What Is Strategy?

 

Issue No. 280 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 24, 2013) introduces a Harvard Business Review article—a classic from 1996—on “What Is Strategy?" Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Willow Wanna-Be's  I called them “Willow Wanna-Be’s.”  Back in my Willow Creek Association days (now GLN), pastors and church board members would show up at the church and our offices, often unannounced, and ask for 10 Easy Bullet Point Lessons on Growing a Really Big Church.  (Actually, they never had time for 10 points. “Make it three—but give us your best stuff.”)   So, we’d talk about Kingdom principles and the church’s mission and heart to reach seekers. Later, we talked about strategy—the God-honoring kind.  But the Looky Lou’s (look it up—a descriptive Chicago traffic term) would ask about plexiglass pulpits, drama scripts, and cool lighting.   Had Ian Morgan Cron’s book been written back then, I would have quoted chapter and verse from Chasing Francis.  Cron’s fictional megachurch pastor-in-crisis, reminisces, “I remember telling our architect that I wanted all the technological goodies you’d find in a world-class performing arts center. Looking back, I realize that what I had asked for was ‘lights, camera, action!’ rather than ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’”   I was reminded of my Willow days (good memories) last week when I re-read the classic Harvard Business Review article, “What Is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter.  He writes, “Bit by bit, almost imperceptibly, management tools have taken the place of strategy.”   Citing the conventional wisdom over the previous two decades where “managers have been learning to play by a new set of rules,” Porter dismisses that corruption with this zinger: “But those beliefs are dangerous half-truths, and they are leading more and more companies down the path of mutually destructive competition.”   What is strategy? Porter has five bullet points in his 18-page article:   Number 1: “Operational effectiveness is not strategy.” He notes, “The root of the problem is the failure to distinguish between operational effectiveness and strategy.”   Number 2: “Strategy rests on unique activities.”  The poster companies here are Southwest Airlines and Ikea. “Strategic competition can be thought of as the process of perceiving new positions that woo customers from established positions or draw new customers into the market.”  Strategic positions can have three sources: variety-based positioning, needs-based positioning, and access-based positioning.   Number 3: “A sustainable strategic position requires trade-offs.” Porter writes, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”    Remember Continental Lite, the Southwest Airlines wanna-be?  They decided to “straddle” their position as a full-service airline (hubs), while competing in some markets with Southwest (Point A to Point B). They confused their full-service customers and infuriated travel agents. “Trade-offs ultimately grounded Continental Lite. The airline lost millions of dollars, and the CEO lost his job.” Bottom line: “Continental paid an enormous straddling penalty.”   Number 4: “Fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability.” What is Southwest’s core competence? Its key success factors? The correct answer is that everything matters. Southwest’s strategy involves a whole system of activities, not a collection of parts. Its competitive advantage comes from the way its activities fit and reinforce one another.”   And get this, Looky Lou’s: “Fit locks out imitators by creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link.”  It’s not the seeker service drama, or the band, or the spiritual gifts training, or small groups, or pastors in old jeans with no socks—it’s the whole, holy enchilada.    Three half-page diagrams, “Mapping Activity Systems,” for Ikea, Vanguard and Southwest Airlines deliver the “Aha!” insight on what Porter means by fit—“nests of tightly linked activities.” He writes, “Positions built on systems of activities are far more sustainable than those built on individual activities.”   “Fit means that poor performance in one activity will degrade the performance in others, so that weaknesses are exposed and more prone to get attention. Conversely, improvements in one activity will pay dividends in others.”   With just three pages to go, Porter finally reveals his mega-simple definition: “Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities.”  He comments, “The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well—not just a few—and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability.”   Number 5: “Rediscovering strategy.” In his wrap-up, Porter warns about “the failure to choose” and the “growth trap.” Churches beware: “Among all other influences, the desire to grow has perhaps the most perverse effect on strategy.” He concludes with five soul-searching questions.   Option 1: To order the book from Amazon, click on the title for HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including the featured article "What Is Strategy?") by Michael E. Porter. Option 2: To download just the 18-page article, “What Is Strategy?” ($6.95), click on this link to Harvard Business Review.   My gut: many nonprofits, churches and companies do not have—at their core—a revenue problem or new idea problem; they have a strategy problem.  So in addition to reading the article, you can also download the original Harvard Business School case study on Willow Creek Community Church (#9-691-102, Revised Feb. 23, 1999). This 31-page case study has an excellent discussion on Willow Creek’s 7-step strategy. Interestingly, Exhibit 15 features an early version of the “Weekly Update to My Supervisor,” the two-page form available for free on my Meetings Bucket webpage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Porter preaches that “around this core of uniqueness are encrustations added incrementally over time. Like barnacles, they must be removed to reveal the underlying strategic positioning.” What are some barnacles in our organization (products, programs or services) that should be removed? 2) The author says that when you seek to be “all things to all customers,” you end up blurring your distinct positioning.  Are we inappropriately communicating an “all things to all people” mindset? ------------------------------------------------ Call the Delegation Doctor! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit During informal polls with clients, I find that on most teams less than 25 percent have had formal training (coaching, workshop, DVD, book, etc.) on effective delegation.  So this issue’s big idea from Mastering the Management Buckets (Chapter 16, The Delegation Bucket) is to raise the delegation flag with a pop quiz at your next staff meeting! POP QUIZ: Diagnose the Severity of Your Delegation Disease •Code Green: I’m pretty healthy. This isn’t a problem •Code Yellow: I have this disease occasionally. •Code Red: Yikes! I need to see the Delegation Doctor!   Green, Yellow or Red? _____ 1. If the job is going to get done right, it’s faster to do it myself. _____ 2. I’m the only one who knows how to do this job—that’s why they hired me. _____ 3. If I delegate too much, maybe I won’t be needed. _____ 4. Okay, I admit it! I’m a perfectionist. This project is too important to leave to novices. _____ 5. I inherited my team—and, frankly, they’re ineffective, so it’s up to me. _____ 6. I get more affirmation at work than I do at home. I love work! _____ 7. My boss (or board) says I don’t delegate enough. Ha! If they only knew how hard I’m working. I’ll show ‘em.   Visit the Delegation Bucket webpage for the "Delegation Diseases" worksheet, plus more resources including Ken Blanchard’s quick-reading and powerful delegation classic, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey: Don’t Take on the Problem If the Problem Isn’t Yours, That Monkey Doesn’t Belong to You!          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! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. . ECFA Blog on  “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Two Things Boards Should Never Joke About."

