Upstream - The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen

 

Issue No. 434 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 15, 2020) urges you to read or listen to this must-must-read book on upstream thinking—how to solve problems before they happen. Timely? And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). Trial and Error, Error, Error During this COVID-19 marathon, could there be a more relevant, timely book than Upstream, by bestselling author Dan Heath? No way. The big idea: solve problems before they happen. Customer complaints, crimes (and get this!)—chronic illnesses are preventable. RELEVANT! We must experiment. Heath quotes systems thinker Donella Meadows. “Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be shot at. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own….The thing to do, when you don’t know, is not to bluff and not to freeze, but to learn. “The way you learn is by experiment—or, as Buckminster Fuller put it, by trial and error, error, error.” TIMELY! Don’t make the problem worse. Heath notes, “When we fail to anticipate second-order consequences, it’s an invitation to disaster, as the ‘cobra effect’ makes clear. The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse.” That happened in India, during the UK’s colonial rule. “A bounty on cobras was declared,” and citizens received cash for producing dead cobras. You guessed it—the entrepreneurs began breeding more cobras. (Read more here.) INSIGHTFUL! Data—the centerpiece of upstream efforts. Heath quotes Joe McCannon who uses “data for the purpose of learning” as distinguished from “data for the purpose of inspection.” Read chapter five (gulp!) to learn why you never hear about data systems “that are useful for people on the front lines.” (Maybe Heath was channeling our new physician hero, Ambassador Deborah Birx.) Forget all the other “must-reads” I’ve cajoled you into reading. This is the must-must-read of the year. Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, by Dan Heath, was just published March 3, 2020, and—here at home, hunkered and bunkered—I naively thought, “For once, I’ll read this book without a pen. Just enjoy it. Learn. Reflect.” Not! The two blank pages in the front of my book are now smothered with 47 page numbers and notes. Forty-seven! There’s no way to cram all this good stuff into a short review. Sorry! I waded into Upstream while reading Sam Walker’s “Captain Class” column in The Wall Street Journal. The headline: “Covid-19 was a Leadership Test. It Came Back Negative. One lesson from the coronavirus is that we need leaders who prevent crises more than we need managers who scramble to handle them.” Walker’s WSJ column included this: Last year, before this virus began to spread, I learned about a parable that’s well-known in public-health circles. It goes something like this: Two friends are sitting by a river when they spot a child drowning in the water. Both friends immediately dive in and pull the child to safety. But as soon as they do, another struggling child drifts into view. Then another. Then another. After completing several rescues, one of them climbs out of the water. “Where are you going?” the other friend asks. “I’m going upstream to tackle the guy who’s throwing all these kids in the water.” This parable is on page one in Upstream—and it’s the metaphor for the next 243 pages, followed by a “Next Steps” section, a one-page graphic summary of the book (Brilliant—why doesn’t every author give me a one-page summary?), and a discouraging two-page appendix, “Scaling Programs in the Social Sector.” (Heath: “My own take is that this is largely an unsolvable problem—that there are few programs for improving the lives of human beings that are as easy to reproduce on a large scale as fried chicken or lattes.”) So here are four options for this must-must-read: • Option 1: View Dan Heath’s four-minute video (see below)—and then delegate your reading to a team member for a report at your next weekly meeting on Zoom. • Option 2: Actually read the book! (Hardback or Kindle) • Option 3: Listen to the book, an hour a day, during your daily exercise routine this week (the audio is just 7 hours, 47 minutes). Visit Libro.fm • Option 4: Don’t read or listen to the book—and continue to manage your “willy-nilly” systems (per the downstream approach to the homeless problem previously used in Rockford, Illinois).  DAN HEATH EXPLAINS UPSTREAM THINKING (4 ½ minutes): Click here to view the video. MY TOP-10 TEASERS (And a bonus!) #10. BOXES. The Dutch bicycle company VanMoof reduced shipping damage by 70% to 80% when “they started printing images of flat-screen televisions on the side of their shipping boxes, which are very similar in shape to flat-screen TV boxes.” (page 104) #9. BARRIERS. Illustrating the three barriers to Upstream Thinking (problem blindness, a lack of ownership, and tunneling), Heath praises Chicago Public Schools for thinking upstream—and assigning their BEST teachers to ninth grade students, during the “whopper of a transition,” their vulnerable move from elementary school (K to 8) to high school. Where do you assign your best team members? (page 25) #8. BRACELETS. In a sleepy New England town, north of Boston, a “Danger Assessment” tool brought agencies together to address domestic abuse instead of the previously splintered response. Dan Heath attacks silos like COVID-19 attacks those who don’t social distance. One simple “upstream” innovation—attach GPS bracelets to released offenders BEFORE they leave jail, not two days later at their first parole appointment. I know, “Duh!” But…read the book and you’ll find the finger pointing at you. (page 82) #7. BUMMERS. Yikes #1: “Choosing the wrong short-term measurements can doom upstream work.” Yikes #2: “Getting short-term measures right is frustratingly complex.” Yikes #3: A ghost victory