The Sixth Sense

Video conference anyone?!

I’m considering the possibility of hosting a video conference conversation for a maximum of ten people every 4 to 6 weeks.

There are so many good books being read, so many important topics being thought about, and so many issues being mulled over. But all too often this is only happening amongst ourselves as individuals. And that so often results in little action happening as a result.

I’m as guilty as the next person of reading a great, challenging book but then doing nothing about it. But when I read and discuss a book with others, there is much more motivation (and peer pressure!) to actually do something.

So, here’s some ideas:

- We could read a book together and then organise a video conversation to process it and work towards action ideas.

- We could share ideas and issues that we’d like to discuss and perhaps put them to the vote for which one will get discussed during that particular video conference.

Obviously, there’s loads more possibilities and I’d love you to share any you have. And, of course, some conversations will be of more interest to some than others. We’ll pick a topic or a book though, set a date, and the first 10 people who are interested can participate.

What do you think? Anyone interested?

Looking forward

It’s been great to be away for a week here in Switzerland. I can’t believe how quickly this week has passed by. Why is that always the case with holidays?!

I’m definitely feeling very refreshed though and looking forward to heading home and really getting stuck with everything that we have coming up between now and December.

We’ve just finalised the date for our next Vox event. It’s going to be held on November 20th. For those of you who don’t know, Vox is all about showcasing creativity in Sheffield and working together to create a better world. The November events creativity focus will be music. We’re looking forward to having some great musicians participate. Watch this space for more details!

Other exciting stuff coming up soon includes a video conference call with leaders of different ventures around the UK and Europe I’m organising. This looks like it’s going to happen towards the end of October.

As well as this, me and Rachel are heading over to Amsterdam at the end of the month to spend some time with our friends Shawna, Ali, and Alycia who are heading up a really exciting project over there called Reckoning.

So yeah, lots going on and lots to look forward to!

What’s going on in your world?

Rhythmic or Repetitious?

I came across this quote today:

“Repetitiousness is the enemy of rhythm”

It was one of those sentences that for some reason set off an explosion of thoughts in my head.

Now, as some of you know, I lead a movement in Sheffield called Mosaic. Within that movement is a core of followers of Jesus Christ. One of the things we have grappled with perhaps more than anything has been finding the right sense of rhythm.

We want to be a community of Christ-followers who engage with God and each other through scripture, prayer, and worship, but we want do that in ways that are natural and integrated with life; not separated from it.

All to often, following Christ becomes nothing more than attending the weekly service on Sunday (and, if you’re super great, a ’small group’ mid-week too).

Sadly, this ends up becoming something very repetitious. It’s the same thing week after week. So the question I’m grappling with is when does something shift from being rhythmic to repetitious? How should any organisation find a healthy sense of rhythm whilst protecting itself from becoming repetitious?

What do you think?

Author Interview: Joseph Michelli

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Joseph Michelli has very kindly agreed to take a few questions linked with his new book ‘The New Gold Standard’. Enjoy!

1) Thanks Joseph for agreeing to be interviewed for The Sixth Sense. Why don’t you start by telling us a bit more about who you are and what you do?

I am an author, professional speaker, and business consultant.  I work to enhance leadership skills, customer service, and employee empowerment worldwide.

2) Your latest book is called ‘The New Gold Standard’ (published by McGraw-Hill). Tell us a bit about what the book is about and why you wrote it.  

The book is a behind the scenes look at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.  The hotel chain began through the inspiration of Cesar Ritz more than a century ago and has maintained a legendary position in customer service excellence.  Despite its storied history, no one had been permitted to write a book about this iconic brand and fortunately I was given that opportunity. 

3) Whilst your book is presumably primarily geared to the business audience, many of my readers are involved in other social enterprises, non-profits, churches, etc. How would they benefit from the principles in The New Gold Standard?  

I have been surprised and pleased by the broad markets in which my books have gained traction.  I think principles of human service should transcend time, geographic boundaries, and even applications often narrowly prescribed to business.  A concept like “it’s not about you” which I present in The New Gold Standard, can serve as a reminder for how to build great marriages, outstanding places of worship, and dynamic community organizations.

4) Why should anyone part with their hard earned cash and precious time to read your book? Sell it to us!

Well I know cash is tight and for many of us time is as tight - if not more so.  I think books like mine can be idea starters, prompting and inspiring people to reach for greater impact in the way they lead and serve.  I invest my time to write these books in the hope that others will invest theirs to benefit from the wisdom of tried-and-true leaders.

5) What books/magazines/websites are you reading at the moment and, more specifically, what would you recommend?

Well The Sixth Sense of course….I also read the classics like Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Businessweek.  In fact, Businessweek has kindly done a featured video curriculum about my books and the art of customer experience creation which can found here. I also love John Maxwell’s Leadership Wired newsletter and Warren Bennis’ Leadership Excellence newsletter.

