Friday, October 27, 2006

A Collaboration of Great Minds or Be A Little Maverick


I was reading an interview that Guy Kawasaki did with Polly LaBarre who is the co-author (with Bill Taylor) of the newly released book called Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win.

Turn that model on its head and you get Pixar’s version of the right way to make movies: a tight-knit company of long-term collaborators who stick together, learn from one another, and strive to improve with every production...

This model tackles one of the most enduring people problems in any industry: How do you not only attract wildly talented people to work in your company, but also get those wildly talented people to continuously produce great work together? Or, as Randy Nelson, dean of Pixar University puts it, How do you do art as a team sport? That question lies at the heart of Pixar’s design for work-and the answers include turning the workplace into a canvas for the work and putting everyone in the organization in a position to learn together.


When I read that I thought wow...this is a great picture of how a church staff should function. I always bring up the movie Ladder 49 when I think of how a church staff should be. When you watch that movie you see how a group of firefighters becomes family.

A church staff should be a collaboration of great minds thinking and working together to reach the lost of a community. There should also be a bonding as a family. To often this is lost in today's church world. Most staffs aren't structured to bring this out as well as most Senior Pastors have not learned or were taught to make it happen. Instead of a collaboration we have Sr. Pastors who just want to implement their game plan. (Which by the way is done well by some.) But a collaboration of minds can bring out so much more. I think so many ideas are lost. Ideas that tweaked by a group could be great.

This is what I have been searching for. For years I have been looking for a place where I can bring my creativity and passion to the table and be surrounded with others who will drive it even higher. I guess in some ways either I want to be or am a little "Maverick" at heart.

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