Category: management

  • The New Economy Emerging

    The New Economy Emerging

    “This is a bad economy…” “Pretty cool, especially in this economy…” “You know, in this economy, every dollar counts.” I don’t know about you. But I hear bad news about this economy all the time. It’s at the point where it drives me nuts. You see, it’s one of those things that’s said on the news…

  • The Secret Connection that Drives Growth

    The Secret Connection that Drives Growth

    You probably didn’t even notice. But you’ve benefited from this for years. The lowly API is driving tons of growth in businesses small and large, connecting systems and sharing information behind the scenes. What’s an API?

  • The Process of Winning

    The Process of Winning

    I remember a few years back about 10 years ago a speaker at the Willow Creek Leadership Conference saying there were two types of organizations that see huge gains. The organization that buys talent. (Like when the Florida Marlins won the World Series) The organization that grows talent. (The speaker compared that to the farm system…

  • “That’s not my job”

    “That’s not my job”

    My stress level quickly elevated when I arrived in the returns lane. “How am I going to get all of this stuff and that little boy to the airport in time to catch our flight?” A car seat. Two check bags. Three carry-ons. And one sleepy toddler.

  • Pushing Forward by Letting Go

    Pushing Forward by Letting Go

    The beta test year for OpenYM is now about 3/5th complete, with Boston this weekend and Grand Rapids at the end of the month. Three years ago Open started as a whitepaper. Something I was tentatively calling “YouthMin Camp.” It was forking the very best of WordCamp & some of the flavor of BarCamp, and…

  • The  Digital Farmer

    The Digital Farmer

    Adam’s Weird Dream Last night, I had a vivid funny dream. The vivid part was that I was just going about my normal day-to-day life. Running errands, going to meetings, taking kids to school, going to the bank and post office and all the normal stuff I do every day. That part is not funny.…

  • The Key to Doing is…

    This week Marko and I are hosting The Summit for the 2nd time. It’s a TED-talk style event for youth workers, 18 presenters each delivering a 12-15 minute talk on a topic related to an overarching theme. It’s a gathering of a few hundred people looking to have their imaginations sparked, new ideas ignited, and…

  • Team Hustle

    Can I share a little secret about being an entrepreneur? You don’t have to have the best idea. You don’t have to have the best team. You don’t have to spend the most money. You don’t even have to be the most popular. So what are my keys to making it? I’m 3-0 in start-ups,…

  • How do you create an environment for innovation?

    The Saturday morning session at The Summit last year was the strongest single session of any event I’ve ever attended. (And I’ve been a part of a few events) I remember leaning over to Marko and saying… “I’ve paid way more money to attend events that weren’t nearly this good.” It was that good. Ben…

  • The Distraction of Perceived Competition

    “Did you see what ____ is doing?“ “Did you see what ____ had on their blog?“ “I heard ____ is going to do ______ next year. Wow. Total game changer.“ “_____ is kicking butt with ______.“ If you are in leadership, any kind of leadership, you hear this stuff all the time.  I catch myself…