Bob Clinkert – Page 6

What Henry Ford Really Thinks of You – Quick Summary

October 25, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

Means of Production –

Henry Ford perfected the factory and the assembly line inside of it, which together formed the primary means of production in the industrial economy. While the assembly line and factory did much to advance the nation as a whole, and significantly line the pockets of a few, it has done a great deal of damage to “the masses.”

Henry Ford’s factory/assembly line production model dictates which roles, responsibilities and skills are important, and which are not. Overall, I believe what this model implies about the value of “average” people,

ultimately resulted in a much greater negative influence in our society than it has for good; and, perhaps has precipitated some of the deep rooted economic and societal issues we are struggling with today in this nation and around the world.

Hands not Brains

Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they come with a brain attached?” In Henry Ford’s system, people are only as valuable as the simple, repetitive task that they can perform. They are interchangeable, nameless and faceless. The industrial economy has no use for uniquely created masterpieces made in the image of God; what he needs are robots without brains, without personalities, feelings, dreams and desires.

Certainly devaluing most of society and relegating them to a mindless, innovation- and creativity-free existence is a bad thing, but we have another, more pressing issue with running our organizations and societies on industrial economy principles – we are quickly moving into a post-industrial society, where uniqueness, individuality, entrepreneurship and specialty will rule the day.

Post-industrial Fallout

The skills, abilities and motivations that prepare someone for a life-long journey in the industrial economy are completely inadequate for preparing someone to be successful in the post-industrial, connection-based economy that we have been moving into for the last several years. The good news is that it is not too late to opt out of the old system and jump into a new system. It will require a complete paradigm shift, and the onboarding of new systems and processes that value the individual over the task.

Would you like to learn more? – Read this short story excerpt taken from Set Godin’s eBook titled, Stop Stealing Dreams
Read the full article about the importance of honestly assessing your leadership effectiveness.

What Henry Ford Really Thinks of You – Story

October 25, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

From Seth Godin’s – Stop Stealing Dreams – http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf

Schools for the Masses

The industrialized mass nature of school goes back to the very beginning, to the common school and the normal school and the idea of universal schooling. All of which were invented at precisely the same time we were perfecting mass production and interchangeable parts and then mass marketing.

Some quick background:

The common school (now called a public school) was a brand new concept, created shortly after the Civil War. “Common” because it was for everyone, for the kids of the farmer, the kids of the potter, and the kids of the local shopkeeper. Horace Mann is generally regarded as the father of the institution, but he didn’t have to fight nearly as hard as you would imagine—because industrialists were on his side. The two biggest challenges of a newly industrial economy were finding enough compliant workers and finding enough eager customers. The common school solved both problems.

The normal school (now called a teacher’s college) was developed to indoctrinate teachers into the system of the common school, ensuring that there would be a coherent approach to the processing of students. If this sounds parallel to the notion of factories producing items in bulk, of interchangeable parts, of the notion of measurement and quality, it’s not an accident.

For the Lower Orders

In 1914, a professor in Kansas, named Frederick J. Kelly invented the multiple-choice test. Yes, it’s less than a hundred years old.

There was an emergency on. World War I was ramping up, hundreds of thousands of new immigrants needed to be processed and educated, and factories were hungry for workers. The government had just made two years of high school mandatory, and we needed a temporary, high-efficiency way to sort students and quickly assign them to appropriate slots. In the words of Professor Kelly, “This is a test of lower order thinking for the lower orders.”

A few years later, as President of the University of Idaho, Kelly disowned the idea, pointing out that it was an appropriate method to test only a tiny portion of what is actually taught and should be abandoned. The industrialists and the mass educators revolted and he was fired.

The SAT, the single most important filtering device used to measure the effect of school on each individual, is based (almost without change) on Kelly’s lower order thinking test. Still. The reason is simple. Not because it works. No, we do it because it’s the easy and efficient way to keep the mass production of students moving forward.

More Fear, Less Passion

School’s industrial, scaled-up, measurable structure means that fear must be used to keep the masses in line. There’s no other way to get hundreds or thousands of kids to comply, to process that many bodies, en masse, without simultaneous coordination.

And the flip side of this fear and conformity must be that passion will be destroyed. There’s no room for someone who wants to go faster, or someone who wants to do something else, or someone who cares about a particular issue. Move on. Write it in your notes; there will be a test later. A multiple-choice test.

Do we need more fear?

Less passion?

Read the full article about the importance of honestly assessing your leadership effectiveness.

Read the quick summary of the full article.

From Seth Godin’s – Stop Stealing Dreams – http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf

How am I Doing as a Leader? Full Article

October 21, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

Ask yourself, “How am I doing as a leader?” I don’t mean how well are you performing the functional factors of your role – related to business results, revenue, sales, market share, impact, influence, throughput, defects, the direction of the organization, handling of deals, etc.

