Last updated on June 30th, 2024 at 05:03 pm
June 23, 2024
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
- [David Calabro]: “It’s also possible to see the Book of Mormon as a helpful record to help us to understand what the Lord could do among a people who were prepared, who were completely ready and faithful.
“We have an interesting contrast, for example, between Jesus’ prayer in 3rd Nephi 19 – Jesus is praying among the disciples and He prays three times. He goes off to some distance and He has brought the 12 disciples forth, you know, further along, closer to Him than the multitude. And then He goes off, He prays three times and each time He comes back and He finds the disciples faithfully praying still as He had commanded them.
“There, I think, is a subtle comparison there with Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, in which He similarly brings the three, Peter, James and John, somewhat further than the other eight who were left. And He then goes a little further and prays. He’s told them to watch and pray and then He comes back and each time He finds them sleeping and He reprimands them.
“He gives them a gentle reprimand, maybe not so gentle reprimand for falling asleep. Could you not watch with me one hour? And in a sense, we get the picture that the people in Bountiful, the Nephites, were more ready, they were more prepared and able to receive these things that He wanted to reveal to them.
“It’s possible that the record we have in the New Testament reflects what Jesus was able to do with the people who maybe weren’t so prepared. So, in some sense, there could be that kind of comparison in mind with the Book of Mormon.” - Sister Wendy Nelson, wife of President Russell M. Nelson, stated: “I think we’ll be amazed at what we could discover if, for 30 days, we chose to follow the prophets with exactness.” (Check out additional insights in General Conference Applied season 3 episode 10)
Eye.
The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 5:
- [Jesus] “The best way to serve Me is to pay close attention to My words.”
The Chosen: Season 4 Episode 6: 49:00-49:20
- [Judas] “Would you be quiet, we’re trying to listen to our Rabbi.”
[Member of Sanhedrin] “Those are not the teachings of any credible rabbi, but of an insane person.”
[Judas] “Mark my words, you will regret saying that.”
[Pharisee] “Watch your mouth. You’re speaking to a member of the Great Sanhedrin.”
[Peter] “Judas, get back here. You’re missing all the details.”
Are we eliminating distractions so that we can ‘hear Him?’
Read.
“Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things” by Adam Grant:
- “The best teams have the most team players – people who excel at collaborating with others. …
“When we select leaders, we don’t usually pick the person with the strongest leadership skills. We frequently choose the person who talks the most. It’s called the babble effect. Research shows that groups promote the people who command the most airtime – regardless of their aptitude and expertise. We mistake confidence for competence, certainty for credibility, and quantity for quality. We get stuck following people who dominate the discussion instead of those who elevate it. …
“Collective intelligence is best served by a different kind of leader. The people to promote are the ones with the prosocial skills to put the mission above their ego – and team cohesion above personal glory. They know that the goal isn’t to be the smartest person in the room; it’s to make the entire room smarter. …
“To unearth the hidden potential in teams, instead of brainstorming, we’re better off shifting to a process called brainwriting. The initial steps are solo. You start by asking everyone to generate ideas separately. Next, you pool them and share them anonymously among the group. To preserve independent judgment, each member evaluates them on their own. Only then does the team come together to select and refine the most promising options. By developing and assessing ideas individually before choosing and elaborating them, teams can surface and advance possibilities that might not get attention otherwise. …
“In brainstorming meetings, it’s too easy for participation to become lopsided in favor of the biggest egos, the loudest voices, and the most powerful people. The brainwriting process makes sure that all ideas are brought to the table and all voices are brought into the conversation. Sure enough, there’s evidence that brainwriting is especially effective in groups that struggle to achieve collective intelligence.
“Collective intelligence begins with individual creativity. But it doesn’t end there. Individuals produce a greater volume and variety of novel ideas when they work alone. That means that they come up with more brilliant ideas than groups – but also more terrible ideas than groups. It takes collective judgment to find the signal in the noise.”
💡
In “Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today” by Hal Hershfield, the author writes that we are more able to connect with our future selves when our morals remain the same over time. This is why it’s so important to understand our divine identity: 1) Child of God; 2) Child of the Covenant; 3) Disciple of Jesus Christ.
- See “Choices for Eternity” (Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults with President Nelson)
Additional Content
Next Newsletter (June 30, 2024 – Presentism, You are a Diamond, and What’s in it for me?)