God Calling

In January of 2002 I was begging God for community. I had graduated from college, and was living with my parents in rural NE Texas. During the Fall my mom and I had painted a 70 foot long mural together commissioned by another small town...and I had been getting jobs as an artist. I was trying to work my way out of debt before coming on staff. Although, after Christmas, I had no more jobs lined up...and I was lonely for friends.

An old friend and kindred spirit , came through town with her boyfriend of the time and they told me about an outdoor education center/camp that they were working at. They paid no rent, got health insurance, the pay was decent, and there was a fun group of post college singles who worked there. I joked and said if there were any openings to let me know.

A week later she called. Another girl was transfering and they had a job for me. I moved down with my sleeping bad and a six pack of Dr.Pepper and was ready to go.

This friend and I had met several years before at Camp Classen. We were both very young in our faith. She had recently started going to Campus Crusade for Christ at OU and I had just committed my life to Christ. We would become good friends in life and our journey of faith.
She, another friend from Camp Classen, and another girl were roomates at the O.E.C. when we were not in cabins with 5th graders.

The first night after I arrived I can remember catching up with my second friend...telling her of my life change since Christ and living in Russia, etc. She was not an evangelical Christian. She was a vegetarian and did yoga and can put everything she owns in her backpack. The new girl was also a vegetarian who had graduated from UT in something environmental. Nontheless we all became great friends....and truly spiritual friends.

The new girl and I began to pray(she initiated this) together often...even though she was not what we would consider a "believer" at the time. She had a relationahip with God...and was searching...and I believe, was in the process of deepening her relationship with God though questioning. She had a lot of issues with Christians, their ways, and their politics.

The new girl was in the process of becoming a disciple of Christ before she professed Him as Lord and surrendered to His Authority in her life. As we seek to "Turn Lost Students into Christ Centered Laborers", it is my desire that we "Make disciples in all nations, teaching them everything that He has taught us"...far before they make a profession of faith. Let us make disciples of Christ....and perhaps they will also become converts. (I have not finished reading Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Williard...but I have heard that he says something to this effect).

http://www.dwillard.org/books/DivConsp.asp

Kingdom 360

The Summer of my freshman year of Texas Tech, I worked at a YMCA summer camp. Imade a list of goals for the summer the first of which was to "Know God Better". At that time in my life there was probably little outward evidence at all that I was spiritually interested. I wasnt a horribly immoral person...just an average college student who hung out with my friends, partied, and generally lived a happy life.

I can remember sitting with my friends in the dorm. We had the lights off and we were all piled on the bed talking about what kind of guy we wanted to marry. We all agreed on a really good guy...but not a "Bible Beater or anything". Two of the girls came from strong Catholic backgrounds. They eventually were a part of something called Raider Awakening, a retreat put on for college students by their church.

In the Spring I was invited to go and through the process...my heart was softened, broken by the love I experienced there...and I became serious about finding out what I really believed about God.

Throughout the next 8 months, I entered deeper into a process of becoming a committed follower of Christ. As a child, I had risen my hands mutiple times at Baptist Youth Camps and Vacation Bible School events that I attended with friends, indicating that I wanted to be with Christ in eternity....but I had never know what to do past that point.

During those 8 months...I looked into other religions and then began to read the Bible. As I read the New Testament I was deeply impressed with the transcendence of Christ's teachings. "Dont merely love those who love you, but love your enemies". This was not the teaching of the world. In my heart I wanted to believe in this God...so loving and compassionate.

I did not want to be a fool though. I wished that I could be anything but a "Christian". Finally, with many questions still in my heart concerning the validity of the Bible, evolution , dinosaurs, etc. I told God that I believed but He would have to help my unbelief. I wanted God to give me assurance...a solidness in my heart that He was who the Bible said He was. Somehow He did...and eventually I felt that I should be baptized.

When I was around 8 years old, men from a church I had visited, came to my home and told my parents about my indication to receive Christ as my personal savior (I had heard the salvation message and walked down the aisle and prayed with someone). They were wanting me to get baptized. My parents told me it was my decision. If I felt that I knew what it meant that I could. I didnt know what it meant...and so it was not until March of my junior year of college that I would publically profess my commitment, my "marriage" in a sense, to Christ.

