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: Faithfully “Applefy” Your Culture

“Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” is about a faithful leader taking steps to implement two elements of advice that Tim Cook said he would pass down to his successor CEO of Apple–keep a firm North Star and do the right thing rather than trying to figure out what Cook would have done–but in ways that align with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities rather than merely adopting Apple’s version of those principles.

Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization.  Some are helpful ideas to consider as a faithful leader prayerfully discerns the best stewardship of the organization. Others may be important steps in the RENEW/RE-ALIGN/RE-IMAGINE/RESTORE process.

“Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” is in the “necessary” category because leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires the proclamation and reinforcement of a bigger WHY and a set of values that reflect and support that WHY.  It also requires cultivating a culture in which the allegiance of people is to that WHY rather than to a particular leader, manager, founder, or predecessor.

Tim Cook’s Advice

Following the announcement that Tim Cook would be stepping down as CEO of Apple, the Wall Street Journal asked him what advice he would pass down to his successor. We believe Cook’s answer offers two leadership principles that are worth receiving—but also worth redeeming and re-rooting.

The first is about keeping a “North Star”:

Keep a firm North Star on the values of the company. Because if you get the values right, if you keep the North Star in clear view, you may be blown off course a little bit, but eventually you will come back to the right path. I have always found that to be true.

In another Wall Street Journal article, Cook is quoted as saying, “Our North Star is always on making the best products.”

The second piece of advice Cook said he would offer is advice he received from Steve Jobs when taking on the role of CEO:

Don’t ask what I would do . . . Just do the right thing.

Setting a North Star

For a faithful leader, the key question is not merely whether an organization has a North Star. Every organization has one, whether stated or unstated, just like every organization has a culture, whether intentional or unintentional. The key question is whether that North Star glorifies God, whether the organization’s values actually reflect and support it, and whether the organization’s culture leads people to follow it, particularly when doing so is difficult or costly.

In prior posts, we have stressed the importance of setting a “North Star” by proclaiming and reinforcing a faithful purpose–a bigger WHY–and by setting a values “plumb line” that reflects and supports the organization’s bigger WHY.

Purpose. Back in post #128 (Integrity Idea 002: Proclaim a Faithful Purpose), we wrote that leading faithfully through business a better way takes time and intentionality–but it must start with a purpose that aligns with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities, and that purpose must ultimately point to glorifying God.

For a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, Cook’s North Star of “making the best products” is a worthy organizational aim, but it is not a big enough WHY.  Leading with faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing must be rooted in Humanizing People, Beautifying the World, and Glorifying God.

We don’t view proclaiming an organization’s WHY as an option–the optionality comes in how covertly or overtly that WHY expresses its grounding in faith.  The choice should be based on which approach is best for stewarding the organization toward its WHY.

The importance of defining a clear purpose, committing to it in writing, and proclaiming it actually comes straight out of Scripture:

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.”  (Habakkuk 2:2)

If done with intentionality, prayer, and in a manner that makes it more than a slogan on a website, proclaiming a faithful purpose is not simple or easy.  But it is a critical early step toward leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.

In post #208 (Integrity Idea 038: Recall Your Faithful Purpose), we emphasized the importance of implementing practices to remind stakeholders about the organization’s WHY, because people will not keep “running” with a vision unless they are continually inspired by it, and that requires continually reminding them of it in inspiring ways.

The world will keep pushing your owners and employees back toward business as usual, and an organization is more likely to remain on the ancient path of business a better way if its stakeholders are constantly reminded of the organization’s counter cultural WHY.

Values.  Our post #145 (Integrity Idea 013: Set a Values Plumb-Line”) focused on communicating values that reflect and support the organization’s bigger WHY.  Values in an organization are critical because they serve to translate the bigger WHY into an aligned culture–they are the plumb line that keeps the organization’s culture in line with its purpose.  They become guardrails for the behavior and actions that create the culture.

Re-Aligning Loyalty

It was in post #299 (Integrity Idea 086: Re-Align Loyalty) that we explored the essence of Jobs’s advice to Cook to do the right thing rather than try to figure out what Jobs would have done.  In it, we urged faithful leaders to implement practices to ensure that the overriding allegiance of leaders, managers and employees is to principles rather than people and ultimately to the bigger WHY of the organization.

