A lesson from the AFL. Actually, here are four that will help improve your business.
I’ve fallen in love with the Australian Football League (AFL). “Aussie rules” isn’t rugby or new (the first game was in 1858). Here’s my truth – when you first watch Australian rules football it looks silly. The opening bounce, the short shorts and sleeveless tops, the waving of flags following a score, and the sideline throw-ins. They all create a sense it’s more spectacle than sport. But when you understand the objectives and strategies, you realize these are superb athletes suited to this particular contest. Players run between seven and 12 miles per game. Miles. A half-marathon while 18 opponents seek to tackle or otherwise harass them.
A lesson from the AFL. Your business makes sense to you because you are immersed in it every day.
New team members need to understand the objective and strategies of your business. Understand why its silliness has significant historical or cultural roots. And don’t assume it makes sense to the casual observer or your first-year intern. Like any sport, players in the AFL are slotted into particular roles based on different factors – kicking or handballing ability, speed, and size.
Mason Cox is an anomaly. A marginal D1 basketball player, he is an AFL star. His size and acumen for the game have made the Texan a celebrity in his adopted country. Even so, there are far more Australians in American football than Americans in the AFL.
A lesson from the AFL. You should look for talent without succumbing to presumptions about personality types, education, or previous experience.
Each of these may contribute to a team member’s success, but shouldn’t be determinative when hiring. After onboarding, develop strategies for slotting talent into the right seats. And evaluate whether this was done successfully. The team member you think is the wrong person may just be in the wrong seat.
When a player in the AFL scores a goal, team members run to rub the scorer’s head, hug him, high-five, or express another form of affirmation. Older players encourage young players and teams celebrate professional debuts (“day-boos”).
Perhaps it is cultural, but athletes in American sports are less expressive in their support of one another. Especially at the professional level where the emphasis is often on individual performance and compensation. Despite well-rehearsed answers written by PR experts about the importance of team.
A lesson from the AFL. You should develop HR-approved ways of expressing affirmation
You should honor the different preferences people have for receiving praise. But don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate as a team. Encourage seasoned team members to mentor newer team members. And recognize the excitement of a professional “day-boo.”
The AFL is evolving. I’ve seen rule changes the brief time I’ve watched it and COVID impacted the 2020 season in significant ways. This year the “man on the mark rule” was changed, which enraged purists. Just Google “change to the man on the mark rule in Australian Rules Football.” And you’ll see many were not happy. But when the season began, most commentators agreed the game was faster and the scoring higher. Two keys to growing the sport’s audience.
A lesson to remember iw that change is never-ceasing
Try to anticipate consequences from proposed changes (laws usually suffer from unintended consequences). And train team members on the why’s and how’s of new processes. Don’t refuse to evolve. And never lose sight of your customer or let purists prevent you from thriving as your industry changes. I don’t know that you’ll love “footy” like I do. But I hope you’ll gain insight from the lesson from the AFL that I’ve learned by watching it.
About Julian Consulting
Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.
Writing a church comedy drama can be fun and rewarding. They may be amateur productions, but don’t have to be amateurish. You have many talented church members to call on. Maybe not professional comedians, but they can still be funny. Other professionals in your church can also provide needed resources.
In one of our church productions, a church member who was a commercial, graphic designer created a set design that far surpassed what a local professional scene designer accomplished. He also produced all the visual marketing material. And another church member who owned a local manufacturing company made a fake display of elevators that supported the event.
They were so real looking that during the night of the production, guests that didn’t attend the church tried to use them. Now that was funny!
Use these tips to guide your efforts for church productions that make a spiritual impact.
Decide on a Theme for Your Church Comedy Drama
Whether it’s a 4-5 minute skit or a full play, start with the theme. Write it down in one or two sentences. If you start writing your script without nailing down the theme, you may write funny jokes just to get a laugh. It’s a common trap for those who enjoy writing comedy.
Humor is extremely effective when writing church comedy skits and drama. But in a church context, it should always focus on making a spiritual point. So be clear at the start what that spiritual point is and keep that target always before you.
For example, in my one-act, church comedy drama, What’s In a Promise? the theme is… God made a promise to us that He kept, so we should keep the promises we make. The entire church comedy script is written to support that theme and the resolution supports it too.
Create Characters For Your Church Comedy Drama
Professional actors are skilled at changing their persona to match a variety of different funny characters. Their professional career depends on the ability to be versatile. You give them a funny character and that’s who they become.
In church comedy, you’re mostly working with amateur actors. Although, there are many people in your congregation with natural comedy acting abilities too. It’s just not what they do all the time, so they’re not as versatile in portraying humorous characters as a professional actor. They tend to have a few, funny personas where they excel, but as they move away from characters that are natural for them, they become more stilted.
