This Saturday, May 12th from 9am to 12pm, CMIRA will be offering the Who Is My Neighbor workshop. The focus of the workshop is to explore what the Bible says about caring for immigrants and the implications of our faith to the immigration challenges in our country and community.  Beyond exploring the Scriptures, we will also take time to examine some of the complexities of our immigration system.  The workshop will be held at Memphis Teacher Residency at 2181 Union Ave, on the East side of the church.  Parking is behind the church. 

You can RSVP by email to Mike Studdard at mikeaok@gmail.com or on our facebook event page.

David Montague, director of the Memphis Teacher Residency, talks about urban education reform. Why is it important? How do you address it? How is Memphis leading the charge?

This is part 2 of David’s lecture.

Memphis Police Director, Toney Armstrong is the featured guest at the next City Leadership Forum on May 2nd.

Director Armstrong will be sharing with us how to protect your team while protecting others. He was appointed Director in April of 2011 and manages over 2,400 staff at the Memphis Police Department.  Director Armstrong’s distinguished career started in 1989 at the West Precinct. Since then, he has worked his way up the ranks. In 1991 he worked as an undercover operative and investigator. In 1997 he was promoted to Sergeant and worked in the Robbery Division. In 2000, he was promoted to Lieutenant and led the Homicide Division.  In 2008, he was promoted to Major and was featured on the nationally televised police show The First 48. In 2010, he became Deputy Director and managed the police Departments day-to-day operations.  Director Armstrong holds a Psychology degree from Christian Brothers University.

When: Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 *11:15am-12:45pm

Where: Second Presbyterian Church [Google Map]

RSVP: By Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

RSVP HERE

David Montague, director of the Memphis Teacher Residency, talks about urban education reform. Why is it important? How do you address it? How is Memphis leading the charge?

This is part 1 of David’s lecture.

As all of us know, when dealing with other people, other organizations, and other teams, many times the project or initiative bogs down because “you haven’t heard back from him” or “she never emailed me to confirm” or “I’m still waiting on them to send over a fax” or “I called and left a message, but don’t want to bother them again.” When other people get involved besides us, things get more complicated.

If you want to truly get things done, you have to become skilled at the follow up. Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:

1. It’s always your responsibility to initiate. Obviously if you are the one asking for something, then you have to initiate. But even if you’re just part of the project or one of the steps in the project, you need to always feel responsibility to initiate.

2. We’re all busy. Never take offense or get your feelings hurt because someone hasn’t responded to your initial invitation or request. Very rarely is a lack of response personal. It’s just because people are busy.

3. Figure out how best to get an answer. Many people don’t return phone calls anymore, but if you text them, they’ll get right back to you. Be smart. Customize your communication if you want a quick response.

4. Make it easy to get a response. Make sure it’s one step to confirm or respond or get you the information you need. Don’t make folks jump through multiple hoops in order to get you what you need. Remove all the barriers.

5. Create a deadline. Make sure you are very clear in your initial request and in your follow up what you are asking for, as well as when you need it. Sometimes we forget to create urgency and expectations alongside the request.

6. Aggressively pursue until you get a yes or no. If it takes 5 emails, then send 5 emails. If it takes 3 phone calls, make 3 phone calls. Get it to the finish line.

What are some of your secrets in regards to following up and getting things done?

-From bradlomenick.com

Here is one of 100 golden nuggets we wish there had been time for John Malmo to discuss with us yesterday at the Forum.

 Years ago, I had a customer who ran a chain of four-hundred auto tune-up stores. To increase volume, he decided to keep all stores open an extra hour. I recall specifically our conversation about the difficulty of delivering the same quality service in that additional hour as the stores did for the rest of the day: employees can’t be expected to be as effective that extra hour. And, when they aren’t, it jeopardizes the brand’s reputation.

Along those same lines, service companies should be very careful about adding additional services. Especially in home service companies, adding a new service like adding another hour to the workday can backfire.

Say you’re a plumbing firm, and you decide to add electrical services. Or a lawn service company and you add landscaping. The first thing you’ll do is try to get existing customers to buy your new service. And probably a lot will.

The danger is that they will expect the same quality from your new service as the old. If you can’t deliver, you’ll not only lose their electrical business, they’ll find a new plumber, too.

Before you add anything new – an extra hour, an extra service, whatever – be absolutely sure you can deliver with quality equal to your existing business. Or your addition may become a subtraction.

-John Malmo

Links:

Visit John Malmo’s site

Buy John Malmo’s book

Join us at the next Forum

Box Office numbers continue to climb. It seems like a new movie almost every year out does another for record profits. Of course if tickets keep increasing in price by 10-15% a year, this may be inevitable.

