Skip to main content

Review: Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret by Larry Osborne



Review: Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret
Larry Osborne
Zondervan
2013

This book is much better than it could’ve been.  Yes, I’ve read Lencioni and a few others and this one can hold its own with them.  First of all it isn’t all about how to run a church.  It isn’t pure business either.  What Osborne covers is important for both sides.  Lots of people skills here and he doesn’t mince words about how to deal with problems---your own and the others.  Deal with them, but maybe from an angle you hadn’t expected to read.

His first section starts right.  You have to have an exit strategy ready at the outset.  Innovations fail frequently and damage control matters for everyone and especially the leader of the group.  Communication strategies matter.  Picking the right battle, having a clear vision that is clear to more than the leader matter.  Enlisting the right people at the right time matters, identifying the right people matters.  The size team and governance matters.  All that is stuff you know or have read about.  Osborne gives his reader a few tips about each of those areas and a little more.  I say a few because this book is only 170 plus pages.  An airport read size book.  Important for the guy that's busy.

His style is condensed and direct and in some cases may even ruffle your feathers.  That’s OK.  They’ll settle back into place.  But hopefully not before you have given some thought to why that was so.  He warns of the dangers of success, too.  It does come with some.  

This one is one for you and your team to look at and absorb what the author has to say.  Talk about it and begin the process.

This book was provided to me by the publisher via Booksneeze in exchange for a review.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense Dr. Larry Crabb Baker Books 2018 I chose this book because the title intrigued me.   When God’s Ways Make No Sense.    There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit.   Are we even allowed to say something like that?   Even if we think it.   So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it? As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote.   The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not.   His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either.   Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology.   Or at least I think so.   I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating. That said, the book does provoke thoughts from th

Review: What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission. by Kevin DeYoung and Gregory D. Gilbert

DeYoung and Gilbert have authored a thoughtful look at the mission of the church. The first task they undertook was to sort through the different ideas and definitions of mission. They do arrive at what seems a reasonable definition, which means I generally agree with it. Much of the book is devoted to developing their theme that mission and ministries can be distinctly different, even to the place of losing sight of one another altogether. Another point they make later is that the church, a Christian, and a bunch of Christians do not necessarily have the same focus, mission, or ministry. That is a very important point and I think needs to revisited and expanded. The confusion that these authors see about the mission of the church is based in that area, I think. But, as well written as this book is, the crowning glory for it is the epilogue, a fictitious conversation between a young church starter and a mature pastor. If for no other reason than this epilogue, this bo

Review: Anatomy of the Soul

Anatomy of the Soul Curt Thompson. M.D. Salt River, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2010 This is the most helpful,insightful book I’ve read in a long time. There’s advice, guidance, explanations and examples to illustrate discussion offered by the author. Best of all, for me anyway, it explains some of what I had suspected about how things work all along. Dr. Thompson links human anatomy and physiology to the spiritual part of our being throughout the text. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And God uses His creation of the physical body in amazing ways. The author does a great job showing God’s wisdom found in research and the discoveries that science has made recently in neuroscience. Whether science wants to or not, it is describing the wonders of creation. Read this book. The text will require thought, evaluation, and time to go through. The author’s writing style is quite readable and he covers the material well. While this isn’t a how to or self help boo