It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"A gathering begins at the moment of invitation. It doesn't begin when people walk in the room." Priya Parker
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
This month, I'm going to dive into a few quotes from Priya Parker, the author of the book, The Art of Gathering. I've been talking about this book for the past few months, and I thought I'd choose a couple of her quotes on the importance of gathering together just to encourage you to explore the book more deeply.
To read past quotes & thoughts.... CLICK HERE.
I'm repeating this quote today because last week I ended up chasing the word ENGAGEMENT and ASSUMPTIONS. Today I want to come back to this word ANTICIPATION.
When Parkers says, "A gathering begins at the moment of invitation..." my immediate response has been this:
I want people to have the logistics needed for the gathering: time, place, what to wear, what we'll eat, the schedule and most importantly, what time we'll be done.
I want people to know what will happen during the time: who's speaking, what topics we'll cover, what to expect
I do this because I want to make it really EASY for people to attend my gathering. Again to my comments last week, "I'm assuming they are really busy and are just doing me a favor by attending." (which is a wrong assumption) Read last weeks post HERE.
If a gathering truly begins at the point of invitation, then I need to not focus solely on logistic, but I need to drive PURPOSE. I've talked about this and I can't tell you why I keep forgetting this.
Logistics can be read and scheduled. Purpose has to be felt.
Parker explores this in her book:
Anticipation signals PURPOSE - This isn't "just another meeting"
Anticipation begins shaping CONNECTION & VULNERABILITY before people meet.
Anticipation creates PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP - participants start investing their imagination and attention early.
This is powerful!
Can you think of a meeting, a gathering, an event you participated in that used ANTICIPATION beforehand to prepare you for what was to come?
DEEPER STILL:
Years ago, I was invited to a men's retreat from a friend with Harbor Ministries, Tim. He told me about the time together, but didn't give a lot of details. He shared the logistics, but when I asked him some other questions, his response was simply, "You have to come and experience it".
That got me wondering about it.
I contacted someone who had attended the retreat earlier, and asked them some questions, and they were just as illusive. They shared some things, but didn't give the details.
This caused me to think about what might happen.
When I got to the retreat, there were some things that I expected, but there were a number of surprises, (which I can't share with you).
My sense of curiosity was on high alert for the months leading into it, and once I experienced it, it made perfect sense, and the "secrets" I believe increased the impact and power of the time together.
Look at the link below for Harbor Ministries if you want to know what these surprises are all about! You have to experience it!
Parker in her book tells the story of guys sending secret messages to their friend in anticipation of a bachelor weekend. It heightened the energy and the expectation.
I don't know how to do this well, but I want to work on it. I have a gathering coming up in 2 weeks, and I'm brainstorming some ways I can increase peoples anticipation and expectations prior to the event.
Here are some things I'm going to do:
I'm going to remind myself of the PURPOSE and make sure that anything I do aligns with that idea!
I'm going to look at my pre and post communication to ensure that I'm taking every opportunity to bring people along for the journey.
I'm going to spend time praying about it, and inviting others to join me. I need others praying with me on this.
I'm going to try to get creative and find some people that are more creative than me to help me do something. Again, I'll try to think outside the box on this in some little and some big ways.
I'm going to put the time into this that is needed. I can't treat this as "just another gathering". This stand alone, and it's important!
What else do you think I should do? Send me your ideas HERE. I'll share those with you next week! Let's brainstorm together.. we can do better!
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker I encourage you to read or listen to the book. It will get you thinking!
Harbor Ministries helps people to "Live with Rhythm. Leave a Legacy. Finish Well." through some retreats for men, women and younger leaders. Learn more about their events at Harbor Ministries.
OK. The World Series was an amazing 7-game event that could have gone either way. Blue Jays played great, but the Dodgers triumphed in the end. Go Blue!
Gina and I enjoyed this 5-part series on Netflix called The Hostage. It's a little grisly, but it's a really interesting story!
This week my playlist is filled with Jackson Browne & the Eagles. 2 of my biggest musical influencers. I love Brownes album "I'm Alive" from 1993, but "Running on Empty" from 1977 is great as well. For the Eagles, 1976 brought their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975 and my first cassette but Hotel California was the soundtrack of my life! I'll tell you next week why I'm listening to these artists this week!