25 minute read
How “Christian” is your business? Here’s a point checklist, from the quality of your products to the way you interact with employees and
Harry Giesbrecht will
His eyes mist when describing a kindergarten and summer camps with nice beds and clean sheets.
“Your heart smiles when you see that,” he says. Giesbrecht’s work is seen locally as a witness of forgiveness and reconciliation. At one public meeting the mayor of Zaporozhye, a city of a million people, declared publicly, “You Mennonites have been persecuted. You’ve been sent to jail. You’ve been sent to Siberia. And now you come back and are helping us, in spite of being “We wouldn’t wronged.” At the opening of the Mennonite Centre a Russian find the enemy”Orthodox priest formally apologized for what had been
done to Mennonites in earlier generations. “I told him he Harry Giesbrecht remembers a banquet in the had nothing to apologize for,” says Giesbrecht, “because opulent “gold room” of the Kremlin, presided what had been done to our people had been done to his over by then-president Mikhail Gorbachev and people, too.” foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. Giesbrecht’s current project is building the Beside him sat the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces and the conversation turned to the arms campus of the Russian-American Christian University in race and the fear of Soviet military technology.Moscow. The first of its kind to receive state approval and “Let me make a confession,” the man said to full accreditation by the ministry of education, it seeks to Giesbrecht. “If war broke out tomorrow and the sun equip young Russians for leadership in business, church didn’t shine, we wouldn’t find the enemy.”and civil society. It has 450 students and 25 faculty. It was a startling revelation, says Giesbrecht. “We
“It’s an excellent university,” says Giesbrecht. “Stu- were always under the impression that when it came dents are snapped up even before they graduate.” to technology they had everything the West had.
Up to now it has rented space in the former Patrice They didn’t, and still don’t. Anything you touch in the Lumumba University but work began three years ago on former Soviet Union, whether it be in Ukraine, Kaits own campus. The main building, an $18 million proj- zakhstan or wherever, is Western made and imported. ect, is set to be finished in June. They don’t manufacture anything.” ◆
“It’s beautiful,” he says. “Every time I come, and see it growing, my heart leaps a little.”
turn 80 this fall. He says the university project will be his last. “After this job I’ll be out,” he declares. But he doesn’t sound convincing. If another worthy project appears, it’s hard to imagine him saying no. And whether it’s a commercial or charitable venture may not make a difference.
For Harry Giesbrecht, business and mission are mixed together.
“It’s all in one,” he says with a grin.
“Like borscht.”
Harry Giesbrecht says the Russian-American Christian University campus in Moscow, set to open in June, will be his last project.
Brand aid for the Green Rush
by Hugh Hough
Get your brand in order, for the Day of Green Reckoning is coming. Today, green is big. Green is in. Every brand is rushing to fi gure out a way to take advantage of North America’s seemingly sudden concern for environmental issues.
As a result, there are brands out there moving into the green space with either too much speed, or too few scruples, and sooner or later, they are going to get busted. They will be seen as frauds, charlatans or opportunists, and they will incur the wrath of the consumer.
There are ways, however, for your brand to avoid such an apocalyptical fate.
The fi rst thing your brand has to do is recognize that “green” is only part of the equation. Today’s awakening consumer is paying close attention to corporate behavior and will hold you accountable for all other aspects of sustainability, including labor practices, community impact and employee relations. Yes, environmental responsibility is important, but it’s a starting point, not a fi nal destination.
Secondly, understand that the more your brand touts its environmental/sustainability efforts, the more scrutiny it will receive, and the more severe the rebuke if a fl y is found in the ointment.
And with high-speed Internet access now in 78 percent of households and 50 million blogs out there, it doesn’t take much for a misbehaving brand to be brought into the spotlight. Just ask TXU Energy, which was bought out last year after criticisms of its environmental practices.
To keep this from happening, you need to be fully aware of every aspect of your production. It starts with your product design. What sort of formulation does your product consist of? Does it use potentially toxic ingredients or preservatives that could be a problem in the product’s afterlife? What about your ingredients? You need to know not just what they are, but where they come from, how they were produced and by whom.
You’ve got to look at manufacturing. What is the environmental impact of your facilities, and their health and safety records? Your plant can be completely carbon-neutral, but if you’ve got a steady stream of accidents, you could be garnering negative attention and a boycott.
You also have to look at your packaging. Are the materials recycled and/or recyclable? And how much packaging are you using? Might there be a way to cut that back, or use your materials more effi ciently?
Don’t forget to examine your warehouse and distribution systems, as well. Make sure your warehouses are energy effi cient, and your product gets to market with minimal environmental impact.
