3 Steps To Implement Wisdom At Work
3 Steps To Implement Wisdom At Work
3 Steps To Implement Wisdom At Work
3 Steps To Implement Wisdom At Work
Most people know it’s a good thing to be wise — especially in business. However, for most of us, there tends to be a gap between what we know to be wise and what is actually being implemented day to day in our business, daily work, and leadership. Listen as Howard and Carter discuss how to best implement wisdom in your business, daily work, and leadership.
Audio Transcript
Most people know it’s a good thing to be wise — especially in business. We read articles and books, attend conferences, and consult experts all so we can understand and implement wise business strategies and practices.
However, for most of us, there tends to be a gap between what we know to be wise and what is actually being implemented day to day in our business, daily work, and leadership.
We know what is wise, but we can’t seem to bring that wisdom down to where the rubber hits the road.
This brings us to our question for today.
Howard, what are some concrete methods for implementing wise principles into your business, daily work, and leadership? And, how can someone impart wisdom to the people they work with or manage without being preachy?
Everybody needs help implementing wisdom, and everyone gets tricked into believing foolishness is wise. And, no one needs to be preachy!
So there is an article in the show notes from this week that covers the 7 key differences between foolishness and wisdom, but in this podcast — with the goal of getting concrete and concise — we’ve boiled that down to 3 things.
But, first, these are 3 problems.
We need to know the difference between wisdom and foolishness. — there a many "wise" practical things that appear wise, but most are not helpful. These are 3 common problems.
First, a focus centered on money leads to frustration and potentially death. Second, a focus centered on safety leads to frustration, loneliness, and potentially death. And, third, a focus centered on self-reliance leads to frustration and potentially death.
Anything I focus on that is not aligned with God’s will — whether it’s your ideal career path, your sexual ethic, etc. — will lead to frustration. The good news is there are practical principles to help guide us. God’s word is full of practical wisdom to guide us through these challenging areas of life. That’s why The Center exists — to define reality and offer hope through the truth of God’s word applied to everyday life and work.
God’s word is practical for all of our life — especially work.
What Is Wisdom?
So first, what is wisdom?
John Piper has some great insight into the definition of wisdom. He says that wisdom has 3 parts. John Piper says, “Wisdom is the factual knowledge, situational insight, and necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness.”
For everything we face, it needs to be consistent with our everlasting happiness or it gets frustrating. How long is this going to last? Seeing your work with an eye toward eternity is one key and we’ll talk more about that later.
You can just put the end of what you’re focused on, on it. For example, if you are just focused on how to get workers aligned, you need factual knowledge, situational insight, and a resolve to actually do it. Sometimes you have all the factual knowledge and situational insight, but lack the resolve to follow through with implementing the change. That’s why we need all 3 — knowledge, insight, and resolve.
Second, where do we get wisdom? God’s word is synonymous with wisdom, but how do we make it practical?
To make it practical we need a use case. I’m going to use a specific use case, but if you are listening to this podcast, I encourage you to pause the podcast and think about the number one thing you are facing right now. What keeps you up at night? What goes through your mind when you stop at a stoplight as you are driving? What is consuming you right now?
This podcast applies to whatever situation that is. So please get your example in your head as we go through how to apply wisdom.
The use case we’ll use is this: in this uncertain and up and down economy, I cannot figure out what to prioritize. This is a case that came up in our groups this week, but you can apply it to whatever your situation is.
First, we get wisdom from God. Paul says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” – Romans 11:33-36
A devotional I use by Ronnie Stevens and he talks a lot about how God’s wisdom is unsearchable and unknowable — there is more of God’s wisdom than we can ever understand. However, even though we don’t know everything, we do know a lot, it does apply situationally, and we aren’t deploying all of what we have.
We need to know there is more wisdom than I can ever comprehend and it’s inexhaustible for me if I meet with him, but I also need to know I have enough for what he’s given me today.