occurs “when measures become the mission.” (Did I mention “must-read?” See chapter nine, “How Will You Know When You’re Succeeding?”) #6. BUNKERS. How does one city use “predictive modeling to accelerate ambulance response time? By forward-deploying ambulances around the city, based on the model.” Thus without that system, Heath suggests you bunker down near a fire station! “This could become a selling point for real estate agents: First floor master—AND just a three-minute drive from the fire station!” (page 138) #5. BUSINESS. Read chapter eight, “How Will You Get Early Warning of the Problem?” and then view this witty IBM Watson TV commercial. (Click here.) #4. BONKERS! Yikes! An Illinois school district tech director was concerned about phishing attacks—so with a security firm’s help, he sent a “phishing test to the district’s staffers from a weird email address they’d never seen before. The email announced that a suspected security breach had happened earlier in the week and encouraged them to click a link to change their passwords.” Yikes—29% of the staff clicked on the link. (page 221)  #3. BRILLIANT! Read how LinkedIn earned “tens of millions of dollars annually” by reducing the churn rate on a product. Attention: Church Leaders & Association Execs—a member’s first 30 days are the most important. Brilliant. (page 135) #2. BROWNIE. Did I mention relevant? In the twelfth chapter, “The Chicken Little Problem: Distant and Improbable Threats,” you’ll weep when you read about the “Hurricane Pam” simulation. “The assignment: Create hurricane response plans for New Orleans and the surrounding region.” The July 2004 week-long gathering (amazing collaboration among agencies) launched the planning effort. Except…the follow-up meetings were cancelled because FEMA would not approve the additional $15,000 in travel expense. By the way, Heath notes that Congress ultimately funded $62 billion (not a typo) for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina which hit 13 months later in 2005. #1. BUREAUCRATS (see “LAZY”). When your team finally commits to upstream efforts—and you’re pondering how to measure success, Heath has five questions to prevent “pre-gaming” your results—aka “the careful consideration of how the measures might be misused.” They include:    • The “rising tides” test    • The misalignment test    • The lazy bureaucrat test    • The defiling-the-mission test    • The unintended consequences test  BONUS TEASER: BIBLE-READING! One of Heath’s three types of “ghost victories” (where “it’s possible to ace your measures while undermining your mission”) is his youthful account of his father’s offer to pay him $1.00 for every book of the Bible he read. Younger Heath gamed the system—and instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation to earn $66—he started by fast-tracking through Second John, Third John, and Philemon—the three shortest books in the Bible—and then asked his Dad for his first cash payout—three bucks! Note: I just shipped this book to my favorite state senator in California. You might want to do the same in your state. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, by Dan Heath. To listen to the audio version (7 hours, 47 minutes), visit Libro.fm   BONUS BOOK! You’ll also enjoy reading (or listening to) the bestselling book by Dan Heath, and his brother, Chip Heath (my 2017 book-of-the-year), The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. (Read my review.) Listen to the audio book here on Libro.fm (6 hours, 24 minutes). You'll appreciate the ideas in this book when planning the "Welcome Back" celebration at your office, church, or classroom. YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Who are you currently getting to know and collaborating with now—in anticipation of the NEXT crisis or disaster? Heath quotes a participant in a community-wide preparedness event, “You don’t want to be exchanging business cards in the middle of an emergency.” 2) One company (see page 160), discovered that email “open rates” were the wrong measurement when their spiffed-up email subject lines caused sales to plummet—even with increased open rates. So…how do we know if we’re measuring the right things? Are we thinking upstream or downstream? “Locked in a Room Together” Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  I know. I know. You’re already locked in a room during COVID-19, but this is different. Keep reading!  One of the big ideas in the Customer Bucket is this: “We listen to our customers. We are zealots for researching and understanding our markets.” Whether you’re planning for your next crisis (visit the Crisis Bucket)—or you finally (finally!) exit your silo to research your customer—Dan Heath urges teams to get “locked in a room together.” That’s one of the not big, but HUGE, ideas in the book, Upstream. Talk! Collaborate! Do it together—trial and error, error, error. In 2012, about 20 million Expedia customers called the travel company. “At a support cost of roughly $5 per call, that’s a $100 million problem!” For every 100 online transactions, “58 of them placed a call afterward for help.” But…customer service was hunkered down answering the phone—and their customer satisfaction ratings were acceptable, I’m guessing. Every other department had other metrics. No one saw the big number or the big picture or the big problem. Finally two upstream thinkers recognized the problem and assembled a war room with a simple mandate: “Save customers from needing to call us.” The results are stunning! “Since 2012, the percentage of Expedia customers who call for support has declined from 58% to roughly 15%.” The secret: assemble cross-functional teams—and lock them in a room together! (Read chapter one, “Moving Upstream.”) For more resources from the Customer Bucket, click here.                      JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are your communication tools focused downstream or upstream? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). And while in your bunker this month, it’s the perfect time to invest in your family by completing the fun and meaningful journal by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.    MORE LESSONS: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Click here to order More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to follow the new blog with 40 guest bloggers. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Gloom, Boom, and Zoom COVID-19 has unleashed the advice-giving genes in every LinkedIn and Facebook user. So…click here to read my three cents-worth about Gloom (even the comic strips are depressing), Boom (prepare for what's coming), and Zoom (know that all four social styles  on your Zoom call will respond in different ways to crisis).  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

The Amazon Management System

 

Issue No. 426 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 21, 2020) highlights a digital wake-up call in just 138 pages. Learn why frugality is an Amazon core value! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my Top-10 books of 2019 and my Book-of-the-Year pick. Two-Pizza Team Meetings!  Emergency alert! Bestselling business author Ram Charan says the disrupter is in the building—and its name is Amazon. “Our 21st century prevailing management systems are still largely inherited from the oldest forms of human organization, such as the military and the church,” he writes. Designed for “command and control” in the pre-Internet era, these hierarchical bureaucracies mimicked the only management systems they knew. Until the digital age and Amazon. Whew. This tightly written book, The Amazon Management System (just 138 pages plus helpful appendices), is a wake-up call for nonprofits, for-profits, and churches. If you’re wondering… • …why your credit card bill is populated with Amazon purchases, read this book.  • …how to learn more about Amazon’s focused obsession on the customer, read this book.  • …how Amazon (online in 1995) was worth $1 trillion in 2018 (it goes up and down, of course), read this book. In addition to the big ideas—and bold management risks—there’s plenty of fun stuff in this quick-reading book, with one-page bullet-point summaries for every chapter. For fun: Why did Jeff Bezos pick “Amazon” for his company name? According to Ram Charan and Julia Yang, Bezos had experimented and then rejected numerous other suggestions like:    • Awake.com    • Browse.com    • Bookmall.com    • Relentless.com    • Makeitso.com    • Cadabra.com “Still searching, Bezos referred to the dictionary. Luckily the name hunt didn’t last long. Amazon jumped out at him. It was love at first sight. Amazon ‘is not only the largest river in the world. It’s many times larger than the next biggest river. It blows all the other rivers away,’ Bezos said.” That’s just one interesting sidebar in this serious—but short—analysis of the Amazon management system. It’s a must-read assignment for every senior leader (and perhaps your board members). The authors aren’t suggesting your organization becomes an Amazon clone—but, instead, “understand how it works and pick the valuable ingredients and inspirations for your own digital way.” And you will think differently about digital immediately. The digital future is scary, but brimming with opportunity. The book highlights six building blocks:    1. Customer-Obsessed Business Model    2. Continuous Bar-Raising Talent    3. AI-Powered Data and Metrics System    4. Ground-Breaking Invention Machine    5. High-Velocity and High-Quality Decision-Making    6. Forever Day-1 Culture A very helpful one-page checklist of the Amazon Management System is on page 135. One page only! And—throughout this gem—it’s the rare page in my book that isn’t underlined. Examples: • On Amazon’s relentless drive to invent, “Seek and build big ideas continuously [using a brilliant press release process]…and construct cross-functional full-time and co-located ‘two-pizza’ team with the right project leader.” Why? If two pizzas aren’t enough, the team is too big! • On making high-velocity decisions: a brilliant segmentation and process for decision-making: Type 1 decisions (one-way doors) and Type 2 decisions (two-way doors). “For Type 2 decisions, speed matters. Let the metrics owner make the call. If approval required, one level only.” • To create a “Forever Day-1 Culture,” Amazon does this: “Operationalize by observable behaviors, create forcing mechanisms, live and breathe them yourself, and invent memorable symbols and rewards. (See page 132 for the “Just Do It Award.” The authors add, “Given his constant reinforcement of frugality, Bezos came up with the totally unorthodox idea of having old sneakers, worn and torn, mounted and bronzed.” (It reminded me of my 2017 book-of-the-year, The Power of Moments.) • “Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ.” Oh, to have observed an executive meeting when Bezos—skeptical when the head of the Customer Service Department said that customer wait times were “well under one minute” (without “offering any supporting evidence”)—used the meeting room speakerphone and dialed the call center’s 800 number. The wait time: four-and-a-half minutes. Yikes! If you’re looking for weekly staff meeting topics, consider using the “Amazon 14 Leadership Principles” on pages 141-143. Succinct, with three to four lines of commentary, they include: 1) Customer Obsession (there was an empty seat at early meetings—representing the customer), 2) Ownership (leaders are owners), and 3) Invent and Simplify. The fourth principle is noteworthy and arresting: 4) Are Right, A Lot. Amazon notes: “Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.” Others include: 5) Learn and Be Curious, 6) Hire and Develop the Best. “Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.” 