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Freebie Giveaway: Kem Meyer’s Less Clutter, Less Noise.

The first book giveaway isn’t even over but I’ve got another one to give away for all you church marketing peeps.

You all know about our great teacher Kem Meyer, and most of you probably have the book.  For the rest of you, you need to read it. I’ve got an extra copy or two laying around, so somebody else might as well benefit.

Leave a comment on this post and I will choose a random number to give one away to on end of day Wednesday.

Read my review of the book here.

UPDATE: Mr. Chad Maag has won the thesis of our responsibility.

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Freebie Giveaway: “Drive” by Daniel Pink

Last Monday, I drove down to Barnes & Noble to listen to Daniel Pink talk about his new book, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.”

One of Pink’s previous books was a game-changer for me. “A Whole New Mind” was a fascinating look at how right-brained aptitudes will drive the future of our economy and culture. He analyzed the way in which the workforce of the future is already being created through 6 high touch, high concept senses of right-brain-directed thinkers.

Design. Story. Symphony. Empathy. Play. Meaning. These six senses increasingly will guide our lives and shape our world.Many of you no doubt welcome such a change. But to some of you, this vision might seem dreadful–-ahostile takeover of normal life by a band of poseurs in black unitards who will leave behind the insufficiently arty and emotive.

Unfortunately, Daniel Pink’s flight was delayed, delayed, cancelled, so he never made it to Minneapolis. He did however buy a copy of his new book for everybody who showed up to hear him. So, I’ve got my hands on a free copy of “Drive,” and I think you should too.

I’ve decided to turn his gift into your gift. So this week, I’m going to be giving away not one, but 3 books. I was going to buy Drive anyway, so I decided I’ll buy a copy for one reader of my blog. In the coming days, I’m going to have two more books that I’ll be giving away. (Hey, i can’t help it, people keep giving me dupes.)

Drive is the first book up for winning. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you’re in the running. Because it’s late in the week, I’ll let this contest roll until Monday. You don’t have to say something witty, funny or intelligent to win (though I wish you would). One winner will be picked by random number. If you win, I’ll email you for your address and ship it to you. Comment away.

UPDATE: Winner is Josh!

Posted by jeremyscheller | 1 Comment

I'm a sucker for high efficiency…

With our new furnace:

• we heated 1 extra bedroom
• had a lower electric bill (1 room switched from electric baseboards to gas)
• used 32% less natural gas over the same time period last year.

The average  temperature was roughly the same, so I’d say this is going to save some money in the long run. I should mention too that we’ve been keeping the house a little warmer this year. Chilly toes don’t agree with my pregnant wife so much this year. Thermostat is set to 71 when we’re home compared to 67/68 like I like to have it.

For this month alone, using last year’s natural gas rate as a comparison, we saved approximately $76 on natural gas for the month of December with our 95% efficiency furnace.

Good for budget, good for earth. Of course, I’ll be paying off the furnace/air conditioner/air filtration system for the next 5 years, but what the heck, huh…

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Have you created a "they" are the problem mentality?

In Tom Kelley’s book, “The Art of Innovation,” he writes,

ABOLISH “THEY”

One of the things that struck me the most about my first days at IDEO–other than the fact that I had no desk or office–was that try as I might, I couldn’t find a “they.” At my old job as a consultant at for a large international firm, there was always a spoken and unspoken “they.” If the coffeemaker was broken, “they” should fix it. If you were entangled in bureaucracy, “they” were the problem. “They” do not innovate. “They” leave less elbowroom for you and other individuals to solve problems from the ground up.

Technology has in some ways exacerbated this problem. I’m confounded at how many companies bring “they” in reach of your every keystroke. I think those large corporations who snoop on their workers’ e-mail are nuts–and not just for ethical reasons. If you practice monitoring or surveillance, your employees may end up being less productive and certainly less creative. But “they” companies can’t help themselves. They’re control freaks–even when they imagine they’re loosening they’re grip.

So who is the “they” in your team? Are you building trust or building a spirit of US VS. THEM?

I will admit it. I have always had an ego problem. Sometimes my head is too big to fit through the door. It has made me believe that I live in a Me Vs. Them world and workplace. I’m in a daily battle to believe and rely on my teams knowing we’re all in this together.

