I just gave my employer 40 hours (5 working days) that I can never get back. My sentence: Manditory supervisory training. The upside: It gave me a lot of time to contemplate my “philosophy” of management . . . and occasionally discuss it with the class.
An article in the blog “LDS Anarchy” proposes the concept of “congregational nullification.” It is based on the concept of “jury nullification”: or making a law void by jury decision. In congregational nullification, a church action is rendered void by ignoring it. “Simply ignoring all instructions deemed to be unjust, unwise, overbearing, tyrannical or humiliating nullifies the instructions. End of story.”
On previous pages I’ve discussed possible venues for having religious experiences — homes, canyons, historical sites, mountains, virtual reality, etc. But I’ve yet to satisfactorally come to grips with how meetings should be held, if, in fact, church meetings are needed. The Mormon Church’s extremely heirarchical approach seems very unsatisfactory. In fact, LDS meetings are boring to say the least.
Several years ago, I was required to attend a 3-day Stephen R. Covey workshop (taught by one of his minions). It was a followup to his highly successful 7-Habits workshop. At the time, Stephen had just been named by Time as one of the world’s 50 most influential people and was a local celebrity. The training was boring; it consisted of an occasional 2-and-1/2 minute talk on videotape by the master, followed by sessions which were about as deep as my grandkids’ wading pool. One thing that did catch my eye was an illustration. It consisted of an arrow with a large body. Inside the large arrow were several small arrows. They were all pointing in the same exact direction (to the right). This illustrated how a well-oiled organization should operate.
I recently read a book about Web 2.0 titled “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.” Ironically the book is only marginally about wiki software or Wikipedia, and more about organizational dynamics than classical economics. The authors of the book purport to signal the impending death of top-down, hierarchical organizations in favor of horizontal, collaborative businesses.
When I compare the Mormon church meetings of my youth in East Lansing, Michigan, with contemporary meetings in Orem, Utah, the differences are depressing. These differences are probably caused by several factors: (1) the locations of the individual wards; (2) point in time each occurred (the experiences are separated by nearly 50 years and the church has evolved); (3) the Mormon church’s correlation program; and (4) perhaps my over idealized images of the past.
Utah because of its exotic scenery and mild weather (even in winter) is an ideal locale to enjoy “outdoor churching,” a permutation of home (or house) churching. The idea is to get a small non-demoninational group together and make pilgrimages to locales like: the Spiral Jetty, the Sun Tunnels, Clarion, Topaz, Horseshoe Canyon, and Gilgal Garden. Each represents a unique man/nature interface that is sure to inspire meditation of some variety. When you get to your pilgrimage site, spend an hour and get to know the surrounding environment, discuss the site’s history and significance, hold hands and have a group prayer, have everyone make a wish, have a group activity, and/or have a picnic.
For 28 straight days I worked on the Blue Roof program in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Blue roofs are temporary plastic installations that are designed to protect homes until a permanent fix can be installed. They were needed in Mississippi and Louisiana after the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina. My job was to inspect the work of contractors after the blue roofs had been installed. I was in Hattiesburg from October 15th to November 11th, 2005.