31 Jul #235 – A “Plumb Line” Alternative to “Pendulum” MEI
In post #231–Keep the ESG/DEI Baby (and Your Nose), we focused on what was a prominent news story about the company Tractor Supply abruptly dismantling its DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs, and noted that Tractor Supply was not alone in paring back (or disguising with watered down language) DEI initiatives.
In that post, we urged faithful leaders to reclaim the words “diversity, equity, inclusion” and show the world a Biblical vision of DEI, rather than jumping on the bandwagon of abandonment, suggesting that in a broken world dominated by business as usual that can be motivated by political and ideological pressures and prejudices, it is an opportunity to demonstrate how the concepts embedded in the phrase “diversity, equity and inclusion” have aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities long before the term “DEI” was coined.
When pendulums swing too far, they tend to swing back too far in the opposite direction. It seems the worldly DEI “pendulum” may be swinging back toward a new acronym called “MEI”. We believe worldly MEI is a pendulum swung too far, but it provides another opportunity for faithful leaders to demonstrate how the Kingdom of God operates differently from the kingdom of the world.
Swinging Pendulums
More recent news suggests that increasing abandonment of DEI has created a vacuum. Leaders who have been “against” DEI (or who have come to see its demise) are looking for an alternative to be “for”. “Against” only works as a strategy until the pendulum starts swinging back away from the thing you have been opposing. People need a name for where it is swinging.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a lobbying and advocacy group for human-resources professionals, has tried to fill the vacuum by paring DEI back to two letters and then flipping them around–“I&D”.
More notably, in an article titled “Merit, Excellence and Intelligence: An Anti-DEI Approach Catches On“, the Wall Street Journal describes the momentum behind a new acronym–MEI, which stands for “merit, excellence, and intelligence”. The article mentions Elon Musk, Scale AI Chief Executive Alexandr Wang, Coinbase CEP Brian Armstrong, and Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire as some of the prominent business leaders who have embraced or endorsed MEI.
Pendulums that have swung too far in one direction tend to swing back too far in the other direction. Many observers have noted this phenomenon in worldly culture:
G.K. Chesterton: The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other.
Robert Johnson: History has always been a series of pendulum swings, but the individual doesn’t have to get caught in that.
Graham Greene: It’s strange how the human mind swings back and forth, from one extreme to another. Does truth lie at some point of the pendulum’s swing, at a point where it never rests, not in the dull perpendicular mean where it dangles in the end like a windless flag, but at an angle, nearer one extreme than another? If only a miracle could stop the pendulum at an angle of sixty degrees, one would believe the truth was there.
Albert Einstein: Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.
Arthur Schopenhauer: Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other.
We believe MEI is the world swinging back too far, from one extreme not grounded in Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities to another. Embracing “meritocracy” is very tempting, particularly because its proponents argue that diversity will be a natural by-product of MEI.
We suspect that result is unlikely, because MEI is not new, and it hasn’t worked. MEI is business as usual before the DEI movement. As was the case before it had the clever MEI tag, its standards of “merit, excellence and intelligence” will undoubtedly be defined and evaluated based on the world’s idea of those terms. In other words, MEI will be judged based the presence of past individual accomplishments that the world values and the absence of past individual failures that the world shuns.
Candidates with accomplishments such as attendance at prestigious schools, prior employment with prestigious employers, high GPA’s (weighted for the prestige of the institution), and high standardized test scores will be viewed favorably. In some sense, the words “merit, excellence and intelligence” are interchangeable.
Those who have not had past opportunities that the world values will be less likely to receive future opportunities. An MEI culture is likely to remain closed to the type of people we described in post #142 (Integrity Idea 012: Hire the Unhireable) who have a difficult time getting hired because of an employment challenge, such as the formerly incarcerated, recovering addicts, the homeless, the under-educated, and the developmentally disabled.
The pendulum swing from worldly DEI to worldly MEI has similarities to the swing in the 1970’s from the “stakeholder” to the “shareholder primacy” management theory. The shift was, in part, a response to frustration with management performance, but it went too far. The shareholder primacy model went too far by focusing on just one of the forms of capital (financial) critical for a business to operate while largely ignoring the others (natural, human and social).
Worldly DEI and MEI suffer from not being tied to any transcendent values or truths. That is why the pendulum will keep swinging and the meanings of the terms themselves will morph to suit the interests and needs of their proponents.
