30 Nov #149 – Integrity Idea 017: Listen to a Life
ESSENCE: Integrity Ideas are specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way.
INTEGRITY IDEA: Listen to a Life
COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): People
COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert
STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors
Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization. “Listen to a Life” is about taking the time to listen to the life “story” of a work colleague (particularly direct reports), customer or vendor. It recognizes that people are more than what usually shows up at work. They have families, histories, passions, interests, struggles, goals and dreams. It encourages people to bring their “whole selves” to work in a healthy way. “Listen to a Life Story” says “I care” and “you matter”. It is recognizing the Imago Dei in others and living the commandment to love others as God has loved you. It reinforces a business a better way culture that prioritizes relationships, community and human dignity. If done with the right WHY–the right heart–it is humanizing for both the storyteller and the listener.
Integrity Ideas are specific actions a leader can consider during the Re-Align step of Integriosity®–actions that will begin to Re-Align the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.
Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization. We believe some are critical (and necessary) steps in the RENEW/RE-ALIGN/RE-IMAGINE/RESTORE process. Others are just ideas to be considered if they feel like a good fit based on what leaders prayerfully discern is best for stewarding the organization toward its WHY. “Listen to a Life” is more personal than organization. It is being human in a way that humanizes others. And we should all be human in a way that humanizes others every chance we get.
INTEGRITY IDEA: Listen to a Life
“Listen to a Life” is about taking the time to listen to the life “story” of a work colleague (particularly direct reports), customer or vendor.
It recognizes that people are more than what usually shows up in work interactions. They have families, histories, passions, interests, struggles, goals and dreams. Those aspects of a person’s “whole self” come to work with them one way or another. If they come hidden, they can undermine relationship and create misunderstanding.
“Listen to a Life” encourages people to bring their “whole selves” to work in a way that promotes relationship and understanding. “Listen to a Life Story” says “I care” and “you matter”. It brings relationship into a place where the world usually only experiences transaction.
“Listen to a Life” is recognizing the Imago Dei in others and living the commandment to love others as God has loved you. But it is also living out Imago Dei for the listener by allowing them to begin to see another human being as God sees them.
The storyteller is giving the gift of authenticity, and the listener is giving the gift of time and presence.
“Listen to a Life” reinforces a business a better way culture that prioritizes relationships, community and human dignity. If done with the right WHY–the right heart–it is humanizing for both the storyteller and the listener and it makes the world a bit more beautiful–moving it a bit closer to God’s design.
CONTINUUM: People
The Integriosity model organizes “heart change” along six Covert-Overt Continuums. There is nothing magic about these categories, but we believe they are helpful in thinking about practical execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture. The Continuums are Prayer, Proclamation, Policies, Practices, Products, People.
Each Continuum represents an area in which leaders can begin to think about, plan and institute Re-Alignment changes to the heart of the organization.
“Listen to a Life” is on the People Continuum. It is not about organizational practices or formal policies. It is about a faithful leader caring one-on-one about another person with whom they work, or an employee caring one-on-one about a co-worker, customer or vendor. Of course, it can be a practice encouraged organizationally, but it happens person to person.
COVERT-OVERT RATING: Highly Covert
The Integriosity model breaks the Covert-Overt Continuums into six gradations–from Highly Covert to Highly Overt–that we believe are helpful in beginning to pray and think about what is most appropriate for an organization at a particular moment in time.
Most Integrity Ideas will have one place on the scale. Some can vary depending on how they are implemented. “Listen to a Life” is Highly Covert (an action that would be taken by a secular company), because it is something every human being should implement in their life. “Listen to a Life” can be moved toward the Overt end of the Continuum by, for example, rolling out an organizational campaign to “Listen to a Life” and explaining its Biblical foundations or tying it to a business a better way culture aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.
STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors
When we categorize faith-based actions, we also consider the stakeholders principally impacted by the action: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community and Kingdom.
“Listen to a Life” serves people touched by the organization’s people by saying “I care” and “you matter”. It is giving them the gift of the faithful leader’s or employee’s time and presence. It encourages them to bring their “whole self” to work relationships. It humanizes them by prioritizing relationship, dignity and love. It also gives the listener an opportunity to live out Imago Dei in beginning to see another Human as God sees them.
Every life has a story . . . if you take the time to read it. (Chick-fil-A)
IMPLEMENTATION
“Listen to a Life” is a one-on-one relational action. It can start as simply as a faithful leader taking the time to get to know the people with whom they work, particularly direct reports. Over coffee or a meal, it can be as simple as asking questions that open the conversation to further questions. “What do you like to do outside work?” “Where did you grow up?” “What are you most passionate about?” “What makes you uniquely you?” “Tell me about your family?”
The faithful leader should also be ready to share their own life, if asked.
“Listen to a Life” can also be encouraged more broadly in the organization as part of building a culture that prioritizes relationships, community and human dignity. It can be encouraged not only among co-workers but also between employees and customers and vendors.
An inspirational example of rolling out “Listen to a Life” to an organization coms from Chick-fil-A. Back in 2010, Dan Cathy posted on YouTube a Chick-fil-A training video called “Every Life Has a Story”. A link to the video is below–please watch it. An updated version was posted on YouTube in 2018. The updated video ends with the line:
Every life has a story . . . if you take the time to read it.
A search of YouTube pulls up copycat videos from other businesses, including Red Lobster and Seasons Retirement Communities. They say imitation is the best form of flattery. We believe it is an example of how leading faithfully through business a better way can impact the behavior of other organizations.
But “Listen to a Life” must always come from a place of caring for people and not a manipulative human resources or sales tactic. Remember, WHY matters! In several prior posts, we have noted the observation of Larry Crabb:
Biblical principles are reduced to basic principles of the world when they’re followed in order to gain the ‘better life’ we demand.
Business as usual says to build relationships as a tool for economic advantage–keeping employees happy, winning customer loyalty, securing stable vendor supplies. Business a better way says to build relationships because it aligns with God’s design, is conducive to human flourishing, adds beauty to the world, and, as a result, glorifies God.
It is the narrow “ancient path” back to God’s design. God created humans to create organizations to organize humans to work together in relationship to create products and services that serve humanity. First and foremost, leading faithfully through business a better way is a path to RESTORING people broken by work as usual.
RESTORE is the final stage in the Integriosity journey of leading faithfully through business a better way. Workplaces where lack of connection among employees is evidenced by widespread disengagement can be RESTORED to promote life-giving engagement. Identities wrongly centered around WHAT people do can be re-aligned toward WHO they are. Dehumanizing cultures in which people are merely tools can be RESTORED to cultures that treat people with DIGNITY. Work that has become a burden can be RESTORED to God’s design of work as a blessing.
And that leads us once again to the statement from James Hunter that we have probably quoted more times than any other in these posts:
To manage a business in a way that grows out of a Biblical view of relationships, community and human dignity before God has divine significance, irrespective of what else might be done from this platform.
PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I was blown away when I stumbled upon the Chick-fil-A video several years ago. I have used it in meetings of our New Canaan Society chapter. The first time I showed it, I asked the men to turn to one person next to them and share one thing that person wouldn’t know about them. I had allocated two minutes to the exercise. The room erupted in hushed chatter. Five minutes later, men were still talking and didn’t want to stop.
I believe Imago Dei includes the desire to be known deeply and to know others deeply. It is humanizing on both sides.
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