Human Potential for Growth

While sitting in a conference room during work for the start-up organization of which I am a part, I took a moment and noticed the surrounding walls.  On one wall there was nothing, just a blank grayish blue color.  On the adjacent side, it was a wall with two windows and a brownish red, serving as the accent wall.  The other two walls also had … Continue reading Human Potential for Growth

Weekly Links

Some of my favorite blogs provide regular posts with a simple series of links and brief annotations.  In this vein, and in the spirit of sharing information and collaborating I would like to begin to provide my own links regularly about once a week.  I need to come up with a good name for this regular post, so any ideas are welcome.  My hope is … Continue reading Weekly Links

Asking the Questions

For me leadership involves a constant willingness to be asking the questions.  One of the challenges though that comes with this is figuring out what the questions are that need to be asked. You can always start with the standard questions that shape and form any story:  who, what, where, why, and how?  But after those starters, I have a few that I have found … Continue reading Asking the Questions

Diakonia Conference Resources

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) hosted a virtual conference on Diakonia* today (June 5, 2013).  The conference included participants from around the globe (including from the Philippines, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, the United States and many other locales). For purposes of shared learning and collaboration, I wanted to catch some of the resources from today’s conference.  I have linked to a few that particularly … Continue reading Diakonia Conference Resources

The Future, Authenticity, and Hope

A little under 9 years ago, I visited Claremont, California for the first time.  I visited in order to see and tour the campus of Pitzer College.  I had read and heard that Pitzer might be a great fit for me as a liberal arts college with a focus on the whole person and on the person being a part of the world as a … Continue reading The Future, Authenticity, and Hope

Assimilate and Integrate

A pastor friend of mine posted the following question today.  “With regard to new people coming to church: Do we want to assimilate or integrate? Assimilation means that ‘you’ will come and become like ‘us’ (or the other way around). Integration means that we will both be transformed and the Spirit will create something new among us.” The post went on to have an extensive … Continue reading Assimilate and Integrate

Need for the Longer Term View

In the previous post I mentioned some thoughts that came out of the article, “Moon Shots for Management.”  There are a couple other quick thoughts that I would like to mention in the following two posts.  First, there is the idea that incentives need to provide for the long term! “Stretch executive time frames and perspectives.  Compensation and incentive systems often truncate executive time horizons … Continue reading Need for the Longer Term View

Management as a Liberal Art- Moonshots

Peter F. Drucker believed that management is a liberal art.  In fact, to this end he even titled the second chapter in his famous blue covered seminal work, Management, “Management as a Social Function and Liberal Art.”  Drucker explained, “Management is thus what tradition used to call a liberal art:  ‘liberal’ because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom and leadership; ‘art’ because it … Continue reading Management as a Liberal Art- Moonshots

Leadership and the Church- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

I had the pleasure of being able to take some time out of my work day to attend chapel at Luther Seminary yesterday.  I felt it was important to do so as this was the final chapel service of the academic year, and it was a special one of “Farewell and Godspeed” for a place itself that is in the midst of great transition and … Continue reading Leadership and the Church- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow