My Ideal Bookshelf - Part 2

 

My Ideal Bookshelf - Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

In my review of My Ideal Bookshelf, I asked, “So what’s on your ideal bookshelf?” Today (April 20, 2013) I’m posting the 10 books on my ideal bookshelf:

Cathy and Carl Captured, by Dorothy Johnston
     I received this book in third grade at Elim Baptist Church, Seattle, with this inscription: “To John Pearson for doing very good work in his Sunday School class during the last quarter of 1955. Teacher – Ray Hendrickson”

     At an impressionable age, the Lord used this book and the story about the Oregon Trail missionaries, Narcissa and Marcus Whitman (also a physician), to nudge me about serving in Christian ministry. I treasure this first edition, published by Scripture Press.

The Temptation to Do Good: A Novel, by Peter F. Drucker

     Bob Buford and Fred Smith invited me to one of my Top-10 life experiences—sitting at the feet of Peter Drucker for four days in Estes Park, Colo., with 30 other Christian leaders in August 1986. He signed and gave me this book as a gift. One of my 20 management buckets is the Drucker Bucket.

Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

     “While the best leaders are not well-rounded, the best teams are.” I encourage clients constantly to leverage the 3 Powerful S’s: Strengths, Social Styles and Spiritual Gifts. This StrengthsFinder book categorizes the Gallup Organization’s 34 talent themes/strengths into four major categories: Executing, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Strategic Thinking. It is transformational for many teams and boards.

The Messiah: An Oratorio, by George Frideric Handel

     Handel wrote this enduring Christmas oratorio in 1741 in just 24 days. It’s on my ideal bookshelf because in 1984 I bought the score (252 pages, $5.95) and joined the bass section for the “Do-It-Yourself Messiah” at the Norris Cultural Arts Center auditorium in St. Charles, Ill. (Read my story.) Once a very part-time church choir director in my college years, I am still deeply moved by good music and God-honoring lyrics. The Hallelujah Chorus, of course, is on my iTunes list.

The Delicate Art of Dancing With Porcupines: Learning to Appreciate the Finer Points of Others, by Bob Phillips

     The social styles system was (and still is) a game-changer for me. Understanding the four styles (Analytical, Driver, Amiable and Expressive) has enhanced my people skills by at least 500 percent.  I’m a Driver—and any decision is better than no decision. But I need to be versatile (a key social styles concept) with my wife, Joanne, an Analytical who believes that no decision is better than the wrong decision.
     Author Bob Phillips and I learned social styles from Don German. Bob has since written several updated versions of social styles with new titles. Don was gracious enough to write “The People Bucket” chapter in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets. (There...I cleverly worked my own book in.)

15 Minutes Including Q & A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher

     I read this on a plane enroute to a speaking engagement in 2011. I immediately and dramatically changed my presentation style from that point on, following the author’s wisdom on handling audience questions. Buy an extra copy for your pastor!

The One Year Bible (The Living Bible)

     The Living Bible breathed new life into my Bible reading, but for a Driver like me, the One Year Bible launched a holy habit in 1988 that was both deeply satisfying and wonderfully invigorating.  Copied now by almost every Bible publisher, the folks at Tyndale House Publishers gave us a profound tool with the easy-to-use format of an Old Testament portion, a New Testament portion, a Psalm, and one or more Proverbs every day—thus reading through the entire Bible in a year.
     Here is the Proverbs selection for today, April 20: “A person with good sense is respected; a treacherous person is headed for destruction. Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness” (Proverbs 13:15-16).

Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan

     About half of my consulting work is in nonprofit board governance and Charan’s book is one of my favorites in this arena. Most boards are soft on Question #5: “Does the board own the strategy?” Note: In 2020, I wrote 14 blogs (one blog per question) on this book for ECFA.