My Ideal Bookshelf - Part 3 - Readers' Picks

    

Issue No. 275 (Part 3) of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 30, 2013) features "The Ideal Bookshelves" from six readers and leaders. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Reader Recommendations:
My Ideal Bookshelf

Issue No. 275 (April 20, 2013) featured my review of the fascinating book, My Ideal Bookshelf. The co-creators served up a unique coffee table book that, at least momentarily, is more compelling than YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Read my Part 1 review here.

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.”

Part 2 (also on April 20, 2013) spotlighted my own Top-10 books on my ideal bookshelf. Read my Part 2 review here. View the 7-minute video summary here.

Part 3 (this blog, originally posted on May 30, 2013) included the top picks from SIX readers and leaders (even though the graphic says "5"--a typo!) Here are photos of their ideal bookshelves.

Jeff Lilley recommends 10!

Jeff Lilley's Ideal Bookshelf. Whew! What a great list. Thanks, Jeff! (And thanks for introducing me to the powerful book, Humility.)

Jason Pearson's picks for his Ideal Bookshelf:

Jason Pearson's Ideal Bookshelf. My son, Jason, posted his Top-11 books, including several he has created for clients (cover design, layout, branding, etc.).  [2026 Update: Watch for more titles, written by Jason, appearing soon!)

