I know you’re probably tired of hearing more statistics about social media.

But how well do you use it?

How well does your organization, business, church or local ministry use social media to empower your vision champions? To drive change? To bring new business in the front door? To accomplish your mission?

As leaders we need to speak the language of the people we’re leading today as well as those we’ll be influencing (and being influenced by) five to ten years from now. Here’s one of the best (read: shorter and better music) updates to the ShiftHappens video series. Ignore the facts to your own peril.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo

And the longer version with the old, familiar Fatboy Slim track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HybVOMJI0_E

Thoughts?

The big news, as you may have now heard, is that Campus Crusade for Christ has changed its name to Cru for our US ministries. This name change comes as we are celebrating God’s good hand on this ministry for 60 incredible years. The two-year process of seeking the Lord for a new name engaged the majority of our U.S. Staff members, many key partners and alumni, students currently involved with us, and most importantly, followers of Jesus who have never heard of us but long to make a difference with their lives.

You may have already seen some of the very positive or somewhat negative media coverage regarding this change. As a staff member who was intimately involved in this process for the past nine months, I want to let you know some of the reasoning behind this change.

1. The problematic words in the name were Campus and Crusade. The term “Campus” has not represented the full scope of our mission for many years. We have a few dozen sub-ministries under our umbrella, and many of them don’t involve ministry on a campus.  There is a family ministry, a humanitarian ministry, a ministry to professional athletes, a workplace ministry, a military ministry and many others.  The word “Crusade” has drawn negative attention in parts of the world and among groups who associate it with Christians who forcefully push their faith on others (as in the middle-ages).  In changing the name, we didn’t set out to remove the word Christ.
2. As an organization we have not wavered in our commitment to Jesus Christ or raising up his name – the only name that ultimately matters – among every tongue, tribe, people and nation.
3. The majority of Christian missions organizations and most local churches do not have the name Jesus or Christ in their name. This doesn’t lessen their devotion to Christ or their effectiveness. The media bashing we have received has been accusing us of kowtowing to political correctness by dropping the name “Christ.” Let me assure you, this is completely ungrounded.
4. Our mission remains the same: To help fulfill the Great Commission by winning, building and sending Christ-centered multiplying disciples and to give every person a chance to say YES to Jesus. It’s the same mission that God gave to Bill and Vonette Bright in 1951.
5. We are not backing away from Jesus but rather moving toward those who need to hear the gospel, more effectively in Jesus name.

I pray it helps you to know this.  You can find much more information on our Cru FAQ site here.

Some have asked “What does Cru mean?” Well, it will mean what our volunteers, alumni and staff members live out and thus fill the meaning with. After all, what did Apple, Nike, Starbucks and Google mean before they began living out their names? Here is an excellent video that demonstrates “The Power of Words” to reshape perspective and invite engagement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU

So, you’re getting work done with a group of people. If you’re communicating using a private Facebook group or sharing numbers on a Google Docs spreadsheet, you may have just wandered into virtual territory.

When does a conventional team become a distributed virtual team?

Twitter has become the new watercooler. Four decades of research by MIT professor Tom Allen indicate that geographic separation begins to significantly influence member-to-member interactions with distances as small as 50 feet.[1] The idea of conventional, colocated team members who sit within shouting distance of one another for 8 hours each day is rapidly going the way of the hard-wired telephone and the CD-ROM. Also, many core business processes demand involvement from people working in different parts of the organization. Rarely do all these people report to the same boss, yet these virtual teams are expected to deliver real work. In a global work environment, it is not uncommon for an employee to participate on two or more distributed teams or workgroups simultaneously. Teammates based in different countries often know more current personal information about each other via social networking sites than they do about their co-workers in a department one floor above them.

Cultural differences also play a significant role in the complexity of distributed teams. These differences are frequently overlooked, as discussions tend to focus on the technology rather than on value differences and cross-cultural barriers. These pressures exert extra weight in Christian missions because of our assumptions that we share the same core values and because we expect everyone to “be nice.” Due to space limitations we cannot explore all the cultural implications here, but will simply reflect some counsel from James Plueddemann:

For God’s people to work together effectively, implicit assumptions about leadership need to be made explicit. They must be evaluated in light of sound social science research and biblical principles. The church in the North and South, the East and West acts out of unconscious and often confusing assumptions about leadership. We must appreciate the differences and challenge some of the misconceptions in order to work together as the worldwide body of Christ.[2]

Virtual teams seeking long-term effectiveness will learn how to manage cultural diversity by explicitly talking about differences such as high and low power-distance cultures, high and low context cultures, individualistic and collectivist cultures, linear and holistic cultures, and whether we prefer sushi or Subway for lunch.

