I Accidentally Deleted My Digital Camera video picture files!

Here's my latest story:

I played my guitar for the first time at the Ocean Grove NJ Crosstown Acoustic Cafe Coffee House the other night. Our good friend, Nancy, took some great videos with my digital camera.

At home, I connected the camera and started copying the files to my computer.

Later on, I stopped by the computer and it looked like it was done, so I deleted the files from the camera. To my surprise, two of the longer videos (the two I wanted the most, of course) were not there! It seems that it must have still been in the middle of copying them when I deleted them. Oh, No!

Well, my daughter brought over my son-in-law's USB reader for my SD High Capacity (HC) card (mine didn't work for these new HC type). It allowed me to read it like a disk drive. It was mapped to K: now on my computer.

A friend at work, Prentice, told me about Pandora Recover, a free program that finds and restores deleted files. (Note: don't take more pictures after accidentally deleting something until after you use this program, otherwise the new photos you take might write over the remnants of what's left of the old pictures or videos).

Pandora Recover worked quickly and easily. I got my files back quickly!
http://download.cnet.com/Pandora-Recovery/3000-2094_4-10694796.html

It says it works for USB drives, hard drives, etc. and finds pictures, videos, and other types of files too!

I first scanned the version that I downloaded with Norton Anti-virus before I installed it and Norton Anti-virus said there were no viruses in it. However, you might want to scan it yourself. Also, you may want to skip the optional install of the cnet tool bar.

The tool worked very well for me!

How to make a Travel box and ideas for Car Games

Ideas for Car Games

We've had fun making a "Travel Box" for family and friends when they are taking a long car trip. We just take a box and put a bunch of things wrapped in comics or paper lunch bags.

Label these things with messages like:
* open on the way home after lunch
* Open after 100 miles
* Open after you go through 2 states
* Open after you see the first sign for Florida
* Open after you see the first sign for your Destination (College, State, Town)
* Open after you see the first Palm Tree
* Open when you stop for gas
* Open if you feel silly (or it could read "tired" or "bored") in Georgia
* When you see a license plate from such and such a state


Some silly examples are:
* Open this when you're feeling nuts (wrap up some nuts)
* Open this when you're feeling silly (Silly Putty or Silly String)
* Open when it gets dark (light sticks)
* Open when you're thirsty or hot and tired of driving (Wonka Fun Dip / Lik-m-aids) (or Nik-L-Nip bottles)
* When you need a morning snack (granola bars)
* When you're bored (Wooly Willy - we bought one at 5 Below)
* When you hear a rock song on the radio (Pop Rocks candy)
* When you're low on cash (100 Grand Candy bar)
* When you see an animal (Cow Tails candy)

You can also pack the box with other things:
* Jokes
* Car Bingo (look for the signs or license plates)
* Comics section from the newspaper

We also put some envelopes with game ideas written on them (sometimes with statements like above)
* Song Fest - Take a well known song (like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and change the words to a silly song or a christian Song
* Open when you need encouragement - put Bible verses or nice words of blessings or the little encouragement cards you get at the Christian Bookstore

You can also put a card in there with a list of the things they need to find/do/reach in order to open the items.

Here are a few websites that I also found helpful:

http://www.momsminivan.com
http://www.momsminivan.com/printables.html
http://www.classroomjr.com/category/worksheets/printable-mad-libs/
http://travelwithkids.about.com/cs/printgames/a/gamesprint.htm
http://www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/27-free-games-to-keep-your-kids-entertained-on-a-road-trip/
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/121613/article.html

String Games: http://alysion.org/figures/main.htm
Mad Libs: http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/madlibs/

What ideas do you have? Please leave a comment!

Twitter for beginners

This is for Bill who wanted to know about Twitter and for others who are curious.

What is Twitter?

• What is it? Twitter is a online service you can sign up for. It's free to use.
  
• What does it do? It allows people to send out short messages (140 characters or less) to anyone and everyone who wants to read them. It works like texting on a cell phone, but it get's sent out and anyone can read it, like a broadcast. You can also "follow" someone's broadcasts (called "tweets"). If you send out "tweets," some people might decide to "follow" you (in other words, they will read your "tweets" in their account.
  
• What are the benefits? You can read information from other people (like the news headlines, or your favorite author, or a friend). You can let people know about you, like what you're doing, or the story you want to tell, or information you want to share.
  

Suggestions for how to phase in your use of Twitter

• Setup an account (details below) It's easy and Free!
  
• Follow what's going on for a while - you can just do this for a few hours, days, months, years...
  
• Find people to follow
  
• Observe RT, @, #FollowFridays (more on this below)
  
• Find out about Hashtags - maybe make one of your own (more on this below)
  
• Then, Dive in and start posting messages

Setting up a Twitter Account

• Web - The basic account is set up so you can use it with the web. After getting an account, you just login and use it. You can look at posts of those you follow, search for people, and post your own "tweets"
  
• Phone - You can also set up tweeter to send and receive messages using your phone
  

Suggestions for newbies

• Follow first before starting to send out "tweets"
• Look around at who other people are following, click on those people to see what they are "tweeting" about and then follow them if you like what you see. You can always stop following or follow anyone as much as you want, whenever you want.
  

Following

• What it means to have followers - People who "follow" you will see your posts on their "home" page. Usually people follow you to see what you're posting ("Tweeting") about, or because they want you to follow them. You'll see many organizations try to follow you because they want you to follow them. It's your choice though.
  
• How to follow someone - You can follow anyone by searching for them or by clicking on their icon in someone else's "following" list and then once you see that feed, there will be a link/button near the top left that allows you to "follow" them
  
• Examples of people to follow: @nytimes (news headlines, you can click on a link to get to the details of the news), @zondervan (gives bible quotes). You can also search for famous people (entertainers, politicians, etc.) or authors, etc. You may like to track packages using twitter (see http://www.usetrackthis.com)

How to find people and topics

• Once you set up an account, there is a "find people" link at the top to search for people to follow
• You can also find people by clicking on anyone in your list of people who follow you or who you follow and then look at the list and click on them to see who they follow or who follows them. Whenever you see someone you like, just click on the "follow" button to follow them.
  

How to use Twitter to send messages (Tweet)

• How to "Tweet": Just click on "home" and then type something in the "What are you doing?" box. Then click on "update." You're "tweet" will then be viewable by anyone following you or looking at your profile.
  
• Short URLs (links) - If you want to send a link in your "tweet" you will find that shorter links will fit better in the 140 character limitation for "tweets." You can shorten your link (called a URL in tech-speak) by going to bit.ly (no .com here, just http://bit.ly), entering the URL (link with the http:// on the beginning) and clicking "shorten." You will get a shortened link that is something like http://bit.ly/9dwZb which should be shorter so it uses up less space in your 140 character "tweet"

Twitter commands

• DM: You'll like to know that you can also DM (Direct Message) someone if they are following you (this is like sending an email to that person). Nobody but you and that other person will see these messages.
• @: and you can also send a message to someone that everyone can see by putting @ with their name (like @henrywill) in the message. This allows that person to see what you sent them, but so will everyone else.
• You can also mark tweets as favorites (see the link to the right of the tweet posting). You can look at favorites later (and others can also look at your favortites)

Special Twitter text (#, RT, @ replies, DM, etc.)

• # is a special character in "tweets," see the information in the section below about "hashtags"
• RT = Re-tweet. This is used when someone takes someone's message and decides it is good enough to send to their followers. Example: you see someone post a message, like "Johndoe: Free fries at "Joe's Cafe" this Saturday!" You would like your friends to know about it, so you send out a retweet "RT @JohnDoe: Free fries at "Joe's Cafe" this Saturday!" - You just add the "RT @" to the beginning of JohnDoe's message. You can also add your own text at the end if you want. Note: you'll notice, if you want people to retweet your messages, you need to keep them short enough so they can add the "RT @" and your Twitter name to your message and still fit within the 140 character "tweet" limit.
• @ - as explained before, this is a way to send a message to someone, but allow others to see it. Example: if your friend "SusieSmith" tweets "John, did you get to "Joe's Cafe" for the free fries this past Saturday?" you can reply with "@SusieSmith yes, Joe's Cafe fries are the best, even if they weren't free!" - everyone, including @SusieSmith can see this. (note: if you don't want others to see your reply, use DM)

Special Twitter hashtags (#FollowFriday, hashtag.org,etc)

• By putting a # in front of some special keyword text, it allows people to search for that keyword. For example, #PM allows people to search for #PM as a keyword (called a hashtag because the # is known as a hashtag in addition to a pound sign). You can search on all types of subjects in twitter to see what people are saying about that subject. Look at the bottom right of your home page to see the "trending topics" of which hashtags people are using. You can also find a list of hashtags and graphs of how much they're used at http://hashtags.org
• One popular hashtag is #followfriday or #fridayfollow - people use this hashtag on Fridays with a list of people they think it would be good for their followers to follow. It's a good way to find out about people to follow.
• You can find other popular hashtags at hashtag.org
  

Getting followers

• How to get followers: First find people you like to follow, many will follow you back. You can also ask people you know to follow you.
  
• Good practice when someone follows you - It's best to thank your new followers, tell them what "tweets" you like to read or what you're intersted in, and/or what you like to tweet about.
  

Great uses of Twitter

• I mentioned earlier about how to track packages in twitter, but there are new uses of twitter coming on line all the time. Twitter can also be used to update your status in facebook and to read news headlines, jokes and more. Read the followers and following lists of some people you follow or who follow you to find good ideas. Let me know of any good ones you like in the comments of my blogpost here.
  

References:

• http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Twitter
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&feature=player_embedded
• http://www.usetrackthis.com (track packages via twitter)
• 9 Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted http://tinyurl.com/nx7wna

The Five R's of Dealing with Temptation

I was listening to a copy of one of Lloyd Pulley's presentations the other day. He speaks on a show called "Bridging the Gap." He gave this list of the Five R's for Dealing with Temptation.

The Five R's for Dealing with Temptation:

1. R: Remember: Remember who you are. You are the Salt and Light. Matthew 5:13
2. R: Realize: Realize the cost of yielding to temptation and the Reward for not giving in Romans 6:23
3. R: Ruthless: Be Ruthless with your flesh - Make to provision for your flesh to sin - Matthew 5:29
4. R: Renew: Renew your mind Romans 12:2
5. R: Rely on His Grace: His grace teaches us to say "No."

Psalm 138:6

He also said we should get busy!
Spurgeon said: Some Temptations come to the industrious, but ALL temptation comes to the idle

I hope this encourages you to overcome temptation!

Barre Chords, Minor and m7 Chords on the Guitar

I've been learning new things on the guitar this summer and thought I'd post about them.

