Tag Archive - Charlene Li

How Long Should You Stay at a Job? Or What is Your Best Career Advice?

July 2, 2008 in Uncategorized with 5 Comments

I’ve been given the advice before that 5 years is a good length to stay at a job. I know of people who switch every 5 years to keep themselves fresh, and constantly learning. Many, who are Christians feel this a good opportunity to take some risks and step out in faith as well.

Some people master a job in a few years and get bored. Or the routine just kills them. I wonder how many of us stay in jobs we don’t love or are passionate about…just because we fear change, failure, etc.

I made a commitment to myself when I took the college director job at Bel Air I would stay at least 5 years. I stayed 6. And I think it was a good opportunity for both sides (Bel Air and I) to branch out, try new things and continuing learning.

Charlene Li of Forrester says the best career advice is:

I’d love to say that a wise mentor told me to do XYZ and that it changed my entire career. It was much more blasé.

At a career management course for HBS alumni, I learned that a person typically gets sick of a job after 18 months. This is a natural cycle, as you go through the excitement of learning a new job, become expert at it, and then gradually, it gets routine. So the advice I got was to plan for job obsolescence every 18 months. This didn’t mean that I had to leave the company and go to a new place – it had more to do with redefining my current job first to incorporate new challenges.

The impact has been tremendous – I’ve stayed at my current job at Forrester for almost seven years because every 18 months I’ve essentially gotten a “new job”. I actively think about what I need from the job and fortunately, the management at Forrester have been extremely flexible and helpful in helping me find those challenges. They have included:

- Moving into management

- Moving out of management

- Moving to California to manage the San Francisco office

- Shifts in research coverage areas

- Starting a blog

- Championing new research themes at Forrester

- Initiating new products and services for clients

So my advice is to think “outside of the box” but within the job. It’s much easier to design your dream job within the confines of a company that likes and trusts you.

18 months! That’s about the average length of a youth pastor in the United States.

What is your best career advice?

The “groundswell” is about relationships, not just technology

June 24, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

I just posted this at Leadership Network’s book blog, so please take a look.

Li
So as you may or may not have noticed I have been on a reading spree with books that discuss new web 2.0 technologies and how they are influencing leadership, especially in the church (sidenote, this is the first book that I have read with my new Amazon Kindle; talk about new technologies are changing things).  The most recent book is Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.  The book is co-authored by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research.  Charlene has a very popular blog and is considered one of the leading experts in social media and technologies, so I was very interested in reading what all the buzz has been about.

This is book is focused around the idea of the "groundswell":

Simply put, the groundswell is a social trend in which people use
technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of
from companies. If you’re in a company, this is a challenge.

This is not only an interesting challenge if you are a company, but an interesting challenge if you are a church, since people within the church no longer need to go through the leadership or hierarchy of the community to get things done. With new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, wikis, blogs, etc, more and more people within churches are taking action and doing things on their own or with a group of people.  The days where the flow of information, content and decision making travel through the pastor and the leadership are coming to an end if they haven’t already.  With this in mind, Charlene and Josh use this book to teach companies three important things:

  • Part One: Understanding the Groundswell
  • Part Two: Tapping the Groundswell
  • Part Three: The Groundswell Transforms

As a leader in the church I think this book is a must read.  And even though they are talking more about companies, churches can easily be inserted.

There is a lot of great research and application in this book such as the categories that make up the people online which is important to know when you are determining what type of technological tool you are going to use to reach your audience.

  • Creators
  • Critics
  • Collectors
  • Joiners
  • Spectators
  • Inactives

Throughout this whole book one thing kept sticking in my mind and it was this statement by them throughout the book:

It’s important to understand these technologies, but the technologies are the detail, and it’s tempting to get sucked into the detail.  So many words have been written about blogs and blogging, social networks, and user-generated content that you might think that understanding those technologies will equip you for the new world.

Wrong.

First, the technologies change rapidly. And second, the technologies are not the point. The forces at work are.  Like the jujitsu master, you must understand how bodies move, not just learn a single block or throw.  You must develop a feel for the groundswell.

With that in mind, here’s the principle for mastering the groundswell: concentrate on relationships, not the technologies.

In the groundswell, relationships are everything.  The way people connect with each other–the community that is created–determines how the power shifts.

That last quote is brilliant.  Technology is great, but it’s not about the technology, but about the relationships.  How leadership is carried out in the church is embedded in relationships, and now with the use of new technologies many relationships are changing.  So do your church a favor and read up on how you can best capitalize on the shifting relationships and technologies that those around us are using.

Why the “Groundswell” Within The General Assembly 218 is Going to Unsettle the PC(USA)…Hopefully!

June 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

Irony: streaming shot of hundreds of laptops at #GA218…all unconnected to the world. Metaphor for the PCUSA?

That’s the quote I came across by Neal Locke on Twitter last night. He was commenting on PC(USA)-218th General Assembly, and I thought it was a brilliant observation. One can’t help watch the 218th General Assembly, or have been involved in some PC(USA) church and politics without having thought the same…the ordination process alone demonstrates how unconnected to the world the PC(USA) can be at times. There are always some exceptions, but those sometimes seem far and few between.

That’s why I was excited last night that Bruce Reyes-Chow was elected Moderator. Bruce is someone who is connected to the Church and the World. This was an important decision for the PC(USA), and since I was on staff of Bel Air Presbyterian Church for 7 years, and I will be on staff of another PC(USA) Church in Dallas, it’s important to me that as a denomination we are headed in the right direction.

One of the most frustrating things about the way the PC(USA) has operated is the way that many within the system choose to exclude via lack of communication with those who aren’t technically part of the system. It’s a classic system of the “have and have nots”, based often around who is ordained and who is not, or who has power and who does not.  Communication is very important, and when we choose to exclude others from the discussions, decision making, etc., then I think we are headed in the wrong direction.