Baptism was a bench mark in my life to that expressed my total commitment and loyalty to Jesus and His Kingdom ways. I wanted my old life to be gone and to rise a new. I am so thankful for the wisdom of my parents in allowing me to wait to fully experience the fullness of the symbol of baptism as a surrender of my will to His...and an expression of my love for Him and an acceptance of His love for me. I was accepting everything about Him..not only His payment for my sins....but even more, His calling to follow Him and His ways.

Soon after, I became a Young Life leader. As I was interviewed before joining...He asked me what a person needs to know before beoming a Christian. I remember thinking back to all the things I had been reading in the Bible about loving Christ and loving others, the Kingdom of God, forgiveness,.....he said I was forgetting something. The answer was sin. Its not that I didnt believe that sin seperated us from Christ and that He died for our sins....I just didnt know that was the "answer". After reading the gospels, forgiveness of sin really wasnt the main point I had come away with. I believed it...but it seemed so insignificant to everything else Jesus taught about...everything about the Kingdom of God.

It was a confusing thing to go from that point in 1998 to now in 2006...coming full circle in confidence that the Kingdom of God was central to the gospel. It is my desire that as Campus Crusade ministers to the students in a post modern environment that there will be room for a process and that their faith would be one that may withhold the fires of the Kingdom of God and the love of Jesus.

ONE STORY

In the Fall of 2005 (this past year) ...I began to think about how cool it would be if I could sit around with my friends and we could tell the stories of Jesus. I love the gospels....and I love the parables. I can tell you the Parable of the Good Steward...or give you a snapshot of the Prodigal Son....but what I can not tell you is this: Who was Jesus talking to when he told that parable? Was Peter there? Was it in the beginning of His ministry...or near the end? Has he performed the miracles yet?

Why does this matter?

I want to know the teachings of Christ within the context of the relationships He had. I want to know Christ and tell stories of Christ as I would the stories you tell of old friends when you try to explain who they are to someone...and you remember warm memories of them.

I began to lay in bed and try to think of one story...just one. I could not do it. I could remember only th pieces of everything...He rode into town on a donkey..He died on the cross...thy spat on Him...Peter betrayed Him.

I began to imagine what it would be like to create a culture that( no matter who they were, followers of Christ or not) that knew from their hearts the stories of Christ and His teachings contained within the context of that.


In January at a Summer Project Directors Training...I met with fellow directors of the TriBeca Arts Track Summer Project in NYC. I began to tell them of this vision...and we all seem to get excited.Tanya Walker who works for R & D said that she had been to something where they were telling all about this. People within Campus Crusade and other organizations were already starting to do this...but primarily for other cultures. See http://onestory.org/

I have heard that Steve Douglass is experimenting with a very similar idea on a campus that he volunteers with...

How amazing would it be if students within our own, post modern culture could learn the stories of the Kingdom of God, the Stories of Christ, the stories of God in their own heart language...and then take the gospel to much of the unreached world and teach them to understand these stories in their own heart language?

To reach the west and Europe we will need not only to use story in merely oral forms but also through the media and the web. This is very much part of the heart language of the student culture.

Jana Holley's Article on Post-Modernism and Crusade

In the Summer of 2002, I moved to Denton, Texas. I was working at the time as an artist, selling my paintings to pay off debt so that I could join staff. My roomate, Libby, was already on staff at the Universtiy of North Texas.

Eventhough I did not join staff until January of 2003..and did not report until the Spring of '04, I have sensed ownership of our mission , "Turning Lost students into Christ centered Laborers"...since my STINT year in 99-00.

In Denton, at the University of North Texas, the ACD was Jana Holley. She has since written an article that talks about how Campus Crusade for Christ may minister in the Post-Modern Environment. Within it, she tells of some of our experiences, communication break downs...and breakthroughs.

http://longarticlebyjana.blogspot.com/

A New Kind Of Christian

In 1999-2000, I was on STINT in Russia. I was very new to Christian Culture and Crusade Culture for that matter. It has taken me a while to learn the language.

From my team and the team that followed developed a family. We still keep in touch. Around 2003 we began to pass around a book called, "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren.

This book really rocked the worlds of these former Campus Crusade student leaders.

Many within the evanglical community have feared and resisted the "Emerging Church Movement" Many have not had time to truly read or listen to the questions they ask or issues they address. Many have heard people in "their camp" speak poorly of the "emergent camp" and thus distance themselves without knowledge of what its all about.

Brian McLaren is one of the articulates of a post-modern expression of Christ's church. He has written many books in which have resonated with me and my experience. Of course I do not agree with all that he ever says....but he isnt asking me to. The Emergent Movement (of course not all within it...you always have the wheat and the tares) seeks to reopen dialogue.

