COVID-19 – the Decade of the First Six Months of 2020

Stay-at-home order. Masks in public places.

Occupancy limited to 25% of maximum. Now 50% occupancy.

Stand in line at Walmart just to enter the store. This chaotic decade called the first half of 2020 has been. . . (?)

My thoughts on this “Decade called 2020” are not printable for the general public.

Instead ask, “What does this make possible?”

Our concerns are:

Will my business survive?

Can I keep and pay my quality employees?

Will the businesses around me survive?

Will the U.S. Government, as we know it today, survive?

And church leaders are asking every day, “When will we open the church buildings again?”

Asking, “How will we re-open? What if we re-open too soon?”

Many church leaders are sounding like 5-year-old children who have lost their favorite toy. Seriously, that’s how church leaders sound to me.

Church leaders, hear this. There are more important issues than your building.

“You haven’t lost anything. Someone moved your cheese. That’s all.”

You just need to find your cheese. And take better care of your cheese when you find it. So you don’t lose it again.

And keep asking, “COVID-19? What does this make possible?”

Let me tell you about a church leader whose church used to meet inside a school building. And by law this church can not meet inside of the school yet.

This agile church leader instead asks, “What does this make possible?”

Of course, let’s have our small groups meet via ZOOM. That’s a quick and easy and simple solution. Just learn ZOOM and quickly learn how to be good using it.

But what about gathering physically?

So this agile leader got permission from the school to do something different.

Here’s this agile church leader thinking differently. . .

Let’s organize a “Walk and Pray” around the high school track. Why not? And at the end of the 30 minute walk, let’s gather together and pray together.

Let’s talk together. Laugh together. All the while following the mandated physical distancing.

Do you see how this works? How it fits families and lifestyles? And the positive results?

Walking is outside and healthy. Walking around the track helps us to gather. And just talk and laugh. Walking gets some little people (and guys) away from the video screens. Walking is good for God’s Body – corporately and individually.

Keep asking, “COVID-19? What does this make possible?”

Let’s carry this one step further.

Why not organize different “Walking and Talking” groups at different times using tools provided by Facebook.

You could organize three groups per day for seven days. All of this organizing could be done in hours on Facebook with a simple registration process.

Via this process, you could accommodate more than 1,000 people (as a Facebook Group titled “Walk with Purpose”) in one week. If my math is correct?

You have all the tools you need. The only missing tool is your current thinking.

The needed change is to think like an agile leader.

Here’s a link to how an agile leader thinks.

Tap here to listen.

You did not lose your cheese. You did not lose your church.

Your church just moved and looks different.

Think like an agile leader. And organize a “Walk with Purpose” around the high school track.

Change? Chaos? Closed buildings?

Ask, “What does this make possible?”

And think like an agile leader.

Click the link.

Do you review your day? EVERY day?

If not, why not?

I can show you a quick and and easy way.

And EFFECTIVE way to review EVERY day.

And how to review EVERY project in REAL time.

Best of all, this process works in EVERY environment where I have and clients have used it.

Even during the chaos of the decade of 2020.

Try this after your next Zoom meeting. Ask one team member to stay late after the meeting, walk through it together. Give it four minutes.

Just ask these three questions.

(1) What went well?

(2) What did not go well?

(3) What one thing can we change IMMEDIATELY?

It’s called *Kaizen or continual improvement. I didn’t know it had a name when I first started using it.

Do not let the simplicity of this method stop you from doing it after EVERY meeting. EVERY Zoom call. It’s also a great nightly routine.

And a great technique to use after EVERY major event.

Ask these three simple questions. Take notes in EVERnote. To make your next event better.

If you don’t do this, you will find yourself and your team making the same mistakes every year at that annual event.

And your event can stay pretty mediocre and eventually fail.

Or each event can get progressively better. You get to choose.

I first used this simple method coaching soccer 30 years ago. It worked then. I still works now.

After being taught how to use these three questions to improve their game and practices, these young soccer players at age 8 started using this technique instinctively. On their own after they saw how it worked.

