A Most Dangerous Question

Is your organization redundant?
If you were being totally honest and no one else had to hear what you said, could you convince yourself that what you are currently doing couldn't be done as well or better by someone else?

The way you answer this question is pretty revealing. If you can't quickly point to some strategic niche or unique approach there is a good chance that you aren't fulfilling your needed role in the big picture of nonprofit/ministry work.

That's not to say you should delete the website and shut down the office, but you should invest some effort in figuring out what it is that you are uniquely ready, willing, or able to do.

Within ten minutes of my home there are at least fifteen Protestant churches, and to my knowledge none of them are full. In Canada there are at least 3 organizations working to provide specific leadership training to the particular market of Christian women. At any given university there are multiple campus organizations committed to expressing the truth and grace of Jesus. Ontario has dozens of Christian summer camps. There are multiple emerging leader programs, church planting groups, intensive ministry leadership programs, microfinance providers, and granting foundations. Someone has to ask if all of them are truly needed.

Repetition is expensive. When it adds no value it is also wasteful.

Organizations and individuals would serve all of us well by having a very raw consideration of what they uniquely bring to the community and whether they are meeting real needs or just sustaining the incomes or egos of their staff and leaders.

I suspect that in reality there is need for more, not less, in most areas. The needs in our society and around the world are enormous and varied.

What is not needed is mindless mimickry and pointless sameness.

One of the values we hold highly at Catalyst is synergy. On a weekly basis we review how we have been able to bring together separate entities for the betterment of all. It's hard to do that if the separate entities are essentially identical.

A challenge: Ask your organization's leaders to (in five minutes or less) articulate clearly what it is about you that is distinct from other similar organizations and why things would truly be worse if you ceased operations.

The responses to that exercise will tell you more about where you should invest time, money, and energy than almost any strategic consultant.

Abbey Park Underway

This morning we began our first program of leadership development for high school students. We are with a class of 24 through the business department of Abbey Park High School in Oakville, ON.
It was a good start as we explored the ways in which those things we did as children that we really enjoyed and thought we did well can often lead us to themes or patterns for the rest of our lives. It was encouraging to see many of the class appear to be engaging with the ideas and process.
We'll be together for a total of 7 sessions over the next 8 weeks and each student will ultimately have the opportunity to produce a personal action plan to take steps toward turning their life dreams into reality.
Already a few took the risk of sharing some areas in which they want to do something meaningful; from being in a position to care for their own families as well as they've been cared for, to educating poor children around the world beyond a basic level, to improving recreational facilities in the local community. There was a tangible energy shift in the room when a few people talked about their lives accomplishing something they identified as meaningful.
As part of the session I recommended the book "What's Your Red Rubber Ball" by Kevin Carroll, who also wrote "Rules of the Red Rubber Ball". It was great to be able to leave a copy of the book for the students to dig into.
A couple other highlight moments:
-the look on their faces when instead of saying good morning I opened with a game of Simon Says
-watching some faces light up as they started telling each other their own childhood stories
-seeing an enthusiastic teacher and being able to quickly affirm in front of the class that she has had a lifelong preparation for what she is doing right now
-having one of the students join the accompanying facebook group for the program before I even made it to the parking lot

I'll post more on this as the weeks go by

Preparation and Spontaneity

Two contrasting episodes today:
1. Spent an enjoyable with Hugh Brewster of World Vision Canada's Partners to End Child Poverty program and Scott Jones from Micah House reviewing some material from the LEAP workshop that Scott and I attended with Hugh a couple weeks ago. LEAP is an intensive process in developing project designs that is based on a large amount of research and preparation. It is a major undertaking to complete their model, but one that will result in as reliable a design as can ever be hoped for.

2. Read this article from Gordon MacDonald on the importance and value of intuition in leadership. He emphasizes the need for acting with conviction at times even when the apparent reality may conflict with your inner sensitivity.

These represent a tension I feel in every leadership situation in which I find myself. When is it appropriate to invest significant time and effort in working through a carefully developed strategy and when should I take the risk of going with gut instinct?

I like what MacDonald says about developing a stronger sense of intuition. I also like Hugh's emphasis on doing proper diligence. I can think of times in my life when I regret not doing both.

Effective leadership is always a matter of existing within the tensions of each situation and acting with courage in light of the obvious and subtle pressures and risks. Those that get it "right" most often are most effective.

Whether the tensions are between more research/taking opportunity; respecting budget/acting in faith; pursuing the vision/caring for the people; or any of the other variations on the theme; ultimately leaders are often those who are willing to define the issue at hand and decide among the options with a willingness for responsibility.

In the best of situations we are able to do our preparation deeply and then rely on intuition to determine which of the choices to pursue.

