I was looking over the thoughts that I have been sharing with you over the past couple of weeks and realized that a lot of the talks had to do with working together, team building, etc. We looked at Ben Hur and the horses, all different and yet pulling together for the same aims and objectives. Even with all the cricket going on, in the interviews with the cricketers, they talk beyond what they were able to achieve personally to what the team has done together and even beyond that, to the support staff and the coaches. It seems everybody is very aware these days that the making of one, comes from the making of the whole. Even great rivers that flow into the oceans start with little tributaries that come together.
We have great themes in our lives, great things that happen; and it happens because of smaller things that come together at the right time and at the right place for good to materialize.
I was reading a book by John D. Beckett called ‘Mastering Monday’ and in it he says that “There are themes that one must have that give us a sense of fulfillment in life, whether it is in our work space or in our personal life.” He’s really talking about how we operate within our spheres of work. He outlines 5 themes and I’m going to focus on 4 of them today, due to time constraints.
1. We must have purpose. Individuals and organizations function with far greater effectiveness when they have a clear sense of purpose. Each of us needs to ask, “What am I here for?” Knowing our purpose frees us up from debilitating diversions and helps us focus on what is most important.
I’m not sure how many on this call are musically inclined or how many of you would listen to a symphony or a Philharmonic orchestra, but if you ever do and you happen to get in earlier into the hall, you would notice that before the conductor comes on stage, the musicians are there, each playing their own instrument, their own tune – it’s like a cacophony. Each instrument, violins, wind instruments, etc, all burping their way along, the tympani playing a staccato; a terrible noise. And then suddenly out of all that chaos, the first violin or the second-in-charge will raise his bow and either he or the oboist will play the A-note. Then all instruments align to that A-note. When they are in perfect sync, the noise stops, the conductor walks onto the stage. After acknowledging the applause, he lifts his baton and when he brings it down, perfect harmony ensues. Out of that chaos, comes purpose. Here’s a person who is able to take all those different instruments, properly tuned now, into a place of sheer pleasure.
That’s what purpose can do for us. It allows us to get tuned up. It allows us to look at all the demands on our lives and say, “These are important”; to sift through the different voices that we hear and say these are the ones I’m going to pay attention to; to make proper use of our time and resources; hone our skills and be focused on our purpose.
2. Values. Core values are like an internal gyroscope, keeping us on course. They remind us and inform others, ‘This is what I stand for’; they define boundaries; they point us toward what is noble, good and sustainable. What’s important to us? What is that thing that is absolutely non-negotiable in our life, that if we compromise, will devalue who we are and what we stand for?
In his book, Beckett talks about Archie Dunham, who was chairman and CEO of Conoco Inc. He says that while they were building one of their plants in another country, they found that 2 workers were sacked for flagrantly violating the company’s safety standards. In protest, the entire workforce went on strike. Their demand: unless the 2 workers were re-hired, none of the employees would return to work. Archie Dunham looked at all the factors: the destruction, the cost of shutting down a major construction project, the value the company placed on its workers in each country where it did business, the importance of maintaining the company’s values especially the emphasis on safety. He felt that the company’s priorities were correct. They decided not to re-hire those 2 people.
A few weeks after that decision, the President of the country where the company was located, came to visit Mr. Dunham at the Conoco’s headquarters in Houston. He told Dunham how powerful the union was in his country and that Conoco needed to relent on re-hiring the 2 individuals. “It would be best for Conoco, for the union and for our country,” he said.
This is what Dunham replied, “Mr. President, you need to understand one thing. We stand behind the core values of our company. One of those important values is the safety of our people. These 2 men jeopardized the safety of their fellow employees. Because they did, we fired them and we will not hire them back. Mr. President, I would like you to take this message back to the union. We will not re-hire those workers even if we have to stop construction. This is how important our values are to us.” Within 2 weeks, the entire workforce was back on the job, minus the 2 workers. The message was clear: Conoco’s core values were not negotiable.
Business Week 2005 ranked Conoco Phillips as one of the most admired and highest-performing companies in the nation.
