Temple Sinai has been a Transformer
November and December have been kind of a whirlwind for me. I had the NATA Conference, Annual Meeting, Hanukkah, and Shoulder surgery. Last I wrote, I was on my way to Arizona for the NATA conference. I'm happy to report that the conference was all that I thought it would be and more. There is a lot to cover as far as learning inside and outside the classroom.
Keynote speaker, Jim Kales, CEO of Aspire, spoke about Making Constraints Beautiful: How Synagogues Can Find Abundance in a Time of Scarcity. Before COVID we had financial, time, and staffing constraints. Post-COVID (if we are even there), we add health/safety, worse time, and fundraising constraints.
Adam Morgan and Mark Barden wrong a book called, A Beautiful Constraint, How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, and Why It’s Everyone’s Business.
They say a beautiful constraint is “A model of innovation and new thinking propelled by RESOURCE SCARCITY. Necessity is the mother of invention.”
There are times when limitations were the impetus for a better outcome. Here are a few examples:
Did you know that Dr. Suess was asked to write a book that first grades can’t put down using 225 words or less?
IKEA challenged themselves to build a beautiful table for only 5 euros.
Next, you must look at what we have an abundance of. We almost always have more resources available than we think. Who can we partner with to help make something happen? Do we have assets we are sitting on that we can trade for other people’s abundance? Thinking outside of our box is what is necessary at these times.
There are different mindsets you can have during times of constraint: Victim, Neutralizer, or a Transformer. A victim feels the constraint will prevent any ambition. A neutralizer aims to find a different way to deliver ambition. A transformer sees the constraint as an opportunity.
Temple Sinai has been a Transformer; we see the constraints as an opportunity and a way to increase our ambition along the way. We have grown our membership, but more importantly, our community has grown. We are stronger than I feel we have been in a long time. Is it possible it’s due to these Beautiful Constraints?
