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After reading Dan Pink’s remarkable little book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko last spring, I began to share its ideas with my students (business administration majors at Lincoln Christian College).  I’d shared the book with a colleague or two as well and enjoyed some interesting discussion over it.

So when Dan Pink offered to send out free copies of the book to anyone willing to host a “DIY Bunko Breakfast”–an opportunity to read and discuss the book–I raised my hand: “sign me up!”

The books arrived and though I initially thought I’d give them to students, I chose to give them to colleagues instead.  It seemed best, initially, to get these ideas circulating among those who would have conversations with and influence the students on campus.  Armed then with a little background about the book and the DIY Bunko Breakfast story, I invited six colleagues to read Johnny Bunko.  All were delighted with the idea and, two weeks after distributing the books, we met yesterday to have our Bunko Breakfast (which, for us, turned out to be a Bunko Brunch).

The reading group included faculty, staff, and administrators:

• Dr. Tom Tanner, VP of Academics
• Karen Diefendorf, College Academic Dean
• Brian Mills, VP of Student Development
• Caryn Collins, Women’s Residence Hall Director
• Candra Landers, Coordinator of Service Learning
• Rob Maupin, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies

We all agreed that the six lessons were valuable and spent time trying to “read between the lines” of the sparse text and raise more questions: 

• If there’s no plan (or road map), is there at least a compass?  
• Does persistence *trump* talent, or does it develop it?  
• In our media-obsessed culture, does charisma trump talent and persistence?  
• What is the role of character?
• Is a willingness to be taught a precondition for learning the six lessons (cf. Proverbs 2.1-11)?
• Will college students, who haven’t had the opportunity to work for a time, have enough context to “get” the book?

Given the context of our own organization–namely, a theologically-informed academic institution–we saw many parallels between Johnny’s lessons and those provided in Scripture (esp. the role of serving others, persevering, working within one’s areas of giftedness, etc.).  Dr. Tanner observed that Diana, Johnny’s career advisor, provides a supernatural influence in Johnny’s life.  Indeed, just as the Biblical narrative indicates that God sometimes “breaks in” from the outside to communicate with people, we wondered if Johnny could have learned his lessons as effectively without Diana’s assistance and authority.

A few of us now plan to read the book with groups of students to gauge their response.  Brian in particular is interested in test-marketing Johnny Bunko with students to see if it might be useful as a text for a freshman orientation class next year.  In fact, he recently used the “persistence trumps talent” lesson when speaking to a group of freshmen.

Cheers to Dan Pink for providing us with an opportunity to have this conversation, and thanks to those who participated in it yesterday.  Get yourself a copy of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and let me know what you think.

Related posts:

Review of Johnny Bunko: A Presentation

Recommended Reading for Business Communication Students

Dan Pink Discusses Johnny Bunko in Chicago

 

Filed under: Reading, Work by Michael