OBS Tips: Tackling the Impossible Task

November 24, 2008

OK, if you’re new to Blue Duck, let me fill you in on a little secret. We’re a Christian company, but not like in that stuffy, rigid, turn-or-burn, in your face, you suck, kinda way. I don’t expect everyone to be like me, nor is my mission in life to convert you to drinking my brand of Kool Aid.

However, I am passionate about my faith and share my experiences with anyone who cares to pull up a chair and a coffee. With that in mind, my OBS tip for this week comes from the Bible. The Old Testament in fact.

The Broken Walls of Jerusalem

After living in exile in Babylonia for 70 years, the Jews were finally allowed to return to a broken and burned Jerusalem. They were instructed to rebuild the city walls and the temple, and settle into life as a united people. The temple construction went well, but by the time the people started on the city walls, they were listless, slow, and tired.

Defenseless and Tired

The city was vulnerable to attack without fortified walls, but the people were too pooped to pop and became disorganized. Work ground to a halt.

Nehemiah: One Smart Cookie

Nehemiah was the Persian king’s cup bearer, and a Jew. He heard that the walls were still not finished and became greatly distressed. King Artaxerxes had pity on him, and sent him to Jerusalem for 12 years as a governor to oversee the rebuilding of the city walls.

Read this account of what happens next and see if you can pick out Nehemiah’s business strategy.

“When Nehemiah arrived at Jerusalem, he spent three days surveying the lay of the land before taking any action. Then he made a night trip around the city to assess the situation. It was only after this trip that he approached the leaders of the community with the job he had in mind. As he did so, he presented it as a problem of which he was part and proposed a common solution. He gave evidence that his solution would work by showing what God had done to that point.

Once he got agreement on the proposed solution, Nehemiah organized the forces in such a way that each of the groups felt an identity in their part of the project. Each family or professional group worked on the section of the wall closest to their houses or places of work. The different groups appear to have been set in competition with one another. As the work progressed and opposition arose, Nehemiah never lost sight of the objective. As a result, they were able to build the walls in 52 days.

First, let me point out that rebuilding the walls of the city was no small task. For two years, the work on the walls crawled along with little progress. He was able to turn the situation around in just over 6 weeks.

Nehemiah’s Business Strategies

I could tell you what strategies I see hidden in these words, but what fun would that be? In nursing school, we were taught the best way to learn something is with hands-on experience. With that in mind, I’m going to post my take on Nehemiah’s strategy on Friday and give you a few days to think it over.

If you’re brave or like a challenge, leave your ideas in the comments, or email them to me if you’re not so brave. I’ll add them to Friday’s post and we’ll see what our collective brain soup looks like.

*By the way, as a double disclaimer, the above quote came from the Promise and the Blessing by Michael A. Harbin. And this blog and the OBS tips contained therein are not endorsed by Naomi Dunford or Itty Biz in any way. In fact, I doubt she knows we are doing this. So if you hate my tips, please direct all hate mail to me, not Naomi or Jamie Dunford.*

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Posted by Jamie | Filed Under Blogging

Comments

Jamie Simmerman

Hi Miguel,

Hmmm, I don't think I qualify as a fundamentalist either. I'm not sure if I fit in any category. I'm a Christ follower and try to live by the Bible. I take the teachings of men (and women) with a grain of salt. :)

That's an interesting observation about human nature. I agree. We tend to leap before we look. :)
Miguel Wickert

Jamie

Oh, by the way, I'm a Christian but not a fundamentalist. I'm a young scholar, I've been studying theology for the past 5 1/2 years. Anyhow, it's helpful to survey the field- a part of the planning process before action.

Many times, people take action without both examining the arena and developing a plan. I'm sure we're all guilty of launching or doing out of excitement rather than developing a plan based on the facts, stats, etc. :)

<abbr>Miguel Wickert´s last spectacular blog post..New Pages At Simply Blog</abbr>
Jamie Simmerman

Hey Daisy,

That's an interesting summary from a master teacher. I'm going to have to take a closer look.

it's nice to have a place to come to at the end of a long day. Pulling double duty, with house guests for the holidays to boot, is trying on all of us. :)
namas daisy

Nehemiah is a solution finder. He assessed, implemented strategies that celebrated everyone's strengths and abilities then empowered the people. He rolled up his sleeves with the people and everyone worked smarter instead of harder. Their energy was ignited by the power of setting a goal and making it happen. He cut to the chase and slayed the problem with a solution. Then by leading the people to tighten their crews, everyone saw the strength exists inside of each soul that connects to another to catapult life to new paths. I needed Blue Duck Copy today. Thank you.
Namesté,
Daisy

<abbr>namas daisy´s last spectacular blog post..THOUGHT FOR THE DAY</abbr>
Jamie Simmerman

Hi B J, Dekker is one of the few authors I can read in the midst of a full blown depression. His work is powerful, engaging, and his characters become my best friends. :)
B J Keltz

I have not read Dekker, but I've put the titles in my journal so I can look them up next time I'm at the book store. I'm glad you liked the forum post. :)
Jamie Simmerman

B J's forum post completely rocks!

