day 1419: True Colors

"Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees!"

The World Cup!  It's been big this year and as we head to the finals this weekend the countries that compete will remain on the largest stage in the world. The World Cup brings out the colors of the countries from all over the world and people signify their current and ancestral allegiances with jerseys, hats, bandanas, banners, flags, etc.  We love to wear our colors and we do so everyday with our corporate logo wear and all that comes with the companies that we work with and do business.  But, there is more to our colors than this.  Our true colors come out when we are in trouble.  When there is an allegation of wrong-doing, or when their is a mistake found, or when we miss a significant goal.  It is then when companies and those around us show their true colors.  I can't imagine working at American Apparel right now. What a mess. And we can see the true colors of their Board, their founder and their investors emerging. Let's not fool ourselves, if we don't work hard at ensuring that our values are strong and deeply rooted, when push comes to shove we may see colors that we just don't like.

As believers, more than those who don't profess a faith, we should be and are held to a higher standard of  consistency and authenticity.  Our "colors" must be the same through thick, thin, smooth and rough times! When the worst occurs if our true colors are those that are grounded in God's Word and directions to us, then we are extending the Kingdom of God while here on earth.  If not, then we are like all the rest and our colors fade and wane as they change for the circumstance.

Reference: Psalm 119:5 (New Living Translation)

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day 1416: Learnings From The Camino (part 4): It Is Your Own Camino

"I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments."

This is part 4 of a 6 part series on my learning and takeaways from my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.  It just so happens that this post about the freedom of the Camino falls on the day before our American Independence Day celebration. As the Camino Pilgrims meet each other with the traditional greeting of "Buen Camino", it is also often common to hear, "It is your own Camino".  What this means is that you are to walk the Camino at your own pace, not at another's pace, unless you so choose.  So, you don't slow down or speed up for someone else.  It is your own Camino.  This becomes beneficial when you are covering 20 plus miles in a day.  There is a freedom in determining and being able to choose your own pace.  There are few things in life that allow us to do so and certainly in business the pace is usually determined from those at the top who have made the decision on how fast or slow the organization must move. When pace is dictated to us and then measured it becomes very personal, very fast.  When we ask someone, "When do you think you can get it done?", do we accept that answer or do we then try and modify their pace by asking for it earlier?  We might find that if we keep the overall goal in front of everyone that we can allow some freedom in individual pacing and for the employee this can be liberating.

David covers so many great areas within the Psalms.  As he drew from his life experiences he made his words real to us.  When he wrote of "walking in freedom" he likely was not only thinking metaphorically but as a former shepherd, he may have been thinking of literally how he walked. To physically walk in freedom is great but to spiritually walk in freedom is awesome. God promises us that if we devote ourselves to Him that we will experience the freedom that can only come from Him.  Today, you might feel shackled by all sorts of things.  It might be deadlines, or pressures, or loss, or sadness, or just frustration of too much to to get done and not enough help.  Whatever those areas are that are holding you back, turn those over to Him and he will free you and let you walk forward with joy and hope.

I wish each of you a Happy Independence Day and a great long weekend of freedom!

Reference: Psalm 119:45 (New Living Translation)

NOTE: Purposed worKING will be moving from Google's Blogger to http://www.purposedworking.com/ in the next week or so.  Shortly, you will be asked to receive your daily email from Feedblitz.  I hope you decide to come along for a new look and improved features.

day 1406: Work and Family: A Balancing Act

While on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! - Rusty
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“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted…It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously waiting for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.  Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him.  Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.  How joyful is the man who quiver is full of them!”

Recently, I attended an all-hands-on-deck company meeting, where everyone stopped what they were doing for three days and convened to set expectations and priorities for the business for the next fiscal year.  The proverbial “National Meeting.”

As is typically the case with gatherings such as these, there are informal question-and-answer sessions where mid-level managers are given the opportunity to ask candid questions of senior executives.  These sessions offer rare moments where everyone recognizes humanity in the workplace.  During one such exchange, a question pertaining to work-life balance and flexible work schedule policies was raised.  The senior executive responded by saying that as a rule, the company would not be instituting an official flexible work schedule policy, and that it’s the employee’s responsibility “to know whether you need to be at your child’s recital or not,” and that employees need to figure out arrangements to make room for family commitments, and that the company and your boss would be supportive within reason.

I thought to myself on the one hand that it was a reasonable response; employees need to set boundaries at work and prioritize the time they spend with their families.  But I also chuckled under my breath as I considered how this actually plays out in some working environments.  If the culture of a company, or a department—or the example set by your boss—is such that working long hours and traveling constantly is the tacit expectation, it can be incredibly difficult to leave at 4pm to be home to watch your kid’s ballgame, or skip an important business trip to attend that recital.

It turns out, according to a lot of research in the realm of work-life balance, that there is a large gap between espoused organizational work-life policies and actual practice. This is referred to as the “implementation gap,” and the Boston College Center for Work & Family has done a tremendous amount of research on this gap.  So the issue is not so much that companies are not trying to be responsive to work-life balance issues, it’s that there are missing links between setting up a program and actually making it work.