Here are some quotes from some of McLaren's writings that have encouraged me"

"So salvation is joining God's mission instead of trying to live by our own selfish, personal agenda. The issus isnt being saved, born again, or crossing the live...it is following Jesus, joining in his adventure and mission of saving the world and expressing God's love" pg 131 of " A New Kind of Christian"

"Has He (Jesus) become ( I shudder to ask this) less out Lord and more our mascot? Lord means "master" (the very opposite of mascot...." from : pg 83 of " A Generous Orthodoxy"

"The gospel as he has understood it was about saving individual souls. He had begun having some problems with it. 1) It smacked of selfishness...would God want a heaven full of people who wanted to be "saved" but didnt necesarilly want to be good? If we pitch the whole story as, "Do you want to go to heaven or hell?, he said, we run the risk of attracting people who want salvation from hell without necessarily salvation from sin." : pg 82 "A New Kind of Christian"

" Sure it has answers, but I dont think that is the point. Think of a math book, Dan. Is it valuable because it has the answers in the back? No, its valuable because by working through it, by doing the problems, by struggling with it, you become a wiser person, a person capable of solving problems....The whole answer book approach is what modern people want the Bible to be": pg 52 "A New Kind of Christian"

"Then I added six words: "To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ in authentic community for the good of the world." That last phrase brings the essence of missional into the equation. It says that Christians are not the end users of the gospel. It says that the gospel of Jesus is not "all about me". pg. 119 " A Generous Orthodoxy"

" Missional faith asserts that Jesus came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to everyone, especially the poor. He came to seek and save the lost. He came on behalf of the sick. He came to save the world. His gospel and therefore the Christian message , is good news for the whole world. The idea that the Christian message is universally good news for Christians and non Christians alike is , to some, unheard of, strange, and perhaps heretical.......Jesus was a Jew and so saw Himself as one of Abraham's descendants. Abraham's original contact with God involved a kind of mission statement: I will bless you, God said, and I will make you a blessing to others. I will make your name and nation great, God said, and through you, all nations will be blessed. " pg 120 " A Generous Orthodoxy"

Brian McLaren encourages me through his writings to bring people into the Kingdom of God not to buy a ticket out of hell and learn all the right answers...but to receive salvation from the living God, through Jesus Christ, so that we can be a blessing to the world....salvation is about more than me and you consuming. He encourages to seek more truth than ever and to believe in a God bigger than our modern era can hold.

Teach people to See

It has been my experience that within the current model of ministry we often:

feed people the answers...and they parrot them out

when they graduate from college or are put in a situation that does not fit their template of information, they do not know the answer...or how to respond

Though our current model of sharing the gospel ( "The Knowing God personally Booklet, or "The 4-laws") is transferable it is rarely transferred into most students and staff's every day life as a method of shring their faith. As students or former staff move away from Crusade, or are not "on duty" at a summer project, a scheduled sharing time, or a winter conference...they do not use the booklet to share their faith...and share their faith very little..if at all.


As an artist, I can teach you to be an artist in two ways. First, I can teach you a formula of how to draw a tree. Then, I can teach you a formula of how to draw a house...the sun, a person, a cloud, etc. The unfortunate part of this is that you will only know how to draw these items in the way that I have taught you.

Secondly, I can teach you how to see...how to draw, in general. If I teach you how to look at the world...how to think about positive and negative spaces, lines,etc...eventhough you may not have a talent...you are equipped then to draw anything you want.

It is the old idea..."Give a man a fish...he eats for a day"..."Teach a man to fish...he eats for a lifetime".

We must not spin our wheels thinking of the next "post-modern" model of a sharing the gospel track. We must take a step back and teach our staff and students to "see" the gospel, to think about it, to know it in such a way that no matter what situation they are in they can respond authentically. That is transferrable.

This is a scary thing because it takes us out of control....I say it is much more powerful for some to truly have thought, questioned, and known the gospel intimately than for many to have only parrotted one song of it. What if there were only one song about love in the world...eventhough it may be accurate...we would never hear the many expressions and facets that each song writer offers. We must trust and believe in the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit indwelling our staff and students to express Himself and His Kingdom in a variety of ways at appropriate times.

There will still be times to use the "Knowing God Personally Booklet"....but there will be many other times for a unique expression of the gospel and the good news of Christ's Kingdom. Let us teach our staff and students to ask the right questions...and seek God for the answer to "What is the Gospel".