7) Insist on the Highest Standards, 8) Think Big. “Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” And 9) Bias for Action. When hiring, a designated “Bar Raiser,” independent of the team that is hiring, also interviews the applicant. Bar raisers are “meticulously trained to be the stewards of Amazon’s leadership principles.” (Read more here.) The tenth principle is Frugality. “There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.” 11) Earn Trust, 12) Dive Deep [no task is beneath a leader], 13) Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. “Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.” 14) Deliver Results. Oh, my—there is SO much I should add to this review, like: • Avoiding “the creep onto the treacherous slippery slope called ‘Day 2’” • Amazon’s flywheel (per the Jim Collins concept) • The amazing impact that Jeff Bezos’ grandfather had on his thinking • “Nothing overcomes the wrong person. In the wrong hands, great ideas will not blossom.” • “To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.” (See the 18 failed innovations on page 80.) • Charlie Ward, the junior software engineer, who proposed the idea for Amazon prime in 2004. As of 2018, Amazon had over 100 million Prime Members! • Start with the customer (see what questions to ask on page 86). • “Eat your own dog food.” • The Jeff Bezos 70-90 Rule (When you have 70% of the info—make the decision. “If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.”) • Why Bezos resists “the overrated importance of harmony.” • July 9, 2004: The day Amazon banned PowerPoint presentations at the core executive team level—and honed the “Six-Page Narratives” (sometimes two pages) approach. (See Bezos’ email on page 108!) And finally, “A wrong decision may not be career-ending at Amazon, but Bezos will make sure the lesson is well learnt.” (Note: Read this book and it will be career-enhancing. Guaranteed.) To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Amazon Management System: The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value for Both Customers and Shareholders, by Ram Charan and Julia Yang.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) The authors say that Amazon’s emphasis on Forever Day-1 is not rocket science. But organizations must notice the “usual suspects” to Day-2 thinking: “complacency, bureaucracy, and interdependency that blurs the lines of accountability.” What are the “usual suspects” that inhibit results in our organization? 2) Originally, Amazon had five values, but those morphed into 14 Leadership Principles. Many “experts” would say 14 are too many—and can’t be remembered or lived out. But Amazon has “operationalized” their principles into daily life. Example: read the blog post, "What's It Like to Interview at Amazon." Pop Quiz! From memory, recite our core values—and share when you saw one value lived out in the last seven days.   Ram Charan: Prolific Thinker! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Drucker Bucket, Chapter 4, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is that you must be “a disciplined lifelong learner in the art of management.” I’ve appreciated Ram Charan’s consistently helpful books on management, leadership, and board governance. In addition to his latest book, The Amazon Management System (Dec. 2019), check out my reviews of these Ram Charan books: • Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (Order from Amazon.) • Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (Order from Amazon.) • Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) • Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) • The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan (Read my review.) • Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way, by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem (Read my review.) • The Attacker’s Advantage: Turning Uncertainty Into Breakthrough Opportunities, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) REMINDER: TO DOWNLOAD 3 LISTS OF 400+ BOOKS REVIEWED BY JOHN PEARSON, visit The Book Bucket (click here): • List #1: Books by Management Buckets Categories • List #2: Chronological List of 425 Issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (400+ books) • List #3: John Pearson's Top-100 Books List (updated every 2 years)                      JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video), including the new book by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.    MORE LESSONS: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Click here to order More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to follow the new blog with 40 guest bloggers. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including how to inspire your board members to be "leaders who read." See Tool #13: Board Retreat Read-and-Reflect Worksheets (with seven reading options).  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

Call of the Chair - Leading the Board

 

