...desk swap...

You can tell a lot about a person by their desk. It’s like in “Wife Swap” (the TV show which is one of my many guilty pleasures) when the swapped wives get to visit their new home , alone, before the swap begins. The wives always verbalize what they think the home says about the people that live there.

I wonder what people think when they walk by my desk at Good Shepherd. I’ve ended up swapping some things out from what I had on my desk at the McDonald’s Innovation Center last year. Not that I had anything bad…it’s just that an award for the fastest drive-thru, best trained crew of 1973 or Destination 10 design criteria just doesn’t seem relevant anymore.

Here’s 16 items (was shooting for 15 but had to add #16, the mug) you will find on my desk at 1310 Shepherd Drive. I wonder what it says about me today??

1. Rubber hamburger – At the McDonald’s Worldwide Operators’ Convention a few years ago, my department showcased an “automated beef patty” grill. When the Big Mac button was hit on the cash register, 2 all beef patties (you know the jingle) were cooked. We had a company make the rubber ones for display purposes and I think they ended-up costing about $100.00 per patty. How can you throw that away? Please, no jokes about rubber hamburgers.

2. Stack of “The Shack” – This fiction by William P Young paints a picture of the Trinity in an unusual, impactful way. After reading it I felt driven to buy copies at CostCo (after a quick stop for the $1.50 dog & soda) and give them to the Good Shepherd staff. I keep a few on hand and pass them out when someone might be in a place that could benefit from the experience (or if they ask for a copy). Can’t explain it!

3. Button maker – Jodi has a button maker at the Innovation Center and it was always put to good use. Heck, for 7 cents you can put anything on a button. Imagine the possibilities. So I had to have one of my very own. I might even let you use it.

4. Delegation sheet – at a recent Director meeting we discussed the 5 levels of delegation. I first heard this at McD B.O.C. (Basic Operation Course) in 1977. Effective delegation is a foundational element of any successful organization. Hey, Jesus, Ray Kroc, Moses, Jack Welch, etc…all had writings modeling delegation, so there must be something to it.

5. McD Japan 25 anniversary clock – Narumi san, worked on one of my teams when I was in Operations Development. He gave me a 25^th anniversary clock that was distributed to the Japanese company’s employees. Narumi often talked about the “Eye of the Tiger”. Glancing at it reminds me that it may be “time” to be courageous.

6. Food supply – Ok…it should be of no surprise that I like a good meal. Working at McDonald’s meant never being far from a warm snack. In fact at the Lab, you couldn’t walk the floor without being confronted with a giant pile of cooked foods that were being served from many corners of the world. Now, oatmeal and soup seem to agree a bit more with my waistline.

7. Vision pens – I love a good customized pen…and yes I do take my fair share of abuse over it. I can’t help myself. I love to put a reusable item with an important message in the hands of the teams I’m on. The 3 most recent ads were for CRHP, Becoming a Contagious Christian, and Good Shepherd Vision. Has anyone seen my misplaced “Fastest Drive-thru” pen?

8. Horizontal thinking button - (related to # 3) – The staff is really focusing on the overall vision of Good Shepherd (Reach and transform spiritually distracted families in our local community so they come to know and love God). The button “THINK HORIZONTAL” reminds us to think past our own ministries (vertical silos) and act for the benefit of the whole. This might explain why most of my shirts have 2 pin holes in them.

9. Killing Cockroaches - is a great book I’ve read recently by Tony Morgan which shows how we often get hung-up in the mundane instead of moving toward significance. It’s filled with top 10 lists, humor, stories and even a picture or 2. Quick read!!

10. Drawer of cookbooks – these cookbooks found the bottom drawer of the desk as temporary storage a few years ago (I think). They are slowly disappearing (not exactly sure how) and at the current rate should be gone by 2012.

11. SPARKS manuals – My Men’s CRHP (Christ Renews His Perish) group wanted to look for a way to support our youth. So we volunteered to lead a SPARKS (Sunday School) large group class. Every Sunday at 11am we have an opportunity to impart our “wisdom” to the eager minds of 9 & 10 year olds. Thank goodness we have a well scripted series of lesson plans to make sure our “wisdom” is focused and succinct.

12. Contagious Christian PINK container – Sue & I have been facilitating a “Becoming a Contagious Christian” class for the last couple of years with Pat Gillis. It’s a DVD series by Mark Mittelberg & Lee Strobel that pretty much runs itself. The pink container was half price at Wal-Mart. Since I’m comfortable with my masculinity, I opted for the savings versus buying a dark blue one at full price.

13. Old records – 35 years at Mickey Ds instilled in me the importance of doing travel paths. That’s when you do a complete walk around the facility and “note” things that might be displeasing to a customer. Well on a few of my travel paths at Good Shepherd I noticed a couple of unattractive long term storage boxes at Sue’s desk that were visible from the guest at the reception desk. I offered to put them in my office for a couple of weeks about a year ago. (are you sensing a bit of sarcasm?)

14. Thumbs-up Jar – At the Innovation Center we had “Thumbs-Up” cards. The idea was to have these small cards that you would complete when you wanted to recognize someone for doing something especially positive toward bringing the vision to life. At the end of the month we throw them into a jar and have a raffle for some small, semi-fabulous prize (the gift is really just receiving them) At Good Shepherd they are titled “Matthew 25:21” card…hey, might make a good button.

15. Wireless mouse – Don’t you just love a mouse that doesn’t use wires. My wireless mouse waits for my Dell ever morning. I can’t help myself! I did buy it at Ecost for half the going price and it’s been pointing strong for the last year.

16. Mugs (CRHP Bros) – The late entry. My Men’s group gets together every 2 weeks just to talk about stuff. We do manly things (and that’s the story I’m sticking to) and are always looking for ways to impact our community (see #11). There was a dodge ball tournament in January (Dodgn’ 4 Dough) raising money to send kids on a work trip to Iowa to help the flood victims. Our team got killed. This coffee mug reminds me of the need to be humble. Note that the picture of me “holding” the ball was the only time that I didn’t drop it the entire weekend.

Just going through this list put my mind in a strange place. The thought “what a freak” bubbled-up more than a couple of times. And to think I didn’t even mention the weird stuff. Psychologist’s (only) remarks to geneserveshim@gmail.com