Maurilio Amorim

Month: August 2010

  • Stupid Stuff I Can’t Believe I Said

    Words are a powerful and interesting things. With words we build people up or tear down friendships. They are used to bless as well as to curse. I’m a communication professional. I’m deeply flawed and to make matters more complicated,  I’m also Brazilian. Brazilians are often fun, but we’re also blunt in ways that make southerners blush. Over the years I have tried not only to adapt to my new adopted country, but also temper my not-so-subtle foreign ways.  I have not always succeeded.

    stupid stuff I can't believe I said Maurilio

    Here’s some memorable exchanges I wish I could have taken back:

    “I have the best hair money can buy” jokingly to a gentleman at a church I was interning as he commented on how much he liked my hair. I didn’t realize he was wearing a toupee. (it was a good one, after all)

    “When are you due?” To my non-pregnant waitress at Cancun restaurant. Twice.

    “I meant to tell you before, but you’re actually an adopted monkey we got from the zoo” to my 5-year-old son Marcus as he ran screaming, “MOM is it true?”

    “Your grandfather is a hoot” to my college roommate only to find out it was his grandmother I had just met.

    “I’m not sure what kind of mirror you have, but I’m sure you didn’t see in it what I’m seeing.” to a friend who had a fashion meltdown.

    “Come with me little girl! You can sit on my lap” to a 28-year old midget woman sitting in a church service as I invited her to join me at the children’s story time.

    “Haven’t they suffered enough?” to a friend after she told me she was signing up to take food for the Nashville flood victims.

    “Sorry,but  it looked better on the hanger than it does on you.” To my young wife after bringing home a dress I bought her as a gift.  Twenty years later and I’m still paying for it.

    I’m glad for forgiveness, second chances and life lessons. But the truth is I can’t ever take those words back. Today I self edit a lot more than ever before, but to people who know me well, it’s not quite enough. My hope is that the majority of comes out of my mouth will be used for building up, instead of tearing down.

    Now it’s your turn. What have you said that you wish you could take back?

  • Narcissism, Social Media, Christianity and Me

    I knew I was in trouble even before I began reading a very thought-provoking post on social media by Mitch Joel, Confessions of a Narcissist brought to my attention by Mike Hyatt.  The title alone was convicting. In his post, Joel unplugs from the Matrix long enough to see what we have often feared would happen: a feeding frenzy of the cult of ME. Social media has empowered narcissism to a new level and given it legs to run amuck. He poignantly writes:

    The true destination for most of our online endeavors really are the new media equivalent of the biblical statues that were presented as deities. These digital shrines that we create to ourselves.

    narcissism, social media, christianity Maurilio Amorim

    The post hit  a nerve with me. Intellectually I know that social or any type of media is inherently neutral. Unlike some who believe Facebook, and Twitter and whatever new social network a 19 year-old starts tomorrow are the new paths to destruction, I realize they are just tools. They serve us; however, we feed them.

    I think Mitch Joel is right. We are narcissistic. No, I am narcissistic. Too often my interaction with people is more about me than anyone else.

    But what if those of us who claim to be Christ followers decided to redeem our social media footprint for a cause greater than the pursuit of notoriety?

    That’s the same question we should ask about the pursuit of riches, influence, knowledge or anything else in our lives. I’ve been fortunate to have known people who made millions so they could give away millions, some who are influential so they could speak for those without a voice. But am I pursuing an ever-growing online audience for their sake instead of mine? Are you?

    If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you have read my diatribes on the pitfalls of bad strategy, or the lack thereof, in projects, businesses, and churches. Some of us even have a sophisticated business strategy for our social media presence, but what about a faith one?

    What kind of impact could Christians have if we were more interested in helping a world in pain than in how good we look to our digital friends? That’s the question I’ll be wrestling with for the next few days.

    How can we redeem our online presence without becoming weird, obnoxious or confrontational?

  • Can a Purple Cow Endure?

    “You know we can’t be the Purple Cow forever, ” said the voice on the phone. That was 4 days ago, and I can’t get the conversation out of my mind. In case you haven’t read it, “Purple Cow” is a book by celebrity marketer Seth Godin that says:

    “You’re either a purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible.”

    Purple Cow how do we stay purple? Business leadership Maurilio Amorim

    I like to think of myself as a purple cow. Well, if I don’t pick up my running mileage I’ll be a different kind of cow, but none one us wants to believe that we’re no longer remarkable or that we now work for a boring, invisible or irrelevant organization. Mr. Godin and others have written a lot about becoming a purple cow, but once we get our colorful cow status, how do we stay there?

    Very few have been able to sustain purple cow status for a long time. Apple has done it, and so has Herman Miller, Madona, and Southwest to name a few.

    So once we get our purple stripes what do we do to prevent fading into oblivion? What are you doing to stay purple?

  • How to Give The Perfect TED Talk

    The TED conferences in Long Beach and Palm Springs alto have featured some of the best minds in worlds of design, entertainment and technology. Famous for its 18-minute limit per presentation, TED talks have been streamed online millions of times. Recently, Fast Company published a controversial article titled “Is TED the New Harvards?” proposing that TED will become the Harvard of the future. I’m not sure about that, but one thing is for sure TED talks are a hot commodity. If invited to present, you’ll have less than 18 minutes to wow the audience that pays $6,000 to be there and the subsequent millions who might watch your presentation online. Talk about pressure. But don’t fret There’s help.

    Sebastian Wernicke, an engagement manager at Oliver Wyman and former bioinformatics researcher, did a statistical analysts of all the publicly available TED talks and used it to create tedPAD—a TED talk generator that draws on the common phrases & keywords from popular talks to help you create the perfect TED presentation. Or, alternately, there’s tedPAD Black, which does just the opposite.

    If you’re going to succeed, however don’t ever mention the New York Times. No one who has has ever ranked high.

    What’s the best public speaking advice you’ve ever gotten?

  • 3 Questions You Must Answer Before Launching a Website

    “we have a technology problem,” is what I often hear from a client or potential client, but while that might be true, most of the time it’s not the technology problem that’s causing the issue, but a communication one. My company, The A Group, has a technology division where we have developed a sophisticated platform for media-rich tools as well as a powerful and easy-to-use content management system. While I’m happy to sell our products to anyone who needs faster, easier and overall better technology, I’m always careful to make sure people understand that’s the communication strategy that drives the technology and not the other way around.

    Before you redo your website

    This might sound simplistic to some, but I can tell you from personal experience that many churches, businesses and not-for-profits believe that a shiny new website, a powerful digital media tool, or an iPhone app will cure their communication problems. They won’t.

    What usually happen in the absence of a communication strategy  is that the new technology gets misused, or worst, underused because there’s no plan or a champion who understands how to use it. So before spending money on a new website or technology, here’s 3 questions you should ask:

    What do I want this thing do to? Sell products?  gather leads? create community? share media? You need to have a clear vision for your new website or project. Remember, however, that the more things any one system is designed to do, the more complex and potential less effective it becomes.

    Who in the team will be the champion for this project? I’m not talking about a technical position here. This is not a question about technology, but about strategy. Who understands the DNA of the organization to make sure this initiative will “look, feel and work” like it should. In my experience when IT (information technology) drives the project, development focus on platforms or the latest development technique and not on the end-user and their experience, where it should begin and end.

    What’s our sustainability plan? Once a project goes live, whether it’s a site or an app, it’s only the beginning.  Who are the people responsible for content? What’s the social media elements of the site and who’s going to monitor them? Oftentimes when a client creates a media-rich environment and becomes successful at attracting large  traffic, they have to deal with unplanned bandwidth costs. (Think of bandwidth as virtual pipes in and out of your website. The more users you have the bigger the pipes have to be) If your vision is to give your content for free, that’s great, but you need to figure out a way to pay for it.

    What has been your experience with technology in the workplace? What have you learned?

  • Even Runners Need Etiquette

    Saturday mornings I do my long run with a group of runners. We meet at the Gates of Percy Warner park in Nashville, TN. Percy and Edwin Warner parks feature 2,684 acres of some of the most beautiful woods in Tennessee. Lot’s of runners make these parks their favorite running grounds along with my running group. I’ve noticed a trend lately that has me a bit miffed. Runners who are coming opposite side from our group who look us in the eye but won’t acknowledge our gregarious “good morning,” or a friendly smile followed by a wave if the runner has ear plugs in. That’s just plain rude.

    I haven’t seen a guide for runner etiquette but I’m sure there’s one somewhere. Here’s a few rules that should be in it:

    1. If you make eye contact with another runner, smile or wave or say hello or maybe do all of them, just don’t stare them down as you cross paths, unless you’re a northerner running up north. If you’re a northern transplant in the South then this rule applies.

    2. Runners run facing traffic. I’ve run facing traffic while another runner in front of me ran on the right side of the road. An incoming car got distracted looked at the other guy and almost took me out. I had to jump in a ditch at the last minute. At my age, ditch jumping is not pretty.

