Strategies@work Podcast

As owners or managers, you are functioning based on God-delegated authority. Build your organization with great workers, that is, submitted trustworthy workers. Train your workers in the virtues of submission to authority. Teach a biblical view of submission, including the three traits that demonstrate submission: showing up, being in fellowship with God, and subordinating personal interests to the organization’s interests. When you build with submissive workers, you build with trustworthy workers who will deliver great value propositions to your customers and, in the process, bear a positive testimony to Christ. Submission is the greatest trait of great workers.

Gleanings - August 2012

Don’t succumb to the Peter Principle—promotion based on perceived potential for success without regard to divine design. Promote based on humble, faithful service to the will and ways of the Master (i.e., God). Use C4 as a foundational principle to help discern who was created for each position in the organization. Build your organization patiently by testing people to see what they have C4 to do. Note particularly their character development and seek those who serve humbly and faithfully. Promote based on humble, faithful obedience to the will of God, that is, the divine design of each person.

Gleanings - July 2012

Both individuals and organizations should seek to make a meaningful difference. The only way to do this is to live as Jesus did with the singular focus of doing the will of God according to the ways of God. For organizations to make a meaningful difference requires leadership dedicated to leading and managing according to the will and ways of God. To do this well, leaders and managers must hire people who wish to live as Jesus did. For both individuals and organizations, some of the key ingredients to living meaningful lives are submission to authority, viewing the sovereignty of God in all circumstances, recognizing that work is ministry, using money as a tool to obey the will and ways of God, and making the will and ways of God the priority in all situations.

Gleanings - June 2012

The purpose of business is to provide a venue for man to obey the Creation Mandate and therefore administer God’s rule in the universe. Each business should find and play its role in the meta-narrative. Decisions made based primarily on money or social good will prove to be unwise. The only wise way to conduct business is to align with the will and ways of God. Business leaders must function with this awareness. Projecting the rule and reign of God is the number one objective of business. Consequently, other objectives, such as, money and the social good must be viewed as secondary purposes.

Gleanings - May 2012

Starting a business or organization is daunting and, in the natural, the odds of success are low. But if God has called you to start a business or organization, there will be a way because God funds his will. There are two keys to success. First, you must seek the will of the Lord and then align with his will. And second, you must learn and practice God’s ways of economics and business. You can try to learn to discern his will and ways on your own, which you should. But if you don't seek godly help, you will make many mistakes. The most effective means to learn how to live according to the will and ways of God is to submit to discipleship by someone who knows how to live accordingly.

Gleanings - April 2012

Focus on developing your business practices based on biblical principles. Don’t embrace practices gleaned by rational empirical pragmatism disconnected from God. Always vet best practices by Scripture. Only adopt those practices that are profoundly consistent with God’s ways as revealed in Scripture. You will then be building according to God’s pattern and will find success.

Gleanings - March 2012

The process of building an organization is an investment process. To deliver an excellent value proposition, management must seek to align the organization with the will and ways of God. Management must find the right people (C4 people) and then train the people in the will and ways of God. Each person in the organization must be truly committed to the Lord and doing what God created him or her to do. Both organizational and individual success must be defined as obedience to God—alignment with his will and ways. Because God blesses that which is aligned with him, organizations that make alignment with the will and ways of God a priority will deliver excellent value propositions.

Gleanings - February 2012

Find your mission in life, that is, the work that God created you to do. If you are an organizational leader, seek to discover the divinely ordained mission of your organization. Then build your organization with people who view their lives as divinely ordained missions. For such people, jobs and money are tools to facilitate the will and ways of God. True wealth is righteousness, and true success is obediently completing your mission in life both personally and organizationally. A key to building great organizations that deliver great value propositions is building with people who work out of a sense of mission.

Gleanings - January 2012

Capitalism as an economic and business philosophy is not doomed to fail. When capitalism fails, it is due to the way people practice it. The best way to remedy the current flawed practice of capitalism will not be found in naturalistic thinking but in biblical thinking. The only sound way to build an organization is based on a biblical worldview. To develop a biblically sound paradigm of capitalism requires godly people—workers and management—who are committed to living according to God’s will and God’s ways. Capitalism, when so practiced, will be an efficacious economic and business philosophy.

Gleanings - December 2011

If you desire true wisdom to run your organization, you need counsel and advice not based on traditional best practices but based on best practices gleaned from a biblical worldview. Hire consultants whose wisdom is expressed through best practices based on a biblical worldview. These consultants will be humble, committed to Christ, recognize the Bible as the handbook for business, and define success in terms of obedience to the will and ways of God. Build an equally yoked management team that embraces the aforementioned traits. Develop workers who are devoted to understanding and conducting business from a biblical worldview. This is how you will build an excellent organization delivering world-class value propositions to your customers and clients.

Gleanings - November 2011