David Curry's Ideal Bookshelf

Notes on David Curry's top picks: "The Road Less Traveled has been a pivotal book in my life, I've read it over 20 times, and was the book that helped me begin to understand some of the pain and dysfunction in the world and how to deal with it. Theodore Rex is a wonderful and well-written biography but also represents all the free life lessons I've gleaned from reading biographies of consequential men and women.

Now Discover Your Strengths was a book the helped me find the language to explain why and how my gifts/talents/perspective are unique...in a good way. There aren't many more important issues than figuring out how you're wired and the context where you are best suited.

Good to Great is another classic that represents a type of book that has helped me steer a more strategic and healthy path for those I lead. The Tipping Point was a book that really spoke to me, as much for the interesting use of story to bring facts to life as for it's main point - explaining how trends and social epidemics happen."

Paul Thompson's Ideal Bookshelf

Greg Anderson's Ideal Bookshelf

Ken Sutterfield's Ideal Bookshelf

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for: MY IDEAL BOOKSHELF.

View the 7-minute video summary:

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! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite you are on now (John Pearson's Buckets Blog).

We Have a Pope - movie

 

Issue No. 271 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (March 11, 2013) suggests you take a week off from book-reading guilt and enjoy a very relevant and entertaining video, We Have a Pope.  Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Reluctant Leader: Plan A or Plan B?  Recently, I coached my 10-year-old granddaughter, Emelia, on the value of doing a pro and con list when making decisions.  I gave her a template with two columns: five reasons for Plan A and five reasons for Plan B.  After a few minutes of fourth grade discernment, she presented her work:    • Plan A had five excellent reasons in favor.     • Plan B had just five words: None, None, None, None, None!   I chuckled and thought, “Memo to Self: Read another book on coaching!”   So with Plan A and Plan B fresh in my mind, I treated myself this weekend to a second viewing of a wonderful film, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam).  Joanne and I first enjoyed it at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2011 (Italian, with English sub-titles). It’s now available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, plus in DVD format for U.S. viewers.   If you view it this week, you get a twofer: 1) an entertaining film (1 hour and 45 minutes) with a tongue-in-check, inside-the-Sistine-Chapel look at the selection of a pope, and 2) comparisons to the real life conclave in Vatican City this week.   No spoiler alert is needed because I’ll just set the stage for you.  The papal conclave is in session—and balloting has begun.  The thunderous murmuring from dozens of cardinals needs no sub-titles: “Not me, Lord! Not me!” No one wants the job.   Finally, a pope is selected—and that’s when the fun and the soul-searching begin. The reluctant leader is not sure he wants to be pope. (Plan A or Plan B?) He is unprepared, he thinks, for this one-in-a-billion leadership challenge—and the cardinals (still locked in the Vatican, without cell phones) are not much help to their new leader. Yet he had their votes. Hmmm. Plan A or Plan B?   It’s a humorous, but eye-opening study in leadership trauma.  It’s the perfect video to watch this week—as we watch Rome. Enjoy!   P.S. Click here if you missed my last review (Issue No. 270) of The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, by Andreas Widmer. It includes a memorable, heart-warming true story—perfect for your next staff meeting.   To watch the trailer and/or order this DVD (or the Amazon Instant Video) from Amazon, click on the title for We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam), directed by Nanni Moretti. (Note: While it has an “NR” rating, I found only one objectionable word in the English subtitles.)  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Have you ever met a reluctant leader: a CEO or a department head—that truth be told—was uncomfortable in that role? Have you ever been a “reluctant leader” and, if so, what was the outcome? 2) You’re on the “search committee” to interview papal candidates. What are the Top-10 qualities and characteristics in your Opportunity Profile?  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Social Style Tip of the Day Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 7, The People Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to know your social style comfort zone—and relate appropriately to all four people styles: Driver, Analytical, Amiable and Expressive. (What style will the next pope be?)   For more help, visit the Tracom Corp website to view their “Social Style Tip of the Day.” For example, the tip for today, March 11, 2013, is “How to Compliment an Analytical Style.” Their counsel, “keep it simple and professional.” (Far different than what an Expressive would want from you!)          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! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: 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 Meeting Before the Meeting," and check out the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series.