Issue No. 363 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 28, 2017) warns CEOs and boards—don’t speed-vote an unsuspecting person into the board chair! David McKenna says the board chair “has responsibility for the speed, spacing, and sequence” of the governing process. (That will preach!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). 2026 Update: I was recently asked by a podcast host to recommend "the best book for a CEO and the best book for a board." As you know, it's impossible to name just one or two--but he wanted an answer. So in light of the podcast topic, here's the book I recommended for board chairs. Here's one for ministry CEOs. Before Electing Your Board Chair--STOP! If you’ve been around the nonprofit block for a few years, you’ve certainly experienced this scenario: “Quick! While Jane is out of the room—I move that she be elected the new chairperson of the board, effective immediately.” And presto! Without warning, Jane returns to the boardroom only to be handed the gavel—accompanied by the delightful dysfunctions of a nonprofit or church board of directors. Stop the madness, says David McKenna. His new book should be required reading for all nonprofit board chairs and CEOs. (Chairs of faith-based for-profit companies would also benefit.) Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, published in March by ECFAPress, is jam-packed with 119 pages of wisdom, insights, and practical help for the board and their board chairs. Example: McKenna writes that “The chair for a Christ-centered ministry must be called of God as well as elected by the board.” That would eliminate the speed-voting trick that landed Jane at the head of the board table. “When the time comes for a board to elect a new chair,” McKenna adds, “all business should stop while the members reflect in silence and ask that the Spirit of God might give them discernment in their selection.” Then this: “In the induction of the chair that follows, there should be the question, ‘Has God called you to this leadership position?’ “The prayer that follows should seal that call with the sacredness of the moment. If done in a consecration service for the board, its officers, and its members, the significance of the chair is communicated throughout the organization.” McKenna cautions: “Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit that comes with spiritual maturity. It may well be the gift that defines Christ-centered leadership.” That defining moment—and that powerful question—will eliminate speed-voting and will weed out chair candidates who aspire to resume-building versus Kingdom-building. By the way, that solemn moment suggested by McKenna reminded me of the drama/comedy film, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam). (View on Amazon Prime.) McKenna has more—and it’s convicting:     • 4 assessment questions for the board chair    • 5 deficient ways that boards elect chairs: Successor, Exemplar, Rotator, Politician, and Dissenter    • Commenting on the Rotator chair scenario, McKenna notes: “The idea is that the ministry can survive incompetence for a short period of time.”    • 1 priority: why being board chair must be that person’s number-one priority    • 9 board chair roles: Missionary, Model, Mentor, Manager, Moderator, Mediator, Monitor, Master, and Maestro    • 3 results when the board chair fails to focus on the clarity of the mission: “mushy, muddled, and almost meaningless”    • 60 words in 30 seconds: Jesus’ elevator speech! McKenna, retired president of two universities and one seminary, is author of numerous books, including Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations. Read my review to learn how he helps boards segment CEOs into six descriptive categories (several are unsavory!). In Call of the Chair, McKenna defines an important fork-in-the-road for boards: “A major difference between Christ-centered ministries and for-profit or nonprofit organizations is in the question, ‘Who gets the credit?’” The Transcendent Moment Trust me—this book is very, very convicting. I am privileged to serve as board chair at Christian Community Credit Union (and so I run the ad in this eNews at no charge). But when I reached the last few pages of the book—ready to wrap it up and move on—I was blown away by “The Transcendent Moment” on pages 116-119. Whew! I won’t spoil the drama and impact for you—but recently I asked our board’s vice chair, Mike Pate (he has a great radio voice), to read those pages during our agenda segment, “10 Minutes for Governance” (a life-long learning feature at every board meeting). Here’s just one taste: “…if the board is to rise to its spiritual potential, it needs a chair who brings the personal experience of Pentecost to the leadership of the board.” Oh, my. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, by David L. McKenna. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) “Like a one-stringed banjo player, the chair will always sound the note reminding the members that the board’s role is policy, not execution.” How knowledgeable is our staff on the roles and responsibilities of the board—and the board chair? 2) On the policy governance term, “executive limitations,” McKenna illustrates: “In effect, God gave Adam and Eve a policy of executive limitation, saying, ‘Go until I say stop.’ He did not say, ‘Stop until I say go.’” Are the board’s executive limitations crystal clear to your CEO and all staff? News Flash: "Millennials Give in Traditional Ways" Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit The Donor Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets notes Randy Alcorn’s Treasure Principle Key #1: “God owns everything. I’m his money manager.” So while your development team may be obsessing on the giving habits of Millennials, here are two reminders:    • 1. “When you spend your days in fundraising, you raise money. But when you invest your life in growing God-honoring stewards, He raises up extravagantly generous givers.” (What’s your approach to Millennials?)    • 2. According to the just-released report by ECFA, The Generosity Project: “While millennials are more likely to give online or on social media than older generations, they are as likely as or more likely to support ministries using traditional channels just like prior generations.” (Download a free executive summary from ECFA here.) For more resources on communicating your important mission and message to givers, visit the Donor Bucket webpage.   MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s 2017 series on Max De Pree's book, Called to Serve. Read the 19th blog, "The Phone-Book-Size Board Packet Syndrome."