Can you imagine the outpour of "generated resources" that would come forth as we gave wings to creativity and innovation?

Contextualized Post-Modern Movements

In January 2006, I attended the New Staff on the Field Training in San Antonio for the Red River Region. During this time we helped the local team try to launch movements on campuses around the city. Within this, my team was assigned to launch an IMPACT movement.

At the end of the week we were to give a presentation about what we had experienced, learned, and what information we had collected. This was to help spread the wealth of our different experinces throughout the week and also for us to make suggestions about what we thought the local team should do from there.

I began to try to understand the verbage: "contextualized ministry".

I looked through the staff resources and found a paper written by Charles Gilmer dealing with this: https://staff.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/cms/content/2876.doc

Here is a portion:

Another term we need to understand is contextualization. Contextualization is a missiological term for taking the gospel and expressing it within the context of a particular culture. It's an approach that clarifies the goal of evangelism and discipleship for a cross-cultural mission or missionary. It involves going beyond simple translations from one culture to another, such as translating a hymn from English to Spanish. It seeks to see expressions of Christianity develop that are culturally relevant or authentic, thereby entering the world or culture of that people group. And this is essential if we want those in that culture to hear and be exposed to a clear, relevant presentation of the gospel.

When WSN, or any mission, operates overseas contextualization is one of the unspoken goals. The implied objective is to see the ministry manned by nationals in a country. When ministry is being pioneered by US staff, English speakers are the target. The ministry reaches a different state of maturity when you have leaders who are able to minister with fluency in the language of that particular culture. That is a step in the process of contextualization.
What we are doing is applying the same principle [of contextualization] to ministry in this country; it means speaking the language, if you will, of students with whom we would not connect otherwise. We are not willing to limit ourselves to being effective only with those who can speak the “white Christian” language or have assimilated into the white culture.

After reading this paper I understood two things:

1. Campus Crusade for Christ had always been contexualized...in that it has always sought to reach the members of a segment of the population or sub-culture in a relelvent way. The Campus ministry is contextualized itself in that it seeks to reach college students. We are specialist versus generalist.

2. I had been trying to overhaul all of the modern campus ministry in order to try to reach a contextualized slice of the population : post modern college students. Our current ministry does not effectively reach them in a relevant way...but what needed to happen...at least at first would not be to discard current models....but to simply start fresh movements to effectively reach a large portion of the students population in the west and most likely Europe.

Organic Growth of Churches...are we as staff learning or lagging?

At the Catalytic Training School in New Orelans in May of 2006, I asked the question during the final Q/A time, "With what we are learning about organic growth...has anyone tried to start movements with reaching non-believers first?". The room was relatively silent. Gilbert said that he had not heard of anyone that had done this . Then, Scott, answered and said...."no, we have not..but we need people to pioneer in that way."

I received the following article in the Fall Semester:
This one is really worth reading:
http://www.missionspokane.org/sterilechurches2.html

This article compares a reproductive model and a growth model of church planting.
As far as I can tell our current sytstem within catalytic leans heavy on the growth side. I would love to help pioneer a reproductive model that would incorporate a BOTH/AND approach. Planting Movements by reaching non-believers and through the process and prayer fully finding believing students to co-labor and be grafted in. These fresh wine skins will be the best at reaching our current post-modern culture because it is their own...where as many students (though post modern) in many areas of their lives have learned to relate to God and their faith in a very modern way and will need to learn to minister in a post-modern matrix to be effective.


Many staff are reading the book : Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens
by Neil Cole

http://www.christianitytoday.com/outreach/articles/organicchurch.html


The problem: much of what we are trained to do, have experience in and measure are not in line with these ideas....but we have no other system to operate under...and the wheels of our traditional system continue to turn...so it is hard to get off and try something else.



Here is are other communities of church planters discussing these issues: I dont claim to agree with all of their ideas....its just good to know what poeple are discussing and to enter into the dialougue:

http://www.organicchurch.net/


http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2005/03/leadership_r_we.html

Plan B: Austin Catalytic

At CSU of July 2005, I met with my HR director. Previous to this time I had been serving on a staffed campus for approxiamately two years, plus another previous year of rasing support and living with someone on the same team...thus feeling as though I served on that team for three years).

At this time I did not want to leave staff with CCC, but had continued to feel very frustrated in my efforts to create innovative and effective change within the campus ministry on my local team. Though they were open minded and supportive...I felt trapped in the current paradigm of ministry that has an established system of operation that runs like a machine.