The pursuit of faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing requires a culture in which allegiances are aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, particularly the First Things of Righteousness, Kingdom, Love, and Humility that are embedded in the concept of Integriosity^®.  It recognizes that misaligned allegiances can undermine an organization’s North Star as well as a faithful leader’s pursuit of Biblical flourishing.

The First Thing of Righteousness

In telling Cook to just “do the right thing,” Steve Jobs was capturing something important about the First Thing of Righteousness, but we believe faithfully “Applefying” a culture requires a much fuller understanding of Righteousness.  The Bible says unequivocally that “Righteousness” is one of the “First Things” we are meant to seek.  Righteousness as part of faithful integrity is much more than “doing good”, being ethical or even “doing the right thing”.

We believe the Righteousness element of faithful integrity requires a faithful leader to “do right” by God, and that means living generously by loving others and stewarding creation–as the driving purpose and not just a socially conscious add-on to Profit as Purpose. Righteousness in business a better way is about creating an organizational culture in which people do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons, because it has become part of “how we do things around here.”

CONTINUUM: Proclamation, Practices

The Integriosity model organizes “heart change” along six Covert-Overt Continuums.  There is nothing inherently 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.

“Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” is on the Proclamation Continuum and Practices Continuum.

It calls for establishing a faithful purpose and values that proclaim to the world (including employees) “this is who we are” and proclaim to employees “this is how we do things around here”.  A faithful purpose and values proclaim the organization’s HEART in ways that help people make decisions about actions and behavior.

It also involves practices the organization can adopt to recall, affirm, and protect its commitment to the North Star–that purpose, those values, and the importance of doing the right thing, in the right way, and for the right reasons–by reminding its stakeholders of the North Star that should guide and inform “how we do things around here” and their ultimate allegiance to that North Star.

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 have one place on the scale.  Some can vary depending on how they are implemented.  We identify “Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” as Highly Covert (an action that would be taken by a secular company), because if it has guided Cook’s leadership of Apple, then it is something any secular business should be comfortable pursuing.

“Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” can be moved toward the Overt end of the Continuum by, for example, being overt in the expression of a purpose and values or by referencing Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities in communicating the basis of the North Star.

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom

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.

“Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” impacts all stakeholders because an organization’s culture touches all stakeholders.

IMPLEMENTATION

Faithfully “Applefying” culture is not imitating Apple. It is learning from the importance of a clear North Star, a strong values plumb line, and loyalty to what is right—and then submitting all three to Biblical truth so they point beyond product excellence to Biblical flourishing.

What struck us in reading Cook’s advice is that we had already covered the Biblically aligned version of his advice in prior posts, including suggestions on implementation. Rather than repeat those recommendations in full, we will offer a brief summary and encourage you to look back to the relevant posts.

• Setting a North Star

Integrity Idea 002: Proclaim a Faithful Purpose.  In talking about proclaiming a faithful purpose, we are talking more generally about the organization’s WHY, whatever label it may have.  However, labels can’t turn a WHAT or a HOW into a WHY. The best way to get to WHY is to keep asking “Why?” until the real WHY emerges. Ultimately, the real WHY must glorify God, because it is the ultimate purpose of the humans who make up the organization.

Integrity Idea 038: Recall Your Faithful Purpose.  It is about calling people back again and again to what matters until doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons becomes second nature. It is helping people hold their ground against the tendency to forget what matters–against the push by the kingdom of the world to “be conformed to this world” rather than to “what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Integrity Idea 013: Set a Values “Plumb-Line”.  In order for the foundation of values to shape an organizational culture that aligns with the cornerstone of purpose, keeping a North Star requires commitment, reinforcement and ownership.

An organization’s values need to be a embraced from the top to the bottom.  If the leaders aren’t committed enough to identifying values they are willing to write down, they aren’t really committed to being held to, and holding others to, those values.  If the leaders aren’t committed to a set of values, no one else in the organization is likely to be committed to them.

For an organization’s values to shape its culture in a way that reflects and reinforces its purpose, those values must be reinforced until they are so ingrained in the hearts and minds of employees that they inform and guide their actions every day and in all they do.

For an organization’s values to drive and define its culture, which drives and defines the behavior of its people, those people need to “own” the values.

• Re-Aligning Loyalty.

