3:45 PM CDT
Closing Session
Andy Stanley
Jesus asking, “Who do people say I am?” then “What about you guys say I am?” Peter answers. Jesus says Peter didn’t come up with that on his own, but it was revealed by the Father. Jesus says, “On this rock, I will build my congregation… my assembly. And death itself will not prevail against it.” My death (Jesus), your death (disciples) will not stop it.
Here we are. They could not have even imagined it. It is so unfortunate that the term “church” as we used it was formed in our bible. The word was German and related to a place. Jesus wasn’t referring to a place, he was talking about a group of people, a movement. Ecclesia. In the first translation of the English Bible, you don’t find “church” you find congregation… an assembly.
If we took all the groups represented here and put them in a pocket and asked them “What’s the one thing we have in common?” The only thing is exactly what Jesus predicted… that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God and He would creates something that nothing could destroy. Before you go to church, think about it. You are part of the fulfillment of a prophesy that is over 2,000 years old. The Great Commission: ALL power is given to Christ. Go to ALL nations and baptize and disciple… to the ends of the Earth. And then He disappeared. When Jesus made His promise, he didn’t blink. He knew they didn’t fully understand. They are standing there in an undesirable real estate, as outlaws and He charges them to go into all nations. Jesus has been and will continue to build His church and nobody’s death will stop him… not even His own.
How did this thing get started? Because in some of our churches and some of our cities, it’s time to start over. Their message was “You killed Him. God brought him back to life. Now say you’re sorry.” (Acts 22) The central teaching of the 1st century church was not, “We believe something is true.” It was, “We believe something happened.”
(Insert Andy Stanley’s fictitious account of how God suggested Jesus go back down and select a leader… a pharisee… Saul of Tarsus to get his movement going again.) Saul is on his way to Damascus and Jesus appeared to him and knocked him off his you-know-what. Saul becomes the champion of the church. Why? Jesus said nothing would stop His church. He is so committed to build the local church, he interrupts plans. Eventually, Saul/Paul decides to go back to Jerusalem and no one wants to be around him. (Insert Andy’s account of how Paul lays out a map to the disciples. “Here’s how we’ll break this up.” He circles Jerusalem. “You guys take Jerusalem, I’ll take everything else.”) Paul goes around planting all these Ecclesias, facing all kinds of trouble. Eventually, he is brought to Jerusalem and arrested. Since he’s a Roman citizen, he is sent to Rome. He writes his letters (Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians…). Likely early in the morning, they get Paul and march him out and he may have been asking, “Will it work? Will it last? Did I waste my life?” Can you imagine what he didn’t know?
(Explains how there is a cross hanging over the Emperor’s gate in the Roman Coliseum)
Could Peter that morning hear us say don’t be discouraged. People from all over will come here and not ask where Caesar or Nero are buried. They’ll ask where Peter was imprisoned. One day, in this very city, there will be crosses all over this city and they won’t represent execution. They will represent… The only day people will mention Caesar Augustus is when they tell the story of Jesus’ birth. They’ll name their kids Peter and Paul. They’ll name their dogs Nero and Caesar. One day there will be no Roman Empire, but the church of your Lord and Savior will be in every nation of the world, just as your Lord and Savior predicted.
You may do things more profitable with your life, but you’ll never do anything more significant than helping build His church. … you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
2:30 AM CDT
Session 7b: Reversing the Death Spiral of Leadership
Dr. Henry Cloud
(Referring to Hybels’ “Here to There” Vision) It is necessary to find courage when things get bigger.
Leaders don’t blame. They take ownership of what they are called to steward.
The hardest thing for leaders to take charge of is themselves.
There are certain things all leaders do. Some get results. Some don’t. Somewhere between “Here” and “There” they start a downward spiral because it is very hard to be in charge of yourself.
Leaders who continue in hard times because they think, feel and behave differently than the ones who spiral out.
53% better sales performance from dumb vs. smart. They gave the smart and dumb guys another test beforehand, selecting smart guys who are pessimists and dumb guys who are optimists. The ones who believe they can… will win out every time.