The Power of Passion in Leadership

 

Issue No. 324 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 21, 2015) recommends a very thin—very persuasive—book on passion in leadership with 12 ways to know if it’s time to leave your current position. Number 12: “Your heart has left the building.”  2026 Update: I was recently asked by a podcast host to recommend "the best book for a CEO and the best book for a board." As you know, it's impossible to name just one or two--but he wanted an answer. So in light of the podcast topic, here's the book I recommended for ministry CEOs. (Here's one for board chairs.) When Your Passion Has Left the Building  Hear, hear! Time for some high fives and Starbucks cards for this week’s author, Hans Finzel. Three reasons: High Five No. 1: If there was an award for the most impact per page—Finzel would win the trophy. (Hans, you nailed the point in just 73 short pages. Others would wring the guts out of the subject—at triple the page count.) Thank you! High Five No. 2: My goodness—you bared your soul and it makes us listen even more thoughtfully. (Transparency times three.) Thank you! High Five No. 3: You talked to us—you didn’t talk down to us. And the value-added links to extraordinary materials—superb! (Check out the 18 “Passion Piranhas” out to get your heart.) Thank you! Finzel begins with Proverbs 4:23 in the NIV: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  He confesses, “It was time for a change. I used to find fulfillment in my career, but not anymore. I needed to start paying attention to my heart.”  Then he grabs your throat with this: “…the higher you go in leadership, the more the heart counts. People do not enjoy working for mechanical micromanagers or passive worn out leaders—they love following leaders who lead from their place of passion.” That’s the stuff of The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead From Your Heart, Not Just Your Head. So this former ministry CEO, and bestselling author of The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make, shares his journey, and the journey of others—with conviction, depth, and a fork-in-the-road story: “When it comes to leading at the top, we have to be all in or all gone. One of my own senior leaders pulled me aside one day and said, ‘Hans, we need a one hundred percent leader. You need to be all in or all gone. There is just too much at stake.’ “It took a lot of guts for him to say that to me, but he was right. When I got over my anger and defensiveness, I realized that God was whispering to me through this man. We leaders need to move on when our passion has left the building. That man saw it in me, and had the courage to call it out. “It is not fair to the organization or the team to hang on for the wrong reasons. It’s better to leave too soon than to stay too long. Tentative leadership kills the momentum of the whole ministry. “So, after 20 years in the first chair, I decided it was time for me to step down as the leader of our international ministry. I was no longer all in, so I needed to be all gone. It was a job I once loved, but no longer enjoyed. I asked the board to start the process of finding my replacement. This was one of the hardest decisions of my career, but a good one.  “The number one issue for me was passion. My heart was no longer engaged in my job—the fire had gone out. My heart had left the building.” Whew!  That’s just a taste of Finzel’s feast on the power of passion and there’s more to chew on:    • The slogan inside his baseball cap: “Do what you like, like what you do.” He said to himself, “I am doing neither.”    • The lottery question to gauge your heart: “If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with the rest of your life?” In describing the passion zone, he asks: How much does “The Leader” circle (gifts, abilities, strengths, personalities, values, calling) overlap with “The Role” circle (followers, culture, responsibilities, activities, situation, history)?    • “When who we are lines up with the role we are in, then we are in a place of passion.”    • “Feed your heart with great books and seminars. One of the best ways to guard your heart is to feed your heart.” (This is one of 15 suggestions for regaining your passion from the chapter, “The Road to Passion Recovery – Option One: Stay Put and Get Your Groove Back.”)    • From his list of 12 on “You Know It’s Time to Leave When…” he notes: “The juice is no longer worth the squeeze. You’re worn out.” Finzel has packed a punch in this thin little book. He recommends Henry Cloud’s book, Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward (my 2011 book-of-the-year). But if you’re nervous about taking the plunge, you’ll appreciate this personal testimonial: “Jumping was one of the best decisions of my life…scary but exhilarating. One of the Joshua’s in the ministry I left took over for me and is doing a great job. That is what I call a win-win for everyone. I get to follow my heart and my former ministry is doing just great without me.”   Hmmm. Reminds me of Parker Palmer’s appreciation for Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” To order from Amazon, click on this title: The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead From Your Heart, Not Just Your Head, by Hans Finzel. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) A young leader, on a fast track to be a CEO somewhere, asked me recently, “Is it OK to have passion about leading—being the CEO; or must I also have passion about the specific cause and mission of the organization?” How would you answer him? 2) Finzel counsels leaders who have lost their passion: “You might be at this crossroads. I get it. You have two choices to make [see chapters 6 and 7]. Whatever you do, make one of the two. The worst mistake is to do nothing. Time will not take care of it.”  Are you at a crossroads? Mentor Team Members With Niche Books    As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight from The Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets. “Mentor your team members with niche books—and leverage their strengths with thoughtfully selected chapters.” Example: Who’s on your team today that could be at a career crossroads? Sure, their leaving would cause you short-term pain—but, maybe, you are the God-appointed mentor to help them in their journey toward greater joy and passion. Bless a person this week with a gift copy of The Power of Passion in Leadership. (And ask a close friend or family member if you should read this book too!) For more resources and ideas on creating a culture that embraces healthy appetites for leadership and management books, visit The Book Bucket webpage. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s latest blog, "There's an Elephant in the Room--But Let's Just Keep the Peace."

Lessons from the Bench

 

Issue No. 677 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 15, 2026) asks if you’ve ever read a book on coaching bench players? (Me neither.) Plus, click here for recent issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of three coaching books. Also, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog. ATTN: BENCH WARMERS! Here's Bench Lesson #4 in Brandon Bakke’s new book: “Don’t Underestimate How Much You can Improve.” Read my first of three reviews of Lessons from the Bench. “Healthy and Successful Teams Need the Bench” Raise your hand if you’ve ever coached or mentored someone—or plan to do so. Now…raise your hand if you’ve ever read a book about the unique role of coaching “bench players.” Yeah—me neither. I’ve never read anything like this. (My bad.) So how about you just trust me on this one—and read the book and then inspire others to read it. It’s perfect for your next nine weekly staff meetings.   Lessons From the Bench:  Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players  on Teams and in Organizations by Brandon H. Bakke (March 16, 2026) Brandon Bakke writes that this book is for players, coaches, and anyone who’s ever been part of a team—on the court, in the workplace, or in life. He notes that “hundreds of books have been written about how to be a successful team and teammate [he notes two Lencioni books including The Ideal Team Player]. But almost none of them address what it’s like to stay motivated, connected, and still contribute meaningfully from a role like the one I held for much of my time playing for Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State Bulldogs." How about you—and your colleagues? How are they (and you) labeled? Backup? Benchwarmer? “Riding the pine?” “Sometimes we get a more dignified name like ‘role player’ or ‘supporting cast.’ Regardless of the label, we know who bench players are—team members who are not the stars. We don’t get the postgame interviews. We aren’t the captain. We don’t play as much, if at all. We’re not the ones leading boardroom meetings, delivering keynote speeches, making the major business deals or becoming the face of the company.” No—this is NOT a downer book. Just the opposite. Bakke adds, “Lessons from the Bench will explore what I learned from my time on the bench and what other athletes and coaches I have encountered have shown us from their experiences—that healthy, and successful teams need the bench.”  WARNING! This book needs two reviews, maybe three (stay tuned this summer)—but trust me—you’ll thank me. And the people you’re coaching and mentoring now and in the future—they’ll thank you. Ditto your kids and grandkids and their coaches. But for this first review, enjoy this transparent story from Brandon Bakke on “Bench Lesson #2—Embrace Your Role.” (One of nine bench lessons—all insightful.)   Brandon Bakke on “Coach Knows More Than I Do”    As a young player, I needed a wake-up call. I needed to better grasp that I simply didn’t know as much as the coach. One day, Coach Tark was frustrated with what he perceived to be players questioning the coaches. So he stopped practice, grabbed a basketball and called us together. “This ball,” he said, holding it up, “represents all the knowledge there is to know about basketball.” Coach took out a pen and drew a circle on the ball, about the size of a softball. “See this small circle?” he continued. “This represents all I know about basketball.” Then he put a tiny dot inside the smaller circle. “This dot isn’t what you know about basketball,” he said. “One microscopic spec of ink on that dot is what you know about basketball. Stop questioning the coaches!” Questioning coaches happens all the time—even Coach Tark, a hall of famer and national champion, faced it. Bench players are notorious for it, but it’s really a universal challenge. In schools, workplaces, teams and families, we sometimes operate as if we know more than the principal, the CEO or whoever is in charge. It is a hard pill to