According to an article in USA Today, the new American obsession is to track everything from packages to pizza delivery, to tracking how taxpayer money is being spent. To give you an indication of the interest in tracking, in 1995, UPS had a total of 100,000 online requests for the month of December. In 2008, UPS received an average of 27.3 million requests per day for December.
In The Essential Orange, Karin Koonings says that everybody's tracking something - here are some examples:
Domino's rolled out Pizza Tracker last year which gives consumers a window into the status of their pizzas as well as Domino's a window into the online world of its customers. The Pizza Tracker is used by 75% of Domino's online customers. Besides connecting consumers to their pizzas, the tracker gives the first names of workers who make and deliver their order.
FedEx.com gets 6 million package-tracking requests daily, and according to Mark Colombo, senior vice president of digital access marketing, "tracking is one of our top drivers for customer satisfaction," "People are obsessed with it."
Some folks are big trackers of flights. That's why Daniel Baker started FlightAware in 2005. It's a free service that receives FAA information and converts it into maps that track almost all non-military flights in the USA and Canada. That's about 50,000 flights a day. The service receives 100 million flight-tracking requests a month.
Tracking feels like a way to reassure the consumer that their individual purchase or request is important. People don’t have to call a number, be put on hold or get lost in complex phone trees. And while it is an automated feature, is feels personal, allowing you to feel just a bit more in control.
All the examples above have been consumer-related, but I wonder if the same principles might be applied in a church setting?
Does this need for tracking address a human desire for control in a chaotic world?
Or is it just another characteristic of obsessive compulsive personality disorder?
Showing posts with label chaordic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chaordic. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Chaordic Churches and Leaders
The book is a little dated, but the content is as current as can be: SoulTsunami, by Len Sweet.
Chapter 10: Get Chaordic, is where I've been spending awhile. Here's a synopsis from the book's website. Take a look at it now - and join me for more of the conversation next week.
Till then, enjoy Resurrection Sunday and celebrate our Risen Lord!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Chaordic is a Good Thing
IYAD
WYAD
YAG
WYAG
If you always to what you always did you always get what you always got
Good Friday, indeed!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Is Your World Chaordic?
It's funny how a word comes to mind in a conversation, and then comes up again in several more conversations throughout the day. Take chaordic, for instance.
In one of my regular mealtime meetings with a good friend of mine who is pastoring a large church, we were talking about church stuff and I tossed out the word "chaordic" as a solution to a question my friend posed. The word was new to him, though my explanation wasn't.
Wikipedia has the following description of chaordic: The mix of chaos and order is often described as a harmonious coexistence displaying characteristics of both, with neither chaotic nor ordered behavior dominating. Some hold that nature is largely organized in such a manner; in particular, living organisms and the evolutionary process by which they arose are often described as chaordic in nature. The chaordic principles have also been used as guidelines for creating human organizations -- business, nonprofit, government and hybrids -- that would be neither hierarchical nor anarchic.
You know - it's one of those things that you can't describe, but you know it when you see it.
Chaordic popped up in no less than three more conversations yesterday: between my wife and I driving to supper; with our small group over our meal; and with the small group in a different use after the meal. It was great conversation, and everyone understands, at least in a little way, more about the times we live in.
I don't do a word of the day, but if I did, chaordic would be it. It's a handy word to toss out in your next conversation. If your listener is over 30, he will have a puzzled look on his face; if she is under 30, it's a synonym for her life.
Are you unsettled by chaordic times - or do you thrive in them?
In one of my regular mealtime meetings with a good friend of mine who is pastoring a large church, we were talking about church stuff and I tossed out the word "chaordic" as a solution to a question my friend posed. The word was new to him, though my explanation wasn't.
Wikipedia has the following description of chaordic: The mix of chaos and order is often described as a harmonious coexistence displaying characteristics of both, with neither chaotic nor ordered behavior dominating. Some hold that nature is largely organized in such a manner; in particular, living organisms and the evolutionary process by which they arose are often described as chaordic in nature. The chaordic principles have also been used as guidelines for creating human organizations -- business, nonprofit, government and hybrids -- that would be neither hierarchical nor anarchic.
You know - it's one of those things that you can't describe, but you know it when you see it.
Chaordic popped up in no less than three more conversations yesterday: between my wife and I driving to supper; with our small group over our meal; and with the small group in a different use after the meal. It was great conversation, and everyone understands, at least in a little way, more about the times we live in.
I don't do a word of the day, but if I did, chaordic would be it. It's a handy word to toss out in your next conversation. If your listener is over 30, he will have a puzzled look on his face; if she is under 30, it's a synonym for her life.
Are you unsettled by chaordic times - or do you thrive in them?
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