Clear understanding of values; what was important to them, what’s important to you? What is an absolute non-negotiable in your life? And the ability to stand by those values whatever the cost.
3. People: the value that people are to us. When we think about people, we think about all kinds of people all around us; some of them we can get along with, some of them we really build friendships with, some we can just about tolerate their presence and others we would rather have nothing to do with. But people truly are the key to success in everything that we do, because of the value that is placed on them, not by us but by God Himself.
In our Scriptures, there’s a beautiful verse that goes like this: “The Lord, your God is with you; He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” This is what God says to everybody – that God delights over each one of us; everyone, the ones we can get along with and the ones that we cannot.
How do we treat this commodity? How do we treat the people around us? Sometimes it’s just a matter of fine-tuning. We see somebody who is out of sync and think that the first thing that we need to do is get rid of them. Although, really speaking, what may be the only thing required, is to fine-tune them. It could be just a square peg in a round hole and what they need is to be trained, given the skills. Of course there are people around us who just don’t have what it takes to be in that particular place. Then the decision is: should we keep them?
Nathan Sanders, a pastor and counselor to business people in Fredericksburg, Maryland asked, “Should a business owner pay more attention to the welfare of his employees or to profitability?” Tough question! Ultimately people produce profit. The right people, properly placed, respected and rewarded, are the single greatest key to increasing business and profitability.
This is what Jim Collins means by ‘getting the right people on the bus’. But Collins also says that “we’ve got to get the wrong people off the bus. The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving, is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving. The greatest good you can do to a person who is not achieving is to communicate to them that they would be better served in another place. But the key is to be able to terminate with grace.” People are important to us. More often than not, they just need to be fine-tuned. Are you fine-tuning the people around you?
4. Stewardship: Albert Einstein said, “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value. What does it mean to be a good steward? It means to care for resources that are in our care, whether they belong to us or not. Take care of the things that are entrusted to us: time, money, office supplies, your mobile phone, and people. Take care of them as if they are yours, and you are accountable not only to your company but to God who requires that you take of the things that are entrusted to you.
So, today how’s your purpose? Are you moving in one direction? Do you have a good value system that is non-negotiable? Are you taking care of the people around you, fine-tuning them, helping them to become all that they need to be? Are you good stewards of the things that are in your care?
Thoughts for you; thoughts for me as we go through this week.
God Bless You All.
We have great themes in our lives, great things that happen; and it happens because of smaller things that come together at the right time and at the right place for good to materialize.
I was reading a book by John D. Beckett called ‘Mastering Monday’ and in it he says that “There are themes that one must have that give us a sense of fulfillment in life, whether it is in our work space or in our personal life.” He’s really talking about how we operate within our spheres of work. He outlines 5 themes and I’m going to focus on 4 of them today, due to time constraints.
1. We must have purpose. Individuals and organizations function with far greater effectiveness when they have a clear sense of purpose. Each of us needs to ask, “What am I here for?” Knowing our purpose frees us up from debilitating diversions and helps us focus on what is most important.
I’m not sure how many on this call are musically inclined or how many of you would listen to a symphony or a Philharmonic orchestra, but if you ever do and you happen to get in earlier into the hall, you would notice that before the conductor comes on stage, the musicians are there, each playing their own instrument, their own tune – it’s like a cacophony. Each instrument, violins, wind instruments, etc, all burping their way along, the tympani playing a staccato; a terrible noise. And then suddenly out of all that chaos, the first violin or the second-in-charge will raise his bow and either he or the oboist will play the A-note. Then all instruments align to that A-note. When they are in perfect sync, the noise stops, the conductor walks onto the stage. After acknowledging the applause, he lifts his baton and when he brings it down, perfect harmony ensues. Out of that chaos, comes purpose. Here’s a person who is able to take all those different instruments, properly tuned now, into a place of sheer pleasure.
That’s what purpose can do for us. It allows us to get tuned up. It allows us to look at all the demands on our lives and say, “These are important”; to sift through the different voices that we hear and say these are the ones I’m going to pay attention to; to make proper use of our time and resources; hone our skills and be focused on our purpose.
