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InsideWork 52

The InsideWork 52 is a collection of Scripture verses and quotes to stimulate your thinking at the intersection of faith and work.

The quotes come from a diverse group of thought leaders representing business, economics, theology, history, sociology, technology, and the arts.

Juxtaposed next to the scriptures, the quotes stimulate one’s thinking — sometimes by supporting the text, sometimes by challenging, but always creating the mental tension that leads to better insight and understanding of a biblical worldview.

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2008

26: Simplicity

Complex strategies such as complex battle plans are usually doomed to failure. There are too many things that can go wrong. The holy grail is simplicity. But here’s the rub: most people admire complexity and don’t trust something that’s simple.
Trout on Strategy (p. 91) by Jack Trout, McGraw-Hill, 2004

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25: Business as Community

Humanness - that’s what we must stress, if we are really the children of God, redeemed as men. Without it community dies. So I would encourage all of us to outdo each other in order to create, in order to have something to share. Let us not take offense at what others have. Let us be stimulated to create thing of value ourselves. And let us cultivate spiritual values which we can also share, outdoing each other in godliness, in true faith, in true humanity and in true communion. Then indeed we will be able to speak the gospel in a living way.
Pro-existence (p. 59) by Udo Middelman, InterVarsity Press, 1974

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24: Enduring Values

But I think that the things we have come to care about are insignificant when placed on the scale that Dostoyevsky, or Camus, or Tolstoy, or Kierkegaard, or Kafka, or the Old Testament, or the New Testament, or Rollo May would use. The problem is, Sarah, we’re just not very serious people these days. We even speak about values, when we speak about them, as though they were a commodity like a sweater or a pair of Gucci pumps that can be acquired by writing a check. Much like Leadership, Empowerment, Management, Relationship, and Quality Training seminars that abound today. As though by getting a little training we will suddenly find ourselves full of more substantial stuff. I think not, Sarah. I think that we, playing our end game at the bottom of the twentieth century, are going to need one hell of a lot more than anything our “trainers” have in store for us.
The E-Myth Revisited (p. 254-255) by Michael E. Gerber, Harper Business

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23: Workplace Fear

“Fear can get you to stop doing something counterproductive, but it cannot motivate you to do your best.”
Driving Fear Out of the Workplace (p. 68) by Kathleen D. Ryan, Daniel K. Oestreich, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1991

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22: Worship of Technology

… the success of twentieth-century technology in providing Americans with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance was so obvious and promising that there seemed no reason to look for any other sources of fulfillment or creativity or purpose. To every Old World belief, habit, or tradition, there was and still is a technological alternative. To prayer, the alternative is penicillin; to family roots, the alternative is mobility; to reading, the alternative is television; to restraint, the alternative is immediate gratification; to sin, the alternative is psychotherapy; to political ideology, the alternative is popular appeal established though scientific polling. There is even an alternative to the painful riddle of death, as Freud called it. The riddle may be postponed through longer life, and then perhaps solved altogether by cryogenics. At least, no one can easily think of a reason why not.
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (p. 54) by Neil Postman, Vintage Books, 1992

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21: Pride

Boast not thyself in thy riches if thou hast them, nor in thy friends if they be powerful, but in God, who giveth all things, and in addition to all things desireth to give even Himself. Be not lifted up because of thy strength or beauty of body, for with only a slight sickness it will fail and wither away. Be not vain of thy skillfulness or ability, lest thou displease God, from whom cometh every good gift which we have … it is no harm to thee if thou place thyself below all others; but it is great harm if thou place thyself above even one.
The Imitation of Christ (Ch. VI) by Thomas A. Kempis, Hendrickson Publishers

