Perception

Folks develop a perception of us.  That perception is almost always the result of...

• What they see out of us.
• What they hear from us.
• The fidelity between what they see from us and hear from us.

If we don't like the way others perceive us, we have GREAT power (and opportunity) to alter that perception.  How?  By...

• Making sure others see from us what we want them to see from us.
• Making sure others hear from us what we want them to hear from us.
• Making sure that what they see from us is HIGHLY aligned to what they hear from us.

Works for us as individuals.  Works also for organizations.

A prerequisite is that we actually know what we would like for others to perceive in us.

As with most meaningful pursuits, it's far easier said than done.  But, doable indeed.

Erosion

Erosion is the gradual destruction of something, via a natural agent like water or wind.  On our ranch, we see the effects of erosion every day.  When we get significant rain, water erodes portions of our land, cutting deep gullies, sometimes destroying fences, occasionally uprooting trees, and often altering the course of springs/creeks.

Bear in mind that water is a very good thing - necessary actually.  It is our very lifeblood on the ranch.  

The impact of erosion is driven by three factors:  speed, volume, and depth.  As any or all of these increase, the destructive effects increase dramatically.  Thus, a very good thing - water - can become menacingly destructive.  We understand that and take steps to mitigate that speed/volume/depth problem when and where we can.

Erosion also occurs in organizations.  When what we usually consider to be very good things, such as new initiatives, process improvements, or professional development, are deployed with intensified speed or volume or depth, the same thing can happen to the organization that happens on our ranch...Erosion.  In this case the damage is usually witnessed as frustration, overwhelmedness, lowered morale, decreased commitment, or impaired performance.  

Wise leaders understand and heed this natural law.

OxenInTheDitch

We often get derailed by oxen-in-the-ditch events.  Happened to me yesterday, in the most literal fashion.

Yes, it was a pain in the patootie.  Always is.  I spent most of the day trying to get the "oxen" out of the ditch (and then, only with the help of my wonderful neighbor who has a MUCH bigger "ox").

But, the situation caused me some introspection.  Surprised?  These oxen-in-the-ditch events sometimes occur in our personal lives, sometimes in our professional lives, sometimes in our organizational lives.

They happen when the following conditions exist (independently or in combination):

• When we quit paying attention.  Occasionally, we get distracted (for any number of reasons) and make decisions that put us in a jam.
• When we make risky choices, gambling on the outcome.  Perhaps we try to force things a bit too quickly, or take chances that are dicey at best, or feel like the cost-benefit analysis is worth the risk, or insist on holding to old but untenable ways of doing things (think Polaroid and Blockbuster here).
• When contexts change on us without our knowing it.  Sometimes conditions/circumstances shift outside our field of view.  We are simply minding our own business and the world changes on us unexpectedly.

We all are subject to these catastrophes.  Rarely is there loss of life or limb (thankfully).  Often the experiences cost us mightily in time, effort, and expense.  ALWAYS, how we react and adapt to the situation determines the ultimate outcome.

What is most important, however, is what we LEARN from the event.  That will most likely determine the frequency and severity of the next oxen-in-the-ditch events. 

GoodFaith

I recently read Good Faith:  Being a Christian When Society Thinks You're Irrelevant and Extreme by Kinnaman and Lyons (2016).  

In this work the authors examine the difficulties of living as Christians in a nation/world that has become increasingly secular and humanistic.  K&L also discuss some of the most challenging social issues of our time in relation to the Christian faith, such as dealing with racism and current views of sexuality.

My biggest takeaways:

• The Christian faith, lived with fidelity, may be the best hope for a our families, our neighbors, and society, in general.
• Modeling "good faith" means living by the "great commandment" - to love God completely and with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
• How well we love + What we believe + How we live = Good Faith (p. 75)
• Asking the right questions, then listening more than talking, is a great recipe for meaningful engagement.
• We must allow "space" for disagreement.
• Our faith is played out in five arenas:  Theology, Ministry, Relationships, Politics, and the Public Square.

My favorite quote:  “We aren’t responsible for the outcome, but we are responsible to be faithful.” (p. 260)

A good read, which challenged my thinking and practice on several fronts.  Thanks for the recommendation, JK

TheFutureOfGod

I recently read The Future of God: A Practical Approach to Spirituality for Our Times by Deepak Chopra (2014).  