Barre Chords, sometimes called Bar Chords, allow you to move the same Chord "shape" up the guitar to another fret and form a new chord.

Keep in mind that each Fret is a half step. So, good examples are that the E chord, moved up 1 fret (you need to bar the 1st fret then to do the equivalent of moving up the Nut, the place where the strings go over the top part of the guitar neck) forms the F chord! (Because in half steps, the scale is A, A#, B, C, C#,D, D#, E, F, F#,G, G#, ...)
If you move it up 2 frets from the Nut, it would be the F# chord.

Also, the A chord, moved up 2 frets becomes the B chord!

The guitarforbeginners website shows what I'm explaining with a little animation.

Minor Chords
I also learned how to easily form Minor Chords from the E and A chords.
When the highest string (the highest frequency, the one closest to the floor) being held down is moved down one fret towards the Nut, a half step (to the minor 3rd), the chord becomes a Minor chord.

So, if you take the A chord and move your finger on the B string one fret lower (toward the Nut) you'll have an A minor chord.

For the E chord, you move your finger on the G string (actually playing a G#) down a half step (1 fret) which in this case is the nut (or an "open" string) to get Em (E minor)!

Am7 and Em7:
To get these minor chords to be minor 7th chords, just remove the 2nd finger (counting from the side of the neck furthest from the floor) so an open string is played.

So, to change the Am to Am7, lift your finger on the G string.
To change the Em to Em7, lift your finger on the D string (you'll only have one finger left, it will be on the A string 2nd fret (playing a B)

The same is true for the A7 and E7 chords.

If you look at some chord diagrams, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Guitar with a Capo

Did you know that Capo is short for Capodastra?
Neither did I until I started reading up on the Capo to figure out what some of my friends (who are guitar teachers) were trying to teach me about Capos.

Here are some websites that teach about Capos on guitars. Some of them have tables that you can print. You'll find that they each have a different way of expressing the table of the use of Capos. The basic idea though is back to the "Capo Triangle" that one of my friend/instructors told me about, it has 3 "sides" which are: The Key of the Chord, The chord shape (and where the Capo is), and the root note of the chord.

http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/capo.html
http://www.cyberfret.com/misc-wisdom/capo/page5.php
http://www.cyberfret.com/misc-wisdom/capo/transposition-chart.htm
http://www.5min.com/Video/Learn-To-Play-Guitar-Using-A-Capo-Part-1-31245935
http://topguitartraining.com/index.php?key=how_to_use_a_guitar_capo.php
http://guitarwebapp.com/pdf/capopos.pdf

And for those who want to go beyond, there's chord transposition with some music theory here:
http://www.abclearnguitar.com/transpose.html

The Clock that Lost it's Second Hand

We have a clock that was always a bit behind on the time. It seemed as though the clock was having difficulty lifting the second hand as it made it's way from the 6 back up to the 12.

Well, recently, the clock fell off the wall and I put it back up. A few days later I realized that the second hand had fallen off and was laying inside, but I didn't have any interest in taking the time to fix it.

Then, just the other day, I asked my wife if the clock was keeping time. She said that now the time was correct! The clock is now running on time without the burden of lifting the second hand!

My wife and I talked about how sometimes our lives are like that clock. We each came up with our own lesson. My wife remarked that sometimes we get too busy doing many things, just like the clock trying to tick out every second, and because we are trying to do too much, we get behind. That's a great point!

I had a few thoughts about the clock:

• Sometimes we try to keep track of everything and schedule things with such precision that we don't leave any margin (this reminds me of the book I read some time ago, that I would highly recommend, titled "Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives" by Richard A. Swenson)
  
• We get so bogged down in the "overhead" of scheduling and keeping track of things so closely, that we are slowed down and are less effective
  
• Sometimes too, because we're so concentrated on over-managing our time, we miss the things that are most important!

So, I hope you, like me, can take a lesson from the clock that lost it's second hand

Focus

Recently I read a book summary that mentioned the importance of always keeping your top 3 goals written down so you can concentrate on them.

Lately I've been getting lots of messages from the Lord about Focusing. I need to Focus and concentrate on the most important things. And, now this is very important, I need to start removing the distractions.

I was mentoring someone the other day about this subject.

Did you ever notice that when you use a magnifying glass to look at something, it magnifies the area your looking at and at the same time, the area below the glass that you're not viewing is obstructed?

Well, we need to put that same principle into effect in our lives. We need to purposely obstruct all of the items that are not in our focus.

Let me give you some examples:
I realize that much of my email that comes in is from mail lists I signed up for so I could be informed in case I might be interested in something. Well, Gmail lets me create a filter that puts them directly into an archive. So, I don't have to read them, but if I'm ever looking for something, I can just search my email to find them when I need them. It's like having a reference library that only stores things you're interested in!

And, in my personal life, there are THINGS that distract me from PEOPLE. I have to remind myself that people are way more important than things. So, I have to remove the frustrations and time consumption that the things pull away from the people I need to care about!

I hope this all helps you to gain more focus and more concentration on the things that are important to you! Of course, before you focus, you need to establish your goals of what to focus on. I'll have to write about that sometime too.

Continuous Partial Attention (CPA)

This Past Sunday, Dr. Cleophus LaRue, the preacher at the Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ spoke about the concept of Continuous Partial Attention (CPA) which was coined by Linda Stone, the former VP of Microsoft.