The ministry at that campus had been closed at the end of Spring 2005 and the team had been dispersed. I was meeting with my HR director to hear my options and decide wether or not to stay on staff.

I had one main desire: to be on a team where I could try different things...

I ended up joining a Catalytic team. They were a new team(had only operated one year) and though self-described as non-creative, they were open to new ideas and were excited to have me join them.

The agreement: I would need to carry my traditional load on the team and in return would be able to have freedom to try new things.

The results:

Though I had heart support and listening ears, I didnt have adequate additional time or additional resources to develop new ideas.

My team, though supportive are probably more "modern" in their experience and thinking...where as I am more "post-modern". Therefore they can cheer me on, but can not join me unless they can begin to learn and experience ministry in a post-modern matrix.

My leadership is still accountable and measured by the success of the current model and therefore trying anything outside of that seems in competition for our time and goals.

Initially as we were launching campuses I had the idea to have a focus group to discuss Jesus' teachings the day that we gave out FSKs. Originally this idea was accepted...but then, it was decided that it would be in conflict with our current model to focus our efforts on finding strong Christian leaders on campuses rather than using our time to do evangelistic focus groups. Those should be the work of these Christian leaders that we find. I pushed the issue and ended up having several of these focus groups. I think my leaders felt torn in that we were putting time into something that wasnt supposed to be our focus as staff. I continued to follow up with initial contacts from the focus group on this campus and it grew to be a small movement which included a Muslim, a 37 year old American/German who was Catholic but not a committed believer in Christ, two very new believers...one of which now wants to be a volunteer, another non-believer who joined us in New Orelans for Spring Break...and some others. This group has been very messy considering its contents...but also very exciting to me.

The demands of traditional ministry are unending and carrying that load did not leave room for creating.

( My leadership encouraged my ideas...but our schedule with conferences,etc. left little room for creating)

January- April

Dallas Winter Conference (led the design team) - one week...plus mutiple weeks before hand

Summer Project Director's Training - one week

New Staff on the Field Training - one week

IAM - A conference for those in the arts - 4 days ( this one was optional - I chose to go)

New Orleans Spring Break - one week

A Spring Retreat for Texas Catalytic students

Catalytic Training School - one week

I show this to illustrate the current system...to this add: weekly discipleship, movement launching, travel to distance campuses, evangelism, support raising, team meetings, development, planning for summer project or conferences and retreats,etc.

I have thouroughly enjoyed my semester...but as you can see it would leave little room to develop new ideas, gain support and resources, and to execute them.

In conclusion, though I had an enjoyable year of ministry...my efforts to pioneer new ways of reaching students were limited because I did not have the adequate resources needed to do so (time, money, people, freedom from the other system).

+++Please see the next post for further understanding of why this didnt work well.

Creating Fresh Growth within CCC

In May of 2005, I was flying to New York to help lead the art portion of the Tribeca Summer Project (a pioneer effort to be and make disciples of Christ through the integration of art, art making and faith). In the airport I picked up the May 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review (http://hbr.org).

I found two articles that address creating change (fresh growth) within an established organization.

see:
hbr.org
May 2005
pg. 58 "Building Breakthrough Businesses Within Established Organizations"
pg. 73 "Your Companies Secret Change Agents"


The first article ("Building...") examined what it takes for new initiatives to become effective within established organizations. They called the hypothetical new initiative "NewCo" and the established business "CoreCo" for the purpose of the study.

Important Notes from "Building Breakthough Businesses Within Established Organizations" :

"I came to the conclusion long ago that limits to innovation have less to do with technology or creativity than organizational agility. Inspired individuals can only do so much." -Ray Stata, cofounder of Analog Devices, $2 bil. semiconductor co.

"Emphasis must shift from ideas to execution and from leadership excellence to organizational excellence" pg 58.

Three components for success: forgetting. borrowing. learning.

Forget.

Change Behavior
Forget CoreCo's model

who do we serve?what do we offer?how do we deliver?
Because of this a different set of skills and competencies are most valuable.

+++Too Often NewCo will talk like New Co but act like CoreCo.

"Many firms make the mistake of duplicating CoreCo's organizational design when they create NewCo. Doing so minimizes hassels, since making NewCo an exception to the rule about things such as hiring, compensation, and status can lead to resistance, even resentment , within CoreCo. But the only way to erase memory is to overhaul NewCo's organizational design."

