InsideWork 52

The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper. -Karl Barth
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Hugh Hewitt

Ancient Greece and imperial Rome were places and times of huge excess. So is our time. If you are the sensitive sort, this is not a book for you, and your calling to leadership needs explanation.  [...]

Romans 14:1-9

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.  [...]

32: Complacency

Aug 10 2009

Robert J. Herbold

Success, and the resulting tendency to become complacent, often leads organizations and individuals to believe that they are very talented, have figured things out, have the answers to all the questions, and no longer need to get their hands dirty in the trenches.  [...]

Obadiah 1:2-4

Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised.You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain,Thinking to yourself, 'Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!'Think again.  [...]

Robert J. Herbold

When organizations are successful, they have a tendency to stop doing the hard things, and dealing with poor performance is a really hard thing. It also becomes hard to move new people into existing jobs, because there is the burden of getting the new person up to speed and the perception that you are losing valuable expertise.  [...]

I Thessalonians 4:10b

But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more.  [...]

30: Slow Down!

Jul 28 2009

Carl Honore

In the just-in-time, modern workplace, speed seems to be all-important. Email and cellphones demand an instant response, and a deadline lurks around every corner. A 2001 survey conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions found that EU workers were under much greater time pressure than a decade ago.  [...]

Matthew 11:28-30

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.  [...]

Neil Postman

"The mechanical clock," as Lewis Mumford wrote, "made possible the idea of regular production, regular working hours and a standardized product." In short, without the clock, capitalism would have been quite impossible.  [...]

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seems right to a man,but in the end it leads to death.  [...]

Ron J. Bigalke, Jr., General Editor

The world continues its impetuous run into financialization, a process that assigns a monetary value or transaction to an ever greater share of human activities. Human activity is being captured progressively in financial form.  [...]

Lamentations 4:2

How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands!

27: Receptivity

Jul 6 2009

Richard J. Mouw

Transforming leaders are receptive to others. We cannot hope to bring about effective change unless we are willing to be changed. This is a profoundly biblical idea. But it is also a risky one to pursue.  [...]

Proverbs 12:15

The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.  [...]

26: True Self

Jun 29 2009

Richard Koch

To thine own self be true - but which self should you be true to? The self that spends a huge amount of time and sweat getting nowhere? The self that engages in destructive patterns of behavior?  [...]

I Peter 4:10

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.  [...]

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore

No longer can an enterprise take an agnostic attitude toward moral rightness and wrongness, hiding from such sensitive issues beneath the cloak of mere goods and services. Consciously...or not, all enterprises promote a worldview.  [...]

Matthew 6:43-45

No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.  [...]

24: Being Right

Jun 15 2009

John Naisbitt

Having to be right shackles your mind.People are culturally conditioned to have to be right. The parents are right, the teacher is right, the boss is right. Who is right overrules what is right.  [...]

I John 1:6-10

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  [...]

23: Books

Jun 8 2009

Epictetus, interpreted by Sharon Lebell

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind.  [...]

Ecclesiastes 12:11-13

The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.  [...]

Christine Comafor-Lynch

Business has been booming for years. It's 1998, I think, and I've made it in the heady world of technology in my own right...Bill Gates and I exchange friendly e-mails and talk shop.  [...]

Matthew 11:28-30

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.  [...]

21: Acquisition

May 25 2009

Maurice Sendak

There must be more to life than having everything.  [...]

Matthew 16:26

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  [...]

Seth Godin

In today's supercharged political (and TV) environment, it's easy to believe that in order to lead, you need to be an egomaniac, a driven superstar intent on self-glorification and aggrandizement.
In fact, the opposite is nearly always the case.  [...]

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  [...]

Jame Canton, Ph.D.

Five Factors That Will Define the Extreme Future:
1. Speed. The rate of change will be blinding, comprehensive in scope, and will touch every aspect of life.
2.Complexity. A quantum leap in the number of seemingly unrelated forces that will have a direct bearing on everything from lifestyles to work to personal and national security.  [...]

I Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  [...]

Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui

Aviation investigators have a euphemism: "controlled flight into terrain." What they mean is that a pilot took a perfectly functioning plane, in good conditions, and flew it into the ground, usually the side of a hill or a mountain.  [...]

