Barnabas File

In a recent blog , Matthew May tells the story of Clarence “Kelly” Johnson who was given the job of creating the first United States jet plane in 180 days.  When Germany’s first jet fighter planes appeared in the skies over Europe in 1943, the U.S. War Department hired Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Johnson’s company, to do the job.  Lockheed’s chief engineer, Johnson ran the company’s Lockheed’s innovative Advanced Development Programs for nearly 45 years, from its inception in 1943 to 1975.   This division became known as the “skunk works” and operated under its own rules. The blog post is based on May’s book, The Laws of Subtraction , in which he defines subtraction as “removing anything excessive, confusing, wasteful, unnatural, hazardous, hard to use or ugly . . . or the discipline to refrain from adding it in the first place.”   The result is a more creative and productive workplace. Every church needs a “skunk works,” its own research and dev...