How to Deliver a TED Talk

 

Issue No. 256 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Sept. 5. 2012) features a short, but sweet, how-to-give-a-talk toolbox—leveraging the tricks of the trade of the “world’s most inspiring presentations.”  And…by the way…guess what Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, has mandated? Weekly staff meetings—every Friday—reports the Wall Street Journal. Plus check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Top TEDTalk Secrets If I were writing my Buckets book today, I would add another core competency, The Speaker Bucket (No. 21). In one of my Top-10 books for 2008, I quoted Bert Decker, author of You've Got to Be Believed to Be Heard: “Your ability to communicate is the single most important skill determining your success in every aspect of your life.  You dare not make the mistake of thinking that communication is nothing but dumping information on another person.” As co-dependents to bad speakers, somehow we allow mind-numbing keynote addresses, board and committee presentations, staff reports, and—oh my!—sermons, to turn our minds to mush—as we patiently wait for that magical phrase, “And in conclusion…”   The solution? At your next staff meeting, coach your wanna-be-presenters with books from your “Speaker Bucket” bookshelf.  Here’s another good one:   How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations, by Jeremey Donovan.   The author researched hundreds of online videos of the most popular 18-minute talks presented at the highly acclaimed TED Conferences. In just 107 big-print, fast-reading pages, he boils it all down. But it’s not a speaking-tips-for-dummies blah/blah/blah book, it’s much, much better—and rich in detail where it matters.   If you’re not familiar with TED Conferences (“Riveting Talks by Remarkable People”), check out the website. The 2013 conference is Feb. 25 to March 1 in Long Beach, Calif., and attendance is by application only. Cost: $7,500 per person (not a typo). Did I mention it’s already sold out? A same-date conference is in Palm Springs for just $2,500 per person. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is often described as “the ultimate brain spa.” Donovan’s prepare-a-talk toolkit has two sections: “Content, Story & Structure” and “Delivery & Design.” The detailed chapters range from “How to Craft Your Catchphrase” to “How to Conclude Your Talk.” (Pastors: please read this…please!!) Golfers are constantly challenged to master a zillion golf swing details—all at the same time (head down!). Ditto speaking tips (head up!). Yet Donovan gently brings the reader/would-be speaker along the journey, one practical step at a time:    --Humor: “The fundamental principle to remember is that humor is rooted in surprise.”    --Stories: “If you would like to bore people to tears until they tear out their hair and claw their eyes out, then hammer them with facts for the entire 18 minutes of your TEDTalk.”     --PowerPoints: “…four of the ten most viewed TED presenters used no slides in their talks.” Yet if you must, the author recommends the 7x7 rule, limiting each slide to no more than seven bullets and no more than seven words per bullet. He quotes speaking coach Craig Valentine, “Use slides as a place where you take off and land. Nothing more.”   The author dissects Malcolm Gladwell’s popular TEDTalk, “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti” (more than 2 million views).  In the video, Gladwell invests all 18 minutes in telling a story about Dr. Howard Moskowitz, market researcher and psychophysicist, and his unusual spaghetti sauce crusade with the food industry. Click here to watch the video.   Donovan’s lesson? “Malcolm Gladwell’s second clever choice was to make Howard Moskowitz the hero. As a speaker, one of the worst things you can do is put yourself on a pedestal. Position yourself as an equal, perhaps a guide, but not superior to your listeners.”   About 74 percent of all people suffer from the fear of public speaking (known as Glossophobia).  This book could help your boss, your direct reports, your board members, your volunteers—and dozens of others. And as we say often, “Delegate Your Reading” to someone on your team—and then add this helpful toolbox to your resource shelf—and mentor your people with niche books and niche chapters.   By the way, adds Donovan in Chapter 7: How to Conclude Your Talk, “When you provide a clear signal that you are moving to the end of your speech, people will increase their level of attention.” (Hang on, this eNews will terminate shortly.)   So this is the third book I’ve added to my ad hoc “Speaker Bucket” shelf.  Another good one is 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher. Read my review. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations, by Jeremey Donovan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Around-the-room (30 seconds or less per person): tell us about the most effective speaker or presenter you have heard in the last two years—and why. 2) According to Jeremey Donovan, “the average TEDTalk employs language at a sixth grade level.”  And he adds, “In my moderately scientific analysis, the most viewed TED speakers deliver an average of one joke per minute in their keynote speeches.” What do you think about that stat? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Defog Financial Reports With Dashboards Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 15 in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is is to eliminate the fog of numbers-only financial reports by leveraging the visual clarity of dashboards. The dashboard on an airplane delivers instant feedback. Ditto a financial dashboard.  For more help (for nonprofits), read The Nonprofit Dashboard: A Tool for Tracking Progress, from BoardSource. The book includes a CD-ROM with add-water-and-stir spreadsheet templates. For more help and recommended books, visit The Budget 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 • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post asking if there is a difference between "secular" and "Christ-centered" board governance.

