The Seabourns

Archives for December 2010

Bible reading plans help me stay on track

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I did it! I finished reading through the Bible in a year. I’ve read through the Bible several times, but I’ve never made it in a calendar year period.

I think five things helped me:

  1. My church started 2010 with a 90-day challenge to read through the New Testament by the end of March. Knowing others were doing the same plan helped me.
  2. I got a copy of the English Standard Version Study Bible. This was a new version to me. I found the newness refreshing as I read familiar passages.
  3. I also took time to read the introductory study notes before starting each new book. I found these notes very insightful and helped me stay engaged. As I read through the book, I looked for confirmation of the things I read in the introductory materials. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. And it was very engaging. I felt like I had completed a Survey of the New Testament when I completed the 90-day challenge.
  4. I chose the YouVersion.com reading plan called Chronological to read through the Old Testament in the remaining months of 2010. Reading chronologically gave new insights and connected historical passages with Psalms and other wisdom literature and with the Prophets written in the same time frame. YouVersion gave a calendar overview so I could see where I was in the reading plan. Seeing the green boxes appear each day I completed my reading was motivating to continue. It may seem a little thing, but having a visual picture of where I was in the plan was very motivating. The YouVersion app on my Android phone kept track so that when I finished reading a chapter, it checked it off. Very nice!
  5. I installed YouVersion.com’s Bible App on my mobile phone. Having the Bible with me all day, using a Reading Plan, having the App track my progress in short intervals as I had time to read another chapter all contributed to success in 2010.

I’m going to do a 30-day Gospels reading plan in January to start the year off with Jesus’ life and ministry. I’m also going to do a couple of shorter reading plans on Courage (1 week) and Prayer (3 weeks).

And I’m joining 1 billion in 1 month! Join in reading the Bible for 1 billion minutes in the month of January. YouVersion recently passed the 4 billion minutes of Bible reading. Imagine if around the world, the Bible is read for 1 billion minutes in January! Join me, not for YouVersion’s sake, but for our own! If you have an iPhone or Android or BlackBerry or Windows mobile phone, install their Bible App and read wherever you have 15 minutes.

Let’s do it! Let’s read 1 billion minutes in January!

High-performing technology leaders

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Who are the technologists who can translate opportunities into results? What does it take to become someone who can consistently deliver measurable results? I read an article recently that sparked my thinking.

High-performing technology leaders are leaders first, technologists second.

Leaders manage people well. They have learned the “soft skills” of leading others. Leaders know how to move a group of people from here to there. Leaders specialize in leadership. They are generalists in technology. High-performing technology leaders are still passionate about technology, but focus on the missional objectives, not the technologies.

High-performing technology leaders have learned to speak another language.

Learn to speak the language of leadership, the language of mission and business. Ask questions. Read books. Broaden your perspective. When around non-tech leaders, never, never, never talk about servers and protocols and megabytes and upload speeds. Ever!

Etched in my memory is a meeting with a technology leader and his organizational director. The discussion was about a new database system to replace the one that was about to exceed it’s maximum 1.5 million record limit. The director asked “Will this new system you are proposing last for a long time, or will it fill up like the current one?” The tech leader replied with a 15 minute explanation about how the Chunnel system linking France and the U.K. uses the same database system, has millions of passengers and vehicles a year pass through hence millions of database records added each year, and will last for many many years without exceeding the database’s maximum record limitations. The director asked his question again, “But will it last for a long time or will we be replacing it in a few years?” Another lengthy explanation. The director asked a third time. I jumped in to help the struggling tech leader saying, “What he is saying is ‘Yes, it will last a long time.'” The director thanked me for clarifying this important point.

High-performing technology leaders have found a balance.

When speaking outside the technology department, the high-performance leader speaks the language of leadership. Inside the technology department, the high-performance leader balances the language of leadership with the language of technology. The technology staff feel their leader understands the challenges they face and compromises they are making. All technology solutions are a balance, a compromise. The tech team needs to have confidence that their leader understands the issues and engages in the details.

What components of high-performance leadership have you found in technology leaders?

Leading with Information

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The mission task is changing in many ways. Some concern the content of missions. Others, such as what I’m writing about today, concern the context of missions.

In the past, missionaries were “prepared for everything”. The context of missions today, though, allows us to prepare for focused, precise opportunities and outcomes.

How?

Through the rich information available to us today. Through the way the internet is allowing rapid collection of metrics and the rapid dissemination of what we are learning back into the spiritual context of changing lives.

These changes are affecting many aspects of the missionary enterprise. But perhaps the most jarring aspects are in technology and traditional Information Technology. Server uptime or minimizing help requests are no longer the primary measures of success. Engaging people in meaningful life transformations are.

What is driving these changes in the role of technology? There are several significant trends, including:

  • Social networking. Mashable says it well, “Once, Twitter was a place where you could read about someone else’s cat. Now, it’s the first place you go to when there’s breaking news.” Recently, to repair the door handle on my car, I went to YouTube to see how someone else did it.
  • Mobility. Facebook statistics indicate that users are twice as engaged when using a mobile device. Most people are rarely more than 3 feet from their mobile device.
  • Cloud computing. Information is stored so that it is available anywhere, all the time. It is no longer “at home on my computer” or “at the office”.

These drivers are leading to relevance-driven engagement with information. A friend commented to me recently that when she was looking for something for her children, she did not use information-based searching such as Google.com, but searched through her social networks such as Facebook for what her friends recommended. What do my friends saying about this new movie? What are my friends doing this weekend? I’m at the local coffee shop, and I wonder who of my friends might be nearby?

Technology is at the core of these opportunities. But we have to think about the opportunities in non-technical, mission-driven ways.

What ideas do you have to engage in using information to lead?