2. Values. Core values are like an internal gyroscope, keeping us on course. They remind us and inform others, ‘This is what I stand for’; they define boundaries; they point us toward what is noble, good and sustainable. What’s important to us? What is that thing that is absolutely non-negotiable in our life, that if we compromise, will devalue who we are and what we stand for?
In his book, Beckett talks about Archie Dunham, who was chairman and CEO of Conoco Inc. He says that while they were building one of their plants in another country, they found that 2 workers were sacked for flagrantly violating the company’s safety standards. In protest, the entire workforce went on strike. Their demand: unless the 2 workers were re-hired, none of the employees would return to work. Archie Dunham looked at all the factors: the destruction, the cost of shutting down a major construction project, the value the company placed on its workers in each country where it did business, the importance of maintaining the company’s values especially the emphasis on safety. He felt that the company’s priorities were correct. They decided not to re-hire those 2 people.
A few weeks after that decision, the President of the country where the company was located, came to visit Mr. Dunham at the Conoco’s headquarters in Houston. He told Dunham how powerful the union was in his country and that Conoco needed to relent on re-hiring the 2 individuals. “It would be best for Conoco, for the union and for our country,” he said.
This is what Dunham replied, “Mr. President, you need to understand one thing. We stand behind the core values of our company. One of those important values is the safety of our people. These 2 men jeopardized the safety of their fellow employees. Because they did, we fired them and we will not hire them back. Mr. President, I would like you to take this message back to the union. We will not re-hire those workers even if we have to stop construction. This is how important our values are to us.” Within 2 weeks, the entire workforce was back on the job, minus the 2 workers. The message was clear: Conoco’s core values were not negotiable.
Business Week 2005 ranked Conoco Phillips as one of the most admired and highest-performing companies in the nation.
Clear understanding of values; what was important to them, what’s important to you? What is an absolute non-negotiable in your life? And the ability to stand by those values whatever the cost.
3. People: the value that people are to us. When we think about people, we think about all kinds of people all around us; some of them we can get along with, some of them we really build friendships with, some we can just about tolerate their presence and others we would rather have nothing to do with. But people truly are the key to success in everything that we do, because of the value that is placed on them, not by us but by God Himself.
In our Scriptures, there’s a beautiful verse that goes like this: “The Lord, your God is with you; He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” This is what God says to everybody – that God delights over each one of us; everyone, the ones we can get along with and the ones that we cannot.
How do we treat this commodity? How do we treat the people around us? Sometimes it’s just a matter of fine-tuning. We see somebody who is out of sync and think that the first thing that we need to do is get rid of them. Although, really speaking, what may be the only thing required, is to fine-tune them. It could be just a square peg in a round hole and what they need is to be trained, given the skills. Of course there are people around us who just don’t have what it takes to be in that particular place. Then the decision is: should we keep them?
Nathan Sanders, a pastor and counselor to business people in Fredericksburg, Maryland asked, “Should a business owner pay more attention to the welfare of his employees or to profitability?” Tough question! Ultimately people produce profit. The right people, properly placed, respected and rewarded, are the single greatest key to increasing business and profitability.
This is what Jim Collins means by ‘getting the right people on the bus’. But Collins also says that “we’ve got to get the wrong people off the bus. The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving, is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving. The greatest good you can do to a person who is not achieving is to communicate to them that they would be better served in another place. But the key is to be able to terminate with grace.” People are important to us. More often than not, they just need to be fine-tuned. Are you fine-tuning the people around you?
4. Stewardship: Albert Einstein said, “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value. What does it mean to be a good steward? It means to care for resources that are in our care, whether they belong to us or not. Take care of the things that are entrusted to us: time, money, office supplies, your mobile phone, and people. Take care of them as if they are yours, and you are accountable not only to your company but to God who requires that you take of the things that are entrusted to you.
So, today how’s your purpose? Are you moving in one direction? Do you have a good value system that is non-negotiable? Are you taking care of the people around you, fine-tuning them, helping them to become all that they need to be? Are you good stewards of the things that are in your care?
Thoughts for you; thoughts for me as we go through this week.
God Bless You All.
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