On a more positive note, going through such a vertical examination of your supply chain and process could reveal a few positive actions you are already taking.
Once you have a thorough understanding of your product and the processes behind it, you can examine the communication and outreach opportunities it affords you. As you develop your communications plan to promote your sustainability efforts,
Go deep with there are three key elements in the equation to your company’s remember: tone, channel and volume. environmental The tone of your message could be humble, responsibility; it matter-of-fact, humorous or inspirational — just has to be more make sure it’s consistent. You’ll want to tailor your than just spin message to the channel it’s running in. Obviously, what you say on your website will be different from what you’d say in a 30-second television spot. As for volume, that’s really a matter of corporate comfort. How loudly you tout your sustainability efforts will inevitably be a source of internal debate, but I would suggest you err on the side of more, providing of course you have taken the steps described earlier.
Finally, there’s one critical piece of advice I’d give a brand touting its sustainability efforts: be honest. People aren’t perfect, and they don’t expect companies to be, either. Admit your shortcomings, and communicate what you’re doing to address them. Today’s consumers will forgive pretty much any sin, except dishonesty (and that includes lies of omission). Besides, people are going to fi nd out the truth about your brand one way or another, so it might as well be from you.
Before long, the substance will be separated from the static in the green/sustainability space. Make sure your brand is on the right side of the fence. ◆
Hugh Hough is founder and president of Green Team and was recently featured as a presenter in the fi lm, An Inconvenient Truth. His article is reprinted with permission from CRO magazine www.thecro.com
In praise of flaws
Sometimes we have to just get on with it, even if we’re not perfect
by Gregory F.A. Pierce
Cardinal John Henry Newman once said that nothing would ever be done if we waited until we could do it so perfectly that no one could find fault with it. One of the spiritual disciplines of work is based on making a positive out of a negative. The negative is that we all make mistakes in our work. The positive is that we can find God in the midst of them.
There is a Sufti story of a woman who went into a marketplace, looked around, and saw a sign that read God’s Fruit Stand. “Thank goodness,” the woman said to herself. “It’s about time!”
She went inside and said to God, “I would like a perfect banana, a perfect cantaloupe, a perfect strawberry, and a perfect peach.”
Standing behind the counter, God merely shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, I sell only seeds.”
Even God leaves it to us to develop, however imperfectly, the potential in our work and in ourselves.
Getting out the last typos
When I first became an editor, I went to a seminar where the instructor said that every book published should have two typographical errors. The idea was that the amount of work it would take to get those last two typos out of a manuscript was not worth it. Editors just had to live with imperfection if they were going to accomplish anything.
That was a very liberating lesson for me — and not just in my editing work. I am very much an imperfect editor, parent, spouse, coach, community organizer, and church volunteer. I have to learn to live with it, and living with imperfection is one of the disciplines within the spirituality of work that I now practice.
The beauty of this particular discipline is that we don’t have to do much to remember to practice it. Most of the time, our imperfection rises up and confronts us, and if it doesn’t, our bosses (or colleagues or spouses or children or friends or neighbors) are quick to point it out to us. All we need do to practice this discipline is build into the workday concrete ways of accepting that we are not perfect. (For example, every time I find a typo in one of the books I publish, I give glory to God.)
Overrating perfection
The idea that our work can be perfect is, on the face of it, absurd. Part of the very nature of humanity is our imperfection. On the few occasions that a man or woman achieves perfection, we call it genius and the accomplishment a masterpiece. But for most people most of the time, our work will be less than perfect — less, even, than what we are capable of in our best moments.
Does its inherent imperfection make our work less spiritual? Not necessarily. If we accept imperThe “gift” of fection as part of the human condition, then imperfection is we should be able to celebrate our failures as hard to ignore well as our successes. In fact, the opposite of this because there’s discipline is a sin called “perfectionism.” Out of always someone our egotism and insecurity, we try to do the impossible — that is, be around to remind perfect — with the predictable result that we us of it make a mess of the very work we are trying to accomplish, we drive our colleagues crazy, and we harm our spiritual life in the process.
In his book Protect Us from All Anxiety: Meditations for the Depressed, William Burke describes the problem with trying to be a perfectionist: “A perfectionist is ill, trying desperately to live an impossible life.” Burke then goes on to make this prayer: “Lord, I hate the imperfect in me. I despise it. I want to hide it. Which means I hate, despise, and want to hide me. Yet you love me. Something’s got to give.”
