debriefan online publication of Bridge Builders® Alabama

AssumptionsHoliday Party

momentumLock-in

&

Health and

Wellness Fair

pg. 2 & 5

november 2010

P=mV

Legacy

Saturday, December 11, 201010:30 am – 1:30 pmAUM Taylor CenterMontgomery, AL 36124334 244 3350www.aum.edu

The American Humanics Program at

Auburn University Montgomery is holding the

8th annual Christmas Programfor Low Income Children

Saturday, December 11, 2010.

Come Volunteer

Montgomery Health and Wellness Fair

Saturday, Nov. 6 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

Harrison Elementary School164 E South Boulevard

Sponsored by Wal-Mart, the Montgomery Health and Wellness Fair will provide information about living healthy lives to the citizens of Montgomery. Nurses will be onsite to give flu shots, Wal-Mart will be doing vision screenings, All Kids and other insurance companies will be giving information about health insurance and many other booths centered around living a better, healthier life. Be there about 15 minutes early to get signed in, and bring your positive attitude, smiling face and desire to serve.

novemberread all about it2 Health and Wellness Fair/AUM Christmas ProgramVolunteers needed!

4 Thoughts and RamblingsMomentum by Josh McFall

5 Events CalendarKeeping up with Bridge Builders

5 Lock-inStay tuned for more details!

6 - 7 MomentumMark Akerly, a consultant with

Sigma Research Group

8 COM-PANYBy Tiegen Kosiak

9 Simple Act of KindnessBy Andrew Szymanski

10 Out of U and MeBy Jacob Call

11 LegacyBy Catie Malone

12 Holiday PartyDecember 14

3

®

pg. 9

pg. 8

To honor you this Christmas season, a gift has been made to

bridge builders® by Anne & Ken Upchurch. Happy Holidays!

bridge builders ®

pg. 12

pg. 5

4

Thoughts and Ramblings by Josh McFall,

Bridge Builders Alabama Director

Thoughts and Ramblings Power, or momentum, equals mass times velocity, or P=mV, to make it scientific looking. Recently, I’ve been thinking about the power of momentum as it relates to leaders. Mainly you, our Bridge Builders, and how this idea of momentum affects you. One of my favorite authors/speakers is Andy Stanley. Recently, he talked about momentum, how it’s created and why it’s so important. The main idea was that “momentum is created by action,” which means we have to do something in order for there to be something to get excited about. In the physics formula, power equals the mass of an object times the velocity at which that object is moving. You might ask, “Why are we talking about physics?” I see a direct relationship between this physics concept and the way in which we become great leaders. At our conferences, we push you to the limit of your leadership abilities and do our best to excite you about all the possibilities that lay ahead once you begin your journey as a Bridge Builder. You are the object, or mass, and the conference process we all trust creates the velocity. However, we can’t be there in the tough times, in the trenches, when you need to “build a bridge”, when you really prove what kind of leader you are, the moments that test you… Our hope is to give you the power to propel you forth once you leave our care. Being a Bridge Builder isn’t about coming to

conferences, skill building meetings, or wearing a t-shirt. Bridge Builders is about becoming an example for those people who don’t know what TRUE leadership looks like. When thinking about your leadership style, think about the moments that propel you or give you momentum to do great things… Hopefully becoming a Bridge Builder was one of those power-producing moments and continues to be throughout your life. I have students email often to say how much Bridge Builders has impacted their lives or how they are living out the mission from day to day. Our hope with this program is that each of you would consider the characteristics of a true Bridge Builder with each decision you make. We don’t want to be just some program that looks good on a college application, we want to be a change agent for our communities, our schools, and our state. The idea of Bridge Builders starts with the first 2 words of our mission: “to develop.” I see this as momentum. We are constantly equipping you with new thoughts, ideas, and experiences so that you can continue on the journey to becoming a better leader through our program. So, what direction is your momentum pushing you? I’d love to hear your answers. Email me at Josh.McFall@bridgebuildersalabama.org. I’d love to share some of your stories in next month’s issue of Debrief.

