In each of my various moves (three states in the last twenty five years) I have sought out men for an accountability group—usually 2 or 3 men. We meet weekly, look at some scripture, talk about our lives, and pray for each other. There is no magic program or formula.

Eventually we get around to two deeper things. First, we get to the point where we ask the others in the group to hold us accountable for something(s) specific—often a sinful pattern we want to break. Mind you, this isn’t something necessarily that the group says, “You must do to be spiritual.”  This is something we voluntarily submit to the group.

The second thing that often happens is that the guys feel freer to speak up and point out things in each other’s lives that need some attention. As hard as this is, it is also very welcome. It means we love each other, trust each other, and want to watch each others’ back.

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it.
— Psalm 141:5

David knew the benefit of this kind of relationship. He had apparently received a strike from a righteous man (makes me curious as to what it was). David was very fortunate. It came his way through the grid of kindness.

The result? It was actually soothing.

Yet David recognizes we will have a tendency to back away. I have never found accountability to others easy; just a HUGE growth opportunity.

I’m in a new situation now and beginning to form new relationships. I meet with a small group as well as with several men one-on-one. We have yet to get to these deeper levels because, in my experience, it takes time.

David’s request is a wonderful reminder to me to value the exhortations, rebukes and reproofs that come my way. “Let a righteous man strike me…My head will not refuse it.”

O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you.  ² May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.  ³ Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.  ⁴ Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies.  ⁵ Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers;  ⁶ their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.  ⁷ [They will say,] “As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.”  ⁸ But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.  ⁹ Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers.  ¹⁰ Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.
— Psalm 141

Howard Morrison is a partner in Gilbert, Arizona’s Morrison Ranch (where one of his nicknames is Bias for Action). In addition to being an active second-generation partner in the the family owned business, Howard identifies himself as a pastor (in a previous life), a husband, and the glad father of three.

“To no one’s surprise,” writes Michael Bush for AdAge, “the first topic of discussion at Advertising Week’s CNBC CEO Summit was the meltdown of the financial markets last week.”

The panel of advertising agency CEOs, Andrew Robertson (BBDO), Nick Brien (Mediabrands), Sarah Fay (Aegis Media North America) and Irwin Gotlieb (GroupM) covered a lot of ground but never got far from the debris of the investment banks’ collapse the week of 15 September 2008.

BBDO’s Mr. Robertson sees what he believes is a fundamental shift in how consumers process information from marketers and their clients:

We have to stop thinking of media as bridges that we march messages over into people’s minds and start thinking about creating experiences that change behavior and providing access to those experiences in the most relevant places…That’s a different language and different way of thinking from the way the business was approached even three years ago.

“We used to think about messages that created a case for a particular behavior,” Mr. Robertson said.

“It’s not about that now. It’s about creating experiences that, by participating in them, change consumer behavior. I’m only interested in behavior. Everything else is just a proxy for it. Unless behavior changes, it’s all been a waste of time and money. That’s an important lens through which to look at everything, because there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on, none of which is going to change behavior. And our clients can’t make any money unless behavior changes.

No news here beyond declaring the shift practitioners like Seth Godin have trumpeted for years on end. When BBDO gets it, is it real?

More interesting by far are comments at the summit from GroupM CEO, Irwin Gotlieb:

“I’m not sure how consumers will react to this,” Mr. Gotlieb said of the Wall Street rout. “At the moment I don’t think the consumer can comprehend what has just happened. The best-case scenario is that the consumer doesn’t comprehend what went on and goes on merrily about their way.”

The best-case scenario for Mr. Gotlieb is that consumers fail to comprehend what happened to a trillion dollars and just keep doing what they (we) have been doing. If my head explodes, you may have my iPod.

If consumers somehow get a clue about the goings-on that led to and proceed from the collapse of our economic Oz, Mr. Gotlieb is counting on their (our) short attention span to smooth things over — and, one assumes, to manufacture fungible assets from yellow brick pavers. “There is quite a bit of elasticity in consumer confidence, and it does tend to bounce back, whether the situation is understandable or not,” he said.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

“Rightly or wrongly, the consumer trusts their peers more than they trust some of the most recognized publications,” Mr. Gotlieb continued. “And because of that the communications today are not just about talking at the consumer. It’s about managing their perception and trying to get them to participate in the discussion in a way that is favorable to your client. The challenge is none of us can do all of these things.” Thank God for small favors.

I’m ripping this passage in Jeremiah from its context in a way that would be despicable if I claimed it had anything to do with the situation at hand. It does not. It merely sounds as if it could:

“¹³From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.  ¹⁴ They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.  ¹⁵ Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD.

¹⁶This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’  ¹⁷ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’  ¹⁸ Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them.  ¹⁹ Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.
— Jeremiah 6:13-19

God grant that we who spend our days in the marketplace may learn — or remember — how to blush at the greediness that drove our economy to the brink.

God grant that we may stand at this crossroads and look;
and ask for the ancient paths,
and ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and find rest for our souls.

