Business has the potential to beautify the world--or uglify it. “Beautiful” was clearly God's design when he created everything and declared it "very good", and “beautiful” is the word that comes to mind as you read the description of the New Jerusalem that is coming--God's Kingdom on earth. In between the beauty of a garden and the beauty of a...
The Faith Driven Entrepreneur blog featured an article by Integrous Founder Paul Michalski. The title of the article is "Does Your Business Beautify or Uglify: The Call To Create With Beauty."...
There are two basic choices when a faithful leader who has faithfully shaped the purpose, values and culture of an organization no longer wants, or is no longer able, to continue to lead the organization—succession or secession . But we are not talking about who fills the leader’s seat—we are talking about what happens to the HEART of the...
ESSENCE: From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Culture Coordinator COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Practice COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees,...
The new viral concept of Quiet Quitting is about doing just enough at work to get by--minimizing "work" in order to maximize "life". We believe Quiet Quitting is "unhuman" and a consequence of business as usual. God made us to flourish through work, and we are less fully human when not reflecting our God-given creativity and productivity through work that...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Intercessory Prayer COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Prayer COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Very Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom Most Integrity Ideas...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Group Prayer COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Prayer COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom Most Integrity Ideas are...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Personal Prayer COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Prayer COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Very Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, Kingdom Most Integrity Ideas...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Provide Humanity Resources COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Proclamation and Practices COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Overt STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Fund an Employee Fund 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...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Promote an ERG COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): People COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Employees Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions that...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Pay Today 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/Clients, Suppliers/Vendors Most Integrity Ideas are practical actions...
Integrous Founder Paul Michalski was interviewed by Chad Burmeister on his Living A Better Story podcast. The episode was released on July 9, 2022 and the topic was "Moments of Realization"....
ESSENCE: From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Proclaim a Faithful Purpose COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Proclamation COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Highly Covert or Highly Overt STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Kingdom Most Integrity...
From time to time, we are devoting posts to describing specific actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way. We are calling these Integrity Ideas. INTEGRITY IDEA: Hire a chaplain to be available for employees COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Prayer COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): ...
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...
Understanding Imago Dei is central to changing the heart of an organization to align with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities. Understanding that every human being is created in the image of God has important implications for work and business. It is through understanding Imago Dei that we recognize every person is more “fully human” when engaged in meaningful work that...
Sadly, "capitalism" has become a four-letter word for many people. Just as there are dozens of ways to define capitalism, there are dozens of terms people have come up with to describe the problems with capitalism that have made it a four-letter word and dozens of terms people have come up with to prescribe ways to move capitalism out...
We believe the mass exodus of workers being called the "Great Resignation" can more appropriately be called the "Great De-Humanization", not only for what caused it but also for what it is causing. A recent study concluded that "toxic work culture is the single best predictor" of which organizations suffered the most attrition. It seems people left organizations with busines...
It is impossible to talk honestly about the WHAT, WHY and HOW of business in alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities without addressing how profit fits in. Profit is NOT bad, and the creation by business of economic prosperity is good. Profit in a business is necessary for good stewardship of the business, which means it is necessary for...
We believe words are important and powerful. Words (and disordered words) can either support or undermine efforts to move an organization's culture toward faithfully "doing right" through business a better way. Disordered words can affect how leaders shape an organization's culture and view its WHY--the heart of the organization. For example, "integrate your faith into your work" is just one...
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...
Profit is NOT bad. In fact, we believe PROFIT IS NECESSARY for an organization (other than a non-profit organization) to be obedient to the Creation Mandate, because it is necessary for sustainability, for the flourishing of owners and to further the bigger "WHY" of the organization. However, in order to faithfully "do right", an organization must put profit in the proper...
We believe investors of Biblical faith wanting to invest in alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities need to think BIGGER in a new way--prioritizing "significance" over "size". If they don’t, they are at risk of undermining not only the faithfulness of their own investing but also the ability of faith-driven entrepreneurs and business leaders to run their businesses...