Proverbs 18:11-12

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;   they imagine it an unscalable wall.Before his downfall a man's heart is proud,   but humility comes before honor.  [...]

Michael J. Panzner

Family, social, and community relationships will likely assume a far greater degree of importance in a world of uncertainly, disruptions, and increasing danger. In the United States and elsewhere, there will almost certainly be a significant rise in the number of extended-family households, many with a growing number of adult children - and grandchildren - living at home.  [...]

I Timothy 3:1-7

It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.  [...]

16: Design

Apr 21 2009

Robert Safian

Studies have now shown that design-oriented firms in all kinds of industries outperform their more-traditional peers--that design and innovation go hand-in-hand with financial success. Research from Peer Insight has calculated a tenfold advantage in stock-market returns versus the S&P 500 for companies focused on consumer-experience design, as senior writer Linda Tischler explains in her profile of Yves Béhar.  [...]

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God;   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.Day after day they pour forth speech;   night after night they display knowledge.There is no speech or language   where their voice is not heard.  [...]

15: Citizens

Apr 14 2009

Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins, Ph.D.

The psychological profile of icitizens has everything to do with their ideas, their production. First, they possess expertise - knowledge of and devotion to a subject that, however narrow or quirky, becomes a part of the ideation value chain when distributed through the internet's social networks.  [...]

Ephesians 2:18-20

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  [...]

14: Mediocrity

Apr 7 2009

David Brandon, Chairman & CEO of Domino's Pizza

For many years as a private company, Domino's really benchmarked against itself, without looking at the outside world. We were proud of the fact that for many years we had positive same-store sales, which is a big financial indicator of growth and success in the retail world.  [...]

Romans 3:23

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  [...]

Rishad Tobaccowala quoted by author, Jeff Jarvis

Our fixation should not be on our clients. It should be on the people our clients want to engage, sell, and interact with. We should be the champions of those people.  [...]

II Timothy 2:2

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.  [...]

Ben Carlson, MD

Once we manage to remove our egos from the equation, many of the most commonplace and unsettling personal risks we face in life become a lot less personal and no longer seem to be much of a risk after all.  [...]

Philippians 2:3-4

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  [...]

11: Reputation

Mar 17 2009

Jeff Jarvis

Your customer satisfaction is plummeting, your market share is shrinking, and your stock price is deflating. Let me give you some indication of why, from one customer's perspective...The bottom line is that a low-price coupon may have gotten me to buy a Dell, but your product was a lemon and your customer service was appalling.  [...]

I Thessalonians 1:5-10

...because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.  [...]

10: Waste

Mar 9 2009

W. Edwards Deming

The present style of management is the biggest producer of waste, causing huge losses whose magnitudes can not be evaluated, can not be measured.  [...]

Jeremiah 12:10-11

Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.  [...]

9: Resourced

Mar 2 2009

W. Edwards Deming

When a company holds an individual accountable for a goal, it must provide to him the resources for accomplishment.  [...]

II Peter 1:3-4

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.  [...]

8: Planning

Feb 23 2009

Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.  [...]

Proverbs 15:22

Plans fail for lack of counsel,but with many advisers they succeed.  [...]

7: Enough

Feb 16 2009

John C. Bogle

When John D. Rockefeller was asked how much was enough, he answered, "Just a little bit more." But for most of us, as it said, enough is $1 more than we need.  [...]

I Timothy 6:6-9

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  [...]

Jeffrey A. Krames

Before Drucker explained to me that Welch was the right person for the future of GE, it was easy to think of leaders in two dimensions. That entailed hiring the best person for the job without taking time frame into account.  [...]

Joshua 1:1-9

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.  [...]

5: Our Job

Feb 3 2009

Paul Stevens

The Genesis account takes us beyond culture into the paradise of God. We discover that humankind has three full-time jobs: (1) communion with God, (2) community-building (the image of God is relational as well as vocational) and (3) co-creativity with God.  [...]

I Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  [...]

4: Work and Play

Jan 27 2009

Kevin Carroll

Why, then, do play and work seem so contradictory? Why, as adults, do we relegate them to separate spheres, and do so few workers and companies value play as a means to producing effective work?  [...]

Job 38:6-7

On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  [...]