REPOST: Leadership lessons

Leaders, good and bad, are shaped by the experiences they get from their day-to-day lives.  Here is an example of heroic leadership as reported in an article from DNA India.

Leaders should have the capabilities to deal with a dynamic competitive international environment, says Rohit Deshpande.

At Harvard Business School (HBS) we teach that leaders become who they are because of the circumstances in which they are placed, including trial by fire, literally. It’s been five years since the tragedy at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and everybody who had any connection with that hotel has vivid memories of what happened that day. The staff was trained for typical emergencies such as electrical outages or guests falling sick, but certainly not for a terrorist attack.

So what explains their bravery that night? How did the staff demonstrate not just personal heroism but leadership, as they led guests to safety? This is an inspirational story of leadership where ordinary people did extraordinary things. By means of a multimedia case study I’ve authored, both our MBA students and executive education participants learn how to broaden the lessons from the Taj Hotel story to private and public sector organisations across the globe.

There are many capabilities that an effective business leader should have – skills that can be taught and learned – including the ability to manage circumstances that are changing rapidly due to the changing nature of competition and stakeholders. Let’s tackle competition first. So much of business today is web based and Internet related that even emerging companies are ‘born global.’ They don’t have to go through the traditional route of starting small locally, then growing, and finally going international. They go global the moment they have a website. They can get orders from any location, which means that their competitors can come from anywhere in the world. Thus, leadership capabilities for dealing with a dynamic competitive international environment are essential.

Second, increasingly the modern corporation is facing competing claims from multiple stakeholders. In earlier days, it could focus on customers, and if it were a publically-traded corporation, on investors or shareholders. But increasingly companies have to manage the competing claims that come from government regulation, public society, consumer activist groups, and stakeholders working to improve employee working conditions. As a result, good leadership capabilities have also to do with managing the competing claims of different stakeholders.

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A few years ago at Harvard Business School, we embarked on an experiment to expand the way we think about how a modern corporation might be managed, and we came up with the notion of “the three lenses.” This approach encourages us to think about business issues not only through a financial lens, but from a legal and ethical perspective. We teach that sustainable businesses operate at the intersection of the three lenses.

An example from India that illustrates the three lens approach is a new case that I developed on Infosys, which, under the leadership of cofounder Narayana Murthy, has been hugely successful financially, and which also operates in an honourable and ethical manner on a local and global level. In fact, Infosys is renowned not only for nurturing its own brand but for nurturing the concept of India Inc., thus having far reaching implications not only for its own success, but also for the prominence and positive image of India. In the case, therefore, we examine how to brand both a company and a country.

Businesses operating in India must be able to strike a balance between doing well and doing good, and its corollary, doing good by doing well. It doesn’t have to be a trade-off. Doing well by doing good is a process by which an organisation evolves its relationships with stakeholders for the common good and demonstrates its commitment by adopting appropriate priorities, processes, and strategies. To be authentic, corporate social responsibility must be central to the mission of the organisation.

These behaviours can all be learned and shared. Harvard Business School has more than 100 years of experience developing innovative pedagogy. Our hallmark case study method has evolved from a century of studying organisational behaviour, political economy, and strategic leadership.
The Taj Mahal Hotel case is an example of how leadership in the worst of times can be an inspirational tale of best practices drawn from a real world example on the ground in India. Our hope is that this case, along with our body of teaching and research, will serve Harvard Business School’s mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world.

To teach disciples to make disciples—this is one of the highest goals of Mercy Church in San Luis Obispo, California. Together with volunteers, the church organizes outreach programs such as The Wardrobe, which allows people to donate clothes for impoverished families.  Visit this website for more information on Mercy Church.

REPOST: Behold! Jerusalem dig turns up priestly bathtub from Jesus' time

Archaeologists may have found the mansion of one of the priests that condemned Jesus.  Its bathtub serves as a clue to these findings.  Find more about this discovery in an article from NBC News.

Archaeologists say they have uncovered a first-century mansion on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, complete with an ancient bathtub that just might have belonged to one of the priests who condemned Jesus to death.

"Byzantine tradition places in our general area the mansion of the high priest Caiaphas or perhaps Annas, who was his father-in-law," Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist co-directing the excavation, said in a news release. "In those days you had extended families who would have been using the same building complex, which might have had up to 20 rooms and several different floors."

The ruins of what appears to be a high-status residence were dug up on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, just outside the walls of the Old City. Image Source: www.msn.com

The mansion's location and its fancy features are the main lines of evidence for surmising that a member of the priestly class lived there, according to Gibson and the dig's other co-director, James Tabor, a scholar of early Christian history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. UNC Charlotte has been licensed by Israeli authorities to conduct the Mount Zion excavation.

"We might be digging in the home of one of Jesus' archenemies," Tabor told NBC News. "Someone who was at the trial of Jesus, and probably voted no."

So which was it: Pharisees or Sadducees? "We think Sadducees," Tabor said. "That's the class that has the wealth and more of the control of the temple, and they're in with the Romans."

Bathtub provides a clue

The mansion was built close to the walls of the Second Temple, erected by King Herod the Great in biblical times. It boasted a three-pit oven — a luxury in those days — as well as a private walk-in ritual pool and a separate bathroom.

The bathtub is one of the most significant clues in the mystery surrounding the mansion's owners. Only three other such tubs have been linked to the Second Temple period in Israel, Gibson said. Two of them were unearthed in Herod's palaces at Jericho and Masada, and the third was found in a priestly residence excavated nearby in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter.

The ancient bathtub, visible on the left side of this excavated bathroom, looks a lot like the modern-day equivalent. Image Source: www.msn.com

"It is only a stone's throw away, and I wouldn't hesitate to say that the people who made that bathroom probably were the same ones who made this one," Gibson said. "It's almost identical, not only in the way it's made, but also in the finishing touches, like the edge of the bath itself."

The excavators said they found a huge number of Murex sea snail shells amid the ruins. Some species of Murex sea snails were highly valued because a blue dye could be extracted from the creatures. In fact, historians say such a dye was specified in Jewish texts as the coloring agent for religious garments.

It's not exactly clear why so many shells were kept in the mansion, but Gibson hypothesizes that they may have been used to identify different grades of dye, since the quality of the product can vary from species to species.

Three round pits served as ovens for the mansion's residents. Image Source: www.msn.com

The team also explored a 30-foot-deep (10-meter-deep) cistern. "When we started clearing it, we found a lot of debris inside, which included substantial numbers of animal bones, and then right at the bottom we came across a number of vessels which seemed to be sitting on the floor — cooking pots and bits of an oven as well," Gibson said.

He and his colleagues suggest that Jewish residents might have lived in the cistern as their final refuge during the Roman siege that led to the city's destruction in the year 70. In his account of the siege, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus said more than 2,000 bodies were found underground in Jerusalem's cisterns and water systems, most of them dead from starvation.

Why the mansion was preserved

The mansion's location, and the timing of its demise, may have been played a role in its preservation: After the Romans pillaged Jerusalem, the area was deserted for 65 years. And when the Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city in 135, the Mount Zion area was left unoccupied. "The ruined field of first-century houses in our area remained there intact up until the beginning of the Byzantine period," in the early 4th century, Gibson said.

Jerusalem's Byzantine inhabitants simply built on top of the older walls. Two centuries later, the ruins were covered with landfill material that was dumped on it from above during the reign of Justinian I, due to the construction of a church complex known as the Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos just to the northeast.

"The area got submerged," Gibson explained in the news release. "The early Byzantine reconstruction of these two-story Early Roman houses then got buried under rubble and soil fills. Then they established buildings above it. That's why we found an unusually well-preserved set of stratigraphic levels."

This year's Mount Zion excavations were conducted between June 16 and July 11, and the project is slated to continue in 2014 and 2015.

Mercy Church has been studying the life of Jesus and his teachings.  Best known for its discipleship process that is currently transforming the lives of its members and those around them, Mercy Church has been providing its members the power to create positive change in the world.  Visit this website to learn more of the principles of discipleship.

REPOST: Why millennials need the church

Rachel Held Evans, author of "Evolving in Monkey Town" and "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," explains in her article for CNN why “Christian millennials need the church just as much as the church needs us.”

(CNN) – For a time, I counted myself among the spiritual but not religious, Christian but not churchgoing crowd.

Like many millennials, I left church because I didn’t always see the compassion of Jesus there, and because my questions about faith and science, the Bible, homosexuality, and religious pluralism were met with shallow answers or hostility.

At first I reveled in my newfound Sunday routine of sleeping in, sipping my coffee and yelling at Republicans who appeared on ”Meet the Press.”

But eventually I returned, because, like it or not, we Christian millennials need the church just as much as the church needs us. Here’s why:

Image source: pcog.org

Baptism

As former Methodist bishop Will Willimon has often said, “you cannot very well baptize yourself.”

In a culture that stresses individualism, the church satisfies the human need for community, for shared history and experiences.