Plumb Lines
We believe faithful leaders seeking to align an organization with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities need to stay off the anchorless pendulums of the world.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. (Deuteronomy 6:14)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. (Romans 12:2)
Do not love the world or the things in the world. (1 John 2:15)
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits[a] of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)
God provides “plumb lines” for how to live, which includes how to lead and how to steward an organization. Unlike worldly pendulums, God’s plumb lines do not move. For a faithful leader seeking to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, these plumb lines include Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities such as:
• The Creation Mandate in Genesis 1:28 that calls for stewardship of all God’s creation:
And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
• Imago Dei, which calls for recognizing that God endows people with unique gifts and treating all people with equal dignity and respect.
• Forgiveness, which calls for grace and giving people a “second chance” in the spirit of Ephesians 4:2, following the example of a God who famously gave second chances to Moses the murderer, Jonah the deserter, David the adulterer, Rahab the prostitute, Peter the denier and many others:
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
• The great commandment to love your neighbor and the Golden Rule, which demand that all neighbors be loved without partiality–not just ones who are like you or just ones you like–as reflected in James 2:8-9:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself” . . . . But if you show partiality, you are committing sin . . . .
• The “first things” of Righteousness, Kingdom, Love and Humility embodied in the word Integriosity® and described in great detail in our prior posts.
Brittanica explains a “plumb line” as:
A plumb line is a light line with a weight (plumb bob) at one end that, when suspended next to a workpiece, defines a vertical line. Plumb comes from the Latin plumbum, or “lead,” the material that replaced stone as the weight for the bob or plummet.
The Bible references plumb lines in a few places, but we think the most helpful is in Isaiah 28:17 when God says:
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line.
Righteousness is about living in alignment with God’s way. People need “plumb lines” to live life as God intended–to keep us on track. Dr. Skip Moen believes we actually need them to become human. He wrote “We become human when we act as the Creator acts. We earn humanity over the course of our lives.” Skip explains, “If I am going to become human, I must move in the direction of the divine design in me.”
Faithful leaders seeking to lead with faithful integrity must also move the organizations they steward in the direction of the “divine design”–toward God’s divine plan for the restoration and flourishing of all creation.
The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum. (G.K. Chesterton)
Redefining MEI as a Biblical Plumb Line
Just as we have urged leaders of strong Biblical faith to show the world a Biblical version of DEI rather than jump on the bandwagon of abandonment, we are urging faithful leaders to show the world a Biblical version of MEI rather than jump on the bandwagon of the worldly MEI that is gaining momentum. Worldly MEI is just a clever new tag for business as usual before DEI.
The key difference between worldly MEI and what we are calling Biblical MEI is that, rather than looking back at the past achievements of the individual for each letter in “MEI”, Biblical MEI looks to the “plumb lines” God has provided for faithful integrity through business a better way and the ability of the individual to contribute to the organization’s “merit, excellence, and intelligence” in aiming for those “plumb lines”, understanding each of those three words in Biblical terms.
Let us look at the three words in MEI from an organizational and Biblical perspective.
Merit.
Merriam-Webster defines “merit” as “a praiseworthy quality“. The quality that is praiseworthy for an organization pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing is how closely it operates in alignment with God’s plumb lines for life.
For an organization, those Biblical plumb lines are translated to the organization’s people through its Re-Imagined Vision, Re-Imagined Values and Re-Imagined Culture. In assessing a potential new hire, Biblical MEI should value the ability of a person to work in alignment with, and contribute to, the organization’s vision, values and culture.
While a person’s past worldly achievements may be helpful in assessing their ability to contribute to organizational merit, those achievements are not the basis for assessing the merit element of Biblical MEI.
For example, people who have not had an opportunity to attain personal “merit” on the world’s scale, and people who the world treats as “unhirable” because of past mistakes and challenges, may be the best fit for an organization pursuing Biblical MEI. They are likely to be overlooked or disqualified under worldly MEI just as they have been for years under business as usual without the MEI label.
Excellence. Some things in God’s word are complicated and others are straightforward. Perhaps one of the most straightforward is our ultimate WHY:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
God is glorified by people pursuing excellence in all they do. As we have emphasized in several prior posts, the purpose of an organization is derived from the purpose of its people, which means that the pursuit of excellence is an important aspect of the WHY of an organization pursuing faithful integrity in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.
We have also written about two facets of excellence–performance excellence and relational excellence–and how healthy organizational cultures require a balancing of the two.
In assessing a potential new hire, Biblical MEI requires faithful leaders to assess the God-given gifts of a person and their ability to use those gifts to contribute to the organization’s pursuit of both performance and relational excellence. Again, a person’s performance excellence on worldly scales may be helpful in assessing their gifts, but Biblical MEI must look at their ability to contribute more broadly to organizational excellence in the pursuit of God’s plumb lines.
