Daily Concern

KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid

Undoubtedly you’ve heard the acronym KISS which is short for “Keep it Short and Simple”, or in recent years, “Keep it Simple, Stupid”. We’re currently in an era where simplicity is embraced like never before, from Apple’s products to Twitter. However, while the concept is timeless, we need a constant reminder otherwise society trends back to complexity.

In our jobs we use tools for email, calendars, contacts, tasks, notes, and project management. We then realize we’re overwhelmed and study things like Getting Things Done and Inbox Zero seeking greatly simplicity.

As Christians we attend churches, both small and large, that offer countless events, programs, and classes. We sign up for small groups, bible studies, and retreats. And then we complain we’re not being fed spiritually. Jesus saw this behavior first hand with the Pharisees and Sadducees. They followed complex rules, hierarchies, and rituals that they believed must be followed in order to follow God and his commandments. While the law was established by the Lord the Pharisees and Sadducees went awry by placing the rituals above their relationship with God and others.

In Mark 12:28 – 33, one of the teachers of the law asks Jesus which of the commandments is the most important. Jesus replied “The most important one is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

It’s pretty convicting that in this age of simplicity that Jesus embraced the concept of simplicity as well. He gave us just two primary goals… measurable ones. Despite the simple and straightforward nature of the goals, I fail to achieve them regularly.

I feel that this is one of things that led us to take our trip to Ecuador. To get away from the Internet, email, blackberry, and over-the-top worship services. To see how the rest of the world lives – without things we take for granted like clean running water and electricity. Although our time in Ecuador was never without these amenities it was a wakeup call to see so many in need. I’ll blog about our experience there in the coming days.

Suffice it to say, keep it simple. You don’t need another in depth Bible study to understand what God’s message in Mark 12:28 – 33.

God bless,

Curtis S

Passion-nut

If you don’t know me, let me set the record straight. I LOVE the University of Oklahoma. And I especially love OU football. They lost their 5th straight BCS bowl game on Thursday and their 3rd BCS title game. Maybe it's because they played on Jan 8th - that's normally a bad idea.

Why do I care so much about the Sooners, or the Dallas Cowboys, or whether my +30 golf handicap is better than my co-worker? Why do I lose sleep over a stupid football game? Why do I care if I win in golf when I so obviously suck at the game? Because I have passion. Passion drives me to love things, not just like them. Passion causes me to improve even in areas I’m not naturally gifted at. Passion keeps my mind racing with product ideas and problem solving in the middle of the night. Passion causes me to work harder, study longer, and care more – for just about everything.

Passion is not a bad thing. Sure I’m disappointed that the Sooners lost... again. But as the great philosopher Tony Romo said after a tough loss to the Eagles “If this the worst thing to happen to me then I’ve lived a blessed life”. Without passion, I would be impassionate. I would simply exist. I wouldn’t care. I wouldn’t feel pain. And without pain or loss we cannot fully appreciate or understand joy. So I embrace passion. I endure pain. I embrace challenges. I persevere. I strive to do better the next time. I attempt to learn from my mistakes. (And I assume the Sooners do too!) And when I or my teams (work or recreation) succeed, then success is all the more sweet.

I am thankful God instilled passion within me. My prayer is that I harness it and direct it towards things that matter. Like my faith, my wife, my family, my church, my community, Fellowship Tech, my co-workers, and our clients. If the Sooners, or the Boys’ or the Mavs do win a championship (albeit not likely) then that’s simply icing on the cake.

God bless,

Curtis S

Removing Excuses

A key aspect of leadership, perhaps one of the most important, is to clear any barriers or impediments to success for your team. I sometimes jokingly refer to it as “removing excuses”. I’m not suggesting that your team is looking for excuses not to accomplish their tasks and/or goals. But I wouldn’t be surprised that you’ve heard them list a number of reasons they fell short of their original plan. Some were likely legitimate and others were barriers you might have liked for them to push past.

It begins with telling your teacher “my dog ate my homework” or the one I heard from my son after he took the ACT test a second time and came back with a lower score than the first time, he said “My battery died in my calculator during the test”. It carries forward into the professional life with “My computer died”, “We ‘thought’ the back-ups were working”, “I didn’t think we had it in the budget”, and “I just didn’t have the time”.

Your role as a leader is to maintain open lines of communication with your team, ask them probing questions, make sure you understand if there are any technology, financial, hardware, software, or personnel barriers that will impede their success, and then remove them. It’s likely far more important that they are productive than you are.

If their laptop is outdated and inhibiting productivity, then upgrade it or replace it. If their keyboard is broken hand them yours until an adequate replacement can be found. If you believe they need a $40 book from Amazon to get them to the next level, then order it for them. You get the idea. Certainly you can’t solve every issue as they would expect. That’s where creativity comes in. Perhaps you cannot afford the specific thing they believe they need but you can help to find an adequate compromise.

Regardless, be aware of their inhibitors and then make every effort to clear the path for them to be productive.

