an auto manufacturer? Steel company? I’m thinking country club. High operational costs, high touch, and high service. Also they might be characterized as insular, having rigid semantic biases, and of course a snotty attitude towards non-members.
Maybe today’s financial crisis is a blessing for “Christian” organizations across the globe, but especially in the most developed nations. The larger scale issues point to systemic deficiencies across a our society that is crying for change. What are some of these changes?
Openness!
There needs to be a willingness to open up and reassess where these organizations stand. Leaders needs to ask hard questions and then to create change. This process takes wisdom, courage and humility. I was encouraged when I saw Bill Hybels’ 2008 leadership presentation on “the wake-up call of his life” when he and the Willow Creek Community Church staff discovered their programs were not effective in creating sustainable growth for believers. He asked the hard question: “Do you ever wonder if we’re using God’s money and God’s resources in ways that are really achieving the mission of our church?” Every church and parachurch organization should ask this question every month.
Transparency!
There should be transparency of organizational budgets. Technology allows for this, so why not put up detailed budgets on Google docs or a wiki for everyone to see? This transparency creates accountability beyond the pastor or executive director and maybe a board made up of long-time friends.
Focus!
It’s time to rethink the assumption that, if we build it—church campuses, religious non-profits, alternative communities within communities—they will come. Does God dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands? Do we really expect religious professionals, who are outsiders in the places we work, to communicate the good news of the kingdom of God to our colleagues, while we—the insiders—stand passively by, wishing we could contribute more?
Action!
It’s easy to criticize organizations in their inefficiencies, but I believe at least half of the problem rests in the people who fill up pews and fellowship meetings. Believers have become old country club members who love to lounge on the greens and talk shop with their buddies. Maybe some of us have had too many manicures and hate to dirty our fingers. Believers need to step out of the comfort zone and engage the world —not be afraid, not separate from the world, not arrogantly defying, but engaging the world as it is, not as it is supposed to be.
The tail is wagging the dog. Proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor does not require a 501(C)(3) corporation. The kingdom of God is not infrastructure dependent. New converts shouldn’t cost a nickel as they have already been paid for. At $347,000 per baptism, maybe it’s time to rethink Church.
Originally posted at InsideWork.
(HatTip to Al, Sam, Hamon, and Jim for insights, info and edits)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Chor Pharn Lee's "Rise of the Rest"
My colleague, Dan Wooldridge, wrote a great post that I linked below.
The current economic crisis is one dramatic earthquake that signals fundamental and massive shifts in the world’s “tectonic plates.” Globalization, technology, and innovation have outpaced systems created in the last century. One of these shifting “plates” is the rise of Asia.
He links to Ms. Chor Pharn Lee's take on the "Rise of the Rest" by using Karl Fisch's "Did You Know 2.0" format, which I thought deserved it's own blog post here. She is a strategist with the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore. Her description of the presentation:
"We created a short video to stretch our thinking for an internal brainstorming session. There are more details at futuresgroup.wordpress.com
Rise of the Rest is a term coined by Fareed Zakaria on the post-American world. It is not a world marked by American decline, but the rise of everybody else. The rise of China and India are the most obvious signs, but the Gulf countries are also remaking themselves beyond hydrocarbons and so on. China and India are big but they are not the whole story."
The current economic crisis is one dramatic earthquake that signals fundamental and massive shifts in the world’s “tectonic plates.” Globalization, technology, and innovation have outpaced systems created in the last century. One of these shifting “plates” is the rise of Asia.
He links to Ms. Chor Pharn Lee's take on the "Rise of the Rest" by using Karl Fisch's "Did You Know 2.0" format, which I thought deserved it's own blog post here. She is a strategist with the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore. Her description of the presentation:
"We created a short video to stretch our thinking for an internal brainstorming session. There are more details at futuresgroup.wordpress.com
Rise of the Rest is a term coined by Fareed Zakaria on the post-American world. It is not a world marked by American decline, but the rise of everybody else. The rise of China and India are the most obvious signs, but the Gulf countries are also remaking themselves beyond hydrocarbons and so on. China and India are big but they are not the whole story."