Intelligence. While worldly MEI may evaluate the intelligence of an individual by looking at measures of past performance such as grades and test scores, Biblical MEI calls for much more. Merriam-Webster defines “intelligence” as “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.”
An organization pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way needs people who can “deal with . . . trying situations“. James Hunter warns:
To enact a vision of human flourishing based in the qualities of life that Jesus modeled will invariably challenge the given structures of the social order. In this light, there is no true leadership without putting at risk one’s time, wealth, reputation, and position.
Business a better way challenges “the given structures of the social order“, which in a fallen world will certainly bring resistance. Resistance is likely to lead to “trying situations“.
A person’s ability to understand and deal with new or trying situations, particularly spiritual resistance, cannot be captured by a grade or a score. Biblical MEI requires assessing the “whole person”, including the unique challenges, trials, failures, and recoveries in their journey.
Biblical MEI also requires faithful leaders to assess the ability of a potential new hire to function in, and contribute to, an organizational culture that is aligned with Biblical priorities of relationships, community and human dignity. In post #185 (Integrity Idea 030: Encourage “Biblical EQ”), we discussed the importance of emotional intelligence to an organization pursuing business a better way. Healthy, empathetic communication is critical to “excellence” in those three priorities.
We believe Biblical MEI actually will lead to diversity, equity and inclusion because, like what we have described as Biblical DEI, it is based on Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities that reflect Imago Dei, recognize that God endows people with unique gifts and they deserve to be treated with dignity, prioritize justice and treating people equitably, proclaim the inclusiveness of the Gospel of Jesus, and embody the Golden Rule and the command to love your neighbor as God loves you.
In post #199 (Don’t Make Profit Your Turkey), we talked about the proper role of profit in business a better way. We said it was both a heat source (because profit is a necessary means to the end of a sustainable business that maximizes the flourishing of all the people it touches, including owners) and the gravy. It just can’t be the turkey.
Worldly DEI makes diversity, equity and inclusion the turkey, which has swung the pendulum too far. Worldly MEI claims it will be the gravy without being a heat source, but history proves that doesn’t work. Because Biblical DEI and MEI recognize the Biblical visions of diversity, equity and inclusion as a heat source, we believe they will be the gravy–without burning the turkey.
PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I spent my legal career in an organization that was (at least while I was there) as close to a meritocracy as you can probably get in a large organization. It embodied MEI in hiring and promotions long before anyone dreamt up the term. We only interviewed at the “top” law firms, only considered people with “top” grades, and only promoted to partner those who “met the standard”. DEI was neither the heat source nor the gravy. It resulted in very good lawyers but not much diversity. I have also heard the sad stories of people hired under DEI mandates–DEI was the turkey and they got burned. I am convinced neither is God’s plan for his people.
ESSENCE: With an increasing number of organizations and leaders pulling back from, abandoning, or coming out “against” worldly DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiatives, the search for an alternative acronym to embrace and be “for” has led to some highly visible leaders promoting MEI–“merit, excellence, intelligence”. They argue that diversity will be a natural by-product of MEI. For leaders of strong Biblical faith who have resisted the worldly version of DEI, MEI is a tempting alternative. Just as we have urged those leaders to show the world a Biblical version of DEI rather than jump on the bandwagon of abandonment, we are urging faithful leaders to show the world a Biblical version of MEI rather than jump on the bandwagon of the worldly MEI that is gaining momentum. MEI appears to be little more than a catchy title for business as usual before DEI. Both DEI and MEI can exist on the same pendulum because neither has a transcendent anchor. The key difference between worldly MEI and what we are calling Biblical MEI is that, rather than looking back at the past achievements of the individual for each letter in “MEI”, Biblical MEI looks to the “plumb lines” God has provided for faithful leadership and the ability of the individual to contribute to the organizations “merit, excellence, and intelligence” in aiming for those “plumb lines”, understanding each of those terms from a Biblical perspective. When pendulums swing too far, they tend to swing back too far in the opposite direction. We believe worldly MEI is a pendulum swung too far. Pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires staying focused on God’s “plumb lines” rather than riding the swinging pendulum of worldly culture.
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Photo Credit: Original photo By Jim Linwood, “The Plumb Line and the City – Coventry Cathedral”, https://www.flickr.com/photos/brighton/4557243264/in/photostream/ [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0](photo cropped)
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