From what I understand, CPA is the notion that in the current age, people are giving partial attention to many messages all at the same time and therefore we are sharing our attention between these several messages and activities. I can see it occurring at work. There is so much work to do that we all find it difficult to give full attention to any one thing; we are constantly "multitasking" between tasks and what we're listening to. For an example: I have actually been listening in on 2 webinars at once while I was also doing work. It certainly is making it difficult to concentrate on any one subject and I can see that it spills over into my home life as well.

How does CPA effect your work? Your home life?

Dr. LaRue made the point that due to the advent of CPA, it is even more difficult for us to tell others the good news of what Christ has done for us all on the cross, yet we still need to tell the story!

The Big Great Invitation

The Big Great Invitation:

This past Saturday, two of our friends: a father and daughter, were out in a canoe with one of their young friends on a lake. The daughter remarked that it was on the very island they were heading to that she had asked Jesus into her heart. She then asked her friend if he had ever asked Jesus into his life. He replied "no," but that he would like to. Once on the island, he also asked Jesus to be his Lord.

The story helped me to realize that sometimes people might be involved in a church, yet they've never been given the invitation to give their lives to Christ.

I realized from the story that there might be people who read my blog who fall into that same category. So, if you've never been invited, and if you want to give your life to Christ, here it is, I'm extending to you the BIG GREAT Invitation to the most important decision you'll ever make; a decision that will be the best decision you could ever make for yourself: that of giving your life to Christ Jesus.

If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to discuss it. Just contact me via the contact link at henrywill4.com

I like to write to encourage people, well, this is the most encouragement I can give: eternal life now as part of God's kingdom and the assurance of hope for the future!

Raising the Threshold and Getting Things Done

In a conversation with my manager yesterday, I was reminded of the book "Getting Things Done" (GTD) by David Allen (see part of the book here). The book describes having a system to process all incoming information (requests, actions, FYI, etc.). It works for job assignments, monkeys on your back (this is a reference to the Harvard Business Classic "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?" by by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass), and email too.

In the GTD book, there is mention of how some incoming items should be handled right away if they take about 5 minutes or less to get done. This has worked great for me. Yesterday, my manager mentioned that since I have lots of small work tasks piling up, maybe I should try to tackle some of the small tasks ("low hanging fruit") to get them crossed off my list. It was then that I realized that sometimes we need to "Raise the Threshold." We need to change the 5 minute threshold to 30 minutes or 60 minutes so that we can get some of the tasks hanging around on our list moved off and completed. I'm working on that now. Maybe this idea will help you too!

By the way, if you're interested in GTD, take a look at the links above. You might also be interested in the related inboxzero.com information for managing your email.

Take a vacation

Well, I'm on vacation a few days and enjoying it!

Did you know how important it is to take a vacation?

Did you know you can also take a vacation during the day? You can! At lunch, in the evening, or in the morning you can just take a short 5 or 10 minute vacation. If you think about your special vacation place, it will all come back and relax you!

I found some interesting links on vacations. Especially with the economy being the way it is, apparently many people are skipping their vacation when they need it the most!
(note: I can't say that I agree with all principles in these links, but you may find some part of them helpful)

• CNN: Layoff worries keep many from taking vacations, experts say
• About.com: Don't Forget to Take Time Off From Work
• Business Net: Vacation: the Rx for mental & physical health: by taking advantage of your vacation time you eliminate burnout, which in turn makes you a more productive individual
• The Happiness Project: Take a Vacation.

Things to Keep when Your Children are Young

The other night I started pulling out some old notes and cards from when the children where young.

The cards were very encouraging to see what the children (and my wife and parents) had written to me on various birthdays and father's days.

I also found notes where I wrote down some of the things my children said when they were young. One of them I found was that one of the children told their sibling "Santa can't make every kind of toy because some might have patents." Another one wrote "Think about the Guinea Pig, and not just how pretty they look in the store."

I hope to sort these for our children and read them to my grandchildren some day. They'll be worth a laugh!

Are you wound too tight?

Are you wound too tight?
I know I am at times!

It's apparently been proven that "children laugh an average of 300 times per day, while adults only laugh between 15 and 100 times per day."

Sometimes, when someone is very tense and can't "loosen up" and enjoy life, we might say that they are "wound too tight." (We also sometimes say about people "I wonder what makes them tick?" - funny how we talk "clock talk")

Watches and Clocks can be wound very tight, but they need to run in periodic time intervals (for sake of argument, let's say in one second intervals) no matter how tight or loose the spring. There is a very important piece to the watch or clock that regulates the speed to maintain the intervals of time no matter how much pressure comes from the tension of the mainspring. This is called an "escapement." My brother lives near the National Watch and Clock museum. We toured it once and saw how many various escapements have been invented.

We should all take a lesson from clocks, no matter how tightly they are wound, they still get the same amount of work done and the same amount of rest. No matter how much stress they get from the mainspring, they still perform the same. So, let's loosen up and enjoy life a little.

Here are a few ways to "loosen up" and enjoy life:
* Thank God for your blessings - count them!
* Play - do you engage in play? Play is very important to stimulate laughter and to open up creativity
* Spend some time with children, their outlook on life usually has lots of great positive aspects to it. We can learn a lot from their wonder.
* Learn some jokes
* Learn to laugh, especially at yourself - there's someone in my family who's always been good at this, I need to take lessons
* What's your favorite board game? Card game? Get it out and play it again?