I am asking about your effectiveness at your primary leadership responsibilities around the skills of motivating, inspiring, engaging, handling interpersonal relationships, leading by example, managing other’s strengths and weaknesses, listening, clarifying, being approachable and having empathy. Factors that are related to your emotional intelligence quotient, or EQ.

After you come up with an initial answer to that question, the next question to ask yourself is, “How do I know my perception of my effectiveness as a leader is accurate?” Or at a minimum, “Do I know roughly how accurate my perception is, and how?”

Putting the two questions together you get, “How closely does my opinion of my leadership performance match the opinion of my direct reports, my peers, my organization at-large and my customers/bosses?”

Why is this important to ask? No matter how good you feel your leadership performance is or how great the organization seems to be doing, the question remains: “How much better might the organization be doing if I added the development of my own leadership ability to the business plan?” The other side of the coin is, “What are the opportunity costs of blind spots in my leadership performance?”

Every leader has blind spots. A study by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence illustrates the extent of these blind spots. According to their research, first, mid and senior level leaders had a significant pattern of rating themselves higher on their leadership performance than those around them rated them. In other words, these leaders thought they were doing better with emotional intelligence related skills than did the people they led, served, worked with, and reported to. What’s more, the higher a person’s rank, the greater this gap became.

The underlying issue beneath these results stems from the fact that self-awareness does NOT come from self, it comes from a relentless, rigorous, ongoing pursuit of open, honest and meaningful feedback from those you lead, serve, work with and report to.

The higher the leadership position you hold, the more likely you are to suffer from what is called CEO disease, or CEO syndrome. Daniel Goleman in his book Primal Leadership defines this disease as “an acute lack of feedback…Leaders have more trouble than anybody else when it comes to receiving candid feedback, particularly about how they’re doing as leaders…the paradox, of course, is that the higher a leader’s position in an organization, the more critically the leader needs that very feedback.”

Geoff Colvin has a very simple, yet powerful illustration of this phenomenon in his book, Talent is Overrated” . Imagine a professional bowler, trying to improve his game by practicing more. During his practices, he decides to put a curtain in front of the foul line from the ceiling to about knee-height. He puts in ear plugs that block out all sounds, including the sound of the ball hitting the pins, and going into the gutter. He then proceeds to practice bowling. Colvin goes on to say that two things are going to happen as a result of eliminating feedback from his practice sessions, the first of which is obvious, the second of which, not so much. First, the bowler is not going to get better at bowling, he is going to get worse. The second came as a surprise to me. The bowler, will stop caring about getting better.

Is it possible that this systemic, lack of feedback at the leadership level is degrading our skills as leaders? Is this lack of feedback causing us to become numb, and even blind to the importance and desire to obtain open, candid and regular feedback from those we influence? I have found in my own leadership, and in my experience with other leaders, this gap between self-perception of one’s leadership performance and the perception of other’s, is the single largest influencer of the extent of anyone’s success as a leader.

A study of 39,000 leaders by PDI Ninth House confirms this conclusion. They demonstrated a significant correlation between this perception gap, and their performance as leaders. Those who were identified as out of touch with this gap, were 629% more likely to perform below the level of expected achievement. To say it again, that is, six hundred and twenty-nine percent. I would say that is a pretty strong correlation.

It is not difficult to conclude, that closing this perception gap, is one of the most important, if not the most important activity that a leader can engage in. I have spent the better part of the last decade investigating the possibility of rigorous, well-defined systems and frameworks that could be strategically, and tactically engaged to close the gap between self-perception of leadership performance and other’s perception. In my research, I discovered a program that is centered around the development of what is called Personal Leadership Effectiveness on an individual basis, and a Personal Leadership Effectiveness Culture at an organizational level.

Executing this program on an ongoing basis will not only assist you in closing the gap, but will also result in the overall improvement of several other significant factors to achieving high leadership performance. I am excited to share more about this program in upcoming articles and posts around this topic!

Read a short, real-life story about a leadership team who decided to bravely go after the blindspots in their leadership effectiveness.

How am I doing as a leader? Story

October 21, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

Story taken from the book, “EGO vs. EQ: How Top Leaders Beat 8 Ego Traps with Emotional Intelligence” – by Jen Shirkani.

Anthony, Dan, and Monica, managing partners at a West Coast services firm, decided to solicit open and candid feedback on their leadership effectiveness. Through this process, the three partners discovered that all were very weak at delegating decisions. The partners” first reaction to this feedback was to discount it, saying, “We delegate decisions all the time. We don‘t know what they are talking about!”

After additional digging and discussion, however, the problem became clear. Although the partners would say to the team, “This decision is yours to make,” the unspoken message was “…but don’t screw this up and be sure to run it by us before you spend any money.”

When the team checked in with the partners about a decision, they would often suggest changes, show disappointment in the decision, or add new information, eventually pressuring the employees to backtrack and let the partners make the decision themselves. While the partners preserved for themselves the illusion that they were delegating, their behavior actually belittled the team’s efforts and made them less inclined to put much work into making a decision, knowing it would likely be overruled anyway.

