ESSENCE: 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 a Re-Imagined Vision, Re-Imagined Values and Re-Imagined Culture, it is time to cross over the bridge to the final step in the path of Integriosity^®–RESTORE.  RESTORE is called a “step” in the Integriosity process, but it is really the product of the first three steps–it is the fruit. That fruit can be seen in People, in the Organization and in Work Relationships.  It is people Humanized, the world Beautified and God Glorified.

After 34 posts (#038-#071) building the essential bridge of a RENEWED mind that allows us to move from business as usual to business a better way, 13 posts (#072-#084) 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 the last 9 posts (#085-#093) diving into the five key ingredients needed in order to RE-ALIGN an organization with a RE-IMAGINED Purpose, Vision and Culture, it is time to cross over the bridge to the final step in the path of Integriosity^®–RESTORE

Refresher on RE-ALIGN

In post #072 (Crossing from RENEW to RE-IMAGINE), we presented a quick refresher on all the RENEW posts and in post #085 (Crossing from RE-IMAGINE to RE-ALIGN), we presented a quick refresher on all the RE-IMAGINE posts.  As we move from RE-IMAGINE to RE-ALIGN, here is a reminder of the third step of Integriosity–RE-ALIGN.  There are five key ingredients necessary to implement a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture:

1. Flexible Approach
2. Intentional Leaders
3. Trust
4. Prayer
5. Patience

Below is a refresher on the last 9 posts.

• Re-Align
  • Flexible Approach (#086)
  • Intentional Leaders
    • Commitment to WHO Identity (#087)
    • Commitment to Bigger WHY (#088)
    • Commitment to Cultivating Culture (#089)
    • Commitment to Authenticity (#090)
  • Trust (#091)
  • Prayer (#092)
  • Patience (#093)

Restore:  The Fruit

We call Restore a “step” in the Integriosity process, but it is really the product of the first three steps–it is the fruit. That fruit can be seen in People, in the Organization and in Work Relationships.  It is people Humanized, the world Beautified and God Glorified.

Integriosity Stages: The Excitement and the Challenges

Each stage in the path to Integriosity carries its own excitement and its own challenges, but none is more exciting than RESTORE.  We do not pretend it is an easy path, and there will be leaders who look down it and rationalize that to “keep on keepin’ on” is good enough.  Others will start down the path and be unwilling to face their “misses”, turning back somewhere in RENEW.  Those who make it to RE-IMAGINE may not think there is much to change.  Finally, some will come to RE-ALIGN and demand a “quick fix” or want to delegate leadership because they don’t see it as worth their time (after all, they need to “run the organization”).   A quote from George Barna comes to mind:

A large share of the people who figure out what’s coming as they pursue holiness choose to retreat to previously mastered stops on the trail, preferring the comfort and security of mediocrity to the challenges of godliness.

• RENEW:  The Renew Stage of Integriosity is exciting because it reveals the sacred nature of work and business.  It may be the first time a leader comes to understand the intrinsic Kingdom value of their work and the organization they lead.  Moving across the three “gaps” (the Sunday/Monday gap, the Sacred/Secular gap, and the Knowing/Doing gap) of faith/work integration equips a leader to see their role, their organization and all its people in a new light.  But there are several potential challenges for a leader going through the Renew stage:
  • Being willing to lay down old beliefs and doctrines (as comfortable as they may be), including some that may still be taught in their church.
  • Being willing honestly to admit “misses”–Placebos ingested and Side Roads travelled.
  • Being willing to embrace the increased responsibility of being a “steward” of God’s organization.
• RE-IMAGINE:  The Re-Imagine stage is exciting because a leader has the tools and the permission to imagine WHAT COULD BE!  The principle challenge of the Re-Imagine stage is doing an honest appraisal of WHAT IS:
  • Recognizing when a vision statement really doesn’t lay out a vision.
  • Recognizing when values do not align with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities.
  • Recognizing where the culture does not align with the vision or values.
  • Recognizing where the “real” culture is far from the intended culture.
• RE-ALIGN:  The excitement of the Re-Align stage comes in actually beginning to implement change rather than just learning and dreaming–it is fully crossing the Knowing/Doing gap.  The challenge of the Re-Align stage is realizing and accepting that Re-Alignment is a SLOW process.  A Re-Imagined Vision and Re-Imagined Values can be changed on a website in a matter of minutes; however buy-in at all levels of an organization can take months (or years) and reinforcement is a never-ending process.  A Re-Imagined Culture takes time, and the amount of time depends on how ingrained and toxic the existing culture happens to be.
• RESTORE: The excitement of the Restore stage is seeing the fruit of faithfully “doing right” through business a better way.  Resurrecting a flower garden analogy from an earlier post, leaders have loosened the ground in order to plant (shared the heart behind proposed changes), planted the seeds (a purpose statement and values), regularly watered and fertilized (reinforcing the purpose and values through statements, education, reminders, reinforcements, rewards to achieve credibility, buy-in and commitment), and weeded the garden (eliminating forces and influences, such as disruptive employees or ineffective managers, that are working against the flowers) before the roots structure of the weeds choked the flowers. In the Restore stage, the three bigger WHY’s of work and business materialize and manifest in the organization:
  • People are Humanized
  • The World is Beautified
  • God is Glorified

None of the effort is wasted.  In the words of Lesslie Newbigin: “Every faithful act of service, every honest labor to make the world a better place, which seemed to have been forever lost and forgotten in the rubble of history, will be seen on that day [at the final resurrection] to have contributed to the perfect fellowship of God’s kingdom. . . . It will be seen that all the labors of faithful souls to create true human fellowship have been not lost, but taken up and consummated in the perfection of God’s Kingdom.”

We believe it is time to begin executing “business a better way” in alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities–it is time to begin faithfully “doing right” through Integriosity^®

SPOILER ALERT:   It is time to move on to the fourth and final step of Integriosity–RESTORE.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):   Back in post #064 (Humility-A Key to Wisdom), the featured quote was from William (“BJ”) Weber (“Your ego is not your amigo“).  BJ has been a friend and spiritual mentor since 2003.  Although that is a fun quote, when I think of BJ I think of his references to “ripples in a pond”.  BJ often says that he is engaged in “retail” rather than “wholesale” ministry–“one-on-one” counseling and mentorship rather than preaching to masses.   He told me that the impact we can have through faithful acts of service is like the ripples created by a pebble thrown into a pond–they theoretically go on forever, often without the “pebble-thrower” having any knowledge of them.  The RESTORE stage of Integriosity is like those ripples.  RENEW, RE-IMAGINE and RE-ALIGN represent the pebble.  While some of the impact on the organization and its stakeholders of Humanizing People and Beautifying the World will be seen, much will never be known to the leaders of the organization.  The impact can be generational among the organization’s employees.  The impact can be regional, national or global if noticed by other organizations.  The impact of faithful acts of service is also certainly spiritual and unseen.  I believe God is Glorified by the faithful acts of service themselves–regardless of the worldly impact.  Thank you BJ for helping me “see” the “unseen” ripples.

Copyright © 2021 Integrous LLC.  Integriosity is a registered Service Mark of Integrous LLC.

Photo Credit: Original photo by Jan Martin Will on Shutterstock
(photo flipped and cropped).