Re-Align

Profit is NOT bad.   In fact, we believe PROFIT IS NECESSARY for an organization (other than a non-profit organization) to be obedient to the Creation Mandate, because it is necessary for sustainability, for the flourishing of owners and to further the bigger "WHY" of the organization.  However, in order to faithfully "do right", an organization must put profit in the proper...

After building the essential bridge of a RENEWED mind that allows us to move from business as usual to business a better way, exploring how to use that RENEWED understanding to begin to RE-IMAGINE an organization in a way that leads to faithfully "doing right" through business a better way, and then actually implementing change by RE-ALIGNING the organization with...

The process of Integriosity® should not (actually, cannot) be rushed.  The first step of RENEW is not about knowledge--it is about "mind-shifts" that lead to "heart-change" that leads to "culture-change", and heart-change and culture-change usually doesn't happen overnight.  The second step of RE-IMAGINE--prayerfully dreaming up a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture that align with Biblical beliefs, values and...

Prayer is essential in equipping leaders to face the spiritual challenges of leading an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way in a fallen world dominated by business as usual, and it is one of the six Covert-Overt Continuums of Integriosity®. The Prayer Continuum should always be the very first one addressed by leaders pursuing business...

The world--and business as usual--teaches organizational leaders to Trust principally in two things--"impressive" people and "secure" money--but we believe that is misplaced Trust. Business a better way requires re-directing that misplaced Trust in line with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities. Leading an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way requires Trust in God, and Trust...

An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way is a commitment to Authenticity. Authenticity is the embodiment of the "wholeness" of Integrity, which is at the core of...

An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way is a commitment to cultivating a Re-Imagined Culture. There are no "magic beans", "magic formulas" or "quick fixes" to realizing...

An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way, while avoiding the pitfalls of faith as usual Side Roads, is commitment to a bigger WHY. As explained in prior...

The second key ingredient (after flexible approach) needed for successful execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture is Intentional Leaders. An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. The four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a...

The third step in the path of Integriosity®--RE-ALIGN--is when a leader and an organization begin actually implementing change and alignment rather than just learning (RENEW) and dreaming (RE-IMAGINE). The first key ingredient needed for successful execution is a flexible approach. Faithfully "doing right" through "business a better way" requires alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities, but it...

After building the essential bridge of a RENEWED understanding of God’s purpose for work and organizations that allows us to move from business as usual to business a better way and exploring how to use that RENEWED understanding to begin to RE-IMAGINE an organization in a way that leads to faithfully "doing right" through business a better way, it is...

The core of Integriosity® is ALIGNMENT--aligning the organization's purpose and values with core Biblical purpose and values, then cultivating an organizational culture of Shalom that is aligned with, and reinforces, the organizational purpose and values. The RENEW stage of Integriosity provides the tools for Re-Alignment--a renewed understanding of Biblical purpose, values and priorities for work and business. But...

There are four stages in the process toward Integriosity®, each of which lays the groundwork for the next--RENEW, RE-IMAGINE, RE-ALIGN, RESTORE.  Jumping into RE-IMAGINE or RE-ALIGN before RENEW would be like going out on the field before you learned the rules of the game or the fundamental skills.  Jumping into RE-ALIGN before RE-IMAGINE would be starting the game without a...

The fifth key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the WHEN of faith-work integration--it is getting at the PRIORITY of "business a better way" in the organization being stewarded by faith-driven leaders. The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #5 is "THE TIME IS NOW". Once a faith-driven...

The fourth key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the HOW of faith-work integration--it is getting at the PRACTICE of "business a better way" through actually implementing a "heart" change in the organization being stewarded. The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #4 is "SYMBOLS ARE SECONDARY". In the...

A leader can't align the purpose and vision of an organization with God's purpose for work and business until that leader has a sound understanding of work and business from a Biblical perspective, which is the purpose of the RENEW step of Integriosity®.  Until an organization's leader(s) is ready to abandon business as usual thinking and adopt business a better way thinking, the second step...

A key element of the RENEW step of Integriosity® is re-ordering disordered priorities by looking at Biblical principles for work and business. It is important to go back to first principles by asking what the Bible tells us are the keys to everything else. The key Biblical principles that form the foundation of Integriosity are embedded in the word...