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, by Ruth Haley Barton

     This was my 2009 book-of-the-year and I reviewed it again in 2010 to keep it on everyone’s front burner. I’ve seen only a handful of books that God has used to dramatically change the game. This is one of them.
     She writes about spiritually discerning God’s voice: “It is also important to involve the right people. One very common leadership mistake is to think that we can take a group of undiscerning individuals and expect them to show up in a leadership setting and all of a sudden become discerning!”

A Diary of Private Prayer: A Devotional Classic, by John Baillie

     Where do I start? I received this deeply encouraging devotional book in 1988 and rarely missed reading the 31 morning prayers, one per day, for 12 years until it was stolen, along with my laptop. (Maybe the thief is reading it now?)
     On the blank facing page to each prayer, I had recorded my travels by date and location, U.S. and worldwide. Combined with the poignant prayers by this Scottish Presbyterian professor, my road warrior diary was both nostalgic and meaningful.

     I bought my replacement prayer book in 2000—a hardback this time—and use it infrequently now (so it doesn’t get stale), but I’ve given dozens away to appreciative friends.

So…that’s my Top-10 list. What’s on your ideal bookshelf? (Note: For my latest list of books I've reviewed, visit the Book Bucket.)

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations
• PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast

NOTICE! As of Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite.

My Ideal Bookshelf

 

Issue No. 275 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 19, 2013) urges you to set aside your iPhones and iPads and enjoy a tactile browsing experience with a spectacular coffee table book. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What's on your "ideal bookcase?" (Here's my Top-10 in 2013.) My Ideal Bookshelf (as of 2013) What a brilliant idea! And how will you leverage this idea with your team at work, your family and friends, your small group and your social media followers? The co-creators of My Ideal Bookshelf have served up a unique coffee table book that, at least momentarily, is more compelling than YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The idea: invite over 100 leading cultural figures “to share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world.” So, for example, Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, The Tipping Point and other books, shares 12 books that have influenced him.  His next book is about crime, so he acquired 150 books on the subject. Gladwell writes, “I haven’t read them all, and I won’t. Some of them I’ll just look at. But that’s the fun part. It’s an excuse to go on Amazon. The problem is, of course, that eventually you have to stop yourself.  Otherwise you’ll collect books forever. But these books are markers for ideas that I’m interested in. That’s why it’s so important to have physical books.      "When I see my bookshelf expanding,      it gives me the illusion      that my brain is expanding, too.” Across the page from Gladwell’s book journey commentary is an original painting of his ideal bookshelf—showcasing the book spines creatively sorted by color and size. Amazingly, artist Jane Mount created 100 original paintings for this impressive work. You cannot resist browsing this book! Hmmm. I wonder what’s on Atul Gawande’s bookshelf? Have I read any of his favorites? Another writer, Andrew Sean Greer, confesses that he steals ideas from other books and “I have finally forgiven myself for not reading everything in the entire world.” A chef and writer, Gabrielle Hamilton (one of the few to include a Bible, the King James Version), writes, “I think all of these books give the reader permission to break the rules.” Then referencing Jackson Pollock and e.e. cummings, she adds, “You can’t start out using all lowercase letters and no punctuation. You have to know all the rules first. Then you can play.” Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing, was one of pro skateboarder Tony Hawk’s picks. His theme—the importance of perseverance. An illustrator and artist, Oliver Jeffers, opens his profile with this: “I picked all of these books because I think you should always judge a book by its cover—or its spine, in this case.” The mega writer James Patterson crammed 18 picks onto his ideal bookshelf. His profile enlightened: “For better or worse, I get right into the story. It’s like that rule of real estate, ‘Location, location, location,’ except for me it’s ‘Story, story, story.’ I think it’d be disastrous if everyone wrote the way I do. But I think it’s good that somebody does.” The challenge was too overwhelming for Francine Prose, a writer, to pick her ideal bookshelf because “there are a gazillion bookshelves in my house.” So she picked her all-Chekhov shelf. That was interesting, but more so her commentary about the difference between short-story writers and novelists (and baggy writing). “But then I remember that Chekhov wrote six hundred stories. And that he died at the young age of forty-four. David Gates asked this about Charles Dickens, but you could ask it about Chekhov, too: ‘Was he a Martian?’ He was not from this planet.” “Sometimes I meet ministers, and I always say to them,” writes David Sedaris (a writer),       “’If I had a church,      I’d read a Tobias Wolff story every week,      and then I’d say to people, “Go home.”’  There’s nothing else you would need to say. Every story is a manual on how to be a good person, but without ever being preachy. They’re deeply moral stories; the best of them read like parables.” I bought My Ideal Bookshelf when it was published last November and I’ve savored this morsel, page-by-page, over many insightful evenings. Some closing thoughts:    • I love books and I’m in good company.    • Whew! I’ve hardly read anything! Where did I miss that one?    • What fun—to inspire others to read with such a visually-pleasing invitation to browse 100 bookshelves. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for My ideal Bookshelf. Read "John's Ideal Bookshelf" here.