Saturday, September 20, 2008
@ Blog World Expo & GodblogCon 2008
I'm attending the Blog World Expo and GodblogCon 2008 this weekend. Primarily going for our media company, InsideWork, which discusses the intersection of faith and business.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Clueless Bosses
I came across this in BusinessWeek from Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins:
As for clueless bosses, I’d have to include Key Lay, Enron’s former CEO, in that category. Clueless is far worse than toxic, because at least with toxic you can begin to predict behaviors. With clueless, what you’d expect from a boss can vary widely from their actual behavior. Crooks are much easier to deal with than fools.
This took me back to one of the startups I was involved with. One of the CEOs was pretty clueless. It was a company with less than 40 people and he did not know what was going on with more than half the operations during any given time. One business line with less than 40 people! Sometimes he would catch up and be up-to-date on one team but behind 3 months in the other three divisions of the company.
We didn’t catch on initially because he was actually pretty good at covering up his cluelessness. During meetings he would focus on the topics he knew well or just pretend to listen on the other important conversations when he actually wasn’t. He was also adept at getting us to focus on topics he felt comfortable with by throwing tantrums or telling an amusing story. (In relation to Dan Wooldridge’s article The Boss from Hell, this person would be an “incompetent boss” with an additional factor of bad intent.)
The frustrating thing in dealing with this clueless CEO was that the means of knowledge were at his fingertips. He might have had ADD, but the topics he ignored in meetings were not incomprehensible. All our documents and notes were emailed to him and placed in an online repository. His worst characteristic was that he would actually get upset at people when he wanted certain information and accused people of being incompetent or lazy when everything was available at his fingertips.
Within a year of experiencing this CEO, I realized that when Ken Lay said he didn’t know what was happening at Enron, it was probably true. He was clueless. If this CEO of a small startup could be clueless, I realized others like him could have moved up the ladders of corporate America.
So how do you deal with such a CEO? Move for the board to remove the CEO? Walk away? Ask God for continued patience?
Once I realized the nature of the problem I tried to address it in a variety of ways (I tried an indirect approach, direct, through proxies, and finally confrontational approaches.) Nothing I tried made a difference.
Some colleagues said I hung in there too long. I don’t know; I tried to give it my best shot. I learned that some people just can’t or won’t change or improve. When the circumstances demand it, I think people have to do what Sherron Watkins did when she blew the whistle at Enron. This startup wasn’t that kind of thing. Eventually I just walked away.
Originally posted at InsideWork.
As for clueless bosses, I’d have to include Key Lay, Enron’s former CEO, in that category. Clueless is far worse than toxic, because at least with toxic you can begin to predict behaviors. With clueless, what you’d expect from a boss can vary widely from their actual behavior. Crooks are much easier to deal with than fools.
This took me back to one of the startups I was involved with. One of the CEOs was pretty clueless. It was a company with less than 40 people and he did not know what was going on with more than half the operations during any given time. One business line with less than 40 people! Sometimes he would catch up and be up-to-date on one team but behind 3 months in the other three divisions of the company.
We didn’t catch on initially because he was actually pretty good at covering up his cluelessness. During meetings he would focus on the topics he knew well or just pretend to listen on the other important conversations when he actually wasn’t. He was also adept at getting us to focus on topics he felt comfortable with by throwing tantrums or telling an amusing story. (In relation to Dan Wooldridge’s article The Boss from Hell, this person would be an “incompetent boss” with an additional factor of bad intent.)
The frustrating thing in dealing with this clueless CEO was that the means of knowledge were at his fingertips. He might have had ADD, but the topics he ignored in meetings were not incomprehensible. All our documents and notes were emailed to him and placed in an online repository. His worst characteristic was that he would actually get upset at people when he wanted certain information and accused people of being incompetent or lazy when everything was available at his fingertips.
