LASSO WIT & WISDOM

“Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong."

“If that’s a joke, I love it. If not, can’t wait to unpack that with you later.”

“You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It's a goldfish. Y'know why? It's got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish."

“What I can tell you is that with the exception of the wit and wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes, not much lasts forever."

“Our goal is to go out like Willie Nelson, on a high."

“Ice cream's the best. It's kinda like seeing Billy Joel live. Never disappoints."

“There's two buttons I never like to hit, alright? And that's 'panic' and 'snooze.'"

“I shouldn't bring an umbrella to a brainstorm."

“Boy, I love meeting people's moms. It's like reading an instruction manual as to why they're nuts."

“Limbo. Great party game, horrible relationship status."

"I believe in Communism. Rom-communism, that is. If Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan can go through some heartfelt struggles and still end up happy, then so can we."

“That's a real roller coaster there. Glad I was tall enough to join you on that ride.”

I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING, BUT I CAN DO SOMETHING.

I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.

Edward Everett Hale

PROBLEMS OF A LEADER

As a leader you will have two problems:
1. People think you should be solving a different problem.
2. People think you should be solving the problem differently.

LAW OF NATURE OF RIGHT & WRONG

I know that some people say the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behavior known to all men is unsound, because different civilisations and different ages have had quite different moralities.

But this is not true. There have been difference between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching, of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own … for our present purpose, I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to – whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.

But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining ‘It’s not fair’ before you can say Jack Robinson. A nation may say treaties don’t matter; but, then, next minute, they spoil their case by saying that the particular treaty they want to break was an unfair one. But if treaties do not matter, and if there is no such thing as Right and Wrong – in other words, if there is no Law of Nature – what is the difference between a fair treaty and an unfair one? Have they not let the cat out of the bag and shown that, whatever they say, they really know the Law of Nature just like anyone else?

C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

AT THE POOL WE'VE ALL GOT BODIES

At the pool we’ve all got bodies.
Elsewhere we’ve got brands
we’ve got fabrications
we’ve got lulu lemon butt lifting pants.

At the pool we’ve all got bodies
in trunks and clam shells—
some working with flaps and pleats pleading
to conceal, others an experiment in Swiss minimalism

and risk management—
all of us dealing with the unalterable fact
that we’ve all got what we’ve got, that
at the pool

we’ve all got bodies:
bouncy bodies
bodies that need brushing
fluorescent white, white bodies
energized child bodies
hot-tubbed tired bodies
bodies

all of them absorbed in being here!—
not spiritual ghosts,
not online avatars,
but us, at the pool
with splashing, floating,
leaping bodies.

Lance Odegard

WHATS LOST AND FOUND

What's lost is nothing to what's found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.

Frederick Buechner
Godric

THESE DAYS

whatever you have to say, leave
the roots on, let them
dangle

And the dirt

Just to make clear
where they come from

Charles Olson

WE ARE PROPHETS OF A FUTURE THAT IS NOT OUR OWN

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

Amen.

This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw in November 1979 as a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero. The words of the prayer are commonly attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.

TELL IT SLANT

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

Emily Dickinson

A STRATEGY FOR CURRENT QUESTIONS

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

CRISIS

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.'
One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity.
In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.

John F. Kennedy