C S Lewis Bible

I'm not sure what part of our self-imposed 'mandate' this particular blog post comes under - maybe 'just plain interesting' - or in this case, 'just plain interesting??'

Harper Collins, who've had a firm publishing grip on the C S Lewis book titles for some time have produced....wait for it....the C S Lewis Bible. It's a combination of the NRSV translation and suitable commentaries extracted from Lewis' writings.

My initial reaction is that C S Lewis might be turning over in his grave, but that might be limiting my view of Lewis. He was surprisingly liberal-minded in some areas.

The first link I picked up on this had comments that claimed it was an April Fool's joke - it must have first been promoted around that date. Nope, it's listed on Amazon.co.uk. and also on Harper Collins own site. You can even see some sample pages.

Maybe it's what I want for Christmas after all....maybe not!

PS I should mention that one of my bete noires in my later days in OC Books was the increasing number of Bible ring-ins....Bibles for Promise Keepers, Bibles for Women Exercisers, Bibles for Teens who could barely read, Bibles for children with cartoon-like drawings that insulted the eye....and so on.

Google and Jobs

Two contrasting articles in Harvard Business Online are pertinent not just to leadership in general, but to ministers in churches as well.

In one, Google Grows Up, Scott Anthony points out the way in which Google has approached innovation: Engineers are encouraged to dream up pet projects in their spare time. Teams self form around the best ideas. Market-based principles ensure that the best ideas receive funding. It sounds chaotic, democratic...and intoxicating.

Anthony goes on to show that even Google is now having to be more disciplined in its approach to innovation, and, he says, constraints can focus creativity.

Bill Taylor, on the other hand, in an article entitled Decoding Steve Jobs, says that in terms of the impact his products have had on the world, Steve Jobs represents the face of business at its best. And yet, in terms of his approach to leadership, Jobs represents the face of business — well, if not at its worst, then certainly not as something worth emulating.

Jobs, he goes on to say, bullies staff, shrouds his company in secrecy and refuses basic accommodations to products that would make them more user-friendly. Typical of his attitude is the way he has often parked right across two handicapped parks in his own place of business.

Taylor goes on to note: the sign of true ambition [is] absolute confidence in your infallibility as a leader. Over time, though, it has become a warning sign of failure — whether from bad judgment, low morale from disillusioned troops, or sheer burnout. The best leaders I know don't want the job of thinking for everybody else. They understand that if they can tap the hidden genius inside the organization, and the collective genius outside the organization, they will create ideas that will be much more powerful than what even the smartest individual leader could ever come up with on his or her own. Nobody alone is as smart as everybody together.

He concluldes: Leaders who want to both change the game and stay in the game for the long haul have come to appreciate the power of "humbition" over blind ambition. What's humbition? It's a term I first heard from Jane Harper, a nearly 30-year veteran of IBM. It is, she explains, the subtle blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful leaders — an antidote to the know-it-all hubris that affects so many executives and entrepreneurs.