The Necessary Things

Pull Communication--i.e. Why I Like My IPhone Over the Droid and Agree with Scoble

"If you are voice centric the Droid already is better than the iPhone" --Robert Scoble from a recent blog post

In one glance I realized why the iPhone is not just a cool device but an expression of a new value system--one that focuses more on pull communication than push.

If Scoble is not voice-centric then what is he?

"I’m web and Twitter centric," he goes on to say.

Wow.

So many people tell me that Verizon has better coverage. Honestly I do not care. I do not like talking on the phone in the first place, so people are actually persuading me to keep my iPhone rather than switch when they say this to me.

I do not think that the value of face to face or even personal interaction (like a phone call) will decrease. I do think that more and more people (millenials and below) will make a decision about their technology based more on what they can PULL IN over what they can PUSH OUT.

My three most used apps on my iPhone:

• Tweetie (for twitter)
• Byline (for my RSS feeds)
• Mail (for email)

My next three most used apps:

• SMS
• Facebook
• Safari

The phone app would come after that. 7th in terms of time spent.

Anyone else out there value pull over push?

photo courtesy of markybon

Can You Translate?--Millenial Leadership Requirement

FYI--I've realized many people write or blog ABOUT Millenials but are not ones themselves. As this blog has evolved I hope to explore what it means to be a Millenial leader in a Boomer-led organization.

The ability to translate the meaning and intention of a person above and below is a critical piece of millenial leadership.

When I interact with boomers I'm having to translate many facets of their communication styles. In Christian culture I notice that boomers LOVE exhortation--Millenials STRUGGLE with exhortation.

Regardless of intention exhortation can feel impersonal and inauthentic. I've noticed that socially immature millenials can completely check out at the hint of an exhortative boomer.

In the context of leading this dynamic can SIGNIFICANTLY hinder interactions even though both sides are not intentionally trying to frustrate each other.

If a Millenial expects those above him or her to do the translating they usually experience FRUSTRATION, DISCOURAGEMENT, and with our nature to take things extremely personal, can lead to major ineffectiveness.

My best advice: ASSUME authenticity when exhorted by a Boomer. TRANSLATE that exhortation into a more specific conversation about giftings, passions, or strengths. Exhortation is often hard for me to take because it can be so general: "we should always be keeping our heart set on the Lord."

I've turned some of these initially frustrating exhortations redeemed by following up with something specific: "as much as I try to set my heart on the Lord, I find that ______can trip me up. Do you have any suggestions as to how to grow in that area?" It seems like pursuing specifics is an effective form of translation between boomers and millenials.

If you are a millenial or younger, how are your translation skills? Do you feel the same way about exhortation from those older than you?

photo courtesy of morfina

Don't Hide Your Content--A Follow Up on Practicing Abundant Leadership

"Data suggests that unlocking content at AIIM means more than a sixteen-fold increase in the number of downloads."--from a recent blog post by David Merriman Scott

What would happen if 16x the number of people had access to your ministry's best content (bible studies, leadership development articles, evangelistic resources, etc)? It literally could happen with the click of a button--or rather removing that extra click that people have to make to access information.

David Merriman Scott posted an insightful analysis of whether or not to "gate" your content. 

The concerns of giving away content or making content available to the public are legitimate. Yet the blog article goes on to say...

"However making the content totally free with no registration required means many more people will download and spread your content via email, Twitter, blogs, and the like."

Do you have any hard statistics that affirm or contradict this principle? What specific areas in the church or ministry could be unlocked?

photo courtesy of cardopoli

Practicing Abundance--A Millenial Leadership Necessity

"Today’s leader gets cooperation like never before – there is so much business out there waiting to be attracted in this Internet world that we now find ourselves without competition. Let’s all play together to make a better world!"--from a Duct Tape Marketing blog post

The practice of abundant resource sharing represents one of the greatest opportunities for organizational transformation in my opinion, ESPECIALLY to those outside/partnered with CCC in some capacity. If you are in CCC, you know how many resources we have under lock and key, or with so much friction that it's frustrating to access.

I follow Hubspot's blog most closely because they give away unfiltered resources that are extremely valuable to what I'm seeking to learn (inbound marketing, SEO, and social media principles).

