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Lots and lots of good lovin'!

I opted out because we had too many people signed up, but the Love Minneapolis was incredible.

Plymouth Christian Youth Center was overrun by 50+ volunteers to help 1,000 North Minneapolis kids buy presents for their families. The kids paid a dollar to buy 5 gifts. Love Minneapolis volunteers were tour guides on their shopping experience.  

When asked what Love Minneapolis is, one volunteer simply said,

It’s just what we’re supposed to do. 

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Leopard: Feature Love: Quick Look

The single greatest improvement to an operating system ever.

 I don’t even open half the programs I used to. 

If I need some info from inside a file, I just highlight it and click the spacebar. I can see full files from Word, Excel, Images, Pages, Keynote, Powerpoint, whatever….All without ever opening up the applications.

Quick Look is better than sliced bread. 

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Just checking in on the Power of We…

Kiva is amazing. Microcredit is all the rage. All the kids are doing it.

Here’s 5 individuals whose lives and the lives of their families will be transformed by a few bucks from overseas.

Check out The Power of We portfolio from a Kiva party that Erin and Neeraj hosted last summer.

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Innovation vs. Renovation Part 3 – innovation is harder…

Innovation is essential to life. Whether it’s using logs to move 2000 pound rocks to build pyramids or harnessing the power of the wind to turn on the lights…Innovation makes life better.

It transforms our surroundings. It qualifies efficiency. It affirms our reflection of God. After all, the first thing he did was create something out of nothing. That’s innovation. 

Innovation is hard, though.

It stretches us to think in ways that no one else has.   It’s the charge to look in the negative space and discover what’s missing. To solve problems most people don’t even recognize as problems.

Innovation is:

1. Solving today’s problems
2. Harnessing tomorrow’s possibilities
3. The challenge to change and grow

Innovation requires:

1. Anticipation
2. Analysis
3. Intuition
4. Creativity
5. Adoption

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Innovation vs. Renovation Part 2 – renovation is harder…

One thing I learned early on from reading the Art of Innovation is that renovation is often much harder than innovation.

It’s one thing to have a problem that nobody has solved yet. Your solution is the best solution by definition of being the only solution. In the case of the grocery store shopping cart that IDEO was charged with renovating, the challenge was clear: Make the best shopping cart ever. The problem however was deeper: Rethink the grocery shopping experience so that the design and functionality of the shopping cart matches the reality of your shopping experience or makes it a more desirable experience.

So they had to dive in and rethink things from the moment you walk in the store. Whether you’re the urban hipster, the soccer mom, or the daily shopper. The results were drammatic. The traditional shopping cart took on the form of this multi-compartment hodgepodge of speciaiized functionality.I don’t think it was that great.In fact, it looked bulky and awkward. Spaceage and untouchable….(yet fascinating).

The reality is the traditional shopping cart meets most of the needs we ask of it. And even if IDEO’s cart is a good design, the awkwardness of it compared with something I’m used to, makes it harder to adopt in it’s renovated state.

Last year when I started renovating my kitchen, I would have begged for a blank slate to work with. Not bad wiring, banged up walls and 5 layers of flooring. It would have been much easier to start with nothing but studs, but instead, it was a renovation job. It required rethinking how to make something old into something new. Something broken into something that works. Something stylishly outdated into something fresh, modern and visually appealing.

It took sweat. And it’s still not done.

Renovation can be much harder than innovation. 

<p>How well does the church renovate?

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Innovation vs. Renovation

As I’ve continued to read The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley, I’ve been thinking more and more about whether I’m an innovator or renovator. Tom hasn’t really talked much about the art of renovation, but I think it deserves a conversation just as much as innovation.

On the one hand, the church should be the innovator of ideas for the purpose of advancing God’s work on earth. Leading the way, shaping culture, defining the norm, and not in the tailgate of the truck (along for the ride, not driving, and fearful of falling off the bandwagon at any bump in the road.)

On the other hand, the church needs to be an expert at the fine art of renovation. We have a 2,000 year old message that needs a fresh face: a new look, a new appeal, a new way to interpret it’s meaning. The church needs to be in constant renovation to remain relevant while holding on to the main structure, a firm foundation, some way to look at the outside and see the house that was built long ago.  

So am I an innovator or a renovator?

Sometimes both, but more so a renovator. I have a vision of what the church could be. And it looks a little like your church, a little like my old church, a little like a church  I’ve only seen on the web. I’m going to steal all their ideas and make changes based on our audience. 

My goal in 2008:
Innovate.Observe the behavior of our people, and birth a new idea. a new solution. a new way to get meaning in our lives.  

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The Art of Innovation – 5 Step Process

I’m currently reading “The Art of Innovation“ by Tom Kelley.Tom and his Brother David are head honchos at IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. 
Through the years, they’ve developed a simple strategy for unleashing innovation at IDEO. It boils down to this:

1. UNDERSTAND – not only the market, the client and the technology, but also the perceived constraints on the problem. 
2. OBSERVE – Real people in real life. Not focus groups. Real people trying to tackle the problems you want to help them with. 
3. VISUALIZE – The brainstorming session. If I was faced with the problem, what challenges would I be weighed down with and what are creative ways to solve that problem.
4. EVALUATE & REFINE – What works, what doesn’t, what confuses people, what they seem to like. Test, Modify, Retest.
5. IMPLEMENT – If the idea is great  and you can’t implement it, than the idea is of little value.

It’s not rocket science. It’s just about having a managed approach to Creativity and having a roadmap to take the next big thing from beginning to end.  Any thoughts?  

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What's Next

I’m just not satisfied unless I’m asking this question.

It’s never enough. It’s never enough in a good way. One idea leads to another. What’s the next venture. I’m horribly tired right now…but as I was talking to a friend the other day as we we’re trying to plot the next year of his life, I left asking myself the same questions.

Am I more interested in starting the next idea than actually carrying it out…? I’m skilled. I can generally accomplish whatever I put my head to. I’m not saying that to be cocky, I just have a track record of determination…But what I’m realizing, is that it often ends when I know I can accomplish my goals. Even if it’s early on.

I want to start things, but I don’t want to be the one doing the nitty gritty work to finish them.

I have a few more ideas, I just want to launch them onto a team and watch them be carried out by people who love the execution…

So I ask myself, What’s Next?

A few things I’m interested in:

Starting a Non-profit to help people fundraise for major medical issues.

Launching a building campaign to move Sanctuary to the next level of ministry in north minneapolis.

Becoming a Genius at an Apple Store

Get my new Xserve up and running with no experience and 4 days of training.

I hate mediocrity, yet, I don’t want to do the work, just think about it.