ESSENCE: As a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, you do not want your organization to be a Biblical "but," and you certainly do not want to be one yourself. Scripture gives us powerful illustrations of what that means in its evaluation of the kings of Judah. Some of the saddest evaluations of...
We have had other topics in the wings, but news in the last week brought us right back to the relationship between "humanity," technology, and God's purpose for work and organizations. The inspiration for this post came from two articles--one about using technology to verify that someone is "human" and another about using technology to capture human behavior so that...
INTEGRITY IDEA: Pour a FoundationA few people have asked if we were planning something special for the 100th Integrity Idea. We weren't. What arrived, though, may be the most important of all 100. Integrity Idea 100 is about when a faithful leader should ignore the first 99 Integrity Ideas–at least for now. "Pour a Foundation" is about pouring a foundation...
For any patriotic American, this past Sunday was an exciting day watching the United States men's hockey team win a gold medal--the first in 46 years. When Jack Hughes set aside NHL rivalries to play for Team USA, he showed the power of knowing whose team you are on. A faithful leader can't understand the WHY or HOW of faith/work...
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: We trained ChatGPT on Integriosity® and asked it to write a short story about the journey of Faithful Leader in the spirit of The Pilgrim's Progress, focusing on the seven Side Road detours of what we call faith as usual. Here is ChatGPT's summary:Faithful Leader’s journey is the call of every leader entrusted with work under the reign of...
When a faithful leader's eyes have been opened to the truth of God's purpose for work and business and that leader turns with all their might to transform the heart of the organization they lead through the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, the forces of the kingdom of the world will try to turn...
When King Josiah’s eyes were opened to the truth of God's commands, he didn’t respond with mild reform or token gestures. He responded with wholehearted action. He "turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might". That same posture is needed today by faithful leaders whose eyes have been opened to the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Don’t worry--this is not about the U.S. Southern border, Eastern European borders or Middle Eastern borders. It is about the border between the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God. Kingdom border protection is trickier than geographic border protection because a faithful leader resides in both kingdoms and the border exists in the heart of the leader and...
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...
Integrous Founder Paul Michalski was the guest speaker at the monthly Toolbox Ministries-Galleria lunch held on March 9, 2022 at The Houston Racquet Club in Houston, Texas. Paul's talk was titled The 7 Stages of My Journey To the Why of Work: Understanding the Intersection of Faith and Work....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
"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 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",...
In the movie The Matrix, the character Morpheus offers Neo a choice of two pills--blue and red. At Integrous, we believe faith-inspired leaders have a similar choice. Like Neo, we hope you will choose Red--the "ancient path" of Business a Better Way....
We believe there are many leaders who are guided by the Bible in their personal lives and sincerely want to live an integrated faith life at work. Sadly, many are confused or frustrated or even intimidated. Some have given up. Others think they are doing it, but they are actually missing the mark. There is an answer--we call it...