A friend made an off handed comment the other day.  “That’s all just man’s wisdom” he said.  This has been chewing at me for a couple days and i have been trying to pinpoint why.  I think i figured it out.

Man has no wisdom aside from what God has given him.  Solomon could have asked for anything, but he asked for wisdom and God was pleased with his request and granted it to him.  Did you ever wonder about what Solomon actually obtained?  Do you think he just got a better understanding of the scriptures?  I highly doubt it.  As an observant man once told me, everything in the bible is true but everything which is true is not in the bible.  If you haven’t heard this before i would encourage you to chew on it, even to try and disprove it.

Through my varied professional and academic education i have learned broadly about “man’s wisdom”.  In this education i have learned one thing most prominently.  All existence is governed by universal laws.  We have different names for the laws, some are physics, some are mathematics, quantum mechanics, philosophy, leadership, business principles, theology, etc.  One lesson that sticks with me more than most is that God created these universal laws and existence does not stray from them.  Mankind has only discovered these laws, not created them.  Even though many of these laws are not stated specifically in the bible, they are just as real and valid as the ten commandments.

The comment made by my friend has been chewing at me because i believe it insulted the work and minds of great people who have come before us.  Many people have devoted their life to understanding the universal laws that govern our existence.  Saying “that is just man’s wisdom” implies that this knowledge is optional, like “I can read the bible and I’ve never read that in the bible so it may not be true.”

Really?  OK then, lets test the laws of gravity -care to jump off a bridge? Or how about inertia, -why not stop out in front of a care traveling at 60MPH?  Have you ever tried to develop an employee or mentee without applying good leadership?  Try implementing a significant change and intentionally breaking the rules of change management, see what happens.

BTW, i believe if you read the bible and digest the stories therein, you will also be able to identify many of these universal laws.  Moses engaged the laws of organizational leadership, Nehemiah engaged the laws of change management (actually all seven prominent principles), Noah applied mechanics laws (even though he didn’t know it) and made the ark float, Cain defied the laws of anatomy and physiology and killed his brother (maybe unknowingly), Jesus used psychology principles to teach (seems only fair, he created them!  ). 

Man’s wisdom is not really man’s.  Like everything, we only steward it.  I believe wisdom is a gift of God, he graciously hid some things so that the ones he created curious by nature wouldn’t get bored!

I have recently been pondering a question that must have a good answer. I think I know what to do, but would really like to get some input from others on this one.

NY is a state which affords an employer the opportunity to let an employee go without a reason. In fact, legal counsel will usually tell you to not provide a reason to an employee if you are letting them go. In NY, the employee can also always bring forth a law suit, which many employees will do if they feel they were discriminated against.

Great, so we understand the legality of it. But, what about the ethics of employment?

In the corporate world, people are hired and fired most often due to performance reasons. This makes perfect sense to me. The Purpose of a for-profit business is to make money. If an individual is not helping the company makes money …. Bubye! You could call this an alignment problem; the employee is not aligned with the employer’s purpose. Also, employers sometimes let people go because of attitude problems, the person cannot work well with others whereby hindering the performance of others.

How about at church? Let’s say church purpose is to make more and better disciples. Disciples are inherently people; therefore you could say we are in business to make more and better people who follow Christ, right? I have been around churches long enough to know that churches all have values and beliefs and the way they make more and better disciples will vary given these values and beliefs. If a church employee doesn’t want to make more and better disciples or believes that their employer is going about it all wrong, we may say there’s an alignment problem. This seems to be grounds for parting ways, as does the person with a bad attitude.

What about a church employee who thinks the church is right on track, agrees with the churches way of making more and better disciples (and is helping to do so) and has a good attitude, but can’t seem to keep up with the work load you are asking them to keep up with? Then what do you do?

If a business is investing money in a fund that isn’t returning the yield they desire, what do they do? (Remember, the purpose of the business is to make more and better money). Should this be analogous?

What do you think?