Differences Between Conventional, Virtual and Global Teams[3]

Virtual teams can amplify the normal problems most colocated teams face. For instance, 600 professionals who manage or work on virtual teams reported that common problems such as not following through on commitments, questioning team decisions, backbiting and avoidance of conflict occur far more frequently on virtual teams.[4]

Distributed virtual teaming supports the trend in institutions and organizations seeking to become more responsive to today’s social media environment. In a June 2011 blog post, John Kotter highlights the creative tension necessary for today’s organization to maintain a good balance between hierarchy (whose strengths are standardization, stability, maintenance and optimization) and network (whose strengths are seizing opportunity, rapid knowledge and expertise acquisition, and adaptability).

If you’re serving on a virtual or global team, how are you making it easier for your team leader to lead well? 

Sources:

Today begins a new series of posts related to distance leadership. If you’re currently participating on any type of a distributed team or work group, I hope you’ll share some of your experiences.

Why the New Rules?

Our world has changed dramatically in the past decade. An explosion of broadband networks, mobile devices, social networking, and cloud computing has reshaped our mental landscapes. These shifts have changed the way we live, work, think, learn, and relate to family and friends. Our expectations have also changed; we expect information and people to be available whenever we want them. The boundaryless global economy allows buyers and sellers to conduct business non-stop, 24/7. It is easier and cheaper to order books, bike parts and Mother’s day gifts from a mobile phone than it is to wait until the next free weekend to shop around in brick-and-mortar stores. If doubts remain, perhaps one could ask any political leader of the dozen or so Mideast countries that recently changed governments how his or her views on the power of social networking have transformed in the past four months.

Companies and institutions struggle to keep up with this pace of change. In today’s 21st century workplace, technological advances have forced most companies to embrace some form of distributed teaming. In fact, the presence of purely colocated teams is decreasing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the proportion of U.S. workers taking advantage of flexible work schedules has more than doubled since 1985. Cisco estimated, in a 2007 study entitled “Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce,” that by 2009 over 870 million mobile workers would connect to their corporate headquarters online or via mobile devices. Reasons for this shift include the need for diverse talents and skills, cheap telecommunications technology and dynamically shifting marketplace that expects higher quality products and services that are delivered faster, better, and cheaper. Leadership in this environment, explains Michael Hammer, “is about vision and commitment, but it is also about taking difficult and even painful steps to ensure your company gets to where it needs to be.”

Embrace the New Rules of Work

Some of these painful steps include helping our organizations rethink the way we view work. How will we, as servant leaders, identify the paradigm shifts necessary to remain relevant, model new attitudes and behaviors, and embrace new ways to accomplish our mission?

How are you doing at embracing the new rules of work? Do you have any tips you’d like to offer?

Sources:
Clemons, David, and Michael S. Kroth. Managing the Mobile Workforce: Leading, Building, and Sustaining Virtual Teams. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.

Hammer, Michael, and Lisa W. Hershman. Faster, Cheaper, Better. Kindle ed. New York: Crown Business, 2010.

“I came to believe that a leader isn’t good because they’re right. They’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust.” – General Stanley McChrystal, TED talk

General Stanley McChrystal explains how a rapidly changing environment requires a different kind of leadership today than even one decade ago. If you feel overwhelmed or like you are herding cats in your institution, you will appreciate McChrystal’s comments on leading in a flatter, younger, faster world. Worthy of note: This week the Pentagon vindicated General McChrystal and expressed support of him in spite of Obama’s relieving him of command following an unflattering magazine article last year.

If the US Army, as one of the world’s largest hierarchical institutions, is aggressively pursuing this shift, what does that mean for the rest of us?

This week’s Issachar time produced the following video on Social Networking’s impact on organizations. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsLTqUjZm8Q

A leader’s job is to think.

What do you do with all the links, attachments, articles and book recommendations you receive from colleagues on a weekly, if not daily, basis? Stopping to read them as they arrive totally disrupts my workflow. But deleting them because I’m overwhelmed may cause me to miss some really good insights. New habit: During the week I simply file all this good stuff into an @Reading folder in Outlook or Evernote. Here’s some theology that is shaping a new practice for me: I believe that God may be speaking through my friends when they send me great links or ideas. I simply need some focused time to quickly sift through it all and see what trends emerge.

