by tashmcgill | Oct 14, 2014 | Church, Community, Culture & Ideas, Leadership
We live in a world where the contemporary sacred longs to be relevant and connected to the secular. In rural and small towns, this connection is easier to build in meaningful ways. In urban centres and sprawling cities, there is one resource that the church has in spades, that could revolutionise the way churches contribute to communities and cities.
What is that precious resource? Space. It is the one commodity that urban centres long for and churches have an abundance of.
If the broader contribution of the church to human civilisation is to patron the arts, then more of our spaces should be devoted to sharing space. Opening up space. People in cities and urban spaces are constantly constrained from pursuing their gifts, talents, business endeavours because urban space is so expensive and hard to access. Shared spaces and hotdesking in virtual offices is on the increase but what if the Church, in all those prime city and city fringe locations opened it’s doors to people who need space.
I don’t mean leasing our space either. I mean opening up the doors of our buildings in prime central real estate that often sit half unused and pouring that resource back into the communities that are longing for it. For the small and medium sized businesses that are in start-up mode, where every penny they can save on overheads can go into smarter and better products and services. Into innovation and invention.
We should splatter the walls of our cathedrals with the acrylics and plaster of our artists, sculpting, painting and making in the vast caverns of space that we devote to holy emptiness.
We should fill those spaces with good works. The works of hands and minds. There should be no caveat of Christian belonging either. Just being human ought to be enough to make use of the resources we provide – free internet, hot water, meeting rooms and desk space. Studio space. Creating and making space. So what if our bills go up slightly and we have to vaccuum more often? Think about the relationships we could build. Who cares if occasionally people take advantage? Think about the ones who won’t.
The point I’m making is that the Church mets week on week and searches for ways to be meaningful and build bridges into communities and cities in ways that contribute to broader society – when the easiest thing we could do is remember what the preciousness of our sanctuaries and spaces is all about. People.
I frequently recall the words of Mike Yaconelli, who wrote about the necessity of stained carpet. We worry so much about the straight lines and cleanliness in our welcoming space but there is an authencity to stains on the carpet and on the walls that says ‘humanity is welcome here’.
Humanity with all it’s mess and creativity. Our sanctuaries and buildings were always meant to be for people. Filled with people, resourcing people, providing help and shelter for people. Providing opportunity and support for people.
The Church often gets confused into thinking that in order to be meaningful it must be us that does the work. That the work must be of our hands. But often the greatest impact is had simply in what we can facilitate. What opportunities we create for others by our being.
by tashmcgill | Aug 19, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
I was talking with a recent design graduate the other day. They were talking about how they were never going to ‘sell out’ by working for a big corporate agency. Their philosophy was pretty simple – as far as they were concerned, working for a big agency would mean working on big client accounts that would always be driven by money, not by the integrity of the art.
I hear this all the time – first from cynical Generation Xers and now from optimistic Millennials. And every time, it frustrates me to see intelligent, smart and talented people constraining their own potential to influence amazing creative work and see demonstrable change. Here’s why the graduate is wrong and you should consider encouraging more people to ‘sell out’. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Jun 12, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. – Warren Bennis, Ph.D. “On Becoming a Leader”
Doing the right thing is much more complicated that what we like to admit. Doing the right thing usually means dealing in truth in such a way that truth takes a leading role. Leadership is knowing what to do with the truth.
Sometimes we don’t like that because if the truth is in control, inevitably we’re left with the test of character: how we respond to truth & how we help others to respond to the truth.
Becoming a leader means having a courageous and transparent relationship with truth in all it’s forms.
- offering honest and constructive feedback to those around us
- dealing with self-reflection and objective appraisal as habit
- understanding ourselves, our capabilities and that of our team
In the last fifty years – we have come to expect leaders to be more like superheroes who woo and charm us. We’ve also sat gleefully by whilst they meet our expectations of failure and inability to live up to those superhuman standards.
A leader that makes a practice of knowing and facing truth is rarely afraid of it and often, humble. A leader who helps others to engage with truth in meaningful ways will nurture, grow and encourage others.
Don’t be the kind of leader who works behind closed doors too often, who shifts to the left and the right trying to be all things to all people. Be someone who deals in truth and be true, define what is true and what is real.
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.
– Max DePree The Art of Leadership
by tashmcgill | Jun 11, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
What cripples people from becoming the leader they want to be is how they deal with failure. First, their own mistakes and failures but most importantly, the mistakes and failures of others.
That’s why people won’t follow a leader who doesn’t empower others to fail forward. When failure builds a culture of fear in your team, your team won’t have your back when the time comes and their best will never be good enough.
Nobody wants to make mistakes. Nobody really enjoys addressing failure. But nobody wants to work with a leader who relegates mistakes and failure to the end of the line, so you have to navigate people through failure to the next thing.
Failing forward is more than having a good attitude about your mistakes and a step beyond being will to take calculated risks. Failing forward is the ability to get back up after you’ve been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction. Failing forward is a culture that inhabits the atmosphere around great leaders. (more…)
by tashmcgill | Jun 10, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Extraordinary leadership will be not be defined by those leaders who will settle for executing great commercial or political strategy. The great leaders will be those who, learning from histories of failed political, religious and industrial change, realise that leadership is about people.
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by tashmcgill | Jun 9, 2014 | Culture & Ideas, Leadership, Strategy
“Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.” – John D. Rockefeller
Every day is an opportunity – and everything you have (whether it’s experience, assets or time) is an opportunity – not just to take responsibility, but to show responsibility for making things different to how they are.
Taking responsibility is doing the right thing wherever you are able. The choices you make will inevitably lead you to being the right person, at the right time, in the right place to take responsibility for whatever environment you are in. To initiate, propagate and compel change for the better, encouragement of what is good and education where there is opportunity.
Showing responsibility isn’t simply stepping up to make the rules and tell others how to go about their lives. Showing responsibility is connecting a series of discrete choices into personal ownership of resolving an issue or making a change. It’s not telling others what to do – it is taking ownership of what needs to be done, to ensure change occurs.
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