In our last post, we urged faithful leaders to get more overt about their faith at Christmas. In keeping with our Christmas "reindeer dust" tradition, this post is about going deeper than surface overtness in 2026--because overtness is not a proxy for faithfulness. Sometimes good-intentioned faithful leaders sprinkle faith "reindeer dust"--overt faith symbols and practices--believing it is all that is...
Over the last six years, we have been laying out and expanding on a model for moving toward what we call Integriosity®--leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. It is time to pause, take a breath and look back over the last 300 posts as we did after 100, 200 and 250. We hope this...
ESSENCE: "Faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing." It is by far our most repeated group of words. Particularly for readers new to this journey, that phrase deserves unpacking: what does it really mean? As we reach post #300, it seems fitting to do a little refresher on the three key concepts embedded in that phrase. The word...
From time to time, it is useful to return to the basics, and the most basic and most important idea in the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing is organizational heart change. In the ancient world, frankincense was a prized trading commodity, yet in Jeremiah 6:20 God rejects it as useless. But it wasn't...
This is the third and final post in our theme of "turning". The first message was to turn with all your might to God when your eyes have been opened to the truth of God's purpose for work and business. The second was about not getting turned back to business as usual or faith as usual by the forces of...
With release of "Wave 1" results from the massive Global Flourishing Study, "flourishing" has been in the headlines. We think that's exciting, because Integrous "helps faithful leaders lead with faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing". Our belief is that the bigger WHY of an organization aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities should be to maximize flourishing (rather than profit) by...
The news has been filled with stories about institutions (e.g., universities and law firms) being forced to examine and act upon their priorities. The priorities of an organization's leaders will shape its behavior, which means understanding those priorities should itself be a priority for a faithful leader seeking to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way toward...
In prior posts we have emphasized that leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires a continual balancing of the call to be courageous and the need to be wise in determining "HOW" to integrate faith and work, with the most faithful balance being courage tempered by wisdom. "Wait, Just Don't Delay" is about the...
Leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing requires getting across four "gaps": Sunday/Monday, Sacred/Secular, Knowing/Doing and Safety/Surrender. Unfortunately, because of business as usual pressure and faith as usual detours, many well-intentioned leaders get stuck, never "hopping" or "leaping". The first three are "wisdom" gaps, and the journey across those "gaps" starts with RENEW--renewing the faithful...
We have emphasized in many posts that simply doing the right thing is not enough. Faithful leaders pursuing faith/work integration must continually examine their hearts to ensure they are doing the right thing in the right way and, most importantly, for the right reasons. WHY matters. As 2025 kicks off, it seems like a good time to remember the right...
Sometimes good-intentioned faithful leaders sprinkle faith "reindeer dust"--overt faith symbols and practices--believing that it is faith/work integration. It isn't bad, and it can be very good, but by itself it falls into the category of what we call "religious stewardship"--incorporating faith activities into work and making positive cultural changes but stopping short of true heart transformation. It is not the...
Over the last five years, we have been laying out and expanding on a model for moving toward what we call Integriosity®--leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. It is time to pause, take a breath and look back over the last 250 posts as we did after 100 and 200. We hope this is...
A faithful leader seeking to lead an organization with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing must remember "DDD"--"Don't Do a Demas." You might be asking, "Who is Demas?" The better question is "What's 'doing a Demas'?" The best question is "How do I avoid 'doing a Demas'?" Demas was a Biblical character who didn't finish well. ...
In prior posts, we have talked about three "gaps" a faithful leader must cross in the journey toward leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. These are "wisdom" or "knowledge" gaps. There is a fourth, and it is arguably the most important of all. We call it the Safety/Surrender Gap, and it is a "heart"...
Is the word "integrity" enough to guide a faithful leader on the ancient path to aligning the purpose, values and culture of an organization in a way that leads the organization and its people to do the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons, without even thinking? There are two key aspects to the meaning of "integrity"--one...
Leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing should include implementing policies about when the organization will "speak up" or "shut up" about controversial social and political issues. A recent news story highlights the importance of having policies in place before situations arise that the policies are intended to address. We believe leading in alignment with...