You can start with the wisdom from Romans 11:36. Everything you are encountering in work is from God, the power to do it is through God, and the purpose of it is for God. That changes everything! The trials we face at work are not without meaning because they are from God. The power to get everything done is through God — every meeting, every project, every email, and every interaction is happening through the power of God. And, God is the one who gets the glory. We don’t sit around and strategically think through how this business deal is bringing God glory, but maybe we should.
How Work Gets Done
This is where we start and to make this discussion practical we are going to talk about it in the way that work gets done. Patrick Lencioni has talked a lot about how work gets done and his recent book, Working Genius, outlines the different types of work and how they work together. There are 6 different types of work — each of us enjoys some of them and doesn’t enjoy others.
All work begins with ideation. We come up with ideas. Some people would call this phase vision and values.
Once you have the idea, you have to activate it. You have to discern and galvanize a team to get it done. There are strategic tactics to do that.
Then you have to implement it. No good work gets done if all we do is sit around and think about it. We have to ask whether everyone has what they need to get the job done, and are they actually getting the job done.
So we are going to talk about wisdom in the workplace by talking about it in terms of how work gets done. All work happens within this basic process so as we apply God's wisdom to our work, we should think about it in terms of these 3 steps. First, we need wisdom to guide ideas. Second, we need wisdom to activate strategy. And, third, we need wisdom to imlement tactics.
Wisdom To Guide Ideas
First, we ideate. We wonder about how things could be better and invent products, services, or processes to achieve those outcomes. Wisdom involves factual knowledge. You need good data when you ideate! You don’t want to create a vision or establish your values on bad data. You certainly want to have situational insight during ideation, and you need resolve to stick to your conclusions.
Here is some wisdom from God to guide ideation, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7
You don’t want to create a vision that is inconsistent with God’s vision. If you do, you will get frustrated and upset. If it’s not from God, it’s totally futile and worthless.
The fear of the Lord is acknowledging with awe and reverence the sovereignty of God. Think of all the things you did to get to where you are today. Most of those things were outside your control. You didn’t control where you were born, who you were born to, your biggest break, etc.
He’s God, you aren’t. You cannot tell that to yourself too many times today.
Once you remember you are not God, that leads you to asking God to help you believe. “Lord, I believe. Help me to believe.” Help me to put this to use. All things start from God, and so does the wisdom for this moment.
The deeper layer of this insight is from Romans 1:21-22, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” This moment is not about you or what you’ve done. This moment is about God, and it’s about glorifying God.
The prodigal son is a great example of how these verses play out. He thought it was all about him. He left with his inheritance, wasted all of it, and ended up eating with pigs. In the parable, the father lets his son go off and get into trouble. The son comes back because he acknowledges that to be a servant in his fathers house is better than eating with pigs.
We have to make that same decision. We need to acknowledge God. No matter what you are going through, the first step is always to acknowledge God.
Think about your last mistake. Were you seeking to glorify God? Were you giving thanks to God? This chapter in Romans goes on to demonstrate what happens to society when they do not acknowledge God. People worship the creature rather than the creator.
When we do this, we start to read God’s word according to our own interpretation of it. Don’t think you do this? Read Romans chapter 2. All of us, at some time in our lives, have gone down a path of righteousness and foolishness.
Another side point is some people think our culture today is the worse it’s ever been in history. That isn’t true. Rome’s sexual ethic was much worse than ours. We get to freely talk about Jesus without fear of oppression or any repercussions. What a gift! What we are seeing today in our culture is awful, but don’t get tricked into thinking this is the worst it's ever been.
Wisdom To Activate Strategy
A quick recap — we have to know the facts, possess situational insight, and act with resolve.
The first key is this: God’s thoughts beat human ideas every time. Here’s a verse to illustrate my point, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?... But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” – 1 Corinthians 1:20;27
Humans keep thinking there’s a new way to do it. And, it’s easy to see why. There are so many great minds who are creating and inventing great things, but we need to filter their wisdom through God’s word to discern if it’s worth anything.
Some of a need a strategy to rally our team at work. Some of us need a strategy to get the kids to bed at night. Some of us need a strategy for getting our coworkers on the same page. Some of us need a strategy for how to deal with the ups and downs of the economy. Whatever our strategy is, we need to align it with what God’s word says is true.