Thanks for all you have done and continue to do!

Josh

Summer Conferences for Next Year

Junior Conference for the Class of 2013 - June 13-18, 2011 @ Huntingdon College

Encourage your 10th grade friends to start thinking about joining Bridge Builders!

Senior Conference for the Class of 2012 - June 20-23 @ Children’s Harbor / Lake Martin

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

EVENTS CALENDERnovember

Saturday, November 69:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Community Health and Wellness Fair@ Harrison Elementary

164 East South Boulevard1 Credit

Tuesday, November 911:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Mix it Up at Lunch@ Your School!!!

www.mixitup.org1 Credit

Monday, November 15National Philanthropy Day!

december

5

Saturday, December 1110:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

AUM American Humanics Christmas Program

@ Taylor CenterAuburn University Montgomery

Tuesday, December 146:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Holiday Party@ BB Headquarters

434 North McDonough Street1 Credit

Do You miss the Bridge Builders

Family?Save the date for a

night of lock-in fun!

January 14-15 at Common Grounds

(1516 Mobile Rd. Montgomery, AL 36108) See you all there!

2010 Lock-in

6

P=mV By Mark Akerly,

a consultant with Sigma Research Group put together these thoughts

about momentum.

7

A rough scientific definition of momentum is “a mass in motion,” a force. Momentum is also a business force, and can be described as a series of successes. Political candidates and sports figures talk about it all the time. They see it as a necessary force and a requirement for winning. In the business arena, however, we hear less about it; perhaps because it doesn’t fit neatly into the prevalent leadership and management models touted by management experts. But regardless of where and how it’s talked about, it’s extremely important, especially for those companies that want to change or grow. So how do you build momentum? Here are a few tips that will help.

1. FOCUS ON THE SHORT TERM

If you need to build momentum, now is not the time to be adjusting your company mission and long-term vision. You need to be asking “what can I do now?” That is, today, tomorrow and next week that will give me immediate wins. So make your daily to do list with specific and actionable short term objectives, not long-term goals that equal a win for you and your company. For example, making two more sales calls, adding three pages of copy to your book draft, meeting with your team to resolve that tough issue - all today - are simple short-term wins that will lead to increased momentum. Always ask yourself what can you do to get a win today?

2. BREAK IT DOWN INTO BITE-SIZE CHUNKS

Hitting homeruns is great and is a terrific strategy if you have the talent and resources to do so. However, hitting several consecutive singles can be just as effective. For many companies, the best way to build momentum is to break down those BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) into manageable and actionable wins. For example, if your goal is to be the premiere provider of widgets in the U.S.A., perhaps you should first start by being the premier provider of widgets in the Midwest or maybe in Illinois or maybe in Chicago. You get the picture. Build your image and reputation one customer at a time, hitting a single every day, and then see how those individual wins lead to even greater ones.

3. QUANTITY FIRST

I know every business leader is dedicated to quality, as well they should be. But sometimes 80 percent is all you really need to get things rolling. For example, if you have two alternatives; No. 1 – you can get a perfectly designed product to market six months from today or No. 2 – you can get two 80 percent acceptable products to market by the end of the month, the latter will give you momentum, a quick win. Another product the following month and perhaps another to follow that, i.e. a focus on quantity, will most likely be far more beneficial than getting to market six months later with the perfect product (as if there is such a thing). Ask yourself what have you been tweaking and revising, and not finishing, that you can get to 80 percent right now, and make it a win?

4. RESULTS NOT ACTIVITY

Once again, business momentum is a series of successes. It’s not about style, effort or positioning (although these too can be important), it’s about winning. It’s important that business leaders clearly define their expectations of all who work with them and what outcomes are acceptable for results. For example, adding 12 more sales reps to the field force is a clear expected result - versus an activity of increasing the sales force by year end. An even better result to gain momentum would be to add one new sales rep per month for the next 12 months. What specific success do you want to achieve today, tomorrow and next week?