That situation was lose lose for everyone. After eventually accepting and reflecting on the feedback, the partners at the firm came up with a plan for improving the situation. They became clearer about times when they simply wanted recommendations from the team versus times when it was appropriate. For the team to make decisions themselves. like the choice of coffee vendor to supply the break room. For high-impact decisions, such as whom to hire, a decision making committee with full authority to hire was created. This gave the partners comfort that all hiring decisions would be carefully considered before offers went out, while at the same time keeping their own hands out of the pot.

In addition to making these specific adjustments, the partners could take this new understanding and apply it broadly going forward. Even though it was uncomfortable at first, they became better able,on the spot, to recognize moments when they were tempted to take decision making authority away from an employee. They learned to moderate that impulse and choose a more productive behavior, like asking employees to share more of their logic for recommending a certain decision or suggesting that they take the decision to the committee that had been set up.

Since the three partners have initiated this program of assessing their own leadership effectiveness through candid feedback, their success has been astounding. Assets under management have grown tremendously, by $4 billion in one particular year. The partners’ commitment to taking responsibility for developing their own leadership effectiveness in response to feedback likely played a significant role in that growth.

Read the full article about the importance of honestly assessing your leadership effectiveness.

Read the quick summary of the full article.

Story taken from the book, “EGO vs. EQ: How Top Leaders Beat 8 Ego Traps with Emotional Intelligence” – by Jen Shirkani.

How am I Doing as a Leader? Quick Summary

October 21, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

“How am I doing as a leader?” and “How would I know?” can be combined into one similar question – “How closely does my opinion of my leadership performance match the opinion of my direct reports, my peers, my organization at-large and my customers/bosses?”

Would you like to learn more? – Read this short, real-life story about a leadership team who decided to bravely go after the blind-spots in their leadership effectiveness.
Read the full article about the importance of honestly assessing your leadership effectiveness.

Can Absolute Church Doctrine Be Known and Articulated?

October 20, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

It fascinates me to be a part of a global following of Jesus – who, some 2000 years ago now, prayed out loud that this global following that was coming later, would be one, the same way Jesus and his father are one.

Of course, part of official church doctrine is that Jesus exists as one member of “The Trinity” – Father – Son – Spirit, and the three are physically one, and also physically distinct. Suffice it to say that is a pretty serious definition of one-ness that Jesus was petitioning for on our behalf.

Unfortunately, we have failed miserably, for the most part, at becoming “one”, even in the most watered down sense of the word. We have too many factions to count. Each one of the ready to go down with the ship for their own unique version of “Gospel Truth.” I just read an article this morning about John Macarthur holding a major conference, which sole purpose was to denigrate a growing movement in “the church.”

Why? Because apparently John has been appointed, commissioned and blessed to be the vanguard of sacred doctrine. He would have been really effective back in the crusades – “In the name of Jesus, convert or die you pagan heathen!!” – except, it wouldn’t be pagan heathens he was talking to, it would be his own brothers and sisters in Christ.

The question of whether or not absolute “gospel truth” can be known and articulated is an important one; because, if the answer is no, and I believe it is, then we don’t have to worry about defending our particular brand of the faith inside “the church” and outside in “the world.” We can concentrate on – loving God, loving people, and being one, and be OK, with a little gray in the doctrinal statement.

What are the justifications for saying that absolute gospel truth can be known and articulated?

1) We are not God. Isaiah 55:8 says it best, ‘“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”’ So you are really sure that God will damn someone to eternity in hell because the were not fully submerged in a natural body of water for baptism, while repeating the official incantation? Can we really be so 100.00% sure on certain points that we are ready to bet the following Jesus farm on it? I’m not.

2) We lack the words to accurately express it. The German philosopher Wittgenstein is quoted as writing, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” One of the ramifications of this is that you cannot use flawed language constructs to articulated something that is entirely not flawed, and not of this world. A toddler lacks the vocabulary to articulate complex constructs of anything. A two year old could never give a lecture on in depth economic theory. He lacks the language to accurately describe and convey that meaning.

The languages of the original texts of the bible are flawed, ambiguous, incomplete. They have been translated into flawed, incomplete, ambiguous languages like English. If you don’t believe, use BibleGateway.com to pull up the 20+ English translations of a particular verse. Every single one of them will have different words, that can be interpreted differently if you can only see the letter of the law. And rest assured, the creators of each version can defend their translation to the death, with teams of post-doctoral language experts.

That doesn’t mean you completely flush them, or that there are no principles, values and themes that come out of the texts that are important. It means don’t base the entire foundation of your faith on the hope that the word “rock” means petra, petros, aram or anything else, when Jesus said “on this ‘rock’ I will build my church.” Knowing for 100.00% sure what Jesus meant when he used that exact word is NOT worth dying over, not worth fighting over, and not worth building a faith-based worldview on.

3) We are potato heads. In Acts 11 we read, ‘But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.’ So maybe a couple years tops, after Jesus dies and was raised from the dead, his followers align themselves with the Pharisees who used to rail on jesus for eating with “sinners.”