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20: Ordinary Talent

…one last word of advice: build on the ordinary and expect the extraordinary. Build your team of people around the talents and skills of the ordinary person, not just around the special skills and talents of those few extraordinary people. After all, there are many more ordinary people - more to select from; more potential to develop; more opportunity for commitment and loyalty to the common mission of the firm; and more potential to understand, serve, and sell the customer - most of whom, by the way, are also ordinary people.
The Soul of the Firm, (p. 147), by C. William Pollard, Harper Business

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19: Organizational Resilience

An institution’s future is fragile. What ensures it? A number of things, each of them fragile - every promotion, every decision related to changes in leadership, the degree to which leaders balance the forces of change and continuity. Annual plans or strategic initiatives do not guarantee an institution’s future; they may even betray it by blinding the organization to other goals. Every job assignment, every missed opportunity for development, every person inspired by a true leader - these are the things that actually shape the future. I’m talking about the quality of relationships and the enabling of other people.
Leadership Jazz (p. 44-45) by Max DePree, Currency Doubleday, 1992

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18: Admit Error

If you insist on always having been right, you will, of course, be wrong, and your colleagues and friends will know this. The gracious among them will refer to you as “stubborn,” and the less gentle will brand you a fool … Developing the ability to quickly recognize errors in your actions, plans, or character is an insurance policy against career-destroying stubbornness.
In, But Not Of (p. 102, 104) by Hugh Hewett, Thomas Nelson Publishers

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17: Develop Others

The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?
Leadership is an Art (p. 12) by Max DePree, Dell Publishing, 1989

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16: Corrosion of Character

This conflict between family and work poses some questions about adult experience itself. How can long-term purposes be pursued in a short-term society? How can durable social relations be sustained? How can a human being develop a narrative of identity and life history in a society composed of episodes and fragments? The conditions of the new economy feed instead on experience which drifts in time, from place to place, from job to job…Short-term capitalism threatens to corrode…character, particularly those qualities of character which bind human beings to one another and furnishes each with a sense of sustainable self.
The Corrosion of Character (p. 26-27) by Richard Sennett, W.W. Norton & Company, 1998

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15: Self-Deception

Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts. It is epitomized in a historian’s statement about Philip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden-head of all sovereigns: “No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.”
Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly (p. 7), Ballantine Books, 1984

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14: Consumerism

There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets “things” with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal root is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (p. 22), WingSpread Publishers, 2007

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13: Worship Builds Character

The gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something - have no doubts about that, either. He may think that his tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of his heart - but it will out. That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Quoted in Heaven is Not my Home by Paul Marshall (p. 195), Word, 1998

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12: Finish as a Team

Howard Schultz
Pour Your Heart Into It (p. 337-338), Hyperion, 1997
Remember: You’ll be left with an empty feeling if you hit the finish line alone. When you run a race as a team, though, you’ll discover that much of the reward comes from hitting the tape together. You want to be surrounded not just by cheering onlookers but by a crowd of winners, celebrating as one. Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from the efforts of one person, but from the joint achievements of many. The euphoria is lasting when all participants lead with their hearts, winning not just for themselves but for one another. Success is sweetest when it’s shared.

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11: Work is Divine

Douglas Hyde
Dedication and Leadership, p. 96, University of Notre Dame Press, 1992
Sitting in front of me was an old Indian coolie with gnarled, bare legs around which varicose veins entwined themselves like creepers on the branch of a tree. Those who know the Orient will be familiar with his type. As the preacher said the words “God is in your hands”, I saw the old man look at his toil-worn, calloused, twisted hands, and broken nails, almost in awe. Something tremendous was happening to him. One could watch a great yet simple truth enter his consciousness. Recognition of it spread across his face, which took on a look of sheer wonderment. Throughout the rest of the sermon he looked, time after time, at the hands which had suddenly taken on a new, sublime significance. It is my guess that his work, whatever it was, would never be the same for him again. Suddenly, no matter how degraded that work might be, it became meaningful for him. His Christianity suddenly became relevant to his work. … His beliefs could be related to cleaning the monsoon drains the next day, or pedaling away from morning till night on a heavy trishaw.