5. DO IT NOW

Building momentum requires a sense of urgency, perhaps even a dose of healthy paranoia. So if you believe that a series of successes will provide the momentum for even greater success in your business, you better get working on it now. Start small. Focus on completing one thing at a time. Get it done and move on to the next. An old cliché of course – “just do it!” You’ll be happy you did.

momentum

8

My mom recently visited Montgomery, drove 18 hours to get here. She brought boots and CDs and the Smart Car for me. I, in turn, took her to Fort Walton Beach and introduced her to the delicious soul food three blocks from the Bridge Builders office (collards and beans and peas, oh my!). She loved it. After all, nobody cooks like that in Minnesota… Unfortunately for my mama, she came during one of the busiest times we’ve ever had at Bridge Builders. In addition to preparing debrief, we’re also actively visiting school and community leaders, trying to broaden our recruitment base. We want as many students as possible to experience our program, because we truly believe it is beneficial to the development of tolerance, leadership, and altruism in our community. If you think so too, please tell everyone around you. After all, your

endorsement means the most! Also, this week at BB headquarters,

every staff member was charged with reading a book focused on leadership. I got Tim Elmore’s Generation iY and read it cover to cover in days. Not only did this book teach me more about my motivations and learning style, it also showed me how I can better serve all you Bridge Builders out there!

Near the end of the book, Elmore discusses the four qualities essential for healthy leadership, “qualities that enable a person to leverage his or her influence positively.” The first is perception, or the way a person thinks. Leaders see “a bigger picture” and understand that their actions directly affect those around them. Responsibility is often the leadership quality most respected in a workplace. Responsible leaders strive to make things right no matter what. They have an internal drive to act. This initiative is also essential. When something could be done or should be done, leaders just do it. They don’t necessarily need the approval of their peers. They do, however, need an attitude of gratitude. In addition to building hope and humbleness, being grateful also minimizes depression, anger, and self-absorption (thinking-the-world-revolves-around-you syndrome). I am the only child of a single parent, so I thought for many years that I was the center of the universe. I now know better. I see “the big picture” in every Bridge Builder, and I work constantly to show it to all of you, to make you believe in one another and the power you have to change Alabama for the better. All it takes is a little perception, responsibility, initiative, and, of course, gratitude. It’s always nice to have company and to be in the company of such wonderful people. I feel this way about my co-workers, all you Bridge Builders, and especially my mother. Without her, I wouldn’t be here, and I love being here.

COM – PANYBy Tiegen Kosiak

Mom & I at g raduation

Mom & I

9

Wow it is already November! The time is flying by and I cannot believe how much we have all done to benefit the greater Montgomery Area. For those of you who have been able to participate in multiple I thank you for the dedication you have demonstrated so and for those of you who have not, there is still plenty of time for you to get the required amount of credits. Last year Bridge Builders gave over 4,000 hours of community service you all are on your way to matching and hopefully exceeding that number. As I have said before, you don’t need Bridge Builders to tell you when and where your skills and talents should be aimed. Sometimes, a random act of kindness can inspire someone to pay it forward.

The 93 Dollar Club The 93 Dollar Club was formed in August 2009 as a result of a random act of kindness and trust

at a local Trader Joe’s. Carolee Hazard and her two daughters were standing in line behind stranger Jenni Ware. Upon discovering that she had lost her wallet, Jenni found herself unable to pay for the $207.29 worth of groceries that were just rung up. With little hesitation, Carolee stepped up and paid for Jenni’s groceries. The women exchanged information and Jenni promised to send a check. Carolee left the encounter feeling simultaneously very good and very stupid about her actions.

