Walt Disney & Steve Jobs on Family

Walt Disney and Steve Jobs; two men who have had an incredible impact on history we know it.  Stories that have touched our lives; life-long memories from family vacations.  Technological advancements that have changed the way that we consume media.  Both Steve Jobs and Walt Disney brilliantly led organizations that have had enormous impact on the world around them.  But in the midst of this impact there is an interesting difference in respects to these two men and their families.

According to the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson regarding why he wanted a biography to be written:

"I wanted my kids to know me," [Steve Jobs] said.  "I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did."

On our trip to Walt Disney World this week, we visited a showing of One Man's Dream in Hollywood Studios.  During the movie the narrator spoke of Walt's relationship with his daughters, noting that he had a weekly daddy-daughter day.  It was during one of those daddy-daughter days, as Walt watched his daughters play, that he noticed that the amusement parks were ragged, filthy, and not fun for parents.  Walt envisioned a new type of amusement park that families, like him and his daughters, could enjoy together.

Whose World Do You Want to Change?

Both men changed the world.  But at what expense?  If putting a dent in the universe means sacrificing your own family, is that worth the sacrifice?  In Steve Jobs on words, "Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do."  What do you want to do and what are you going to stop doing in order to do it?  Maybe you change the world, first, by starting with your own home.  What if you pastored your family well and then worried about pastoring your church?  What if running your family organization was more important than starting a profitable business?

"A man should never neglect his family for business." - Walt Disney

I dream to have an impact on the world around me.  But more importantly I hope to lead my family well.

Ministry Lessons from Apple

Apple is one of my favorite companies that exists, and Steve Jobs is one of my heroes.  I think that Apple is able to continually push their software and hardware far beyond what anybody else is able to do.  They continually deliver amazing products and because of the success of their organization and innovations, I think there is a lot we can learn from them that applies to leading in the both the ministry realm and the business realm.

People Don't Know What They Need

Apple is known for not looking to their customers to figure out what they need to do.  They do what they think is going to be the best product for the end user and they are usually right.  When the iPhone first came out, people complained that it didn't have a keyboard; now, people don't care that there is no keyboard.

“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. - Guy Kawaski on Steve Jobs

In ministry, it would be a shame if we didn't listen to the people in our ministries, but that being said, a lot of the things that our students need to hear, they don't realize they need to hear.  Where I see this practice of Apple, really applying to our ministry, is when it comes to these unfelt needs.  What do you know your students need to hear or experience that they don't realize they need?  Apple figures out what they think that people need and they deliver a life-changing piece of technology.  When your ministry figures out an unfelt need and is able to help a student see the importance of it, they can give a life-changing message.

All the Details Matter

Apple is known for paying attention to every little detail.  The images that you see as soon as you launch an app, the placement of screws on a macbook, or even the design of internal parts of a machine that you may never open.  Apple pays close attention to the small details because they believe that the little things matter.  In your ministry are you paying attention to the little things?  How does somebody feel when they walk into the room?  How do guests feel when it's their first time checking out the church?  How well are parents informed about the details of an upcoming trip?  Are all the students feeling like somebody cares about them?

Be the Best, Not the First

Believe it or not, Apple didn't invent the smartphone, they revolutionized it.  Apple was not the first to create a phone that could run apps, but they did it better than anybody else.  They weren't the first company to allow apps to run in the background or change the way notifications worked, but they do it the best.

"[Researchers] found that only 9 percent of pioneers end up as the final winners in a market.  Gillette didn't pioneer the safety razor; Star did.  Polaroid didn't pioneer the instant camera; Dubroni did.  Microsoft didn't pioneer the personal computer spreadsheet; VisiCorp did. Amazon didn't pioneer online bookselling and AOL didn't pioneer online Internet service...It seems that pioneering innovation is good for society but statistically lethal for the individual pioneer!" - Jim Collins in Great by Choice

What Apple realizes is an important reality, that it is not nearly as important to be the first to do something, as it is to be the best at doing something.  Find what other youth workers are creating and make it your own.  Read about good ideas that would fit in your minsitry and adapt them for your context.  You don't have to be the innovator of a new model for ministry or creative idea, just be the best in the context of you ministry enviornment.