Policy vs Paper Clips

 

Issue No. 284 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Aug. 26, 2013) features a dialogue on how to move micromanaging board members into a new-and-improved paradigm, “The Corporate Model.” The author quotes William Bowen, former Princeton University president, “Finding the appropriate balance between executive authority and board oversight is more likely to require strengthening the hand of the CEO than building up the powers of the board.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Analysis Paralysis vs. Rubber-Stamping  Leaders and readers of this eNews fall into several categories: CEOs, senior team members and church leaders who work with board members Board members People who will serve on boards in the future (Listen up!) So let's be real here: much of what happens in the boardroom (nonprofit and corporate) is highly dysfunctional. In my opinion, most governance fuzziness emanates from unvoiced assumptions about the board's role and the CEO's role.   Role clarity should always prompt a discussion about governance models: the Hands-on model, John Carver's Policy Governance model, the Board Policies Manual tool, and so many other options.  Yet with all of these models and resources available with a simple Google search, why is there still so much dysfunction? (Maybe no one reads this stuff?) So here's a resource—with a very unique writing style—that will help clarify board roles and responsibilities. The author begins with the key question: what's Job #1 for a board?    According to Eugene H. Fram, the most important job of the board is “to find the best possible person to manage the organization, then stand back and let that person manage.”   That's just one of dozens of quotable one-liners and wisdom-filled paragraphs in Policy vs. Paper Clips: How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Efficient & Effective (3rd Edition).   “Volunteer directors who micromanage their agencies are, in blunt terms, cost centers for nonprofits, since they affect staff time so dramatically.” (Preach it!)   “Good governance helps eliminate the many hidden costs associated with pursuing activities that have nothing to do with the organization's purpose.” (Amen!)   “Your board should not be primarily focused on outcomes (e.g. success of specific programs) but concerned more about assessing the 'impacts' of those outcomes.” (High five!)   In putting flesh on the bones of the “generative mode” of governance (read my review of Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards), the author says boards must focus more on the “what if” and other long-term questions.     “Because directors' questions in this mode are different from the questions that they ask when day-to-day operations take up the agenda, they will find themselves focused on identifying available opportunities and vulnerabilities.   “This enables board members to tap their special expertise and professional experience in board discussions.  To draw upon this outside wealth of knowledge and perspectives, nonprofit executives should avoid acculturating board members to the 'conventional wisdom' of the organization.  “In practical terms that means, for example, that a director with marketing strategy experience should be asked to help uncover new markets to serve but not asked to write advertising copy.”   Then Fram adds, “Separating operational and policy issues is more complicated than it sounds.”    Oh! I haven't shared this bonus factor: The entire book (240 pages) is a series of short email conversations between a fictitious nonprofit CEO (an acknowledged expert and speaker on the “Corporate” board model) and a golfing buddy who just joined a nonprofit board.   Fram mentions two board sins, analysis paralysis and rubber-stamping.His solution? Use the “Corporate Model” to focus the board on policy, not operations.  The quick-reading email dialogue between two friends eliminates the typical boring governance rhetoric (yada, yada, yada) and replaces the blue sky stuff with in-the-trenches, to-the-point conversation and thoughtful next steps.     About every other chapter, I would inject, “Wait a minute. That wouldn't work!” And then in the next paragraph, the rookie board member would email my objection to his mentor—and the practical drill-down response would satisfy.  (I may steal this brilliant idea: an entire book of email conversations. It works.)   The emails are segmented into 12 chapters including:  The Corporate Model: A Board Alternative How the Model Is Structured: Intentional Simplicity Assessment and the Model: The CEO Cannot Be Insecure The Model and the Future: The Planning and Resource Committee The Model at Work: The Executive Committee and Its Responsibilities The Model Creates a New Culture: Trust Is the Critical Factor The Model and Commitment: Board Members Must Be Involved Practical charts are included like the five lists detailing the differences between the Corporate Model and the Traditional Model. The last chapter asks, “Is your organization ready for the Corporate Model?” and features 23 pages of very, very practical Q & A.   To order this book from Amazon, click on this title: Policy vs. Paper Clips: How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Efficient & Effective (3rd Edition), by Eugene H. Fram with Vicki Brown. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In one email, the rookie board member asks, “We also need more information about how to keep board members truly involved without the ego satisfaction that often comes from dealing with operational issues.”  Have you ever considered that a board member's temptation to micromanage might be related to ego satisfaction? 2) PowerPoint Rules? One email mentions this: “Directors hate [PowerPoint presentations] when they are far too long, the slides are overwhelmingly dense, or they touch on issues tangential to the case being made, or frankly are being used to stifle real dialogue).” The author prefers a limit  of 10 slides. Interesting! Do your board or staff PowerPoints encourage micromanagement and/or stifle dialogue?  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Meeting Before the Meeting Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit   If I could add another ball to my Meetings Bucket chapter (20), in Mastering the Management Buckets, it would be this wisdom from John Maxwell: “The secret to a good meeting is the meeting before the meeting.”   The “no surprises” rule is critical for the key people in each meeting—and typically, that means you must meet with them in advance.  Maxwell preaches:  If you can’t have the meeting before the meeting, don’t have the meeting.  If you do have the meeting before the meeting, but it doesn’t go well, don’t have the meeting.  If you have the meeting before the meeting and it goes as well as you hoped, then have the meeting! To read my review of Maxwell's chapter on meetings, click here: Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading. For more resources, plus book recommendations from the Meetings Bucket, click here.        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! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "6 Board Dysfunctions" including when the board chair thinks he or she is the CEO's boss.