That is what we do. We are all so forgetful when it comes to speaking for Jesus. Is that Sabbath a day for doing good or for doing evil? We should stone Jesus, the author of life, the creator, living expression and embodiment of doctrinal truth, because he chooses to heal someone on the Sabbath, and that is a violation of the law? Really?

We gotta chill out. We align ourselves with the Pharisees and those who rejected Jesus, on a regular basis, and we do it in his name. That is incredibly stupid. Let’s just all admit that we should not be sacrificing those who Jesus loves more than anything, who Jesus died for so they might live, on the altar of our holier than thou church doctrine. Let our internal oneness and love so overflow and reflect that of Jesus’ character, that the world cannot help but stand up and take note – these must surely be his followers.

Calling Confusion

October 15, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

I am fortunate to spend a great deal of time with high school and college students, and in that context, the topic of calling comes up quite often. For those of you not familiar with the Christian-ese that word is referring to, the common definition of calling is the one thing that God has ordained that you do with your life. Despite the fact that if you do not find out what it is, your life will be wasted, God is normally not very clear about it. You typically have to embark on an exhausting quest to figure it out, and, will likely make several wrong turns before finding it.

Additionally, most high profile people have found their calling – TV stars, movie stars, senior pastors of large churches, doctors, lawyers, etc. It is common for most people to feel like they are among the only ones still suffering in the purgatory of not knowing their calling. Most everyone else already knows it, and is completely fulfilled almost every waking moment of their life. The good news is that once you find IT, you will enjoy whatever IT is, every day, day in and day out, with no regrets, and non-stop mountain-top experiences.

Of course, I am exaggerating a little, but you would be surprised at how many followers of Jesus have some or all of those notions burned into the heads. I will go on record now and state that I completely reject that definition of calling that I laid out above. Furthermore, I believe that definition has caused a great deal of damage, and has led many people on wild-goose chases, to episodes of guilty depression, to feeling miserable and unconnected or even forsaken by God.

Let’s get back to those high school and college kids. “Where does God want me to go to college?” “What does God want my major to be?” “What does God want me to do with my life?” There is so much angst, fear, regret, major-changing, college-changing, college-dropping-out, all sacrifices on the altar of “calling.”

I have met so many church-going adults who are just miserable since they have not found their true calling. How do they know they have not found it? First, because they do not like what they are currently doing with their lives. If they had found their calling, they would be happy with their daily activities most, if not all of the time. The fact that they have some miserable days, boring days, etc., is a clear indicator that they are not there yet.

Second, their current occupation does not sound very spiritual. For the more aspiring, and perhaps a little prideful follower of Jesus, the holy grail of callings is to hold a spotlight position in a spiritual context, like a large mega-church. Worship leader, musician, speaking/writing senior pastor, etc. If they were giving The Message to 100s or 1000s of people every week, if they were speaking at conferences and seminars, writing books, etc., then they would really be doing God’s work.

Those followers that have a less grandiose vision of themselves, may yearn to be a children’s pastor, small groups pastor, or to take on some behind the scenes type role at a church. Or, some see being in a job that helps people like a non-profit/outreach ministry, missionary, nurse, teacher, etc. to be a more spiritual calling than others.

Not only do people get very frustrated and depressed seeking their one true calling, but it can lead to resentment, envy and even all-out jealousy of those they perceive that have found their calling, love what they do, and are fulfilled and happy every day. God has clearly afflicted them in a calling-less fog, or worse yet, called them to an occupation that makes them a second or third-class citizen of the kingdom.

Of course, while the Church as a whole is somewhat to blame for this misguided notion of calling, I believe that most of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Curly from the movie City Slickers. His one thing speech has sent more people on misguided questions for their one true calling than any individual church pastor.

Fortunately, there is a better way to think about callings. Here goes: you do not have one calling, you have many callings, most of which, come and go at various times in your life. However, the most important callings are not abstract and elusive, they can and should be very well known to everyone following Jesus. The definition I have come up with after years of dealing with this issue consists of three “callings” defined in order of priority as follows:

Primary (first) Calling – Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself – every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day of your life.
Secondary (second) Callings – These are non-vocational roles you may have, some for life, and others for a season. These may include parent, spouse, son or daughter, uncle/aunt, etc. These secondary priorities are always superseded by the primary, and always, and I mean always, take precedent of the last type of calling. These typically start and end at very specific times, in very formal ways.
Tertiary (third) Callings – These are the last, least important, and lowest priority callings. These are vocationally related callings. If you are a student, they would be the school you go to, what you are studying, etc. If you are an adult, these would be your, current, primary occupation, hobbies, ministry associations, volunteer activities, etc. These callings can change quite a bit as you go through your life, sometimes on a regular basis, sometimes very often.

If you have spent much time in a church environment, you may quickly notice that the order I have presented is typically reversed from what you may hear from the stage at most churches, or, at least how the masses interpret what they hear from stage.

