Lessons From the Lemonade Stand

Lemonade stands are a great way for kids to make a little bit of cash on the side, have some fun with the neighbors, and stay out of your hair for the afternoon. There’s nothing like building the entrepreneurial spirit when they’re young. So, what can we learn from our kids? Rhonda Abrams has some ideas.

Turn Off Pop-Ups When Presenting

Honestly, I’m guilty of this. I never renewed my antivirus subscription, so I get three or four messages from McAfee telling me that my Security Center is not configured properly or something. And honestly, I wish I could turn it off, but I think the only way to do it is to fork over the $50. Hooray.

In a given day, or week, or month, how many messages pop up on your computer to:

• Update Java, RealPlayer, or Windows?
• Connect to a wireless network?
• Remind you of an upcoming meeting or birthday?
• Keep you up to date on your subscribed RSS feeds?

Warning: Some of these pop-ups may appear while you’re presenting in slide show view! Not a pretty picture!

After a few minutes of inactivity (let’s say you’re answering questions), does your screen saver kick in, or does your computer go into hibernation mode?

Before you get into such a situation, right now, start making a list of the pop-ups that you see, and research how to turn them off. It’s not always easy to find the answer, because the software companies want you to see those pop-ups!

I’ve heard of even more embarrassing situations that pop-ups have created. For example, I was at a conference where they told a story of a pastor that had pornographic pop-ups on his computer because he had downloaded some spyware off a pornographic web site he had visited. Instant messengers are also annoying (both in pop-ups and in their “alerts”) sometimes if you forget to turn them off.

Anyway, if you know how to turn off the pop-ups, it might behoove you to do so.

You’ve Been Left Behind

You know, after I wrote this flowery message last week defending Christian business owners, some knucklehead had to prove me wrong. From various pages on their web site:

You’ve Been Left Behind gives you one last opportunity to reach your lost family and friends For Christ. Imagine being in the presence of the Lord and hearing all of heaven rejoice over the salvation of your loved ones. It is our prayer that this site makes it happen.

We all have family and friends who have failed to receive the Good News of the Gospel. The unsaved will be ‘left behind’ on earth to go through the “tribulation period” after the “Rapture”. You remember how, for a short time, after (9/11/01) people were open to spiritual things and answers. (We are still singing “God Bless America” at baseball’s seventh inning stretch.) Imagine how taken back they will be by the millions of missing Christians and devastation at the rapture. They will know it was true and that they have blown it. There will be a small window of time where they might be reached for the Kingdom of God.

We have made it possible for you to send them a letter of love and a plea to receive Christ one last time. You can also send information based on scripture as to what will happen next. Each fulfilled prophecy will cause your letter and plea to be remembered and a decision to be made. “WHY” is one last chance to bring them to Christ and snatch them from the flames!

We have set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the “Rapture” of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.

A Cure for Futility

Scientific management theory is the analysis of processes in order to improve productivity. So, to that end, does God also subscribe to this theory?

I once heard interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole; once or twice, a German tank drove by and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in furious firefights. Mostly, the day passed like any other. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. It didn’t feel decisive at the time because none had the big picture.

Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks.

Perhaps you sense you’re in a spiritual rut. Stay at your assigned task! Obedience to God—and only obedience—offers the way out of our futility.

So, is the body of Christ simply one big spiritual workflow? In the context of this devotion, it sure seems that it is. But God also must subscribe to the human relations theory of management, because He is also concerned with our needs and meeting those needs (1 Peter 5:7–”Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Trash Talk

My daughter was watching Veggie Tales yesterday, and the episode was “Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed”. In the show, Bumblyburg’s favorite superhero Larry-Boy has to fight off a gigantic weed growing under the city that is feeding off the negative things being said about his butler, Mr. Alfred. After talking to Junior Asparagus and Laura’s elementary school class, he mentioned that he had to go home to “recharge his batteries”.