#1 factor of success is whether or not you believe it will be done. All leaders believe it will happen at the start. You encounter a circumstance where you realize you are out of control of the circumstances around you. A condition called learned helplessness. We’re trained all our lives that if we do “A” then “B” happens. Until you find yourself in a place where the results seem out of your control (market, environment, others). The brain begins to change in interesting ways.
The 3 Ps
Personal: When the sale doesn’t happen, the brain begins to say “I’m not any good. I’m not good enough.” Every leader who does something fails, but the “dummies” don’t take it personally. “They weren’t ready yet.” “I can tweak the presentation.”
Pervasive: It’s not just them, it’s all our clients.
Permanent: It’s not going to change.
The Bible and science always agree in a place called reality. If not, you have goofy science or wacky Christians and there’s no shortage of either.
Brokers after market crash getting notes about ruining people’s lives. Asked to help brokers, but saw opportunity for brokers to step into their client’s lives. Learned helplessness – dog pushing lever gets shocked. Not pushing lever and still gets shocked = dog gives up.
We have to reverse the 3 Ps.
1. Log and Dispute: Log negative thoughts and dispute them. (Difference between your brain and your mind) Your brain is a physiological organ that can be subject to goofy chemicals that have nothing to do with reality. Dispute the personal stuff, the pervasive stuff and the permanent stuff. When you look at the whole picture, your life changes. Your life is a movie. Your brain sees it as a scene.
2. Control: List 2 Columns – What you can’t control and what you can. People who thrive had a list showing exactly the things they could do. Everybody has control of something. There’s always something you can do. That’s what you do when you’re going from “Here” to “There.”
3. Connect: Your brain runs on 3 things – oxygen, glucose and relationship. In the Bible, we got ashamed when we lost relationship with God. The opposite of bad is not good, it is love (relationship).
We took 500 brokers through this. They started to have weekly, structured meetings connecting with each other. Connecting about the battle, sharing problems and solutions. Stress levels of monkeys agitated and confused individually vs. together (with a buddy, it dropped 50%).
A can-do attitude is something that will give you confidence.
1:30 PM CDT
Session 7a: Multiplying Your Impact Exponentially
Oscar Muriu
The size of your harvest depends on the number of leaders you have.
The harvest is ripe. There are not enough harvesters/leaders to get the work done. Jesus would still say this to us today. The fewer the harvesters, the smaller your harvest will be. Jesus’ strategy was to first find his leaders and to invest himself into their lives – to call them – to walk with them. He FOUND his leaders. We’re too busy and worn out to find and invest in our leaders. We can’t stop, because the harvest is still growing. Today you and I are the result of His strategy. (If you don’t find and invest in leaders) The reach of your leadership will be the limit of your personal capacity. The size of your leadership will be determined by how many leaders you raise up to carry on when you’re gone.
Live for the next generation
Psalm 71:18
David was not living for his own generation (“…until I declare your might to the next generation”). When you live for your own generation, you are born and you die with your generation. Your vision will die with your generation. Who am I investing my life in? Are they at least 20 years younger than me? Surround yourself with younger leaders and invest and pour yourself into them. Have a leadership engine that rolls on, year after year.
Identify the budding leaders around you and take them to God in prayer.
Numbers 11:10-17
Moses was fed up with the people he was leading. He was complaining to God. v.18 God says he is working too hard. Pick 70 of your best leaders (proven track record) and bring them and I will take the spirit that is upon you and pour it out upon them. I will infuse them with My spirit, so they can carry my DNA. Moses was struggling with discouragement and possibly burnout, but there were already 70 world-class leaders right under his nose. He found them in one day. Some of your best leaders are right under your nose, but they’re so close you can’t see them.
Instill the 5 Loves into your budding leaders
Mark 12:30-33
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your Soul, with all your MIND, and with all your STRENGTH. Love your NEIGHBOR as yourself.
Heart = a matter of Character
Soul = a matter of Conviction
Mind = a matter of Comprehension
Strength = a matter of Competence
Neighbor = a matter of Compassion
Never do ministry alone. Always have budding leaders with you.