And in a world where technology enables millennials to connect only with those who are like-minded, baptism drags us - sometimes kicking and screaming as infants - into the large, dysfunctional and beautiful family of the church.

Confession

“Sin” is not a popular word these days, perhaps because it is so often invoked in the context of judgment and condemnation.

But like all people, millennials need reminding now and then that the hate and violence we observe in the world is also present within ourselves.

We can be too idealistic, too convinced we can change the world from our iPads.

The accountability that comes from participation in a local church gives young Christians the chance to speak openly about our struggles with materialism, greed, gossip, anger, consumerism and pride.

Healing

While the flawed people who make up the church can certainly inflict pain on each other and sometimes on the world, we also engage in the important work of healing.

At their best, local churches provide basements where AA groups can meet, living rooms where tough conversations about racial reconciliation occur, casseroles for the sick and shelter for the homeless.

Millennials who have been hurt by the church may later find healing in it.

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Leadership

Like a lot of millennials, I am deeply skeptical of authority - probably to a fault.

But when I interact with people from my church who have a few years and a lot of maturity on me, I am reminded of how cool it is to have a free, built-in mentoring and accountability program just down the street.

We can learn a lot from the faithful who have gone before us, and the church is where we find them.

Communion

One of the few things the modern church has in common with the ancient one is its celebration of the sacred meal— the Eucharist.

There is simply not the space here, nor in many volumes of theology for that matter, to unpack the significance of remembering Jesus through eating bread and drinking wine. But when I left the church, it was Communion I craved the most.

Churches may disagree on exactly how Christ is present in these sacred meals, but we agree that Christ is present. And millennials, too, long for that presence.

There are some days when the promise of Communion is the only thing that rouses me from bed on Sunday morning. I want a taste of that mystery.

Confirmation

Many churches practice a rite of initiation, sometimes called confirmation.

Theologian Lauren Winner, in her book “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis,” quotes a friend who said:

“What you promise when you are confirmed is not that you will believe this forever. What you promise when you are confirmed is that that is the story you will wrestle with forever.”

The church, at its best, provides a safe place in which to wrestle with this story we call the Gospel.

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Union with Christ

Those who follow Jesus long for the day when their communion with him becomes complete, and Jesus promises this will happen through the church.

The apostle Paul compared this union to a marriage. Jesus describes it as a banquet.

No matter what the latest stats or studies say, Christians believe the future of the church is secure and not even “the gates of hell” will prevail against it.

As much as I may struggle to fit in sometimes, as much as I doubt, question and fight for reforms, I am a part of this church, through good times and bad, for better or worse.

The astute reader will notice that each of these points corresponds loosely with a sacrament—baptism, confession, the anointing of the sick, holy orders, communion, confirmation and marriage.

Some would say there are many others. We could speak of the sacrament of the Word or the washing of feet.

But even where they are not formally observed, these sacraments are present in some form in nearly every group of people who gather together in the name of Jesus.

They connect us to our faith through things we can eat, touch, smell and feel. And they connect us with one another.

They remind us, as writer and Episcopal priest Sara Miles put it, that “You can’t be a Christian by yourself.”

This is why I haven’t given up on the church, and I suspect why it hasn't given up on me.

Mercy Church has services targeted for specific age groups, including young adults. Learn more about its mission and ministry here.

Experiencing spiritual transformation through withstanding hardships

“Spirit is the part of you that feels like hope.”—Caroline Myss

Spiritual growth can start in many different ways. It may come from reading sacred scriptures like the Bible, listening to praise songs, talking to a preacher, or even watching a religious movie. But probably one of the most influential ways to experience spiritual growth is to actually withstand hardships.

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Many people experience trying times which lead them to ask for help from divine entities. Recent tragedies in the US, like the Boston bombing or the tornado that hit Oklahoma, are examples of this. With so much hurt and confusion, some people tend to grasp hope from things and places they have never relied on before.

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Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder of Omega Institute and author of the self-help book Broken Open, believes that people’s terrible experiences here in this world allow them to connect with their spirituality. Interviewed by Oprah, Lesser says that difficult times allow people to open their hearts to majestic things, comparing people to a tightly closed rosebud. “In order for that bud to open and blossom into the flower we love so much, it has to break its shell. It has to break open,” she explained.

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The same goes with people. Sometimes, they would have to experience hardships and losses first before they finally realize how blessed they actually are. It is through being lost that people eventually follow that spiritual path.

Mercy Church is a SLO-based religious institution that teaches its members how to become responsible members of society. Learn about the church’s active participation in charitable events by visiting this page.