The kids didn’t understand what that meant, so they assumed it meant that Mr. Alfred was a robot. They told the “rumor weed”, who resembled a cross between Audrey II and a housewife from Queens, which in turn told everyone in town that Alfred had robot laser eye beams and was ready to take over the world. When Junior and Laura discover that they did wrong, the town talks about all the good things that Alfred had done for everyone, and the weed turns into a flower.

If only we did the same whenever people talk poorly of others. I know that I have spoken quite frequently in classes about the lesson from James 3:6 that the tongue is a fire. However, I think we often forget that when we start a fire and have to put it out, we must rebuild the soil and replant seeds to get things growing again. We don’t just put out the fire and walk away.

I hate being in meetings where someone not in the room will be talked about disparagingly, whether or not I agree, and I hate even worse when I don’t defend that person out of fear of reprisal or loss of status. It seems like it happens quite frequently in the business world, and what I think people don’t realize is that when they engage in that type of behavior, it reflects poorly on them. Would you trust someone who is just as likely to stab you in the back when you’re not looking by spreading rumors or talking about you with others? As Christians, I think we are called to be more dignified when we speak, not to spread this so-called “trash talk”, and not to engage in these back-biting behaviors.

How NOT to Witness Through Your Business

In previous posts, I’ve discussed how Chick-Fil-A and other businesses use their Christian faith to draw in customers. After all, a good testimony as a trusted servant is a good reputation to have in business.

However, here are four different accounts about how a car dealership in California advertised on the radio to non-Christians: they told non-Christians to “sit down and shut up.”

Lessons of the Fall

One of the aspects that we haven’t discussed as much in class are the functional reasons for communication. In this article from Fortune magazine, the former CEOs of JetBlue, Starbucks, and Motorola explain how the lack of communication was instrumental to them becoming unemployed.

David Neeleman (formerly of JetBlue Airlines): I didn’t have time to update the board on everything. If you don’t, somebody else will. You have to be able to give them an accurate picture of what’s going on, or they develop their own perceptions and start creating their own stories. And then they make their decisions. How do you keep these people up to date and give them the whole picture? That’s the job of the CEO, and I failed.

Jim Donald (formerly of Starbucks): I made it a habit of every other week updating the board through an e-mail on revenue, any store openings, any issues around the world.

Neeleman: When things start going south, communication should increase. Even if you think you’re doing enough, you’re not doing enough. I didn’t do a good enough job because [board members] developed their own perceptions of where things were headed.

It’s an interesting read, both from a communications perspective and from a management perspective.

Communication Key to Harmonious Workplace

On the surface, you might look at this story and think, “Well, duh!” However, as we shift our attention this week to organizational communication, there are some interesting ideas we can draw from this article about how communication affects more than just our personal relationships.

Religion at the Register

The Indianapolis Star had an article in Monday’s paper on Chick-Fil-A and other businesses that are expressive in their Christian beliefs.

Here is a question: what about companies that overtly use Jesus to advertise their products or services (such as placing Scriptures or Christian symbols on vehicles, advertisements, etc.)? Is that a misappropriation of the Gospel? Even worse, what about such companies that use Jesus to advertise their business and deliver underperforming work that may lead people away from the Gospel by that witness?

Business Owners ‘Make a Difference,’ Says Chick-fil-A Exec

From the Noblesville Ledger via IndyStar.com:

Dan Cathy has a bigger message than “Eat Mor Chikin.”

“What you’re doing really makes a difference,” the 54-year-old president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A restaurants told the 200 business people at today’s Noblesville Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Take advantage of unexpected opportunities, start with what you have, keep up with the challenges and changing expectations, never lose your sense of relevancy, and continue to grow, Cathy encouraged.

He operates the 40-year-old Atlanta-based chain of 1,356 restaurants, which in 2007 reported sales of $2.6 billion, a 16.09 percent increase of the chain’s 2006 performance and a same-store sales increase of 8.47 percent.