We have to make sure our 1 day or 2 week economic strategies are aligned with our goals that will last for eternity. If they are not aligned, this will be a source of frustration.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Are you frustrated? Whose wisdom are you using? Are you running to the end of your intelligence? Maybe what you are living by isn’t consistent with God’s word.
Consider the biggest event in world history — the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Following God cost Jesus everything. He sacrificed for others. Following the principles and person of Jesus will put us in similar situations.
Ask yourself how your strategy benefits all parties involved. What is love? How can this strategy love others?
It’s not love to rally your team around money. It’s about people and love — not money. Building strategies around loving people will cost you something. It might cost time and revenue, but it’s worth it.
Safety is another topic we’ve covered in our sessions and podcasts. The strategy of going and getting guns hasn’t worked very well. The strategy of buying more guns to be safe has made criminals' strategies change. Many cars are broken into every night because people commonly keep guns in their car. That’s not the only way criminals acquire guns, but it’s an example of how a strategy with safety at the center has gone off track.
Always choosing to protect yourself as much as you possibly can leads people to more and more paranoia. Next Door drives people crazy. The key is to start doing something to actually help solve the problem. Then you are an instrument of peace.
It’s the same for your work. Ask yourself, “How can I be involved with solving the problem instead of just complaining about it?” Complaining about the problem only leads to more frustration.
Wisdom To Implement Tactics
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – Matthew 7:24-28
When you build your house, business, family, or anything else in life upon sand, it’s more likely to crash. Building your house on money or safety is a road to disaster.
Wisdom serves the wise and the foolish daily. Paul says he was obligated both to Jews and Greeks — to the wise and the foolish. So are we! We deal with wise and foolish people every day. As you implement your tactics, look for situational insight as you assess where other people are. Are they wise? Are they foolish? You need to serve them regardless.
To wrap up, wisdom is the factual knowledge, situational insight, and necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness. I hope and pray that every person who listens to this podcast will have the resolve to implement the wisdom they know.
Resources
Complete Surrender — Wise or Foolish?
Romans 11:33-36
Romans 1:21-22
1 Corinthians 1:20-27
Matthew 7:24-28
Audio Transcript
Most people know it’s a good thing to be wise — especially in business. We read articles and books, attend conferences, and consult experts all so we can understand and implement wise business strategies and practices.
However, for most of us, there tends to be a gap between what we know to be wise and what is actually being implemented day to day in our business, daily work, and leadership.
We know what is wise, but we can’t seem to bring that wisdom down to where the rubber hits the road.
This brings us to our question for today.
Howard, what are some concrete methods for implementing wise principles into your business, daily work, and leadership? And, how can someone impart wisdom to the people they work with or manage without being preachy?
Everybody needs help implementing wisdom, and everyone gets tricked into believing foolishness is wise. And, no one needs to be preachy!
So there is an article in the show notes from this week that covers the 7 key differences between foolishness and wisdom, but in this podcast — with the goal of getting concrete and concise — we’ve boiled that down to 3 things.
But, first, these are 3 problems.
We need to know the difference between wisdom and foolishness. — there a many "wise" practical things that appear wise, but most are not helpful. These are 3 common problems.
First, a focus centered on money leads to frustration and potentially death. Second, a focus centered on safety leads to frustration, loneliness, and potentially death. And, third, a focus centered on self-reliance leads to frustration and potentially death.
Anything I focus on that is not aligned with God’s will — whether it’s your ideal career path, your sexual ethic, etc. — will lead to frustration. The good news is there are practical principles to help guide us. God’s word is full of practical wisdom to guide us through these challenging areas of life. That’s why The Center exists — to define reality and offer hope through the truth of God’s word applied to everyday life and work.
God’s word is practical for all of our life — especially work.
What Is Wisdom?
So first, what is wisdom?
John Piper has some great insight into the definition of wisdom. He says that wisdom has 3 parts. John Piper says, “Wisdom is the factual knowledge, situational insight, and necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness.”