I started thinking about a lot of this last night for several reasons:

  • Bruce Reyes-Chow is a phenomenal blogger and he understands the importance of communication, and not keeping everything behind closed doors to only executive staffs and personnel committees, but he truly knows how to speak to the people and empower them.


  • Last night I followed The General Assembly on a GA218 Twitter Meme. I was getting live updates from within the assembly which was great. I think the PCUSA tries to keep stuff in-house a lot of times and when they do make it public it is very controlled. Last night people were sharing their personnel commentary on the assembly, the PC(USA) and those running for Moderator.  It was a classic example of people using social tools to bypass the institution. It’s one thing to show it live, it’s another thing when people can comment on it both constructively and critically.


  • If that wasn’t enough I was following the General Assembly as well on the GA218 Scribble Live site, as people could contribute an ongoing dialogue to what was happening, etc.


  • Then there were many live bloggers, but I was mainly glued to Adam Walker Cleaveland and Neal Locke.  Because of people like Bruce, Adam and Neal, I have hope for the PC(USA).
  • I know that some in the PC(USA) are thinking about this, as evidenced by the Pres-Outlook devoting an issue to web 2.0 stuff.  I wrote an article on ministry in the online world of social networking.


I just started reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. It’s actually the first book that I downloaded to my Amazon Kindle, which seems appropriate since the book is focused on how new social tools are re-writing the rules of how we communicate and how organizations operate. So I want to leave you with a quote from the book that I think ties into what we are talking about here. The world is changing very rapidly, and with new and improved social tools everyday, people (the masses), not only want to have a voice, but are surely and quickly finding it. In the process they are challenging organizations, businesses, corporations and churches in the way that they have always operated.

No longer can these institutions afford to cloister themselves off and run and maintain the system with only a few voices that don’t discuss and communicate with the rest of the people.

Churches, and especially the PC(USA) needs to embrace these new technologies, and embrace the leaders who are ushering in these changes like Bruce, Neal and Adam.

From where we sit, Rick Clancy is a symbol. He and thousands of corporate executives just like him are now dealing with a trend we call the groundswell, a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, take charge of their own experience, and get what they need–information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining power–from each other. The groundswell is broad, ever shifting, and ever growing. It encompasses blogs and wikis; podcasts and YouTube; and consumers who rate products, buy and sell from each other, write their own news, and find their own deals. It’s global. It’s unstoppable. It affects every industry–those that sell to consumers and those that sell to business–in media, retail, financial services, technology, and health care. And it’s utterly foreign to the powerful companies and institutions–and their leaderships–that run things now.

Simply put, the groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of from companies. If you’re in a company, this is a challenge.

The groundswell phenomenon is not a flash in the pan. The technologies that make it work are evolving at an ever-increasing pace, but the phenomenon itself is based on people acting on their eternal desire to connect. It has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works.

Combination: “Revolutionary, Plus the Exective Backing”…

June 10, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

This short 7 minute video with Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies is insightful.

I tend to filter social technologies through the lens of church and ministry, and I think they say some key things.  Paraphrasing them:

  • There needs to be a revolutionary and an executive backing within a company for social technology to be implemented and supported.
  • There is a danger for companies who don’t adopt, or adapt to social technology, especially if the constituents, customers, congregation, etc. are using it.  There is a missed opportunity as well.

Check out the video:

The World is Not Flat: The New Media and it’s Burgeoning Influence Upon the Church

April 18, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Obviously we have reached the tipping point, or maybe we are now beyond it. But as others are saying more eloquently than me, the New Media is not a trend, and it’s here to stay.

The New Media, Web 2.0, Social Networking, etc….


Check out Collective Muse. It’s a college ministry social networking site that I created and launched earlier this week. It’s an attempt to fulfill my desire and passion for connecting those involved in college ministry, in hopes that we can collaborate together on college ministry. I hope others have a desire and passion for that as well. So check out, pass the word, and get involved.

Purchase a copy of our new book, The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ.

My friend, and former Executive Director at our church, Matt Singley, started a series today, What Is The ‘New Media’? This should be real good. A primer for those who aren’t quite sure what it is, and an encouragement and confirmation to those who do.

My friend from church, Robert Yang, who is the founder of Kindle (prayer social networking site), posted some great thoughts as well, Future Church: Be Like the Internet.

Cynthia Ware posted Is Your Church Leadership Interactive, which I talked about a little earlier in the week. Cynthia is a great blogger to follow on this topic.

Charlene Li (who I don’t know, but wish I did), who is an expert in social computing and Web 2.0, gave a presentation on “The Future of Social Networks”, posts a blog about it. She says:

I set my time frame for the long term – five, even ten years out. That’s because unless we know where we want to end up, how could we ever craft a strategy to get there? For inspiration, I thought about my grade-school kids, who in ten years will be in the midst of social network engagement. I believe they (and we) will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to “be social”.

Instead, I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be. And also, without that social context in our connected lives, we won’t really feel like we are truly living and alive, just as without sufficient air, we won’t really be able to breathe deeply.

Here is her slide presentation from Graphing Social Patterns West 2008.

Blogging

Wess Daniels posts, Henry Jenkins on Why Academics Should Blog

Abraham Piper gives six reasons why pastors should blog.

Dr. Mark Roberts has his 18 Theses for the Pastor as Godblogger.

Music/Podcast

If you aren’t listening to The Habanero Hour, then you are missing out on some amazing music. It is such a sweet podcast, and I’m not just saying that because I am friends with Brent (who is a great guy). Check it out, and you will become a fan. Plus, did I mention he is a prolific blogger.