Within a year of experiencing this CEO, I realized that when Ken Lay said he didn’t know what was happening at Enron, it was probably true. He was clueless. If this CEO of a small startup could be clueless, I realized others like him could have moved up the ladders of corporate America.
So how do you deal with such a CEO? Move for the board to remove the CEO? Walk away? Ask God for continued patience?
Once I realized the nature of the problem I tried to address it in a variety of ways (I tried an indirect approach, direct, through proxies, and finally confrontational approaches.) Nothing I tried made a difference.
Some colleagues said I hung in there too long. I don’t know; I tried to give it my best shot. I learned that some people just can’t or won’t change or improve. When the circumstances demand it, I think people have to do what Sherron Watkins did when she blew the whistle at Enron. This startup wasn’t that kind of thing. Eventually I just walked away.
Originally posted at InsideWork.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Africa Now & Future
Randomly there has been a lot of Africa related activities crossing my path this year. Africa is a big continent with many nations and people, so my reference to it seems vague. Apologizes but my thoughts are hazy and will be since I don't know my specific involvement yet.
My CEO, Allan Lunsford, wrote a post over at InsideWork, "Africa Now," which provides his reflections on Africa since he did some real estate projects over there in the '80s for World Vision. Currently, our firm, the Lunsford Group, has an interesting development project in the works, which I hope to write about in the future (maybe my colleagues, Dan or Geoff, will post about it:).
Before I started at the Lunsford Group in March of this year, Christine and I attended TED during which I committed to joining Neil Turok's TED Prize wish for an African Einstein. One of my prior blog posts is here. For numerous reasons, his vision excites me and I looking forward to my involvement with this effort.
My good friend, Hamon, has been leading business-oriented mission trips (i.e. micro-financing) to East Africa over the years, and most recently to Malawi, which is one of the least developed nations in the world. Christine and I look forward to supporting him on this.
Even among the numerous events in Silicon Valley, I came across BarCamp Africa. Typically, BarCamps are casual conferences (also user-generated conferences) focused on technology. BarCamp Africa is different since it's covering multiple topics related to Africa (i.e. technology, mobility, art, social justice, sustainability, micro-finance). The location hasn't been announced, but it will be held on October 11, 2008. If you're in the Bay Area and plan to attend, I'll see you there.
Anyway, over the next few years it seems I will be involved in two or more Africa related projects or ventures, so it will be fun to see how everything unfolds.
My CEO, Allan Lunsford, wrote a post over at InsideWork, "Africa Now," which provides his reflections on Africa since he did some real estate projects over there in the '80s for World Vision. Currently, our firm, the Lunsford Group, has an interesting development project in the works, which I hope to write about in the future (maybe my colleagues, Dan or Geoff, will post about it:).
Before I started at the Lunsford Group in March of this year, Christine and I attended TED during which I committed to joining Neil Turok's TED Prize wish for an African Einstein. One of my prior blog posts is here. For numerous reasons, his vision excites me and I looking forward to my involvement with this effort.
My good friend, Hamon, has been leading business-oriented mission trips (i.e. micro-financing) to East Africa over the years, and most recently to Malawi, which is one of the least developed nations in the world. Christine and I look forward to supporting him on this.
Even among the numerous events in Silicon Valley, I came across BarCamp Africa. Typically, BarCamps are casual conferences (also user-generated conferences) focused on technology. BarCamp Africa is different since it's covering multiple topics related to Africa (i.e. technology, mobility, art, social justice, sustainability, micro-finance). The location hasn't been announced, but it will be held on October 11, 2008. If you're in the Bay Area and plan to attend, I'll see you there.
Anyway, over the next few years it seems I will be involved in two or more Africa related projects or ventures, so it will be fun to see how everything unfolds.
Monday, June 30, 2008
New InsideWork Site Launched... Win Some Free Stuff!