Acts 4:13
(Math = 9,360 hours a week Jesus gave to the disciples) If we only do ministry over coffee 3 hours a week would take 60 years to disciple one person. Never waste an opportunity to have young leaders be around you.
The more harvesters your have, the larger your harvest will be.
10:30 AM CDT
Session 6: Daring Greatly
Dr. Brene Brown
(Note: This is the one I’ve most anticipated)
(Lead in song Worry Not My Daughter)
I don’t study leaders. I study people. (don’t lead with that)
The irreducible needs of men, women and children. There are 2.
Love and Belonging are irreducible needs. In the absence of love and belonging, there is always, always suffering. Always.
1. Be seen and loved.
2. Belong.
3. Be brave.
When we talk about love, most people picture rainbows and unicorns. I think love is messy. It’s tough, gritty and messy. (picture of older person’s rough, wrinkled hands held out to receive something) Very few people have thought about what love realaly means. We cultivate love when we honor that spiritual connection of that person with trust, kindness, affection and respect. It’s not something we give or get. It’s something we grow and nurture. It’s something we cultivate. Cultivated only when it is shared with someone else.
Love must be acknowledged, healed and rare…
Growth through connection.
You don’t have all the answers. If you do, speak up because we have a bunch of problems. The leader who is OZ… great and powerful… that dance is up. You don’t have the answers and you don’t have to. A leader’s job is modeling the courage to ask the questions.
We can’t give what we don’t have.
We can’t give people what we don’t have. We can’t give them courage, a sense of belonging, grace… when we don’t have it. We can’t give help if we can’t ask for it. When you judge yourself when you ask for help, you are – by default – always judging when you offer help. You have attached judgment to needing help.
Professing vs. Practicing
When you engage in that (sexting, etc.) you are not practicing love. Professing love and practicing it are very different. The space between how we behave and what we practice everyday is where we lose people. We’re looking for people who practice love… all messy and gritty.
What kills love is what kills organizations.
Shame
Blame
Betrayal
Disrespect
Shame
Shame can only rise so far in organization before people disengage to self-protect. Shame is a termite infection. If you walk through an organization and you can see shame (putting down employees in front of clients, favoritism, etc.) Funding someone who has failed (big) sounds expensive, but isn’t nearly as expensive as funding someone who is in the death grip of fear. If you want to be innovating, you better be praying for lots of mistakes. Without failure there can be no innovation.
Blame
The simple discharging of pain and discomfort. It has no value whatsoever. It has nothing to do with accountability. It is toxic in organizations, just as it’s toxic in love.
Disrespect
#1 reason for leaving (exit interview) is lack of feedback. Lack of feedback is a form of disrespect. Feedback is a function of respect. You can’t be good at feedback if you’re not good at being vulnerable. Without vulnerability, there’s no feedback.
Belonging
#1 barrier is fitting in. You have to make a space for people to show up and fit in for who they are. We’re so desperate to be seen. We will build intimacy around a common enemy. Conforming goals, appearance and opinions to fit in leads to shame. Being who we are and fitting in. Be here and be loved. Be here and belong. Be here and be respected. Belonging is not a luxury for us. It is in our DNA to be a part of something bigger than us.
Be Brave
We were born to be brave. Never in our lives do we feel more alive than when we’re being brave (in love, in grief, in our homes, in our work). (TEDx Houston talk story. Was an experiment in front of 500 people that was recorded and seen by millions. Led to vulnerability hangover. Read online, anonymous comments about talk.) People can say painful things that will cause us to change who we are so we never hear them again.
I want to be in the arena and I don’t think I have much of a choice. You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both. They are mutually exclusive. You’re signing up to get your butt kicked. If courage is part of your value, you have signed up for that. 2 things you take with you: Absolute clarity of value. Someone who loves you for who you are. When you get kicked in the face, they’ll say, “That sucked, but you were being brave.” If you are not in the arena also getting your butt kicked, I am not interested in your opinion. Contribute more than you criticize.
Vulnerability isn’t as scary and terrifying as getting to the end of our life and wondering, “What if I had the courage to show up?”