Pursuing God’s Will Together

 

Issue No. 254 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 24, 2012) features a just-published book on spiritual discernment by Ruth Haley Barton—whose previous book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, was my 2009 Book-of-the-Year. Her latest is equally powerful.  Plus check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From Decision-making to Discernment Warning! This is a dangerous book (I’ll explain). And it’s certainly a no-brainer Top-10 book for 2012 for pastors, ministry leaders and board members. It might even be my No. 1 Book-of-the-Year pick, but the year’s not over yet. Ruth Haley Barton has the audacity to write, “Just because something is strategic does not necessarily mean it is God’s will for us right now.” She says that our staff meetings and board meetings must move from decision-making to discernment. “Spiritual discernment is the ability to distinguish between good (that which is of God and draws us closer to God) and evil (that which is not of God and draws us away from God).” She adds, “Many of us have been taught that leadership is having the answer, and we come into meetings we are leading prepared to bestow that wisdom on our trusty followers; we might ask God for wisdom in a prayer that sounds very spiritual, but the truth is, there isn’t much room for God to do or say anything other than what we already have in mind.” Spiritual leadership has a different flavor believes the author and founder of the Transforming Center. “There are many qualities that contribute to good leadership, but it is our commitment to discerning and doing the will of God through the help of the Holy Spirit that distinguishes spiritual leadership from other kinds of leadership.” And there’s the problem: most of us want to do the will of God, but few of us are willing to invest the time to learn, practice and facilitate a spiritual discernment process.  (Raise your hand if your board has a designated “discernmentarian.” How about a wise sage? Barton says you need both.) About 75 pages into this dangerous book, I grieved the wasted years of clever PowerPoints, flipchart busy-work, 31-tab binders and too many frequent flier miles…just soldiering on…when, in fact, I was focused on the wrong thing. To think that, instead, we could have actually heard from Almighty God Himself! Ruth Haley Barton got my attention in 2009 with her extraordinary book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, especially the chapters on spiritual discernment. Then several clients mentored me with stunning moments of discernment. The blinders fell off. I began to see God’s work with new eyes.  You will too, if you do the hard work of reading, reflecting and praying through this book—but don’t do it alone. Each chapter begins with Barton’s keeping-it-real continuing story of Grace Church, a fictitious megachurch in the Pacific Northwest. Grace has vision, passion, a gifted top-notch team “and they wore cool jeans.” Trust me—she’s been in our churches, sniffed around, and knows way too much! Dangerous? Have you every gathered your team or board for a fork-in-the-road decision and prayed for “holy indifference” (a good thing)? She writes, “At the beginning of any leadership discernment process, it is good to be reminded to ask for the grace to be indifferent to matters of ego, prestige, organizational politics, personal opinion, personal advantage or even ownership of a pet project. We ask God for the grace to desire his will—nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.” “If we do not reach the point of indifference, or if we are not at least honest about the fact that we are not indifferent, the discernment process becomes little more than a rigged election.” Dangerous? How about instead of feeble attempts at conflict resolution, you practice conflict transformation—and, says Barton—it’s a prerequisite to the discernment process. Dangerous? “Have you ever been part of a meeting in which people were so tired that they made a decision just so they could go home? Have you ever participated in a decision-making process knowing that you were resorting to ‘sloppy desperation’ just because you were exhausted?” You’ll appreciate the been there/done that elephant-in-the-room stories—and how a spiritual discernment process can lead you to a healthy culture. Barton will inspire you—and give you tools—for the priority task of discerning your team’s values. Her ten guidelines for “entering into and maintaining a listening posture” are both brilliant and practical. You’ll want to laminate the list and bring it to every meeting. (Hey, Hank! Read No. 3 again! “DO NOT INTERRUPT!”) Dangerous? Barton warns us about attempting spiritual discernment when there are no spiritually discerning people in the room. So she plows deep into that field with practical exercises for preparing the ground. (The harvest takes time.) But the point of all this is not more visionary leadership, better decisions, S.M.A.R.T. goals, bigger budgets or fewer staff or board conflicts. “The main point of discerning the will of God is to do it.” And then she encourages us with I Thess. 5:24, “…the one who has called you will be faithful to bring it to pass.” I just bought 30 copies. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups, by Ruth Haley Barton. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Ruth Haley Barton says that “conflict happens in all relationships; the only question is what we will do when it does.” Why might “conflict transformation” (versus conflict avoidance) be a bedrock value that must be in place before you begin a spiritual discernment process? 2) Overwhelmed? Too much to do? Doing the work of three people? Barton says that a spiritual discernment process will help us realize that “When we refuse to live within our limits, we wear out ourselves and those who lead with us.” What are other reasons why discernment is so important? Are You Battle-ready? Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 13 (The Crisis Bucket) in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to be battle-ready.   Peter Drucker said, “Fortunately or unfortunately, the one predictable thing in any organization is the crisis.  That always comes. That’s when you do depend on the leader.”  He said that the job of the leader is to build an organization that is “battle-ready, that has high morale, that knows how to behave, that trusts itself, and where people trust one another.”   If the shocking crisis that devastated the community of Aurora, Colo., last week were to happen near your church or ministry—would you be battle-ready? For more resources, visit the Crisis Bucket webpage and download the worksheet, “Plan Now for Your Next Crisis.” NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets 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 • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations."  Read my blog, “Great Boards & the Elephants in the Room.”