One of our portfolio companies that I'm involved with is InsideWork. It's a business site for the spiritually engaged that seeks to "transform the soul of commerce." They launched a new version of the website today. Check it out if this interests you. More from opening post:
Welcome to InsideWork 3.0
The new look at InsideWork® is more than cosmetic. You're looking at Day One in the third iteration of InsideWork® — reengineered from the core out to deliver our third generation of content.
Our first content migration took InsideWork® from a standard let-us-tell-you-all-about-us website to a blog-style news and comment presentation — a significant step to be sure. But what you're looking at now is more than an incremental step; it's a leap to our future as a media platform delivering every class of content and interaction right down to the cellphone level. Expect to find an emerging experience tailored to the way you live and the pace you keep...
And there is some incentive to explore the new site by giving away free stuff (books, t-shirts, music devices, etc.):
Each Monday from June 30 - August 4, 2008, we’re giving away cool stuff to people who enter the hidden door: door-small1.png
Every Monday the hidden door will move to a new location. Find it, click to enter, and follow the simple instructions on the other side. It’s our way of inviting you to explore the new architecture and find what InsideWork has for you.
First up: The first six people who respond on June 30, will receive a copy of Seth Godin’s The Big Moo (an InsideWork favorite).
Those who respond after the first six will be entered in a drawing for a mighty fine prize at the end.
So… browse, enjoy, tell your friends, let us know what you think.
Welcome to InsideWork 3.0
The new look at InsideWork® is more than cosmetic. You're looking at Day One in the third iteration of InsideWork® — reengineered from the core out to deliver our third generation of content.
Our first content migration took InsideWork® from a standard let-us-tell-you-all-about-us website to a blog-style news and comment presentation — a significant step to be sure. But what you're looking at now is more than an incremental step; it's a leap to our future as a media platform delivering every class of content and interaction right down to the cellphone level. Expect to find an emerging experience tailored to the way you live and the pace you keep...
And there is some incentive to explore the new site by giving away free stuff (books, t-shirts, music devices, etc.):
Each Monday from June 30 - August 4, 2008, we’re giving away cool stuff to people who enter the hidden door: door-small1.png
Every Monday the hidden door will move to a new location. Find it, click to enter, and follow the simple instructions on the other side. It’s our way of inviting you to explore the new architecture and find what InsideWork has for you.
First up: The first six people who respond on June 30, will receive a copy of Seth Godin’s The Big Moo (an InsideWork favorite).
Those who respond after the first six will be entered in a drawing for a mighty fine prize at the end.
So… browse, enjoy, tell your friends, let us know what you think.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Building Relationships and Influence... Lessons from Dad
I wrote a short blog post at Insidework:
One of the many qualities I respect in my father is his ability to build relationships. He knows hundreds of people well — and thousands on the periphery of his life — from eating and drinking and playing golf together. I’ve met several people somewhat like my father, but he’s part of a smaller subset that breeds true loyalty in relationships. How many people do you know have friends they’ve known since grade school who would sacrifice for them half a century later?
I believe there are several qualities that allowed him to build up such friendships.
* No judgment. My father never judged his friends, and openly welcomed them to his home, even during his childhood. I have listened to many of his friends tell me how they grew up eating at my grandparents’ home because my father constantly invited them. I’ve met his friends across a wide spectrum of achievement each of whom he cherished whole-heartedly.
* Incredible patience. While I like to think I followed after my father in many of his qualities, I cannot match his patience. One story is when he helped a friend gain an executive position at a major corporation. That same friend back-stabbed him on a business deal a year earlier… but my father still helped him. No one in our family could understand this. I honestly would have sought some type of revenge, but my father paid him back in kindness. Incredibly, this was before my father began following Christ, so I have no explanation but that my father’s policy was to always do good to others.
* “Influence is like a savings account.” This is a phrase my father repeated while I was growing up and it has been with me ever since. He was always willing to help others, but some things took more effort than others. It was in these situations that he taught me to weigh the costs. He told me, “Bernard, influence is like a savings account, once you use it it’s gone.”