People in the arts and in sports learn quickly how to
live with imperfection. What concert does not contain a wrong note, and what painting could not be improved with more work? Yet the artist must at some point let go, or no communication would take place, no beauty would be observed. The best hitters in all of baseball fail six out of ten times, and even ESPN’s Athlete of the Century, Michael Jordan, missed shots and made mental errors. Athletes and artists are so great precisely because they are imperfect, not despite it. People in fact reach greater heights of performance because they push the envelope and risk greater failure and imperfection. Imperfection is a condition of growth, and athletes and artists know that if they don’t push beyond what they have already achieved, they cannot do their best work. The same is true for each of us.
Living with the imperfection of others
While we may be able to train ourselves to accept our own imperfection, learning to live with the imperfection of others in the workplace can be even more daunting. We count on others to do their work correctly, and we are justifiably irritated when they do not. The discipline of living with imperfection, however, forces us to take a step back and reconsider before we issue a complaint or a reprimand.
The first consideration is the importance of the mistake. If it is a matter of safety — the proper functioning or operation of an automobile or a nuclear generator, for example — then certainly there can’t be much tolerance for error. We can be more accepting of error when someone gets our lunch order wrong or when the bus is late. Mathematics and astronomy require much more precision than most of our occupations. We all know people who overreact to the mistakes and failures of others. They seem to almost enjoy finding fault in the work of others and are quick to point it out. I have not, however, found these people to be noticeably more in tune with the Creator than the rest of us.
A second question we have to ask ourselves when we encounter the imperfection of others is Why are these lapses occurring? If it is a matter of sloth or inattention or lack of caring, then it is difficult to see anything spiritual about that imperfection. But if someone is doing less than perfect work because he or she is exhausted from caring for a sick friend or relative, then that fact might shed an entirely different light on the person’s minor failures. Similarly, can we really expect perfect work from someone who is being unjustly exploited in terms of pay or working conditions? Or perhaps a worker was momentarily distracted by the real needs of another colleague or a customer. Aren’t those good enough reasons to make a mistake? There are hundreds of legitimate reasons someone might make an error. A new employee might be learning the job. An older employee might be losing a step to age. An engaged or newly married person might be daydreaming momentarily about his or her beloved. Think of all the reasons we have been less than perfect in our work; we can compile our own list of explanations. Did these occasions mean that we were bad workers or out of touch with God’s creative energy? In some cases, the very acts of imperfection proved how wonderfully human we were.
The discipline of living with imperfection is merely a daily carrying out of the words of the Our Father, which — loosely translated — might be “forgive us our imperfections, as we forgive the imperfections of others.” ◆
Excerpted from Spirituality@Work: 10 Ways to Balance Your Life On-theJob by Gregory F.A. Pierce (Loyola Press 2001). Reprinted with permission of Loyola Press. To order copies of this book, call 1-800-621-1008 or visit www.loyolabooks.org.
Performance review
How “Christian” is your business? A seasoned marketplace scholar suggests 0 things to check
by R. Paul Stevens
The presence of a Christian in a business does not necessarily mean the business is Christian, as some Christians keep their faith and daily work in separate compartments. Here are 10 things that can mark a Christian business.
. The presence of Christians with a sphere of
infl uence. Owners, managers and employees can “incarnate” their values into every aspect of a business. Clerks, for instance, can draw an imaginary 30-foot radius around their work station and regard it as their “parish” where all people, structures, equipment and interactions are within their circle of prayer and infl uence.
2. A product or service in harmony with God’s
creational purpose. Adam and Eve were called to be priests of creation, to “work it and take care of it” as trustees and stewards (Gen. 2:15). They (and all of us who are restored to our human vocation through new life in Christ) had three full-time jobs: communion with God, community-building, and co-creativity with God (the latter including productive jobs and trade). Almost no place in the work-world is so demonized that a Christian might not be called to serve there (exceptions being businesses that thrive on prostitution, drug traffi c, weapons and the exploitation of the poor). . A mission or purpose beyond mere profi t. Of course, a business must make money or it will not last. Customers need a value for which they are willing to pay, so profi t is a legitimate measure of the value the fi rm is producing for its customers. But those that exist only to make money are not very satisfying, and will eventually fail. A Christian business needs a well-defi ned mission that is held before all employees — why does the business exist; what does the business want to be; what are its values; what is its vision for its other stakeholders, such as the larger community, the environment, and future generations.