Although it's difficult for me to return the favor, I'm constantly sharing their blog and principles with others and giving them credit. If ever I have resources to invest in the above topics, you can bet that the first place I'm looking to is Hubspot. 

With scarcity becoming less and less of a reality in the overall economic landscape, leaders who share abundantly will rise to the places of influence. As more and more millenials inherit leadership positions, my hope is that the walls would really fall down in some critical places.

There will be REALLY GREAT leaders with REALLY GREAT content that will have NO INFLUENCE in ten years because their content lies behind firewalls, proprietary agreements, or too many mouse clicks (or finger swipes if you're thinking mac).

What can you give away in your local context that's ACTUALLY valuable to your audience?

I'm thinking of writing an ebook on best practices on strategic planning and future-oriented decision making for campus ministers.

If you like free ebooks, Benson Hines has already written one for college ministers. Click here to see it.

photo courtesy of krislitman

Gettting Specific About Alignment--What are Your Top 4 Characteristics?

Love for God

Commitment to Specific Community

Transparency

Leadership Qualities

The Heart of Campus Ministry blog shared these four characteristics as their filter for selecting student leaders.

I remember a quote from one of my trainers at a CCC conference that impacted how I think about selection and most other leadership situations:

"The problems you are trying to solve are rarely specific enough"

I discuss alignment or the lack thereof often in various CCC cirlces. Those conversations do not become productive until we start talking specifically about what is broken in relation to alignment.

Here are my top four characteristics in selecting students for leadership:

1. Willing to share or be apart of an intentional Gospel conversation with a non-believing student once a week.

2. Has clearly and specifically demonstrated an ability to respond positively to teaching and correction from staff members.

3. Demonstrable social capacity to be able to influence and lead others.

4. Committed to eternal perspective as practiced through participation in spiritual multiplication outlined in 2 Timothy 2:2. 

The four shared by The Heart of Campus Ministry blog are great general characteristics, but it sounds like categories for a generally good Christian, not a leader of a specific ministry.

I believe that selection characteristics have to be specific enough to be INAPPLICABLE to any other ministry or movement. It seems that fear of excluding others even if they are clearly not leaders can reach almost phobic levels in ministry.

What would be your four characteristics, or even number one?

photo courtesy of purpleslog

Working Up and Down from the Middle--Leading Strategic Change

I rarely use Chris Brogan's content on my blog because I'm assuming you already know about him. But if you do not, I HIGHLY recommend subscribing to his blog!

He shared a gem in terms of how crucial the middle of an organization is in producing change.

"Essentially, it’s this: someone in the middle tier of the organization comes to us and asks about a project, maybe something like content marketing or community management. We talk with them, discuss their goals, make sure there’s some kind of alignment, determine if we both see eye to eye on the loot it’ll take to get the job done, and then we initiate a project. Here’s what we see happen more often than not.

The middle-level person has a faint blessing from someone on high, but a vague one. They have enough power to convince the folks lower in the hierarchy to go along with this. We work to make that middle-level person successful, and to make the experience for the folks a bit further down the hierarchy feel like it’s a good project and that they’re participating.

Then what happens is that someone higher up almost always gets excited about what the person has accomplished, and gets into it, wants to champion it, and throws some more fuel on the fire.

The middle-down, middle-up approach. That seems to be how we’re getting it done."

Has anyone seen this process work in ministry? I'm guessing there have to be some great case studies.

photo courtesy of flowersophy

Ministry/Movement Alignment Through Liturgy

How do you keep such a large ship like CCC aligned when there are so many different personalities, contexts, needs, and demands?

Liturgy offers one response. 

"A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions."--Wikipedia

That which is customary and/or traditional can often (especially by me) be seen as archaic. Yet if a ministry or movement can be clear on one or two key liturgical practices that capture the heart and vision of their group then it can be an extremely powerful tool.

At Chico State our most sacred liturgy is ministry mode evangelism--the practice of going out on campus and initiating conversations with students we do not know with the goal of sharing the Gospel clearly.

In addition to responding to the Great Commission ministry mode evangelism accomplishes the following:

• Clearly demonstrates our heart and values to those outside and inside the ministry. Those outside hopefully see our passion for Jesus and desire to authentically engage them; those inside hopefully see that we take our call as a missions organization seriously and are committed to pursuing those that may not be pursuing us.