Integrity Idea 086: Re-Aligning Loyalty. Regardless of what is posted on the website as an organization’s formal North Star, stakeholders such as employees, customers and vendors will experience, and respond to, what they perceive to be the real purpose and real values. Those will drive the real culture.

The first step toward ensuring that an organization’s real culture about loyalty aligns with loyalty to the North Star and not loyalty to people is to undertake an honest assessment of the organization’s current real loyalty culture.

Employees must be empowered, encouraged and protected in speaking truth to authority if they believe that a decision or action could undermine that purpose or those values. They must understand that, in the normal course, loyalty to those in authority is a way to show allegiance to the organization, but loyalty to the organization’s purpose and values must take priority.

• The First Thing of Righteousness.

Post #189 – “Leading Faithfully” Basics – First Things – Righteousness. Leading with faithful integrity requires cultivating a culture in which employees understand that the organization’s North Star requires considering more than just WHAT you do. It requires also considering HOW you do it and WHY you are doing it.

For employees to consider whether the WHY of their actions aligns with the organization’s WHY, the organization’s WHY must be perceived as authentic. In other words, the organization’s WHY must be more than a pretty sign on the wall.

Authenticity can be thought of as having four components: Identity (the organization is clear about its North Star), Sincerity (the leaders are committed to the North Star), Consistency (the organization operates in accordance with its North Star, even when it is difficult or costly), and Transparency (the organization’s North Star is understood by all its stakeholders).

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): While one can debate whether Apple always does the “right thing,” Tim Cook’s principles have served him well in leading Apple to success by the world’s standards—which is precisely why they are useful to examine through the lens of faithful integrity.  Those who have been following these Integriosity posts will know that this is not the first time I have highlighted Apple.

In post #082 (Culture and Capital), I described a case study from the Wall Street Journal about Apple’s procurement practices that could only be seen as “doing the right thing” in the context of a North Star of Profit as Purpose.

In post #289 (Integrity Idea 080: Provide Praiseworthy Packaging), I used what has become known as the “Apple Marketing Philosophy” as an example of recognizing that how you deliver your product or service can speak as loudly as what you deliver.

But my favorite mention of Apple came in post #213 (Integrity Idea 043: Create a Cue Card).  I talked about John Brandon, who I met through the New Canaan Society. John was a faithful leader and held various roles with Apple, retiring as Vice President of International.  Although Brandon was not in a position to create a cultural cue card for all of Apple or one that overtly expressed his faith perspective, he did create a cultural cue card for those who worked under him, setting out how he expected salespeople “to do things around here”.   Here is an image of what was called “JB’s Rules for Success”.  If you are committed to faithfully Applefying your organization, I would certainly add John’s rules to Tim’s.

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

INTEGRITY IDEA: Faithfully “Applefy” Your Culture

Following the announcement that Tim Cook would be stepping down as CEO of Apple, the Wall Street Journal asked him what advice he would pass down to his successor. Cook’s answer offers two leadership principles that are worth receiving—but also worth redeeming. “Faithfully Applefy Your Culture” is about a faithful leader taking steps to implement two elements of Cook’s advice, but in ways that align with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities. The first is to “keep a firm North Star on the values of the company.” The second is advice he received from Steve Jobs when taking on the role of CEO, “Don’t ask what I would do . . . Just do the right thing.”  In prior posts, we have stressed the importance of setting a “North Star” by proclaiming and reinforcing a faithful purpose–a bigger WHY–and by setting a values “plumb line” that reflects and supports the organization’s bigger WHY.  We have also urged re-aligning loyalty by implementing practices to ensure that the overriding allegiance of leaders, managers and employees is to principles rather than people and, ultimately, to the bigger WHY of the organization.  And the First Thing of Righteousness calls not only for doing the right thing, but for doing it in the right way and for the right reasons.  In another article, Cook is quoted as saying that Apple’s North Star is “making the best products.” For a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, that is a worthy organizational aim, but the WHY must be much bigger–Humanizing People, Beautifying the World, and Glorifying God. Faithfully “Applefying” culture is not imitating Apple. It is learning from the importance of a clear North Star, a strong values plumb line, and loyalty to what is right—and then submitting all three to Biblical truth.

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

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

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom

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Photo credit: Original image by Medhat Dawoud on Unsplash
(photo cropped)