The Pope & The CEO

 

Issue No. 270 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 28, 2013) features a poignant, yet powerful business book about Pope John Paul II, suggested by my friend, Jim Canning (how’s that for great timing?).  Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Pope & The CEO  According to Andreas Widmer, business leader and author of The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, “No cardinal wants to be pope. They know too well what goes into it, what the office demands. The work is endless, the responsibilities bone-crushing. There is no end to it, save death.” Well…until recently! Pope Benedict XVI, the 265th pope, steps down today, Feb. 28, 2013, after eight years as the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Catholics—and the world now watches as the cardinals gather in their conclave to discern God’s choice for the next pope.   So with that backdrop, I just finished Widmer’s poignant book for CEOs, leaders and managers.  As a young Swiss Guard to the pope, the author observed the back office leadership of Pope John Paul II. Yet later, Widmer failed in business and had to re-learn the simple, but God-honoring papal principles of leadership. It’s a page-turner because the stories are so powerful and practical.    There are nine chapters in this spiritual/business portrait of the Pope who asked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Emeritus Pope tomorrow) to join the Vatican team: Know Who You Are, Know God, Know Where You Are and Where You Are Going, Know the Team and five more very contemporary topics.   Until today, this review was pre-written in my mind with killer quotes, arresting lead sentences, and humorous eye-opening stories. My wife, Joanne, genuinely appreciated my “let-me-read-you-another-story” marathon over several evenings.   But…I’m skipping all of that (and might return another issue with a full review)…to share this memorable account from his last chapter, “Live Detachment: Intentional Humility and Poverty.”   Widmer writes, “Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of great stories about John Paul II from friends at the Vatican and others who knew him personally. One of my favorites is this one from Scott Hahn [from his address to the Boston Catholic Men’s conference, March 4, 2006]. I repeat it here, because I can think of no greater testimony to the detachment we’re all called to possess.”   [Note: the following story is verbatim from The Pope & The CEO, pages 136-138.]   During the later years of John Paul II’s papacy, an American priest attended a conference in Rome. On the last day of the conference, he went to a church at midday to pray. As he walked in, he saw the ever-present beggars in front. He stopped, thought he recognized one of them, but dismissed the thought and walked inside. Still, he couldn’t help thinking about that beggar, so on his way out, he approached the man.   “Excuse me,” he said. “Do I know you?”   The man looked away, but answered, “Yes, we went to seminary together and were ordained together in Rome.”   The beggar priest then told the American about how horrific life choices and bad mistakes had poisoned and destroyed his vocation. The priest was devastated, but didn’t know what to say and hurried back to the Vatican.   That afternoon, there was an audience with the pope for all the attendees of the conference. The priest could not resist the temptation. As he approached John Paul, he said, “Holy Father, you have to pray for this priest I just saw.” And he told him the story.   After the audience, the American went back to that parish looking for the homeless priest. When he found him, he said, “The pope is praying for you.”   The beggar just stared at him with a look that said, “Well that’s great…whatever good that’ll do.”   But the priest continued. “That’s not all. The pope and his secretary, Bishop Dziwisz, invited the two of us for dinner tonight.”   The man protested. He was dirty. He had no decent clothes. But the priest persuaded him with an offer of a shower and the loan of one of his own suits. So they went.   The Swiss Guard on duty let them in, and they were ushered up to the apartment where Bishop Dziwisz greeted them. He then led them into the dining room where the pope was already at table.  Everyone exchanged greetings and the first course was served. Then the second course. At the end of the main course, the pope began moving his hand in a motion to Bishop Dziwisz.  The American priest didn’t understand what the gesture meant, but the bishop did. He got up and said to him: “Please come with me for a moment.”   The two left and waited outside. One minute passed, then two, then five, then ten. Finally the bishop seemed to know it was time to go back in. They sat down just in time for dessert.   At the end of the evening, farewells and blessings were exchanged and the two priests walked back down the marble stairs to St. Peter’s Square.  The American priest, however, was dying of curiosity, so as soon as they came out into the open he turned and asked, “What went on in there?”   The beggar said, “You wouldn’t believe it, even if I told you.”   “You have to tell me. Try me!” was the American’s response.   “Well, as soon as you left the room, John Paul turned to me and said ‘Father, would you please hear my confession?’ I said, ‘Holy Father, I’m not a priest, I’m a beggar.’ And the pope responded ‘So am I, I am just a beggar. You are a priest. Once a priest, always a priest.’   “‘But Holy Father,’ I told him, ‘I’m not in right standing with the Church!’   “‘As the bishop of Rome, I can reinstate you here and now,’ was his reply. ‘All you have to do is give me consent.’   “How could I withhold consent from the bishop of Rome?” the beggar concluded.   After hearing the story, the American priest said “But we were out there for more than ten minutes. It couldn’t have taken that long for him to confess his sins?”   “No,” the beggar agreed. “It was over in a couple of minutes. That’s when I dropped to my knees and begged him to hear my confession. And he did. Right before you came back in, he asked me where you found me, and upon my telling him, he asked me to report to the pastor there tomorrow. I’ll be assigned to that church, and my mission will be reaching out to all of our fellow beggars in the neighborhood. Because that’s what all of us are.”   To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, by Andreas Widmer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) The beggar story touched me because it embodied a rare CEO quality: humility. Other accounts in this book may touch you differently. What did you learn about John Paul from this story? 2) In the chapter on living a balanced life, the author noted the pope’s zest for the outdoors and sports. When some questioned the cost of installing a swimming pool at the papal summer residence, the pope famously replied, “It’s cheaper than another conclave.”  What did he mean by that? Give People Choices Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 6, The Program Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to give people choices. I call it the “One Cookie or Two Cookies?” principle. The cardinals have over a billion choices in the days ahead!    NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this new blogsite: 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”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Fast Feedback Tool," and check out the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members (DVD and Viewing Guides).