Advent Conspiracy

www.AdventConspiracy.org

What’s said on this blog, stays on this blog?

When I moved my blog back to being a purely personal one I started to put in the standard disclaimer that I see on many blog sites, especially those of Church IT folks, they always say “My views, thoughts and opinions are my own and do not represent XYZ church”. That sounds great, but it’s simply not reality. Through existing and emerging technologies like Email, Instant Messenger, Blogs, Text Messaging, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter we have more opportunities than ever in the history of the world to stick your foot in your mouth.

There’s a mound of evidence that no immunity necklace exists for personal blogs and their disclaimers, even if your content is purely personal in nature. Check out a sampling of the stories here, here, and here.

So you must be on guard at all times. When you talk about yourself, your company, your church, your co-workers, etc. then you are not just representing yourself, you’re also representing them to some extent. You are influencing their reputation, positively or negatively. 

Once it’s out there in the world wide Interweb you can’t take it back. I learned that the hard way in 1995. I was only a few years removed from college. Shortly after joining a telecom company, I was invited to a meeting with some executives from a budding start-up company. It was very cool to be a participant in the meeting. They shared their short-term and long-term roadmap, many innovative things that propelled them to lead the market through the next 5 years.

I couldn’t wait to get access to all of the new features. Unfortunately, I was still very young and naive. So I went back to my desk and used this new “tool” called the Internet that was beginning to explode. I wanted to share my excitement with others so I posted my thoughts on a “bulletin board” (it was the big thing back them). My post was quickly replicated around the world (who knew?). Within an hour I was called into a Vice President’s office as tech engineers in another room tried to figure out how to remove my post. Turns out that my company was under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the start-up company and I had inadvertently shared some corporate secrets. Doh! I thought was going to get fired on the spot. I tried to claim ignorance because they didn’t inform me of the NDA between the two companies. But they reminded me that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Thankfully I was able to keep my job that day, but I’ve been extra cautious ever since.

God bless,

Curtis S

Blessed Beyond Belief

As we near Thanksgiving I'm reminded how very blessed I am. It's impossible to list everything but here are a few highlights. I'm thankful for...

• My salvation in Christ
• My beautiful wife Melissa
• My wonderful kids, Colton and Mercedes
• My church, where my family thinks this, this, and this is commonplace at every church in America
• Faith Christian, where my wife teaches and my children attend school, and where amazing stories like this happen regularly
• My role at Fellowship Technologies, where I can work alongside an excellent team of 60+ individuals committed to changing the world by changing the church world

God bless,

Curtis S

Don’t commoditize what God made unique

Commonly leaders refer to (and treat) individuals within organizations as "resources" as if they're a commodity like grain or corn. You'll hear management refer to their people as their "most valuable resource". They establish Human "Resource" departments. They also refer to them as a "work"-force or "labor"-force.

Is it any wonder then that the individuals in these organizations begin to feel de-humanized and commoditized?

Don't commoditize what God made unique. As a leader you must establish personal relationships with each of the individuals within your direct circle of influence. Each person that works for you or with you is a unique creation of God. Each one has different interests, feelings, likes and dislikes. Each one prefers adoration and affirmation in a distinctive manner. Some like hand-written notes, others like verbal words of encouragement. Each one receives and responds to constructive criticism and correction in a different way.

One of the best things our HR Director (yes, through tradition we still use the term ‘Human Resources') introduced into our culture at Fellowship Tech was an individual survey that captured information about each person's favorite colors, foods, music, etc. It asked them for their preferred method of receiving feedback and affirmation. She distributed the completed surveys to each of the team leads for those under their span of care.

Without this information I would never have know that someone from my team loved U2 or another liked Cherry Garcia ice cream. Many preferred verbal public affirmation for a job well done over a financial gift. I've found the information to be invaluable. It allows me to provide feedback to my individual team members in a way that matches their uniqueness.

Of course, a survey can not replace or supplant "quality" time spent with each individual. Sitting down over coffee or lunch to patiently listen to their frustrations and their successes is a must. If they stop by your office unexpectedly, it's best that you turn towards them and look them directly in their eyes while they speak rather than allowing your eyes and attention to dart back-n-forth between your computer monitor, blackberry, or your watch.

These things may seem self evident but too often our actions betray our intent. You may have intended to listen patiently but your body language indicated differently. I know I've been guilty of this far too many times to count.

So take to the time to get to know the people on your team. Each one is a unique child of God and needs to be treated as such.

God bless,

Curtis S

No means ‘No’ when referring to Tomatoes

was empty I was full of optimism as I carefully placed my order through the faceless drive-in. "A number one with cheese, no tomato, and a Dr. Pepper". The person repeated the order back to me "A number one with cheese, no tomato, and a Dr. Pepper". I naively thought to myself "They're going to get my order correct!" I pulled forward, paid for my order, and they handed me the sack with the receipt attached. I rarely ever check the receipt but I did this time and wasn't disappointed. The order clearly stated "minus Tomato".

