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I am a huge fan of knowing and using your strengths. Not your physical muscles but the intangible things that make you who you are. There are countless surveys, assessments and personality tests one can take. I have listed two of my favorites that I use and have my teams use.

1. Strength Finder:In my opinion this is one of the best tools and assessments you can take. When you purchase the book “Now Discover your Strengths” you receive a code that can be used for the Clifton Strength Finder assessment. If you are at all wondering how to best find out some of your strengths and how to start using them read the book and take the assessment. I sue this with all staff and volunteers that work with me. In my opinion this is a must use.

My top 5 Strengths Are: Competition, Analytical, Activator, Command and Significance. View a description of these strengths by clicking here.

2. APEST: Not only are your strengths important but also understanding your spiritual gifts and the often over looked ministry style of the five fold ministry found in Ephesians 4. The APEST assessment is a profiling instrument designed to assist you in finding your ministry style in relation to the philosophy of the fivefold ministry of Ephesians 4 (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers). Put another way APEST is an online, formative, self-assessment designed to measures an individual’s current ministry motivation and expression in ministry settings. As a result, APEST leads one to new areas of learning and integration for increased ministry engagement. APEST provides a quantified result to identify one’s current place for influence within a larger community. They even offer a 360 assessment to do with your team. You can read an article by @Alan Hirschon this assessment tool and leadership here

My APEST Percentage Score is: Prophetic (44%) Apostolic (33%) Teaching (28%) Evangelistic (17%) Shepherding (7%)

My APEST 360 Review Came Out as: Prophetic(34%) Apostolic (33%) Evangelistic (24%) Teaching (21%) Shepherding (14%)

View my APEST definitions summary by clicking here.

So, what are your strengths? Care to share?  I find this fascinating and think its a great tool to use.

As a side note, I believe that strengths based hiring is often overlooked in favour of ability and skill.  While skills are obviously important, they can also be taught. In my opinion, many openings would be better filled if first we ask, “What strengths do we need for this position?”

Thoughts?

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Read Time: 5 Minutes

“Human Factors research” is the analysis of of how human beings interact with complex systems.  I’m not sure about you but living life well is perhaps one of the most complex tasks we all face. Humanity is constantly in search for greater meaning, finding our our true passions, our callings, and simply what is life all about. Obviously I have a biased viewpoint in that I believe we are all created to be loved by our heavenly Father and to love Him and others in return.  It sounds simple enough, but why is it so difficult? I love analytical research I was recently grabbed by a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers.  I love trying to find out the little things that help to answer, at least in part, the “why” things happen as they do and how that applies to life and our spiritual calling to become imitators of Christ and to live how He lived…serving people. We often learn more about living well by analyzing how we have failed. Not to impose guilt, but to learn from our mistakes so that we do not repeat them. This is obviously easier said than done, because lets face it, who really loves to analyze their shortcomings and c’mon its a lot of work.

In 1979 the Three Mile Island nuclear station came extremely close to a full nuclear meltdown. So close was it that the nuclear industry has hardly still recovered from all the negative publicity it received since then.  So how did it all happen? It was the accumulation of minor difficulties that almost led to a Nuclear Meltdown.  Now I don’t have an opinion on if we should or shouldn’t have nuclear power but the story of how this reactor almost melted down is incredibly interesting and informative to our lives. Here it is a little re-worded from Outliers:

There was a small blockage in the plants “polisher” – a kind of giant water filter. This caused moisture to leak into the air which caused to valves to close which caused the cold water to stop flowing into the plants steam generators. Of course the plant had a backup generator for situations just like this, but for some reason, that was never found out, the backup valves were also closed that day. No big deal because an indicator in the control room showed that the valves were closed. However that indicator light was blocked by a tag hanging from a switch above it noting that the switch above the light was not working. So the indicator light went in noticed do t the repair tag. This caused the special, last resort, relief valve to start working to relieve the pressure. But as luck would have it, it was also malfunctioning in that it was stuck open when it was suppose to be closed. To compound this ever growing problem the relief valve indicator light in the control room was not working as it was rarely used and no one knew that it was broken. By the time the engineers realized what was happening the plant was minutes from a meltdown.

I find that on this journey of life we seem to try and guard against the “big” things form going wrong. Avoiding the big moral failures that we see happen around us almost weekly if not daily in the news. Just as was the case on Three Mile Island, it’s the accumulation of the small that usually brings us to a meltdown, catastrophic life disaster.  I wonder if it is because we are always worrying about the “big” things we ought not to do that we don’t realize the small things that are starting to compound.