And at age ten, these players were able to fix what was not working. In real time. During the soccer match. Without a coach, that’s when you know that your team has embraced this technique.

Try this by yourself first.

Then use it with your team.

Do it in writing. Answer these three questions. Take some notes in your phone.

So you can retain what you have learned after every meeting. And implement what you have learned. Immediately.

Your events, your meetings, your work day, your projects will ALL start getting incrementally better.

I’ve seen this work, and I have personally experienced this technique working for more than 30 years.

Here it is again.

Just ask and quickly answer three questions.

(1) What went well?

(2) What did not go well?

(3) What one thing can we change IMMEDIATELY?

*Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “continuous improvement.”

Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy regarding the processes that continuously improve operations and involve all employees. 

Kaizen sees improvement in productivity as a gradual and methodical process. – from Investopdeia

Yes, every one else is saying to have big, BIG goals.

But I’m saying your goals are TOO BIG if. . .

. . . if you are not achieving these goals.

Let me give you an example. Here’s what happens to me.

I have these BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). And they look good on paper. And they sound impressive to friends.

(And maybe that’s one reason I have these BHAGs – to impress other people.)

Here’s one BHAG of mine. I want to hike the Appalachian Trail – 2,190 miles – a humongous 4 or 5 month journey. A great opportunity to video blog and LIVE stream on social media. And a significant spiritual journey.

On my BHAG list, this has a high (10+) coolness rating. But it does not motivate me EVERY day even though I have a 4-foot map of the entire Appalachian Trail mounted on the wall in my bedroom.

And I see it every morning and every evening.

This goal is big enough to be a talking point with friends. But TOO BIG to be a DAILY motivation that creates action EVERY day.

TOO BIG. And the completion date is too far in the future. There is no immediate pressure or sense of urgency to this goal.

On the other hand, a smaller health and fitness goal I have is to fit into a newly purchased bright yellow fitness shirt. It’s intentionally tight. And I want to look really good wearing it. A simple vanity goal.

Right now I look pretty awful in it. Even embarrassing.

So I take a picture in it EVERY week, sometimes every day. And post it in a folder on my computer. A simple and quick daily reminder of my goal just “to look good in a yellow fitness shirt.”

In fact, just looked at it again. BEFORE I eat lunch. You get the idea.

It’s a simple goal within my reach. And I’m tracking my daily progress. It’s not a BHAG, but it keeps me on track daily. It (the yellow fitness shirt hanging in my bedroom) is a clear visual reminder and keeps me tracking what I eat daily in my 30 day Optavia Guide and food journal. And this simple goal keeps me connected weekly to my Transformation Coach, Kristti.

I understand the psychology behind the failure of BIG goals. These enticing BHAGs excite us occasionally. And are impressive to share with friends. But they are too long-term (too distant) to motivate us into daily action which is what you need to reach your goals.

You’re smart.

And I’m sure you already knew this. But you and I have been seduced by the “10+ coolness factor” of the BIG GOAL.

And we have forgotten about the simple and boring and unexciting daily small goals (those micro-habits and micro-goals).

Those micro-habits that create the needed motivation for daily micro-actions that eventually get us to our BHAGs.

BIG GOALS have their place. So keep your BHAG list. And grow it.

Yes, have an exciting Bucket List. And share it with others.

But do not forget the little guys. Remember to feed your small goals. Daily.

Just like feeding your gold fish. And watering your plant.

Don’t be seduced by those BIG GOALS.

Instead, feed those little guys. Daily. They will take you to your BHAGs.

. . . with something meaningful.

What does it mean to bookend your day?

It means to “start and finish” usually with a routine.

For example, you probably have a morning routine you do with regularity. Without thinking or planning.

You shower, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, get dressed. You know the routine. And you have a similar routine in the evening.

But I’m talking about “bookending” your day with something meaningful for a quality result like a better thought process for your day and better sleep at night.

Here’s my ONE idea for “bookending” you day.

Read what is in quotes below as a prayer or meditation. Use it as a framework for decision-making during your day.

“Take your life – all of it – EVERY ordinary part of your life – EVERY day. And give it ALL to Your Creator to help you with all of your actions and decision-making. Pay attention to what Your Creator wants you to do. “

“Ask Your Creator to make you think a new way about EVERY thing to make better and innovative decisions. And when you see it, act IMMEDIATELY. Know that Your Creator will bring out the best in you.”

That’s Romans 12:1-2 and liberally translated and interpreted. But know this. It works for me.

Do this. Read this. Embed this thinking into you mind EVERY morning. And EVERY evening.

Make a long term commitment to do this. ONE YEAR minimum.

In time, you will see results.

Your core beliefs will change. And you will start making other changes.

This will be a game – changer for you.

*Romans 12:1-2 – The Message – click it.

*Romans 12:1-2 – Hawai’i Pidgin – click it.

*Romans 12:1-2 – New Living Translation – click it.

That’s straight from your Bible.

And it’s talking about mediocrity.

*See links below*

You’re not hot. You’re not cold. You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You’re average. You’re mediocre.

You make me want to vomit.

It’s true. You’re mediocre, and you make me want to vomit.

But. . . if you want to make a difference. Let’s talk.

I’ll talk. You listen. I’m talking to the church people right now.

Your emails, your Facebook posts and images, your videos, your music, your sermons – they are stale, boring, average, and predictable like an black-and-white sit com from the 60’s.

Like a nightly 30 minute show from the 60’s, we know what you’re going to say BEFORE you say it. We know the commercials. We have them memorized. We know how the story ends.

And you wonder why we’re bored.

You wonder why people don’t come to your church or watch your videos or read your emails.

Because you make them want to vomit with your predictable ordinariness.

Your email subject lines have not changed in the last ten years.

Take a lesson from online content that sells and gets the clicks.

Give me a reason to watch your videos, a reason to open your emails. Be compelling, funny, entertaining, unpredictable, and fast. And not boring and so predictable.

I’m glad you can quote the King James Bible in every other sentence of your sermon. But I’m not impressed if that is all you learned in seminary.

Give me something that is relevant. Something that is relevant today. Something that I can use today. Something with substance and meaning that will help me in my world.

Learn to use online data to determine what people are watching and not watching.

Instead of a 25-minute sermon. Why not give me ten 3-minute sound bytes during the week that I can use? Use online data to determine when in the week you should deliver those videos.

And track the data to see what’s working and what’s not working.

This data is available and free. Go to the University of YouTube. Go to the University of Google. And re-learn your trade to be relevant.

Give me multiple touch points of encouragement, truth, inspiration that are good enough for me to share with friends. So I can become a source of encouragement and truth and inspiration for my friends.

But all you give me is the same stuff for the last 30, 40, 50 years. That is predictable and boring. And not worth watching.

And definitely not worth sharing.

Maybe this rant helps or angers one church guy just enough to change. I hope one church guy / one church lady gets angry enough to consider changing from boring to something better.

Hey, church guy / church lady, you have many examples around you of content that I will watch and share.

Just watch your children and grandchildren. See what they are watching and ask them why they watch what they do.

Just look at what they are watching on their phones. Ask them why. And listen to them. Just listen to their whys.

I spent 40 minutes one day just watching / observing my grandchildren playing a video game. And watched and listened. And asked questions. And I learned a lot.

They are not watching anything boring and predictable.

Take some old truths from your Owner’s Manual (Bible) that work.

And re-present them.

Yes, re-present some old ideas in a relevant way.

Present Biblical Truths in a different way. Re-present them.

So that I will listen.

And make it good enough to share.

In the meantime, whatever is average and mediocre. . .

. . . that stuff makes me want to vomit.

The above content is found in your Owner’s Manual at Revelation 3:16

Click on these different versions.

*The Message* – Revelation 3:16

*Hawai’i Pidgin* – Revelation 3:16

*King James Version* – Revelation 3:16

*And thanks to Carey Nieuwhof for the idea. *Click here* for the inspiration for this blog post. Thanks, Carey, for being relevant.