Tag Archive - Teamwork

Turtles, Posts, and Us

February 1, 2010 in Church Life, Daily Faith, General with 0 Comments

Alex Haley, author of Roots, had a picture in his office of a turtle sitting on top of a fence post.
When you see a turtle sitting on a fence post, you know that he didn’t get there by himself; he had to have some help.
That’s why Haley kept the picture in his office. He said, “Anytime I start thinking, ‘Wow. Isn’t it marvelous what I have done?’ I look at that picture and remember how this turtle—me—got up on that post.”

We consider it admirable to be independent. We want Frank Sinatra’s song, “I Did It My Way” to be our theme song. Is it because we want all the glory and the praise?
The truth is that none us became who we are by ourselves. All of us had parents. All of us had someone to change our diapers. We all had teachers who taught us. We’ve had examples, good and bad, that have directed our lives. And, whether we believe it or not, we can look back and see the fingerprints of God all over our lives. In other words, we didn’t get on top of the fence post by ourselves.
We need to realize that humility is not a weakness as many try to portray it. It is a powerful strength that change our world. Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great, makes the observation that one of the characteristics of great companies is that they have leaders who are quick to share the credit for success. Companies with prideful leadership never seem to make it to the top with lasting success.
Remember, humility is not a nice religious ideal that is not practical in the real world. It is what frees us to live the full and contented life we been wanting to live all along.

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)

The Beauty of Teamwork (You Gotta Love the Hair)

October 30, 2009 in Videos with 0 Comments

The Power of Teamwork

October 5, 2009 in Church Life, Leadership with 2 Comments

 barn

In 1981, Herman Ostry and his wife, Donna, bought a farm a half mile outside of Bruno, Nebraska, a small community sixty miles west of Omaha. The property had a creek and came with a barn built in the 1920′s. The barn floor was always wet and muddy. When the creek flooded in 1988, the barn ended up with 29 inches of water covering the floor. That was the last straw. Ostry needed to move it to higher ground.

He contacted a building moving company and was discouraged by the bid. One night around the table, Ostry commented that if they had enough people they could pick the barn up and move it to higher ground. Everyone laughed.

A few days latter, Ostry’s son Mike showed his father some calculations. He had counted the individual boards and timbers in the barn and estimated that the barn weighed approximately 16,640 pounds. He also estimated that a steel grid needed to move the barn would add another 3,150 pounds, bringing the total weight to just under 10 tons. He figured it would take around 350 people with each person lifting 56 lbs. to move the barn.

 

The town of Bruno, Nebraska was planning its centennial celebration in late July of 1988. Herman and Mike presented their barn moving idea to the committee. The committee decided to make it part of their celebration.

So, on July 30, 1988, shortly before 11 a.m., a quick test lift was successfully made. Then, as local television cameras and 4,000 people from eleven states watched, 350 people moved the barn 115 feet south and 6 feet higher up a gentle slope and set it on its new foundation.

The reason most people think that something cannot be done is because they know that they can’t do it by themselves. But impossible things can be done if we join together in the task. Working together, we can not only move barns, but change the world.