Four Steps of a Powerful Apology:
1. Here’s what I did.
(Be specific.)
2. Here’s how I hurt you… is there more?
(Now listen.)
3. I’m sorry for…
(Name what you did specifically and how it hurt the person.)
4. Would you forgive me?
(Maybe it’s not today. But I am asking for your forgiveness.)
Can you state what your business does in one sentence?
Can you describe how your business does what you do in a sentence?
Can you say why your company exists in a single sentence?
Articulating these three sentences can alter your company in remarkable ways. Knowing what you do is one thing. Being able to say it succinctly is another. Knowing how you do it and being able to state it clearly are often elusive. Knowing why you do it and being able to tell your employees and your customers will set you apart.
To begin, start with a three-minute exercise:
1. Take one minute to write down what your company does in one sentence. Don’t over think it. Don’t worry about the wording.
2. Take the second minute to write down how you do it in one sentence. Again, no over-thinking.
3. Take the third minute and write down why you think your business exists. If you don’t know why it exists, write down why you work there.
The benefits of this work is simple: congruence. A business that is in alignment has a more effective and committed workforce; it has a more loyal customer base. Congruence is a key ingredient to building a business with thriving culture.
“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek
A friend is in an Ignatian prayer group. When they first gathered for prayer they lit a candle. They then gave individual candles to each member of the group with simple instructions.
”Light this candle anytime you're aware of God's presence.”
“Light this candle anytime you need to be reminded of God's presence.'“
For my friend, it has been a simple, helpful, and beautiful practice. He is on his fourth candle.
Whether we feel it or not, trust it or not, God is as close to us as the air is to the flame.
A candle. A tangible practice of God’s presence.
The challenges currently are ever-changing, highly varied, structural as well as contextual and often material. These leave boards and leadership teams asking questions.
The first thing I would do is segment the questions and look for the shared themes. Stating the obvious but bringing your vision and values to this will help.
Our 1st session was recognising our reality, using a “what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s confused and what’s missing” matrix - it was really helpful to bring out the team’s reflections on where we were at. We then identified the key themes from everything that had been written down - we came up with 8.
Our 2nd session has us focus on imagining and visualising where we wanted to see things in 3-5 years and then to share those as a team. We captured the key themes and made sure they mapped back against the 8 themes we identified in our current reality.
Our 3rd session we identified 5 priorities to focus on for the next 6 months, as our first step towards that 3-5 year growth plan. Again - we mapped it back against the 8 themes we identified at the start of the day to see if we were addressing them all.
This was for a strategy day but I think it also can be a 15 minute exercise, or a 3 day exercise.
Ask what’s right, wrong, confused and missing on this question
Ask where you want to be by xx period
Make a plan for immediate action
However, the framing of all of that through your vision and values is key - otherwise you can’t prioritise, you don’t know where to allocate scarce resources and you will likely be fragmented rather than focused.
Every one of the questions screams for attention. What’s more important in this moment? Ask yourself something I heard recently - if I don’t address this will it be the issue that sinks the company? Now, I aspire to more than avoiding sinking the company - but grabbing a sense of perspective is helpful.
I try the following with my children when they can’t decide which sweet from the box they want - I ask them if they had to remove one, which one would they put back in the box. Very quickly we get down to a choice of 2. I think that approach works with these questions - if you had to remove 1 that is not an immediate issue, which one would it be? Keep doing that until there are hardly any left and then analyse the issue, visualise the goal and make a short term action plan.
Momentum over almost everything.
Leading right now is tiring, it’s confusing and it’s pressured. With clarity of vision and values and using some simple diagnostic and process tools, a lot of the stressful questions can turn into a plan of attack very quickly.
Duncan McFadzean
The Weekly Distillation
The Goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts from God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. We appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons. If any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.
Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life and love in me.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
paraphrased by David L. Fleming, S.J.
I imagine that today I am to die. I ask for time to be alone and write down for my friends a sort of testament for which the points that follow could serve as chapter titles.
1. These things I have loved in life: things I have tasted, looked at, smelled, heard, touched.
2. These experiences I have cherished:
3. These ideas have brought me liberation:
4. These beliefs I have outgrown:
5. These convictions I have lived by:
6. These are the things I have lived for:
7. These insights I have gained in the school of life: insights into God, the world, human nature, Jesus Christ, love, religion, prayer.
8. These risks I took, these dangers I have courted:
9. These sufferings have seasoned me:
10. These lessons life has taught me:
11. These influences have shaped my life: persons, occupations, books, events.
12. These Scripture texts have lit my path:
13. These things I regret about my life:
14. These are my life’s achievements:
15. These persons are enshrined within my heart:
16. These are my unfulfilled desires:
I choose an ending for this document: A poem—my own or someone else’s; or a prayer; a sketch or a picture from a magazine; a Scripture text; or anything that I judge would be an apt conclusion to my testament.
Anthony De Mello, S.J.
Hearts on Fire, Praying with Jesuits
1. IDEA
- Someone has an idea for a story
- Invite the right people to the table to talk about it
2. DEVELOPMENT
- Discovering the story and developing a strategy in two phases
- This phase is typically 3 to 6 weeks
Phase 1: "Come and see"
- Meeting people and visiting locations
- Money is spent to develop an idea
The next phase if we choose to move forward
Phase 2: Building out the Business Plan
- Script
- Budget
- Defined desired outcomes for the film
- Development of a distribution strategy
After review we adjust the story and budget and evaluate if it’s worth moving forward
3. PRE-PRODUCTION:
- The project is green lit with funding
- Formalizing advisory boards, legal contracts, etc.
- Building your core team: Executive Producers, Producer, Director, and volunteer teams
- Begin scheduling the shoot
- Begin development of the marketing strategy I.E. website and trailer, recruitment of screening hosts
4. PRODUCTION:
- Shooting the film
- EP’s, Producers and volunteers working simultaneously towards a strong release of the film
5. POST-PRODUCTION:
- Editing the movie
- Producers and EP's are getting ramped up for the release
6. DISTRIBUTION:
- Implementation of marketing and distribution strategy
Daily Practices for a Rule of Life
Morning prayers before 6am.
Meaningful conversation with someone by asking good questions.
Good meal where I sat down and savored the food.
Walk a mile with Amos (our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel).
Focused my attention for 2 hours on “deep work” to not put out fires at work all day.
I have found great benefit in creating a “habit tracker” for these 5 Daily Practices. They are listed in my journal along with the days of the week to create a simple chart where I mark an “X” to visually track my daily practice. Weeks I live into these rhythms regularly are noticeably different than weeks I live “out of sync”.
Jared Ray Mackey
I prayed for the person and our meeting
I prepared for at least five minutes prior to the meeting
I talked for less than 50% of the meeting
I elevated the dialogue - the conversation was uplifting or life giving
I connected on a personal level (Spiritual, Personal, Relational, Vocational)
I documented the key points of the meeting and person (journal, digital)
I sent follow up correspondence (text, email, letter)
Chris Horst, VP of Development for HOPE International