the blog

This is a picture of the Governor of California. He’s got very large muscles. That has nothing to do with this post.

I’m reading “Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity, and Productivity” and just sharing my reflections here. I love the book. I love reading about stuff like this. And I love thinking about how it applies to my world. In this case, how it applies to our church/school organization at Rancho Community Church and Rancho Christian. Here we go. (part 1 is here).

Chapter 1: The Case for Connection at Work

…connection is invisible, yet has a very real effect on the behavior of people.

…unless the people in an organization have a strong sense of connection – a bond that promotes trust, cooperation, and esprit de corps – they will never reach their potential as individuals, and the organization will never reach its potential.

We have so much potential, could a lack of connection be a barrier to our potential?

Employees in an organization with a high degree of connection are more engaged; more productive in their jobs… feel energy, empathy, and affirmation.

Connection transforms a dog-eat-dog environment into a sled dog team that pulls together.

(research shows that) 75 percent of workers do not feel engaged or connected at work.

The state of many organizations today is like that of a bodybuilder who exercises only one arm. The result: one bulging bicep and three skinny, underdeveloped limbs.

What are some of our strengths & weaknesses?

Widespread disengagement is a waste of human talent and energy. It’s not healthy…

So What? Increasing connection in the workplace is a significant opportunity to improve the performance of individuals and organizations.

Do we feel a need to increase connection in our organization?
How significant is connection at our church/school work environment?
How are we seeking to improve the performance of individuals? Ex: maybe we need more accountability in our workplace to help people reach their potential. If we simply impose new accountability measures without first making personal connections, we cause people to distrust, act fearfully, defensively, become suspicious of or all-together reject change.

Next: The Science of Connection (defining Connection)

Well, she’s done it again. Our poor little Macy broke her foot – she fell off her bike yesterday. So instead of going to Rancho Community today, we went to Rady Children’s Hospital (@radychildrens)in San Diego – a place we know too well. Technically this is her third break (and she’s only 4); She’s going to drive her parents nuts! Here’s her first beak and her second.

Thanks for all the prayers, tweets, facebooks & text messages – it means a lot. She’ll be in the cast for a couple weeks, then follow up, and hopefully she’ll be out so she can swim soon!

I’m making my way through “Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity, and Productivity.” So far, I’ve found it to be an incredibly powerful book with some real applicable leadership principles. After I got about half way through it, I recommended that our executive staff at Rancho Community go through it. Rather than all reading it, I’m now leading our staff through a weekly short synopsis of each chapter. So I thought I’d just share my notes here on the ol’ blog for anyone interested. These are just some powerful quotes and a few of my thoughts intermingled (my thoughts in italics). If you like this, then you should get the book, seriously.

Fired Up or Burned Out: Introduction
People generally enter their organizations fired up, over time most work environments most work environments reduce that flame to a flicker. Solving this problem needs to be one of the highest priorities of today’s organizations.
Do you thrive or survive? Which term describes what your work culture is doing to you? How would the people who report to you answer that question?

We Must Connect with Others to Thrive
Connection meets the basic human psychological needs for respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth, and meaning. When these needs are met we thrive.
Lack of connection will gradually burn us out… environments where connection is low or absent diminish our physical and mental health.
Connection makes us better problem solvers, more creative, more trusting, and more cooperative. Trust and cooperation are the lubrication that make the tasks of organizations run better.

The Competitive Advantage of Connection (Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks, JetBlue pg. xxii) – This is an interesting part of the book where the author talks about how some of these companies that are taking steps and putting for major initiatives to connect with people. One story is of Southwest Airlines and their supervisor to worker ratio of 10 to 1, which is off the charts, compared with other companies that are much higher like 40 to 1. I love hearing about companies that take the extra steps to make connections like that, especially with their employees – you just know creating that kind of culture builds trust and keeps the team aligned in vision and focus.

…connection is a necessity to any organization that aspires to achieve sustainable superior performance.

It is possible to thrive at work and be a catalyst for positive change.

That last line means a lot to me because I want nothing more than to be catalyst for positive change – that’s the world I live in. I’m all about change – I find it fascinating. Our level of connection is proportional to our tolerance for change – if we are disconnected, un-trusting, and unsure, change scares us, even offends us. So I’m learning to create more connections, to build trust, collaborate, and listen more than ever now.

How connected are you in your organization? What are some creative things you’ve done to build connections with your teams, with your customers, clients, or congregation?

Designed by Alex McLean for Rancho Community Church

Today’s message from @scotttreadway was powerful for us. We talked about it afterwords, how we really need to think through some of the points – just let it sink in. Blogging is one way for me to do that, so here’s my (somewhat scattered) notes:

Children are a Sacred Gift from God

• They are of unspeakable value (the Earthly ministry of Christ: he loved children, Psalm 139)

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

• They are given without cost to us (although children cost money, we payed nothing for them)
• Their lives will have eternal consequences (not sure if I got this one right on the notes – point being the way they are raised will impact them them forever)
• They will radically shape our lives (and we theirs)
• They require a tremendous amount of effort (parenting is a job)
• They come with a ton of help (God’s Word, his community – the church)
• We have to give them back (they don’t belong to us)

Don’t Break the Gift

• Divorce breaks children
• Abuse breaks children
• Harsh words break children
• Ignoring them breaks children

Do this

• Pray for your children

Idea for a prayer for your children (pray for them by name)
Lord, these children belong to you…
You love them more thank I do…
You know them more intimately than I do…
You gave them more than I can ever give them…
You’ve ordained me to pastor these children…
I need your help…

• Spend time with them (lot’s of time)
• Set a good example
• Teach them (Prov. 22:6)

⁶ Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Pour your life into pastoring your children…

We are pastors, we are shepherds, they are our flock…

So, that was the message this Mother’s Day morning @ranchocommunity. Pretty heavy stuff. I know personally, I struggle with being a good parent. Ugh, I can’t even say it right – I, we want to be pastors to our kids, their shepherds. We want to raise them to know how valuable they are, so they make wise choices with their lives. We want to teach them about the love and grace of our loving father, who daily gives us mercy.

We know we’ve got a lot to learn, at the very least we are getting some good tools to use. I’ll close this post with this verse that we want to use to direct our family:

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

For those who didn’t know, we’re expecting baby number three somewhere around August 12th!

Jen’s doing great, the kids are excited, and we just moved into a house with an extra bedroom to accommodate the little one. (note: try not to move with a pregnant wife).

So the picture to the left here is of the baby somewhere around 15 weeks – she’s got her little fist up next to her chin, if you can make that out. Pretty awesome!

Yesterday we went into Unique Ultrasound in Temecula for another 3D/4D look at the little baby. Side note: You can follow them on Twitter & Facebook – they get it.

It’s amazing what’s going on in there, the miracle of life, and how God is shaping and forming her little body right now.

Check out the video:

Number 3 from alex mclean on Vimeo.