The next day, Carolee received a check for an even $300 from Jenni with a note suggesting that Carolee do something nice for herself. Touched by Jenni’s honesty, Carolee matched the additional $93 Jenni had included, and turned to Facebook for suggestions on where the $186 should go. One person suggested Second Harvest Food Bank, since the events had occurred at a grocery store. Another friend, inspired by the story, matched with $93 of his own money. And then another did. And another. And another. Within hours the total was over $600, and more kept coming in as the story spread. Donations have been made in all variations of 93, like the 93 cents donated from a child’s allowance and the $9.30 donated by a single working mother. One donor, after learning of the 93 Dollar Club’s story, was moved to make a $9,300 donation in memory of his recently deceased mother. One simple act of kindness and now the 93 Dollar Club has surpassed their original goal of raising $93,000 and Carolee Hazard has announced their new target is $200,000. There was no planning, background research, or development work done, just a simple gesture of compassion. As leaders, others count on you to be the person that steps up. You set the example in your schools, community organizations, and neighborhoods.

Simple Act of KindnessBy Andrew Szymanski

10

?Out of U and MeBy Jacob Call

I have been in a rut lately. Nothing has worked out nearly so well as I thought it would; I have spent far too much money and got far too little in return as well. Now, getting into a rut for a day or two is nothing to worry about. It happens. I remember well the teenage years with their oft-accompanying over-dramatizations, where even a day is FOREVER. Sometimes, life is just rutty. For me though, right now, we’re looking at about a month of rutness. That’s a while, a little too long to feel your way through a fog or like you are crawling around on your belly whenever you try and do anything. There are lots of reasons for this -- some fixable, some not -- but last week in a work meeting, I finally figured out what one of the Big Problems was:I stopped asking questions. Questions are important (I would like to think you learned this from me during the last several months, if you did not already know it). They are so important, I am going to say that one more time: Questions are important. Right now, I hope all of you are thinking the same word, the same question. It might be the first question you ever asked. In my opinion, it’s the question you should almost never stop asking. Got it yet? If you’re not sure, feel free to take a couple of moments and ponder. I’ll wait [normally, this is one of those points where I’d tell a funny story or an anecdote about my family/friends, but that might distract all of you who are still thinking. I got your back]. Are you ready with the great, short, question? Good. Moving on. What are questions, though, to interrupt? Like most words which end in “-ion”, they are an action taken. Action is a great example: it is the act of acting. It also has a confusing definition; yet right here from it, we have two more great examples. Confusion (the act of confusing/being confused) and Definition (the act of defining). I would like to make a connection with this principle (the act of connecting). Questioning is the act of questing; it is the act of moving outside what is comfortable and overcome. In ye olden tymes, knights ventured forth from their fortified towns (comfortable) to fight giants and trolls and rescue the oppressed. Those were quests. In modern films, you often see quests, the journey the hero takes from his safe place to challenge, conquer, and return back to the realm of relaxation. Quests appear (both over-archingly and on the small scale) in modern blockbusters like Avatar or Inception, in Westerns like Tombstone and High Noon; even romance films like Love Actually, Pride and Prejudice, or Mr. & Mrs. Smith have them. They seem to be an essential part of being human.