Photo Credit: Ruben Bos

Catalyst 2011: Session 10 - Andy Stanley

[This post is part of a series of posts of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Andy Stanley closed the conference by walking us through the importance of apprenticing.  He challenged us to answer the question, "What is your strategy for developing leaders?"  Andy pushed that not only should apprenticing be happening, but that we should be intentional about taking steps to make that happen.  He defined apprenticing as selecting, modeling, and coaching for the purpose of replacing yourself.

In the New Testament we see apprenticing happening practically in the lives of the disciples.  Jesus began his ministry with succession in mind.  From the very beginning he had a plan in place to find disciples and coach them so they could lead the Church after he would be gone.  When Jesus went about apprenticing, he personally selected those who would lead his mission.  He didn't begin by asking for volunteers, but he handpicked those he wanted.  As Jesus lived, he modeled how the disciples should live.  The disciples were able to get firsthand experience of doing ministry because Jesus rarely did ministry alone and he even gave the disciples opportunities to do ministry on their own.

"But" Removal

There are two "buts" that often hold us back when we want to apprentice.  First, we say "but I'm not an expert." The problem with this is that if you wait, you will never do it.  You will never feel adaquately prepared to apprentice another leader, and if you do feel adaquately prepared you are probably not prepared.  You are not responsible for knowing everything about your field or knowing more than everyone else in your field.  You are responsible for passing along to someone else what you do know.  The second "but" we get held up on is, "But what will I do?" If you are in a healty organization, even if you replace yourself, you will always have a place.  If you aren't in a healthy organization...get out.

This session was probably my favorite session at the conference.  There were a lot more tips that Andy shared throughout the session, I'd highly recommend checking out the DVD and watching it.

Catalyst 2011: Session 7 - Mark Driscoll

[This post is part of a series of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, led session 7 at Catalyst.  He opened with a simple question that would shape much of what we would talk about over the next hour.  What are you afraid of?  Is it failure, conflict, criticism, money.  The truth is that fear in the mind causes stress in the body; fear taxes our bodies.  Not only what are you afraid of, but who are you fraid of?  Who do you need to please?  Whose opinion matters way to much?  Are you overly devestated by criticism?

Fear is...

• Fear is vision without hope.
• Fear is not rational, but it is powerful.
• Fear is not getting what you want.
• Fear preaches a false gospel.
• Fear turns us into false prophets.

And the Bible tells us more than any other commandment...fear not.  All throughout the Bible, repeatedly God tells us do not be afraid.  What do we have to fear?  God is with us.  The worst-case scenario for any Christian leader is death, which means Jesus comes sooner.  We need to reset our worst-case scenario because it isn't that bad.

Mark ended with a story about his son, who feared going on his family vacation at the time, because he had fear built up that he was going to be traveling in a foreign country alone.  How often do we fear that we our going through life alone?  How often are we looking at our stress and our circumstances and overwhelmed with fear because we don't realize that our dad is coming with us?

"Fear not your daddy's with you." - Mark Driscoll

Catalyst 2011: Session 6 - Judah Smith

[This post is a part of a series of notes on Catalyst 2011]

I had never heard Judah Smith preach before this week. The notes for the session were not extensive, but the message was powerful. Judah Smith has a very fun preaching style to listen to and he opened us to Exodus 33, retelling the encounter that Moses had with God as he got the chance to see God's back as he walked by.

What Moses saw made his face glow and we often wish we could see what Moses saw. But why wish to see what Moses saw when what we get to see in Christ is far better than what Moses ever saw. Moses only wishes that in his day he could have encountered the glory of God like we get to because of Jesus. Jesus is the glory of God, he is all we need. Judah Smith closed with the difficult question for all leaders, "Since when is Jesus not enough?"