This is a very important issue to employees, particularly for those who are moms and dads.  Recent Harris Interactive research and surveys of Fortune 500 employees reveal that for men in their 20s and 30s, and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, the most important job characteristic is having a work schedule that allows them to spend time with their families, and 50% say they wonder if the sacrifices they have made for their careers are worth it.

Certainly, companies can and should be doing more to bridge the “implementation gap” that exists.  And while any company should do far more than leave it to their employees to figure out work-life balance on their own, there is a certain grain of ironic truth to this idea—particularly for those of us who are working Christian mothers and fathers.

Just as our relationship with God and Jesus is a personal walk where we are forced to acknowledge and contend with our own shortcomings, confessing our inadequacies, so too do we need to examine our own responsibilities as working professionals with families at home, and set a course that best keeps our work and home lives in balance.

The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 5:25 and Psalm 127, our spouses and children are gifts from God, and we must be responsible stewards of these gifts.  We’re encouraged by God to be both diligent in our work, while not sacrificing these precious gifts that God gives us.  The apostle Paul wrote in the Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

And so, we must aspire beyond what culture accepts—moms and dads that miss birthdays, baseball games, and recitals.  We have but 6,570 days to influence our children before they traditionally leave the nest at 18 years old, and God expects nothing less than our best in prioritizing not earthly wealth nor professional achievement, but those treasures which are stored in heaven.  Cherish your families by giving them your time.

Reference: Psalm 127 (NLT)

Tim Owen

Working husband and dad, trying to figure it all out

day 1391: A Hack for Life

While I am on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I have asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! - Rusty

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"He makes me lie down in green pastures"

In Silicon Valley, everything is subject to being “hacked”.  Silicon Valley folks love to make anything they can get their hands on smaller, smarter, faster, stronger, or less expensive.  I have friends working to build everything from a driverless car to a monitor that tells you how many calories your dog burned while you were at work.  Wired, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Engadget, RE/Code, and a host of other magazines and websites have created an entire industry dedicated to reporting the latest and greatest innovations in technology.  The need for instantaneous news updates and social connections have created billions of dollars in market value for companies like like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Apple employees go to work at 1 Infinite Loop and Facebook employees at 1 Hacker Way in case they forget the goal is to always innovate and move forward.  

But, could it be possible to go too far too fast and for too long?  The same media outlets listed above are also filled with stories of burnout, questionable business and personal decisions, and intellectual stagnation made by the same companies and employees that had been previously praised as the best and the brightest.  How does this happen?  Should the employees work harder or smarter and figure out a new hack for management and work style?  Should companies replace their management or board periodically to bring fresh thoughts and energy to the front lines?  How can we engineer our way out of the inevitable future obsolescence?

My suggestion is that every manager and employee stop and think about one key word in the Verse 2 of Psalm 23 - “ He MAKES me lie down in green pastures.”  God doesn’t suggest, prod, or offer that we take five every now and then for a quick touchbase.  He tells us specifically that we have to stop and spend time with him in his green pastures and by quiet waters.  Only when that happens deliberately and regularly are we fully available and able to have God refresh our soul (v.3), guide us along the right paths (v.3), live life with confidence (v.4), nurture and heel us (v.5), and bask/share in his eternal glory (v.6).  

The Bible is filled with verses and examples of people stopping and seeking God and the promises of Psalm 23.  Jesus is described as stopping and seeking God at all times of the day, on land and water, in public and private, and alone and in groups.  Sometimes He took hours or days to be with God.  Other times, He is quoted saying simple, straight forward prayers during the rush of the day.  

I encourage you to stop what you are doing and "hack" your calendar to regularly stop and just spend time with God.  No need to send an email invite or set up a video call.  Prayer and time with God is the original killer mobile app and is available anytime and any place.  

Reference: Psalm 23 

Kevin Miller
Coitcom

day 1351: April Fooling Around

"Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!"


The internet has become the place for fooling around on April 1st.  I don't remember when this started, but its not been that long ago.  Today, everywhere you go you will read announcements about companies that have made ridiculous acquisitions, mergers, etc.  I've already read this morning of Facebook's purchase of Nintendo (but Nintendo held back Pokemon) and Apple's purchase of Beats (streaming, not the headphones - the dead give away that it was an April Fool's joke).  What's funny is that if today's announcement was about Facebook buying WhatsApp! for $19B, we might have all got a good chuckle.  Just because it's not April Fool's Day, doesn't mean we don't make silly moves in business that we later wish we could explain away as a joke.  We might all be better if we filtered our moves through the lens of April Fool's Day and consider how would it read if being announced on April 1?

How foolish it is of us to question where is God?  But, we do it daily when we lean to our own abilities and capability and ignore that we are to give these things to Him.  When we have to make that big decision do we turn to Him to help us make it?  When we know we have that difficult conversation coming, is part of our preparation asking God to give us the wisdom, calm and words to handle the conversation correctly?  When the pay raise comes are we tithing first and giving Him thanks first?  There are times that we can find ourselves acting foolish as we go about our work.  Let's take today, and ironically, not make it a day of being foolish, but instead, make it a day of serious rededicating of our ourselves to our Lord and bringing him glory in all that we do!

Reference: Psalm 14:1 (New Living Translation)