Okay, did that interrupting interlude make you ask any questions? or did it make you ask the same question you already came up with a few more times? Either way is fine. I am going to assume it did the former. I am also going to assume that the basic question asked by everyone who reads this is “Why?” Why will I assume this? The experiences of my life have led me to think that way. This leads us to our next power word, Assumption (the act of assuming). Assumptions are those times we choose to act based on our previous experience, whether it is things we have seen or heard directly, or have been told or taught by someone else. Last week, in our Bridge Builder office sit-down-circle debriefing, we challenged a lot of assumptions. Bridge Builders exists, in part, to challenge assumptions, to help us question stereotypes, but somehow the five of us in the office -- including and most frustratingly me -- had started simply accepting these assumptions in our minds. We had ceased our quest for knowledge, sat contentedly in our own comfortable cubicles, when what we should have done was sally forth, facing the challenge head on. Then, post-conquest, we would find a more peaceful point to work from, secure in our new-found knowledge. What would we have lost if our assumptions were simply confirmed? Nothing, except a couple moments of time – which wouldn’t even have been lost since they were spent connecting. But asking a question, taking that risk, going out on a limb is still scary, because we don’t want to lose our assumptions. We know them: they work for us. But the other side, the questioning side is scary. How do you know something if you’ve never tried it? To paraphrase a good friend: An assumption should never be blind. It should be tested, pushed to its limits, exercised. If you don’t work out, your muscles atrophy. If you don’t try, you won’t see how things work out. It you don’t put in the effort, you won’t get any results. There is no steroid replacement for questioning. And that’s why. Questions can overturn our assumption, IF they’re misplaced, misguided, or just plain wrong. If – however – IF they are well-placed, true-guided, or right, then questioning assumptions makes them stronger. They are built up, and we can more easily find our way past the fog and out of the ruts of life. An assumption questioned, torn down, overcome, and strengthened is rebuilt and changed. It evolves to become more than it was, growing with each new question. It is Faith.

11

By Catie Malone

We’re in the same boat. Just as all of you are beginning to look at colleges and some of you are making the tough decision of where to spend your next four, for some more, years of your lives, I am looking at graduate schools. The decision you make for college will determine the friends you make, the experiences you will have and, of course, your new favorite football team. No pressure right? This month I thought that I would stray from my normal focus on the arts and talk casually about our futures. We, myself included, are coming to the end of one chapter of our lives and nervously awaiting the beginning of the next one. But what will happen when we leave our schools, our churches and all those clubs we are President of? What kind of a legacy will the work that you’ve done, or not done, leave once we move on to that next chapter? Right now is the time for us to think about what we’ve done, decide if that’s the kind of legacy we want to leave, and if it’s not change it. It’ always easier for us to avoid taking on projects that will create an awesome legacy for us because they require a lot of work, but being the start of something can create a legacy for us also. Who says that you can’t be remembered for starting an activity or event that underclassmen and younger students continue. Creating a legacy is something that is personal and individual, and no one can create our legacy but us, but we can receive help from other people. Last year I was serving as the SGA Vice-President, but had done nothing that anyone would remember me for. As I thought

of what people would say about my time as the Vice-President, I decided that I needed to do something that would make my time remembered in a good way. The project I took on and will be remembered by, rewriting our Constitution, was bigger than what I could do on my own so I got help from other people. Now my school’s SGA has a new Constitution that is being used by the students involved. Although I only used this document for about two weeks, I can see what I did and how it is benefitting the students of my school, and I know we are all better for it. Legacy is about building on who you already are, and consciously designing what you do to make a difference in something that is important to you. Should you find your legacy in need of a tune up, an easy first step is to think of what is important to you. Being a supporter of your school or church, standing up for the rights of others or helping in the fight against cancer all can serve as ways to create your legacy, they can also serve as Senior Projects. Ways for us to create a lasting and positive legacy are all around us, but it’s up to us to find the one we are passionate about and do something. One of my favorite songs from the musical Spring Awakening, talks about a boy who died young and wasn’t able to do anything to leave a legacy saying that “all things he never did are left behind.” Don’t allow someone to use these words when talking about you by doing nothing. It’s never too early to create a legacy, but don’t wait until it’s too late.

Legacy

Join us as we celebrate the holiday season. Come see how people around the world celebrate Christmas,

Hanukkah, Kwanza and the Winter Solstice with games, food, and a great time for all.

You don’t want to miss out on this event, so make sure to sign up on the website and tell all of your

Bridge Builder friends to as well.

Holiday PartyTuesday, Dec. 14

6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.Bridge Builders Alabama Office 434 N McDonough Street

12