I believe my father’s qualities are universally effective in building strong relationships throughout life. Following his principles — however imperfectly, and even when they go against the grain — has helped me create a solid foundation among my friends and colleagues at work.
One of the many qualities I respect in my father is his ability to build relationships. He knows hundreds of people well — and thousands on the periphery of his life — from eating and drinking and playing golf together. I’ve met several people somewhat like my father, but he’s part of a smaller subset that breeds true loyalty in relationships. How many people do you know have friends they’ve known since grade school who would sacrifice for them half a century later?
I believe there are several qualities that allowed him to build up such friendships.
* No judgment. My father never judged his friends, and openly welcomed them to his home, even during his childhood. I have listened to many of his friends tell me how they grew up eating at my grandparents’ home because my father constantly invited them. I’ve met his friends across a wide spectrum of achievement each of whom he cherished whole-heartedly.
* Incredible patience. While I like to think I followed after my father in many of his qualities, I cannot match his patience. One story is when he helped a friend gain an executive position at a major corporation. That same friend back-stabbed him on a business deal a year earlier… but my father still helped him. No one in our family could understand this. I honestly would have sought some type of revenge, but my father paid him back in kindness. Incredibly, this was before my father began following Christ, so I have no explanation but that my father’s policy was to always do good to others.
* “Influence is like a savings account.” This is a phrase my father repeated while I was growing up and it has been with me ever since. He was always willing to help others, but some things took more effort than others. It was in these situations that he taught me to weigh the costs. He told me, “Bernard, influence is like a savings account, once you use it it’s gone.”
I believe my father’s qualities are universally effective in building strong relationships throughout life. Following his principles — however imperfectly, and even when they go against the grain — has helped me create a solid foundation among my friends and colleagues at work.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Evil and Ethics in the Workplace
My article at Insidework is up...
Evil and Ethics in the Workplace
Facing the evil around and inside us
A few weeks ago I attended TED@Aspen, a smaller gathering of TED attendees in Aspen, Colorado watching the Monterey, California conference via live video feeds. We listened to various speakers discuss such heady topics as “What is Life?” and “How Do We Create?”.
During one session, Professor Phillip Zimbardo spoke on “Will Evil Prevail?”. This Stanford University social psychologist and author of The Lucifer Effect is best known for conducting the infamous Stanford prison experiment in 1971. In that mock experiment gone astray, student participants played the roles of guards and prisoners — in an astonishingly short amount of time, the guards succumbed to the corruption of their power and began to abuse the prisoners.
Zimbardo compared this experiment to the abuses at Abu Ghraib as a confirmation of his discoveries and research. He hypothesized that the soldiers were good but the barrel was bad. He says not “who” but “what” is responsible for these horrific prison abuses. Zimbardo asked, “What makes people go wrong?”
He defined “evil” as “the exercise of power to intentionally harm people psychologically, destroy them physically and commit crimes against humanity.” (full article)
Evil and Ethics in the Workplace
Facing the evil around and inside us
A few weeks ago I attended TED@Aspen, a smaller gathering of TED attendees in Aspen, Colorado watching the Monterey, California conference via live video feeds. We listened to various speakers discuss such heady topics as “What is Life?” and “How Do We Create?”.
During one session, Professor Phillip Zimbardo spoke on “Will Evil Prevail?”. This Stanford University social psychologist and author of The Lucifer Effect is best known for conducting the infamous Stanford prison experiment in 1971. In that mock experiment gone astray, student participants played the roles of guards and prisoners — in an astonishingly short amount of time, the guards succumbed to the corruption of their power and began to abuse the prisoners.
Zimbardo compared this experiment to the abuses at Abu Ghraib as a confirmation of his discoveries and research. He hypothesized that the soldiers were good but the barrel was bad. He says not “who” but “what” is responsible for these horrific prison abuses. Zimbardo asked, “What makes people go wrong?”
He defined “evil” as “the exercise of power to intentionally harm people psychologically, destroy them physically and commit crimes against humanity.” (full article)
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