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.  You can find more Integrity Ideas at Integrous | Integrity Ideas (integriosity.com)

INTEGRITY IDEA: Grow Gratitude

“Grow Gratitude” is about implementing practices to help employees experience feelings of gratitude.

It recognizes that feeling gratitude has been shown to enhance flourishing and wellness in people, which should be a priority in an organization pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.

In a world filled with negativity that promotes the “self”, “Grow Gratitude” helps people focus on the positive and recognize the “other”. By encouraging people to turn their focus to the “other”, “Grow Gratitude” reinforces an organizational culture of humility in which the unique contributions of others and the goodness and faithfulness of God are recognized and appreciated.

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.

“Grow Gratitude” falls in the “if it fits” category.  Taking steps to enhance the wellness and flourishing of employees is critical to leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, but “Grow Gratitude” is just one possible practice in furtherance of that goal.

What is Gratitude?

Tyler VanderWeele, Director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, describes gratitude as recognizing something “good” and realizing that someone or something else is responsible for the goodness.

The practice of gratitude involves seeing the good in things around us. When we fix our attention on these positive aspects of life, acknowledge that they are good, and realize that, in many cases, we are not their source, we can experience gratitude.

Pastor John Ortberg describes gratitude as “the ability to experience life as a gift“, and there are many famous quotes about the importance of gratitude.  Here are just a few:

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. (Cicero)

Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. (Zig Ziglar)

What should naturally follow from that recognition and realization is a sense of appreciation or thankfulness.  The Bible is clear about the importance of being thankful not only for God but also for other people:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! (Psalm 100:4)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20)

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (Ephesians 1:16)

It is important to distinguish feeling gratitude and expressing gratitude.  “Grow Gratitude” is about helping employees feel grateful (encouraging the expression of gratitude is a topic for a future post).  Ironically, focusing on the positive contributions of others actually promotes a healthier self.

Gratitude and Flourishing/Wellness

A simple internet search of “gratitude” and “wellness” or “flourishing” will reveal much scientific evidence of the benefits of gratitude exercises.  VanderWeele concludes that:

Evidence from numerous randomized trials (thoroughly analyzed in this meta-analysis) suggests that this simple activity of focusing the mind on what is good in one’s past or present can help increase happiness, relieve symptoms of depression, and perhaps even improve sleep.

He notes a study involving 49,000 women that concluded “the high-gratitude group was 15 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.”

In an article about gratitude research at Baylor, the author, Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin, concludes:

While research shows that gratitude benefits health, well-being and happiness, it simultaneously fosters new connections and strengthens existing relationships by encouraging positive interactions and prosocial behaviors.

Based on a study of the relationship between gratitude and indebtedness, researchers found, “Gratitude has been shown to increase commitment and the bond between two parties, increase word-of-mouth communication, and improve relationship quality.

Just like setting Ebenezers for an organization as tangible reminders of times God has helped the organization and its people can help people have hope when facing new challenges or difficulties, encouraging employees to focus on what is good and on the goodness of others can reduce anxiety and stress while navigating current challenges.

Post #200 (Prioritize Biblical Flourishing) was devoted to the idea that the bigger WHY of an organization aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities should be to maximize flourishing (rather than profit) by Humanizing People, Beautifying the World and Glorifying God, properly positioning profit as a necessary means to that end.  By supporting flourishing and wellness, “Grow Gratitude” is a tool in the pursuit of that WHY.

Gratitude and Humility

We believe practices that “Grow Gratitude” also serve to grow humility.  Humility is one of the four first principles embedded in the word Integriosity^® and the subject of post #196 (First Things–Humility).

Humility is knowing who you are in relation to God’s creation and His plan, knowing who you are in relation to others, and knowing who you are in relation to God.  It is required for the second essential element of gratitude–realizing that someone else or something else is the source of the goodness recognized.

Encouraging employees to engage in gratitude practices also strengthens the humility muscle and, by prompting realization of the “good” created by co-workers, equips employees to treat others with dignity and respect.

Gratitude and Faith

We know from Scripture that God is the source of good.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

In our last post (Integrity Idea 070: Set Some Ebenezers), we emphasized the importance of helping employees remember that God is the source:

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

“Grow Gratitude” is also a way to encourage employees to take the time to set their own personal Ebenezers to mark God’s goodness.  Whether or not “Grow Gratitude” is implemented with overt references to gratitude for God’s goodness, when a person recognizes a “good” that cannot easily be tied to a person or thing, encouraging gratitude practices points them to God.  In the words of Oswald Chambers:

We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our starved imagination to visualize it.

CONTINUUM: Practices

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.

“Grow Gratitude” is on the Practices Continuum. Practices reflect, and at the same time help shape and reinforce, an organization’s culture.

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.   “Grow Gratitude” is Highly Covert (an action that would be taken by a secular company).  Gratitude is a practice frequently encouraged for secular businesses.  In fact, the inspiration for this post came from an article in a very secular Connecticut Bar Association publication titled “The Benefits of Gratitude Journaling and How Law Firms Can Implement a Daily Practice for Employees“.

