A leader can't align the purpose and vision of an organization with God's purpose for work and business until that leader has a sound understanding of work and business from a Biblical perspective, which is the purpose of the RENEW step of Integriosity®. Until an organization's leader(s) is ready to abandon business as usual thinking and adopt business a better way thinking, the second step...
A key element of the RENEW step of Integriosity® is re-ordering disordered priorities by looking at Biblical principles for work and business. It is important to go back to first principles by asking what the Bible tells us are the keys to everything else. The key Biblical principles that form the foundation of Integriosity are embedded in the word...
The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and, in addition to being the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things" (Righteousness, Love and Kingdom), it is a key to Wisdom. Pride, on the other hand, can keep the leader of an organization in an information and wisdom silo. Humility by a leader can lead to...
The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Kingdom. Humility in pursuing the Kingdom flows from knowing who we are in relation to God--it means recognizing the "smallness of our greatness" and returning to the childlike qualities of dependence and trust on God in making...
The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Love. Humility in Loving Others flows from knowing who we are in relation to other people. By embracing Imago Dei, Humility leads us to treat others with dignity, respect and kindness because of WHO they are. Humility also...
The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things", including Righteousness. Humility in Righteousness flows from knowing who we are in relation to God's creation and His plan. In fact, living sacrificially--a key to Righteousness--is not possible without Humility. In order to lead an organization in a way that sacrificially...
The last of the four first principles embedded in Integriosity® is Humility, and it is the key to understanding the "HOW" of the other three "first things"--Righteousness, Love and Kingdom--and it is a key to Wisdom. In fact, we believe leadership without Humility is antithetical to leading an organization to faithfully "do right". Humility is knowing who you are in relation to God's creation and His plan,...
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...
Love is the first "Generosity Priority" embedded in Integriosity®, and we have seen how the generosity and service aspects of Love lead us to the purpose of work and business (maximize flourishing by Humanizing, Beautifying, Glorifying), but there are also respect and sustainability aspects of Love that are inherent in the Creation Mandate. Biblical sustainability is about faithfully "doing right" by caring for all God's creation as its STEWARDS. It is motivated by obedience to the Creation Mandate--not by fear...
Putting together the puzzle pieces of the last several posts, we see that the first principle of Love leads us to the same purpose for business as emerged from the first principle of Kingdom--the BIGGER purpose of work and business is to HUMANIZE people, BEAUTIFY the world and GLORIFY God by serving internally and externally in a way that maximizes the...
An organization is a merely a collection of people working together toward a common purpose. As such, it derives its purpose from their purpose. Organizations such as businesses have intrinsic Kingdom value because they are a creation of God's image-bearers that provides the platform and the opportunity for humans to come together in relationship to express and fulfill their...
The nature of work in God's design is that it is how we use our skills to obey His commandments through SERVICE. People are more fully human when they are working in alignment with God's purpose for work--a vehicle for living out the Creation Mandate and the great commandments to love God and love each other. Embedding the Biblical principle of work as service in the culture and...
Being created in the image of God is not just a great t-shirt slogan--it has important implications for how we live and what we need in order to be fully human. Embedding the Biblical principle of love your neighbor in the culture and heart of an organization is essential to faithfully "doing right", because it is essential in order...
Keep First Things First means going back to Biblical first principles, and one of the four principles embedded in the word Integriosity® is the "Generosity Priority" of LOVE. "All the Law and the Prophets" depend on the commandments to love God and love your neighbor, which makes understanding love your neighbor in an organizational context essential to faithfully "doing...
The book-ends of a BIGGER GOSPEL reveal the purpose and relevance of work and organizations in God's grand plan and an even greater purpose for Redemption through Jesus. Creation and Restoration teach us that humans need work and organizations to be "fully human"; work and organizations have intrinsic Kingdom value; work and organizations can glorify God; and a purpose...
For a leader to lead an organization to faithfully "do right", they must recognize that what they believe about "where we are going someday" profoundly impacts "how we act today". God's restoration plan for His Kingdom means work and business have relevance in God's grand design and eternal significance. A BIGGER GOSPEL reveals that we have the...
For a leader to lead an organization to faithfully "do right", they must recognize that what they believe about "where we are going someday" profoundly impacts "how we act today". A Restoration understanding of heaven means the "very good" creation that left plenty of room for our creative and productive cultivation will finally be perfected as a refined...
For a leader to lead an organization to faithfully "do right", they must look to Creation to understand the necessity of work to God's plan for His creation. The world was actually created to need our creativity and productivity in order to flourish. A BIGGER GOSPEL reveals that creation needs human work to unleash its potential (and...
For a leader to lead an organization to faithfully "do right", they must look to Creation to understand the importance of work to the humanity of those they lead. God created work for humanity as a GOOD THING before the Fall, and people are more “fully human” when engaged in meaningful work that unleashes their God-given productivity and creativity....
A leader can't lead an organization to faithfully "do right" without understanding and embracing a BIGGER GOSPEL, because without going back to Creation, we can't understand Who We Are, and more importantly, we can't understand Who Other People Are. It is only when we understand the implications of God creating humans in His image that we can begin to understand...
