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I recently read “Less Clutter Less Noise” (to many people’s amazement). While it is written as a Communications/Marketing strategy, tips, and best practices using the “church” as a case study… I read it as an Operations Manager for a technology company.

Here are my top 10 favorites for the business world as I observe at our company and the hundreds of clients we consult with:

• Our people (employees) are going to have several touch points with our clients, if they don’t “get” what we’re about, trying to do, or what we’re trying to communicate…. our marketing/communications strategy is already in trouble
• Our communications strategy and a firm understanding of who we are (and aren’t) should come well before we create our first marketing piece or develop our website… (We thought we knew our’s until we encountered the principles and questions in this book…)
• We try to tell our entire story, everywhere, all the time. We need to focus on telling one or two key messages at a time and leave them wanting more.

So in light of that message, I’ll stop there…. not 10…. just 3 bullets.

This book is not for everyone. Just 8,460,000 of you.

The target? If you’re a decision-maker/influencer in ANY of the organizations you belong to and actually want your message heard... say the top 10% of the workforce…. this applies to 18 million of you.

Even hotter target? (18 million of you) x (47% regular church attendees) = 8,460,000 of you. Go get it here.

Now I’m off to learn how our clients REALLY experience us…..

Today’s technology-driven, viral world has made it easier and easier for businesses, people, and ideologies to become more decentralized in our generation.

Decentralized: No leader. Chaotic. No order. Creative. Not about profit. Quick. Easily mutates. Mobile. Think Napster, al Qaeda, AA…

Individuals are now able to work from their phones, play games on the road, have nearly constant internet access, and can stay in contact minute by minute with friends all over the globe. Life is mobile. As backwards as it seems, relationships can actually grow with technology with no face to face contact. The pendulum is swinging towards decentralization. What about the church?

• As people become more decentralized, they will trend toward decentralized options over centralized options. (Church online or podcasts vs. the 10:00 service on Sunday morning)
• We have options to experience some of the greatest speakers in the world every week at any time and any place. (There will need to be some strong reasons other than the pastor to keep me at your church)
• This trend will distract many people to fall away from their faith, lose focus, and without the weekly structure in their life, ultimately will be distracted in life and simply be growing old. This is true.
• This trend will cause ongoing growth throughout the week with multiple options for study, teaching, and connecting with mission all over the world. Faith in action will explode and more people will come to know Christ. This also is true.
• Churches that are losing people will either deny this trend, blame culture, blame their local economy or census report, blame other churches or will press into understanding our changing world to find ways to re-connect with the people in their community.
• God can handle centralized or decentralized. He is God. He’s good. This has not surprised Him. He can handle our various methodologies, styles, trends and personalities.
• No change in today’s church model will lead to continued decline in church attendance in the upcoming decade. (Just because people aren’t within the four walls doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work- He’s always way ahead of any curve, on the curve, and helping those behind the curve)

What does that look like for your church and community? What questions are you asking? This is one takaway from The Starfish and the Spider.

“Unchristian” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

First, notice the nice copy and paste of this book that includes the “Buy the Book”- in this case, it’s worthy to leave on… BUY THE BOOK.

This is a top ten read for me and has me pretty messed up right now… I have lots of notes but here are some quick items of note:

1. I’ve been pretty frustrated with the image of the church and Christianity… I thought this was pretty unique of me… after reading this book- I realize I am more mainstream with my generation than I ever imagined…

2. I read most of this by a pool in Florida with “beverage” in hand… I had two different people stop and ask what the book was about and generated some great conversations… That makes me take notice… wow…. People are curious about spirituality and have opinions… It was a great opportunity to listen and ask questions… I was jazzed…

3. If you ran a company and your image/perception to “outsiders” was: Judgment, Hypocritical, Too Political, Anti-Homosexual, Sheltered, and focused too much on getting recruits…. what would that board of directors think/do? Uh…Houston, we have a problem… There it is… the research of what “outsiders”/those outside the faith think about Christianity. What is my/our responsibility with this information?