“Grow Gratitude” can move to the overt end of the Continuum if the leaders of the organization choose to explain it in terms of faith and Biblical principles or implement the practice in a way that encourages recognition of “goodness” that comes from God.

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees

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.

“Grow Gratitude” principally serves employees by encouraging them to recognize good in their world and appreciate its source, whether other people or God.

IMPLEMENTATION

While some Integrity Ideas can be difficult to implement and others can be expensive to implement, “Grow Gratitude” can be relatively easy and inexpensive.  But even easy and inexpensive requires prayerful discernment by faithful leaders.

Assuming a faithful leader decides to move forward with “Grow Gratitude”, it is helpful to think about implementation in terms of Who, What and How.  Who will be encouraged to engage in gratitude practices?  What gratitude practices will be suggested and supported?  How will the gratitude encouragement be communicated and encouraged?

The following questions may be helpful to faithful leaders as they prayerfully discern the implementation of “Grow Gratitude”.

WHO

• Will the encouragement be made to all employees or a subset of employees?

• Will the encouragement extend beyond employees to other stakeholders such as owners, customers or vendors?

• Will faithful leaders participate to set an example?

WHAT

• What gratitude practices will be encouraged?  A Gratitude Journal?  A Gratitude Jar?

•  Will you suggest a frequency? Daily?  Weekly?  A few days a week?

•  Will periodic themes be suggested as “prompts”?

•  Will “sharing” gratitude recognition with others be encouraged?  With family? With co-workers?

• Will the organization provide or suggest tools to facilitate gratitude recognition?  A paper journal? A paper journal with the organization’s name?  A paper journal personalized with the employee’s name?  A gratitude jar with slips of paper? A recommended app, such as Gratitude 365, Happify, Grateful, Gratitude Jar, Moodfit, Reflectly, or the free Flourishing App developed by the Harvard Human Flourishing Program?

• Will gratitude exercises be created by the organization or provided through a more comprehensive third-party wellness platform such as Storehouse Wellness.

• Will there be opportunities for people to gather together at work to share with others what they have recognized?  If “gratitude sessions” are organized: when and where will they happen, how often will they occur, will there be a limit on the number of participants, who will facilitate them, will faithful leaders lead by example and “go first”?

HOW

• Will gratitude journaling be encouraged in an overtly faithful way, suggesting that people remember gratitude for God?

• Will the gratitude practice be communicated with Biblical references or described in the context of the organization’s pursuit of faithful integrity in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities?

• How will the suggested gratitude practices be communicated?

• An organization-wide newsletter.

• A communication from a faithful leader.

• A communication from human resources.

• If paper journals are provided, will they be provided to everyone or just those who request one?.

• How will faithful leaders lead by example?

There is no right or wrong Who, What or How.  In prayerfully discerning the best path for the organization, faithful leaders need to keep in mind, and remain faithful to, the purposes behind “Grow Gratitude”–the wellness and flourishing of God’s creation in obedience to the Creation Mandate, in recognition of Imago Dei, and in living out the Golden Rule and the commandment to love our neighbor.  It is in pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  It is loving and caring for fellow humans.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I first focused on the power of gratitude during a breakfast in 2016 with Anthony Bradley.  Anthony was a professor at The Kings College in New York City.  I had heard Anthony speak at a Christian Union Nexus conference and wanted to get to know him.  Anthony shared how he encouraged Kings College freshman to experience gratitude.  At the beginning of the year, he would encourage his freshman students to keep a gratitude journal, writing three things each day for which they were grateful.  It was entirely optional.  Anthony said that after two weeks, he could tell which Freshman had taken up his suggestion.  Thank you Anthony for the inspiration.

In a spirit of gratitude, here is the prayer of general thanksgiving from the Book of Common Prayer:

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

ESSENCE:  Integrity Ideas are specific practical actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way.

INTEGRITY IDEA: Grow Gratitude

“Grow Gratitude” is about implementing practices to help employees experience feelings of gratitude.  It recognizes that feeling gratitude has been shown to enhance flourishing and wellness in people, which should be a priority in an organization pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  In a world filled with negativity that promotes the “self”, “Grow Gratitude” helps people focus on the positive and recognize the “other”.  By encouraging people to turn their focus to the “other”, “Grow Gratitude” reinforces an organizational culture of humility in which the unique contributions of others and the goodness and faithfulness of God are recognized and appreciated. It is also one way to lead faithfully by curating and reinforcing a caring and compassionate organizational culture that prioritizes relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, wanting employees to flourish because you want to love them as “neighbors” and not just because having “well” employees is good for the bottom-line.  

COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Practices

COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees

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Photo credit: Original image by Erika Andrade: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cozy-coffee-and-gratitude-journal-on-marble-28699940/(photo cropped)