4. Product and service excellence suggests the presence of the kingdom.
A Christian in business strives to provide excellent services or products that surprise Unpaid bills, poor customers rather than leaving them yearning for more or resigned quality and sloppy to the minimum. Jesus invited his disciples to work speak “do more” (like loving enemies) than the tax much louder collectors and pagans (Matt. 5:43-48). Extraorthan any verbal dinary service and quality invites the question declarations “Why?” On the other hand, unpaid bills, slow delivery, poor quality, dishonest advertising and sloppy workmanship all speak much louder than verbal declarations.
. Customers are treated with dignity and re-
spect. “The customer is always right” is the secular version of this. But there’s more. Christians in business treat every customer as a person to be loved and appreciated whether or not business is transacted. Diffi cult customers also need love, even when they are wrong. Loving customers as oneself is neighbor love (Matt. 22: 39). A salesperson will sell only on three conditions: the customer wants it, needs it and can afford it. Love for competitors is even harder. The Old Testament offers a powerful model of harvesting with the poor in view (Deut. 24:19-22), which means leaving something on the table.
6. Workers are equipped to achieve their poten-
tial. It is tragic when Christians are poor workers because their real interest is in evangelism and church activities. Work is part of our calling to live for God’s glory and to share in Christ’s purposeful rule of all creation, a calling that can be expressed anywhere. What makes work Christian is not its religious character or even that it may be visibly “people-helping” but because it is an opportunity to express faith, hope and love and to work wholeheartedly (Eph. 6:7). A Christian employer can see every interaction with an employee as an equipping opportunity to train, encourage and release potential.
. All aspects of business are potentially ministry.
Christian businesspeople do not create a secular-sacred division in business (witnessing is sacred but doing the accounts is secular). All is part of our creation mandate (Gen. 1:26-28) and is done for Jesus (Col. 3:23) and to God’s glory. William Tyndale, the English Reformer, said, “There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all is one, to wash dishes and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God.”
8. The culture of the business lines up with God’s
purposes. The environment or culture of a business “speaks” more loudly than any stated policy. People “get a message” as soon as they walk into a store or a factory. Managers can convey a culture through the values they promote (honesty, dignity, equality and respect) and how failure and mistakes are handled. A Christian manager can be a community-builder in business, a “pastor” in a secular context. . The leaders are servants. “Servant leadership” is so commonly used it is easy to forget how these two words cannot normally be brought together. Being a servant leader (Matt. 20:25-28) does not mean being passive — there is room for godly ambition, dreams and visions. Servant managers/leaders want to equip and bring the best out of employees and can be measured by their advancement. Servant leaders continuously hold up the mission purpose of the company; empower employees to do their job well; say thanks to everyone, showing them they are appreciated.
0. The business
runs on grace. Business takes Christians into the economic, social and political structures of society which have become broken and polluted by human sin. Christian business persons fi nd themselves frequently in situations where there is no easy answer, no “black and white” choices. While they may seek to make diffi cult decisions prayerfully on the basis of Scripture and in fellowship with other believers in business, inevitably mistakes and compromises will be made and sins committed. These must not be excused, but neither must they destroy. There is forgiveness and hope.
R. Paul Stevens taught marketplace theology at Regent College, Vancouver, for many years. His most recent book is Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace (Eerdmans). His article is abridged from a talk given to Christian businesspeople in Ndola, Zambia.
Update from the Gulf
In the enduring carnage of Katrina, MEDA’s legacy is rebuilding hope one business at a time
by Wally Kroeker
The wounds of Hurricane Katrina are still near the surface, covered by a thin scab that can ooze at any moment. Everyone has their own disaster story, and most are willing to share it.
“It’s all we talk about,” says an official of one of the many agencies working feverishly to help New Orleans and surrounding area recover from the devastation of August 29, 2005.
MEDA’s board of directors met in New Orleans Feb. 8-10 to visit its partner agencies and many of their clients (see vignettes).
Among the people they met was Laverne Saulny, an assistant to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. She reviewed the familiar story of being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and then being battered again two weeks later by Hurricane Rita and another round of broken levees and flooding.
Besides the innumerable personal tragedies and loss of life, businesses also suffered, adding more devastation through loss of work and vital services. Of the thousands of businesses and operators who were impacted, only a quarter have come back.
“After 2½ years it hasn’t gotten better in terms of people getting what they need,” she says. “A lot of businesspeople have not been able to get back into business.”
Saulny says she herself had only been able to move back into her house this January, citing continual problems with trades and insurance. Although she was insured, there were persistent problems sorting out whether damage was from wind or from flooding. “Lots of people lost their insurance over that issue — which came first,” she says. “Imagine how the poor fare when someone like me, who works for a U.S. senator, has these kinds of problems.” It was a familiar lament. Rashida Ferdinand is a master ceramist who produces ceramic home accessories, garden sculptures and utilitarian pottery. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including the Smithsonian Institute of Washington DC. A third generation resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, her house was ruined by Katrina, but in early February was renovated by the PBS program, This Old House. With the help of Good Work Network she was able to rebuild her company, Currents of Clay (www.currentsofclay.com).