Rule of Thumb for calculating resource costs

I have a good friend, Mike, who works for the government. We were talking the other day about resource costs (we were speaking hypothetically, we didn't exchange any proprietary information). As a Project Manager, I've always thought in terms of resource costs as dollars per hour and sometimes as dollars per day. But, Mike was talking about resources in terms of thousands of dollars per year.

I can see that for PMs, this would be a much better way to measure resource costs on a project.
You can use the rule of thumb of 2000 hours per year to multiply by the hourly fully-loaded rate to get the yearly rate.

Of course, if the resource is only working for 6 months you can easily divide by two. Or, if the resource is only quarter time or a quarter of the year you can divide by 4.

It's all straight forward, but I find it easier to look at resource costs in this $1000/yr view. It also makes it so much easier to add up resources quickly to estimate project costs.

Example:
Resource A is $100/hr with 30% overhead. This translates to $130/hr or $260,000/yr
Resource B is $140/hr with 50% overhead. This translates to $210/hr or $420,000/yr
If I have a project (or task) with 2 A resources and 3 B's, the that's $520K plus #1260K= $1780K/yr
If it's a six month project (or task), then that's $890K for the project (or task).

I hope this little trick helps you out like it does for me.

Leadership Summit: Closing Session

Bill Hybels ties it all together with the final session

• King gets leoparacy. The prophet of God asks him to wash 7 times in the waters of the Jordan
• He says there are other places with better views and better water to go to
• His advisors told him that he's done great things, and if the prophet asked him to do something great, he'd do it. But, the prophet only asked him to do a little thing
• So, he did it
• Then he realized there is no other God like God
• The story is in II Kings 5
• We take the Leadershp Summit with us. We might be thinking we need to do something big, but first be willing to do some simple things every day.

Examples:

• 1.Consider establishing a time and place to meet with God every day
• Make sure it happens in the right frame of mind and on a daily basis
• There are many leaders out there doing great things, but so often the compromise is the meeting with God
• He was meeting with God reading Ephesians 6 - Paul was asking for prayer so he can fearlessly proclaim the message of Christ
• Leaders need something fresh from God every day
• Somedays the fireworks won't happen, but stay in the routine and God will speak
• 2. Commit to reading good books at least 30 minutes a day
• 3. Review your replenishment strategy Rom 8:6
• 4. Decide to say "yes" to God every time he asks you to do something
• 5. You've been challenged about innovation and serving the poor, but it's the simple things that you do that will compound the influence and effectiveness of a leader.
• The simple things are the building blocks of God doing something great in your some day
• Final word: your life matters. This isn't the pre-game, this is the game. You have one life to live full-out for God and develop your leadership to it's full potential. You have one chance to do something of eternal significance.
• That's an intentionally personal decision you all need to make: what race are you running, what will you lay it down for?
• The thing that happens when we submit ourselves to God, our head leader, is just like combustible energy
• It's like being in recess in school and the bell is going to ring, now I have to go back into the school
• As you go on your way, do some simple things that will compound

My Take-aways:

• Apply, Apply, Apply!

Note: I've been posting live from the leadership Summit (http://willowcreek.com/summit) satellite location in Ocean Grove NJ (oceangrove.org) which was chartered 140 years ago by the state of NJ "for the perpetual worship of Jesus Christ." It's known as God's Square mile on the New Jersy Shore.

I've also been tweeting live: you can follow (even if you don't have a twitter account) at: http://twitter.com/henrywill To see all the posts on the Leadership Summit, use this link: http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23tls09

Leadership Summit #9 Interview with Tony Blair

Leadership Summit #9 Interview with Tony Blair


Note: I'm posting live from the leadership Summit (http://willowcreek.com/summit) satellite location in Ocean Grove NJ (oceangrove.org) which was chartered 140 years ago by the state of NJ "for the perpetual worship of Jesus Christ."I'm also tweeting live: you can follow (even if you don't have a twitter account) at:http://twitter.com/henrywill To see all the posts on the Leadership Summit, use this link: http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23tls09

First, some notes:
Jack Welch (he was CEO of GE) has agreed to come next year!

Interview with Tony Blair:

• Even though it was against the majority, he did what he thought was right
• Conventional wisdom is sometimes the easiest thing to do and sometimes you need to fight it for the right reasons
• One of the toughest things about leadership is that sometimes positions you take are not popular. You need to take the position inside yourself first.
• It's not to say that you shouldn't be flexible, but you need "it" in your core - you must believe it's right. You must come to the view and then face the fact that it may be uncomfortable for others. You can't hold back. you must stick with it.
• My duty was to do what was right
• You must stand by your decision and if necessary fall by it
• He needed to be prepared to walk away, it matters to me, but it doesn't matter more than doing the right thing. Don't compromise what is right

How did you know when to listen to criticism and when to let it go?

• You need to listen to criticism and take it into account
• If facts change, you can change your mind

How does a leader handle doubt? It might be seen as indecisiveness.

• Doubt is an expression that you don't have a core belief in your decision. So, you need to think it through, don't make a quick decision
• But, there comes a point at which you take responsibility and you strike out and go with the decision
• It was never easy, there was always that worry, doubt, and consideration of the criticism
• But, in the end, you need to make the decisions. Someone needs to decide
• If you would have told me that I'd need to make decisions in 4 military confrontations, I wouldn't have believed it

What role is faith in your life

• People ask what role religion is in your political life
• I find it odd, because if you are religious, it effects all you do
• But, it doesn't mean you make decisions in a religious way
• Faith is a potent force in the world for bad and good
• The single most important thing is that faith performs a progressive role in this era
• People should keep their own faith, not become one melting pot, but we can work together

With years of failed attempts to sustain peace in Northern Ireland, you were able to work on this. You've been asked to go to middle east. What would you wife say would make you a great negotiator

• I would be criticized by both sides that I was making concesions
• We needed to find common ground. there is no way to do it without compromises
• Great believer in tactics vs strategy
• Strategy comes from your goals and convictions
• To get there, you need lots of tactical compromises

Crisis Management. After being granted the olympic games, there was the terror attack. What must a leader do in a crisis?

• Were we going to react by pointing a finger, or looking at our unity?
• Single most important thing was to make a statement "we are coming together as a country"
• We won't allow these people to devide us
• Get the fact, make the managerial decision, speak to the emotions of the country (do we as leaders speak to the emotions of our team?)

How do you deal with pain and disappointment

• By counting my blessings
• I'd be complaining and she'd say "What are you complaining about? It's a priveledge to do this job!"
• I get up and feel blessed to do the job
• There is pain and dissapointment, but every so often do a check on yourself and see what you've been able to do

Speak into the eyes of church leaders

• Leadership is a blessing, it's a gift you've been given to help others
• It's difficult, challenging, it's worth doing, it's your duty
• No matter what type of leader you are, whatever it is, in that position, without a leader, things don't get done. The joy of getting things done, it's a blessing and a gift from God.

My take-away from this session:

• Count my blessings as a leader (as a Program Manager/PMP, as leader of PMlessonsLearned.com, as a father, as a person) that I'm able to get things done as the leader.
• Define my core beliefs
• Work to make a positive difference

live blogging continues...

Leadership Summit: #8 Bono: "The Church, Three Years Later'

Leadership Summit: #8 Bono: "The Church, Three Years Later'

Note: I'm posting live from the leadership Summit (http://willowcreek.com/summit) satellite location in Ocean Grove NJ (oceangrove.org) which was chartered 140 years ago by the state of NJ "for the perpetual worship of Jesus Christ."I'm also tweeting live: you can follow (even if you don't have a twitter account) at:http://twitter.com/henrywill To see all the posts on the Leadership Summit, use this link: http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23tls09

3 years ago when Bono was at the Leadership Summit, he was upset that churches were not more involved in the fight against global poverty.
Bono was asked what he thinks about how the church is working on global poverty now 3 years after that initial interview.

• in 1963, President Kenedy said "we're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade"
• He lead!
• With just a small piece of that, we can build humanity, we can get clean water - we can't solve everything, but we can make a difference
• The church is now in the lead!
• There are pediatric wards without children in them - we're winning!
  
• Christians speaking:
• We have no excuse, we need to reach out to people with AIDS in Africa
• There are already people doing the work, we need to put resources behind it
• People already want to give, but it's the leader's responsibility to cast the vision, and show them how
• We need to make the missionary appeal appealing! Photography and other ways to inspire
• People see them as unlovable because they feel they are infected, but they go to the field and hug a person with AIDS and realize it's a real person. Mother speaking "I loved my children in a new way and once you go there, you can't help but care for those children over there"
• Our Savior is going to ask us if we did anything for the least of these

Bono:

• When a song comes out, I just feel blessed. Like "The Streets have no name"
• The lyric isn't really good, I wrote it quickly, I rushed it out. It annoys me that 20 years later that we still have to sing it
• We're urging people to join the ONE campaign - we put up all the flags of Africa and while I was singing the song, I realized that I wrote the song in Ethiopia.
• He wrote the lyrics in Agibar in Ethiopia. We was watching people who had walked all through the night. There was a mist. The people put their children down to die, or they were already dead.
• As smart as someone can be: intuition is better than intellect: we do the best work when we don't know what we're doing
  

Christians

• Worship Leader was upset when he heard Bono 3 years ago: why is the message coming from a rock star instead of the church
• Pastor: Here's a rock star, people are you looking to you for leadership and the church had done nothing. They're looking to you for leadership, they're asking what they should do. I don't know what to do, ask Bono. I kept thinking that my daughter said "can't we build a hospital"
• There was a girl in Malawi Africa who got aids. She became the face of our campaign.
• Person of that church: we needed to raise $160,000. We couldn't figure out how we could help. Well, we would do little things, like cut back on lunch. Little kids set up lemonade stands "Lemonade for Africa"
• Pastor: on Christmas eve we made the offering the last part of the service. The Christmas eve service offering was never the highlight of that service. We played Paul Baloche's song "Offering" and asked people to bring and tell what the story of what they did
• Children: sold toys, sold jewelry
• The stories were so emotional that the women counting couldn't count
• $518,000 dollars collected
• Had to announce it the next Sunday and start with that because nobody cared about anything else. And, more money came in after that!
• Why did it start with a rock star? Why didn't I have the courage to stand up for the cause earlier?
  

Bill Hybels interviewing Bono:

• Why can't countries come up with money to solve global poverty, but they can come up with $700B to solve the financial crisis?
• Hybels "You said that the church is doing better, but Bono has kept as arms distance from a local church. That's frustrating to me."
• Bono: "It's probably fear of denomination"
• Hybels"but you are not afraid of anything"
• Bono: "I've been afraid of denominationalizm. I've got one parent Catholic and another prostantant. I go where the life is, to different churches where I am. I'm equally happy on a beach.
• I don't like complicated ceremony. It doesn't have to be inspirational, but has to be were everyone is welcome. Then I feel comfortable. People want you to be honest. They want you to tell what's going on in your life.

Lives Changed By Christ LCBC - Lancaster PA

• We tell people to tell folks not how to follow Christ, but how we follow Christ, so they can see an example

Story: a soccer coach who built a pitch in Africa and named it after one of their players that died. The parents had given memorial funds from their son's death for the pitch.

Hybels: "do you ever feel like you can't carry it anymore"

• I was in NY City central park. There was a guy with a plastic bag. He was talking to himself almost. He pulled out a copy of NY Times with headline "Man lands on Moon"
• Don't take yourself too seriously like it's all dependent on you
• But, you should realize it will not be easy
• It's not charity, It's about equality and justice
• Where does the sphere of empathy end for you?

My Take-aways:

• The church has to take the lead! We need to reach out to the poor!
• God is able to do more than we ask or think!

Other blogs on this:

http://bit.ly/1EO5Y

Leadership Summit #7: Chip and Dan Heath: SWITCH

Leadership Summit #7: Chip and Dan Heath: SWITCH
The speakers are authors of the book "Switch" (due in 2010) and "Made to Stick"


Note: I'm posting live from the leadership Summit (http://willowcreek.com/summit) satellite location in Ocean Grove NJ (oceangrove.org) which was chartered 140 years ago by the state of NJ "for the perpetual worship of Jesus Christ."I'm also tweeting live: you can follow (even if you don't have a twitter account) at:http://twitter.com/henrywill

Dan Heath: Harvard MBA, Chip is Professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Both have consulted for many top name companies.

Interview format. Interviewer is Craig Groeschel of lifechurch.tv

First Book, Made to Stick, was also a help to churches

Talking about change:

• (note: they mentioned a new vocab word: lugubrious)
• They say that people don't like change. "Switch" is about change
• Some changes are easy and others are very difficult. Why?
• Metaphor about Elephant and rider (john Heinz: Socialogist) : The human rider sitting on a 6 ton elephant. The person may not want to move, but elephant doesn't. We can convince the rider, but the rider needs to influence the elephant.
• Example: Part of us wants to save for retirement, another part of us wants to buy something.
• The emotional appeal (Chip must have proposed to his new wife with an emotional appeal) is the best, it's how we convince the elephant
• Teacher (Chrystal Jones) told the 1st grade class that if they listen in and do well, I'll make you like a 3rd grader. Part of the way through 1st grade they had a 2nd grade graduation!

Advice for a church that has 2 programs working well, 5 working alright and 2 not working well?

• Concentrate on the winner - study it and clone it
• One branch of therapy studies the problems of the past
• Solution focused Therapy: They look for the bright spots (e.g. if marital problems, they'll ask: when was the last bright spot in your marrige).
• As a ministry, look at the bright spots in your work
• As a person or a leader: what are the bright spots of your work?
• The idea is that we already have the idea of how to solve it, we just need to clone that method/practice
• Gerry of "Save the Children" - All of this stuff is TBU (True But Worthless), because he couldn't do anything about it. So, he pulled together some moms to help their children. First they gathered the data. Were there any children that seemed perfectly healthy and nourished? Do any of them not have parents with resources like the rest of parents? They looked at those parents to find out how it was being done. These practices went on to help 2.2 million people in 265 villages.
• Big problems are rarely solved by a big solution, usually by small solutions: BIG PROBLEM, SMALL SOLUTION
• Minimize and shrink the solution!
• Story: High school students' presentation convinced people to spend just 10% more within their county (Minor County), it increased their tax revenues. Now they are increasing the population. A Big change started with a small solution!
• Pointers from Twitter posts: @tonysteward:make small corrections to get you to your solution, @lrcooper:use your existing skillset and apply it to new technologies

What can we do to keep the Elephant moving in the right direction

• Tough times may cause people to give up
• ideaworld? : Cycle :high hopes, Valley of insight, then the height of Confidence
• Growth Mindset: people believe that with work i can become better. Tiger Woods decided to overhaul golf swing
• Built into that mindset is a tollerance for failure - leaders need a tolerance for failure
• You hear the quote "Team: failure is not an option here" - but failure is needed, if you want to be stronger, you'll need to lift weights to the point of failure
• Failure may an early warning sign for success (note: Audient
• Some people might be empowered to fail
• Thomas Watson built IBM to what we know today. At one point an employee lost $10M. Watson pulled him in his office. The employee was ready to be let go. Thomas Watson said "let you go? Are you kidding, I just spent $10M on your education!"

How do we apply this to the church?

• We should ask "I wonder what it is about their life and workplace that prevents them from serving
• This is termed a "Fundamental Attribution Error"
• Seminar students asked to do experiment: they needed to prepare for a talk and give it across campus. They were set up to encounter a student coughing and obviously not doing well. The students were told they have a few minutes: 64% helped the person. Another group was told: you're already late for your talk: in that group only 10% stopped to help the person. The point: leave margin in your life so you have time!
• More people would tithe if we allow the direct deposit
• More people would serve if we scheduled the work at lunch time

When change occurs, it's usually due to what?

• Example: Marriage
• An emotional appeal is what starts it
• Change directs the rider - look around and you'll see other people doing it (like the parents are married)
• Think of what society does to make it easier to get married: family, friends, tax relief!