So rather than create funny characters and then ask your actors to portray them, create humor that is tailored to the natural strengths of your actors. In other words, think of the natural abilities and personalities of the people you want to use as actors, and then create comedy characters and humor that feature their strengths.
Does someone have a funny, foreign accent? Can they impersonate someone famous? Do they have a natural tendency you can exaggerate to create humor? The more you capitalize on their natural, humorous abilities, the more natural and funnier they will be.
Use Popular People in Your Congregation For Your Church Comedy Drama
Is there a favorite church usher that everyone adores? And he has a funny habit you can exploit? A church youth pastor with a well-known quirk? Impersonate these people and exaggerate their particular traits and quirks to make your church comedy skit funny. Of course, be sure they possess a sense of humor and don’t mind getting picked on a little. People can be a little funny about laughing when the joke is on them.
Things that might not be that funny generally, will be hilarious to your congregation. And can be used effectively to make a spiritual point in a church comedy skit used to enhance a sermon.
What about the time someone slipped in the church baptistery and splashed water into the choir loft? Something funny that happened on a church retreat or mission trip that everyone knows about? They make great material for church comedy skits and your congregation will laugh harder because they’re all in the joke.
Keep these three tips in mind as you write your scripts and you’ll produce church comedy skits and dramas that are both funny and spiritually effective.About Chip Tudor:
Chip Tudor is an author, blogger and professional writer. He publishes books, humorous Christian drama, and thought provoking blogs from a Christian worldview.This blog is originally published here.
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What does an Easter Pivot have in common with March Madness Road to the Final Four? Both present unexpected surprises. And both involve changes in direction. In the case of Easter, however, those pivots have eternal significance. Here are four pivots that explain the Easter Story.
The First Easter Pivot Is When Mankind Broke The Relationship With God
Some people claim God is an Almighty, ill-tempered Being. Like a petty child, looking to zap us all with thunderbolts. And you can build a sour image of God if you collect enough Old Testament passages taken out of context. Although, you have to completely ignore all the ones that speak of God’s love and care for His creation.
But here’s the point. Early on in the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were good with God. The Garden of Eden was an environmentally friendly place to live. Adam, Eve and God hung out together. Only one restriction. Don’t eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. Which they did. In disobedience to God.
It did not change God or his heart for mankind. He was and is the same. But it did change the relationship. Because now, sin messed it up. And rather than walk with God, they pivoted and walked away from God. And today, walking away from God is our natural tendency.
The Second Easter Pivot Is When God Sent His Son To Mend The Relationship
If God was the ill-tempered Being people claim, He would have walked away too. But He didn’t. He didn’t shrug and let us all die in our sin. Or completely wiped us out and start over. Instead, God pivoted and sent His son Jesus Christ as a perfect sacrifice. Because only a perfect sacrifice payed the penalty for sin. And only Jesus qualified as perfect.
Jesus was a game changer. He amazed everyone with his miracles. Taught with a level of spiritual insight and wisdom unlike anyone before or since. And created a global following that has flourished for 2,000 years.
The Third Easter Pivot Is When Jesus Was Resurrected
Jesus willingly died the horrible death of Roman crucifixion. Not a humanly rational decision by most standards. But humanly possible.
The resurrection, however, is something only God can do. You know, the Almighty Being that some accuse of being petty and ill-tempered?
The resurrection was an Easter pivot away from certain death. It gives you and me an opportunity to renew a relationship with God.
The Fourth Pivot Is Up To You And Me
Although my natural tendency is to reject God, I can choose instead, an Easter pivot. To change directions. And move towards God in a new relationship. God forgives my sin. But I have to ask for it. And receive the gift Jesus sacrificed himself to give me. But I must choose to follow him.
And when I do, it puts me on a new road. With a final outcome full of joy and hope. And represents the Easter Story.
FDIC is the guarantor of emotional intelligence for an organization. It helps you address and navigate emotional challenges and evaluate your progress as an organization.
During Coronavirus we binge-watched Scorpion. The storyline is built around a team of geniuses who solve large-scale threats while struggling with healthy interpersonal relationships.
The plots are ridiculous – you repeatedly suspend disbelief as they hang from helicopters, fall from space, sink in quicksand while they save one another and the world.
Why did we keep watching? Because we enjoyed the character development. Walter, the leader of Scorpion, struggled with EQ or Emotional Intelligence.
When Dealing With Emotional Intelligence Sometimes Right Isn’t Enough.