Catalyst 2011: Session 5 - Francis Chan

[This post is a part of a series of posts of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Francis Chan spoke a challenging message as he opened up the Bible and challeged us to look at our lives and evaluate our presence with God. While even managing to get in an easy shot at Rob Bell, he walked us through what it looked liked for those in the Bible who saught the presence of God.

In 1 Samuel 30, in the midst of a disastrous situation, David went to the presence of God. Wives and kids were taken from their families and the crowds blamed it on David. And David, "strengthened himself in the Lord."

Some of Francis Chan's Challenging Questions:

• His presence matters. Does anything else matter?
• The Spirit gives life, not the flesh. Do you really believe the flesh is of no help?
• What kind of prayer life are you modeling?
• When was the last time you were completely present with God?

Catalyst 2011: Session 2 - Jim Collins

[This post is a part of a series of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Jim Collins started out his session sharing with us that he was nervous.  He wasn't nervous about the fact that he was speaking in front of 13,000 people.  He was nervous because the content of his talk was in large portion new material.  Jim Collins has a new book entitled Great by Choice, which is what his talk was based on.

The main premise of both his new book and this talk was the question, "Why do some leaders and organizations thrive in times of uncertainty and chaos?"  Jim Collins and his team tried to answer this question by looking at leaders and organizations that did well in difficult times, while others failed.  Through loads of research and data they were able to pull out several principles that seemed to carry throughout the leadership of those who were successful in times of chaos while they lacked in the leaders of failing organizations.

Characteristics of Those Who Are Great by Choice

Level 5 Humility. Being a successful leader is not about having a magnetic personality, but having an unbelievable humility.  This level of humility channeled into a mission or cause is key to all leaders and organizations that continue to thrive in an environment that others often fail.

Fanatic Discipline. The great leaders are fanatic about having disciplines in place.  Jim talked about the concept of a "20 mile march."  Great leaders will have the discipline to push when it's difficult and not do too much when things are going easy.

Empirical Creativity. The great leaders are not great because of innovation.  The best leaders seek creative solutions not by creative inspiration, but by looking at empirical evidence.

Productive Paranoia. Those who show characteristics of this are always asking the question, "What if?"  The paranoid leader works and prepares for situations that seem unlikely because he or she knows that "the only mistakes you learn from are the ones you survive."

There's a lot more than Jim shared throuhgout the session, I felt like I could write down almost every statement he made.  He shared some great action steps for leaders to do; if you want to spend more time listening to this I highly recommend checking out the Catalyst Experience Kit.

Catalyst 2011: Session 1 - Andy Stanley

[This post is a part of a series of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Andy Stanley opened up the Catalyst Conference in typical Andy Stanley fashion with a solid lesson on leadership.  The following are some of the notes that I made from his talk.

"The more successful you are, the less accessible you become."

This reality often will drive us in one of two directions.  Either we will refuse to face this reality and burn out or we will use this success as an excuse to allow ourselves to become more inaccessible then necessary.  The latter is driven by the reailty that "unawareness is bliss."  The truth is that as we invest in relational ministry, it is messy.  It becomes difficult as we really begin to know the needs, hurts, and pains of those we are ministering to.  It is significantly easier emotionally to avoid this reality and be unaware.

In the book of Galatians 6:10, Paul writes, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."  There are two difficult realities in this verse.  Paul tells us that we do good to all people; everyone.  But he also tells us to do this "as we have opportunity."  Paul tells us to do it for everyone; and do it when we have time.

We concluded the session with 3 Tips for leading well:

1. Go deep rather than wide.

2. Go long-term rather than short-term.

3. Go time, not just money.

As Andy unpacked these tips, he shared an important reality that I have heard him say many times.  "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone."  In other words, your ministry doesn't need to be fair.  You don't need to refuse certain ministry opportunities because you can't do them for everyone and on the same hand, you don't have to give ministry opportunities to everyone because you did it for someone else.  Do for one what you wish you could offer to everyone else.