    3. If you’re running with a group in a busy street, stay single file as close to the edge of the road as you can. Often groups of runners feel like they own the road. You don’t. But also drivers should move as far from runners (and cyclists as well) as possible. If there’s no traffic coming towards you, it’s ok to cross into the other lane to avoid hitting runners. I almost got clipped today by someone driving a Buick. (notice I didn’t say an old person, but hey, it was a Buick. Case closed).

    5. If someone in your running group is having a bad day and they can’t run as fast as the rest of the group, then take turns running alongside your slowest friend. It’s good for the entire group to “share the love” instead expecting a single runner to stay behind, or worse, leave the weakest link to fend for himself. Yes, I’m talking about me.

    6. If you’re going on a long run, bring water. It’s ok if you occasionally forget and mooch off some one else’s water, but making a habit of not bringing water will get you off the running team’s email list in a hurry. No one wants your germs.

    7. Don’t eat chocolate before a run. Ok. that’s just a personal reminder of a running tragedy after I ate chocolate and went for a 10-miler. No, I didn’t finished it.

    8. If you sweat like crazy, make sure you run behind or to the side of the group. We don’t want your sweat flung our way.

    9. Group running is therapeutic. If you don’t want to hear all the drama in your running mates lives, run alone.

    10. If you have women in your group and an attractive female appears on the scene. Do not acknowledge her in any way form or shape, specially shape, or your running partners will turn on you and shun you from the group. So I hear.

    This is by no means comprehensive. What did I forget?

  • Stop Lying. Your Children Need the Truth

    Tim Elmore’s new book “Generation iY” has messed me up lately, particularly the chapter on amending the lies we told Generation iY. According to Tim, these are well intentioned platitudes we say to our children in order to encourage them, to build their self-esteem but at their core, they are lies that will potentially wreak havoc as kids get old. According to him, “we have lied to manipulate, and often we have lied out of love. We’ve even taught young people to lie to themselves. . . in ways that will eventually sabotage them as a young adult.”

    Tim Emore Generation iY Lies we tell our children blog Maurilio Amorim

    Out of Dr. Elmore’s list of seven lies, the one that hit me the hardest was:

    You can be anything you want to be!

    Wait a second Tim, isn’t this part of the American Dream? Don’t people risk everything to come to America so their children can grow in a place they can be anything they want?

    But the trouble is that wanting something and being able to achieve it are two very different things. “Desire is not the same as talent, and talent is not the same as accomplishment,” says Elmore. And he is right. If you want to see the consequences of this lie, just watch an audition show of American Idol. It’s eerily sad to see parents encouraging tone-deaf children to continue pursuing a dream that’s just never going to happen, no matter how much affirmation the kid gets.

    I love my boys, I want them to think big and I don’t want to put limitations on their lives. But more importantly than blindly telling them that they should strive for an NFL career if that’s what they really want, I need to help them align their strengths with opportunities. I need to help them discovered their sweet spot where they’re most likely to do well and grow in it. Working in an area of one’s weaknesses is exhausting, frustrating and often leads to failure.

    So how do you deal with situations where the truth is not what the young person across from you wants to hear?

  • Hipster vs Polyester Christianity and the Cultural Trap

    Every church movement in America, and around the world for that matter, has its share of critics. Friday morning I read a Wall Street Journal article by Brett McCracken on the perils of what he entitles “Hipster Christianity” . In this summary of his recently-released book, which I have not yet read, Mr. McCracken condemns Christian leaders for trying too hard “to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant.” He even names a few churches as examples of what he calls “cool churches,” saying at the close of his article that “as a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.” I’m glad Mr. McCracken knows what he and his generation want, but whose job is to define what a “real” church looks like? Mr. McCracken and his generation of anti-hipsters? The Baby Boomers and their love of big churches? Program-driven denominational leaders?

    Hispter vs Polyester Christianity Maurilio Amorim

    In my work as a church consultant over many years, I have visited hundreds of churches services from high-church, liturgical to barking-in-the isles pentecostal and everything in between. I even experienced a few liturgical/pentecostal services. Yes, such a thing does exist. Interestingly, I’ve heard arguments from church leaders and critics about “methodology vs theology,”  “seeker vs sacred,”  about “conservative vs liberal” and on and on until I’m really not interested in such discussions any longer. They lead nowhere productive.

    I’m sure most of us agree with Mr. McCracken that we all want our church to be “real.” The problem is that unless we have a Biblical perspective of what God wants from us, then “real” is defined by the most persuasive critic, by popular vote, or even by young thinkers challenging the status quo; none of them necessarily biblical options. When considering the role of the church, I often think about the last words of Jesus before ascending into heaven:

    Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matt 28: 19,20

    It’s clear that Jesus wants his followers to pursue those outside the faith with intentionality, to go wherever they are, even in foreign lands, and not only to understand their new-found faith, but also to become something more than Christian thinkers: to be identified with the Christ they claim to follow by their actions and lifestyle.