You must persuade people to do what is right. Leaders and managers face the tension between what is true and what is effective daily. You need to be right and persuasive, not merely right.
Therefore, I introduce you to FDIC.
This is not the organization that insures your bank accounts, but an acronym for addressing interpersonal challenges and expressing EQ.
When you develop or change behaviors in yourself or others, the FDIC helps you evaluate your progress.
How often does this behavior happen? If it is a negative behavior, you look for frequency to decrease over time. If an employee is sarcastic during meetings and is pushing other team members away, then you need to coach this employee that sarcasm is rarely the appropriate response in a professional setting.
The Frequency Of Behavior Related To Emotional Intelligence
It is unlikely that someone who has spent years honing his art of sarcastic wit will be able to turn off this spigot on the spot. More likely the frequency of sarcasm will drop with repeated encouragement and drawing his attention to the behavior when it emerges instinctually.
For positive behaviors you are often seeking the increase in frequency. Following a checklist for a repeated process may be tedious, but when your team members do this with increasing frequency the number of errors plummet.
Those demonstrating emotional intelligence will exhibit behaviors with the appropriate frequency.
The Duration Of Behavior Related To Emotional Intelligence
How long does the incident last? Can team members have productive healthy conflict to resolve issues without it becoming personal? Many people say they can do this, but they are still drawn in personally and feel attacked or diminished.
Can they abandon this defensive posture quickly or do they get stuck there, unable to hear the issue that is actually the focus of the conversation? Do they continue to freeze out their colleague over the subsequent days and weeks?
Of course, there are behaviors you want to last indefinitely. Commitment to the team should not wax and wane, but should remain consistent or grow over an extended period.
Duration is a reliable indicator of emotional intelligence. Someone who holds a grudge for months or years is not sufficiently mature.
The Intensity Of Behavior Related To Emotional Intelligence
How quickly does a team member ramp up emotionally? Do they turn it up to 11 when 7 would be more than sufficient? How intense is the exchange?
Some people react quickly but are able to harness their emotions rather than allowing them to gallop out of control, trampling everyone around them.
Some personality styles can react with intensity because they are attempting to persuade, others because they feel that values or relationships are being threatened.
Intensity or passion is desirable at times, but can be inappropriate when the reaction is more than is called for and becomes threatening or repulses others rather than drawing them in. You want people who can be intense, passionate at the appropriate times.
Being emotionally flat can be an inappropriate lack of intensity. Some personality styles need to express their strong emotions by naming them because they tend to appear disinterested in most situations.
“I’m so excited” even if said with little emotion is better than not letting people in at all so that they are left to wonder if you care. Intensity needs to be calibrated to the topic and audience. Ability to calibrate intensity effectively is a sign of emotional intelligence.
The Context Of Behavior Related To Emotional Intelligence
Frequency, duration, and intensity are each part of the equation. Understanding the context is also essential. I’ve alluded to context in describing each of the other three, but it is its own element that needs to be considered.
Can you read the environment around you to know the appropriate mix of frequency, duration, and intensity that will produce the desired outcome?
When your boss conducts a regularly scheduled performance review, it is probably not the context for airing your grievances with the organization and leadership. Sometimes it feels good to be completely honest but rarely is that the appropriate strategy, regardless of context.
Coaching team members to read contexts is a skill essential to professional success. It is part of emotional intelligence because it reflects a judgment about what is wise rather than what is convenient or emotionally satisfying.
Summarizing The FDIC
Put these four elements together and you will demonstrate emotional intelligence. This isn’t the stuff of genius, but of ordinary human beings. You may not save the world but perhaps become more persuasive, more productive, and more relationally effective. For most of us, that is enough.
About:
Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.
The big idea behind a Biblical worldview. Okay, actually, the Bible presents many big ideas. But here are three foundational to the Christian faith.
The Big Idea Behind A Biblical Worldview. Authority of scripture.
The Bible teaches that God is perfect, all powerful, all knowing and everywhere at once. Concepts that are impossible for my mind to grasp. But the big idea I can grasp is that God is the ultimate authority.
Furthermore, the Bible insists the scriptures are His authoritative word. His absolute truth. That’s why Christ-followers read, study and quote the Bible. It provides practical guidance and insightful instructions to follow.
Not because God is a control freak. But because scripture tells us how to live in community and get along with one another.
So we submit first to God’s ultimate authority and then to civil government that is granted authority by God. And we can resist civil authority only when it abuses its power and violates God’s ultimate authority.
And since God’s word is absolute truth, we can’t just arbitrarily reject the parts we don’t like. Toss out what doesn’t fit into our personal worldview. Because God’s word, like God is unchanging.