Recently I made a reference to the Peter Principle.  This is a business principle which states that most people are eventually promoted one level above their competency.

In my experience, I have found that sometimes a person who is subject to the Peter Principle can develop the competency needed to succeed in their new role, but sadly this is usually not the case.  I say sadly because this problem should be avoidable.

A person is usually promoted because they are good at what they are doing, when in fact a person should be promoted because they can be good at what they will be doing in their promotion.  This is most obvious when a person moves from an individual contributor to a manger or from a manager to a leader.
At this point I need to define the difference between these three roles, since I know there are varying thoughts on the difference between managers and leaders.

An individual contributor is a doer.  This person has a high capacity to know and do things in one or several areas.  Individual contributors are those who actually get the tasks done.  Individual contributors make the world go round.  Most people can be competent individual contributors.

Managers achieve work with and through others.  A good manager does this while developing the people they are working with.  Managers have the ability to look inward at their team and work with them to get tasks completed.  You know you are a competent manager if you are asking, “are the people working for me being successful?”  As a manger, your focus should always be the success of your team, not the completion of tasks.  Good managers enable doers to make the world go round.  There are many less competent managers than competent individual contributors.

Leaders inspire others to manage and work.  Good leaders communicate where they are going and enlist managers to help them get there.  Leaders focus outward on what can be and coach their managers in developing their skills and competencies.  Developing new leaders and managers is second only to providing clarity for where they are leading and why.  Good leaders make it rewarding for managers to manage.  There are few good leaders; some experts argue 1% of the population or less.

If you want to be happy in your work life, try to figure out what you were designed to be: an individual contributor, a manager or a leader.  Once you think you understand which of these you were designed to be, focus your efforts on being the best you can be in that role.  Don’t fall victim to the Peter Principle; there is nothing glorious about being in a role that you were not uniquely designed to fill.  God has a purpose for your life, find it and enjoy it.

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing. “

W. Edwards Deming

Process is where the rubber meets the road; it’s the diligence in success. Your organization is made up of processes, from the top to the bottom. There is a whole science of process and varying technical definitions; for this discussion we are going to focus on the highest level processes in an organization and we will use the standard definition: “a systematic series of actions directed to some end”.

In the book, Execution: the Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy identifies the three core processes of any organization: the people process, the strategy process and the operations process. These three processes govern the organization and define success. It is the responsibility of the leaders to insure that these processes are well defined, understood and implemented.

Interestingly enough, Larry identifies the people process first, stating that effective processes for finding, developing and retaining people in your organization is non-negotiable for success (seeing a theme yet? J). The strategy process defines how you set direction and goals for your organization. The operations process links strategy and people to create the desired output. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it.

Process is intentionally the last of the three essential P’s we look at, it is the recursive attribute; improving on the three P’s starts with this final P – process. Working through the three core processes improves the three essential P’s. Implementing the strategy process will inherently strengthen your purpose. Implementing the people process will strengthen your people. Implementing the operations process will strengthen you processes.

To evaluate your processes, ask the following questions:

• Are your people processes well defined? Are they measureable? Are their output meeting expectations?
  
• Are your strategic processes well defined? Are they measureable? Are their output meeting expectations?
  
• Are your operational processes well defined? Are they measureable? Are their output meeting expectations?
  

You should notice a relationship between how you answer these questions and how you have evaluated the previous P’s. Deliberately implementing and improving on processes in each of these areas will continually thrust your organization towards the success you desire. I pray that you are richly blessed in your efforts to do so.

I have been holding off on writing this post. The challenge I am having is keeping it brief so you will read it, while still doing the topic justice.

People are the components of an organization that make it successful or unsuccessful. In business the mantra is “people are your most important asset”. Unfortunately, businesses abandon this solid business principle for more typical HR practices.

An organization of one is not much of an organization, so for the purpose of this post I will reference an organization as an entity consisting of more than five people.

