It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.
So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.
That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.
~ Dr. Seuss
Think about Dr. Seuss’ wisdom the next time you are writing an email to someone! I will.
Keith
I read these quotes in the latest Rick Warren newsletter. These are GREAT!
I especially like the Wilkinson quote: God is … “planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” Gives meaning to every person in my day. Do they need a miracle smile from someone who recognizes them as another human being. A miracle door held open by someone who isn’t thinking only of himself. A miracle conversation about Jesus by someone who overcomes his fears of how they might respond.
“I used to see Heaven as a place where I might live someday. Now I recognize that Heaven is also a place where God is busy right now planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” ~ Bruce Wilkinson, You Were Born for This (Multnomah Books, reprint, 2011)
“Church is not a meeting or a place you enter. It is an identity that is ours in Christ. It is an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become ‘total church.'” ~ Total Church: A Radical Re-Shaping around Gospel and Community (Crossway, 2008)
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” ~ American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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:
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!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!
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We wish you Keith & Kay |
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?