Purpose Lived Out

"Living Out LeaderTreks"  - A series on the core values and leadership principles of LeaderTreks. I'll share how they are lived out in the company and in my own life.  To start from the beginning click here  

Purpose

A great book I recently picked up off the bookshelf at work, Communicating for a Change really impacted the way I began to prepare for co-teaching my first LTE. The main point I got while reading is that the best way to communicate for change is by teaching one simple central point. I was in charge of teaching two out of four sessions for the weekend. We are given the basic material outline to teach, but the actual presentation is up to us. We construct our own presentation around those points. So I used the title of each session as my main point. I decided that everything I said should come back to that point. From there I internalized it, asking what Biblical and personal stories do I connect with that I can use to teach this point? I hand wrote notes that included stories and transitions. The next day I simplified it, giving myself the bare bones of my presentation. The next day I simplified again. I wanted so badly to communicate just ONE point that I was going to get myself to the simplest notes I could and deliver a quality message that communicated LeaderTreks' curriculum to the students. I put in probably close to 12 hours of prep for less than 2 hours of teaching. At the end of the weekend we offered four points that the students could connect with and by applying it in their daily life they could become a better leader.

My favorite part of the weekend was the final debrief. I wanted to see what they were going to take away from the weekend, so I asked, "What one thing about teamwork/leadership are you going to remember most from this weekend?" As each student answered I dug a little deeper asking them how they wanted to apply it in their lives. I asked them to make an application (listing a who, what, when, where, how) that they could make in the next week to begin to live out this principle.

Hearing these students make connections to the points we taught and they experienced in initiatives was so amazing. That was the purpose of the 12 hours of determined preparation. 

It wasn't so I could give the best presentation.

 It was so these students apply these principles to life outside of a training weekend. 

 It was so that these students could be developed as leaders.

It was so God could be glorified.