My Take-aways:

• Look for the bright spots in people
• Look for what I'm doing right and expand on it

Leadership Summit #6: David Gergen "Eyewitness to Power"

Leadership Summit (see details and links below) Speaker David Gergen, topic: "Eyewitness to Power" (the book he authored)

• Every leader is a reader!
• Don't confuse motion with progress
• Book: Peter Drucker: The Effective Executive
• Every 6 weeks, write down what you want to accomplish, then review it in 6 weeks: what did you accomplish, what did you miss?
• It's like Jacob Wrestling
• Hybels said "when something went right or wrong, I try to evaluate what was done to make it happen. Did I do anything to contribute?" This is the concept of "Lessons Learned" that we practice in the PM profession!
• President Roosevelt during the tough time, went fishing a few weeks. That's where he came up with the idea of the Land Lease program to lend destroyers to England

Strengths of the presidents he advised?

• Pres. Nixon was the best strategist: he could see how history would unfold and could see how to bend history for america's security interests (that's why he visited China to separate them from Russia)
• Understanding the past helps you to look forward to future
• Pres. Ford was most decent president, he was the only one you didn't have to watch your back in white house.
• In today's society we've come to value people who are decent, maybe because they are so rare
• Pres. Clinton was very bright, quick mind and tactical. He would work on a crossword puzzle while talking to you.
• He admired Clinton's resilience, he was through a lot, but bounced back
• Pres. Reagan - strong leader, best since Roosevelt. He was an optimist, he had strong convictions. Gifted communicator.
• He was another of the 5 presidents that was a World War president, they had a sense of serving the country. They also had a sense of humor
• Reagan said once "Sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the far right hand is doing"

Weaknesses of presidents?

• Nixon (he was glad he read Machiavelli before working with Nixon). There was a dark side there.
• Ford: People took advantage because he wasn't ready for what was coming
• Reagan: his weekness was his detachment. He trusted his advisors too much and was detached from them. When his best advisors left, he had lots of issues.
• Lou Gerstner (IBM) said "inspect" is as important as "respect"
• Clinton: there was a parallel with Nixon: Nixon had fundamental character issues, so did Clinton

Great Leaders and the Great Flaw:

• We're all flawed
• Maturity is coming to grips with your flaws
• Recognition that you have a dark side
• Christianity brings the challenge to us: how do we come to grips with our flaws?
• Keep your flaws under control so they don't hurt you and so they don't hurt others
• Martin Luther King was one of the great leaders, although his private life was chaotic. He worked hard to bring his private life under control. He always told people he was not as good as he thought he was. He always struggled with it. Get up every day and try to be better.
• If you want to go fast, go alone. But, if you want to go far, go with others

The Images of Leadership

• The old "ordering" people (command and control) doesn't work. Now leadership is through trust and integrity
• Images of leadership: Churchill's "V" for victory was a stong symbol
• Ghandi wearing a loincloth to symbolize his simplicity
• Mandela: informally clothed, yet one of the greatest leaders
• Reagan on a horse: He used to say there's nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse

Communication of a Leader

• Listeners bring questions about the speaker: what do they stand about, do they care about people like me, do they have the capacity to make a difference
• Lots of people are now communicating by blogs and twitter
• The question is
• Aristotle was the first to understand about public speaking: 3 elements: logos (the logic, compelling, appeal to logic of the listener's mind), ethos (believability of the message), pathos (the emotion, appeal to emotions)
• There is research that if a speech goes on more than 30 to 35 minutes, people just aren't listening.
• The emotional appeal is most important, if you want to inspire, there must be a call to action
• After Cicero spoke people said "come, let us think" but after demosthenes spoke people said "Come, let us march"

Leadership tips:

• It is important to be physically fit - Leadership is physical and demands a lot. if you go flabby in your body, you'll go flabby in your mind
• Spend quiet time - people have long lives if they spend time with those they cherish, it's about your relationships
• People who are in a relationship with someone who loves them and they love when they are 50 live longer
• It's important to have a habit of reading every day

About Church:

• Hybel asks "You're a speech writer and educated accomplished person, what do you hope will happen when you go into church?"
• 1. I like to find it will be a place to find inner peace, not about you and us, but a sense of well being and peace with the world
• 2. I like to learn something from Pastor and readings (he goes to church on the Harvard Campus) (he likes to read the Bible in church)
• 3. He loves the generation in 20's and 30's now, they care deeply on issues, they are on a search for their spiritual well-being. Students realize that their spiritual foundation is a major part of their leadership: it helps you find your moral compass. (Bill Clinton had 360 view of world, but lacked Moral Compass: he's a Christian who's still working on it).
• You're moral compass is so important too because it gives you an anchor: you need it because as you become successful you loose the view that rules belong to you
• Faith family and friends are great anchors: there are so many things biger than you that depend on larger sources
• We're blessed to have inherited this world. Each of us needs to bring a log to the fire

My take-aways from this session:

• Be anchored in God
• Read True North (book Author was in last year's Summit)
• Be honest with self: my weaknesses and limitation
• Keep working on being physically fit

I'm posting live from the leadership Summit (http://willowcreek.com/summit) satellite location in Ocean Grove NJ (oceangrove.org) which was chartered 140 years ago by the state of NJ "for the perpetual worship of Jesus Christ."
I'm also tweeting live: you can follow (even if you don't have a twitter account) at:
http://twitter.com/henrywill