But what is interesting is it has little to do with originality. Obviously the story lines in 2011′s movies were original at some point, but they aren’t original today.

It is not that there is not originality out there, but proven money makers get the investments these days. Movies aren’t usually on $10 million budgets any more, they are on $300 million budgets and you can’t afford to take a risk on originality when you are messing with that many zeros.  But dollars and cents are just one of several huge hurdles for creativity on the big screen.

Here is how I think Creativity Waning translates to our everyday world.

Leaders over and over again see something play out well in another organization, church, nonprofit, restaurant, and they copy it. Sometimes this works amazingly. Other times it fails miserably.

Leaders Copy because they are scared.  Scared of failing. With the critical and sarcastic nature of our culture, failing today is ridicule forever. You can get scarlet lettered for trying and leaders clam up and copy another’s success.

Leaders Copy because it is easy. Being original is hard work. Having a deep awareness of the needs of a community, target audience, etc…takes time, energy, thought, and lots of effort.  Copying is the short cut. Make a few tweaks and call it original.

Leaders Copy because it is cheaper. Money is in shorter supply it seems and it seems to take a lot of money to be original. That usually isn’t true, but it does seem that way.

Leaders Copy because it worked. Everyone loves a winner, including the leader. Leaders want to lead a winner and they want their teams to be winners. Leaders of winners say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Leaders who just want to be winners say, “if works for them, let’s copy it.”

Leaders Copy because they are followers. Yep, I am saying some leaders aren’t really leaders. Leadership is a buzz word for everything these days and it is kind of the standard for educated humanity. Everyone is called a leader and challenged to be a leader.  But the reality is, some people just aren’t leaders, even though they think they are, people think they are, even their title and responsibilities say they are.

Not every leader has to be artistically creative to successfully run their organization. But leaders do need to be original. No two situations are the exact same. Different people, different cities, different budgets, different technology, different years.

Don’t be afraid to be original. Adapting someone else’s blockbuster hit is not usually the key to lasting, impacting success. This is the real world, not the silver screen.

John Malmo of Ask Malmo, is the featured guest at the next City Leadership Forum on April 4th.

John Malmo will be sharing with us over 50 years of experience on how to lead others. He is a marketing consultant that has worked in every business category with many different organizations and companies.  John also has owned his own businesses in the Mid South and wrote a business commentary for a Memphis daily newspaper for 11 years.   He currently airs a weekly business commentary on WKNO-FM, and is the author of the book When on the Mountain with no Tiger, Monkey is King.

When: Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 *11:15am-12:45pm

Where: Christ United Methodist Church [Google Map]

RSVP: By Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

RSVP HERE

The 2012 Urban Summit was a great opportunity to listen to four inspirational speakers on the topics of  biblical justice, community development, and education reform. If you were on twitter, you saw #Urban2012 flash across the screen throughout the event, and you could follow the conversation if you were unable to attend the summit.

If you attended David Montague’s presentation on education reform you can view those slides here.

One of the summit’s attendees, Beth Sanders, gave us her thoughts from the day:

One of the most impacting messages from the summit was Bob Lupton’s fresh perspective on charity, and a new understanding of how to give in a healthy way that preserves the dignity of the recipient and promotes independence instead of dependence on handouts. Even when our intentions are the best, we humiliate and dishonor those we seek to serve when we set up systems of one-way giving.  David Montague provided interesting and important insights on the role of community in education and the need to support and educate children of all races, socio-economic classes and beliefs in a safe environment.

We thank each and every attendee who came, and we encourage you to attend next year’s summit, and to bring a friend along with you. We will have information about the next summit coming soon.

Until then, tell us in the comments below: What was the most impacting quote or message you took away from the summit?

New Sessions. Same Fight. This April.

For the first 5 sessions of Fight Club, Dr. John Bryson opened the men’s eyes to the devastating effects of the lack of biblical men in the world, and began to offer the men the solution to fix this disease that we as men have. He began to lay out the blueprint of the biblical man through teaching us the 4 faces of a man; the warrior, king, lover, and friend.

In round 2 of fight club we as men will look back at our journey and begin to understand how primal relationships in our families of origin and around our lives have shaped, for better or for worse, our masculinity. We will also look ahead and see how we can step into roles such as father, mentor, and friend and help shape the masculinity of others.

4/3    Men and Fathers

4/10  Men and Mothers

4/17  Men and Friends & Mentors

4/24  Men and Their Heart

REGISTER HERE for the 2^ND bout of Fight Club.

For more information on Fight Club, to listen to the audio, or download the notes from previous 5 sessions, visit www.thenoblefight.com