Here is the hard part. It is easier to watch out for the big things because lets face it, it doesn’t actually take that much effort.  It is living a life aware of the small habits we are cultivating that is much more demanding. Are you evaluating your habits on some sort of consistent basis? Everything might be fine and dandy, but you might also be one minor step away from catastrophe.  I’m not trying to bring doom and gloom. Far from it in fact. I am passionate about God using all people to make a difference in this world and I absolutely hate seeing people taken out by the seemingly “big thing” that they should have stayed away from.  The fact is it was the small little habits that they should have been avoiding.

How do I do this:

1. Today ask two people that you trust and will give you an honest answer to give you feedback on any habits that they see in your life that in their opinion should be evaluated. Bad habits can impact all areas of our life. The main ones to evaluate right away would be habits that affect your: Faith, Marriage, Relationships, and Passions/Dreams.

2.  Be willing to evaluate their feedback. Consider their advice. Personally I almost always discount their advice at the outset. However if I am willing to come back to it they are almost always right in their assessment.

Today be brave ask for feedback on the little things you do…

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I just read Malcolm Gladwells latest editorial in “The New Yorker” titled, “How David Beats Goliath.”

I found this editorial fascinating to say the least. There could be many, many interesting thoughts and potentially conclusions that come from it and I recommend people read it. In a nutshell Malcolm points to some research by Arreguín-Toft, a political scientist.

Toft, studied epic battles and wars fought where one side was at least 10 times more powerful than the other side. (through technology, armor and just sheer number of people) What he found wasn’t too surprising. The “goliaths” won the battles 71.5% of the time. While not too surprising that they won more often than they list, what is surprising is that the underdog, a 10:1 underdog at that, won one third of the time. Incredible if you think of it. But the surprise is still to come. Toft did some further research.

Gladwell shares that the biblical story of David and Goliath made Toft re-analyze his data. David after all decided not to use the Kings armor, sword and shield. Instead he took a few stones and sling and killed the mighty giant. The underdog won that battle. When Toft went back and analyzed all the battles where the underdogs won. What happened, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5% to 63.6%. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win the majority of battles. Two thirds in fact.  Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”

People, the press, the world in general often look at these upsets as flukes, bad luck, etc, etc. Throughout the article Gladwell shares example after example of where the “David” of the story didn’t win by random chance but by meticulously thinking through the options, being creative and by not playing the game by “Goliaths rules.

Almost always i find myself assuming the rules of engagement, of how I ought to do this or that. Not that I face a ton of “goliath’s” in my life. yet again, any small obstacle is still some sort of goliath that I must face and hopefully overcome.

I have no hard and fast conclusions from this but this story and statistics have been floating around in my head constantly since I read them. What do you think could be some outcomes for the church, for Christians, for yourself, if you chose to fight the battle, to face your Goliaths on your terms/rules that you set. What would change in how we act, what we say, teach, how we program, how we teach, how we live if we chose not to play by Goliaths rules?

Perhaps nothing would change…somehow I doubt it.  Any thoughts or comments?

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I don’t think I’ve been getting anywhere though. It seems like I have so many thoughts and ideas, but they seem surrounded in fog. I know God is peaking. I feel as if He has shown me a glimpse of something special, even spectacular. Its as if He has shown me a portion of a beautiful picture of a finished puzzle and then took the cover away so I couldn’t see the whole finished project. He’s given me 1000′s of pieces and then it seems I’m blindfolded. A hopeless situation. I know I must rely on Him and His working through me, so I submit to His work. But the reality is, I absolutely love these seasons when it seems God is speaking more than He usually does (perhaps I’m just listening more), but it can also be more frustrating. So, all I know is that He has begun a process within me. It feels like change, like transformation. To what end, I don’t know, but my trajectory is fwd and He is guiding me. Do you ever feel like this? So many thoughts, so little clue about what it all means?

I was reminded agin in Phillipians 4 to think on what is right, “Finally, whatever is true,whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

MalcolmGaldwell in his book “Outliers” Talks about the 10,000 hr rule. Basically it is the assumption (through much research actually) that it takes approx. 10,000 hr’s of practice to become an ‘expert” at any given task or area of learning. So, I embrace the process of learning, contemplation, etc. We are actually instructed in Scripture to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It’s interesting that we need to get our thinking straight before transformation comes. So I continue to pray and think on what is right. I continue to try and use Phillipians 4 as a foundation for this journey He has me on. What is the journey He has you on currently? Are you spending your time on that journey, on Him? Or what else are you spending your 10,000 hr’s on? What are you becoming an expert at? What am I becoming an expert at? Actually embarrassing to think about for me sometimes. So, what have you been thinking about…is it to have the mind of Christ?

And even more important, Phillipians 4:9 ends with…whatever you have learned put it into practice. 10,000 hours is a lot of practice…Lord I’m not even close, forgive me for losing focus so often.