Soundbites

Empowered and energized

Simply giving employees a sense of agency — a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decisionmaking authority — can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs. One 2010 study at a manufacturing plant in Ohio, for instance, scrutinized assembly-line workers who were empowered to make small decisions about their schedules and work environment. They designed their own uniforms and had authority over shifts. Nothing else changed. All the manufacturing processes and pay scales stayed the same. Within two months, productivity at the plant increased by 20 percent. Workers were taking shorter breaks. They were making fewer mistakes. Giving employees a sense of control improved how much self-discipline they brought to their jobs. — Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Flying with honor

I love what we do. I think what Alaska [Airlines] does is important. We connect communities, we connect people. If you run a business, we help you by getting you to San Francisco for a meeting. If you have grandkids in Burbank, we help you get down there to see them. So what the company does fundamentally is important, and it’s important that we do it well. If we do it well, we can continue to have 25 million or 30 million people a year flying with us. And that provides 13,000 livelihoods for our employees as well. Investors can also get a good return. It’s a pretty cool system, this American free enterprise system. We play a role in it. I think running a business well is an honorable thing to spend your time on. — Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden in an interview with Ethix, published by Seattle Pacific University

Change my what?

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. — Economist John Kenneth Galbraith

Indispensable me

To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward. Entrepreneurs find it especially difficult to believe this. They have high levels of competence and very few team members. If they don’t put in the hours, things don’t get done. How easy to fall prey to the temptation to believe that they alone are holding up their corner of creation! — Timothy Keller in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work

Entrepreneur’s joy

I feel so alive! I just love what I’m doing. Absolutely the best part is building a team. I’m proud of the fact that there are 36 people in the world whose livelihood depends on Prairie Girl Bakery. That’s an amazing feeling. — Prairie Girl Bakery founder Jean Blacklock enthus‑ ing about the joys of entre‑ preneurship in The Power of Why by CBC business journalist Amanda Lang

Investing with God

An investor asks God how much he values a million dollars at. God replies, “A cent.” He then asks how long does he regard a millennium as being and God says, “A second.” The investor says, “Could I please have a cent?” God says, “Certainly — in a second.” — Colin Mayer in Firm Commitment: Why the corporation is failing us and how to restore trust in it

Saving labor?

The amount of genuine leisure available in a society is generally in inverse proportion to the amount of labor-saving

machinery it employs. — German‑born economist E. F. Schumacher

Trolling for trouble

I think anybody who’s checking email at bedtime is trolling for trouble. It’s like you’re getting tired and you start stretching and yawning and you say, “I think I’ll go to bed now.” And then suddenly you say, “I wonder if there’s anything to get upset about? I wonder if there’s anything to keep me up for another hour! I know. I’ll check my email!” Stop doing that. — David Posen in Is Work Killing You? A Doctor’s Prescription for Treating Workplace Stress

“Wow,” said God

After each creative act God says, “It is good,” which is roughly equivalent to saying, “Beautiful! Wow!” There is a signifi cant entrepreneurial dimension of God’s activity: envisioning, inventing and implementing. This activity is ongoing. Jesus, speaking centuries later, said, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working” (Jn. 5:17). One of the most creative things God has made is a rough facsimile of himself — human beings! — Richard J. Goossen and R. Paul Stevens in Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making a Difference