Tag Archives: growth

Going Beyond

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I was just reading about American Shaun White’s gold medal run on the halfpipe on Monday and there’s one thing that stands out to me about his performance:  after securing a gold medal with his first run he went all out in his second.

He didn’t have to.

He could’ve just walked down the pipe for his second run and still would’ve won.

He could’ve sat on his snowboard and whooped it down the course, and still would’ve got the gold.

His coach even suggested to him to take it easy on the second run. Sound advice, after all there’s no sense in risking any injury.

But Shaun decided to go beyond that.  Not only that, Shaun performed the most difficult trick ever invented for the pipe (even the name of the trick is intimidating – Tomahawk).

This got me thinking.  How often do we settle for a win and glory in the win and even celebrate the win in our own lives and then decide that’s all we need to do?

When we:  

  • get saved (a HUGE WIN) and stop growing.
  • go on a missions trip and help a bunch of people and then just show pictures when we get home.
...This is a preview of Going Beyond.
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(280 words, 1 image, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

On Failure

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Day 222 (Or is this Day 1 now?) - Oops!
One of the things I’ve observed of organizations (including the church) is that growing and accomplishing things involves taking risk.  Taking risks will inevitably at some point result in failure.  You can’t take risks without accepting the reality that some risk-taking results in falling short of expectations, or missing what you are aiming for.

The good news is that failure doesn’t have to mean the end of risk-taking or the end of your organization.  What you do when you fail matters.  Here’s four quick things I’ve noticed successful organizations do when failing.

1. Transparency in Communication

Successful organizations don’t try to hide their failures when they happen. Successful organizations will begin communicating with their participants as soon as the failure happens and keep communicating through the process of finding a solution.  By being as transparent as possible it contributes to maintaining trust and forward momentum.

Failing will inevitably erode some trust in your organization but in the long run, clear communication and transparency about that failure will add trust because your participants/users know you won’t hide things and keep them informed when they go wrong.  People are smart.  They know that failure happens sometimes, they know that mistakes get made and nothing is perfect.  They also eventually find out when you aren’t being honest or forthright about any fails.  

...This is a preview of On Failure.
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(673 words, 2 images, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)

Keeping Momentum

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Momentum is a tricky thing.  It can be positive or negative.  Positive momentum is movement forward in the right direction, negative momentum is moving in the wrong direction.  Positive momentum leads to growth, negative momentum leads to death.  The more momentum there is the quicker either will happen.

Every organization has momentum – I really don’t believe there is any such thing as the “status quo”.  When you are maintaining the “status quo” all you’re really doing is slowing negative momentum.  Here’s the thing – negative momentum happens when you do nothing.  Positive momentum takes a lot of energy to get going and a constant addition of energy to keep it going.  The key to keeping positive momentum is to focus your energy on the right things:  

  • Identify the momentum killers in your organization and deal with them. Quickly.  The sooner you do so, the longer the positive momentum will continue and the less energy you’ll expend to keep it going.  This requires the ability to see down the road and anticipate the things that might slow your positive momentum.
  • Identify the momentum builders and release them.  Ask the question, “What is keeping my momentum builders from building?”
...This is a preview of Keeping Momentum.
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(247 words, estimated 59 secs reading time)