Does faith/work integration require Overtly faithful practices? Leading an organization with faithful integrity in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities toward Biblical flourishing requires a continual prayerful balancing of the call to be Courageous through Overtness and the need to be Wise through Covertness. Both the idolization of Overtness and the fear of being Overt may lead to poor stewardship. Wisdom...
A life of faith is a life of choices. For a faithful leader, one of those choices is the "O" that drives their leadership. There are two options--obedience or outcome. It is a choice between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God. It is one or the other--business as usual or business a better way. It is...
INTEGRITY IDEA: Create a Cue Card COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Practices COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization. "Create a Cue Card" is about literally creating a pocket-sized card that helps employees remember values, principles or practices critical to ensuring...
INTEGRITY IDEA: Recall Your Faithful Purpose COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Practices COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert or Highly Overt STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Kingdom Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization. "Recall Your Faithful Purpose" is implementing practices to remind your stakeholders about your WHY--your organization's Re-Imagined Purpose...
Most faithful leaders are not CEOs or business owners--they are leading from somewhere in the middle, whether they are leading a division, department, business unit, team or project, supervising many people or one person, or simply leading by example as part of a team. But God's call to faithful leadership and faithful integrity is not limited to owners and CEOs. ...
Giving generously from wealth is a very good thing both for faithful leaders personally and for the businesses they lead, but faithful integrity and business a better way demand more. Many organizations do important and excellent work helping faithful leaders understand the importance of being generous with their wealth. However, by itself, the message of "give generously" can draw a...
Sometimes good-intentioned faithful leaders sprinkle faith "reindeer dust"--overt faith symbols and practices--believing that it is faith/work integration. It isn't bad, and it can be very good, but by itself it is not leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. By itself, sprinkling "faith" reindeer dust without transforming how the organization actually does business is what...
Over the last four years, we have been laying out and expanding on a model for moving toward what we call Integriosity®--leading with faithful integrity through business a better way and toward Biblical flourishing. It is time to pause, take a breath and look back over the last 200 posts as we did after 100. We hope this is a...
Integrous "helps faithful leaders lead with faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing". Our belief is 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. When we talk about flourishing,...
The first step on the ancient path from the "as usuals" of business as usual, work as usual, and faith as usual to "a better way" is RENEW, and the first step of RENEW is reordering disordered priorities to "Keep First Things First". If a faithful leader or an organization is committed to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew...
The first step on the ancient path from the "as usuals" of business as usual, work as usual, and faith as usual to "a better way" is RENEW, and the first step of RENEW is reordering disordered priorities to "Keep First Things First". The Bible says unequivocally that "Righteousness" is one of the "First Things" we are meant to...
The first step on the ancient path from the "as usuals" of business as usual, work as usual, and faith as usual to "a better way" is RENEW. It is the start of a four-step process called Integriosity® to help a faithful leader navigate the journey on the ancient path toward leading faithfully with faithful integrity through business a better way. Each step...
Side Roads are detours that substitute a lesser "good" for the "best" of transformational heart-change in an organization--transformation of its WHY. They are detours off the ancient path of faithful integrity through business a better way in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities. Side Roads are not inherently bad--in fact, they are better than doing nothing at all. Well-intentioned...
Many well-intentioned, faithful leaders never find the right path to faithful integrity through business a better way, or stumble off it, because of good-intentioned "faith" messages or approaches that send them in the wrong direction--"bad theology" or, at least, poor communication of good theology which create stumbling blocks that substitute the "good" for the "best". We have identified five common...
Faithful leaders seeking to lead with faithful integrity can get detoured from the ancient path toward business a better way. The world--and our culture--does not want a faithful leader on the ancient path. But the world and our culture are not the only stumbling blocks that can lead a faithful leader with the best of intentions to "miss...
Leading faithfully through business a better way is a journey. Leading an organization in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities requires finding the on-ramp, getting on, and then not stumbling off an ancient road of Jeremiah 6:16. We have developed a four-step process called Integriosity® to help a faithful leader navigate the journey, each of which...
Are you on the path that leads to where you want to go? Every faithful leader is on a path of some sort, but leading faithfully requires getting on, and staying on, the right path. There are really two main paths--business in alignment with the kingdom of the world and the ancient path of business in alignment with the...
As faithful leaders enter 2023, we want to share the four "first things" to "keep first" in leading faithfully--they are actually captured by the word Integriosity itself. In our last post, we described the first two. In this PART 2, we will describe the second two. A key element of the RENEW step of Integriosity is re-ordering disordered priorities, because...
As faithful leaders enter 2023, we want to share the four "first things" to "keep first" in leading faithfully--they are actually captured by the word Integriosity itself. In this PART 1, we will describe the first two. In our next post we will cover the second two. A key element of the RENEW step of Integriosity is re-ordering disordered priorities,...
Does faith/work integration require Overtly faithful practices? Leading an organization faithfully through business a better way in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, requires a continual prayerful balancing of the call to be Courageous through Overtness and the need to be Wise through Covertness. Both the idolization of Overtness and the fear of being Overt may lead to poor...
From time to time, we will now begin describing 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. We will call the posts "Integrity Ideas". The Integriosity model organizes "heart change" along six Covert-Overt Continuums, and breaks the Covert-Overt Continuums into six gradations that...
A life of faith is a life of choices. For a faithful leader, one of those choices is the "O" that drives their leadership. There are two options--obedience or outcome. It is a choice between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God. It is one or the other--business as usual or business a better way. It is...
Faithful leaders seeking to lead faithfully can get detoured from the ancient path toward business a better way. We call those detours Side Roads when they substitute a lesser "good" for transformational heart-change in the organization--transformation of its WHY. In prior posts we identified six: Agonizing, Individualizing, Monetizing, Cosmeticizing, Prosperitizing and Interimizing. We recently encountered a situation that is leading...
For a leader seeking to lead an organization to faithfully “do right” through business a better way, or a person seeking to "work" in alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities, WORDS MATTER. We believe words are important and powerful. The culture of the world is filled with words that blind us to God’s purpose for work and business. Even...
In this post we look at some special "culture" challenges that can lead Biblically faith-based non-profits down a seemingly business as usual path. These organizations are born with "faith-work integration" but can have cultures that stray far from God's design for work--good work on the outside with unhappy people on the inside. People tolerate unhealthy cultures in faith-based...
Over the last two years, we have laid out a model for moving toward what we call Integriosity®--faithfully "doing right" through business an better way. It is time to pause, take a breath and look back over the last 101 posts. We believe these last 100 posts have honored our promise to you from post #001. Integrous is here to help...
Faithfully "doing right" is more than "doing good"--it means "doing right" by God, and that means "living generously through loving others and stewarding creation". There are many organizations that promote "giving generously", but what does it mean to "live generously"? It requires "vertically integrating" generosity and living sacrificially....
Faithfully "doing right" with integrity needs a WHY, and the WHY of faithfully "doing right" needs to have integrity in the form of "authenticity" (with authenticity having four components: identity, sincerity, consistency and transparency). In other words, the organization's WHY must be more than a pretty sign on the wall--it's WHY must be at the heart of its culture. ...
Faithfully "doing right" requires considering more than just WHAT you do. It requires also considering HOW you do it and WHY you are doing it. Faithfully "doing right" requires doing the right thing, in the right way and for the right reasons....
Faithfully “doing right” is much more than “doing good”. In this post we begin exploring the "Integrity Priority" of Righteousness by considering what “doing good” can mean in business (and it can mean many different things, none of which are the ancient path of "business a better way"). ...
A key element of the RENEW step of Integriosity is re-ordering disordered priorities. It is important to go back to first principles by asking what the Bible tells us are the keys to everything else. And then we have to "Keep First Things First" by pursuing those first principles and not the “everything else”! Having an agenda...
Management matters. WHO leaders of an organization “show up as” and HOW the organization “does what it does” can have intrinsic value in God’s Kingdom before even considering the services it provides or the products it produces. And the WHO and HOW are impacted by the organizations WHY....
"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Guess what--we are done with the bad news, and it is finally time to dig into the good stuff! We have spent the last 30 posts digging through the rubble of "work". It is now time to begin rebuilding toward "business a better way" through the framework of Integriosity®....
The effort to faithfully "do right" by integrating faith and work can get DERAILED by six problems that can keep the organization in the deep hole of "business as usual" and may even push it deeper. The more of "business a better way" is much harder, but getting out of the hole is necessary and worth the journey....