How many people do you know that have sacrificed their kid, their spouse, their families, etc., on the altar of tertiary (third) callings? And, for the most part, they feel justified in doing it; especially if it is a spiritually sounding vocation. How many followers of Jesus have you known that are just unfriendly, nasty, harsh, over-driven, etc? In their own defense they will say something to the effect of, “God hasn’t gifted me with niceness. He gifted me to be a hard-driving blah-blah-blah.” ”I haven’t been called to (fill in the blank with a seemingly unimportant, loving/compassionate type activity)” “I have been called to leadership, I have no time for (fill in the blank with a serving/humble activity)”

I know you have heard those things being said, and have maybe even said them yourself at times. The truth is, if you get the primary (first) calling right, and the secondary (second) calling(s) you have been blessed with right, the tertiary (third) callings, gulp, I almost hate to say it out loud, really don’t matter that much.

“What do you mean?!?! My pastor, or my doctor or this missionary – what they do for God is super important! They were called!” I would beg to differ. In fact, a pastor, doctor, teacher, singer, musician or missionary who doesn’t have the primary (first) and secondary (second) callings right, is doing more damage in their tertiary (third) callings than good; and, God may not really want them in any kind of relational position until they get the first two calling types right.

On the flip-side, if you are deeply in love with, and a close follower of Jesus, and you put the proper priority on your secondary (second) callings, you will naturally be attractive and will wield tremendous influence in the lives of those you are close to, regardless of what your 9-5 vocation, or your discretionary time activities of service, volunteerism and fun. You will be reflective of Jesus in whatever it is you are doing, and thereby, fulfilling your greatest calling.

So, stop worrying about where you are going to go to college, or sulking because you didn’t get a call-back after your recent audition for The Voice, even though you know God has called you to perform in front of millions. Seek first to love God with you whole being, and love everyone within your sphere of influence as much, or more than you love yourself. Secondly, be the best parent, spouse, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, neighbor, co-worker, team-mate, school-mate that you can possibly be. Serve, love, put their needs before your own. If you do that, whatever your current vocation is, WILL ALREADY BE one of your (tertiary/third) callings, because in whatever it is you are doing, you will be reflecting Jesus to those you come in contact with.

Captain Phillips – Feeling powerless

October 12, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

Jessica and Elizabeth came home for fall break, and Vicky and I invited them to see a movie with us – Captain Phillips. The film told a dramatized version of the story of a captain of a large cargo ship who was taken hostage in 2009, by Somali pirates near the Horn of Africa, and later rescued by Navy SEALs.

I like Tom Hanks, and the trailers of the movie that I saw led me to believe that there may be some insight and understanding of the context and motivation of the pirates. I also like Navy SEAL movies so…Captain Phillips made the cut.

The movie was filled with action, stress and intense emotion. The ending of the movie was particularly emotional. What really surprised me though, was the strong reaction that Jessica and Elizabeth had after the movie. As we were walking back to the car, and while we were driving home, they both started to share how hopeless it was to try to change anything. Maybe a big, wealthy government with a powerful Navy and special forces can make a difference in the world, but how could an average individual real have any effect on the enormous issues of our day?

The Somali pirates, as portrayed in the movie, were impoverished and hopeless waifs, that were more or less slaves of the powerful Somali warlords. The movie made it look like they were forced into the risky, dangerous “job” of pirating. Most of the time, the end up dead, wounded or in jail. Even when they were successful, the vast majority of any ransom or monies received went directly to the warlords; thereby holding the pirates in a life of indentured servitude. I am not sure of the degree of accuracy in the portrayal of the pirates; but the emotional tension between the harsh treatment of Captain Phillips and the desperate, hopelessness of the pirates inspired some pretty intense emotion in the movie-watchers.

I believe the girls were reacting to several feelings and emotions. First, the feeling of helplessness and fear experienced by Captain Phillips. It doesn’t take much to completely lose your security and safety; and being at the hands of desperate, violent criminals – unsure if you will live or die. This would be a terrifying experience. There was also a great deal of frustration as these huge Navy warships and powerful Navy SEAL commandos were held at bay by a few, skinny Somalis in lifeboat.

Second, the girls were reacting to the hopelessness and humanity of the pirates. The leader of the pirates, a man name “Muse” in the movie, was a strong character. You could tell in the movie that he was under the influence and forced control of the warlords. The irony was that he and his pirate cohorts were almost as much hostages of the warlords as the captain was a hostage of the pirates. Muse was skinny, malnourished and almost pitiful in stature, but at the same time he had a charismatic courage and determination about him. He wanted to stick up for himself, and, ironically, he wanted to do a “good job” and hoped to be successful in his task, not only for himself, but for his friends and fellow villagers.

Lastly I think the girls felt the depth of the emotional suffering that is likely going on at any given moment in time, in the world at-large. They have both been exposed to extreme poverty and despair, live and in person during several mission trips, and also second-hand through their involvement in many outreach organizations and their association with and knowledge of several different compassion and poverty initiatives. There is so much suffering in the world, and they feel such empathy and compassion, and so desperately want to do something about it. But here they are – college kids with limited self-sufficiency, and a seeming inability to avail themselves of the perceived amount of powerful resources that would be necessary to make even a small difference anywhere in the world.

