Once a leader, armed with a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business, RE-IMAGINES the Purpose and Values of the organization they lead, the final (and most difficult) step is to Re-Imagine Implementation of that purpose and those values throughout the organization by re-imagining its organizational Culture. Re-Imagined Purpose forms the cornerstone of the organization and Re-Imagined...
Once a leader, armed with a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business, RE-IMAGINES the Purpose of the organization they lead, the next step is to Re-Imagine Values. Re-Imagined Purpose forms the cornerstone of the organization, but Re-Imagined Values complete the foundation. Values in an organization are critical because they serve to translate the purpose into...
When a leader, armed with a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business, begins to RE-IMAGINE the organization they lead, the process must include Re-Imagining Profit--the most difficult and most important element of Re-Imagining Purpose. It is the most difficult because Profit as Purpose is at the core of "business as usual". It is actually...
When a leader, armed with a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business, begins to RE-IMAGINE the organization they lead, the process must include Re-Imagining People--the role and treatment of the people in the organization. Re-Imagining People requires leaders prayerfully to discern what the organization could look like if flourishing, dignity and community became priorities. It flows from,...
When a leader, armed with a RENEWED understanding of God's purpose for work and business, begins to RE-IMAGINE the organization they lead, the process must begin with Re-Imagining Vision--the organization's WHY. Re-Imagining Vision requires leaders prayerfully to discern a WHY that expresses the heart God desires to implant in the organization and captures the hearts of the organization's people, inspiring...
The core of Integriosity® is ALIGNMENT--aligning the organization's purpose and values with core Biblical purpose and values, then cultivating an organizational culture of Shalom that is aligned with, and reinforces, the organizational purpose and values. The RENEW stage of Integriosity provides the tools for Re-Alignment--a renewed understanding of Biblical purpose, values and priorities for work and business. But...
There are four stages in the process toward Integriosity®, each of which lays the groundwork for the next--RENEW, RE-IMAGINE, RE-ALIGN, RESTORE. Jumping into RE-IMAGINE or RE-ALIGN before RENEW would be like going out on the field before you learned the rules of the game or the fundamental skills. Jumping into RE-ALIGN before RE-IMAGINE would be starting the game without a...
The fifth key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the WHEN of faith-work integration--it is getting at the PRIORITY of "business a better way" in the organization being stewarded by faith-driven leaders. The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #5 is "THE TIME IS NOW". Once a faith-driven...
The fourth key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the HOW of faith-work integration--it is getting at the PRACTICE of "business a better way" through actually implementing a "heart" change in the organization being stewarded. The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #4 is "SYMBOLS ARE SECONDARY". In the...
The third key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the WHY of business--it is getting at the PURPOSE that flows from, and supports, an organization faithfully "doing right". The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #3 is "GREED IS NOT THE CREED". It is the most important--and...
The second key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the WHO of leaders pursuing faith-work integration--the kind of PERSON needed to faithfully "do right". The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #2 is "YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU DO". Mind-Shift #2 is about seeing yourself first in terms of...
The first key "mind-shift" of business a better way through Integriosity® captures a new way of thinking about the WHAT of faith-work integration--the very PRINCIPLE that defines faith-work integration. The critical thing to remember about Mind-Shift #1 is "FAITH CAN’T FIT INTO WORK". Faith-work integration is about integrating work into faith, not faith into work. Integrating faith into work suggests a VERY SMALL view of...
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...
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...
"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...
Of the various aspects of blue pill "business as usual" that contribute to workplace and worker brokenness, Profit as Purpose is the most significant, but the Scarcity assumption and the Self Interest assumption exacerbate the problems by ignoring why we were created and whose image we reflect. Together, these factors reinforce manipulative and dehumanizing managerial behavior and work cultures that...
Profit is not a problem, just like money is not the root of all evil. In fact, profit is necessary for a business operating in a market economy--without it you don't have a sustainable organization or access to financial capital. But (and it is a big "but"), Profit as Purpose is a problem of business as usual, just like the...
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...
In addition to "Profit as Purpose", another aspect of "business as usual" that leads to brokenness is "Scarcity"--the assumption that resources are scarce and everything is a zero-sum situation (my gain is your loss and vice versa). Importantly for Integriosity, a scarcity mindset in an organization can have a profoundly negative impact on how people are treated....
At Integrous, we believe there are four key aspects of "business as usual" that lead to its brokenness, and the most important of these is "Profit as Purpose"--the idea that the primary or sole purpose of "business as usual" is the maximization of financial profit for the benefit of shareholders. This mindset, in turn, flows into several other aspects of...
We call the blue pill "business as usual", and it is broken. At Integrous, we believe there are four key aspects of "business as usual" that lead to brokenness: Profit as Purpose; Scarcity; Self-Interest; and "Can We" Ethics....
In England, riders on the "Tube" (aka the Underground or the subway) are famously warned to "mind the gap". People serious about integrity and faith/work integration should heed the same warning. At Integrous, we believe there are THREE gaps to cross, and we want to help you and your organization get across....
The United States is facing an epidemic of loneliness, isolation, confusion, distrust and dissatisfaction (pre-Covid-19). It is clear that the blue pill of "business as usual" has become "dehumanizing" and has moved far from its original design in Genesis as something good. We believe it is time for "business a better way" in alignment with Biblical values and priorities--it...
There is no shortage of statistics showing that most workers feel disengaged and disconnected from the activity that was intended to bring flourishing and fulfillment by unleashing their God-given creativity and productivity. Central to the the red pill of Integriosity® is humanizing people by redeeming work and business-- bringing it closer to God's design in Genesis....