It has become a tradition for us to publish a poem for the Christmas blog. So much Christmas poetry has either romanticized the day or, especially in modern poetry, found only despair and resignation. What I admire about this poem of Wendell Berry’s is his expectancy in the ordinary. It’s unfortunate that the word “mundane” has come to mean dull and lacking interest or describing something unremarkable because so much of Wendell Berry’s writing is about the mundane. It is about this world. The daily rounds of chores and long relationships. The routines and tasks that are uneventful – at least on the surface.  But that is both the setting…

Last week I wrote about the importance and also the difficulty of letting go. There comes a time when the founder or entrepreneur must turn loose of the tight grip on the venture or it will not survive. It will have the life choked out. But what happens when the time comes to step aside for good many years later? I’ve thought far more in the last several years about succession and the transition of leadership than I ever thought about starting organizations. In so many ways starting was easy. The ideas and the opportunities came and it was just a matter of acting on them. Knowing how to release…

For me, as someone having founded and co-founded several organizations, few things are more satisfying than spending time with men and women starting a company or non-profit. While most of the conversation is about start-up, I try to get around to the topic of what happens when it grows. One of the most useful tools for understanding the lifecycle of an organization is that developed by Dr. Ichak Adizes, the founder of the Adizes Institute. We all begin at the same place: an idea born in response to an opportunity. The new idea becomes an infant dependent on the resources of the founder and that stage may last months or…

He sat down, paused before he spoke and then said, “It’s too much for me to give thanks. I cannot be thankful for this. I will never be thankful for this.” He and his wife had lost their son and someone with the best of intentions had quoted Paul’s instructions to the church in Thessalonika, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Then was not the time to say, “Paul did not say be thankful for everything – but thankful in everything.”  Yet, that is what I thought about for days afterwards. Paul says, literally, eucharisteo, in everything and in…

One of our daughters spent a semester at The University of Florence in Italy years ago so Carol and I took the opportunity to visit her. One morning, they encouraged me to visit the Basilica of Santa Croce while they were shopping. It was early and the stone interior was still cold but the morning light filtered through the windows and the absence of any other visitors made it my private chapel for a time. Centuries of Florentine families were buried in the floor and the walls. Every square inch was given over to providing tombs for the wealthy, powerful and respected families of the Renaissance. I glanced over to…