Broken and Whole

 

Issue No. 335 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Dec. 24, 2015) reminds you that books are powerful and thoughtful gifts at Christmas and year-round. Merry Christmas! (Watch for my year-end “Book-of-the-Year” pick on Dec. 31.) St. Stephen Delivers Another Gut Check Book Perhaps my best recommendation for a new book is this: I will read it again soon. On this 24th day of December, if you’re still looking for a Christmas gift book that will pack a punch, order Broken and Whole: A Leader’s Path to Spiritual Transformation, by Stephen A. Macchia. Oh, my. Steve has been nosing around our churches and ministries—especially our board meetings. But the good news: instead of meddling, he ministers. When you read Chapter 4, “The Tight Grip of Pride and Closed-Fisted Greed,” you’ll discover a new standard of leader/author transparency.  Steve bares it all—and his authenticity ensured I would read every chapter: slowly, prayerfully, confessionally. Oh, my. I usually bounce around a book—based on the most interesting chapter titles. But every chapter title competed for my attention. You must read:    • “Impatience Isn’t a Virtue”    • “The Pitfalls of Needing to Be Wanted”    • “Befriending Brokenness and Inviting Redemption” Macchia exegetes 1 Corinthians 13 with…(what picture will help you get this?)…maybe after a huge NFL middle linebacker whacks your body to the ground, he then lifts you back up—and you look into the healing eyes of Jesus Himself. Yet “St. Stephen” doesn’t mince messages: “Basically, I’ve come to grips with the reality that I am who I am. I’m a new creation in Christ Jesus. I have made many positive contributions as a leader. I’ve served faithfully as a pastor in a large and healthy church. I’ve experienced effectiveness as a leader of a one-hundred-year-old organization that grew significantly in my tenure. I’ve mentored many young and aspiring leaders. I’ve even founded a ministry that’s been richly blessed by God. “But I also make mistakes. I blunder. I think horrible thoughts. I’m an internal quagmire more often than I desire and in continual need of God’s grace. I know what it feels like to be a manipulator, and when not kept in check I can drive myself and others crazy with my perfectionistic tendencies. I’ve been deeply hurt by past failures. I’ve been disappointed by the attitudes and actions of others. And I see these same things in many others who are in leadership positions in the body of Christ.” He adds, “I’ve discovered that when I’m authentic, honest and transparent about all my realities as a leader, I can relax more in the presence of those who previously intimidated me.” Every Christian leader—every Christ-follower—will relate to the powerful stories that launch each chapter and the probing “Spiritual Leadership Audit” questions that conclude each chapter. Whew! Broken and Whole is a must-read. P.S. Buy at least two books: several for the growing leaders on your Christmas list, and one for yourself. Merry Christmas! To order from Amazon, click on the title for Broken and Whole: A Leader’s Path to Spiritual Transformation, by Stephen A. Macchia. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In his chapter on “The Maddening Manipulation of Self and Others,” Macchia addresses our rudeness (“love is not rude” per 1 Cor. 13) and suggests we memorize a phrase to halt rudeness. “When you see rudeness in your attitude, actions or words, very simply say, ‘Isn’t that interesting’ and then reflect on what’s being provoked in you that’s prompting a rude response.” Think back to the last time you were rude to another person. Do you need to confess your brokenness? 2)    As a leader or manager, what responsibility do you have for the people in your department or organization? Are they growing? What books will you give them in 2016 to encourage their growth? Avoid Management-by-Bestseller Syndrome  Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is a reminder from the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets: In the Book Bucket, I encourage leaders to create the context for the next book they recommend. “Last quarter we added another weapon to our arsenal when we read XYZ. This quarter’s book builds on that methodology and zeroes in on one of the critical balls in the Customer Bucket. Please note that there’s a $10 Starbucks gift card in your book. Get out of the office for a few hours and enjoy some reading with your favorite beverage.” Broken and Whole, by Steve Macchia, is a great example of an author who writes books that are in perfect alignment with each other.  I’ve also reviewed and recommended these books by Steve:    • Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way    • Wellspring: 31 Days to Whole-Hearted Living    • Spiritual Discernment Retreat Guide         • Becoming a Healthy Team: 5 Traits of Vital Leadership See also the 2022 book-of-the-year: The Discerning Life. For more more resources to grow your team members, visit the Book Bucket webpage.

MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s recent blog on "10 Fundraising Mistakes That Are Easy to Fix." NOTICE! As of Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite.

Connection Culture

 

Issue No. 329 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 29, 2015) recommends a new book I just read and immediately ordered for a client. Read why Google preaches, “Don’t be a sissy!”  Coach K's Aha Moment!  Mike Krzyzewski (“Coach K”) would agree that he was clueless about the power of connection—until his “Aha!” moment with his wife and three daughters around the family dinner table. That’s quite a statement from Duke University’s head basketball coach with 1,018 career wins, the most in NCAA history. According to the authors of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, Coach K transformed his coaching style by watching his wife, Mickie, and the women in his family reconnect at the end of each day. “He also observed how attuned they were to how people felt—their intuition was like radar. Time and again Mickie could sense when something was bothering one of Coach K’s players.” So Coach K recruited his wife and daughters. “The Krzyzewski women became, in military terms, a reconnaissance team to sense the state of relationships, emotions, connection, community, and unity among the team. The boys became extended members of their family—the women gave the players hugs (which boost the trust hormone oxytocin). As Coach K became more intentional about developing the feeling of connection among the team, it produced superior results.” Did I mention he’s led Duke to five NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships, including 2015? Don’t skip this one! Authors Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katharine P. Stallard deliver well-researched and reasoned insights in their highly readable new book, Connection Culture—just 93 pages, not counting 25 more pages of robust resources, such as the descriptions of 24 character strengths developed by the VIA Institute on Character (my two favorite: hope and humor). The big idea—there are three types of culture:  • a culture of control (top-down and stifling) • a culture of indifference (cog-in-machine mentality, power/money-focused) • a connection culture (the best of task excellence and relationship excellence) The authors build a very compelling case by noting Gallup’s employee engagement research that “70 to 74 percent of American workers are not engaged in their jobs.” They add, “This may sound bleak, but you should consider it to be a major opportunity.”  Connection Culture has the perfect dose of inspirational can-do examples along with feisty elbow-in-the-ribs warnings. Consider: • Dr. Herbert Pardes, former president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital led by example when “to extend the feeling of connection, he encouraged staff members to memorize the names of patients and their family members.” • Alan Mulally, former CEO of Boeing and Ford, “distributed wallet-size cards with Ford’s business plan on one side and 16 expected behaviors (values), including ‘work together effectively as one team,’ on the other. In meetings, he acted as a facilitator and coach rather than a dictator, prohibiting humor made at the expense of others.” •    Texas Christian University established the TCU Center for Connection Culture in 2014. Chancellor Victor Boschini, in order to stay connected with students, “teaches a freshman seminar in education. And he not only knows every student’s name, but also what is going on in their lives.” Sailboat or Cruise Ship? • The London church that launched Alpha, a no-pressure course exploring the Christian faith (now taught in 169 countries in 112 languages), described themselves as “a sailboat where everyone on board had an active role to play, versus a cruise ship where passengers were served but never served others.” Holy Trinity Brompton’s core values, “including excellence, serving