How to Forget:

Hire Outsiders in Key Roles. Outsiders challenge institutional memory

Dont Assign status based on size. NewCo. should report at least one level above CoreCo in order to reduce the pressures on NewCo for short trem results and to ensure tha CoreCo does not hoard resources.

Rearrange the moving parts. NewCo must reconsider how major business functions such as marketing and product developmetn interact. Established patterns are usually incompatible with the new business model.

Build a new dashboard: NewCos performance should nbot be based on CoreCo's metrics. Doing so reinforces CoreCo's formula for success not NewC's.

Dare not to make complex judgements. The company should not judge the performance of New Co's leader too heavily against plans.

Promote new thinking about success. New Co's leader should create a unique set of beliefs about actions that lead to success and regulary reinforce them. CoreCos beliefs may not apply in NewCo's environment.


Borrow.

CoreCo's tremendous resources are too invaluable to ignore.

New Co should only borrow when it can gain a crucial competitive advantage-crucual enough that the company would highlight it to investors

Example: NYTimes Web team ended up serving a completely differnt set of readers than the print team and met distinct needs. "us versus them happened" between web and print though.

How to Borrow:

Balance the yin of forgetting with the yang of borrowing. Create links, yes, but only to lend New Co a crucial competitive advantage . Avoid links to the IT or HR departments.

Find Common Ground. Reinforce values that Core Co. and New Co share. Senior management can create a "metaculture" composed of more general values.

Be careful what you ask for. Eval. and Reward Core Co managers in part with their willingness to cooperate with NewCo. Avois strong incentives toed strickly to CoreCos short term performance.

Co-opt Core Co. Make borrowing as painless as possible so Core Co can focus on Core Co. Replenish CoreCos resources when NewCo borrows heavily. Core OC will always be more enthused about helping NewCo when there is evidence of success.

Be alert to tremors. Anticipate tensions between NewCo. and CoreCo. and intervene when tensions become destructive. Senior exectives must continually explain the rationale for the differences between New Co and Core Co.

+++Warning Signs+++
>Core Co perceives the New CO will cannibalize CoreCos revenues
>CoreCo perceives that NewCo could render CoreCo obselete
>CoreCo perceives that NewCo might damage CoreCo assets, such as brands or customer relations
>Resources are scarce as CoreCo goes through a downturn and is resistant to allocating anything to NewCo
CoreCo management is unaware of the needs of an emerging NewCo
>CoreCo managers are jealous of NewCo
>Stereotypes persist about the capabilities of new and old Co.

Force authority uphill. Unless NewCo. is in danger of damaging one of CoreCos assets, particularly a brand, empower NewCo in its interactions with CoreCo. Without intervention, power will naturally shift back to the larger, more entrenched CoreCo.

Learn.

Reliable Forecasts are the best indicators that a new business is learning.

Stategic experiments are highly uncertain endeavors. The faster New Co can resolve these unknows, that is the faster it learns, the sooner it will zero in on a winning business model or exit a hopeless situation.

Learn to predict NewCo's business outcomes. These will be wild guesses. These are important not because of their accuracy but because of the learning opportunities they present.

It is a crucial learning step for New Co to analyze disparities between predictions(about unknowns) and outcomes. This must be done with openness and candor...speed, rigor, discipline.

+++Mistakes of Hasbro example:
It ignored its own predictions
Planning (like most companies was annual)...learning slowed to a crawl
Measured success of new venture short term
Didnt revise predictions to outsiders...Rigid predictions lead to "gaurd rail to guard rail
" decision making - that is agresive investment followed by complete abandonment

How to Learn.

Dont Mix Oil and Water. Hold seperate meetings to evaluate the business performance of New Co and Core Co. Combing can be impracticle and destructive.

Protect Predictions. New Cos leadership must understand the value of improving predictions and be aware of how the learning process can go astray if predictions are ignored.

Avoid Being too defensive. Evaluate the leader not on results but on their ability to learn and make good decisions. Accountability to plans may be effective in mature business practices but crippling to a new high potential business.

Do Less, Faster. Simplify Plans...but plan more often. Each cycle through the planning process creates a learning opportunity so planning more frequently increases the learning rate. Detailed plans (broken down by region, product line, sales channel, and so forth) are useful for mature businesses but New Co should focus on critical unknowns.

Analyse through a New Lens. Compare predicted and actual trends.

Measure what you dont know. Identify metrics that are useful in resolving critical unknowns.