Catalyst 2011 Notes

Catalyst is one of the best leadership conferences around and has some incredible speakers from the both the business and Christian spheres.  I am planning on sharing some of the notes that I take throughout the two days we are in Atlanta.  This post will be a table of contents for the notes that I post on the blog.  Feel free to subscribe to this blog or periodically check back to this page if you want to follow my notes for the conference.

Conference Notes

Session 1: Andy Stanley

Session 2: Jim Collins

Session 5: Francis Chan

Session 6: Judah Smith

Session 7: Mark Driscoll 

Session 10: Andy Stanley 

Catalyst 2011

The Catalyst Conference is only days away and our team will soon be heading down to Atlanta, Georgia to be soaking in the great sessions.  Last year was my first year getting to experience this conference and I was blown away by the quality of every session I went to.  This year I am expecting more of the same as we listen to Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, and many other leaders that have greatly influenced me.

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Leadership Lessons From Facebook

Facebook is a massive social network that has had a huge influence on culture as we know it.  Because of the amount of people using facebook, there is a lot that can be learned about people by observing the culturual reaction to changes on facebook.  As we observe the flurry of reactions from people, there are a few observations that seem to be consistent in my experience on facebook.

Everyone hates change...at first

Facebook routinely makes changes to the way the website works.  And whenever they do, my newsfeed gets littered with people complaining about how much they dislike the new changes.  Facebook makes a change, people get upset.  People are forced to deal with the change and then eventually they start to like it.  People don't like change; this is true for us individually, this is true for our organizations, and this is true for our churches.  This doesn't mean we shouldn't change, but change should be navigated carefully.

People believe the lies

It's amazing how lies can spread.  Go on facebook and look around, and how often do you see somebody posting a status because they are worried that facebook is going to start charging users for its service.  That's a lie.  Facebook makes millions of dollars from advertising and if the advertising weren't enough, the amount of data it knows about us individually is probably worth even more.  Facebook has no need to charge money for facebook, and facebook certainly knows that if they do people will find somehting else.  But despite this, people freak out because they heard something from someone who heard from someone else.  And it spreads.

Wisdom from a Chipotle Burrito

Chipotle is one of my frequent visits for lunch; I cannot help but enjoy a delicious burrito bowl with some chips and guac.  As with any organization that does things well, there are often great insights that we can learn about ourselves or specifically about working in ministry.  Chipotle is no exception.

Do One Thing Well

If you want a lot of options for Mexican food, Chipotle isn't the place to choose.  But if you want an incredible burrito with some of the best ingredients, Chipotle will not leave you disappointed.  What Chipotle has realized in the creation of their simple menu is that it is more important to worry about doing a few things exceptionally well than trying to meet every possible taste in the Mexican style of food.

It's easy for people to want to be a jack-of-all trades, to be good at everything.  If we are not good at public speaking, we take classes to learn how to become a better public speaker.  If we are bad at math, we spend time studying how to better math students.  Certainly learning skills that we are weak in is valuable and learning new skills that we didn't have before is helpful, but the truth is when it comes to our strengths we should spend more time focusing on how to capitalize on our strengths than how to diversify our menus.

Skills and knowledge can and should be acquired, but talents—your recurring patterns of thought or feeling or behavior—are enduring, are resistant to change, are unique. I think we can help educate the world that the most depressing thing to say to somebody is, ‘You can be anything you want to be.’ - Marcus Buckingham

Making delicious burritos is in the DNA of Chipotle as a company; it would be a terrible decision to work against that DNA by trying to focus on making great churros.  Making exceptional burritos is something that Chipotle can do that no other company can do.

As you look at your own life, how has God wired you?  What are the innate patterns and talents that God has gifted you with that separate you from everyone else.  We all can and should learn new skills and knowledge, but what are the patterns in your behavior that make you who you are?  What are the strengths in your life - the things that you both do well and are extremely passionate about?  What is your burrito?

*For a great book about strengths, read "Now, Discover Your Strengths" ...for a great burrito, eat Chipotle.