In this book, Chopra attempts to accomplish two objectives.  First, the book is his rebuttal to the attacks from what he describes as Militant Atheists, a group who not only disbelieves the existence of God but also feels compelled to malign and impugn any who do.  Secondly, DC makes a reasoned argument for the existence of God, though perhaps not in the embodiment that has held traditional sway.

Rather than try to summarize DC's points, I'll include here some of his most insightful and challenging assertions:

• “I like a metaphor I once heard, that faith is like smelling the sea before you see it.”  (p.21)
• “Knowing God consists of many experiences acquired over a lifetime, a slow-motion epiphany, as it were.”  (p.22) 
• “It’s particularly strange that skeptics mock anyone who explores supernatural phenomena, since one item on the list – seeing beyond surface appearances and trusting what you see – is a hallmark of science.  Ghost hunters are doing nothing more or less than physicists hunting for quarks.”  (p.70) 
• “Faith is personal. It doesn’t need to be justified to someone else. Faith is something you must participate in – you can’t judge it from the outside.  Faith is a way of exploring reality, but it doesn’t have to pass scientific testing.  Faith looks beyond physical appearances.  Faith is about meaning.”  (p.73)
• “You are whatever your faith is...the core ideas and beliefs you live by…the sum of your inner conceptions.”  (p.84-85)  
• “…the most recent theories of the cosmos propose that only 4 percent of the universe is made up of matter and energy that can be measured – the remaining 96 percent consists of so-called dark matter and energy, which are little understood.  They cannot be seen, only inferred.”  (p.93)  
• “It [Science] has brilliantly subdivided nature into tiny packets of knowledge while missing the miraculousness of the whole”  (p. 133)   
• “God’s love doesn’t pick and choose, so it applies to serial killers, Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, and all other monsters in history.  It applies to all criminal acts as well as to holy acts.  Therefore divine love is more like a natural force field – gravity, for instance – than a human emotion.  Such love can’t be expressed in human emotional terms.”  (p. 147)  
• “The issue isn’t how to think about God but how to experience him directly.”  (p. 149)
• “The whole story is told in a single concept:  God is realized in the highest state of awareness.  Since everyone is aware, God is reachable by all of us.”  (p. 159)  
• “God is everywhere in the subtle world.  The divine doesn’t appear by glimpses, in peak moments with sudden blinding light.  The divine is constant; it is we who come and go.”  (p. 188) 
• “As banal as it sounds, finding God depends on regular practice.”  (p. 189)  
• “Approval is sweet.  Anyone who wants it should avoid writing about God.”  (p. 249)    

 Chopra ALWAYS pushes my thinking.  I'll keep letting him do so. 

Peace&Happiness

Peace and Happiness seem to have a symbiotic relationship.  While one doesn't cause the other, they seem to be inextricably connected.  

Many folks believe wealth or power or fame or knowledge will lead them to Peace and Happiness, only to find that none do.

We can get ever closer to Peace and Happiness when we:

• Connect deeply with, learn to appreciate, and grow to understand ourselves.
• Connect deeply with, learn to appreciate, and grow to understand those we love.
• Connect deeply with, learn to appreciate, and grow to understand God.

That connecting and appreciating and understanding all require significant investments of attention, thoughtfulness, and care on our part.  None happen well at high speeds.

(Re)Fueled

Fuel is the stuff that provides the energy to move forward (both literally and figuratively).  

Literal fuel - like vitamins and gasoline and protein and coal and water - enters the system of the living organism or machine and triggers a train reaction of events that supplies the needed energy for performance.

Figurative fuel is the stuff of consciousness and motivation, the things that push us toward our goals.  Figurative fuel doesn't apply to machines.  Yet, for living organisms it is just as important as the literal fuel.  Figurative fuel looks/feels like purpose and hope and love and loyalty and ambition and meaning.

With both kinds of fuel, quality matters.  Our cars won't run well by putting crappy fuel in the gas tank.  By the same token, our bodies cannot perform optimally by loading them up with junk fuel.  Similarly, if the things of the heart and spirit that motivate us are low quality or absent, we lack the needed fuel for commitment and performance. 

The same goes for organizations (whether they be families, churches, schools, businesses, or nations).

Quality fuel and regular refueling is the stuff of high performance.