Kickstart

I just finished reading Kickstart: How Successful Canadians Got Started. It was written by three young recent university grads who weren't exactly sure what to do with their lives. They decided to contact dozens of prominent Canadians in a wide variety of fields and ask them how they reached their status of significance. It's a very worthwhile, quick, and rich read. T|hey also have a companion website you might want to check out.
Interesting reflections from the book:
-Diversity: The figures in Kickstart don't only represent fields as varied as politics, business, athletics, academia, and the arts; they also have taken widely different paths to their achievements. There is no one way to success.
-Mentors: Almost all of the profiles included recognition of someone (often generally anonymous) who was admired by the subject and who at a key point offered them the encouragement and/or challenge that inspired them.
-Childhood: Almost without exception the people profiled in Kickstart are able to link their ultimate prominence to interests, experiences, and patterns from their childhood years. We are wise to refer to that in our own lives when seeking direction.
-Boldness: Not only are the subjects people of nerve; but the authors took the risk of essentially cold-calling these influential figures and asking for interviews. To their surprise, most of the people they called were please to do so and some went far beyond that in response.

It has been my experience that even prominent people will often make time for someone who approaches them for interaction if the approach is clear, well prepared, and specific in nature.

Kudos to Alexander, Paul, and Andrew for this book and the ancillary projects and events that are springing from it.

Brave or Foolish?

I came home from a meeting about 2pm yesterday to have my neighbour tell me their dog had fallen into the creek and been swept over Webster's Falls. Miraculously, the dog has survived the fall (absolutely astonishing!), but was now stranded on an inaccessible ledge just below the falls with the current surging by. After a few hours some bystanders risked their own safety to climb their way to him and eventually got Murphy out. I suppose they were heroes, but from where I watched I was truly fearful that one of them would slip into the creek and be in more danger than the dog was. So were they brave or foolish? It's sometimes a fine line.

How does this relate to the Catalyst Foundation?

This Sunday I'm supposed to be travelling to Haiti to participate in a dental project with MMI. The issue is that the last couple days there have been violent protests there, in the city where we're going to be based. The project director, Tim DeYoung,let us know that things are pretty dangerous right now. He thinks things might very well be settled by the time we're to arrive, but he wants to see what happens in the next day or so. When they called me with the news they asked my thoughts.

Haiti is always somewhat volatile. Being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and having food prices increase by 40% in less than a year makes that inescapable. Political stability has really never been part of the picture.

So, what should I do? If Tim (who knows Haiti intimately as a resident there) says he thinks it will be safe should I trust that judgment? I'm hesitant. I know that I can reschedule for another trip later this year, to another place where the need is enormous. I don't believe Haiti in particular is somewhere I'm supposed to be. So would going there next week be an act of courageous faith, or one of unnecessary risk? And how do we distinguish the difference?

I'd love to hear thoughts from some who have more international experience than I do...

How close should we get?

We were “late” to pick up my son from daycare this week. We’re usually there shortly after 4pm but it was a nice day so we all walked up to get him and didn’t arrive until just after 4:30. Officially they don’t close until 5:30 but Ian was the last child of the day and they were expecting us at our usual time. It was a little bit awkward because the providers had dinner plans and were waiting for us. I felt pretty sheepish about it at first, but afterwards not so much. The issue was really that we’ve tried to have much more than a professional or contractual relationship with the daycare. If they are going to be caring for our son a couple days each week we want to be personally connected to them. Which makes it a little harder when any of us are disappointed or frustrated by one another.
As a foundation we’ve decided that we aren’t just about handing out novelty cheques and waiting for annual reports. We want to become personally involved with the work our partners are doing. Sometimes that means mentoring one of their staff, sitting as a board member, taking part in one of their programs, or just really getting to know the people who make things happen. It’s a big part of what I love about this role.
But it does make things potentially awkward. When we are the ones evaluating grant proposals and the results of our funding we need to be somewhat at arms length. Personal relationships make the professional aspect of what we do complex if not conflicted. What happens if someone who has become my friend doesn’t get the grant next year that they need to maintain their salary? What changes if I feel personally offended by someone over something that has nothing to do with their programs and projects?
My hope is the both we at Catalyst and those we partner with are willing to face those complications. If we can be up front about the possibility for issues to arise and be unafraid to take the risk of becoming involved there is little doubt that somewhere along the line something will blow up in our faces. But, isn’t that always the way of humanity; and the way of Jesus?
The Incarnation means, at the very least, that God risks giving up his professional distance and seasoned objectivity and gets into the muck where we live. It is profoundly costly as Easter will highlight for us again very soon. But it I the way God chose to work to bring not only obedience but actual transformation through love.
If anyone has experience or insight into the pitfalls and pleasures of these more subjective partnerships I’d love to hear some thoughts…
(Oh, we worked everything out at daycare and things are cool again now.)