"Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions." -- Proverbs 18:2 By this standard, we are surrounded by fools. Fools on the television. Fools in the next cubicle. One or two at the breakfast table. If I had someone to talk to on my commute to work, there would be at least one fool in my car every morning ... and it would be me. When Stephen Covey wrote his seminal work on effective habits, he included one about seeking to understand then be understood. The principle itself is as old as the Bible. A little self-examination may be in order. Am I more interested in telling people or listening to people? Do I speak first and listen later? Am I ever guilty of forming my response in my head while the other person is still speaking? Do I have a filter that keeps my tongue…
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King David of Old Testament fame was a complex man. King and shepherd, warrior and poet. He could lead an army and an orchestra. At one point, he is referred to as a "man after God's own heart." In the same Bible, the story is told of his adultery and how he plotted the murder of a faithful soldier (who happened to be his mistress' husband). The immediate fallout of David's adultery seems minimal. His plan works, his mistress becomes his wife, and life returns to normal for the King. That is, until the prophet Nathan shows up and takes the King for a walk. Along the way, Nathan tells King David a parable about a rich man oppressing a poor man -- steals his sheep, for heaven's sake! Only David doesn't know it's a parable. His anger flares and he demands that the rich man be held accountable, punished…
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In his book on boundaries for leaders, Henry Cloud uses a wonderful analogy to help us understand why it is important to have difficult conversations. When we avoid a difficult converation, we are allowing a dead fish to stink up the room -- only no one wants to admit there is a problem: "I don't smell anything." In other words, no one wants to bring the dead fish out into the open. This might happen when ... No one wants to confront an abusive leader. A teammate's misbehavior is allowed to continue. A parent chooses to overlook statements and actions that indicate potential trouble. Excuses are offered instead of changes. Businesses, churches, families -- each can suffer from a dead fish in the room. No amount of room deodorant will fix the problem; the problem is not in the air, it's the fish. The room may smell nice for a…
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Google has changed everything. My coffee tastes different, the jet stream flows in a different direction. Everything has changed because information is at our fingertips. We can search for (and find) coffee shops that only serve organic, fair-trade coffee, gluten-free muffins, and soy milk for the lactose intolerant. Not only will Google help you find it, it will help you get there as well. But Google was not the first search engine. Before Google, I used search engines called Webcrawler, Lycos, or AltaVista. You just earned an extra star at Starbucks if you used one of those, too. The first search engines simply "crawled" the internet, indexing sites by keywords and titles. When you searched for a term, the search engine returned a list of matching sites. It was a basic form of search and the list may or may not have contained relevant sites. Google changed everything. Using algorithims,…
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When buttoning your coat, if you get the first button correct, the rest of the buttons all line up, too. The same is true in life ...
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