But here’s the problem. Modern society and its ideas do change. And are now changing rapidly. That’s why the Biblical worldview and modern culture worldview are clashing. And the sound is growing louder.
The Big Idea Behind A Biblical Worldview Includes Sanctity
Sanctity begins with a sense of reverence. First, reverence for a Holy God. The creator and sustainer of life.
God ascribes value to every human life. From within the womb to the end of life.
And because He does, we should too. Value it. Protect it. And work to promote human flourishing around the world.
But sanctity extends beyond the physical world to the spiritual form of holiness.
For many, holiness conjures up images of self-righteous people preaching hellfire and brimstone.
But the idea behind holiness is to be set apart. Not pretentious perfection. As if Christ-followers are morally superior. Rather, it’s understanding that in striving to imitate Jesus, your life should resemble his. Not perfectly, but in a recognizable form.
The Big Idea Behind A Biblical Worldview Includes Discipleship
In simple terms, a disciple is a follower. Someone who accepts the teaching of a spiritual leader and commits to following them.
Biblical discipleship is a proactive walk of faith. It recognizes that Christ-followers are transformed by the Spirit of Christ. But it is an ongoing process of spiritual development. One where no one arrives in this life. But complete the journey when we meet him in person.
In a Biblical worldview, Jesus Christ is the leader we follow. Who expects his followers to obey his teachings.
Discipleship is a voluntary commitment. And yet it is demanding. Unyielding in its standards. And one that Jesus warned, would have a cost. Doesn’t sound all that inviting does it?
And yet it is a source of earthly joy, purpose, meaning and hope towards an eternal life. And that’s actually pretty cool sounding.
About Chip Tudor:
Chip Tudor is an author, blogger and professional writer. He publishes books, humorous Christian drama, and thought provoking blogs from a Christian worldview.This blog is originally published here.
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“Sleeping at last” – a phrase that applies in different ways to babies, young adults, and aging parents. I trust you find it meaningful in your current life stage and the ones to come.
Sleeping At Last Related to Babies
My wife Judy mentors young moms. And one of the consistent challenges are babies without sleep schedules or with schedules unaligned with family function. I still remember the first nights we allowed our son to cry himself to sleep. We were challenged that growing babies have expanding lung capacity and letting them cry themselves to sleep will only take longer and be louder the more we waited.
We were assured this would not damage our child’s health or psyche. Now that he is a young adult, I’m happy to report that if he is in therapy one day, crying himself to sleep will not be the focus of those sessions. You have to find your way as parents and you may prefer a different route to the one we traveled. I’m good with that. Just know that I celebrate with you when your child is sleeping at last.
Sleeping At Last Related to Young Adults
I’ve talked about our young adults’ interest in Enneagram – a personality assessment and framework. My initial resistance to Enneagram was reduced, in large measure, by my exposure to the work of Ryan O’Neal who writes, records, and produces as “Atlas.” O’Neal wrote nine songs, one for each of the Enneagram styles and he has a podcast, “Sleeping at Last,” where he describes the creation of each song.
Encouraging Parents
I encourage parents to find a personality assessment that helps you understand your child’s bent. And raise your child with that bent in mind. I’m still learning Enneagram, but I’m thankful for the additional insights it provides into the lives of our young adult children. “Sleeping at Last” is a wonderful resource. Our daughter-in-law is an Enneagram Nine. And I still cry when I hear her song because I see her (as well as our three children by birth) becoming who she is and is meant to be.
Sleeping At Last Related To Aging Parents
Each year, I write a family letter and send it to a broad range of friends and relatives. This past year’s letter has still not been sent. It began as follows: Some years this letter is easy to write, others it is more of a challenge. This year is a bit of both.
We had a great year as a family but are struggling with new realities as my mom had a stroke on Dec 15. Today, on Dec 21, she began her life in heaven. We were encouraged by her confident faith and knowledge she was ready to shed this body for an eternal one.
Shared Experiences
A week before her stroke, a client shared that his mother-in-law suffered a massive stroke. I listened, prayed for him and his family, and genuinely cared. But about 10 days later I had an entirely different appreciation for what he is facing. Empathy is like that. We borrow from other life experiences to feel with those who are going through events we’ve never experienced. Then as we move through our own events, the closer those two become (the event in the life of the other and the event in our own life) the deeper the empathy we can share.
The mom I knew is sleeping at last. But the woman she truly is lives in an unending, pain-free reality where she has/is becoming the person she was created to be. That is our faith and our encouragement. I miss Mom and celebrate the woman who allowed me to cry as needed, encouraged me to understand my wiring, my bent, my personality. She will greet me again one day when this body is sleeping at last.
About:
Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.
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