Grateful Giving - Part 2

Just as the earlier post was published, I received the following note from a former client of DCM.  If the earlier note didn't convince you of the value of your donation, read this:

Peace. Hope. Opportunity. These words, taken from DCM’s new mission statement, describe the things we all want. They are particularly special to me as I reflect on my journey over the past two years and where I am today. 

On December 27^th, 2010, I came to Georgia, with nowhere to go. On my way, I called shelters. Crying over the phone to the lady from the help line, she recommended that I call Hagar’s House, DCM’s shelter program for women with children. There was a room available. 

     The staff of Hagar’s House was very helpful. We had to write down our goals and were constantly asked what steps were taken that day to meet those goals. They provided us with leads on job openings, transitional housing, and available apartments, as well as gas cards and MARTA passes so that we could get where we needed to go. We had group meetings just so that the mothers could talk and pray, which was very motivational. Hagar's House was the opportunity; we were the effort. 

     Already a few days over the 30-day deadline at the shelter, I was getting frustrated because, even though I had been on several interviews, I did not have a job yet. God must have been looking down at me because an opening came up for a 3-bedroom house in DCM’s Family House transitional program, and I was recommended. There was hope. 

     I met with the Family House Program Manager, wrote down my new goals, took a budget class, and pulled my credit report. The City of Decatur worked with us so that the kids could stay in their schools, since the house was in the same area. On May 28^th, 2011, I obtained a full-time job – another step forward. During my stay in the house, I decided: “Why not aim high?” If I could save enough money for a down payment, I could get a house – something more permanent, peace of mind. 

     Today, my kids and I live in our own home in Rex, GA. We decided that, this year,  our holiday season would include helping other families on a similar journey. I have asked my friends, family and colleagues to join me by making a gift to Decatur Cooperative Ministry. I am asking you to help other families find their own peace, hope and opportunity by making a contribution to DCM by yearend. Many thanks in advance for your generosity.

 www.decaturcooperativeministry.org

There Is No Try

The best insights may come from the most unlikely places.  

This morning, on a National Public Radio show that I rarely hear, was a conversation about fortune cookies.  (Did you know that fortune cookies are Japanese in origin, not Chinese?)  As part of the conversation, the author mentioned that the source of many fortune cookie sayings, in the early 1900's, was Confuscious.   Made up and inaccurate sayings, yes, but attributed to Confuscious.  

One hundred years later, a more relevant source was needed.  Who is it? Yoda.  Yes, George Lucas's/Luke Skywalker's Yoda.

So, as I prepared to turn off the car and walk into the Men's Breakfast, I heard this reference.  In many ways, it reduces the entire science of Strategy Execution to eleven words (click here to get the quote directly from the Jedi master himself):

 

"No. Try not. Do or do not.  There is no try."

Simple, direct, and oh, so right.  Successful Strategy Execution has nothing to do with effort or good intentions.  Yes, there are times when effort and desire may be as if not more important than results.  But rarely in Strategy Execution.  In Strategy Execution, it is about results.  Reaching your true goals.

I had not realized, before this morning, that Yoda was a Strategy Execution master as well as a Jedi one.  But it is now so obvious:

• Sponsorship & Consequences:  "Always two there are, a master and an apprentice."
  
• Realistic Communications: Luke: "I'm not afraid."  Yoda: "Ohh... you will be, you will be."
  
• Commitment: "A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind."
  
• Clarity of Vision & Focus on the True Goal: "If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."
  

Strategy Execution is a discipline.  It requires commitment, leadership, a realistic understanding of the challenges, clarity of vision, a focus on achieving the ultimate goal - and unwillingness to accept anything less.  

When executing a critical business strategy, Yoda knows:  "Do. Or do not.  There is no try."

Thank you, master.