    The ultimate test of an effective church cannot be measure by its style, size, hipster quotient, or even biblical knowledge of its members, as important as that might be. The mark of a “real” church, regardless whether its preacher wears skinny jeans or a polyester suit, is that of a transforming agent for God. “Are we creating true followers of Christ and not merely fans of Jesus? Is life transformation part of the DNA of this church? How can we be salt and light to this community and to the world?” These are the important questions to me.

    If you want to leave your current church because the music is too loud or your pastor has begun shopping at the Buckle, than that’s your prerogative. But before you exchange it for a choir and pipe organ, or for the ultra smart double PHD preacher down the road, make sure the byproduct of membership in your new church is not just a better experience tailor-suited to your tastes, but by a transformed life–one that’s characterized by a radical devotion to a man named Jesus.

    What compels you to continue attending your current church? or if you’re not attending anywhere, what would it take for you to visit a church?

  • Vienna: I Barely Knew You

    Last month I spent a few days in Vienna, Austria working with the TWR’s European team. While I didn’t have a chance to enjoy much of what has to offer, I put together a quick slide show of pics I took with my iPhone. The music comes from Vienna’s own Mozart, of course.

    Belvedere Maurilio Amorim Austria Vienna

    I now want to get back to Vienna to explore more of this beautiful city.

    Where have you been that you’ve said to yourself, “I’ve got to get back here!”?

  • How to Speak International: Communication in a Global Economy

    It’s a small world after all. And I’m not talking about the never-ending, annoying Disney ride that can drive you insane. In the global economy we now live in, you’ll eventually have to work with people from different countries and cultures. This year alone I have been in Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Vienna working on projects and have seen first hand what a global economy looks like. Clear communication across the entire world has never been more important. As a communication professional, I often find well-meaning people commit grave errors because they don’t understand the cultural implications within a discussion. Most of the time, words alone fail to give you the true meaning of an international exchange. There are some lessons every business professional, pastor or even mission-bound volunteer should learn before they blow a deal, an exchange or, worst, start a war.

    Global Communication Maurilio Amorim Blog Post

    Bad translations will derail any negotiation. While accurate translation should be a given, I’m amazed at how many times meetings go south when the interpreter misses a nuance or a slightly different word usage and translates a concept incorrectly. If you’re in a situation where someone else is translating, make sure he or she understand the culture more so than just the pure language. On my recent trip to Vienna, our European host had my team eating at  “Heurigen” most every night noted on our advanced agenda. If you know me, you know how much I like to eat, and the idea of going all the way to Austria to eat at the same restaurant was just killing me. I must confess, I whined about it, a whole lot, only to find out “Heurigen” is a description of a winery-based type of restaurant in Austria. Every night we were treated to a different “Heurigen” with delightful specialty foods and their own specific wine. All my whining was unjustified because I miss understood one word. But in a tough negotiation setting a mistranslated concept can derail more than your dinner plans.

    You must understand cultural values when engaging a potential business or ministry partner. Ok, these are over-generalizations and I’ll probably get hate mail from making some of these comments, but unless you understand certain underlying cultural values, you won’t be able to  engage successfully in business or ministry. For example, Brazilians will not likely trust you unless you’re able to go out with them after work, eat a late, late dinner of grilled meat (at least a half a cow) and party until wee into the night. Germans value precision, and a strong work ethic (a German-Brazilian combination will work and party you to death. Trust me. I know). Asians don’t like confrontation and hate to be embarrassed, so brash tactics can backfire quickly. Most cultures are not as loud as we, Americans, are. During my recent trip to Austria, the 3 of us from the US were responsible for 90% of the volume in public places. So be careful not to come across as a loud-mouth, know-it-all. Unfortunately, Americans have gotten that reputation and too often deservingly so.

    Nothing replaces a face-to-face exchange. With the advent of email, video conferencing, Skype and other tools, it’s easy to get on an international call and have people from different continents participate. We do if often at The A Group; however, there are times that the wise thing to do is to spend the money, get on a plane and meet in person. Technology has yet to create a tool that allows us the same benefit of interacting with people who are so much more than a title, an avatar, or even a two-dimensional video representation of a complex, wonderfully created individual who needs to be experienced in order to be understood. Most conference calls I find myself waiting for my turn  in order to make my point and drive my agenda forward. Sitting across the table during an honest exchange with someone forces me to live in their moment, not just mine.

    What has been your experience in a cross-cultural situation?