Good Samaritans: Kindness in the face of disaster

The Good Samaritan was a parable told by Jesus Christ, as narrated in the Gospel of Luke (10:29-37) in the New Testament.  It was about a traveler (presumably a Jew) who was robbed and left half-dead on the road.  No one came to his rescue except for a Samaritan who treated his wounds and took him to an inn to be nursed.  Samaritans, during the time of Jesus Christ, were perceived to be enemies of the Jews.  Using an “enemy” as an unlikely support in the face of disaster, Jesus Christ was describing unconditional kindness.

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Stories of Good Samaritans who show compassion in the face of disaster abound in real life. Time magazine, for instance, describes how many people have displayed altruistic behaviors when Hurricane Sandy hit many areas in the US—caring for the sick and elderly neighbors, sharing food and information, and offering various supports as needed.  Some acts of kindness in the time of catastrophes are even exceptional. Reverend Bennie Newton, for instance, saved a construction worker who was robbed and assaulted by Los Angeles thugs.  Throwing himself over the beaten man’s body and waving his Bible, he shouted “Kill him and you have to kill me, too!”  Dispersing off the thugs with his act, he moved on to bring the harassed man to the hospital.  

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What Good Samaritans demonstrate is that true kindness is absolute and spontaneous.  It is not born out of prejudice and self-interest but of the desire to love and devote oneself to God’s teachings.  

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The Mercy Church in San Luis Obispo welcomes everyone to share in God’s love.  Check out this website and discover God’s purpose in your life.

Cell groups: Where did they start?

A cell group is literally a “small group” of Christians that is often composed of six to 12 members and led by a cell leader. It is usually comprised of members of the same interest, age, or gender. This structure is employed in churches to focus on each member's spiritual life. In order to do so, the one that leads the group is the most mature among all members, preferably a Bible student, a Pastor, or someone who’s been “serving” in the church for years.

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The origin of cell groups is often linked to brothers John and Charles Wesley, two respected Christian theologians who invested a lot in small groups to evangelize many non-believers during their time. Their exemplary method of evangelism is always cited as the driving force that kindled and ignited the Methodist movement in the 18th century.

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The Wesley brothers believed that in order to experience Jesus personally, one must also introduce Him “personally” to those who do not know Him yet. And they understood that preaching in large crowds was an ineffectual way to do it. There were no microphones and speakers then, so it is clear that preaching the gospel then was not as easy as it is today. The Wesleys' open-air preaching to small groups was effective, as many of the churches that sprang from the small groups they founded still exist today in the United Kingdom.

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Many modern churches today have seen the effectuality of small group-teaching, though not in organizing new churches but in empowering their respective members. Today, cell groups are very common in Christian churches around the globe.

Mercy Church in SLO, California, also holds services targeted at specific age groups, including children and college students, through small groups called “cells,” where members ponder on God’s plan for them. This website provides a detailed account of how the church utilizes cells to empower its members' spiritual lives.

On different Bible translations

Different Bible translations abound on the market today, and the number of options is confusing a lot of first-time Bible owners. The truth is, despite the myriad translations available for purchase, the Bible versions are only classified into three kinds.

Image source: kingsenglish.info

The old version: New King James version

Considered as heavy and difficult to grasp because of its antiquated language, KJV is suitable for theology students and Bible scholars. Since it was translated during the 15th century, most words and expressions bore the Puritan influence, which means they did not swerve immensely from the original Hebrew version and were not heavily influenced by modernity. To those who want to learn the nitty-gritty of the Scriptures, they would find this version a good scholarly companion.

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The modern version: New International Version

Today, NIV is the most popular among other translations that adhere to the modern English language. Contrary to 15th and 19th century translations, NIV uses simple words and phrasing to accommodate many modern English speakers around the globe—that is, it is translated using the “contemporary English principle,” or a whole new rendering in the absences of “thees” and “shalts.” Other popular translations that are rendered with the same principle are the New American Standard Version (NASB), the New Living Translation (NLT), and the English Standard Version (ESV).

The Beginner’s version: Devotional books

For new Christians, devotional books are a good way to start reading the Holy Bible. Here the reader is not forced to read a large block of verses because short passages are shared on a daily basis (since this kind of Bible is formatted “diary-style”). This also offers vignettes that provide lessons, related anecdotes, short quizzes, and footnotes aiming to help the reader understand the scripture easier.

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Members of Mercy Church in San Luis Obispo, California who gather every week for Bible study sessions understand the importance of having a personal Bible that fits one’s taste. Its official website provides more information about the ministry.