6 Leadership Books

 

Issue No. 570 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting  (July 26, 2023) delivers a Leadership Lotto of six books to delegate for your team’s summer reading fun! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), and click here for my review of The One Year® Book of Hymns: 365 Devotions Based on Popular Hymns.   More Mistakes or More Leadership Books? Be honest now. How many leadership mistakes did you make yesterday? How many mistakes last week? Last month? Last quarter? So…is it possible that if you read one more leadership book—you could potentially reduce your blunders, bobbles, bloopers, and bottlenecks? This issue spotlights six leadership books (six!)—just in time for your summer reading. Think of this as winning the Leadership Lotto! Your investment in lifelong learning may not match the $1.08 billion payout to the Los Angeles lotto winner last week (it was not me), but reading, or listening to, the right leadership book, at the right time, can pay rich dividends. Here’s your summer reading (or listening) list. Dive into 1,563 pages (or 29 hours) of leadership lessons. Two ideas:  • Delegate your reading. Inspire your direct reports to each select a book to read and report on. (See The Book Bucket.) • Read one book and host a “Bagels and Books” 20-minute break. Highlight your key insights in 10 minutes and allocate 10 minutes for Q&A. #1. True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition, by Zach Clayton and Bill George (Aug. 30, 2022). Listen on Libro (9 hours, 1 minute). This book includes a foreword by David Gergen and endorsements by Alan Mulally and Tom Rath, author of StrengthsFinder 2.0. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. What? You haven’t read the classic book on authentic leadership by Harvard’s Bill George (and former Chair and CEO of Medtronic)? Good news! This 2022 edition (post-COVID) includes insights from coauthor Zach Clayton, a 37-year-old Millennial and founder and CEO of Three Ships. George and Clayton interviewed 50 leaders “with an emphasis on the new generation of leaders.” Counting previous True North editions, they interviewed 222 leaders! The stories are poignant, such as Hubert Joly’s wake-up call when his HR leader noted that Joly’s name was in every box on their organizational chart! To find his authentic self, Joly “embarked on a 2-year spiritual journey with a monk as spiritual director, undertaking the spiritual exercises of Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order."  Get this! In his first week as CEO of Best Buy in 2012, Hubert Joly “didn’t go to the corporate headquarters but instead worked in its St. Cloud, Minnesota, store.” Joly notes, “Wearing khaki pants and the iconic Best Buy blue shirt with a ‘CEO in Training’ tag, I spent my first days listening, asking questions, visiting every department, and observing sales associates interacting with customers.” You’ll appreciate the QR Codes and stories spotlighting CEOs on their quest to find True North, such as the leader who, following a 10-day silent retreat, began a “wisdom tour”—meeting with 50 people “who could offer perspective on his next chapter.” Warning. This is a dangerous book. The “I versus We Leaders” chart on page 168 is a gut check. Do you “ask for compliance with rules” or “seek alignment through values?” The “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations” chart on page 123—gulp! This Emerging Leader Edition of True North is not an analysis of the many crises that confront our world—“or the leaders who have caused them. Rather, this is a calling to you as emerging leaders of the next generations—Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z—to step up and lead authentically by discovering your True North and following your North Star to make this world a better place.” “Many leaders have learned the hard way that external recognition is a fickle lover.” And read another gut check on page 133 about “the mistake of taking high-salaried jobs to pay off loans or live the high life, even if [these emerging leaders] have no genuine interest in the work.” Plus, read how Bill George found his sweet spot at age 46. This reminded me of Frederick Buechner’s insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” At age 27, Zach Clayton participated in a three-day leadership workshop which included a 360-degree review “based on input from 10 of my colleagues. I opened the envelope excited to read about how much they admired my strengths but instead learned I ranked in the 19th percentile of leadership effectiveness.” Whew! Must-read! Finally, because “self-awareness is the foundation of authenticity,” don’t skip Chapter 4, “Develop Self-Awareness,” and the interview question that revealed a lack of empathy—and nearly torpedoed Satya Nadella’s first position at Microsoft. (He’s now the CEO.) The question: “Imagine you see a baby lying on the street, and the baby is crying. What do you do?” Later as CEO, Nadella observed that “Microsoft’s culture had become dogmatic because everyone had to prove they knew it all and were the smartest people in the room. Satya committed to change Microsoft’s culture from ‘know-it-alls’ to ‘learn-it-alls.’” WATCH FOR MY SHORT REVIEWS OF THESE BOOKS at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog or at the Pails in Comparison Blog: #2. Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High, by David Noble and Carol Kauffman (Feb. 21, 2023). Listen on Libro (9 hours, 49 minutes). With a foreword by Marshall Goldsmith, this book is so, so practical. Chapter 5, “Get Smart About People,” recommends you “Know Your Defaults to Get Beyond Them.” The authors describe four workplace one-on-one feedback scenarios using their “Four Stances.”    • Talking too much in meetings? Lean in.    • Try decreasing your word count. Lean back.    • Let others learn from their mistakes. Lean with.    • Reflect and then tell me what you think. Don’t lean.   #3. When Everyone Leads: How the Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved, by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride (Jan. 31, 2023). The authors propose a 10-point manifesto on redefining leadership:    1) “Tough challenges are all around us."    2) "Most think leadership is a position. (It’s not.)"    3) "Leadership isn’t…authority, being the boss, vision, charisma, a servant’s heart, or an inspirational speech."    5) "Plenty of people in important positions never exercise leadership."   10) "And it’s not leadership if it’s not about our most important challenges.”   #4. At the Heart of Management: Process, Tools and the Ubiquitous Exponential Law (Kindle Edition), by Lino F. Ciceri (March 18, 2023). The author, a former research chemist and MBA professor from Italy, proposes a “scientific” approach to management. “The book breaks down the core concepts taught in an MBA, clarifying the language and introducing fresh ideas inspired by scientific analogies.” Really, really interesting! #5. A Class With Drucker, by William A. Cohen (see below). #6. 101 Leadership Insights: Practical Tools, Tips, and Techniques for New and Seasoned Leaders, by Bob Phillips and Del Walinga (see below). YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) The authors of True North suggest, “Ask for informal feedback from someone at least once a day; this could be as simple as a 1-5 rating after each meeting.” (See Tool #4, “Five-Finger Feedback,” in ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Ready to ask for feedback? 2) The authors define True North in five sentences (page 107) addressing values, leadership principles, moral courage, and ethical boundaries. How do you define True North and what guides your beliefs and actions? (For more insights, read Parker Palmer’s short book, Let Your Life Speak.)        Mastering 100 Must-Read Books Part 6: The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends (Peter Drucker) Book #40b of 100:  A Class With Drucker For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #40b (BONUS BOOK!) in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.    A Class With Drucker:  The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher by William A. Cohen Books #22 through #40 spotlight 19 books I named to “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” group—featuring Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, and Peter Drucker (1909-2005). Part 6 features five books by/about Drucker, including this book that notes Drucker’s belief that “too few generals were killed” in World War I. (Read why!)    • Read my review.    • Order from Amazon: A Class With Drucker    • Listen on Libro (9 hours, 35 minutes)    • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson). The author, “a struggling young ex-Air Force officer with no academic experience,” enrolled in Drucker’s PhD program in management at Claremont University in 1975. The book describes, in delicious detail, the author’s four years of evening classes with “Peter.” (Drucker disliked titles.) Chapter Five should be required reading for your entire staff and board members—especially during your annual strategic planning update. The lesson: “If you keep doing what worked in the past you’re going to fail.” (Imagine Drucker's classroom color commentary on the Wall Street Journal's headline of Feb. 10, 2012, "Kodak Shutters Camera Business.") Note: William A. Cohen, Ph.D, Major General, USAF, Retired, has written numerous books on Drucker. (See Book #40 of 100 and more.)                     PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. The book, A Class With Drucker, is a must-read for your marketing and communications team. (It’s also a must-listen-to!) See Lesson 9, “The Objective of Marketing Is to Make Selling Unnecessary,” and Lesson 6, “Approach Problems With Your Ignorance Not Your Experience.” Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social). Working With Boards Podcast John Pearson was interviewed recently by Dick Daniels on the “Right to the Point Podcast: Leadership Lessons in 10 Minutes or Less.” Hosted by Right Management Florida/Caribbean, these short-and-to-the-point podcasts cover a fascinating range of leadership and management topics. Click here for Episode 31 on “Working With Boards.” Click here for board governance books and resources. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog 101 Leadership Insights Do you prefer your leadership lessons in short snippets? You’ll love 101 Leadership Insights: Practical Tools, Tips, and Techniques for New and Seasoned Leaders, by Bob Phillips and Del Walinga. Read my review here. For more book reviews, visit 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 • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts

3 Board Hats

 

Issue No. 276 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 8, 2013) says there is a 30-minute fix for solving the confusion over the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant. Plus, check out my  Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Board Dysfunction X 11.3 Million! Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, famously said: “There is one thing all boards have in common. They do not function.” Google “board dysfunction” and you’ll hit the jackpot with 11.3 million results! So why is dysfunction so rampant on church boards, nonprofit boards and company boards? One reason: confusion over the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant.   In the hot-off-the-press ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles, the short DVD and the Board Member Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide makes this obvious, but seldom practiced point: “If you need a board member—recruit a board member. If you need a volunteer—recruit a volunteer.”   The 20-page viewing guide (12 per toolbox) includes a board self-assessment tool for each hat—a perfect resource for your next board meeting.    Agree or Disagree? The Governance Hat: • “We invite spiritually discerning and governance-savvy people to consider board service—but we don’t propose marriage on the first date!”  • “In our organizational annual planning process, we seek to hear God’s voice and spiritually discern His direction. We also ‘own the strategy.’”   The Volunteer Hat: • “We are crystal clear—when recruiting new board members—that the Volunteer Hat is optional for board members and volunteer service must be passion-based, and aligned with a volunteer’s spiritual gifts, strengths and ‘social style.’” • "We have written board policies and/or protocols that carefully define the reporting relationship for board members when they volunteer in the organization." (Read: The Imperfect Board Member, by Jim Brown) • "During a board meeting, when a zealous board member inappropriately brings a Volunteer Hat situation or problem to the table, our board chair graciously moves the discussion back to the agenda and true Governance Hat topics."   The Participant Hat: “Board members should be informed, up front, of the organization’s realistic expectations regarding attendance at ministry events (graduations, walk-a-thons, annual celebrations, etc.). Effective boards leverage a Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement, a document signed annually by both new and current members that spells out the specifics for all three hats. This annual affirmation also adds rich meaning to the spiritual calling of board service and inspires high commitment.”   This second-in-a-series toolbox from ECFA includes online access to helpful templates, including the annual affirmation statement, plus other resources.     The “View-Inspire-Engage” toolbox includes the 11-minute DVD, 12 Board Member Read-and-Engage Viewing Guides, and a Facilitator Guide with just-in-time help to engage your board on this fork-in-the-road core competency.  The Facilitator Guide provides three discussion options:     Option 1: 15-30 minute board discussion    Option 2: 30-60 minute discussion    Option 3: Board Retreat (or a 2-hour session)   Referencing the ten basic responsibilities of nonprofit boards from BoardSource, this ECFA resource will enrich a board member’s understanding of the additional stewardship requirements of Christ-centered boards, especially noting the difference between decision-making and spiritual discernment (how do boards hear from God?).   In the book, Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations, David L. McKenna writes,  “When asked what they would do differently, retired CEOs most often say, ‘I would give more time to developing the board.’” So how much time does your organization invest in developing and enriching the work of your board?   I had the privilege of writing the video script and viewing guide content for Series No. 1 and No. 2 in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series. So I know you’ll appreciate the brevity and real life chuckles for the “In the Trenches Board Stories” vignettes. Series No. 2 includes the humorous episode, “The Day We Pushed Frank Out the Door…and Off the Board,” which spotlights the solution when a board member has high passion for the Volunteer Hat and zero passion for the Governance Hat.   If your board tends to have fuzzy distinctions between the three hats, then this could be the most cost-effective investment for your board this year. This resource will help your board members focus their limited time on their highest priority: Governance.  As Peter Drucker reminds us: “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”   To order this toolbox from ECFA, click on the title: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles – Understanding the 3 Board Hats: Governance, Volunteer, Participant. Click here to read more about Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members – Leveraging the 4 Phases of Board Recruitment: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation, Engagement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In the Governance Hat discussion, the toolbox quotes Jim Brown, author of The Imperfect Board Member, who writes, “Boards don’t need to hear how busy the CEO is—they need to hear about results.” What does our board measure? Are we activity-driven or results-driven? Do we measure spiritual impact? 2) The toolbox quotes Ram Charan, “With the right composition, a board can create value; with the wrong or inappropriate composition, it can easily destroy value.” Really? How could our board destroy value here? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sustaining Motivation: A By-Product Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit This issue’s big idea from Mastering the Management Buckets, (Chapter 12, The Volunteer Bucket) is to think differently about what motivates a volunteer.   Al Newell, co-founder of High Impact Volunteer Ministry Development, says if you pursue discipleship, then motivation will follow. He writes:   “Sustaining motivation is better understood as a by-product as opposed to a goal of itself. It is my experience that if you pursue discipleship with volunteers, motivation will follow. If volunteers see the fulfillment of their role as ‘obeying and serving God’ rather than serving you or your organization it will cause motivation to swell.”   Before you copy, steal or misappropriate all the secular tips, tricks and manipulations for motivating volunteers, just take a breath, read your Bible, and then discern what is really at the heart of volunteer service. It could be a fork-in-the-road paradigm shift for your organization! Visit the Volunteer Bucket webpage for free downloads and recommended books.        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 • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog . ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "The Participant Hat: Hinting, Whining or Affirming?" and check out the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1:Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles(DVD and Viewing Guides).

Thinkpak - A Brainstorming Card Deck

 