Kelley goes on to quote famous Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz:

“The team changes every year, but each team member’s three implicit questions for him remain the same: Do you care about me? Can I trust you? Are you committed to the success of the team?

Trust is essential. I have to know that you care about me, that you’ve got my back, and that you’re in it for the success of the team and not your own personal gain. When all team members share this spirit of trust, they’ll move faster and more effectively towards the team’s goals.

So, have you identified the “They” in your organization? How are you working to make “they” all about “us?”

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Allow your team to be Mischievous

There’s a great short post on the Signal vs. Noise blog this week about creating a culture of trust with your teams.

A lot of companies seek to control employees. They have handbooks and policies. They monitor emails. They make rules about what’s allowed and what’s forbidden.

But “control” is a tricky thing. The tighter the reins, the more you create an environment of distrust. An us vs. them mentality takes hold. And that’s when people start trying to game the system.

read the rest of the post…

One thing that has been a continual learning process for me over the years has been to give up control to my teams. I generally know how I want to do things and I’ve always kept a tight reign on my teams to make sure things fall in line.

This type of control generally leads to

• me over-working myself
• my teams feeling un-empowered to serve
• a stifling of creativity

Over the last two years, I’ve been working to give up control to allow room for others to lead and for others to serve in freedom. I’ve been working to widen the boundaries and allow people to be mischievous. What I’ve gotten is

• teams that are more committed
• teams that do better work
• teams that feel empowered to be creative
• I also end up not feeling like I have to do everything.

It’s a win/win.

Even though I’m still the lone staff member over IT, Communications, Media and the Web and I have more teams that I’m responsible for, we’re actually producing more outcomes and I’m not feeling as stretched thin with church work as I used to.

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5 Sites for Design/Web Inspiration

Here’s a quickie: 5 Sites I revisit for design inspiration.

Design Sponge

Behance Network

LogoPond

Smashing Magazine

Screenfluent

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“The fundamental irony of hip-hop is that it has become viewed as nihilistic, macho, violent, and bling-bling phenomenon when in fact its originating impulse was a fierce disgust with the hypocrisies of adult culture –disgust with the selfishness, capitalist callousness, and xenophobia of the culture of adults, both within the hood and in the society at large.”

– Cornel West

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Human-Centered Design Toolkit

This really is one of the more brilliant gifts for non-profits/ministries that I’ve come across in a long time. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it earlier.

The Human Centered Design Toolkit is a free innovation guide for NGOs and Social Enterprises. It’s basically a blueprint for identifying key problems and developing innovative solutions for them. The It’s designed to help NGO’s tackle the biggest issues that affect those living on $2/day or less. However, it’s ministry implications are far greater.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the brainchild of IDEO (the World’s Greatest Design Firm) and others, it’s an irresistibly clean, well-designed guide for innovation. Useful at so many levels of an organization.

Check it out over at IDEO’s website:
http://www.ideo.com/work/item/human-centered-design-toolkit/

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Delivering builds trust.

I dropped my car off this morning at the mechanic to get my brakes done. I’ve been there a handful of times. It’s a family-owned gas station, a couple of brothers working together. Every time I’ve picked up my car there, I’ve been surprised at how inexpensive they work and how truly honest they are.

When I was leaving, the owner asked me, “Do you want me to call you with an estimate after we get the wheels off or should we just go ahead and fix it?”

It took me about 2 seconds to think about it and respond, “No, just go ahead and do what you need to do.”

It came down to trust. I realized they’ve never given me a reason to second guess how much it’s going to cost or if they’re going to try to fix something that’s not broken, or if they do something wrong, I know they will own it. I don’t have much money, but I don’t have any reason to believe they’re going to break the budget. So what’s their marketing plan? They deliver what they promise.

Marketing is all about the story people hear when you’re being yourself.

1. Don’t promise what you CAN’T DELIVER.
2. Promise what you WILL DELIVER.
3. When you break your promise, figure out HOW TO DELIVER on it anyway.

Delivering builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build futures.

UPDATE: I picked up my car and was indeed shocked again to pay far less than I expected. Northsiders, please go to Fairchild’s Sinclair on 42nd Ave.

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Michael Pollan at PopTech

PopTech 2009: Michael Pollan from PopTech on Vimeo.