On Leading Well

Year: 2009

  • Are Today’s Students On Your Radar?

    Recently I had the opportunity to meet with some people who are totally serious about fulfilling the Great Commission in the next ten years. Yep, vision flowed. This was a gathering of the Lausanne Strategy Working Group who were preparing for Cape Town 2010, the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. My friend Paul Eshleman chaired the meeting and challenged each of us to write an article for the online journal www.lausanneworldpulse.com.

    My article, Are Today’s Students On Your Radar?, just came out in the August edition.  Take a peek.

  • Why Twitter Works For Me

    I confess I began Twittering one month ago as a skeptic. My felt need for more info about more people doing more stuff was pretty low. But, as I mentioned here, I decided to give it a try for 30 days. I’m glad I did. Here are five reasons why:

    1. I learn a lot, very quickly, from good tweeters. Several @johnpiper tweets have provoked questions that resonated all day long. My brother-in-law @garunn posts very insightful links. There is more actual value per tweet than I find in most emails or in Facebook. Good tweeters engage others using @angelamaiers’ 70-20-10 rule.

    2. It’s manageable. The ease of this surprised me. I can turn off the faucet of information whenever I want. Also, I use TweetDeck which makes it super easy to scan, filter, save and reply to tweets. I like that I can update my Facebook status without being at the computer. Oddly enough, life feels a bit more integrated. @stephnannen recently posted her fellow skeptic’s insights on her excellent blog. If you’re drowning in tweets, see 10 Tips For Managing Twitter As Your Usage Increases.

    3. It’s customizable. You can choose to receive text updates from everyone, no one, or just two people (as I’ve chosen to do).

    4. It inspires good writing. Seriously. To communicate something of value in only 140 characters is a mix of art and science. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking.

    5. Friends help me solve problems. Case in point: After 12 years with the Palm OS (currently on a Treo) I’ve been trying to decide on moving to a new smartphone platform. But which one would best suit my needs? I researched the blogs, watched the ads, and Googled the reviews. It’s a big investment in my time, energy and money to make a move. I estimate I spent 10-15 hours on this decision over the past few weeks.

    Enter Twitter.

    Yesterday I sent the following tweet from my phone (which automatically posted to FB) at 10:10 a.m.:

    pondering switching from Treo to Pre or iphone. Since i live in outlook, my device *must* sync tasks & notes. what device drives you & why?

    By 11:10 a.m. I had received more than a dozen substantial, informative responses (both in Facebook and in Tweetdeck). The best info came from @travistodd who is 10,000 miles away in Asia.

    By dinner time I had enough relevant info based on personal user experiences of trusted friends to make an informed decision with confidence. (I’m going with the iPhone.)

    These days it takes a Tribe.

  • How Social Networking Is Changing Our World

    It’s no longer a question of if? or when? The question now is to what extent? Whether you like texting, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter doesn’t really matter anymore. Social networking is changing our world. The recent uprising by young voters in Iran (nearly 2/3 of the country’s 71 million people are under 30) has instructed the old guard on the power of instant connection and the illusion of controlled information.

    Leading well involves actively listening to what people are talking about. Where are people talking? The use of the internet for social networking ranks in the top five media revolutions in the past 500 years (along with moveable type, the telegraph/telephone, recorded sound and moving pictures, and harnessing the electromagnetic spectrum to broadcast media), says TED presenter Clay Shirky. Shirky states:

    These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn’t when the shiny new tools show up that their uses start permeating society. It’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.

    Watch this compelling and informative 17 minute video to see why this matters to you and your team. Show it at your next staff meeting and ask: How should this affect the ways we serve our clientele?