Books @ Leadership Network

Bloggers Bookstudy with Flamingo Road

The leadership team at Flamingo Road Church is hosting a Bloggers Bookstudy this summer. That's 12 leaders blogging about 6 books in 9 weeks.

Join the discussion on these 6 books:

• Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels
• Crazy Love by Francis Chan
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
• Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala
• How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
• Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs by Bill Hybels

As they enter into week #2 of the book study, they're finishing up their blog discussion about Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels. Today's discussion on Chapter 9, the Art of Self-Leadership, is over at Matt Miller's blog.

See the full schedule at www.flamingoroadchurch.com/bloggersbookstudy. The 12 bloggers hosting the discussions are:

1. Heredes Ribeiro
2. Barby Ward
3. Mauricio Tinoco
4. Heather Palacios
5. Miguel Umanzor
6. Stacie Gonzalez
7. Matt Miller
8. Marcella Ribeiro
9. Lilibeth Rivera
10. Troy Gramling
11. Genie Mokher
12. Yoel Torres

See you over there! Add a comment here if you've already read one of these books, and what your takeaway is.

// DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network

The Age of the Unthinkable

The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo

If you’re ready to stretch your brain and learn from a wide variety of disciplines then this is the one book you need to read this week. If you want to have insight into why few organizations or governments or churches or denominations don’t work anymore, this is a must read. And it is a fascinating read. So fascinating that you might be tempted to read it just for the pure pleasure of what it contains and miss the implications for your ministry.

Of course, to see the implications for your ministry, you must be willing to read between the lines. But that’s not hard if you’re looking.

The theme of the book is simple – in revolutionary times like today we need to learn to think and act like a revolutionary. The author’s goal is to explore a new way to think about problems as they arise and to develop new instincts.

The first half of the book explains what is happening today in regard to world power and why the world has been turned upside down.

The second half of the book offers what the author calls “Deep Security.” Deep Security involves

• Learning to view life differently
• Empathy toward our enemies
• Becoming resilient rather than defensive
• A will to innovate and improvise and anticipate
• Willing to share power, something he calls “swarming and “peer production”

This was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read this year. It’s not about ministry and yet it could have a profound impact on your ministry if you could incorporate some of his ideas.

Bill Easum
www.21stcenturystrategiesinc.com
www.BillEasum.com

Organic Outreach for Ordinary People

By Kevin Harney

The title is misleading. When I first saw it I thought this was another book on some new kind of program to help a church reach out.  A better title is Natural Faith Sharing: One to one evangelism.

Harney takes the position that every person is an evangelist of some sort- baseball, football, a dress, a pair of shoes. He then contends that every Christian should play some part in evangelism at some level. What causes us to participate in evangelism begins in our hearts as we begin to love others. As we become more aware of the depth of love God has for us and the cost of God’s grace to us we naturally begin to love others more.  He shows us how to raise our spiritual temperature by praying for and with lost people as well as spending time with them.

This is an excellent book for both individual and small group study. Each chapter provides personal tools to help in the process of growing ones evangelism spirit.

I like two things about the book

·         It isn’t another 1, 2, 3 program.

·         Harney starts with the heart rather than the head.

Reverse Mentoring

        Leadership development has evolved from training, to coaching, and most recently to mentoring. There is a growing interest in how to impart wisdom to the inexperienced, so that great organizations can survive through a succession of great leaders. As you know, I like to read books in unusual and provocative pairings. This time I read Reverse Mentoring by Earl Creps (Jossey-Bass, 2008) alongside A Companion to the Study of Augustine by Roy W. Battenhouse (Oxford, 1955), during my summertime reflection of how the “City of God” might overlap with the City of New Orleans.

        Reverse Mentoring is a terrific book, and well worth reading by anyone interested in mentoring processes or leadership succession. The basic idea is that by deliberately exposing the limitations of one’s own life and leadership; and by inviting correction, conflict, and honest dialogue; and by building relationships beyond our comfort zones; and by reading between the lines and looking beyond the immediate situation; and by generally shedding our ego and claims to competency; we can learn a lot. That learning will not only make us more effective leaders. It will also reveal and encourage our future replacements.

        The RM philosophy of the book is a product of RM experience. How interesting! The insight that friendship is the core dynamic of real learning comes neither from within the church nor educational institutions, but from corporate business and the military. Friendship becomes a learning strategy when it is deliberately varied, courageously deep, humble before the Lord, begins with a plea for help, and leads to personal growth. Who knew that Jack Welsh thought that way? Well, maybe not quite. But Earl Creps is doing just what he recommends: read between the lines and look beyond the situation.

        What was even more interesting is that the RM philosophy has ancient and pre-modern roots. The very sections in Reverse Mentoring by Creps can be used to interpret the life and effective leadership of Augustine. As a young man who was cool, hip, and “with it”, his remarkable conversion and re-education was an admission that he wasn’t cool, didn’t get it, wasn’t really relevant. It was a habit that lasted a lifetime (see Creps, Part One: Facing Reality). Augustine’s methodology combined vision, wisdom, and relationship in order to see beyond ourselves, beyond our information, and beyond our peers (see Creps, Part Two: Cultivating Spirituality). His ministry focused evangelism by learning from outsiders; focused preaching by learning from listeners; and focused leadership by learning from followers (see Creps, Part Three: Experiencing Practicality).

