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Discipline as mercy

What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.

Ezra 9:13

After years of exile, Ezra recognized that he was still getting better than he deserved.

Even when I experience God’s discipline in my life, I am experiencing His grace and mercy. I need to learn to welcome discipline, and be grateful for it.

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The way Jesus made connections

  • Jesus told the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, that he would make them “fishers of men”.
  • Jesus told Nicodemus, the man who found his identity in his lineage, that he needed to be “born again”.
  • Jesus told the woman at the well, that she needed “living water”.

The leader could borrow those terms and try to apply them… or the leader can follow the example of Jesus and find a way to connect God’s story to that person’s story, in a powerful way.

In our talk about being “Born Again”, we can miss a powerful example about communicating to someone at their place of greatest need.

 

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What’s your 4 minute mile?

Running a mile in 4 minutes was considered humanly impossible until Roger Bannister broke that barrier.

Within 3 years, 16 others broke the 4 minute barrier.

The only thing that changed was that the impossible was revealed to be possible.

  • What seems unattainable to you now?
  • What is your “4 minute mile”?
  • What unattainable thresholds in your organization are just waiting to be busted?

Perception and mindset are important.

(Hat Tip: Beyond Performance by Keller & Price)

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Why I need instability

I like innovation. I love to see the emergence of new systems.

I also like stability. I wish I could be left to create in a stable environment.

Expecting to see innovation from stability is not merely unrealistic, it may be counterproductive. Innovation comes from moments of disequilibrium, not moments of stability. An unstable system is not something I should avoid, rather it is a precursor to emergence that I should embrace. I shouldn’t look for stability in my situations.

As a Christ-follower, I need to remember that God is my strength. The stability of a situation or ecology is not a foundation in which to find peace. Psalm 46 reminds me that God is my strength, even if “the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the sea”.

No disequilibrium I have experienced has been THAT severe.

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Surveys: Test your test

When putting together a customer survey, never underestimate the value of the pretest. If sending the survey to a group, consider starting by sending the survey to 10% of your list first. Take a look at their responses.

  • Did they understand the questions?
  • Were there barriers to their participation?
  • Could the terms in your questions have more than one meaning?
  • Were your answer options exhaustive enough for the user?
  • Were the surveys completed?

Look for all of these answers with a small portion of your survey sample, before the entire sample answers the wrong question.

Test your test

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Facebook goes down, and we all take to Twitter to talk about it

Facebook experienced some downtime today… and we all had fun rediscovering Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Official_Craig/status/648583460609761282

 

But in the end.. all was right with the world: