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: Transform Through Titles

“Transform Through Titles” is about a faithful leader ensuring that the job titles and department titles used in the organization reflect and reinforce the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, rather than silently undermining that goal.

It recognizes that words have power, and titles can be powerful words. A title can merely describe what a person or department does—or it can help define how and why the work is done. A title can subtly reflect business as usual beliefs about the roles of people and profits and the importance of other stakeholders.

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.

“Transform Through Titles” is in the “if it fits” category, because changing titles alone will not transform a culture. That said, maintaining titles that reflect business as usual beliefs can undermine the implementation of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values, and Re-Imagined Culture as well as the pursuit of faithful integrity.

Words Have Power

We addressed the power of words in several prior posts, including post #113 (The Power of Words (and Disordered Words)), post #114 (Words that Shape Work), post #115 (Words that Shape Identity), and post #116 (Words that Shape Culture).

As a quick refresher, the Bible is clear about the power of words.  God created the universe by speaking, and Satan tried to tempt Jesus by twisting God’s word.

The Bible tells us that words have the power to create (Genesis 1:3; Hebrews 11:3), to effect change (Mark 11:23), to give life or bring death (Proverbs 18:21), to build up or corrupt (Ephesians 4:29), to bring health (Proverbs 16:24), and to destroy (Proverbs 11:9; Matthew 12:36-37).

In the words of Tom Stoppard and Tony Robbins:

Words are sacred. If you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little. (Tom Stoppard)

Words can not only create emotions, they create actions.  And from our actions flow the results of our lives.  (Tony Robbins)

The right words can nudge the world a little toward beauty—toward God’s design for His Kingdom.  The wrong words can lead us to settle for “good” at the expense of God’s “best”, and, at worst, can nudge the world a little toward ugliness—away from God’s design for His Kingdom.

Titles Have Power

Titles are words, but in an organization, they are more than merely words. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, titles can reflect and communicate beliefs about why a position or department exists, what it is intended to accomplish, and how it should interact with the organization’s stakeholders. To the person holding a position or working in a department, the title of that position or department becomes part of their identity within the organization and helps define how they see themselves in relation to those stakeholders.

Maggie Wooll, formerly the lead researcher at the Deloitte Center for the Edge, astutely observed:

Although we may not realize it, language and the specific words used within your company on a regular basis have a major impact on your company’s culture. . . . The language you use acts as a moral compass for your people, influencing how they think, act and feel in different situations. . . .  Language doesn’t just impact the way people behave at work, it also impacts the types of processes and company rituals we create. . . .  Language doesn’t just impact how we work, it can also change how we feel about work.

Ultimately, the real power of titles in an organization pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing is their ability to undermine or reinforce the Re-Imagined Culture being pursued.

Titles and Culture

Culture is important because it defines the day-to-day experience that various stakeholders have with the organization.  It is how employees experience their workday, how vendors experience contract negotiations and performance, and how customers experience interacting with the organization.  Unlike lofty purpose statements and value lists, culture is where the rubber meets the road and the boots hit the ground.

If the culture of the organization is not reinforcing its desired purpose and stated values, it is likely eroding them.  Whether an organization’s culture ultimately encourages and leads its people to do the right things, in the right ways, and for the right reasons, goes back to its purpose, as translated through its values and communicated by its leaders.

Regardless of what is posted on the website as an organization’s formal Re-Imagined Purpose and Re-Imagined Values, stakeholders such as employees, customers, and vendors will experience, and respond to, what they perceive to be the real purpose and real values.  Their experiences and responses form the real culture. In the words of Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM:

What is critical to understand here is that people do not do what you expect but what you inspect. Culture is not a prime mover. Rather it is a derivative. It forms as a result of signals employees get from the corporate processes that structure their work priorities.

Even in an organization that is overt about faith in its purpose and values, titles can subtly reflect business as usual beliefs about the roles of people and profits and the importance of other stakeholders. It happens because business as usual has gotten us used to using certain words to describe common functions.

Faithful leaders pursuing the flourishing of employees wouldn’t consciously choose to reduce employees to “resources”—they probably never thought about the cultural impact of calling the department overseeing employee matters “Human Resources.”

Faithful leaders pursuing a culture of faithful integrity wouldn’t consciously choose to reduce desired behavior to “compliance”—they probably never thought about the cultural impact of calling the department overseeing “doing the right thing” the “Compliance Department.”

People as “resources” aligns with business as usual and Profit as Purpose. Matthew 6:24 (“No one can serve two masters”) tells us that when profit is the end toward which a business is managed, people can never be more than tools of production. They are resources, just like energy and raw materials.

In post #189 (First Things–Righteousness), we introduced a hierarchy of “doing good” in an organization maximizing profit. At the lowest end is “amoral” (“good” means maximizing profit by any means necessary), followed closely by “legal” (“good” means maximizing profit by any legal means necessary) and “ethical” (“good” means maximizing profit, presumably within the bounds of the law, and adhering to basic ethical principles, whether or not legally required). Those two levels are basically “compliance.”

In that post, we asserted that humans made in the image of God and given the Creation Mandate and the command to love our neighbors are called to a much higher standard. We are called to live out our God-given purpose by living generously through loving others and stewarding creation. That standard can’t be reduced to a set of rules in a compliance manual. It is a standard that must be embodied in a Re-Imagined Culture faithfully cultivated to reflect, reinforce, and reward behavior that aligns with a set of Re-Imagined Values translating a Re-Imagined Purpose.

Titles can shape culture, culture shapes the behavior of the people in the organization, and the behavior of the people drives the results of the organization.

Changing titles alone will not transform a culture—and changing them without changing the underlying beliefs, priorities, and practices may amount to little more than cosmetic rebranding. But carefully chosen titles can express an organization’s aspirations, continually remind people how and why their work should be done, and reinforce the transformation being pursued.

CONTINUUM: 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.

“Transform Through Titles” is on the Practices Continuum. It involves practices the organization can adopt to reflect its culture while also helping to shape and reinforce that 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 have one place on the scale.  Some can vary depending on how they are implemented.  We identify “Transform Through Titles” as Highly Covert (an action that would be taken by a secular company), because every organization should be interested in using words that elevate rather than denigrate stakeholders, even if purely for the selfish reason of gaining their favor.

It can be moved toward the Overt end of the Continuum by, for example, explaining the Biblical roots of prioritizing relationships, community, human dignity, and flourishing, or explaining how intentional titles reinforce the pursuit of faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing. The words used and the way the practices are introduced can be as Overt or Covert as the leaders prayerfully determine is appropriate.

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.

“Transform Through Titles” can serve any stakeholder whose relationship to the organization is embedded in the title of a job or department. Typically, this would principally serve Employees, Customers/Clients, and Suppliers/Vendors.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementing “Transform Through Titles” is relatively straightforward in concept but could be logistically challenging and somewhat costly.

The first step is to make an assessment of department and job titles to determine if they reflect and reinforce or undermine and erode the organization’s Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values, and Re-Imagined Culture—if they further or hinder the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. Here are some questions to ask in making an assessment:

• Does the title treat people with dignity as creations in the image of God, or does it treat them as tools, resources, or production units to be managed?

• Does the title treat stakeholders such as customers and suppliers as relational partners to be cared for or as transactional counterparties to be managed?

• Does the title call people to an aspirational goal or merely try to keep them above some minimum standard of performance or conduct?

Below are examples of some common business as usual titles, together with reasons they might undermine a culture that prioritizes relationships, community, human dignity, and flourishing, as well as possible alternatives:

Human Resources/Talent Acquisition/Personnel Administration:

Implication: People are organizational assets to be acquired, deployed, administered, and managed.  The language is dehumanizing.

Alternatives: People, People & Culture, People Care, People Recruitment, People Stewardship

Compliance:

Implication: Behavior is about meeting minimum legal and ethical standards, and the department is about monitoring and enforcing those standards. It is about holding people to standards rather than inspiring them to pursue a higher purpose.

Alternatives: Integrity, Integrity & Culture, Culture

A title change should not obscure or diminish any legally required compliance responsibilities. The opportunity is to preserve rigorous compliance as a necessary floor while adopting a title that points toward a higher cultural aspiration.

Labor Relations:

Implication: People are units of labor to be utilized and managed. Moreover, as we explored in post #240 (Integrity Idea 059: Recognize “AvoDay” (Not Labor Day)), we believe “labor” is a work-devaluing word that emphasizes the toil aspect of work resulting from the Fall.

Alternatives: Workplace Relationships, Employee Relationships

Customer Service:

Implication: The title can suggest that customer relationships are primarily transactional and reactive.

Alternatives: Customer Care, Customer Relationships, Customer Stewardship

Vendor Management/Procurement:

Implication: The title can suggest that suppliers must be managed, and supplier relationships are transactional and focused on obtaining the most advantageous terms.

Alternatives: Supplier Relationships, Supplier Stewardship

What if you started with blank business cards? What titles would best align with the culture you are cultivating? What if the Vice President of Human Resources became the Vice President of People Care? The Chief Compliance Officer became the Chief Integrity & Culture Officer?  Might they begin thinking differently about the WHY and HOW of their positions and their departments? Would they be perceived differently within the organization? Might others also begin approaching them—and the people and purposes entrusted to them—differently?

We are not suggesting that employment handbooks and codes of conduct are not needed, but we believe “integrity” is much more than not lying, cheating, or breaking the law.  It is about working in alignment with an inspiring vision that is translated into aspirational values which, in turn, shape a culture that leads people to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons—not because it says so in a code but because they have come to understand, “This is who we are.”

It is about cultivating a culture in which everyone takes responsibility for cultural integrity by holding one another accountable to the vision and the values because they value a culture in which people are treated with dignity and live by the Golden Rule.

As we explained in post #243 (Integrity Is Not Enough), the cultivation of such a culture requires more than “integrity.” By itself, integrity lacks a transcendent anchor, because we, as a society, have been moving ever further from a common understanding of morality and ever closer to the situation described in Judges 21:25: Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

One solution is an ever-evolving code of conduct. Another is faithful integrity—integrity with an anchor of God’s purpose for work and business—a WHY plumb line centered on the Creation Mandate, Imago Dei, the Golden Rule, the two great commandments (love God and love your neighbor), and God’s model of love as giving and serving generously.

Putting aside the logistics and cost of changing organizational charts, websites, business cards, email signatures, and office signs, being intentional about titles is one way to be intentional about cultivating a culture that prioritizes relationships, community, human dignity, and flourishing. It is one relatively easy way to Humanize People, Beautify the World, and Glorify God.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): This post was inspired by two experiences.  The first was a Zoom call with Christian leaders in the People area. They called it an HR call, and most of them had titles with HR in them. Being a “non-HR” person, I threw out the question—”If anyone could come up with a more humanizing term for HR, shouldn’t it be people of faith?”

The second inspiration came from listening to a podcast by a group called Ethisphere that awards a trademarked recognition called the “World’s Most Ethical Companies.”  Its website says the award “honors organizations that prioritize ethics, accountability, and a commitment to doing what’s right.”  The website mentions integrity.  But the podcast was an interview with a Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and focused on the continual improvement of the company’s Code of Conduct. Ethics and integrity seemed to be focused more on ensuring compliance with the code and investigating violations.  It is a noble endeavor but one that, from the perspective of faithful integrity, appears to be missing any transcendent plumb line.

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

INTEGRITY IDEA: Transform Through Titles

“Transform Through Titles” is about a faithful leader ensuring that the job titles and department titles used in the organization reflect and reinforce the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, rather than silently undermining that goal. It recognizes that words have power, and titles can be powerful words. A title can merely describe what a person or department does—or it can help define how and why the work is done. A title can subtly reflect business as usual beliefs about the roles of people and profits and the importance of other stakeholders. For example, through titles, employees can be reduced to “resources” or recognized as “people,” desired behavior can be reduced to “compliance” or elevated to “cultural integrity,” and customers and suppliers can be transactional counterparties to be managed or relational partners to be cared for. Titles can shape culture, culture shapes the behavior of the people in the organization, and the behavior of the people drives the results of the organization.  Changing titles alone will not transform a culture—and changing them without changing the underlying beliefs, priorities, and practices may amount to little more than cosmetic rebranding. But carefully chosen titles can express an organization’s aspirations, continually remind people how and why their work should be done, and reinforce the transformation being pursued. Being intentional about titles is one way to be intentional about cultivating a culture that prioritizes relationships, community, human dignity, and flourishing.

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

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

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Client, Suppliers/Vendors

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Photo credit: Original image by Claire Abdo on Unsplash
(photo cropped and edited to add text)