A church, like a business has assets. Our building is an asset as are all our tangible, owned items. There are also intangible items such as a logo or brand a culture and intellectual property (music, software, copyrights, etc.). And then there are people. The church is called to be a good steward of all its assets, this applies even more to the people it employees. Not only are they assets, but they are people – and people are the church. But for arguments sake, let us assume for just a moment that they are nothing more than assets. Let’s say that the right people are the most important asset our church has.

How do we treat assets we value? Take our building as an example. We value our building as an asset and strive to be good stewards of it. In doing so, we continually invest money and time into the building to keep it looking and functioning as well as we possibly can. In this way we continually add value to the building whereby being good stewards of what has been entrusted to us. Now, we all know that the building is only a tool, yet we put time and money into it. How much more valuable are the people we work with? Like the building, if we continually use these assets without making significant reinvestment the value of these assets will only decrease. We must add value to all our assets – especially our people if we are to be good stewards of everything God has entrusted to us. If you hire the right people today, will they be the right people when you grow? I would argue probably not, unless you are investing in them.

So, we need to ask: how do we add value to our people? If you are a leader, this needs to be a primary focus. This is what Jesus did with the 12, if we are following his example we need to do the same with those he has entrusted to us.

OK, I feel like I have just begun to scratch the surface of this topic and could write about it for a hundred pages or so, but I won’t. The purpose of this series was to present the three essential P’s and give some thought on how to evaluate them.

So, some questions you should ask to evaluate the health of your organization from a people perspective:

• Are you staffing for the vision?
• Does your organizational structure identify what is most important to the organization?
• Do you have the right people in the right positions?
• Do you have well defined expectations for leaders, managers and individual contributors?
• Do you have team work and participation?
• Are you promoting internally or are you hiring externally?
• Is the culture healthy? Are attitudes good? Are there strong social bonds?
• Are people being innovative?

Chances are you can say that a couple of these attributes are where you want them to be, most are present but could be improved and a few are lacking. If you can answer favorably to all these questions and your organization is not achieving your goals, I would encourage you to re-evaluate your answers. Though this is not an all inclusive list of attributes for a healthy organization, it is a sound starting point. When all these attributes are favorable your organization will be in the top quartile of culturally healthy organizations.

Prov 16:4
The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

In every healthy, growing organization, the purpose must be clear. Most people want to be a part of something that is larger than their self. A well understood and well communicated purpose will capture the heart and mind of the right people for an organization. In addition, the purpose needs to align with customer’s needs if the organization is to remain viable.

If an organization is to grow (whether it is a church or a business) it must go through change. Growth is inherently change. Change in an organization is simply moving from one place to another. In order to move an organization from one place to another, the reason for the move and the destination need to be clear. The reason for the move is the organizations purpose today. This has also been called mission. Regardless of what it’s called, leadership must answer the question “why do we do what we do?” If this question is not answered, an organization will never gain the commitment of its employees; at best it will gain compliance.

The destination is where the organization wants to be at some point in the future. This is the second critical element for purpose. People want to know they are succeeding. If an organization expects passion and commitment from its employees, it must paint a clear picture of where they are going and make clear how progress will be realized. This is very often called vision.

To identify the purpose and level of commitment to that purpose in your organization, ask these questions:

• Do you know what your purpose is today (Mission)?
• Do you know where you are going; what you want to be in X years (Vision)?
• Does your mission meet your customer’s needs today?
• Will your vision delight your customer’s tomorrow?
• Does everyone know the mission and vision?
• Is everyone aligned with the mission and vision?
• Can your team keep score to identify if they are meeting the goal?

Purpose is set by leadership and must be shared throughout the organization. Mission and vision are critical elements of success; there are no great organizations that lack these elements.

Prov 20:5
The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

I was lying in bed, half way between awake and asleep and I had a flash back to a previous life.