The second of two posts by Al Lunsford on cutting through the clutter with clear, concise, visionary communication.

If you want your communication to capture and hold people who are paying attention to what’s going on in the world, treat us the way you want to be treated. Unless, of course, you enjoy having people ply you with vague talk about poorly defined objectives and activities.

If you’re on the receiving end of communications that fail to move the needle, write back and identify what you need to know if you’re going to remain engaged. Who knows…maybe you’ll get better mail.

I got a newsletter from a person who asked us, his readers, to pray for him as he prepared the agenda for a conference, and that he would have God’s wisdom and leading as he made important decisions about the future. I wrote back, asking:

What are some of the agenda items . . . and what are these important decisions that are before you. You certainly could provide us . . . particularly those who have donated to your work . . . an understanding of your focus at this stage, the trends that are beginning to develop, new facets to the work that you are beginning to realize, opportunities you think may be materializing. You get the idea! Tell us that and we can pray in way that is more targeted and useful.

What I didn’t say but might have is that I would never respond to a business proposal that was as nonspecific as his “prayer request.” Picking up the thread:

So you are planning a conference . . . with myriad details. No offense but, Big Deal. I am working on a 25 year development project in the billions of dollars . . . there are myriad details in the legal documents alone . . . before we even start. We have to think ahead 25 years, identifying the variety of scenarios that might emerge and crafting responses to protect all the parties and enhance the usefulness and profitability of the enterprise. Now that needs “God’s wisdom” . . . But I don’t think about it at that level of generality. I think in specific terms about the issues I know we will encounter and I pray with specificity about those issues. I’m an expert, so I know much of what I need to pray for. The thing is, when it comes to this conference, so do you — because you’re an expert. If you want me to pray for your preparation, tell me the logistics you have to plan for, the subjects you want to have expert speakers for, the types and levels of workshops . . . the processes you want to introduce to generate a creative thinking environment. You say you want “many” to attend this conference . . . Why? Who are you trying to reach . . . “thought leaders” . . . or the “ground troops” . . . or will your conference be so generalized that you are going to try to reach everybody with one type of conference (now there is a task that will certainly require prayer!).

You ask us to pray for “wisdom” with “creativity” . . . about a website to be used as a strategic tool in your mission. How about asking us — your emailed constituency — what we know about websites? Do we happen to know any of the best people in the world for developing websites? Is this going to be a “brochure” website, a blog, an interactive website . . . what are you considering? Do you know what you’ll need to keep your website feeling “fresh” on a daily basis so people will return often to discover all the things you feature. And . . . what will you feature? What will you offer that can’t be found anywhere else? What is the business plan for this website . . . or is this a case of everybody has a website and in order to accomplish what we’re trying to do we need to have one too?

Revisiting my response to this newsletter, I’m afraid I sound like a crank. But my friend asked for feedback and he thanked me for being clear and direct.

And that’s what so few people bring to the table these days: Clear, direct writing that communicates what they want a reader to know and what they hope a reader will do as a direct response — whether it’s praying, attending a meeting, donating money or time . . . whatever.

If you specify or imply that your readers are somehow “partners” in what you’re trying to accomplish, then treat them as partners, not late stage investors. I see my partners weekly … if not daily. The communication between us is constant. If what you want is passive investors, that’s fine. Say so. Just don’t expect us to be interested much more than once a month, when your newsletter lands on our desktops.

I find a sameness in most of these writings. One sounds a lot like the next of its own kind and not all that different from the communications of completely different organizations in completely different categories. The writing is nearly always vague, sometimes to the point of meaninglessness. Sometimes I wonder if the writers believe they are protecting trade secrets. Other times I fear they don’t report anything specific because they are not doing anything specific.

I admit I have been guilty of this kind of vagueness myself and I am still guilty of being less than definite when people ask “How’s it going?” or “What can I pray for?” I don’t always answer with a clear focus on what I want to happen between the moment they ask and the next time I expect to see them. There is no level of detail that might make what they pray specific and measurable . . . with a desired result in mind.

I’m one of those people who thinks general prayers get general answers. This goes back in part to an experience in college when the student group I was in prayed for open hearts on our campus. I don’t read poorly written newspapers, magazines and news sites because I don’t have to. There are plenty of options. And guess what: There are plenty of newsletters, websites, updates and prayer letters too.Which is mainly what we got: good conversations about God, a fair level of interest in spiritual things, but very little in the way of people embracing Jesus. So I changed our group prayer to the language of Acts 26:18 — the message Paul said Jesus gave him on the famous Road to Damascus: “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” When we started praying that way we saw a whole different level of responsiveness from our peers on campus.

I’ll post a few thoughts on capturing and holding the attention of people like me — whether you’re a business trying to gain traction or a missionary trying to raise support — in what has become a very cluttered marketplace of ideas and “opportunities to make a difference” in the world.

Next up: Write What You Mean | Part II