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A Day of Doing Nothing!

Images-1 Today is unusual for so many reasons. Firstly, I slept in this morning, not waking until about 10.00am. Since then I have read a little bit, surfed the internet, drank coffee and generally being very lazy. There is something in me that makes me uncomfortable. I know I work hard and that it is not a bad thing to take a break. Despite this I feel like I need to do something.


So now I have decided to go shopping (oh joy) and then we are going to friends for a New Years Eve party.

Happy New Year!

X-Factor Party!

Images-3  For anyone expecting a deep theologicial connection or philosophical insight, Please do not disappoint yourself, stop reading now! This is an article that focusses on the X-Factor final on Saturday night.


Lesley, the kids and I headed up North this weekend to my parents house to have a bit of a pre-Christmas weekend. The weekend coincided with the final of the TV show, the X-Factor. My mum prepared a buffet tea and we all sat down for the programme.
Images-3 The finalists included Eoghan Quigg, who in I think was very fortunate to be there and not in the same class as the South London boy band, JLS and the remarkable singer Alexandra Burke. I am delighted to say that common sense prevailed and Eoghan left the show early. After all the performances, all those watching with us were agreed the Alexandra was should win. Not only had she performed a remarkable rendition of Silent Night, she had duetted with Beyonce in a entertainment show highpoint of "Listen" We we loved it, here it is:

Success!

In recent weeks I have been working on a 3 year development plan for Ignite. It has been a fascinating process.


Firstly, I looked at each project and recognised "who owned it?" in other words who lead the project, who should be accountable for it? Secondly, I predicted what I thought what we could achieve in this area in the next 3 years using 1 year increments. Thirdly, I asked the project leader to work out their own targets. Once done I then met with them and through Socaratic dialogue we arrived at plans with which we both agreed.

At this point I asked each member of the team to define what success would look like in their area. This was in many ways the most interesting. To understand what success might look like. I gave them 2 options. They could define success in numbers i.e. a quantative approach. In this case they had to approach it like a scientist. Or they could define it using a qualitative method. In which case they had to produce sufficient evidence to prove their case. In other words they had to approach the task like a lawyer. In the event, most people selected a combination of the two. I then used these documents to develop key performance indicators against their projects.

Images-2 The final piece in the planning jigsaw was the presentation. We booked a conference suite at the village hotel and every person there presented their own area to the others for information, motivation, comment and prayer. This was a great success in that everyone could see how their project fit into the bigger picture. The next part of the process it to measure how we are doing which will be done on a monthly 1 hour meeting and then every 3 months for a full day.

How would you measure success?

Welcome to Twitter?

Images-1 One of the things I have been thinking about recently is the use of different technologies. I am not really an early adopter but generally I catch up pretty quickly. I must admit to using technology rather functionally. For example, I am typing this on a MacBook. It is a wonderful machine but I cannot really make it "sing and dance" as some of my friends can. Similarly this blog site is fine but lacks the freshness and design genius of some others. The primary reason for these inadequacies is that I am not really committed to finding out all about what they can do. However, I think that when technology is correctly enhanced, it can be life transforming. Anyone want to go back to the days before cell phones?


Images I have have appreciated facebook. Not only does it allow me to keep in touch with friends, it also gives me an idea of how they are doing. I am frequently amazed at the candour that is employed by some in giving their current status. In some it an insight into their mind and spiritual state. Mine is much more likely to say "Gary is working" or other reasonably boring information.

So it with some interest that I step into the world of "twitter" This allow people to give people regular updates on what they are doing. Is it beneficial? Well I aim to find out!