Hybels: How many people live every moment of every day with a deep sense of regret for what we’ve done in the past? Honest confession doesn’t mean beating yourself up. You agree with God about it and accept God’s forgiveness.
9:30 AM CDT
Session 5b: The Innovation Challenge: Getting it Right
Vijay Govindarajan
Interviewed by Jim Mellado
Strategy is not about celebrating the past. It’s not about managing the present. It’s about leading in the future. If you want to lead in the future, you have to adapt to change. Adapting to change is innovation.
3 Box Strategy
Competition for the present is all about efficiency. Competition for the future is all about innovation.
Dominant logic is a double-edged sword. It is extremely useful, but left unchecked, it creates self-imposed boundaries. The central leadership challenge: how do you preserve the dominant logic, but at the same overcome it?
Innovation is more than ideas. Innovation is not creativity. It is creative execution.
Innovation = Idea + Leader + Team + Plan
The role of leaders is not to subvert, but to harness and leverage the core business function.
2 Things We Do that Oppose Innovation:
1. Assume innovation can happen inside the performance engine.
Innovation is the opposite of efficiency. It’s all about flexibility.
2. Not institute the plan correctly.
It will create conflict when you create this new innovation team. You have to have shared staff between the innovation team and the performance engine. Be courageous to recruit people from the outside. Do not just transfer people from performance engine. You will struggle with the forgetting process. When you set up a team, the team – if it is constituted correctly – can help to fight against organizational memory. They should not be isolated from core business, because they will borrow some key assets. Conflicts are healthy if you manage them productively.
The planning is connected to the real challenge in Box 1 – your current business. You’re responding from clear signals in the current market. Box 3 is responding to weak signals because it is… We don’t know what the customer wants, etc. Learn to resolve assumptions. Box 1 – I can plan. Box 3 – Is about testing assumptions. The rule is spend a little, learn a lot. Low cost experimentation.
The performance engine can be evaluated on known results. Box 3 is an experiment. You cannot evaluate it on short term financial results. There can be a strong discipline to evaluate their ability to learn. Can you set up hypothesus, test that hypothesus, translate to knowledge.
Reverse innovation.
Innovating in a poor country like India and bringing it to a rich country like America. Why would a rich man want a poor man’s product. Healthcare is very high cost, not best quality and not universal access. There are over 100 experiments in poor countries around low cost and best in class quality healthcare. The US may want to know this. Innovation has to be learning to do a lot more for a lot less for a lot of people. Because their cost is 50x less, it isn’t 50x lower quality. You can’t have a low quality heart surgery. Innovation is not just about value for money, it’s about value for many.
Use technology to make great products for the poor. Reducing income inequality has to become the highest form of human achievement.
8:30 AM CDT
Session 5a: Mastering the Skill of Influence
Joseph Genny
(Some of the text left the screen too quickly for me to capture. Influence to buy the book?)
Leadership is intentional influence.
If our religious experience isn’t translating into other habits and experiences, we aren’t leading. When somebody fails, we deliver another sermon. This is a naive view of influence. Don’t just teach principles. Connect to people’s values.
Don’t just teach principles. Connect to values.
(A) Motivation ——————–(B) Ability
Personal: A(1) Make the undesirable desirable. B(2) Surpass your limits.
Social: A(3) Harness peer pressure. B(4) Find strength in numbers.
Structural: A(5) Design rewards and demand accountability. B(6) Change the environment.
Personal Ability
The influence of skill.
(Video: Kid on ski jump)As influencers, we understand motivation, but we leave out the right side of the model (Ability). (Moses in the house of Pharaoh – learning how to lead a nation)
(HOV violations. Sign “Report HOV Lane Violations Call 921HERO) Number of lane violators dropped by 80% in a couple of weeks. Combination of sign and letter sent to violators reframes so that violators realize violators are watching them.
The influence of other people – through modeling, praise, helping…
Structural Ability
The influence of space, data, cues, tools, processes, and other environmental factors.
The space we inhabit influence our choices.
Those who used six sources of influence, their outcome increases 1,000%.
If you want to change the world, learn how to change people’s behaviors.