Issue No. 261 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Nov. 26, 2012) features not a book, but a deck of 56 cards with nine “NATO-approved” ways to trigger new ideas. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Involuntary Ideas On most teams, you can divide the room into two groups: those “Idea-a-Second” somewhat-crazy, but fun people—and then the “I’m-Not-Very-Creative” gang of introverts. Where are you? Today when many organizations, departments and teams are struggling to do more with less, the need for fresh ideas is even greater. But here’s good news: Thinkpak (a brainstorming card deck) can help!   Michael Michalko, also the author of Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques, is described as “one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world. As an officer in the U.S. Army, Michael organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods.”   The problem says Michalko, “If you always think the way you’ve always thought, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”   The solution: “Everything new is really an addition to or modification of something that already existed. To create a new idea, product, service, process, breakthrough, or whatever else you need, just take a subject and change it into something.”   S.C.A.M.P.E.R. So this creativity guru recommends you “S.C.A.M.P.E.R” and leverage the nine principal ways of changing a subject:    Substitute something.    Combine it with something else.    Adapt something to it.    Modify or Magnify it.    Put it to some other use.    Eliminate something.    Reverse or Rearrange it.   The Thinkpak brainstorming card deck has 56 cards including two instructional cards, four or five cards for each of the nine key processes, plus seven cards with creative ways to evaluate ideas.  It’s a brilliant instant brainstorming system. But caution! It could be dangerous to your boring, status quo!   The Thinkpak cards contain “idea-triggering questions based on these nine principles. The questions are designed to focus your attention on your subject in different ways and give you different means of interpreting what you are focusing on. These different ways of focusing will break your habitual thought patterns and let you look at your subject in fresh ways.”   Did our biblical heroes have access to these Thinkpak cards? Maybe! Think Noah’s Ark, water-into-wine, and the Red Sea crossing. So I started thinking about the entrepreneurial hole-in-the-roof healing (Luke 5:19-25), and it gave me an idea for a new and innovative ministry, “Hole in the Roof.” (Rats! Other entrepreneurs already snagged the .com and .org websites!)   In the fast-reading 52-page instructional mini-booklet, the author continues, “You’ll generate a quantity of ideas quickly, including ideas that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. Once you apply the Thinkpak questions to your subject or situation, ideas begin to appear almost involuntarily.”   I used the cards at a strategic planning retreat this month. Fun broke out! Especially when the leaders of one entity played the “Reverse It” card—and suggested they trade real estate with the other entity!   Each of the nine principles is illustrated with a memorable story, like the Walkman radio. Sony engineers attempted to design a small portable stereo tape recorder. Nothing worked. Then Masaru Ibuka, honorary chairman of Sony, leveraged several creativity principles to find success—recalling a separate project to design lightweight portable headphones.   The Sony chief brainstormer asked, “What if you combine the headphones with the tape player and eliminate the recorder function altogether?” At the time, by combining, eliminating and reversing, the Walkman became Sony’s top selling electronic product of all time.  