They kept remarking on the uselessness and powerlessness of being one single individual in such a huge world of suffering; completely incapable of effecting any meaningful change in large or even small ways. What can one person do? One person is useless.

I reminded them that every single major world movement, good and bad, was the result of the determined resolve of one individual. Nations and kingdoms have risen and fallen, slaves have been freed, injustices overcome, etc., all because of the vision and tenacity of a single person. Often times, the individual is able to win additional people over to his cause, but typically, only after of months, years and sometimes decades of isolated fight and struggle.

Anti-apartheid in South Africa, anti-slavery in the US, civil liberties for African-americans, the right to vote for women in this country, and the list goes on. The truth is, one single person, is pretty powerful, perhaps the most powerful force on the planet. The level of power achieved, is directly proportional to the will, passion, and determination that the individual brings to the table.

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church discusses the passion and determination needed to unleash the power of change channeled through an individual in his book, “Holy Discontent.” Bill describes the emotional state as being “wrecked.” Individuals whose actions result in world-changing events are fueled and motivated by an internal passion and desire to right a perceived wrong. Bill Hybels refers to the old Popeye cartoons. When popeye had enough of a particular situation where he was being defeated, he would yell, “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!” He would then proceed to break out the can of spinach, and the rest would be history.

One person can make a difference. Single individuals have made enormous differences, and led powerful movements, for good and for evil. It’s is not the smallness of the single individual that matters. It is the strong, undying, passionate, discontent for enabling a preferred future. A desire that is so strong, so all-encompassing, that one would fight through any obstacle; and make any sacrifice necessary to achieve it.

When the world is not being changed, it is not for lack of human resources, it is for the lack of human passion and desire to do so. That perhaps, is the most disturbing, and convicting take-away from the movie.

The Day my Politics Changed

October 8, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

I saw the movie by Lee Daniels, “The Butler” over the weekend. I was profoundly moved by it. Over the years, and for many reasons, I have become very sensitized to the plight of the marginalized, abused, disadvantaged and under-resourced in society. So much so, that it has completely changed the direction of my personal and professional lives. “The Butler” gave me a small glimpse inside the world of suffering that the African-americans endured as slaves, and as the fight for civil rights continued on into the 60s and 70s.

Seeing scenes of rape, murder, torture, hatred, injustice throughout the movie stirred up a great deal of compassion and empathy inside of me. I have never experienced the physical abuse, and rank injustice that was presented in the movie, but I have endured some injustice as a result of my stuttering affliction. You can read more specifics about that here, but, suffice it to say, I know a little about what it means to be judged by a physical characteristic that I was born with. I know about the frustration of being thought less of in so many scenarios, and I have many times been held back from being able to fully utilize the gifts and talents inside of me.

My experiences with a life-long stuttering problem has given me a great deal of compassion and empathy for those who feel judged, and who feel like they are “less-than” others. Again, that is not to say that I am familiar with most of the horrific kinds of abuse and injustice the African-americans in this country suffered during slavery and the ensuing fight for civil rights; however, I can feel the pain of unfairness, and I can resonate with the longing to be judged by what is inside, instead of being judged by what is on the outside.

The main character in “The Butler” actually lives to see the day, when an African-american is actually a contender for the presidency of the United States. You can feel his inspiration, excitement, vindication, and joy as so many years of suffering become undone, and in a single moment – the dream of equality, the dream of being judged by what is inside, instead of what is outside comes true, manifested in the election of an African-american president.

As a life-long conservative, and Republican-leaning citizen, I remember bristling at the notion that someone would vote for someone just because of the color of their skin. I remember thinking that candidates should be judged by their stance on issues, not the color of their skin. Back then I had no connection to the exuberance and pride felt by minorities, as they saw an African-american elected president. To me, a democrat was elected, and that was a failure, regardless of race.

A couple years after that historic election in 2008, I found myself at a Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) meeting in Aurora, IL. Over the last few years, I had been increasing my involvement in participating in strategies to help the poor here locally, and globally. While the CCDA was a “left-leaning” organization, I had a great deal of respect for them. I could resonate with many elements of their mission and vision for helping the poor here in America.

One of my heros in the CCDA organization, Noel Castellanos was going to be presenting at the meeting, and I was excited to get to see him in person. We did a little meet and greet in the beginning, and I got to shake his hand. That night, the audience had a much higher concentration of white, conservative attendees, that a normal CCDA meeting would have – many of whom were made aware of the event through a church in Naperville. Noel was briefed of that demographic reality before he ever got out there, and his pre-speech mingling confirmed the accuracy of the earlier briefing.