Four Steps Essential to Training Others

No matter what your vocation in life there will be times where knowing how to train someone is critical to your job and potentially the vision of the organization you work for. Unfortunately for most of us, we search for the person that can do it and sometimes forget to work through the whole process of training. We may find someone who can accomplish the task at the end, but if we don't train they might miss important skills and more importantly an understanding of why and how behind the task that needs to be finished.

Four Steps to Training:

1. I Do, You Watch

What is it you want them to learn? Let them watch you do it. Do you want somebody to learn how to be a teacher? If so, the first step is them spending time watching you teach. Imagine somebody trying to be a great artist without ever spending time learning about the great artists of past.

2. We Do

At this point your protégé has spent some time watching you, so now it's time to do it together. Work on the skill together, talk about what you're doing, and then actually work through the entire process as a team. Don't skip ahead to other steps; don't just give them the task and expect them to figure it out, work with them.

3. You Do, I Watch

I feel like this is when it really starts to get fun. We start to let go a little bit and make some room for them to really lead and use their skills. And when they start using their skills, we also begin to see how they are uniquely gifted and what they are passionate about. At this point, we still aren't completely letting go, we are present watching, critiquing, and following up to help them continue to grow i their craft.

4. You Do, I Do Something Else

At this point, they know what to do. They've seen you do it, they've done it with you, and have been done it several times while you've watched. Now you need to be willing to completely let go and hand it over to them while you go find something else to do. This may be difficult for you, but it's an important step in the learning process. And the confidence that comes from knowing, "I can do this on my own," makes a huge difference as they use their new skill.

Photo Credit: Wyane

Note: This process is not an original idea, I learned it in a class my freshmen year of college and I've also heard the same process describe by our Executive Pastor. I don't know the origins of this process, but it's incredible.

Catalyst 2010 - Session 7: Perry Noble

Perry Noble was a fun preacher to listen to and I love that fact that he gets on stage and talks about what it's like to be preaching at the same conference with "Andy-freaking-Stanley."  Perry preached out of 1 Kings 17 and spent some time exploring the story of Elijah and where God took him and how that relates to us in leadership. As we look at the story of Elijah and at our own lives, the best advice any of us could ever take is to simply "do what the Lord told you to do."  Perry challenged us to think about our relationship with God and spending more time listening to what God tells us to do.

Spend more time of your face...less on your facebook.

One of the interesting things that happens in the life of Elijah is that as God leads him to a brook, we find out in verse 7 that the place that God led him to dries up.

Sometimes, as leaders, things get difficult simply because we are following Jesus.  Elijah was led by God to this brook; imagine the frustration of being there and not having water.  But God uses this situation to prepare him for things that he planned for him that were far beyond what Elijah could have ever imagined for himself and this happened because Elijah listened to God.

Photo Credit: escapedtowisconsin

Catalyst 2010 - Session 2: Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink lead the second session of Catalyst and he focused on the concept of motivation.  There are a lot of things that can motivate people in life, the most common of which is money.  But there's an important truth that we learn about money:

Once you pay people enough, money stops being a motivator.

Since motivation diminishes when money no longer is a motivating factor, it is important that we realize the ingredients to motivation within our organizations.

1. Autonomy

Management is a technology; it's an old, outdated technology that is no longer the best tool for our organizations.  Management is created to get people to comply and get a task done; it is not something created to encourage creativity.

When we value autonomy in our organizations, we allow people to just try things.  Google's employees use 20% of their time to work on whatever they want.  It is in this freedom that the majority of the great innovations take place and it's essential to the success of their organization.  Imagine if Google never created Gmail.

2. Mastery

Mastery is simply getting better a stuff.  As humans we have the desire to get better at our craft, to improve ourselves.  Unfortunately despite this desire, most organizations do not have a culture of feedback, which is essential to improvement.  Daniel recommended disciplining yourself to review yourself; create goals and review how you are doing.

3. Purpose

Why do you do what you do?  Creativity and innovation will flourish when people believe in what they are doing.  When we take away purpose, people are just working through a list and doing what they were told to do.

Photo Credit: Purplemattfish