It is impossible to understand God's purpose for work or business without looking at Genesis and understanding the Creation Mandate (a commandment about our purpose on earth), God's love for all creation and our role as its stewards. As stewards, we have global responsibility to use our God-given creativity and productivity to cultivate God’s creation in order to enable...
Many faith-driven leaders are operating out of a narrow and incomplete vision of God's story--missing the beginning and end of a grand four-part narrative (Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration). Because the purpose and relevance of work and business are found in Creation and Restoration, we do not believe a leader can lead an organization to faithfully "do right" without understanding and...
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" or being ethical. The key to understanding faithfully "doing right" is recognizing that "doing right" needs an object--by whom are we to "do right". We believe a faith-driven leader is called to "do right" by God, and that means living generously by loving others and stewarding creation. ...
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....
"Interimizing" is putting off "doing right" until the business is "doing well"--exalting a worldly concept of "success" (profit) over a Biblical concept of "success" (human flourishing). A leader that swallows The "Success First" Pill and adopts an "interim strategy"--Interimizing--may never get around to faith/work integration....
"Prosperitizing" is when leaders pursue faith/work integration because they believe it will lead to God blessing their business with worldly success--measured in terms of profit and growth. It is perhaps the most insidious of the various Side Roads because the organization can look like it actually is conducting "business a better way"--but its NOT....
Some faith-driven leaders have been deceived into believing that the integration of faith and work is principally about sprinkling some "faith" pixie dust over the organization to make it look and feel "Godly"--and that leads down the Side Road of Cosmeticizing. "Cosmeticizing" is when an organization adopts overt faith symbols and practices without transforming how it actually does business....
We have explored the five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down faith as usual Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. After Agonizing and Individualizing, the third of these Side Roads is Monetizing. Side Roads represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill that we believe...
We have explored the fivecommon Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. We have also hinted at the six common faith as usual Side Roads that represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill but, we believe, actually miss the ancient path...
We have explored the five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders to stumble down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. We have also hinted at the six common faith as usual Side Roads that represent responses to Placebos advertised as the Red Pill but, we believe, actually miss the ancient...
We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. The fifth Placebo is The "Success First" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Road of Interimizing and tempts leaders to delay taking action for the wrong reasons (misunderstanding of faith/work integration and...
We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. The fourth Placebo (after The "4-Hour Content" Pill, The "Save or Give" Pill and The "Add Some Faith" Pill) is The "Bless You" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Road of Prosperitizing....
We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. The third Placebo (after The "4-Hour Content" Pill and The "Save or Give" Pill) is The "Add Some Faith" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Road of Cosmeticizing....
We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. The second Placebo (after The "4-Hour Content" Pill) is The "Save or Give" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Roads of Monetizing and Cosmeticizing....
We believe there are five common Placebos of what we call faith as usual that can lead well intentioned leaders down Side Roads in their effort to integrate their faith and their work. The first Placebo we will explain is The "4-Hour Content" Pill, which commonly leads to the Side Roads of Agonizing and Individualizing....
We started Integriosity #001 by saying that many leaders who are guided by the Bible in their personal lives and sincerely want to live an integrated faith life at work are confused or frustrated or even intimidated. Some have given up. Others think they are doing it, but they are actually missing the mark. We call the problem "faith as usual",...
A fourth key aspect (in addition to Idol and Identity, Money and Power and Burden) of toxic "work as usual" that leads to "work" becoming something far from God's design in Genesis is that work as usual is characterized by Unhealthy Relationships, rather than life-giving community and connection....
A third key aspect (in addition to Idol and Identity and Money and Power) of toxic "work as usual" that leads to "work" becoming something far from God's good and live-giving design in Genesis is that it has become a Burden rather than the blessing it is was designed to be. Our cultural obsession with finding "Work/Life Balance" is...
At Integrous, we believe another (in addition to Idol and Identity) of the four key aspects of toxic "work as usual" that leads to "work" becoming something far from God's good and live-giving design in Genesis is that it is all about Money and Power rather than people....
At Integrous, we believe one of the four key aspects of toxic "work as usual" that leads to "work" becoming something far from God's good and live-giving design in Genesis is Idol and Identity--the idea that "work as usual" means our work has come to DEFINE "who" we are, rather than being a place to EXPRESS "who" we are....
We call the blue pill "business as usual", and the last several posts have shown ways in which it is broken. If a business is just an association of human beings working together (which it is), is it any surprise that "work as usual" would be broken as well in related ways? Organizational cultures that are broken through toxic assumptions...
In addition to Profit as Purpose, Scarcity and Self Interest, the fourth aspect of "business as usual" that we believe leads to workplace and worker brokenness is a "Can We" Culture--an organizational culture in which ends justify means and ethics or the law are seen as the only boundaries (or even obstacles) in the pursuit of the organization's purpose. A goal...
In addition to Profit as Purpose and Scarcity, another aspect of "business as usual" that leads to brokenness is "Self-Interest"--the assumption that people are self-interested and will act in their own self-interest. This is closely tied to the scarcity assumption. In a blue pill organization conducting business as usual, with Profit as Purpose and the self-interest assumption, people's behavior...