others, friendliness, and fun, serve to bring about feelings of connection.” Nicky Gumbel, Holy Trinity’s vicar, says they “aim for perfection but settle for excellence.” Increasingly for me, the mark of a significant book lies in the author’s ability to transform a complex concept into a memorable and repeatable phrase. This book succeeds! Vision. Value. Voice. Page 25 (yes—another page 25 nugget!) summarizes “A Culture of Connection.” The authors write, “Committed members and servant leaders develop task excellence and relationship excellence that includes vision, value, and voice. As a result, people feel connected, are more productive and energetic, give their best efforts, align their efforts with organizational objectives, and fully communicate and cooperate. This leads the organization to achieve sustainable superior performance.”  (See the chart on page 25.) That preaches—and I predict the 3-V’s outline will be shared at hundreds, if not thousands, of weekly staff meetings in the years ahead. It’s powerful and it’s perfect: VISION. VALUE. VOICE.   The authors list 15 building blocks (three each for vision, value, and voice) that are practical and motivational. Their fresh approach, with examples, is not the usual warmed-over stuff. Example: When is the last time you benchmarked your mission statement against its relevance to a connection culture?  Confession: I read Chapter 5 first. “Taking Action” is a practical color commentary for vision, value, and voice and the chapter inspired me to read and underline almost every page in this short book. I have quoted from the book constantly this last month (yup—even on vacation!). One more note: I’m helping a client on a core values process and this book came just in the nick of time! At our next meeting, we’ll look at Google’s multi-year study of top-rated managers, “Project Oxygen,” noted in the book.  “Be a good communicator and listen to your team,” was one of eight leadership behaviors identified.  My favorite: “Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented!” To order this book from Amazon, click on this link: Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, by Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katharine P. Stallard.   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) The authors say there is a scientific case for connection—a superpower! “At least that’s how UCLA neuroscience professor Matthew Lieberman described connection in ‘Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect’ in his TED talk in October 2013.” Watch the video and then enhance the topic by discussing the theological reasons why God created us for community. 2) Connection Culture cites this research: “Employees who feel engaged and connected are 20 percent more productive than the average employee; and 87 percent less likely to leave the organization.” So…is a connection culture important to your organization’s bottom line—and your people care approach?   Fired Up or Burned Out As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight that aligns with the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets. In my 2008 review of Michael Lee Stallard’s book, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity, I noted his arresting comments about an airline CEO who walks the talk! According to Stallard, David Neeleman, the CEO of JetBlue Airways, “meets 95 percent of new employees on their first day of work. From day one he demonstrates that he values them. He also sets aside one day each week to travel on JetBlue flights where he serves beverages and gets down on his hands and knees to clean planes.”  In 2002, JetBlue wanted to hire 2,000 team members and received 130,000 applications! For more insights on core values—and walking the talk—visit The Culture Bucket webpage.

MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Read "How Long, or How Short, Should a Board Meeting Be?" NOTICE! As of Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite.

