Vic & Gwen's Journey

Vic listened to this book while riding bike. It is a powerful and thought provoking book and well worth the time and effort. If you are only going to read 6 books this year, this should be one of them!

This audio presentation is the best Vic has listened to for a very long time if not ever. The whole five hours was full of excellent speakers presenting their viewpoints on Leading like Jesus. If you listen to only one audio book in your life, make it this one!

Vic has finished reading this excellent little book by Steve McVey again and was reminded of the amazing grace that God has shown to us - and that we need to better understand as we seek to allow Him to live out His life in and through us. One of many favorite quotes: "Abiding in Christ cannot be seperated from expressing the life of Christ. Any grape which abides in the vine is both experiencing and expressing the life of the vine. Many want to produce an expression of Christian ministry without abiding in Him. The result is empty religious ritual which produces a ministry of death. When the Christian religion is lacking the life of Christ, it has no more power or status than any other religion."

Vic listened to this rather short book and felt it was okay. It is simply put a series of interviews by Ken Blanchard with a number of Christian businessmen and women. Some good points are shared as these people explain how they have succeded in business while staying true to their Biblical principles.

Gwen & Vic have both listened to this audio book and found it well worth the time. It has some very good points to consider and can be very helpful in terms of getting oneself a bit more on track.

This audio book took a while to listen to, but it was fun, interesting and insightful. It gave good historical perspective to the whole Polo saga and also helped in getting to know the Mongols and the era of Kublai Kan. Almost 17 hours of interesting story telling.

Vic has listened to this short fable by Lencioni. It was a good reminder of what to avoid as one goes through life and especially if one is in a leadership position. Vic likes Lencioni's books and would recommend them to anyone who likes this style of using a fable or story to teach significant truths.

Vic listened to this short classic by Drucker and friends while riding bike one afternoon. Very good little book, and good reminders about asking the right questions as we seek to engage in our work and lives.

Vic listened to this audio book during the first week of January. Remember the One Minute Manager? This is another book by the same author and is written as a story or fable about a manager who is looking to empower his team. "Marvin the Manager" learns from a number of others about three keys to empowerment: sharing information with everyone; creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing the old hierarchy with self-directed teams. This was a great little book and if we had read this a few years back it would have made a huge difference in a process of "re-envisioning" that we went through with our previous organization.

This book was a gift from some of our mentor friends. Gwen just finished it, and really found it inspirational. Throughout the book Ruth Haley Barton reflects on the life of Moses and highlights his relationship with God as he seeks wisdom and truth in his journey with the Israelites. She encourages the reader to seek God in a more personal and intimate way. In the final chapter Ruth points out that, "In our encounters with God we die not only to the expectations of others but also to ourselves - our addiction to performing, to looking good and being perfect, to attaining more status than is good for us. Because we are experiencing ourselves to be deeply loved by God, we begin to recognize an inner freedom that is beyond what we ever thought possible. We can handle an enormous amount of success and failure without losing our identity..." It is a powerful book indeed.

Vic & Gwen have both finished listening to this audio book. It was an interesting story, written in the first person but seems actually to be a kind of a parable. It is a story of discovery and learning regarding vision and purpose. There are three main issues discussed while covering the main topic of vision.  The simple formula is explained in a "real world" setting without becomming overly simplistic as the author covers the issues of having significant purpose, clear values, and a firm picture of the future. In fact, this could be one of the easiest ways to develop an understanding of this sometimes overcomplicated process of vision, purpose, values, etc. We have sat through enough boring and confusing meetings where the goal was the same but the process almost unbearable!

Vic finally made it through this book by John Piper. It's long and full of good stuff, but that is no excuse for taking so long to get through it.  The concept of future grace is powerful as we consider how our day to day life can be impacted - and uplifted - by the grace bestowed on us by God, both in the past, today and tomorrow.

Vic read this book on coaching and has benefited a lot from what he has read and learned. In fact we have implemented some of the ideas in this book and used them in our training already. Although it is  about 5 years old - which is old in the field of life-coaching - Germaine & Jed have documented some really important aspects of interacting with others as people helpers, and there is no doubt that we will be reading this book together again some time soon.