In a recent post we looked at a seeming anomaly--a secular business that appears to be faithfully "doing right" through business a better way (i.e., business as God intended in accordance with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities) seemingly without being faith-driven. In this post, we will highlight an example of what some cynics might say is an oxymoron--a law firm...
Recently, the CEO of BlackRock, Inc., Larry Fink, came out with his 2022 "letter to CEOs". In his 2022 letter, Fink focused on "stakeholder capitalism". We thought it would helpful to compare stakeholder capitalism and what we call business a better way. In many ways, they can look and feel the same, but they are not. You will not be surprised...
In our last post we looked at why Biblically faith-based non-profits can have cultures that stray far from God's design for work--good work on the outside with unhappy people on the inside. In this post, we consider the other end of the spectrum--secular businesses that appear to be faithfully "doing right" through business a better way (i.e., business as...
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...
One bigger WHY of work and business is the "SO THAT" that gives the biggest WHY to every other WHY. RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and...
We believe beautiful was God's design when He created everything and declared it "very good", but business as usual and work as usual are often accompanied by an ugly cost to God's creation, including people. RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and...
RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities based upon a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business. One of those bigger WHY's is Humanizing...
Integrous Founder Paul Michalski was interviewed by Darren Shearer on his Christianity in Business podcast. The episode was released on December 2, 2021 and the topic was "Moving Beyond Faith As Usual in the Marketplace"....
RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities based upon a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business. It is the narrow "ancient...
RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities based upon a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business. It is the narrow "ancient...
RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities based upon a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business. It is the narrow "ancient...
RESTORE is the fourth and final step in the path of Integriosity.® It is about seeing the bigger WHY's of work and business materialize and manifest in an organization that has been RE-IMAGINED and RE-ALIGNED with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities based upon a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business. It is the narrow "ancient...
After building the essential bridge of a RENEWED mind that allows us to move from business as usual to business a better way, exploring how to use that RENEWED understanding to begin to RE-IMAGINE an organization in a way that leads to faithfully "doing right" through business a better way, and then actually implementing change by RE-ALIGNING the organization with...
The process of Integriosity® should not (actually, cannot) be rushed. The first step of RENEW is not about knowledge--it is about "mind-shifts" that lead to "heart-change" that leads to "culture-change", and heart-change and culture-change usually doesn't happen overnight. The second step of RE-IMAGINE--prayerfully dreaming up a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture that align with Biblical beliefs, values and...
Prayer is essential in equipping leaders to face the spiritual challenges of leading an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way in a fallen world dominated by business as usual, and it is one of the six Covert-Overt Continuums of Integriosity®. The Prayer Continuum should always be the very first one addressed by leaders pursuing business...
The world--and business as usual--teaches organizational leaders to Trust principally in two things--"impressive" people and "secure" money--but we believe that is misplaced Trust. Business a better way requires re-directing that misplaced Trust in line with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities. Leading an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way requires Trust in God, and Trust...
An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way is a commitment to Authenticity. Authenticity is the embodiment of the "wholeness" of Integrity, which is at the core of...
An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way is a commitment to cultivating a Re-Imagined Culture. There are no "magic beans", "magic formulas" or "quick fixes" to realizing...
An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. One of the four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a better way, while avoiding the pitfalls of faith as usual Side Roads, is commitment to a bigger WHY. As explained in prior...
The second key ingredient (after flexible approach) needed for successful execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture is Intentional Leaders. An organization will not faithfully "do right" through business a better way without Intentional Leaders. The four important aspects of the Intentional Leadership required to lead an organization to faithfully "do right" through business a...
The third step in the path of Integriosity®--RE-ALIGN--is when a leader and an organization begin actually implementing change and alignment rather than just learning (RENEW) and dreaming (RE-IMAGINE). The first key ingredient needed for successful execution is a flexible approach. Faithfully "doing right" through "business a better way" requires alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities, but it...