Really Nice Pants
In today’s movie clip, Will Smith demonstrates the enormous benefit relational wisdom (RW) can have in the workplace. The clip comes from the movie Pursuit of Happiness. It is based on the true story of Chris Gardner. In the weeks leading up to this scene, he ran out of money and has been trying desperately […]
Getting Wind Under Your Wings
After weeks of nonstop travel, I was running out of energy. As a result I was unusually apathetic as I walked into the conference center for one of my recent presentations. Not a good attitude for teaching relational wisdom. So I began to pray. “Lord, I feel lousy this morning. I’m tired, discouraged and in […]
What Is Their Story?
Includes 90 “Getting-to-Know-Others” Questions! Many of us waste golden opportunities to deepen relationships during family, church and business conversations. How? We ask generic questions of one another that produce superficial information: “Where are you from?” “What kind of work do you do?” “How long have you been in town?” “Where are you going to school?” […]
The Power of Words
Do you want to learn how to connect with people? Really connect? To touch others heart-to-heart, life-to-life? To convince them you understand and care about them? To move them toward actions that are right and good and pleasing to God? Then learn how to connect with their hearts by describing experiences that trigger godly emotions. […]
Changing a Murderer into a Minister
Businge Peter Simon passed the long hours in his prison cell dreaming about how he would murder the man who sent him there. But before he could put his plot into action, God intervened in a dramatic way. Here is what Businge wrote to me: Brother Ken, Praise the Lord, God is great, God is […]
The Compassionate Boxer
Cinderella Man is packed with examples of relational wisdom. Russell Crowe plays the part of a real life hero named James J. Braddock. Once a successful heavyweight boxer, Braddock was reduced to poverty by a broken hand and the Great Depression. After losing their home, he and his family were forced to live in a […]
A Severe Mercy
One of my dearest friends and coworkers passed away ten days ago. Gary Brook had been fighting a respiratory illness for nearly a decade but had finally been approved for a lung transplant in Seattle, Washington. Just hours before his death, he and I had been planning the drive to Seattle. Gary was going through […]
7 Ways to Apply RW in Combat, Congress and the Church
In memory of the military personnel who have risked their lives to protect our freedoms, I am reprinting a post that describes how a highly respected Army officer, now serving as a United States Congressman, lived out relational principles from God’s Word as he led his battalion in the search and capture of Saddam Hussein. […]
A Lost Translation … Almost
XYZ Translators (all names changed) was about to lose a ten-year investment in learning the language of a remote tribe in Africa. John and Janice had lived with the tribe for a decade, building relationships, mastering their vocabulary and creating an alphabet they could use to write a New Testament Bible in their language. Then […]
Overcoming Artificial Maturity
Thousands of high school and college seniors are about to graduate and launch into the next season of their lives. Most of them are less prepared for that transition than they realize. Regardless of how well they’ve done academically, most graduates today suffer from a condition called “artificial maturity.” Thousands of hours on the internet […]