Archive for November, 2010

Churches stop growing or they plateau for several reasons, too many for one blog post. So I’m tackling them in a series of posts featuring growth barriers for churches I have encountered during years of strategic consulting. I’m calling these posts “Churches Won’t Grow When.”  While some of the issues (Continue reading…)

If we are honest with ourselves, most of our lives is a series of exchanges.  We work and we expect payment for it. We exercise and we expect better health and a stronger body. We help friends and we expect gratitude and good will back.  We even have this exchange (Continue reading…)

He was about to give the man at the front desk a piece of his mind. He had some of the worst customer service experience in a long time, after all, these people had overcharged his credit card two months in a row. The fitness club manager was a shady (Continue reading…)

Every good communicator has to be a student of human nature. After all you cannot connect a message with an audience you don’t understand. Some of us, myself included, have decided not to age gracefully. Heck, to some have waged full blown war on aging. But even our best attempts (Continue reading…)

More than any other time in my career, I have had more people ask me how I started The A Group. These are entrepreneurs who for a variety of reasons find themselves in transition. Look around you. A lot of us are in transition right now. Jobs are going away (Continue reading…)

The most important work I do as a consultant is to help my clients with strategies in communications, business systems and even creative output. A lot of very cool tools and initiatives come from the work and many of these, my company, The A Group, gets to produce.  Recently during (Continue reading…)

The old man was out of control and out of order. His wife was taken to the operating room 30 minutes before she was scheduled and we were not there in time to pray with her before the surgery. Now his angry words echoed through the hospital waiting room for (Continue reading…)

Monday evening I was sitting at the City of Brentwood Planning Commission Meeting when an architect approached the podium facing the commissioners’ bench. His pants drooped down the back in large folds as if he were wearing a big diaper underneath. I tried not to pay attention but my mind (Continue reading…)

It’s a cliche, but it’s a good one: “Sometimes all you need to do is just show up.” I have seen its power in my own life. As a matter of fact, it worked for me just yesterday. I cannot tell you how many times I have abandoned personal growth (Continue reading…)

The man to my left leaned in and with intensity in his eyes asked the question: “I’m contemplating a strategic business partnership; I want to lead my business into outliving me.” Across the table from us sat a veteran CEO with years of experience in multi-billion dollar business. The answer (Continue reading…)