Comments from "Johnny Bunko" Breakfast in Austin

This Saturday morning was a bit different for me.  I got to meet with four others over coffee to discuss Dan Pink's book "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko". The group was diverse-two women, three men.  Janet is a teacher, Les is a youth minister, Nicole is a freelance photographer and Brandon is in product marketing.

"Strengths, not weaknesses" was a key theme in our discussion.  We all agreed that this makes soooooo much sense and wondered why those we work for now or in the past don't get it.  Janet told a brief story of how she was able to encourage a young man to focus on his strengths and pursue his dream, and he did.  Awesome...

Les highlighted making decisions for fundamental vs. instrumental reasons; how this really does lead to valuable experiences or skills.  Wasn't it Vince Lombardi that focused on fundamentals?  That served him and the Green Bay Packers pretty well in the 60's.

Persistence trumps talent was another lesson that resonated with the group.  If we can just keep going, even when we might not feel like it, that next step we take just might be the one that leads to a breakthrough.  The idea of having someone or a group to provide some encouragement or just to be a sounding board was thought to be helpful in "keeping on".

Nicole and Janet talked about how they had been asked if they could perform certain tasks, things that they had not done before.  Their response-"sure".  Neither knew much about what they were asked to do, but they had a strength that they could leverage AND there was very little time given to implement.  Brandon dug into this more, as he saw that the use of strengths combined with a close deadline seemed empowering.  The fact that there wasn't much time to prepare created focus, a singular intent that eliminated distractions in order to meet the goal.

This was an enthusiastic group.  Everyone participated, and it was clear that they not only enjoyed the book, but took something away that they could use.

I'm a Teddy Roosevelt fan, and this quote reminds me of several lessons from this book:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Here's a brief video clip of each participant saying "Thanks" to Dan Pink.  It's the 7th lesson!