Who doesn’t like an underdog?
According to this article, I’m not the only one who was cheering for the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles during this year’s March Madness.

Nicknamed “Dunk City,” they played with reckless abandon and obvious joy. Their coach said that the key was not taking themselves too seriously while still working hard.

Why Sherwood Brown stood out
Player Sherwood Brown gave a pre-game locker room speech intended to fire them up, to go out and prove they deserved to be there. Then he backed up those words by scoring 24 points to help his team move on.

After that first tournament game, Sherwood went over to shake the announcers’ hands. You can hear the announcers chuckling and see their big smiles as he moves down the line. See a video of it here.

How Kids Succeed
This made me think of an interview highlighting research collected and written in a book by Paul Tough.

The specific story I thought of was how a Chicago teenager named Kewauna did something similar. To listen for yourself, click here.

One of the skills she was taught in her program was to go up to college professors on the first day of class, introduce herself, shake hands and sit down in the front row.

To me, this was like declaring: “I’m here. I’m going to bring everything I’ve got and you’re going to see me again. I’m going to stick it out and win.” And it works.

Declaring You’re Here to Stay
Isn’t that what Sherwood Brown was essentially saying too? Now, he may not be the type of kid that needs to be coached in self-confidence and putting yourself out there. But many do.

For me, with my oldest, I’ve been reminded to encourage him to order for himself at a restaurant, to call friends on the phone if he wants to get together and thanking umpires or referees at the end of a game, rather than doing any of it for him.

What does this make you think about?

We had a great response to our blog and infographic about Sticky Teaching, so I read a book where some of those ideas originated from called, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. I was curious about which things would also apply to our church and ministry worlds.

It turned out there was quite a lot—and I couldn’t put it down! I’ve come up with some questions to ask yourself as you look at or even create curriculum to make sure it really matches up with what brain research says helps us learn best.

Basic Research: There are two powerful features of the Brain.

1. It can function as a database.
2. It can improvise and apply what it knows to real life.

* Any learning environment that deals with only one of these ignores half of our ability and potential. And it’s ultimately doomed to fail.

Key Questions to ask:

1. Does this curriculum emphasize a lot of facts, with more knowledge as the goal, or does it lean toward transferring of information or application?
2. What ratio are you looking for—information to application? What would happen if you just got one without the other?
3. Think about something you know a lot about it—how did you learn it? In more of a classroom setting or while doing it in the real world?

Sticky Teaching Rule #1 – Repetition is very important, because most learning doesn’t happen instantly but over time, even years!

• Repeat the same thing intentionally, but space it out over a period of time.
• Strategically cycle through key information, coming back to it over the years.

Key Questions to ask:

• What things are repeated or emphasized each week in this curriculum? Is there a page or place where I can see this at a glance?
• Is the learning focused on one main thing or thread? Can it be summed up in less than a minute?
• When people leave, if you asked them what they just learned, would they be able to tell you? What about a few hours later or even a few days?
• Knowing that people don’t come every week and that we hear things differently the second time or at different stages of life, does this curriculum ever repeat itself and some of its core content?

Sticky Teaching Rule #2 – Our brain is designed to learn in a constantly changing and interactive environment.

• Research shows that we need the opposite of what most schools, churches and workplaces provide in order to really learn and grow.
• More than 50 percent of our brain’s thinking resources focus on visual cues, and using more than one of their senses always leads to more retention.
• The things in our environment that catch and hold our attention have a better chance of being remembered.

Key Questions to ask:

• Does the curriculum help you think through how to create the best learning environment—using more than one of your senses?
• Are the presentations multimedia—not just relying on someone to talk, but also using visuals and even tangible objects to get their point across?
• Are there suggestions on how to regularly change things up to grab their attention—from creating sets or decorations, to using relevant music or videos and practical ideas for volunteers to make them more successful?

Sticky Teaching Rule #3 – If you want others to learn something, how it’s shared matters a lot.

• Plan in 10-minute modules, focusing on one core concept that you can unpack in less than one minute, then spend the next nine unpacking the main idea further.
• Our ability to learn something is related to how safe we feel, which is often directly related to our relationship with our teacher and emotions.
• The best teachers get to know each child and how they learn best, so that eventually they know what motivates them and if they really understand.

Key Questions to ask:

• Does this curriculum not only focus on one big idea, but does it unpack it and make it easy for me to use all the pieces during different times of the week?
• Are building relationships and honestly sharing key considerations of this curriculum? If we use this, how will it help our people connect and open up?
• Is there a set aside time and discussion or open ended questions each week in this curriculum for people to get to know each other better?
• Is there variety in the kinds of activities to keep kids engaged even though they are motivated to learn in different ways?

I can’t wait to hear what you think. Is this research helpful? What other questions do you ask as you look at or create curriculum?

If you’re interested, I looked at this research and asked myself these questions about our elementary curriculum, 252 Basics. You can see the related blog about this, here.

Doing less leads to more success.

