Last month, Werner Mischke passed to me a copy of his new yet-to-be-published book, “The Beauty of Partnership Study Guide: Standard Edition.” It’ll be published by MissionOne directly, and it’s a tribute to several innovative and relevant focal points. I list it here because it is an aid to partnership development. I’m not listing it as an advertisement. In fact, it’s not even for sale yet. But the website is free — and it contains many helpful videos, guides, and worksheets. And — beyond that — Werner doesn’t even know I’m writing about the course here. See if you agree:
- It’s concise — In 61 pages, they provide the entire study guide. There are tons of fill-in-the-blank exercises for participants. Werner has made it really easy to make this course interactive.
- It’s complete — In 140 additional pages, Werner packages all the readings you’ll need (some top-notch resources, by the way). These are all “in the back of the book,” so to speak — so this is one volume. It doesn’t *feel* like 200 pages in all. It feels *thin*, but it *is* 200 pages. (Several folks are trying to convince him of a $39.95 selling price. But we think we have him convinced to hold it at $24.95. But the thing is — he has to pay royalties on much of the 140 pages of extra readings… plus the simple costs of shipping *and*, the guy has been working on this pretty much full-time for the last 18 months. So – what would you charge?) On top of all this, he provides a companion website with introductory videos on every topic. So — it’s like having a DVD in the back of the book, without the disk. And the website helps form community — plus possible ongoing mentoring/coaching from the author and compadres. Gotta love the format. Smart.
- It’s critical — These themes are biblical … and they are relevant. Godly Character (Servanthood and Listening), Cultural Intelligence (Trust and “Both/And”), and Organizatioal Competence (Accountability and Appreciation). These three major components (and accompanying 6 objectives) are arguably some of the most core issues in successful partnerships today.
So far, I’ve implemented the study in two contexts. First, I led the study in SE Asia with participants from both the USA and Asia. To be honest, it went great. The participants, across the board, were quite engaged and the study prompted many discussions, all of which helped us understand one another and function more effectively side by side. We finished the study in 3 days.
The second study is still in process. I’m doing the book as a book club at our Int’l Services campus (which we call Emerald Hills) in Louisville, Kentucky.
I think the USA group is liking the study too, but of course, we’ve been spoiled here with an abundance of such studies. Still, it’s working great, seemingly.
In both cases, Werner made it too easy for us. Lots of diagrams, drawings, and notations to call our attention to the central stuff, with clear “take-away” lessons to learn all along the way.
Want to get a taste? Take a look at the current online offerings. They have been *big-time* unselfish to put all this stuff online anyway, so you might as well get a taste of it.
http://www.beautyofpartnership.org
It’s a great study. And the *format* is as radical as the content. Hats off Werner. Gotta love it.
Doug Lucas
President, Team Expansion and Founder/Editor of Brigada Today