swallow: accepting that the coach might see something we don’t—that the situation is more complex than we understand. But learning to make that mindset shift is a critical step toward embracing our role from the bench. OH, MY! Don’t wait for my second review (and maybe a third review) this summer. Read the book now and learn why Brock Huard [NFL backup QB] wrote the foreword, and why some coaches allocate “fun tickets” to some players unequally (is that fair?). And why “great bench players are masterful nugget thieves.” (Brilliant concept!) Bakke, by the way, leverages his three decades in business, education, and athletics—as a high school and college basketball coach, teacher, and principal and as a former bench player for “Coach Tark’s” FSU men’s basketball team. (Learn more and download resources from his website at Lessons from the Bench.) TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Lessons From the Bench: Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players on Teams and in Organizations, by Brandon H. Bakke. Listen on Libro (5 hours).   See my short reviews of three short coaching books: BOOK #1: Ten Marks of a Coachable Leader, by Gary P. Rohrmayer (Sept. 4, 2024, 92 pages). Order from Amazon. BOOK #2: Coaching the Other Way: How to Effectively Coach and Be Coached, by Brian Burman and JD Pearring (Nov. 27, 2025, 191 pages). Order from Amazon. BOOK #3: Good Coach Bad Coach: Build A Practice Where You Belong, by Simon Harling (Dec. 2, 2025, 138 pages). Order from Amazon. PLUS! Check out the mini-blurbs on 27 books for coaches, wanna-be coaches, and those wanting to be coached—at the Pails in Comparison Blog. NOTE: I’m taking a short break from this eNews, but I’ll be back in May. If you need more books, check out the four lists at The Book Bucket webpage.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: #1) Brandon Bakke is quick to acknowledge coaches and others he’s learned from, including his uncle Dennis Bakke, author of the bestseller, Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job  (I named this my 2006 book-of-the-year). Question: Describe a “bench-warming” period in your life—and what you learned from your coach, your boss, and/or your colleagues. #2) Brandon Bakke writes, “My issue as I entered this final college season is I quietly doubted that there was much improvement left in me.” (Read “Bench Lesson #4—Don’t Underestimate How Much You Can Improve.”) Question: Can you think of two people in your life that have put the brakes on improvement? How about you? Have you stopped growing—or is there any improvement left in you?       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #45 of 99: Tales from Q School For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #45 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Tales From Q School:  Inside Golf’s Fifth Major John Feinstein (May 2, 2007)  If you enjoyed golf’s spring extravaganza, the Master Tournament this last weekend, you’re reminded of all the great golfers that did not make the cut this year. There’s more to the story in this page-turning book by celebrated sportswriter John Feinstein.    • Read my review in Issue No. 41 (June 11, 2007).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #5 of 20: The Book Bucket John Feinstein, the bestselling sportswriter, chronicles the agony and the ecstasy (to borrow a cliché) of the winners and the losers at the 2005 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, often described as professional golf’s fifth major tournament. It’s an annual competition for the 30 new spots available each year on the PGA Tour. In 2005, more than 1,200 already-vetted golfers paid up to $4,500 each for a shot at the big time.  The book is a page-turner and the management and personal insights are frequent. You’ll read about the classic golf “catastrophes like Joe Daley's two-foot putt in 2000, which somehow went to the bottom of the cup and then popped out like a jack-in-the-box (he missed getting a card by one stroke).” The golf stories are memorable, but if you’re not a golfer, you already know not to buy this! See also my 2023 review of Feherty: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty, also by John Feinstein. I slotted this one in the Hoopla! Bucket.   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      On page 57 in the Book Bucket chapter of the Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, you'll find Scott Vandeventer’s wise insights about “management-by-bestseller syndrome," which he says is "due to a kind of corporate attention deficit disorder, probably systemic to its leadership.”  "COACH! CAN I GO FOR 3?" Brandon Bakke (see above) urges basketball coaches to give one-on-one feedback to players. Example: If and when they can go for a three-point basket. Tool #16 in the 22-tool resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, features the “Prime Responsibility Chart”—denoting who has prime responsibility and approval responsibility for key tasks.  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. 27 Coaching Books! Check out the mini-blurbs on 27 books for coaches, wanna-be coaches, and those wanting to be coached—at the Pails in Comparison Blog. Reminder from Pat Williams: “Coaching is not easy. It’s like a nervous breakdown with a paycheck.” See more reviews at the Pails in Comparison blog. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations