It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
All of our past posts have been placed HERE if you want to go back and read one.
It is a new day. We're walking through a season of uncertainty, of constant change and new challenges. As leaders, we have a choice to be paralyzed by fear or to move forward, adapting every step of the way to new things being thrown at us.
I read an interesting article from The Praxis Journal entitled: "Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization is Now a Startup".
The authors, Crouch, Keilhacker and Blanchard say this:
"Almost all of us are in a new business.
From today onward, most leaders must recognize that the business they were in no longer exists. This applies not just to for-profit businesses, but to nonprofits, and even in certain important respects to churches."
Leading Beyond the Blizzard:
Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup
By Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard
The article gives some interesting perspective but I was caught by the above line: "Almost all of us are in a new business." The idea is that what we're going through today will change everything for tomorrow.
I don't know about you, but for the past couple of weeks I've had some interesting reactions to our changing world.
First, I was to busy to pay attention: My daughter was getting married, I was coming off a great leadership summit, I had some things coming up that I was excited about. I was just busy.
Second, the reality that things were changing was a shock: The wedding ceremony was postponed (however, they did get married in a small, private, spontaneous ceremony), the memory of the great event disappeared, and everything I had planned was cancelled.
Third, I've tried to create a new normal: Catching up on some projects, enjoying a slower pace, being home, trying to wrap my mind around what my work life will look like over the next 14 - 30 days.
Fourth, I'm trying to dream again: It's been a while, but if we're in a startup mode, I need to dream. I need to create vision. I need to think outside the box. I need to be reminded of what my passion is, what my call is, what the world needs, and what I can do about that.
I don't know what your actions and reactions have been over the past few weeks, but while thinking about where I'm at, I'm excited again. Not because I know what I'm doing or where I'm going, but because I always get excited about the building stage of any project or organization. It's an opportunity to start again, to change things, to re-think things, to make things better. It's a chance to wipe the slate clean and develop a new approach. It's a time to ask God for new vision, for clarity and for direction.
It's a new day.
Read the article I shared above and let me know your thoughts. I'm not asking you to agree with everything, but there is some really interesting perspective being shared.
Watch the short video below on DREAM.
The idea that things will never be the same again should encourage us to begin thinking, dreaming and starting again.
"This time poses the greatest leadership crisis any of us have faced. It can be a moment of amazing creativity, though it also is going to be a time of unavoidable pain and loss." Crouch, Keilhacker, Blanchard
“The bottom line is that even as we weather the current blizzard, and convince others that a blizzard is upon us, all of us should be preparing for a winter in which countless aspects of our society are reconfigured" Crouch, Keilhacker, Blanchard
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