Roadblocks from bureaucratic officials who were otherwise completely dysfunctional have seemed almost intentional, says Denis Jantz, a Loyola University professor who has been assisting Mennonite Disaster Service. For many months following the disaster there were no public services — no police, no ambulances. “But an inspector would appear promptly if an unlicenced out-of-state tradesperson would show up to do some work,” he says.
If you tour the Lower Ninth Ward, the
hardest-hit area, you no longer see miles of eerily unoccupied houses askew on their foundations. Today, some have been rebuilt, but vast numbers have been razed, leaving weed-infested desolation.
“Pre-Katrina there were 20,000 vacant lots in New Orleans, now there are 100,000,” says Greta Gladney, director of the Renaissance Project, an early MEDA partner.
A fourth generation resident of the Lower Ninth, she says the “Welcome to the area used to boast a 67 developing world — percent home ownership no passport required” rate. “People lived in homes that had belonged to their grandparents,” says Gladney.
That has complicated the restoration process, since the long family lines meant that title wasn’t always clear.
“Welcome to the developing world — no
passport required,” says Richard McCarthy, director of Market Umbrella, another MEDA partner. His organization is committed to linking small scale food producers (farmers and fishers) to sustainable markets.
He has high praise for the effectiveness of faithbased organizations like MEDA and MDS.
“The big funders didn’t know what to do here,” he says. “The faith-based organizations knew what to do. They came in here and started to work.”
Several months after Katrina MEDA hired Adele London to lead its Back to Business program in partnership with MDS. Her role was to help local partners expand services to business owners who had suffered from the hurricane. This year she transitioned to fulltime placement with one of those key partners, Good Work Network, which connects low income and disadvantaged entrepreneurs to the resources they need.
Two-thirds of her clients had businesses before, up to half in the informal economy.
A particularly hard hit sector was childcare, says London. Seventy percent of daycare centers vanished, posing a serious barrier to families returning to work. Celestine Dunbar, owner of Dunbar’s Creole Cooking, had been cooking for 24 years before Katrina wrecked her establishment. Her eatery, which serves Creole food like catfish, fried chicken, mustard greens, yams and beans, has been featured in Gourmet and Southern Living magazines. Currently she has found temporary quarters on the campus of Loyola University, and hopes to rebuild soon.
Pamala
Thomas runs a daycare for 25 children. When her previous facility was destroyed she received help to reopen in a different location. Even though she had plenty of experience, she decided to take the 12-week daycare training as a refresher course.
“We just can’t
wait to get back to A program was developed to train people abnormal again” who wanted to start new childcare facilities. Many have responded. “It has really been accepted,” says London. “It has taken on a life of its own.”
As one client told her, “We just can’t wait to get back to abnormal again.”
Last year Good Work Network offered technical assistance to 675 people, most of them African-American. Sixty-eight percent were women and 64 percent were lower income.
Director Phyllis Cassidy cited MEDA’s “generosity of spirit” in strengthening Good Work Network.
“Since Katrina our organization has grown five-fold, much of it thanks to MEDA,” she said. “You helped heal our very damaged souls and hearts.” ◆
Carol Alexander-Lewis, formerly an educa-
tion administrator, decided after Katrina to start her own publishing company to “work my passion” of helping parents do a more effective job of parenting and to connect home and school. She has just put out her second issue of Modern Parents magazine, which is being distributed by Borders. Good Work Network made it possible for her to attend an educators convention to promote her magazine. “Without that help there was no way I could have made the contacts I needed,” she says.
David Williams
has run his own drywall, paint and sandblasting business for nearly five years. His family (nine brothers and six sisters) was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. “We lost everything,” he says. “It’s been a struggle.” With his business ruined, he got back to work gutting houses after Katrina. Good Work Network helped him restart his business and bring it back to where it was before the storm. He especially appreciated help with banking issues, as well as the flow of ideas in the organization’s newsletter.
Julie (Menhati) Singleton, owner of The
Breath IS Life Wellness Center, lost family members as well as her business and livelihood in the storm. Her clients dispersed and she had to start over. Good Work Network provided help on a number of fronts, in addition to assistance with zoning issues as she relocated her business. “We need so much support on a business and personal level to get going again,” she says. “I’m the healer, and I needed healing.”