Steve Jobs should have been grateful!   Fire Your Board! Speaking of eliminating, Thinkpak shares the story of the chairperson of a nonprofit board that “wanted to energize her board members out of their lethargy.” So she asked the members to imagine that they were all fired. “Then she asked them to reapply for the board. This shocked the board members and forced them to rethink their knowledge and competencies,” and most important, what they needed to bring to the table to truly be effective board members.   Should you modify or magnify something? One entrepreneur hands out business cards with one rounded corner, with a tagline, “25 percent safer than most other business cards.” Clients keep his card and show others.   Ray Kroc, after buying the first McDonald’s stand, stored his spuds in the basement but couldn’t get the french fries to taste right. The original McDonald family had exposed their potatoes to desert winds that cured the potatoes. SCAMPER Solution: “Modify the storage area. Kroc cured the potatoes by installing large electric fans in the basement.”   Kroc also employed the Rearrange It approach to differentiate his hamburger stand from all the other box-shaped burger joints. Presto: Golden Arches!   So to breathe fresh air into your team’s ventilating system (now…there’s an idea!), SCAMPER over to Amazon and delegate this creativity tool to a team member. Click on this link for Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck, by Michael Michalko. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Where do you dream up your best ideas? One company, referenced in Thinkpak, created a special room with educational toys, games, videos and bean bag chairs—and included baby photos of every team member; a reminder that we are all born with creativity. 2) Exercise: You’re the team leader to solve the problem of lagging staff morale. So combine Thinkpak with StrengthsFinder. Some, with Harmony strengths, will executive a task much differently than those with Activator strengths. How do you leverage each person’s strengths to create new ideas? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Elevate Execution Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 19, The Printing Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to use the printed piece (or website, video or podcast) to elevate execution. Just use the power of the printing deadline (last day for input!) to get the entire team focused.   Companies, nonprofits and churches all have the same disease.  The senior team focuses on vision and the junior team executes.  While this sounds good, it often relegates the incredibly important functions of the Printing Bucket to team members who are burdened with major responsibility, yet no authority.   The solution, of course, is to elevate execution.  In Execution, the book he co-authored with Ram Charan, Chairman Larry Bossidy writes, “My job at Honeywell International these days is to restore the discipline to a company that had lost it. Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a business leader. That’s wrong.  To the contrary, it’s a leader’s most important job.”   So at your next senior management team meeting, think differently about the Printing Bucket.  Elevate printing by describing how the printing deadlines will help you improve execution.    Read Chapter 19 for more details and check out the resources on the Printing Bucket webpage, including two internal forms to speed your proofing, printing and mailing processes.        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 • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post, "Two Tools for Improving Board Communication" and check out the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members (DVD and Viewing Guides).