Tim Clark’s Blog

Ok, it’s Christmas today! I would not be posting, except that my nine year old son Caleb got a tablet to draw on this morning and just sketched his first cartoon….I left him with a blank slate and came back 1/2 hour later to this (which he said was a test to learn the software)! I told him we could post it on my blog: He’s pumped! I’m afraid that this may give away our sometimes wry sense of humor!

He wants you to know that if there was sound the guy would be saying, “Hey, where did my eyeballs go?” after the explosion after his eyeballs had run away and his mouth is moving.

Merry Christmas!!!

I recently ran across a powerful quote about friendship: “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words” (Donna Roberts).  I have friends that fill that role in my life. These are people who know me so well that they keep me accountable to being who I am supposed to be. There is no way to pull off a lack of authenticity or function in any kind of pride or false humility when you are around friends like these because you realize they will call you out…and you know you are better for that. Furthermore they can encourage you when you feel you have lost your way, because they remember where you were heading in the first place.

At the core of leadership is the need to provide this role in an organization. Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson, recently wrote that when people in organizations forget why what they do matters—when their work becomes about going through the motions—that is when great leadership is indispensible.  “Leadership is more than influence”, he writes, “it is about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build—and why it matters. It is about painting a picture of a better future. It comes down to pointing the way and saying, ‘C’mon. We can do this!”

There is an old story about a man who came across three brickmasons who were at work. He asked the first one what he was doing; “I’m laying bricks” was the answer. The second worker was asked the same question; his response was “I’m building a wall”. Finally the man asked the third workman what he was doing. His answer: “I’m working on a beautiful Cathedral.”

Has your organization forgotten the words to the song in its heart? Do the people connect their daily work to the larger story? If you are a leader, one of your responsibilities is to remind people that there is a song at the heart of the organization and to point people back to the masterpiece they are contributing to. If you can do that, you won’t have to drive or force people to do what you want them to do, but you will be able to lead people into doing together what they, in their hearts, have really wanted to do all along, but just couldn’t figure out how.

Here is my family’s 2009 Christmas card. I pray that you are deeply enjoying Christmas already and that you are finding time in the midst of a busy and distracting season to sit at Jesus’ feet and be amazed at the mystery and incredible gift of the incarnation: “The Word was God…and the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” (John 1:2 & 14, The Message).

Grace and peace be with you over the next couple of weeks as you fully celebrate the Life that gives light to everyone who will receive it!

Groups of people (companies, organizations, churches, etc,) develop traditions that are based on strong values, but the tradition may continue long after the underlying value is forgotten. This can become a problem; when traditions start to conflict with values, then we have trouble my friend (“with a capital “T”).

Eleven years ago I was in Seattle planting a church and working for Starbucks. The coffee company was considering whether to replace the manual espresso machines with much more efficient, effective, and consistent automatic ones. However, the new equipment just wasn’t the same: there was fear of losing the “human touch”; the sound of clanking and tamping, etc…

It’s a long story, but I had the opportunity to write a fable and get it into the hands of Howard Schultz (the CEO) who was concerned about the change. The narrative was about a woman who had fond memories of going to her grandma’s house for the best fresh peach pies she’d ever had. One day she had a vision to open up a bakery that sold those pies and also replicated the culture of grandma’s house: Swing music playing, 50′s style furniture, table games out—the total “grandma’s house” experience. Since grandma always claimed that the perfect pies were a result of the oven, this young woman bought the exact oven from her mother (who now owned grandma’s house) and used it in her first store.

The concept exploded. City people loved the country desserts as well as the oasis of a down-home family space. Soon more stores opened, and the oven—including its glass front and manual dials—had to be duplicated. Ten years and hundreds of stores later, the company was doing great, but the experience had started to deteriorate. Some of the employees didn’t understand the culture very well, and the original idea of having a “place to come home to” had morphed into lines out the door while people waited for fresh baked goods to take home with them.

One of the biggest challenges was that the ovens which had served the stores well at first were not so great for the exponential demand. The original appliances were temperamental and a bit slow. Though R & D could design equipment that would work more consistently and twice as fast, the founder was worried that the experience would be compromised—after all, the ovens had always been the centerpiece of the store design and feel; one of their biggest traditions.

After replacing the oven in a few stores, it was quickly discovered that customers could get their product more quickly, and that the employees had more time to devote to maintaining the culture and values upon which the stores were initially based.

I never found out if my story influenced Howard’s decision—but hey, within six months all the manual machines were being replaced by automatic ones (a guy can dream)!

Five months ago Brad Abare wrote something I’ve been chewing on since. Traditions aren’t always bad, but where they don’t fully support the values, they should be seriously examined and probably adjusted.

Here’s what Brad said:

Traditions guard.

Values guide.

Traditions perpetuate the good and the bad.

Values parse the good from the bad.

Traditions make way for the predictable.

Values make way for the potential.

Traditions are inherited.

Values are imbedded.

Traditions can stall progress.

Values can stimulate progress.

Traditions can be eliminated.

Values can be illuminated.

Traditions can stop a company.

Values can sustain a company.

Traditions are neutral to meaning.

Values are necessary to meaning.

Traditions are contextual.

Values are collective.