I know what you’re thinking: Yeah, right. You don’t know my boss or my situation. You have no idea how busy I am or all that’s expected of me.

But what if I could introduce you to a tried-and-true principle that’s been around for many years that really could help you do less for more and get praised for it? I most recently read about this in a book called, Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch.

Putting this one idea to the test has the potential to change not only your impact in the world, but also your enjoyment and satisfaction in the work you’re doing.

Here’s the game changer: 80 percent of your achievements and happiness, even your value to other people, comes from just 20 percent or less of what you do or focus on each day.

Most successful people—from business giants, to scientists and inventors, to media stars—do things differently than the rest of us. If you really think about it, they live really lopsided lives instead of trying to be well rounded. They do just a few things that are really focused around their strengths and what they can uniquely contribute to an effort or project.

One of my favorite quotes from the book I mentioned earlier is that, “You don’t always have to change your job to enjoy it more. Maybe you can simply change the way you do it.”

So, here’s a practical step that you could take: quickly make a list of all that you do in a day or a week. Then, take some time to evaluate all these tasks in two ways—

1. Which of these things will get me the best results—positively affecting me, my boss and the people I serve?
2. Which of these things bring me the most joy and “flow”—time seems to stand still in a good way and I’d love to do more of this?

Once you’ve identified these things, instead of just working through your long to-do list, what if you prioritized and carved out time—maybe even doing these high value and enjoyable things first or at a point in the day when you have the most energy?

If you’re still not convinced, here’s another related and important stat: If we were to split what we do each day in half—50/50—the top 50 percent of our activities lead to a full 95 percent of what’s good for us! But the bottom 50 percent of what we do only leads to a trivial 5 percent of impact or enjoyment. So, I challenge you to really focus on the top 50 percent of activities to increase both your impact and joy each day. Then you’ll be well on your way to greater focus and worthwhile results this year!

What activities bring you the greatest results and joy? We’d love to hear how you plan to do more of that and less of the rest this year.

How long have you been in ministry? Or if you’re not leading right now, how long have you been going to or involved in church? Another way of asking the question is: How long has it been since you’ve been the newcomer? Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what someone from the outside thought of our churches? Get some fresh perspective?

I read a book (Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians) several years ago that gave me a front row seat to these type of insights as two unlikely people visited churches across the US and talked about their experience. As someone that’s grown up in the church and then worked in one, it was nothing short of enlightening. I alternated between grimacing and laughing. Jim Henderson is a self-professed “failed” preacher who hired an atheist, Matt Casper, to help him capture “first impressions” of a non-believer at 10 leading churches.

After each visit, they talked about things like whether the church’s goals seemed to be conversation or conversion—dialogue or debate. What a great question! They evaluated everything—the music, the preacher, the drive up and how the seats were arranged. They even compared greeters to those giving you a cart at Walmart!

If you had to guess, what do you think people visiting church for the first time value most? And which things are most likely to get them to come back a second time?

The five things that are the most important for visitors to return to your church, according to a separate study conducted by George Barna (www.Barna.org) are:

1. The care shown to guests
2. Anonymity
3. Culturally relevant message and programs
4. Multiple points of entry and ways to be involved
5. A place where everyone has an enjoyable experience and an environment that emphasizes relationships

How can you collect honest feedback from newcomers about these things at your church? Where do you put most of your resources (time, money, effort, energy)? Does it pay off from the point of view of the new person in the crowd, do you think?

If you knew that there were three things that would help your families’ spiritual formation the most, would you encourage the parents and kids you serve to try them? If you had to guess what those three things were, what would you say?

Here are some interesting findings when it comes to the importance of family time and spiritual growth:

The Search Institute (2007) found that the three factors as predictors of faith development in teens were:

1) Frequency of discussions about faith with parents
2) Frequency of family prayer time
3) Frequency of shared family experiences and activities

We all want our kids to be better off than we are—financially, emotionally, and physically, but have you thought about spiritually? Lifeway did some great, more recent research about how to help kids grow spiritually, and it is directly tied to family time too.

Lifeway (2010) interviewed parents of young adults (ages 20-35) about what they did with their children that resulted in positive spiritual outcomes for them as adults. Among the top things listed:

• Regular family prayer time
• Students connecting with a leader at church
• Teens regularly serving at church
• Teens participating in ministry or service projects with their family

The bottom line take-away? Family time matters most.

As leaders, the more we can be an example / encourager / equipper so that the families we serve spend more time together in discussion / prayer / service, then the greater the possibility that we will see parents actively participating in the spiritual formation of their children to develop a full faith.

Were you surprised by these findings? How do you think we can encourage others to spend more time with their kids and family? What ways have you found work best to set them up well to do this, so they follow through and feel more confident?

This month on Orange Leaders and YouLead, we’re talking about our messaging and specifically how to create an engaging presentation.

I bet you could guess what one of the most common problems with many presentations is: People trying to say too much in a short amount of time! Maybe you’ve experienced that recently yourself and after it was over, you felt overwhelmed and struggled trying to tell someone the main point or what you took away from it.

