Here is a quick review of the top three things I’ve been reading or thinking about this week.

#1

“Trust was Bill’s superpower.”  

TRILLION DOLLAR COACH The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell

We talk about trust a lot around the office. It is the fuel in our engine as well as the oil to keep things moving smoothly and it provides longevity. But quite frankly, I never had a way of describing how it is built. I knew it went I had it, but I couldn’t tell you how it came to be. How DO we build trust in a relationship? Well, I landed on a description that I’ve been mulling over this past week. Trust is one part KEEPING YOUR WORD, another part LOYALTY, add to that INTEGRITY, and finally DISCRETION. Add these together and you have the basis for trust being developed in any relationship from spouse to co-worker and even neighbors.

While I am not ready to say this is the end of my search for “how”, it is a great starting point. So much so that I’ve added it to our staff’s culture deck so we can wrestle with it together. If you’d like a copy of our culture deck, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll forward you a copy of where it stands as of today.

What is a culture deck you say? I’ll need to save that for another blogpost but suffice to say it is a verbal description of how you desire people to treat one another and work together.

#2

What small groups can learn from AA
I’ve been saying for a couple of years that we, the Church, have a lot to learn from recovery groups in terms of creating a space where transformation happens regularly. The above article from Christianity Today is an attempt to describe what it is about AA groups that could be helpful for all small groups looking to bring about a change in their members. If you have trouble accessing the Evernote link let me know and I’ll send it to you directly.

#3

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5–8 (NRSV)

My daily reading plan took me through Philippians one day this week and what a great reminder of the true call of all followers of Jesus. Emptying ourselves. Humbling ourselves. Allowing God to take care of the exalting while we focus on staying grounded and present.