In The Answer to How is Yes, Peter Block writes that “transformation comes more from pursuing profound questions than seeking practical answers.” He argues that our culture is too obsessed with how? questions. “My premise is that this culture, and we as members of it, have yielded too easily to what is doable and practical […]
Without Disagreement: Two Rabbis
A story from the Talmud. Adapted from Judith Kunst’s The Burning Word.
April 22, 2007 by 4 Comments
Without Disagreement, Nothing Can Be Learned
I’ve had the tag line “Without disagreement, nothing can be learned” on my blog for quite a while now. I can’t remember where it came from but I like it, even though I don’t think a blog is generally a good place to work through disagreement. You can say something disagreeable on a blog. You […]
April 19, 2007 by 10 Comments
Made to Stick: SUCCESs
Sticky ideas are understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thoughts and behavior. The Curse of Knowledge keeps our ideas from being sticky. The Heath brothers give us six qualities of sticky ideas. They’ve given us a cute little acronym to help them (ahem) stick: SUCCESs Simple–the core message that is compact and profound. It functions […]
April 16, 2007 by 3 Comments
Made to Stick: Simplicity
In Made to Stick, the Heath brothers unpack six principles that make an idea sticky. The first is Simplicity. They write, “How do we find the essential core of our ideas? To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize.” This is one of the hardest […]
April 12, 2007 by 16 Comments
Made to Stick: The Curse of Knowledge
I’ve been spending some time with what I think is a pretty important book. It’s important if you teach or preach or do fund raising or blog or do anything else that depends on the communication of a message. The book is Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath […]
April 11, 2007 by 5 Comments
What is Your Core Message?
Here is a great article from Tom Bandy. Imagine. It is almost 11:00 on Friday night when the phone rings. Your neighbor is calling in a panic. He is not particularly religious, but he knows that you go to church regularly. In a rush of words he tells you that his daughter is being held […]
April 10, 2007 by 8 Comments
A Trip to the Pet Store
Yesterday, after a great Easter Celebration at Garnett and a huge Easter feast at Macaroni Grill, we took the boys to the pet store. This was the third time I had been there in the past few weeks. The first time was with Caleb when we were grabbing some father-son time. He decided that we […]
April 9, 2007 by 7 Comments
The Best Story Ever
Many reasons can be given as to why Jesus is worth following. Here is one of my favorites.
April 8, 2007 by 1 Comment
Out of Touch
I’m as out of touch with this year’s final four teams as I’ve ever been. I watched most of the Floriday/UCLA game last night and that was the most I’ve watched of the tournament so far. I won’t watch the game tomorrow night as I have a meeting scheduled. For some reason I haven’t been […]
April 1, 2007 by 3 Comments
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons