This past weekend Tracy and I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for the guys at Selfless Tee, a start up (and winner of the Pepsi Refresh Challenge) that is working to help fund causes that make a difference around the world by selling T-Shirts. (Is that a brilliant idea or what?!)

So far they’ve supported the causes of Blood:Water Mision, Vermont Flood Relief (I Am Vermont Strong), and several others in only a few short months after launch! We really love these guys and what they’re doing to make a difference in the world, and the breadth of their reach could be limitless.

This time around we (Tracy + I) got to be a part of the Feel Good campaign, an organization that is working to “end world hunger one grilled cheese (cheese toastie) at a time.” They have a great video on the site that explains exactly how they are working to do this through non-profit gourmet deli’s on college campuses and to date they’ve already raised over one million dollars (since 2005) to help eradicate hunger and poverty around the world.

I’m always amazed at the creativity and ingenuity of people who come together to create positive and lasting change around the world through simple but effective ideation. I’m looking forward to following each of their stories more–thankfully it’s not that hard since I get to see them pretty regularly around the office. Take a moment and stop by the Selfless Tee site and support a cause with a T-Shirt. It’s amazing what a little can do, if we all do it together.

I stumbled across this amazing idea over on Kickstarter.com. It’s called ArtBloc, a mobile art and performance space created from two shipping containers.

After watching the video (below) and seeing a couple of the schematics I couldn’t help but think, could this be a cheaper way to launch churches or new campuses around a city? Talk about the ultimate mobile church concept…

At IKON one of our staff values is Collaboration. We are working to make sure that nothing is created alone. We’re always working in a team of at least 3 people to create so that we are leveraging our community’s strengths and constantly equipping others to do the work of our community. So, all of our Sunday morning messages, classes, experiences, etc. from idea to finished product are created and edited by a team. Our entire Sunday morning experience from songs to scripture to creative elements are created and developed as a team. All of our curriculum from idea to finished product in our Family Groups are created and developed by a team. We want to be a community that creates together because we believe that our ideas (collectively) are better than your ideas (individually).

While we were on vacation last week, Tracy shared this excerpt with me from from Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants. I found it a great little essay not only for the rules of improvisation, but ultimately rules for better and stronger team collaboration.

——
Excerpt from Bossypants by Tina Fey, p. 82-85:
“The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you’re improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created. So if we’re improvising and I say, “Freeze, I have a gun,” and you say, “That’s not a gun. It’s your finger. You’re pointing your finger at me,” our improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say, “Freeze, I have a gun!” and you say, “The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!” then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun.

Now, obviously in real life you’re not always going to agree with everything everyone says. But the Rule of Agreement reminds you to “respect what your partner has created” and to at least start from an open-minded place. Start with a YES and see where that takes you.

As an improviser, I always find it jarring when I meet someone in real life whose first answer is no. “No, we can’t do that.”"No, that’s not in the budget.” “No, I will not hold your hand for a dollar.” What kind of way is that to live?

The second rule of improvisation is not only to say yes, but YES, AND. You are supposed to agree and then add something of your own. If I start a scene with “I can’t believe it’s so hot in here,” and you just say, “Yeah…” we’re kind of at a standstill. But if I say, “I can’t believe it’s so hot in here,” and you say “What did you expect? We’re in hell.” Or if I say, “I can’t believe it’s so hot in here” and you say, “Yes, this can’t be good for the wax figures.” Or if I say, “I can’t believe it’s so hot in here,” and you say, “I told you we shouldn’t have crawled into this dogs mouth,” now we’re getting somewhere.

To me YES, AND means don’t be afraid to contribute. It’s your responsibility to contribute. Always make sure you’re adding something to the discussion. Your initiations are worthwhile.

The next rule is MAKE STATEMENTS. This is a positive way of saying, “Don’t ask questions all the time.” If we’re in a scene and I say, “Who are you? Where are we? What are we doing here? What’s in that box?” I’m putting pressure on you to come up with all the answers.

In other words: Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles. We’ve all worked with that person. That person is a drag. It’s usually the same person around the office who says things like “There’s no calories in it if you eat it standing up!” and “I felt menaced when Terry raised her voice.”

MAKE STATEMENTS also applies to us women: Speak in statements instead of apologetic question. No one wants to go to a doctor who says, “I’m going to be your surgeon? I’m here to talk to you about your procedure? I was first in my class at Johns Hopkins, so?” Make statements with your actions and your voice.

Instead of saying “Where are we?” Make a statement like “Here we are in Spain, Dracula.” Okay, “Here we are in Spain, Dracula” may seem like a terrible start to a scene, but this leads us to the best rule:

THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities. If I start a scene as what I think is very clearly a cop riding a bicycle, but you think I am a hamster in a hamster wheel, guess what? Now I’m a hamster in a hamster wheel. I’m not going to stop everything to explain that it was really supposed to be a bike. Who knows? Maybe I’ll ned up being a police hamster who’s been on “hamster wheel” duty because I’m “too much of a loose cannon” in the field. In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents. And many of the world’s greatest discoveries have been by accident. I mean, look at the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, or Botox.”

The internet in 1969. It’s amazing what we were dreaming of in 1969 that has not only come to be but has become such an integral part of our lives. In fact, it has revolutionized our lives… so, it got me wondering. What are we dreaming of today that in 20 years will completely transform how we live, interact, work, maintain and develop relationships?

Or perhaps another question: What are you dreaming of today that will someday make a lasting impact in your circles of influence?

It’s no doubt that in today’s economic environment many people are struggling financially, struggling with unemployment and wishing they were debt free. I know I certainly do! Well, a few weeks ago a friend told me about a website called mint.com, an intuitive personal budgeting web application that helps take all the guesswork out of your budgeting. (We all know how hard it is to guess correctly, right?!) Well, this application shows you your spending trends and helps you in your budgeting process instead of pulling numbers out of thin air. Not only that, it’s a stark reminder every time you open the page of just how far in debt you actually are in addition to showing where you spending the majority of your money. For us, living in San Francisco, it’s also a stark reality to just how high our rent is and how much of our monthly budget goes into our living expenses!

Basically, this web application aggregates all of your online banking into one place (credit cards, bank statements, debit card usage, car loans, student loans, investments, etc) and creates pie charts, and other helpful tools to give you a stand-out visual of your actual financial situation–in real time. There’s a section for budgeting that allows you to set numbers and follow your trends of spending over the months so that you can be more accurate. And here’s a feature that I’m most excited about–whenever you go over your budget in an area, you get an email alert indicating you’re over budget and by how much! It’s a great way to stay on top of your finance!

This tool has some pretty amazing potential, and honestly, could really help a lot of people who are looking to be debt free. It’s something that many churches should seriously look into and consider adding as a resource into their Financial Courses (Good$ense, Financial Peace University, etc.) for helping people get a better handle on and understanding of their spending and their debt. And maybe even best of all… it’s free!

If the biggest barrier to generosity in our churches today is the saddle of debt that we carry around, then this simple web application can certainly go a long way to helping us rid ourselves of debt and walk forward in a new and unparalleled generosity that the world hasn’t seen from us in a long, long time!

About a year ago Bret Koontz shared an idea with me he had devised for connecting pastors and church planters with people in the community in more of a 2.0 sort of way. Immediately I was intrigued, especially considering my introverted nature when it comes to stepping up to strike up conversation with a stranger.

Our culture has quickly shifted to what I’d call the “facebook-friending” culture (perhaps soon to be replaced by the “twitter-following” culture) where people perform Google searches and Facebook friend requests in an attempt to check you out before really wanting to pursue some sort of deeper friendship/relationship. The utilization of technology into “interviewing” potential friends/relationships is a good way to speed up getting to know someone and dive deeper into a relationship. (I’m continually amazed at how much more connected I feel to people and how much more I know about a person because of their Facebook status updates and Twitter updates.) So, enter a church-planter or pastor who is new to an area and looking to strike up conversations and develop relationships in our highly networked 2.0 society.

Bret’s idea was to create a physical connect that blends both 1.0 in-person conversation with 2.0 web networking, therefore the advent of the ‘personal network card.’ A business card that has nothing to do with business, but rather everything to do with who you are as a person and ways to connect with you online. You can hand them out to people you meet, or simply leave them in places you frequent, hand them to a barista or waiter in restaurants and coffee shops you frequent, the possibilities are endless… and the potential for new relationships is great!

Now don’t get the idea that this is a business card, because it isn’t… it looks different and functions differently. I recently designed my first one, had them printed up at VistaPrint and they arrived today:

On the front of the card is a design of sorts and different adjectives to describe who I am by my interests (mac enthusiast, coffee junkie, teacher, photography, runner, baseball fanatic, etc.) Then at the bottom is my name and 3 online ways that people can check me out and connect with me: aaronmonts.com | twitter.com/aaronmonts | and my gmail address. The back is simply my name along with the same design from the front.

As connecting with people becomes more and more of an online sport, I hope this will give me an edge and the ability to meet and network with people that once before couldn’t have been possible.

Since arriving in our apartment in San Francisco we’ve had to figure out ways to make the best possible use of our space in order to have everything that we need in a 1 bedroom apartment… one of the necessities is some sort of home office. Since we didn’t want the office to also share space in the bedroom we decided to put it in the hallway closet. Yes, that’s right the hallway closet… and no its not a walk-in closet.

The office comes equipped with a desk, a whiteboard, pictures on the wall, a paper shredder, a printer, 2 file cabinets and 4 filing boxes, a desk lamp, an external hard drive and space for writing, filing and a laptop. Sounds hard to believe but it can be done! Here are a few pics:

(click images for full size)

The crazy thing is that this actually works… and it works well! It doesn’t feel crammed, it doesn’t feel too tight and I’m able to fit pretty much everything I need in there to work. This is how we did it… we went to IKEA!

At IKEA we purchased two filing cabinets on caster wheels that can be moved around and measured them to make sure they’d fit in perfectly with enough space for legs! Then at IKEA we made our way to the custom counter top section and purchased a counter top that was the proper size. They’re even willing to cut it to size if you need to! Got a cheap desk lamp for light, a powerstrip and one of the IKEA “white boards” and made our way home. I put it all together in about an hour for a grand total cost of less than $250 bucks.

The only “issue” is that there is no power outlet in the closet. This is where the powerstrip comes into play. I leave everything plugged into the powerstrip and the powerstrip is always connected to an extension cord that gets plugged in across the hall when I need to use the office. It’s as simple as opening the doors and connecting the extension cord… unplugging the extension cord and closing the doors. It fits, and it works!

So, if you need a space saving technique for a home office… give this a shot! It really does work!