Noel was introduced and called up to give his spiel. He began articulating the mission and vision of CCDA – why they do what they do, how they do it, what they do, what they don’t do, etc. He intermingled a few personal stories during his presentation. One of the last stories he told, was about one of the greatest moments of his life. That moment, was being in Chicago for the acceptance speech on the night of the election of then, President-elect, Barack Obama. I remember him asking the audience, “Please hang in there with me. I know I am probably going to lose you all here when I say this, but I hope I can keep a few of you.”

He went out to explain the feelings of being a minority in this country, of being in situations of frustration when you are judged by what is on the outside, rather than the inside. He described the pain of the after-effects of the earlier injustices against minorities, in the higher joblessness rates, lower graduation rates, lower pay, and lack of hope and opportunity. He described the elation and joy of seeing a fellow minority, overcome all of those barriers and obstacles, and having the opportunity, and the privilege of being considered, and freely voted in as the president of the United States. He was staring off into the distance as he spoke, and I could tell he was kind of reliving that night in the current moment. He actually had tears forming in his eyes.

Seeing him there, dozen or so feet away from me, and seeing his reaction, and hearing the passion in his voice, enabled me to connect with him ,and that issue, in a much deeper and more meaningful way than I ever could have before.. I could feel his pain, the release of that pain, and the hope that was born in that night. My empathy and compassion for him in that moment caused tears to well up in my eyes as well. I get emotional just writing about it now, and I got emotional hearing the butler talk about that moment in the movie.

The butler, Noel Castellanos, and many minorities see President Obama first and foremost as a powerful role model. As a symbol that, here in America, even minorities, even people who have suffered injustice and persecution, can be lifted up, and can be judged by what is on the inside, not what is on the outside. That they can, indeed, actually “do it.” They can become anything they want to be. They can be inspired by President Obama to pursue, their dreams. They can finally believe that they are able to fully utilize and unleash all of the gifts and talents inside of them, and be judged for who they are and what they can do, rather than by their physical characteristics.

I can resonate with that. I can get inspired by that. I can share the joy and excitement of that, and I can respect the moment. I have learned (and it has taken years to learn) to first, seek to understand the context, and perspective of those on the other side of an issue, before rendering a judgment. To walk a mile in the shoes of those I do not agree with, before articulating my points of why my positions are right, and theirs are wrong. That has become a great blessing in my life over the years, and has even further released me to love and serve those around me. I now understand what it means to be an “advocate” for the someone, to be a champion for the under-resourced and disadvantaged.

I can examine an issue, and not look at the black and white, but look for the gray. I can now immerse myself in the context with compassion and empathy, and see issues as give and take, rather than right and wrong. I have come to respect the left, and the principles by which they operate. I don’t agree 100% with what is articulated by the left; but I am also freed from being a mindless, kool-aid drinking, automoton of the right as well. I can think for myself. I can finally understand the truth about any issue – issues are complex, and have pros and cons, give and take, benefits and drawbacks. The complex issues of our days cannot be 100% one way or another. We need compromise to come to a proper solution. We need more gray. We need more context and perspective. We need more compassion and empathy. Not because we are weak, but because it is the only way we will arrive at the correct conclusions.

We need less, “I win, you lose” and more, “We both win some, both lose some.” We need to completely absorb ourselves in understanding why people think differently than we do. That is the path to true enlightenment and growth. You already understand why you think you are right. Go out there and have the courage and the guts to fully comprehend and understand why others think you are wrong. If you earnestly seek the perspective of “the other side” I can promise you that you will become a different person. It will further galvanize some of your most closely held principles and beliefs, and it will open your mind to a whole new world of possibilities. The possibility that maybe you are not 100% right about every single thing. You may actually learn something, and you will likely find yourself changing your perspective on some things in the process.

Stuttering and Compassion

October 8, 2013 by Bob Clinkert Leave a Comment

I was afflicted with a severe stuttering problem somewhere around 7 years old and I have had to deal with it ever since – to this present day. While the problem is manageable after I get to know people, it is very severe, and quite unmanageable in any and all first time conversation scenarios. For people who know me well, it is hard to appreciate the amount of pain and suffering I have endured in various scenarios over the years.

Imagine a teacher in jr high or high school doing roll call, and asking me if I go by Robert, Bob or Rob, and, as a first impression, either stuttering on Bob so long that I just stop talking, or, saying nothing, or, holding up a piece of paper with the word “Bob” written on it. You want to talk about feeling like, and looking like a freak in jr high/high school? Let’s just say those weren’t my best years.

I had always wanted to be a medical doctor growing up, and after finishing the requirements for pre-med in my undergrad studies, and taking the MCAT, I was granted an interview at a University of Illinois Medical School. The dean of the school sat me down across from him at his desk, and asked me, “What makes you think that you can make it as a doctor, nonetheless make it through medical school with such a severe stuttering problem?” Remember, in first impression scenarios, like introductions, interviews, etc., it is way, way worse. I defended my position, and had outstanding grades and MCAT scores, so, “against his better judgment” I was accepted to medical school.