• Provides a clear line in the sand to organize and filter students into leadership. Otherwise in the words of one of Carly Higgins, one of our student interns, "leadership just becomes a popularity contest." In CCC there is often talk of financial support raising being a healthy filter on who joins our org. I see evangelism as a local expression of this same principle.

• From the staff leadership perspective it is a tangible and practical way of answering the question "what can I and only I do as staff member?" in relation to evangelism. So often staff pretend that they are still students in their practice of evangelism--let's be honest--it's weird for a 30 year old to go into a dorm room and try to build a relationship, let alone be evangelistic. Instead of doing evangelism staff should be mobilizing as many students as possible to be more effective at evangelism (which of course involves doing it in the process. 

Liturgy provides an anchor for a ministry seeking to align a broad range of people and contexts.

photo courtesy of usarmyafrica

Are Your Trainees Scared? 3 Ways to Start

"Students have to be more than bible study leaders for them to really own the ministry/movement."--Roger Bruehl

One of the best ways to legitimately train someone is to put them outside their comfort zone. While sitting next to Roger Bruehl on an airport shuttle leaving MinistryNet I heard him reinforce this idea.

He shared that in order for trainees to comprehensively learn something they must have a deep felt need for it. He also had one of the best lines I've heard in a while in relation to CCC culture.

My experience in CCC has been that if the training culture focuses solely on the role, the trainees often have weak leadership skills and demanding attitudes. 

Out of the three couples that my wife and knew best during our Campus Crusade staff training, the couple that expressed the greatest desire "to be trained" lasted just south of two years on the field.

I'm not taking that to the organizational level but I do believe that a role-based training culture cripples leadership development and has the short-term more in view than the long. With CCC and non-profits in general are so resource scarce, I would love to see some change in this area.

Three ways to scare your trainees:

1. Take something OFF of their schedule that is mundane and familiar to them--it may be their bible study in CCC.
2. Schedule a 30-1hr block of time where they have to intentionally engage the future (6 months to a year out). A great question to start them off with is "in 6 months to a year, what do I want to have a clear conscience before the Lord about in relation to my leadership?"
   
3. Give them power or resources to do something that would expand their view of God and move your movement/ministry forward. 

Do you have any other tips for scaring your trainees into greater leadership development?

photo courtesy of fabiovenni

Move! Get Out the Way! Leadership

I have been at MinsitryNet for just a few hours but have already seen a theme--it's so easy for leaders to distrust those under them, particularly in relation to something new or different.

I'm wrestling with this quite a bit. Especially with this question: Can God really bring something better out of the person beneath me?

I'm not asking this out of pride--but more so because of the amount of time and energy invested into building the ministry I'm apart of to it's current place.

Giving up control challenges my relationship and view of God to the core--Can God really do NEW things? Things outside of the current system/structure that I have overseen.

I recently finished John Battelle's book The Search. He cited entrepreneur's syndrome in relation to Google and other tech companies with strong entrepreneurial leaders.

Here's what he said:

The idea of company founders being unwilling—or unable—to give up power is not now. In fact, it's so common in Silicon Valley that it's got a name: entrepreneur's syndrome.
—John Battelle, The Search, Portfolio Hardcover, September 8, 2005

I would love to hear your experience with entrepreneur's syndrome either as a leader or a follower.

For those of you unfamiliar with the title and picture, Ludacris is the artist who produced the song "Move Get Out The Way."

Effectiveness and Connection Connections

I'm heading to MinistryNet, a CCC conference focused on equipping global staff in using the internet for greater evangelistic effectiveness.

The premise relates directly to Metcalfe's Law:

The social utility of a network depends upon the number of nodes in contact.

Here's why I'm so passionate about social media:

• The social utility of an organization depends upon the number of nodes (employees) in contact.

• The social utility of a movement (leaders and followers) depends upon the number of nodes in contact.

As a non-profit we constantly face scare resources; social media enables us to leverage the 26,000 nodes (total number of staff, may be higher) around them in ways that have previously been impossible. We have an unprecedented opportunity to steward our EXISTING resources for GREATER effectiveness. That should get everyone on staff excited. 

If we can foster greater connections amongst staff, both qualitatively (in terms of depth) and quantitatively (in terms of breadth) we just might change the world.

photo courtesy of cybershotking