BTW, if you've never read Ted Dekker's books, they take an old theme and write the pants off of it! He's a missionary kid and writes a lot like Stephen King, only with a Christian flare and message.

Black, Red, and White are the three most popular, but Adam, Three, and Blink are pretty awesome too. My favorite is Red.

If you've read any of these, drop me a line. If not, GO GET ONE! Seriously, you'll not regret it. :)
Jamie Simmerman

Hi B J, I like that Nehemiah is a role model for you. :)

And yeah, I did see Ali getting roasted by her own readers. Sad. It was a good post.

I'll have to check out your forums, sounds like fun.
B J Keltz

Let's see...I was thinking about these passages not long ago.

He did his homework first. He knew the scope of the project.

He was humble and went to them as an equal.

He got their 'buy-in,' which is important on any project.

He practiced servant leadership. He remained involved.

He removed the drudgery by sparking friendly competition and pride in the work done.

While the passage above doesn't say it outright, he encouraged them, worked with them, and praised them.

He knew that the work was ordained by God, so he never backed down and never let up (for himself or the others) but kept a humble spirit.

He breathed new life into the project and gave pride to the people when they accomplished it.

He was an incredible leader and my personal model for leadership (just an aside).

Thank you, Jamie. BTW, had you seen the comments on Daily Writing Tips when she posted the possibility of gathering ideas from the Bible for writing? She was roasted by a couple comments, so I put together 30 "non-religious" fiction plots from the bible and posted them on my forums. It was fun.

http://www.writeyourmindjournals.com/bjkforums/...
Jamie Simmerman

Writer Dad, You are certainly right, many people study the wisdom of the Bible without believing. There is a great wealth of superficial wisdom to be gleaned from the books.

Pride and ownership... motivating them toward a job well done? I can see that. :)

Scott, a detailed business plan, bite size chunks of activity, and relying on others.... all good advice. :)

Lance, No test, my dear... just making brain stew. You see the need to understand your task, involve others and draw on resources, and place God first. :D (I like your last idea best.)

How do we apply this to OBS? We'll look at that Friday.:)
Lance

Hey Jamie!

This seems like a test!! Will I pass? I'm feeling the pressure...

Nehemiah's strategy was to first understand what he had in front of him - what this project involved. You need to understand your project before you can do it right.

He then involved people, and really made them feel like they were part of the solution. We're not in this alone. There are resources out there to help us get to where we want to be.

Nehemiah also knew he needed God's help - that he couldn't do this alone.

That's my take Jamie. How does it fit with OBS? It says to me that, first off - we need to understand what we want to do online. And then, know that we don't have to go it alone - that there are resources out there that we can utilize.

<abbr>Lance´s last spectacular blog post..Ask…And You Shall Receive</abbr>
Scott

Nehemiah, once he arrived, didn't just tackle the job at hand. He already had his goal in mind, rebuild the wall, so he didn't have to spend much time on that thought. After he had surveyed the damage, he came up with a Great business plan. Very detailed I'm sure.

He broke his main goal down into mini goals by letting the different groups have their little section of the plan, or the wall. This, I'm sure, kept them from feeling very overwhelmed. It was still a major task, but not as major as if they would have had to look at the whole wall as their task.

When opposition arose, he modified his plan even his mini plans, so that work would continue through the rough times. Taking some off of the main project and setting them up for defense, slowed the building process down, but it kept the plan from failing.

He also recognized that he would not be able to succeed without relying on someone else for guidance. He knew he was not the expert in all areas.

I hope that's close to what you were looking for, if not, let me know and I'll approach it from a different direction. I'll do more thinking on this as well. This is very interesting.

<abbr>Scott´s last spectacular blog post..Solomon Knew The Alcoholics</abbr>
Writer Dad

You don't have to be Christian to know that the Bible is a valuable resource.

It seems to me that Nehemiah wanted people to feel pride and ownership in the work. Once he had their interest, their effort followed closely.

<abbr>Writer Dad´s last spectacular blog post..Happy Birthday, Pop</abbr>