The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and, in addition to being the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things" (Righteousness, Love and Kingdom), it is a key to Wisdom.  Pride, on the other hand, can keep the leader of an organization in an information and wisdom silo.   Humility by a leader can lead to...

The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Kingdom.  Humility in pursuing the Kingdom flows from knowing who we are in relation to God--it means recognizing the "smallness of our greatness" and returning to the childlike qualities of dependence and trust on God in making...

The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Love.  Humility in Loving Others flows from knowing who we are in relation to other people. By embracing Imago Dei, Humility leads us to treat others with dignity, respect and kindness because of WHO they are.  Humility also...

The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Righteousness.  Humility in Righteousness flows from knowing who we are in relation to God's creation and His plan.  In fact, living sacrificially--a key to Righteousness--is not possible without Humility.  In order to lead an organization in a way that sacrificially...

The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things"--Righteousness, Love and Kingdom--and it is a key to Wisdom.  In fact, we believe leadership without Humility is antithetical to leading an organization to faithfully "do right".  Humility is knowing who you are in relation to God's creation and His plan,...

Profit is NOT bad.   In fact, we believe PROFIT IS NECESSARY for an organization (other than a non-profit organization) to be obedient to the Creation Mandate, because it is necessary for sustainability, for the flourishing of owners and to further the bigger "WHY" of the organization.  However, in order to faithfully "do right", an organization must put profit in the proper...

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"  Guess what--we are done with the bad news, and it is finally time to dig into the good stuff!  We have spent the last 30 posts digging through the rubble of "work".  It is now time to begin rebuilding toward "business a better way" through the framework of Integriosity®....

The effort to faithfully "do right" by integrating faith and work can get DERAILED by six problems that can keep the organization in the deep hole of "business as usual" and may even push it deeper. The more of "business a better way" is much harder, but getting out of the hole is necessary and worth the journey....

"Prosperitizing" is when leaders pursue faith/work integration because they believe it will lead to God blessing their business with worldly success--measured in terms of profit and growth.  It is perhaps the most insidious of the various Side Roads because the organization can look like it actually is conducting "business a better way"--but its NOT....

Some faith-driven leaders have been deceived into believing that the integration of faith and work is principally about sprinkling some "faith" pixie dust over the organization to make it look and feel "Godly"--and that leads down the Side Road of Cosmeticizing. "Cosmeticizing" is when an organization adopts overt faith symbols and practices without transforming how it actually does business....

We have explored the five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down faith as usual Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. After Agonizing and Individualizing, the third of these Side Roads is Monetizing.   Side Roads represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill that we believe...

We have explored the fivecommon Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work.  We have also hinted at the six common faith as usual Side Roads that represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill but, we believe, actually miss the ancient path...

We have explored the five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work.  We have also hinted at the six common faith as usual Side Roads that represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill but, we believe, actually miss the ancient...

We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work.  The fifth Placebo is The "Success First" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Road of Interimizing and tempts leaders to delay taking action for the wrong reasons (misunderstanding of faith/work integration and...

We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work.  The fourth Placebo (after The "4-Hour Content" Pill, The "Save or Give" Pill  and The "Add Some Faith" Pill) is The "Bless You" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Road of Prosperitizing....

A third key aspect (in addition to Idol and Identity and Money and Power) of toxic "work as usual" that leads to "work" becoming something far from God's good and live-giving design in Genesis is that it has become a Burden rather than the blessing it is was designed to be. Our cultural obsession with finding "Work/Life Balance" is...

We call the blue pill "business as usual", and the last several posts have shown ways in which it is broken.  If a business is just an association of human beings working together (which it is), is it any surprise that "work as usual" would be broken as well in related ways?  Organizational cultures that are broken through toxic assumptions...

In addition to "Profit as Purpose", another aspect of "business as usual" that leads to brokenness is "Scarcity"--the assumption that resources are scarce and everything is a zero-sum situation (my gain is your loss and vice versa). Importantly for Integriosity, a scarcity mindset in an organization can have a profoundly negative impact on how people are treated....

At Integrous, we believe there are four key aspects of "business as usual" that lead to its brokenness, and the most important of these is "Profit as Purpose"--the idea that the primary or sole purpose of "business as usual" is the maximization of financial profit for the benefit of shareholders.  This mindset, in turn, flows into several other aspects of...