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10: Destiny

William Bridges
The Character of Organizations (p.116), Davies-Black Publishing 2000
Most people would agree that Lee Iacocca, Joan of Arc, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Margaret Thatcher were all strong leaders. With some ingenuity, we could extract a list of common traits they shared — although the more you know about any of them as an individual, the more doubts you are sure to have about the list. The irony is that the one thing that they undeniably have in common will not even be on the list — that is, that each was the right person to lead a particular organization, society, or movement at that particular time.

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9: Corporate Death

Arie de Geus
The Living Company, p. 3, Longview Publishing Limited, 1997
Moreover, there is something unnatural in the high corporate mortality rate; no living species, for instance, endures such a large gap between its maximum life expectancy and its average realization…Why, then, do so many companies die prematurely?…Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing goods and services, and they forget that their organizations’ true nature is that of a community of humans. The legal establishment, business educators, and the financial community all join them in the mistake.

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8: Methods

E.M. Bounds
Power Through Prayer, p.11, Destiny Image Publishers, Inc. 2007
We are constantly on a stretch, if not a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.

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7: Core Beliefs

Thomas J. Watson
A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM, (pp 4-5), McGraw-Hill, 2003,
I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can very often be traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people. What does it do to help these people find common cause with each other? How does it keep them pointed in the right direction despite the many rivalries and differences which may exist among them? And how can it sustain this common cause and sense of direction through the many changes which take place from one generation to another? … Consider any great organization - one that has lasted over the years - and I think you will find that it owes its resiliency, not to its form of organization or administrative skills, but to the power of what we call beliefs and the appeal these beliefs have for its people. … I firmly believe that any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions. Next, I believe that the most important single factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs.

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6: Purpose

Nikos Mourkogiannis
Purpose - The Starting Point of Great Companies (pp8-9), Palgrave Macmillan 2006
I believe that Purpose - not money, not status - is what people most want from work. Make no mistake: They want compensation; some want an ego-affirming title. Even more, though, they want their lives to mean something, they want their lives to have a reason. In the Middle Ages, craftsmen worked - with no thought of personal recognition - on cathedrals that even their grandchildren would not live to see completed. That didn’t bother them; in fact, it kept the going. For what is more important than doing God’s work? Bach, at the bottom of his compositions, wrote SDG - Soli deo Gloria, “to God alone the glory.” In the composer’s view, he as simply the messenger. You don’t have to be religious, or an artist, to want a Purpose in your life. It’s simply a matter of seeing the meaninglessness of modern material culture. Once you’ve received that message, Purpose may matter a great deal to you.

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5: P&L

Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America Book II (pp 136-139), Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1945
A native of the United States clings to this world’s goods as if he were certain never to die; and he is so hasty in grasping at all within his reach that one would suppose he was constantly afraid of not living long enough to enjoy them....and if at the end of a year of unremitting labor he finds he has a few days’ vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to shake off his happiness... At first sight there is something surprising in this strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance. The spectacle itself, however, is as old as the world; the novelty is to see a whole people furnish an exemplification of it.

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4: Letting Yes Mean Yes

Guy Kawasaki
Rules for Revolutionaries (pp 153-154), Harper Business, New York, 1999
Underpromise and Overdeliver. The only aspect of this recommendation that is more astounding than its simplicity is the rarity with which you find it implemented. Take this as gospel: Make announcements that you know you can achieve and then strive to do better. Many a revolution never got started because it was overhyped. Does this mean you should sandbag people? Absolutely. When you meet your commitments (which is the least you should do), people will be pleasantly surprised. When you exceed your commitments, people will be astounded. If you do nothing but fulfill your announcements, you might be considered a revolutionary for this reason alone.

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3: Leadership

Jim Collins
Good to Great (p 12), harper Business, New York, 2001
We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high–profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good–to–great leaders seem to have come from mars. Self–effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and profession al will, They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.

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