4. The book is very “data”/numbers oriented… that’s probably why I loved it… I love numbers…it took a few chapters to get going but after that… I just got smacked between the eyes again and again…. I’m both overwhelmed and inspired…

5. While I think I’m a pretty good dude… I was helpfully reminded again of how much I still judge people, how I still have “baggage” from the church a generation ago, and how much I need grace in my life.

6. I’m overwhelmed by how much the church seems to be missing the target… The resistance ahead from within the church is daunting… the perception for those outside of the church is monsterous… The numbers are the numbers, we can either accept it or deny it… Part of my emotion simply says….”Ugh… I just want to cash it in…”

7. However, the opportunity is amazing… I have the opportunity to be part of the generation(s) that get to right the ship… to present a new face of what it means to be a Christian… I’m inspired by the leaders and vision in this book… it’s time to roll-up the sleeves…

8. “Hate the sin and love the sinner” is just one example of cliches’ that I’ve heard for many years… the reality/perception of those outside the church is that they hear those words but don’t see it in our actions…. it’s more like “Hate the sin…and, well… let’s just hate the sinner too…” In business and in ministry…perception matters… and this perception is or is pretty darn close to reality for us… what will we do?

9. I realize that I am careless in how I communicate about various topics. While I believe the the church and Christ is the hope of the world… I can be opinionated around the water cooler about politics, illegal immigrants, lazy people who don’t take responsibility for their own actions, government, annoying neighbors, co-workers, other countries and their leaders…(only to name a few)…. Am I really living out me being responsible for me and the people I encounter and impact? Am I modeling the hope and peace we have in Christ, my reliance on God rather than government, my value for others rather than myself…. sadly…. no…. I can do much better…ugh.

10. I’m struggling with an old paridigm of “Saved Souls is the ultimate measurement” to “Just love people… serve… don’t have an agenda…. Model Christ..” (Big exhale)…..

I have lots of notes on this… I’ll be chunking them out topically for my own processing… if it’s helpful for you… great…. I need to get this out of my head…. My “Wi-Fi” time ends in a few minutes with the 3-day package we bought… I look forward to all your thoughts in these upcoming days…

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni

I need books like this for great reminders of how to keep it simple. Have you experienced or are you experiencing any of these 3 things in your workplace?

Anonymity: Do you feel like your manager doesn’t know squat about you? Your co-workers? If you feel like a number or no one cares anything beyond what you get done at work…. you might be miserable.

Irrelevant: Do you feel like you’re simply digging holes and filling them up again? Is what you’re doing making a difference? Who are you impacting? Do you have “Office Space” moments on a regular basis? If you don’t understand who, how, and what you’re doing that is making an impact, easing a load, etc… you too might be miserable.

Immeasurable: Do you know what success looks like in your position? Do you know when you’re knocking the ball out of the park or is it simply “subjective” to your boss or manager? Working for extended periods of time and not knowing if you’re winning or not can be extremely unsettling… Are you measured? How?

Here were a few quick takaways from this easy-to-read, quickie:

• I want to genuinely get to know my team, not in a lame, fake way- but truly listen and do life with my team- for many of our consultants, it’s as if they’re self-employed… they do there work (remote many days) log their time and roll-up billing…. But what do we really know about their families, hobbies, or other interests or beliefs?
• I guess I’ve missed this, but the way that people help “me”, take the load off, etc.. can be expressed better than a simple “thank you”. Telling my team “how” they are actually making it easier for me to do my job and impact my life actually brings some relevance to what they do. Every day I want to find ways to remind people how they’re making an impact either for me directly or for our company/team…
• Generally our consultants are easily measured in billable time and sales is measured by specific targets. However, our admin team, customer service manager, and myself aren’t measured as well. This will be a good topic of discussion for our management team to brainstorm about… How do you measure success for your admin team? I’d love to hear some ideas…

As a manager, these three nuggets are easy and actionable to keep in front of us- If you’re not a manager and simply find your job miserable, think of the reverse of these three items… can you engage with people on your team to get to know them? Can you find ways your position makes an impact and how you can measure yourself? If you have a poor manager, sometimes taking control of what you can control can make a difference in your own perspectives…