I was brimming with pleasure and satisfaction as I reached in to get my burger. What's that? It feels too big, too heavy. Oh no, not again... Yep, you guessed it. I lifted the bun to find three large slices of a tomato sunk deeply into the cheese and soaked into the bun. My spirits fell, I was dejected, wronged once again. What started with such hope and promise ended just like every other trip I've made through a drive-thru. I like tomatoes as much as George Dubya likes broccoli. 

Why do we even bother customizing our order at a drive thru? Why are these businesses and employees so indifferent? Is it a lack of training? A lack of knowledge or tools? Or a lack of motivation and emotional connectedness to their work?

Do you feel under qualified for your work? I do. Could you use more training? I could. Do you believe that more money for the proper tools, software and personnel is needed? I do. However, if you think about it, we'll always feel that way regardless of what opportunities or resources are at our disposal.

What we need most of all is to remember who we work for. Regardless of whether you flip burgers, gather trash, write software, lead people, teach children, or preach the word - we all should work as if we're working for the Lord not for men. God expects our best, our very best. I believe it's a good thing and a God thing to sweat the small details. Seek out excellence not just enough to get by.

This is one of the reasons I love working for Fellowship Tech. Sure there are times we must compromise, make concessions, or we fall short of our goals or others' expectations. However, our standards remain high. We have 100s of areas in which we are seeking to improve but I can assure you that our staff is committed to excellence, committed to a Colossians 3:23 attitude.

So next time leave off the tomato, go the extra mile, strive for excellence.

God bless,

Curtis S

Facing a Mid-Life (Technology) Crisis

Lately I feel like I'm entering into a mid-life crisis. But this one is neither biological nor emotional. Coloring my hair and buying a red sports car won't make me feel any better (ok, well maybe it will). No, this crisis is a technology one. You see, much like when my metabolism slowed to crawl after I passed 30 so has my ability to keep up with technology.

For the first 10yrs of my career I was a programmer and an application architect working with a wide array of technologies like C++, Java, Unix, Windows, Oracle, SQL Server, WebSphere, WebLogic, IIS, etc., etc. I had a voracious appetite for technology. However, over time, I moved into broader leadership roles and before I knew it my technology life was passing before my eyes. Here at Fellowship Technologies I have a wide range of teams that report to me, from Data Center Operations to Customer Services to Professional Services and Product Development. Time and other factors preclude me from exercising my tech skills as heavily as I did in the past. When I recently celebrated my 3rd anniversary at Fellowship Tech I realized that I may have indeed become... dare I say it?... a "Generalist".

I believe I'm still an effective leader. My background in SaaS technologies and architectures allows me to challenge the team's ideas and help to ensure we've arrived at the best possible solutions. Solutions that serve our current customers well and scales effectively and efficiently in the future. But thankfully both for my team, and for our customers, I am no longer making the daily, low level, technology decisions, I leave those to our experts.

Here are a few of the warning signs of a Mid-Life Technology Crisis (perhaps you to are exhibiting a few of these):

10. You find yourself writing down terms and acronyms used by the team during a meeting and then secretly Googling them later to figure out what they mean

9. You use a formerly relevant TLA (Three Letter Acronym) such as "DTD" and your team begins to refer to you as "Grandpa"

8. You have to get assistance to setup a blog reader because it now suddenly seems as difficult as it is for your Dad to set the time on a VCR

7. Your iPod is filled with PodCasts of the McLaughlin Group and episodes of The Office

6. You get a new laptop and after your install Microsoft Office you realize that you really don't need to install anything else to do your job effectively

5. You begin to lower your screen resolution rather than raise it so you can read the text without squinting

4. When the team was speaking about Scrum and Agile you pipe in with a comment about Rugby

3. You prefer to be in bed eating a toaster pizza watching The Colbert Report rather than staying up till 2am watching Microsoft's Channel 9 vlogs

2. You have to get your teen age son to help "fix" your computer

1. Pulling an "all-nighter" now means you didn't have to get up out of bed to go to the bathroom

I'm clearly exhibiting all 10 of these behaviors so I'm now focusing on other skills like leadership, team building, vision casting, metrics, best practices, etc. I will miss being in the thick of technology things but I'm finding that these new areas are just as challenging and fun.

God Bless,

Curtis S

Accelerate with Passion

At our Dynamic Church Conference in May 2008 we were blessed to have Randy Draper, a business leader, lay leader at Fellowship Church, and dynamic speaker, give a keynote speech titled Accelerate with Passion. If you are feeling a bit down, stuck in a rut, frustrated with your current position or responsibilities, or just need a bit of inspiration then I strongly encourage you to take some time to watch Randy's message. I promise that you'll be challenged, inspired, and likely laugh out loud. Feel free to pass it along to others who might benefit from it as well.

I've embedded the video below, you can also access it www.vimeo.com/fellowshiptech (All of our future videos will be hosted at that address)

Enjoy and God bless!

Dynamic Church 08 - Randy Draper - Accelerate with Passion from Fellowship Technologies on Vimeo.