Quotes & Humour

Quotes

"Clarifying the value system is the greatest contribution a leader can make."

— Peters and Waterman

"Who is the enemy? Who is holding back more rapid movement to the better society that is reasonable and possible with available resources? . . . The real enemy is fuzzy thinking on the part of good, intelligent, vital people, and their failure to lead, and to follow servants as leaders . . ."

— The Servant as Leader, Robert K. Greenleaf.

"There is no security on earth; there is only opportunity."

— General Douglas MacArthur

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

— Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton

[Think about this when you are tempted not to state an End because you haven't yet figured out how to measure it.]

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."

— T.S. Eliot

[In Policy Governance® the beginning point for making a difference is indeed defining the Ends, and defining Ends is the start of better governance.]

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once boarded a train in Washington, and later realized he had lost his ticket. The conductor recognized him, and said, "Don't worry about it, sir. I'm sure when you find it you'll send it in."

Justice Holmes replied, "Young man, the question is not, "Where is my ticket?" but, "Where am I supposed to be going?"

[Leaders need to create a culture in which people focus on where they are going, instead of where they have been.]

Every change looks like a failure in the middle.

— Rosabeth Moss Kanter

With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.

— Chinese proverb

Humour

Meeting of the Board

"There will be a meeting of the Board immediately after the service," announced the pastor.

After the close of the service, the group gathered at the back of the auditorium for the announced meeting. But there was a stranger in their midst. He was a visitor who had never attended their church before.

"My friend," asked the pastor, "did you understand that this is a meeting of the Board?"

"Yes," said the visitor, "and after that sermon, I'm about as bored as you can get!"

Alberta Stray Animals Regulation Act

From a report: "The new three-page Stray Animals Regulation sets rules for plains bison, alpaca, camels, llama and wild Boards"

Reprinted with permission from Rich Vivone's Insight Into Government Newsletter

Committee Woes

Of course, boards using Policy Governance correctly would never have a committee like this! But I'm sure we all know of someone ELSE who does!

O give me your pity, I'm on a committee
Which means that from morning to night,
We attend and amend, and contend and defend
Without a conclusion in sight.
We confer and concur, we defer and demur
And reiterate all of our thoughts.
We revise the agenda with frequent addenda,
And consider a load of reports.
We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose,
And the points of procedure are fun;
But though various notions are brought up as motions,
There's terribly little gets done.
We resolve and absolve, but we never dissolve,
Since it's out of the question for us.
What a shattering pity to end our committee.
Where else could we make such a fuss?

Posted by Merrill Cook at note 10974 of Pnet Chat,
a meeting on PresbyNet, the PCUSA electronic bulletin board.