I remember being placed in a study group, and I remember worrying about that first meeting, going around the table and having to introduce myself. When it came around to me I tried to get something out, and just couldn’t. One of the more arrogant guys started laughing and saying, “Can you speak? Maybe he can’t talk?” I quickly pulled out a notebook, wrote my name, and for some reason, it took them like 60 seconds to finally read it. “I think it says, Bill, no…Beth (ha ha ha) no, Bob! It’s Bob right?!?” I was never able to recover from that. Without a source of community I quickly became disengaged and lost. As the dean suspected, I withdrew after that first semester.

Luckily, I had a degree in Electrical Engineering so I was able to get a good job. Went to my first day on the job. Secretary asked me, “Who are you?” I had great difficulty saying my name. “Did you forget who you are?? Ha ha ha?” They had run out of space, so they put me in the office of a guy who had been their 25 years. This was the old days so, old fashioned phone, no answering machine. They instructed me to answer the phone and take notes. We answer the phone here by saying our first and last name, and then “How may I help you?” Yikes. Bad luck. Since he was a 25 year veteran of the company, his phone rang about every 10 minutes. Double bad luck. I tried my best to answer the phone.

I tried all the tricks, even tried getting a tape recorder and recording myself saying, “Bob Clinkert. How can I help you?” None of that worked, and only made the people on the other end really, really angry to talk to me. I was really afraid that I would get fired for screwing it up, so, after a while I crafted a new plan – when the phone would ring, I would immediately get up and go to the bathroom. So, about 6 times an hour, I would be in the bathroom. What kind of first impression do you think that made?

On the daily train ride to the city and back, I would invariably get asked where I worked. I couldn’t say the name of the company without stuttering so I would say “AT&T.” Every now and then, the guy who asked me would say, “Wow. I work there too. What group?” I would have to sheepishly tell the story about my stuttering problem, and the whole company name thing, etc. Ultimately I would have to write out the company name, or play charades with the sound bites I was able to get out. It seems funny in retrospect, but when trying to garner respect, not so funny.

Imagine going out to eat and rarely being able to get what you wanted? Ordering at a restaurant is one of the most stressful situations for a person with a stuttering problem. “I’ll have what he/she ordered.” Yuck!! The guy/gal ordering before me almost always got something I didn’t like. I was really in trouble if the wait person asked me what I wanted first.

I had many job interviews cut short. I have embarrassed the heck out of many bosses, and out of myself in front of many customers. I would always show up late for meetings, so I would miss the “going around the table and introducing yourself” part. I remember being in the bathroom at a nice restaurant once and my boss, the customer and me ended up all washing our hands together. The customer asked me where I lived, and I started stuttering super hard on the N in Naperville. I was watching my boss, who turned super red and I thought his head was going to explode. He finally blurted out, “Naperville! Bob lives in Naperville!” So, the management was always terrified to put me in front of the customer; but, I have typically been in key roles, and they would often times have no choice, leading to even higher pressure speaking situations.

Now that I am a business owner, imagine me going to networking meetings. Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves, our companies and give our 30 second elevator pitch. You want to lose credibility immediately in those scenarios? Fumble saying your name, your company name, and what you do during a round-the-table introduction.

So I have spend almost my whole life being judged by an external, physical trait that I was born with. I have been thought less of in so many scenarios, and I have been held back from being able to fully utilize the gifts and talents inside of me. It has been very frustrating and often times very self-defeating and depressing.

One of the main ways that God has worked this together for good in my life, is that I know how it feels to be judged unfairly because of a physical characteristic that I was born with. I know what it feels like to be frustrated, and desperately want people to judge me by what is on the inside of me, rather than what they can see on the outside.

I have a great deal of empathy for people who are judged, misunderstood, and are trapped working well beneath their potential because of the judgment of people. If compassion means “to suffer with”, God has enabled me to have great compassion for the marginalized through my life experiences with my stuttering affliction.

In 2005, I was introduced to an outreach to street kids in the Philippines. My wife and I love kids and quickly became involved. In 2006, I had the opportunity to go on several outreach trips. My “gift” of compassion, and empathy for the marginalized really kicked into high gear getting to know these street kids. Almost immediately I began to develop a “holy discontent” related to poverty, abuse, lack of opportunity, waste of human resources, etc. This discontent led me to a great deal of study on the issues surrounding poverty, cause, effect and how to fix it.

I typically attract the marginalized and disadvantaged kids in the jr. high and high school groups I have had the privilege of leading over the years. I know what it is like to be marginalized and thought less of as an employee in the workplace. That compassion and empathy allows me to be a champion for the worker, and to bring creativity and resources to bear on creating empowering, workplace environments that unleash the masterpiece created inside every employee in a company. This not only creates nice warm and fuzzies, but also unleashes innovation throughout an entire organization, which, typically results in substantial competitive advantage and success in the marketplace.

I would happily give up my stuttering problem any time, but, I am grateful for the compassion and empathy it has created in me. It has helped shape many of the things that are good about me, who I am and who I am becoming.