unbridledsubmission.com

“Generation F” is a designation that Gary Hamel used in his Wall Street Journal Blog Management 2.0. For some, you may already be familiar with the term, for others not familiar with it, it stands for the “Facebook Generation.”  While not a surprising definition their expectations of their ideal work environment may be.  Generation F has become incredibly familiar with everything social media.  For those not sure of what social media is or how powerful it has become check out this incredible slideshow by Marta Kagan.  Generation F has fully immersed itself with social media.  Not only has social media become a way to communicate and interact for this generation, it has become the frame work for life and work.

Gary Hamels says it even better. “The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” – the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than as is currently the case, a mid-20th-century Weberian bureaucracy.”

This is incredibly crucial for organizations and especially the church to understand.  Gary discusses 12 crucial elements that organizations must grapple with in order to attract, retain and engage the facebook generation. The full article can be found in Gary’s March 24, 2009 Management 2.0 blog posting

1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.

2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.

3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.

4. Leaders serve rather than preside.

5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.

6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.

7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.

8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.

9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.

10. Users can veto most policy decisions.

11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.

12. Hackers are heroes.

Some questions in closing.

So how does a church begin to interact and dialogue about these points?  How do churches engage Generation F that are attending their churches in light of the above points. Can congregants veto decisions, are groups self defining and organizing..what implications would this have to the standard small group model? Most churches struggle with serving and finding volunteers. What would happen if people just chose what they wanted to do, what impact would that have on ministry? Would we (the church) be ok “dropping” some ministries because people were choosing not to serve there. i realize it can be easy to go to extreme examples, but perhaps that’s another question. Are we willing to go to the extreme?

What questions would you have with Gary’s points?

Have you seen some churches excel at some points mentioned above? Or at least think they are on the right path?

You should follow me on Twitter here

The Preamble

I have the privilege of doing some book reviews for New Hope Publishers.  You can too. I’ll tell you how at the end of this review.

I literally have a pile of books that I need to read over the next couple of months. Both professionally (for work) for some professional development, and as well for New Hope Publishing. However, my mind felt like it couldn’t contain many more ideas and thoughts. It felt tired. I felt like my mind needed a “break.” Yet, I still wanted to experience new adventures and learn about Christ. That is the preamble to my experience with “Wonderlust.”

The Review

With the above mentioned “weary” state I walk into my office to see a delivery from New Hope Publishing. As I opened the package, the first book on the pile was Wonderlust by Vicki Kuyper.  I read the subtitle, “A Spiritual Travelogue for the Adventurous Soul” and immediately sat down and started reading.  this is actually rare. I’m a thought out, planned, make a list and follow it kind of guy, but for some reason I felt immediatley drawn to the book.  The book did not disappoint.

Wonderlust follows the journey of Vicki as she explores many, many exotic places around the world and describes her interaction, not only with the beauty of the location, but with conversations and experiences God shares with her.  Experiences that God now shared with me as he spoke to my heart through her experiences.

My Personal Experience With The Book

I fully enjoyed reading Wonderlust.  It is not a book that I read in one or two sittings but a book that I carried around with me and read a chapter or two every other day.  When I wanted a break from the demands of the day, I opened the book and was transported to a location my mind had only dreamed of exploring and experienced God in the midst of it.

If you are in need of adventure or just a refreshing walk and experience with God I highly recommend Wonderlust. It is a refreshing change of pace compared to most reading and a welcomed addition to my library. I can’t say it better than Vicki when she explains in one of her chapters, “He was there, Seemingly closer than He had ever been, holding me in His arms and whispering in my ear, I’ve been waiting for you. Shall we take a walk together?”

I experienced Christ through this book. I am confident you will as well.

—————–Extra Stuff——————-

To Purchase Click Here: Wonderlust: A Spiritual Travelogue For The Adventurous Soul

Do You Blog? Love to read? Perhaps the New Hope Publishers Blogger Review program is for you. Check them out.

I am always on the search for new ideas, information, innovation, creativity, etc. I have a couple problems.

1. I very often forget my “great idea.”

2. I very often forget important things I have read, seen or heard.

3. When I do remember to write my ideas down they are often on random pieces of paper, my smart phone, emails, napkins and even toilet paper.  All of which leaves a very unorganized mess. the reality was that I rarely re-visited my ideas, or discoveries because either I couldn’t find my notes, or couldn’t understand what I wrote, or had too many notes that took too long to search through.

Welcome EVERNOTE!

Evernote.com has become the most important tool that I use. It has become integral to my work and personal life. That is high praise, because I love technology and use a lot of different apps and services. But none have come close to helping me organize and save my thoughts as good as Evernote does. For me this means increased productivity, greater innovation (I now remember everything I think is important to remember) and its extremely efficient. (I run evernote at home, work,on my Mac, PC, and blackberry & they all sync together).

This new video from Evernote explains it better than I could.

I can’t recommend Evernote enough. I love it!

You should follow me on Twitter here

Feeling a little lazy? Some things that I absolutely love are technology, researching/learning from others and being efficient. Twitter comes pretty close, but I still need to do all the manual searching, checking hash tags, trending topics, etc, etc. While I love finding out new information about many things it can be very time consuming and, frankly, I don’t have a ton of time to do that.

What I have never quite yet found is an application or software that does all that for me so that I can be efficient. Until now that is

Introducing LAZY FEED. So far I love it. (Time will tell how relevant the searches are but so far so good) In a nutshell, you enter in your search terms and it will work 24/7 for you cataloguing any articles, blogs, tweets, video and pictures that relate to your topic. I can now login at night (when I write most of this blog) and review the daily highlights of my chosen topics of interest and feel “caught up.” Literally I can do this all in under 10 minutes. I have about 10 topics that I consistently keep tabs on. Anything useful I save to Evernote for future reference and I’m good to go.

You currently need an invitation code to sign up which you can get from @lazyfeed on Twitter.

Any tools, apps, services that are crucial to how you research, etc?

You should follow me on Twitter here

I’ve been musing on a quote by Tony Blair. Recently I heard him speak on leadership and the importance of a leader knowing what his or her “irreducible core” is.

Irreducible Core defined: (as per Tony Blair)

• The thing about leadership is that you have make a decision inside of yourself that there will be things you will stand on and be faced with the fact other people might not like it.
• Part of leadership is having an inner core, an irreducible core, the thing that cannot be chipped away at.
• You cannot yield on what is at your core.

So, I started wondering what my irreducible core is. Intuitively I think I know what it is, but I want to be able to define it in one sentence.  In sales terms an “elevator speech” of who I am. To me when I hear about an irreducible core I not only think of what I won’t compromise on, but also what motivates me, challenges me, holds me accountable and simply excites me like nothing else. Simply, who I am.  When I describe my irreducible core I want it to release an electrifying charge of passion and potential from deep within me. Intuitively I know what it is, but I want to be able to define it.

My plan of attack: Get some initial feedback from friends and colleagues, and then spend some time creating a one sentence definition of who I am, my irreducible core.

Have you ever created a one line bio about yourself?  If so, I’d love to hear it.

Not only do I think it’s fun to have a vivid definition of oneself, but I actually think it is quite useful.

You should follow me on Twitter here