Tag: impact

  • The Trampoline Effect

    Myth: It matters who you know.

    I couldn’t be more of a nobody. When I showed up as a 17 year old kid on the campus of Moody Bible Institute I couldn’t have been more aware that I’d stepped into a world I knew nothing about, knew not a soul, and had no claim to anything.

    As I met people, they referenced relationships to people I’d never heard of. Famous pastors. Famous parents. Famous books. Famous and important allegiances that would take them far in life.

    Years later I learned that some of my early ministry job references were telling people that my biggest obstacle to a ministry career was that I didn’t come from a ministry family. “He’s a nice guy, but didn’t grow up in a ministry setting, so he can’t possibly ever be that effective.”

    Huh…. Really? 

    17 years later I can look up many of those people on Facebook and quickly learn that knowing all the right people and kissing all of the right rings hasn’t gotten them very far in life.

    Why is that? Because it doesn’t really matter who you know. That’s just a lie told by people in power to make you think you’re a nothing. 

    Your Secret to Success

    The Trampoline Effect: Who you don’t know isn’t nearly as important as what you do with who you do know.

    Give me a handful of friends who want to help one another and we’ll do 10000% more in a month than a pile of well-connected, entitlement fat, whiners who think the world owes them their next paycheck.

    It’s simple physics. 

    Potential Energy = 0 Impact

    If you’re a nobody like me. If you’re like me and your family lineage looks more like a bush than a tree. If your track record includes some famous failures. If you have dreams bigger than your budget or zip code. If you woke up this morning and realized that you have no more tricks in your bag.

    Than the Trampoline Effect is good news to you. Having the right friends is nice. But it isn’t the difference between success and failure! I’m living proof.

    Get together with a couple friends and show the world what you can do. 

    Kinetic Energy = Massive Impact

  • Going Green-ish

    One of our family goals this year was to make some changes to how we consumed the world’s resources. Some of it is a desire to live more simply and some of it is just a realization that the stuff our little family does, when added up with millions of other families, really impacts our planet. So while we’ve been at it for a month, this is the first time I’ve talked about it on the blog. Simply put, I wanted to make sure we were actually doing stuff before I said we were going to be doing stuff!

    Here are a few things we’re doing so far this year:

    • 3 weekends ago we planted a little garden. We know it’ll take a couple seasons to truly get it productive, but we wanted to get something going. As the seasons go on we plan on expanding the garden. We definitely have the space in the yard. We just need to build up the beds.
    • We joined a CSA to support locally grown, organic produce. We picked up our first box this week, this is big change in how we spend money on groceries.
    • We are installing a drip system for watering outdoor plants. San Diego is a coastal desert. That means that we only get a little bit of rain each year and watering plants in the garden is a big deal. This will help us waste less water as well as hopefully make the garden grow a little better. The people from Drip Depot have some sweet stuff, can’t wait to see how it works.
    • Get serious about waste! Kristen asked for, and got, a worm composting system for Christmas. While it isn’t a huge impact, we want to reduce our food waste that goes in the garbage by at least 25%. We’re also trying to be more conscious about buying things we can re-use and recycle.
    • Still rocking the trolley when I can. We’re in a bit of a funk with this because of my travel schedule and the weather. But I’m doing my best to eliminate the need for a second car (we only have one) by taking the trolley to and from work. We eliminate the need for a second car by keeping our work schedules flexible as well as being quick to rent a car when needed.

    We’ve tossed around, but not acted on, some other ideas. More on this as the year goes on.

  • Activity vs. Impact

    Activity vs. Impact

    Most people’s default measurement tool for their effectiveness is how busy they are.

    The thought process goes like this:

    • If I have a full schedule of activity I feel invaluable to the organization
    • If I am doing a lot of stuff I must be doing some good
    • The result of all these meetings and all this planning is that people have lots to do and are motivated
    • Therefore, since everyone in the organization is busy and excited, we must be effective
    The activity-driven formula
    Impact (?) = activity + resources + more activity

    This is a horrible measurement of effectiveness. This is why billions of dollars are spent in America on the local church and we will impact about the same percentage of people in 2010 as we did in 2009.

    Let’s face it. We measure ourselves by how busy we are when we are trying to cover the fact that we have almost no impact. But there is a better way.

    The impact-driven formula
    Impact = activity – resources + results

    If the local church were a machine we’d call it broken. Lots of activity with no or negative results. That’s a zero or negative mechanical advantage! All of the energy of spinning the organization is dissipated out as fiction.

    If the local church were a corner grocery store, we’d file for bankruptcy. We paid the bills but the owners aren’t seeing growth, in fact they are net losing ground in the marketplace.

    If the local church were a school, the government would take over. We just keep spending more money but test results are not improving, in fact they are getting worse.

    If the local church were a politician, we’d vote ourselves a raise. Wait, that’s not a good example.

    In an impact-driven organization you measure success purely by impact.

    In your mind activity without impact is waste.

    Conversely, if you want to make a large impact you have to take the time and invest your energy in maximizing the impact while limiting your activity.

    If you are stupid busy but not experiencing results— are you frustrated and trying to figure out why?

    Your answer lies in your busyness.