Soul Keeping

Issue No. 326 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a very funny —yet very serious—book from John Ortberg! (June 10, 2015) John Ortberg's Bull Ride  John Ortberg—a very, very funny pastor, speaker, and writer—also has a serious side. He writes, “As long as I keep pretending, my soul keeps dying.” So when is the last time you’ve drilled down deeply to understand what makes your soul tick—and why should you? Ortberg says that “one of the most important words in the Bible is soul.   We throw that word around a lot, but if someone were to ask you to explain exactly what the word soul means, what would you say?    • Why should I pay attention to my soul?    • Hasn’t science disproven its existence?    • Isn’t the soul the province of robe-wearing, herbal-tea drinkers?    • Isn’t ‘soul-saving’ old-fashioned language that ignores concerns for holistic justice?    • Won’t it mean preoccupation with navel-gazing? Will I have to go to Big Sur or look some stranger in the eyes? Will I have to journal?” Who’s not a fan of John Ortberg and his genuine appreciation for Dallas Willard? When I reviewed one of my favorite books, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People (Issue #18), I noted that Ortberg asked his publishers to title that book, “Dallas for Dummies.” LOL! So…in February when I read the first chapter of Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You, I planned to enjoy, but move quickly through, the 17 short chapters (less than 200 pages). Did not happen! Instead…I’ve lingered slowly through the last 17 weekends…a chapter every Saturday or Sunday morning. Whew. Good stuff. Quotable stuff. PowerPoint-worthy wisdom. And always good for a half-page read to my wife, Joanne, who also appreciates Ortberg and Dallas Willard. Most weekends, I read her funny stuff, like this: The Soul Without a Center Is Easily Thrown “We were with friends recently at kind of an open-air street fair, and at one spot there was a mechanical bull that tries to buck people off. We stopped to watch, but nobody would climb on the thing and give it a try. The man operating the bull said, ‘Watching isn’t nearly as fun as riding. Who’s going to be the one to get on the bull?’ So somebody in my little group said to me, ‘Why don’t you go?’ I never took the rodeo class when I was in seminary, but nobody else would go, and I wanted to see something. “So I told the remote-control-bull operator that I wanted to ride. He took one look at my middle-aged body and asked, ‘Are you sure?’ That pretty much guaranteed that I would not back down. “‘There are twelve levels of difficulty on this bull,’ he explained. ‘It might not be all that easy, but the key is you have to stay centered, and the only way to do that is to sit loose. People try to clamp on too tight. Don’t do that. You have to be flexible. If you think you can be in control of the ride you’ll never make it. You have to follow the bull. You have to keep moving. Shift your center of gravity as the bull moves.’ “I got on the bull and it started slow, and then it started moving faster and jostling around, and I was holding on real tight. Then I remembered his advice, so I loosened up, and it kept moving faster and jolting and bucking and jumping. I was hanging on sideways. My arms were flailing around all over the place. I just hung on and finally the bull slowed down and it stopped, and I was still on the bull. It wasn’t pretty but I made it. I imagined how surprised the operator of the bull would be that I had triumphed. I looked over at the man who was operating the bull, and he looked over at me. Shaking his head, he smiled and said, ‘That was level one.’ “Level two lasted maybe a second. The bull won.” LOL! Ortberg reminds us that life never stays at level one. “It gets complicated. Stuff happens.” This book will help you in level two and beyond. Along with the humor—and it oozes with Ortberg’s special brand of clergy comedy—the pastoral pokes are memorable and needed. He quotes Dallas Willard: “You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God.” And then this from Thomas Kelly: “…We have seen and know some people who have found this deep Center of living, where the fretful calls of life are integrated, where No as well as Yes can be said with confidence.” There’s so much more. I’d made notes for my “Top-10 List of Ortberg Insights on the Soul”…but it’s time to quit. (You will read his book, right?) And speaking of top ten lists…I’ve decided that if Stephen Colbert doesn’t cut it as the new guy for the CBS Late Show in September, I’ll launch a grassroots campaign to put John Ortberg in that chair. Wouldn’t that be something! To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for: Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You, by John Ortberg. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In his chapter, “The Soul Needs a Center,” Ortberg confesses, “If I am always in a hurry to be somewhere else, it’s an indicator that my soul has not yet found its home.” What does that insight mean to you? #2. “Idolatry, according to Timothy Keller, is the sin beneath the sin.” Ortberg adds, “We all commit idolatry every day. It is the sin of the soul meeting its needs with anything that distances it from God.” Is it well with your soul today?   The Poignant Power of a Book Recommendation  As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight from the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets. Over lunch, my friend, Mark Bargaehr, suggested I read John Ortberg’s book, Soul Keeping. What a gift Mark gave me! Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” What gift (book recommendation) will you give to a colleague or family member this week? For more resources on books—and recommendations categorized by 20 buckets/core competences, visit The Book Bucket webpage.

MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s latest blog, "Sorry! There Is No ONE Thing!"

The Attacker’s Advantage

 

Issue No. 332 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Nov. 5, 2015) features a powerful—and mind-rattling—book about uncertainty and how to recognize the bends in the road ahead. It will be on my Top-10 book list for 2015.  Perceptual Acuity Dinners  Huh? What’s a “perceptual acuity dinner?” Before I tell you why five CEOs have dinner together four times a year, let me mention that this issue’s book, The Attacker’s Advantage: Turning Uncertainty Into Breakthrough Opportunities, by Ram Charan, will certainly be on my Top-10 book list for 2015—and might be my book-of-the-year. Buy it! I’m privileged to serve as board chair at Christian Community Credit Union [2026 update: CCCU is now Adelfi and I no longer serve on the board.) This summer at our board’s annual planning retreat, we all read Charan’s latest book, in advance, and then every board member shared a 10-minute chapter review. It was energizing—because the book is so current, mind-bending, and alarming. (This is the third Ram Charan book our board has read.) Mike Pate, executive director of Transformation Ministries Camping (three camps in California and Arizona) just took his leadership team through the book last week. [2026 update: Pate is now general manager of Arrowhead Lake Association.] Ram Charan writes: “Uncertainty has always been a challenge to business, but never before has it had the intensity and potential to change industries and destroy companies as it does today. Business leaders can be on the defensive, or they can be on offense, prepared to lead decisively. The ability to deal with uncertainty is perhaps the paramount skill leaders must have to be successful in this era. Without it they risk becoming personally obsolete and driving their companies off a cliff.” Do you know the difference between operational uncertainty and structural uncertainty—and why it matters? (From Ram Charan’s website): “…Ram Charan shows what skills are needed to be able to spot the disruption that is coming, and what actions are necessary to take advantage of these changes. While many leaders know how to cope with operational uncertainty—when, for example, revenue fluctuates—the same cannot be said for dealing with structural uncertainty that can alter the money-making patterns of a company, industry or entire economic sector.”  The reviewer adds, “Charan demonstrates the huge upside offered by structural uncertainty and provides the concepts and tools—such as being able to spot the catalysts of disruption, building organizational preparedness, developing a financial understanding of the consequences—to take advantage of forces that are creating new customer needs, market segments and ways to make money.” Just look at the chapter titles. How can you not read this book?    1. Bends in the Road    2. Why Structural Uncertainty Is Different    3. The Mathematical Corporation: The Algorithmic Revolution and the Rise of the Math House    4. Searching for Early Warning Signals    5. Building Perceptual Acuity    6. Identifying the Catalysts of Structural Change    7. Seeing What Catalysts See    8. Tools to Build Perceptual Acuity    9. How Tata Communications Expands the Organization’s Lens   10. Going on the Offense   11. Defining the Path   12. A Mind-set for Offense   13. Kaiser Permanente’s Path Through the Turmoil in Health Care I plan to read this book again—because while it’s very well-written, the concepts cannot be mastered in a quick read or a cursory review. The insights and the principles from the book are now part of the lexicon at every meeting of the Christian Community Credit Union board of directors. Heed these warnings:    • “Uncertainty is not something to fear.”    • “Taking control of uncertainty is the fundamental leadership challenge of our time.”    • “The advantage (in businesses) now goes to those who create change.”    • “Taking advantage of the emerging landscape will almost certainly call for significant changes in how you define your business.”    • “The greatest risk of all is that leaders who face the need for radical change will deliberate too long and discover that the world has passed them by.” And more elbows-in-the-ribs: "No matter how successful it has made you, your past experience won't ensure success in the new world.” “Most of the 360-degree evaluations companies use focus on essentially the same traits. I have yet to see one that includes those qualities that I believe are now crucial for meeting the fundamental challenge of our time: perceiving the sources of uncertainty ahead of others, taking advantage of uncertainty to go on the offense, and preparing and steering the organization to adapt in tune with sudden changes in the environment.” “He [G.M. Rao, the chairman of GMR, India’s largest infrastructure business] once told me that every bend in the road contains a message about a future growth trajectory that someone could explore and exploit if he or she looked at it though a different lens without being controlled by an existing core competency.” “People often miss these early warning signals because they’re ‘flying at low altitude,’ immersed in the daily operating details of the business.” On perceptual acuity (a big theme throughout the book), Charan gives this definition: “Perceptual acuity is your human radar for seeing through the fog of uncertainty so you can act before others do.”  