On Friday mornings I have begun booking what I call “Issachar Time” into my schedule. It’s a half-day devoted to reading, learning, thinking, dreaming and making connections. The goal is not to produce, but to make some sense of life’s river that is constantly flowing around me. This protected space allows two of my top five strengths (context and learning) to kick into overdrive. The term Issachar Time comes from the story of Israel’s King David and his mighty men that helped him form and lead an amazingly fruitful kingdom. “Of Issachar,” we are told, “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…. (1 Chronicles 12:32). Ultimately I pray this practice leads to deeper understanding and the wisdom to know what to do.

How do you set aside time to learn from others?

One year ago this week I began my month-long sabbatical, summarized in this post. It was awesome. I still feel restored, energized, and eager to dig into life, relationships and work (most days).

Success was gained in large part due to my learning how to take smaller, one-day Sabbaths on a weekly basis. One must learn to walk before learning to run. Yesterday I learned of a mini-movement called www.SabbathManifesto.org, that, you guessed it, promotes taking a weekly day off. Just in time, too, as the “National Day of Unplugging 2011″ begins at sundown on Friday, March 4, and runs through sundown Saturday, March 5. You can download the unplugging app here.

The Ten Principles of Unplugging, according to the site, are: Avoid technology. Spend time with loved ones. Nurture your health. Get outside. Avoid commerce. Light candles. Drink wine. Eat bread. Find silence. Give back.

In general, I love the spirit which supports my personal Sabbath principle: It’s not about what you avoid, it’s about what you pursue. In our frantic culture it takes a lot of effort to rest well. The biblical author of the New Testament book of Hebrews captured this struggle: “Strive to enter God’s rest” (verse 4:11).

I just hope they don’t unplug everything at sundown on Friday as I’ll be on a flight back to Orlando.

Rest well.

People thought Gutenberg’s press was a fad, until unschooled laymen learned to read.

People thought the internet was a fad, until it became an integral part of everyday life.

If you think social networking is a fad that will soon pass, you may want to take a look at the numbers in “The History of Social Networking” (courtesy of www.onlineschools.org).

Via: Online Schools

Goodbye, Dali!

This week I have been reflecting on how many things I no longer see, use or need in light of tech advances. For instance, neither of my college aged kids need maps or watches since they have smart phones. We have a bookcase full of family videos recorded on VHS tapes. We subscribe to the printed local newspaper only because the coupons pay for themselves. Groupon may change that in 2011. And CDs? With iTunes who needs them?

Here’s a great link to You’re Out: 20 Things That Became Obsolete In This Decade.

This list reminds me that good leadership never becomes obsolete. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

Until about a week ago this question had never crossed my mind.

My son Travis brought this issue to my attention. He’s in his third year at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This is the same Gainesville where a local pastor of a very small church has garnered worldwide attention by staging a Koran burning on September 11th. September 11th also happens to be Travis’ 21st birthday, so he’s trying to figure out how to constructively engage in this drama while demonstrating the love of Christ.

We need some voices of sanity to speak into this chaos. Enter Jimmy Trent, leader of the CRU ministry team at UF. Jimmy just posted a fantastic, well-reasoned and Christ-honoring response to this pastor’s warped sense of faith. He begins by saying:

I am saddened that Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center is leading an outrageous act of burning Korans on September 11th. I am saddened that this may result in harm to Americans worldwide as General David Patraeus stated Monday. Ultimately, I am saddened that Jesus is being misrepresented to millions while news outlets across the world continue to pounce on this story as it unfolds.

Trent continues:

I believe that as Christians, and as Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) at the University of Florida, we do have a radical message and we are called to communicate that in a radical way. We differ from Jones, though, in both our message and our method.

Our message is radical. We are all sinners and enemies of God deserving hell, we all need to be saved and only Jesus can do that (John 14:6). Is that radical? Absolutely.

Our method is radical. We love as Jesus loved in that, while we were still sinners and enemies of God, Jesus died for us. We now give our lives to love our friends and enemies alike, not hate them (Matthew 5:43, 44). Is that radical? Absolutely.

Way to go, Jimmy. Thanks for taking a stand and answering the question above with a resounding “no.”