Gwen enjoyed istening to this audio book. She says it gave her insights into history as well as challenged her thinking in term sof strategic leadership.

From Publishers Weekly
"Nasr, a professor at George Washington University and a living legend in Islamic studies, was commissioned by Harper San Francisco to write this book after the attacks of September 11. Presented as "an explanation of the authentic teachings of Islam anew in light of the challenges of the present-day situation," this is an adequate and accurate reference tool, particularly for comparisons of the text of the holy books of the three major, monotheistic Western religions. Further, Nasr's ability to perceive profound spiritual meaning from Islamic theory, though exploited only a few times in this book, has no rival. The writing is best when he's discussing his own life. He also succeeds when taking on current critics of Islam, especially his persuasive counter-arguments to the "What Went Wrong?" school of thought. However, Nasr's fans, and those seeking to improve their understanding of Islam, will be disappointed. In aiming to discuss each value that is significant in Islam, Nasr has created an unfocused, sometimes dull book. He discusses the importance of values like justice and community and distinguishes between true Islam and local, tribal culture, but the absence of a guiding thesis alienates the reader. Though his purpose is to counter negativity about Islam in the post-9/11 era, Nasr instead rambles on about esoteric, irrelevant points. This is an unengaging read that fails to illuminate the titular "heart" of Islam."

Vic is reading this book at the moment as he continues to seek to understand the part of the world we live in and the people who live as our neighbors around us.

Vic has started this book which was recommended to me by one of my mentors, and has been struck by what he has read so far. He's just finished the first section, which is entitled “The Trouble with Success.” The premise of the book is stated at the end of the first chapter:

You are here.

You can get there.

But you have to understand that what got you here won’t get you there.

Let the journey begin.

The core of this first section is found to the chapter titled “The Success Delusion, or Why We Resist Change.” Here we are informed that there are four key beliefs that have helped us to become successful and that each of these can also make it tough for us to change. These four key beliefs (core beliefs?) are as follows: ¹⁾ I have succeeded - successful people believe in their skills and talents. This “I have succeeded” belief, positive as it is most times, only becomes an obstacle when behavioral change is needed for various reasons. ²⁾ I can succeed – I am confident that I can succeed. Successful people literally believe that through sheer force of personality or talent or brainpower, they can steer a situation in their direction. One of the greatest mistakes of successful people is the assumption, “I am successful. I behave this way. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way!” The challenge is to help them see that sometimes they are successful in spite of the way they behave, not because of it. ³⁾ I will succeed – I have the motivation to succeed. Successful people tend to pursue opportunities with an enthusiasm that others find mystifying. This explains why successful people tend to be extremely busy and face the danger of over commitment (No Margin Ned!) Over commitment can be as serious an obstacle to change as believing you don’t need to change in the first place. ⁴⁾ I choose to succeed – successful people believe that they are doing what they are doing because they choose to do it. Unfortunately, getting people who think “I have chosen to succeed” to say “and I choose to change” is not an easy transition. Easy to say, hard to do. The more we believe that our behavior is a result of our own choices and commitments, the less likely we are to want to change our behavior.

Marshall shared one statement that really caught my attention. He said that almost every participant who attends his leadership development programs intends to apply what he or she has learned back on the job. Most do, and get better! And as the research shows, many do absolutely nothing; they may as well have spent their time watching sitcoms instead of attending the training program. When the “do-nothings” are asked why they didn’t implement the behavioral change that they had committed to, by far the most common response is “I meant to, but I just didn’t have the time to get to it.”

Vic enjoyed this book, and as the title suggests, it is a short history of Asia. Great swaths of time are covered in leaping bounds, but the overall puzzle is coming together in a way that helps one to begin the process of understanding  why the picture looks like it does today. One also starts to understand why one can never take shortcuts towards understanding the complexity and shadow play that is Asia.

Vic has started this book and the jury is still out. Some really good points, but the style is not a favorite. Stay tuned.

It's time for both of us to read this one through again. It's been a powerful influence on us in the past as we read it individually, and we are going to work through it together this time.