There are several great resources on this subject including Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (which we’re covering on Wednesdays in September), as well as an older classic book, The Craft of Scientific Presentations by Michael Alley. Here are some notes:

Alley suggests that you actually have to choose as you craft your presentation. You can go deep (in depth) or you can go wide (in scope), but it is very difficult to do both in a one-hour lecture or conference presentation.

Dr. Medina in the book, Brain Rules, says trying to relate too much information—and leaving no time for connecting the dots—is another one of the most common communication mistakes. Ever been guilty of that? I have!

Also, researchers at the University of New South Wales found that it’s actually more difficult to process information if it’s coming at you both verbally and in written form at the same time. So, think about all those PowerPoint presentations as they’re commonly used—bullet points and small text that takes up most of the screen with little in the way of graphic support. It just might be time to rethink how we share what we know if we’d like others to get on the same page as us.

What’s something you’ve learned about engaging others when you’re presenting important information? Share here so we can all get better at communicating key things.

Did you know that Gallup researchers estimate that we are exposed (more like bombarded) with 5000 different advertising messages a day? We hear them, we read them—we are surrounded with messages telling us what to do and what to believe and what to buy.

That means there’s an awful lot of competing noise out there. It can easily drown out what’s most important. When there are so many different messages, they tend to cancel each other out. If you don’t believe me….

Try this activity at home with your family or friends. Watch a favorite TV show but don’t fast forward through the commercials. Let them all play. When the show finishes, turn it off and ask your family or friends to tell you about all the commercials they just watched. They will have trouble remembering them all. If one does stick, ask them why it stands out from the rest?

So how do we as leaders work on not saying TOO MUCH in the limited amount of time we have with kids and teens each week? It’s hard to not jump from point to point or hurry to ask all the questions when there’s so much we want them to know. How can we focus and zero in on the most important thing that might resonate with something they’re going through or something that brings out strong emotions and feeling– like the Super Bowl commercial you remember the next day? Basically, how do we share specific, key truths in ways that really stick and stand out?

We want to emphasize one thing over everything else each week. We want to say it and display it and talk about it from as many angles as possible– so that this truth can’t be missed or lost in a lot of other competing messages.

What do you do to narrow the focus and spotlight just one of God’s principles or truths so they stick in the minds and hearts of the ones we serve and love?

Maybe it’s just me but there’s something electric about being in the stands at a basketball game. Maybe it’s because you’re closer to the action than at a football game. Or maybe it’s because I find the game easier to understand and follow!

• There are important things—the fundamentals– that coaches everywhere focus on with basketball players so they can win games and make all that practice worth it.

• They plan ahead and teach plays that work and play to their advantage.

• When good coaches help players get better at something, they show them how and they’re specific with their instructions—not vague!

• The best coaches define what the win looks like and know that most of it is about heart and effort– not the scoreboard or talent.

• They want to control the tempo of the game rather than the other way around!

How much of that is true in our ministries??

Watch this clip of motivational speeches from the coaches in some of my favorite basketball movies and ask yourself—how can I help my team of volunteers win?

Everyone wants to be part of a team and feel like they’re winning!

What are some ways that you can motivate your team and clearly define the win in your ministry this week?

WANT TO READ MORE about Made to Stick or from the Heath brothers?
1. http://heathbrothers.com/madetostick/– the authors’ website with a sneak peek at the first chapter!
2. http://www.fastcompany.com/madetostick– the authors’ write a column for Fast Company too.
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvaEdc_K5g0– watch an interview with Dan Heath about the five most important ideas and how to make them stick.

AND….BECAUSE WE LIKE TO MAKE EVERYTHING EASY FOR YOU
If you’d like to Twitter about this book, here’s a recommendation (in 140 characters or less, of course) ready to go:
Want to make your idea stick? Heath brothers say Succes = getting people to pay attention, understand, believe, care and act! #madetostick

I know you’re busy, so I’ve summed up an entire book in just one post using a top ten list! Be sure to check out the first and second entries this month about Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, then we’ll finish up tomorrow with a few more go-to resources around this topic of communicating well.

TOP TEN list of IDEAS worth REMEMBERING
1. Find the core—“There has to be message triage. If you say three things, you don’t say anything.”
2. The power of analogies—substitute something familiar to accelerate learning about something difficult.
3. Grab their attention– break a predictable pattern, plan an interesting surprise or give them a mystery to solve.
4. The Curse of Knowledge makes it hard for us to remember what it’s like not to know something.
5. Create a common language by providing a concrete experience that puts everyone in the same playing field.
6. Details are important because they boost the credibility of what you’re trying to say.
7. Context matters because the easiest way to make people care is to show the relationship between something they don’t yet care
about and something they do.
8. Don’t focus on the features; stress the tangible benefits—what’s in it for them right now.
9. Stories are powerful “edutainment” because they provide knowledge on how to act and motivation to take action.
10. If you get stuck on how to make your message really stick, look around and learn from one that’s not only stuck but is spreading.