CNN owner Ted Turner had it by seeing the future of 24-hour news, while “SONY’s leaders slept through the dawn of digital music: a stunning lack of perceptual acuity from the company whose Walkman was one of the groundbreaking products of the 1980s.” Charan notes, “The greatest test of perceptual acuity is the ability to pick out catalysts and seeds even when the signals are weak, meaning that they are intermittent or seem irrelevant. Retailers lacking perceptual acuity might, for example, have underestimated the significance of Apple’s bringing in Angela Ahrendts as senior vice president of retail and online stores in 2014.  “What sort of nuttiness, one might ask was it to hire the highly successful CEO of Burberry, one of the world’s best brands, to run a mere division—one that is not even Apple’s largest revenue generator? “The perceptual acute person would immediately ask questions:    • Why would such a creative and accomplished executive give up a role as CEO to take on a lesser job?    • Is she perhaps a catalyst who will totally reconceptualize what the stores do?    • What might her intentions be?    • One hypothesis would be that she may convert them into a mecca for fashion and luxury, not just for hardware and software. [More on page 40!)    • They should add to their mental data bases the fact that Apple invited fashion journalists to its September 2014 unveiling of the Apple Watch.” (The editors at Fortune magazine may have read Charan's book. Read the Sept. 10, 2015 article, "What the Heck Is Angela Ahrendts Doing at Apple?") Charan shares practical tools for practicing perceptual acuity because it’s “now part of your job and will raise your value as a leader.” He adds, “You need to be on the alert for what is new and what is an anomaly, contradiction or oddity.” Yikes! This review is already too long…and you’ll miss oodles of important stuff unless you buy this book. So…what about those perceptual acuity dinners? “Your social group, too, can sharpen your antennae. Surrounding yourself with people from different industries and backgrounds, with different cognitive bandwidths and attitudes about risk-taking, helps you see the same world through different lenses. Discussing your external perceptions lets you test them against theirs, so you have a better chance of being accurate.” In his chapter, “Tools to Build Perceptual Acuity,” he highlights a mid-forties CEO, “Clare,” who meets with four other CEOs four times a year for dinner. “Their meetings, and informal conversations between get-togethers, serve as a sounding board for each to cross-check thinking and provide a foundation for superb foresight.  “In addition, they all make it a habit to seek out and listen to people whose endeavors or expertise gives them insight into external change. They create a multiplier effect magnifying each other’s power of observation.” There are dozens of weapons in the attacker’s arsenal—and (have I mentioned this?) you must read this book, perhaps, to even survive. To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Attacker’s Advantage: Turning Uncertainty Into Breakthrough Opportunities, by Ram Charan.   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) To develop a mind-set for offense, the author says it will “almost always require taking action before you have a crystal clear picture of all the factors your success will depend on.” Where is your organization or department on the continuum between Still Learning versus Bold Leaping? 2) Assess your team members, board members, and/or volunteers: who already demonstrates the paramount skills required to deal with uncertainty? What can you do to inspire, encourage and resource them? (Step 1: buy this book!) Plan B (for Bruises) As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is a reminder from the Strategy Bucket, Chapter 3, in Mastering the Management Buckets. According to Mike Tyson:   “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face!"   For more insights and resources, visit the Strategy Bucket webpage.   MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s blog, "Governance Stew." NOTICE! As of Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite.