A Leadership Case Study: Jessica Jackley and the KIVA Story

A Leadership Case Study: Jessica Jackley and the KIVA Story
Jessica Jackley (Interview with Jim Mellado)

- We believe in the value of co creation, informational diversity.
- “Is herding cats a bad thing?”
- We say no to things against our mission even if they seem good.
- Great poets don’t show, they tell.
- “ I hope that fear doesn’t prevent us from staying nimble”
- Don’t be afraid to start small, to focus and serve one community very well
- A dream team includes vets and younger people. Vets should allow the younger people to name the challenges and even more, define the solutions.

These interviews with people who are doing it, have become a highlight for me each year. Absolutely loved Jessica's enthusiasm, focus, and what she and her team are doing. Here's a clip about KIVA in case you dont know about them.

Leading People to the Prodigal God - Tim Keller

Leading People to the Prodigal God
Tim Keller

Is your church known for their compassion in their community?
The church today is full of spiritual deadness, a lack of spiritual vitality.

This is one of those sessions where something you've always heard, takes on new meaning and life. It added a new term and understanding to our tribal language. The "elder brother" I can't begin to do it justice trying to unpack it here, but highly recommend that you read the book or get introduced to the dialogue here.

Reading List: The Prodigal God- Tim Keller

Manage Differently Now - Gary Hamel

Is the church changing as fast as the world around us?

How do we become the enemy of entropy?
1- Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial. Face the facts. The future generally isn’t unknown as much as it is distasteful. Question your beliefs/practices about how we do church. Listen to the renegades to positive deviants.
2- Cultivate new thinking- generate more strategic options, new ideas. “The job of every leader is to make change look more exciting than status quo.” DISCUSS: What should we do next as a team? How can we increase our impact?
3- Deconstruct what we already do.

DISCUSS: What are our orthodoxies as a church? What are my personal leadership ones? Look at what we do which hasn’t changed in 3-5 years. Is it commanded by God? Do we do it because we’ve decided it’s the right/best thing to do? Ideas, i.e. open source the sermon in advance, include more discussion vs. lecture in a message.

“The longer you are in the trench, the more you can mistake the edge of your rut for the horizon.”

The mental model depreciates faster than the authority to change things. This can hold institutes ability to change hostage to their own desire NOT to change. WE must build organizations which can thrive without superhumans at the top, a culture where we innovate all the time, not fight bureaucracy all the time.

Consider GOREtex. Anyone can say no to any request at any time. At the end of the year each person is reviewed by a large number of fellow employees regarding how much value they have added to the team this year. Less envision, plan, control, more mobilization connect, support. Some companies today have online public, rate your boss, your bosses boss. In this new world authority comes from value added rather than a natural hierarchy of leadership.

“Most the facebook generation don’t want to work at a fortune 500 company or worship in a church that feels like one.”

“The problem with organized religion in most cases is the organization, not the religion.” Book: The future of management.

Reading List: The Future of Management - Gary Hamel

Hiring, Firing and Board Meltdowns

Hiring, Firing, and Board Meltdowns(videocast)
Bill Hybels, Patrick Lencioni, Henry Cloud, David Ireland, Carly Fiorina

- When hiring. Cultural fit matters. What 2-3 behavioral things are high value on your team? Be clear about competencies
- Spend extended time out of the interview environment with a candidate, take them shopping. Ask what would others say about you? Ask the same question three times over the course of an interview. Ask how do you like to be managed? How will you challenge us? How will that affect our team? Ask questions about their answers. Have substantive conversations up front about why we are hiring, what we hope to accomplish by this role. Trust the process.
- A leadership team (board) should establish their own sets of values, behaviors, covenants at a retreat setting, not in their board meetings. The ongoing meetings are for making decisions. Conclude meetings with checking in to see how the team did keeping the established guidelines they’ve agreed to. One presenter suggested that people on “the board” need to have influence, affluence and a specific skill. How does the affluence trait transfer to leadership teams vs. boards. There should be term limits to balance new life with experience and to prevent leader exhaustion.
- There’s a balance in the team around the table. The team should include all the necessary ingredients but not duplication. But, there should be some level of immunity to cover when needed if someone is “sick” or missing.
- When a team member is underperforming we should consider the following before letting them go. Retraining, Repositioning, Retiring. Consider working with an A, B, C system, this can give clarity but the grading cannot replace ongoing communication. “The kindest form of management is the truth”
- Consider having two people involved with evaluation of staff to ensure that a fuller picture is presented to the person.

Leading in a New Reality- Bill Hybels

Think about the challenge you face as an external environment you’re leading in. The challenge is external to your internal reality. - Jim's opening

Leading In a New Reality
Bill Hybels
- Dispassionate decision making. There’s a good goal
- Storms require constant action
- How can we be MORE of the church to one another during a storm?
- On Sunday, minister to people before they leave again to face their challenges. Our services should be “all killer, no filler”
- Wise financial management in the church IS critical- when storms (rogue waves) hit, cash reserves give leaders what they need, which is time.

DISCUSS: Rate existing activities and ministry programs in A, B, & C buckets. C = what would we stop doing first. A= what would we NEVER stop doing.

- In a financial downturn people ARE hungry to hear about God’s way of money management. Is Sunset doing enough?
- Do I believe that God is capable of doing great things in our day. Hab 3:2

How did God do great things in history?
People totally yielded to Him; Are we attracting them, hiring them, creating an environment where they thrive? Mentoring them to their full potential, are we having honest conversations with those on our team who are less than totally yielded.

DISCUSS: How many critical seats are there on our team? How many of those seats are filled with the right people who are fired up and gifted. What is our plan for filling other seats. Are we developing a back up for each seat. Do this exercise on your team every six months.

- How am I doing personally? Is my life sustainable? Do I have an adequate replenishment strategy? Romans 8:6. Would I describe my life as full of life and peace?

DISCUSS: How full is your bucket? What fills it? What drains it? Good self leadership means reinventing adequate replenishment strategies for new realities.

The best thing I bring to ministry leadership is a full bucket, full of optimism in God.