I had been preparing for a presentation at an international process improvement conference. The topic I was presenting had been the culmination of my last year’s work and the topic of my master’s thesis. In preparation, I was digging into experience in management consulting and the theories of management gurus. I was basing the talk on the Three P’s used in management consulting to evaluate the health of an organization.

In my semi conscious state, I was mentally rehearsing the points for my presentation; applying them to a current organizational problem in preparation for my previous talk. I was jarred awake by the realization that the problem I was analyzing was real, but the presentation had already been delivered.

The good news: I have had a lucid thought already today.
The bad news: I am blogging at 2AM.

So, now I’ve teased you, and you’re probably asking “what are the three P’s”; or you’re in the middle of typing a phrase into Google because you could care less! J

A brief Google did not yield the author of the three P’s, so I am guessing they are a practical application of a slightly different theory. I remember coming across these principles together in something I was reading, but don’t remember if it was from Porter, Demming or Duran. In practice, the three P’s are often used by consultants to evaluate the health of an organization.

The threes P’s are well defined, understood and productive in healthy organizations:

1. Purpose
2. People
3. Process

When I awoke, I was aligning our current organization with the three P’s. We are bumping against the ceiling. This is normal for any organization that has grown as fast as Grace has, in fact, Grace is surprisingly healthy for the rate at which it has grown. Still, as we prepare to enter the next season of our organizational life we will face challenges. Some of the current systems will need to change in order to achieve future goals.

Einstein’s definition of insanity: to do the same thing and expect different results.

Profound take away: we must change to grow. Or as more elegantly stated by Andy Stanly: “If you want different results you need to ensure your systems produces those results.”

Part 2 – Purpose.

I believe we were all created for a purpose. When we find and work in this purpose, we work with the natural order God created. For this reason I believe we should strive to understand how God has uniquely created us and when we discover our gifts and strengths we should use them diligently. As adults we waste an inordinate amount of time trying to improve our weaknesses; time that could be much more productively applied to improving our strengths. I wish I could say that I came up with this concept, but I didn’t. It has been taught and used by many in recent years. The most persuasive evidence for the truth of this principle is presented by Marcus Buckingham.

I have practiced this principle and seen the impact it can have. Applying this principle does not mean we will never again do anything we don’t like to do. It doesn’t mean we love every aspect of our job. It doesn’t mean we won’t work as hard. It means we will find fulfillment in the major aspects of our work, because we are doing what we do best most of the time. This will actually encourage most of us to work longer and harder because we are seeing success in what we are doing.

One very easy application (or violation) of this principle is performance reviews. In many organizations (fortunately this number is decreasing) managers evaluate employees performance, construct a list of weaknesses and strengths, tell the employee (usually briefly) where they did a good job and then focus most of the performance review (and the employees effort for the year) on improving said weaknesses. This is a waste; there is empirical data that shows employees who focus on increasing their strengths are more productive than those who focus on improving their weaknesses. Yes, the work still needs to get done. Yes, we will still need to do things we are not good at. But no matter how much time and effort we spend on weakness areas, we will never be as effective or efficient at them as someone who has natural strengths in these areas. And while we are trying (and usually failing) to master our weaknesses, our strengths go untapped – along with everything we could have accomplished and our ambition and commitment for our work. This is just poor stewardship.

Why? Why do we feel the need to manage this way? It is unnecessary and leads to un-productivity and high turnover. We no longer work in a world where employees need employers. Due to the decreasing American population (yes, it’s a fact the population is shrinking) there are a glut of good jobs available. In fact, the trend is towards more jobs than qualified people and this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. So, if your goal is to get rid of your best people just tell them to work harder and longer hours to accomplish things they hate doing and will never do successfully. Or we could find what we are good at, capitalize on those strengths and the encouragement that comes with success and realize that there are going to be areas of work that no matter what we do will not meet our expectations; the work still gets done and our next hire will possess strengths in the areas that we are weakest in.

You can learn to eat with your foot, but it will never work as well as eating with your hand.

Rom 12:4 – 8 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.