To find out more about Joseph, you can visit his website: www.josephmichelli.com.

Set the foundation

Chapter one of The New Gold Standard focusses on having a good foundation in place. It’s all about communicating core identity and culture.

Ritz-Carlton make a big deal of ensuring the mission, vision, values, are deeply embedded in all their staff. Everyone of them has a ‘credo card’ they typically carry around with them at all times. Everyone in the organisation can easily provide a clear and accurate understanding of the business’s mission and purpose.

Time is spent everyday emphasising and reorienting around the mission and culture of the organisation. This daily time provides space for repetition of values, emphasising common language, visual symbols, passing on of oral traditions (not just email), positive story-telling, and modeling by leaders.

The challenge for me reading this stuff is translating it into the volunteer context in which I primarily lead. It’s all very well spending time every day embedding the culture of the organisation, but what about when the opportunities for doing that are physically only once a week at best? And even then for only a couple of hours.

How do you go about embedding culture when there are far fewer opportunities to do it? I agree with all the things Ritz-Carlton are doing, I’m just grappling with what that might look like for us at Mosaic.

We do talk about our cultural values a lot. But I know we could do more and do better. I definitely think we need to improve our sharing or stories that positively communicate what we value. Stores (and visual images) definitely help things stick. I just need to remember to do this more!

New author interview

A few months back I included several author interviews on The Sixth Sense. I am very pleased to say that there is another one lined up which I hope to publish later this week.

Some of you who have followed my ‘blogging career’ will remember me writing about a great book I read called ‘The Starbucks Experience’ by Joseph A. Michelli. No matter what type of organisation you lead or are part of, the book was full of lots of really relevant information that is both useful and inspiring. I heartily recommended it when it first came out now and would still encourage you to read it now if you haven’t already.

Linked with this, Joseph Michelli has a new book out called ‘The New Gold Standard - 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’. I am reading through this book at the moment and will share standout thoughts and insights as I go along. If it comes even close to The Starbucks Experience, I know I’ll be taking a lot away from it.

I am very pleased to be able to say that Joseph Michelli has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about his new book. And, as I say, I hope to be posting that interview later this week. Make sure you check back.

Last chance to get into www.triiibes.com

The last chance to join Seth Godin’s www.triiibes.com will be August 10th.

If you want to be part of this before is fully opened to the public in October then jump over to Seth’s blog post explaining what you need to do.

Maybe see you in there!

Connecting with students

I’ve been working over the weekend on an idea for connecting with students in Sheffield. There are over 50,000 students at the two main universities and it is definitely a group of people we want to serve and impact.

We are looking to create some movement around two different areas really:

1. Gallup StrengthsFinder
2. Vox Sheffield

We really want to get the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool out to as many students as possible. It is such a helpful tool for understanding ourselves better and figuring out how we can play to our strengths.

And with Vox Sheffield, we’d love to create a student stream to this. Vox Sheffield is a movement we have set up to showcase creativity in Sheffield and work together to create a better world.

Our intention is to try and connect with 10 to 12 key students who we’ll invest in with a view to them becoming the catalysts that make this idea a reality.

I am confident about every stage of this apart from the first really. And that is the key to it all: connecting with the right students to lead this. We don’t really have many natural links into the universities at this stage and so I’m looking to come up with creative ways to try and attract the right kind of people.

Should be fun!

Inclusive vs. Exclusive

Yesterday I got an exclusive invitation to be part of an online tribe at www.triiibes.com. It’s tied in with something Seth Godin is heading up linked with his forthcoming book entitled ‘Tribes: We need you to lead us‘.

This got me thinking about organisations that are inclusive and others that are more exclusive. I guess, to be fair, I’ve veered towards being anti anything exclusive.

This stems from my frustration with churches in particular which seem to take pleasure in keeping people out rather than welcoming them in. Not all churches, but more more than it should be.

Tied in with this, as Mosaic here in Sheffield, we have often talked about the need to be an inclusive community. We don’t want to exclude people. We want to be welcoming, no matter who the person is.

But then yesterday, a big part of the draw to accept this invitation to www.triiibes.com was the very fact that is was exclusive. That was a big part of its appeal. In fact, if it was just an open group, I’m not sure that I’d of been that bothered about it.

What does this tell us though? Does the very nature of the role and function of a church or charitable organisation make this a totally different issue than for businesses? Or is the same?

Is exclusive always bad? Could charities and faith based organisations leverage exclusivity to attract proactive, highly involved people to work them? 

I’m still trying to get my head around this. What do you think?

A great time in London

I’m on the train back from London now. Quite a bit of travelling in one day, but well worth it.

It was great spending time with Ellie, Gabriel, and Rhiannon who are really keen to start something to serve humanity in London.

I love spending time with passionate people who want to DO something and not just talk about. They are all very different but I could definitely see the start of a great team.

Exciting stuff!