        Of course, Reverse Mentoring certainly stands on its own as a great book. You don’t have to appreciate the literature of current corporate leadership or know anything about Augustine to find tremendous value in this book. I just ponder how “reverse mentoring” might also mean post-modern openness to ancient leadership practices. There seem to be no limits to how far humility can take us.

Tom Bandy

www.ThrivingChurch.com

Do the Mighty Always Fall?

I’m a big fan of Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last. So when I received a copy of his newest book, How the Mighty Fall, I put my other reading aside and dug in.

Collins takes an interesting turn in his latest, research-based project. Rather than focusing on greatness, he examines why successful companies fall and how they might prevent or reverse a meltdown. He identifies five stages of decline that form a consistent pattern in these riches-to-rags stories. Interestingly, the first two stages (and even some of stage 3) occur when a company is still on the way up.

As with Collins’ other works, the lessons for churches are readily transferable. I’ve known far too many that are guilty of “grasping for salvation” (stage 4), thinking that all they need is the right leader or the latest fad program. And I wonder how many of today’s newsmakers might have entered stage 1, “hubris born of success.”

There’s one caveat to this recommendation. Even though How the Mighty Fall is based on the same type of in-depth analysis as Collins’ other books, this one is not as lengthy nor did I have as many “aha” moments. Collins explains in the preface that the project began as an article, but then “evolved into this small book.” The flip side is that it’s a quick read – only 123 pages plus appendices. My bottom line: it’s a worthwhile investment to learn (as the subtitle says) “why some companies never give in.”

Mike Bonem

www.SecondChairLeaders.com

What Axioms Guide Your Staff?

When Bill Hybels’ Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs came out, I debated whether to add it to my “must read” stack. On one hand, I’ve been enriched by everything I’ve consumed from Willow Creek. On the other hand, with 76 short chapters of pithy sayings, Axiom is not the type of book that I typically enjoy.

So once I started reading, I was pleasantly surprised by how much Hybels spoke to me in many of the chapters. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought copies for all of our pastoral and program staff, and made it the focus of a staff development day. We each read the book, and then came prepared to discuss which axioms we considered to be most applicable for our personal leadership development and which would most benefit our staff team collectively. It was a rich time of discussion, and I see it offering ongoing benefits.

Hybels accurately points out that axioms, when they are owned by a group, can become a powerful way to communicate and reinforce important values. I’m working on the axiom of “create your own finish lines” and “real-time coaching.” As a staff, we’re trying to adopt the axioms “excellence honors God and inspires people” and “vision: paint the picture passionately.”

I’ve also found it helpful to think about other important axioms for our church, both those that we currently practice and ones that we need to put in place. Currently I’m thinking about an axiom that might be expressed in the phrase “email doesn’t solve problems.” It might not be quite as profound as some of Hybels’ sayings, but it would sure make a difference in how we handle some “situations.” Pick up a copy of Axiom and as you read, make notes about the leadership concepts that will help you and your team go to the next level.

Mike Bonem

www.SecondChairLeaders.com

Reading List: What Bob Buford is reading this summer

A new series we're launching here at the Books blog is the "Reading List". We'll be asking several innovative Christian leaders for a list of books they're reading and why. As it's been quipped, "leaders are readers" -- so, by knowing what other leaders are reading, you'll get insider on putting your reading lists together and recommendations for others.

Here's a list of books that Bob Buford (author of Halftime and founder of Leadership Network) is reading this summer, excerpted from the latest edition of his Muse-Letter email newsletter (Year 5, Chapter 10) at ActiveEnergy.net:

... Here is what I’m taking in my book bag this summer:

The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy
by David M. Smick
David Smick keeps a low profile, but experts consider him one of the most insightful financial market strategists in the world. For more than two decades, he has conferred with central bankers (such as Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke) and advised top Wall Street executives and investors. The World Is Curved reveals how today's risky environment came to be—and why the mortgage mess is a symptom of potentially far more devastating trouble. He wrestles with the two questions on everyone's mind: How bad could things really get in today's volatile economy? And what can we do about it?

The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo
Today the very ideas that made America great imperil its future. Our plans go awry and policies fail. In The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo puts forth a revelatory new model for understanding our dangerously unpredictable world. Drawing upon history, economics, complexity theory, psychology, immunology, and the science of networks, he describes a new landscape of inherent unpredictability--and remarkable, wonderful possibility.

The Definitive Drucker: The Final Word from the Father of Modern Management by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim, Foreword by A. G. Lafley. Edersheim captures the last two years of Peter’s insights. 

My Utmost Devotional Bible New King James Version (NKJV) by Thomas Nelson Publishing Co, Oswald Chambers

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins, -- four years of research by the principal post-Drucker question asker. Collins’ newest book. Just out. 

    * Decline can be detected.
    * Decline can be reversed.
    * Collins' research project uncovered five step-wise stages of decline:
    * Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
    * Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
    * Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
    * Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
    * Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

There you go. An inside look at what Bob Buford's reading this summer! Chime in and add a comment if you've read any of these already, or want to get some of these books to read along too.

Bookmark and subscribe to this blog and keep your finger on the pulse of what innovative leaders are reading...

// DJ Chuang, Leadership Community Director at Leadership Network