For everything we face, it needs to be consistent with our everlasting happiness or it gets frustrating. How long is this going to last? Seeing your work with an eye toward eternity is one key and we’ll talk more about that later.
You can just put the end of what you’re focused on, on it. For example, if you are just focused on how to get workers aligned, you need factual knowledge, situational insight, and a resolve to actually do it. Sometimes you have all the factual knowledge and situational insight, but lack the resolve to follow through with implementing the change. That’s why we need all 3 — knowledge, insight, and resolve.
Second, where do we get wisdom? God’s word is synonymous with wisdom, but how do we make it practical?
To make it practical we need a use case. I’m going to use a specific use case, but if you are listening to this podcast, I encourage you to pause the podcast and think about the number one thing you are facing right now. What keeps you up at night? What goes through your mind when you stop at a stoplight as you are driving? What is consuming you right now?
This podcast applies to whatever situation that is. So please get your example in your head as we go through how to apply wisdom.
The use case we’ll use is this: in this uncertain and up and down economy, I cannot figure out what to prioritize. This is a case that came up in our groups this week, but you can apply it to whatever your situation is.
First, we get wisdom from God. Paul says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” – Romans 11:33-36
A devotional I use by Ronnie Stevens and he talks a lot about how God’s wisdom is unsearchable and unknowable — there is more of God’s wisdom than we can ever understand. However, even though we don’t know everything, we do know a lot, it does apply situationally, and we aren’t deploying all of what we have.
We need to know there is more wisdom than I can ever comprehend and it’s inexhaustible for me if I meet with him, but I also need to know I have enough for what he’s given me today.
You can start with the wisdom from Romans 11:36. Everything you are encountering in work is from God, the power to do it is through God, and the purpose of it is for God. That changes everything! The trials we face at work are not without meaning because they are from God. The power to get everything done is through God — every meeting, every project, every email, and every interaction is happening through the power of God. And, God is the one who gets the glory. We don’t sit around and strategically think through how this business deal is bringing God glory, but maybe we should.
How Work Gets Done
This is where we start and to make this discussion practical we are going to talk about it in the way that work gets done. Patrick Lencioni has talked a lot about how work gets done and his recent book, Working Genius, outlines the different types of work and how they work together. There are 6 different types of work — each of us enjoys some of them and doesn’t enjoy others.
All work begins with ideation. We come up with ideas. Some people would call this phase vision and values.
Once you have the idea, you have to activate it. You have to discern and galvanize a team to get it done. There are strategic tactics to do that.
Then you have to implement it. No good work gets done if all we do is sit around and think about it. We have to ask whether everyone has what they need to get the job done, and are they actually getting the job done.
So we are going to talk about wisdom in the workplace by talking about it in terms of how work gets done. All work happens within this basic process so as we apply God's wisdom to our work, we should think about it in terms of these 3 steps. First, we need wisdom to guide ideas. Second, we need wisdom to activate strategy. And, third, we need wisdom to imlement tactics.
Wisdom To Guide Ideas
First, we ideate. We wonder about how things could be better and invent products, services, or processes to achieve those outcomes. Wisdom involves factual knowledge. You need good data when you ideate! You don’t want to create a vision or establish your values on bad data. You certainly want to have situational insight during ideation, and you need resolve to stick to your conclusions.
Here is some wisdom from God to guide ideation, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7
You don’t want to create a vision that is inconsistent with God’s vision. If you do, you will get frustrated and upset. If it’s not from God, it’s totally futile and worthless.
The fear of the Lord is acknowledging with awe and reverence the sovereignty of God. Think of all the things you did to get to where you are today. Most of those things were outside your control. You didn’t control where you were born, who you were born to, your biggest break, etc.
He’s God, you aren’t. You cannot tell that to yourself too many times today.
Once you remember you are not God, that leads you to asking God to help you believe. “Lord, I believe. Help me to believe.” Help me to put this to use. All things start from God, and so does the wisdom for this moment.
The deeper layer of this insight is from Romans 1:21-22, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” This moment is not about you or what you’ve done. This moment is about God, and it’s about glorifying God.
The prodigal son is a great example of how these verses play out. He thought it was all about him. He left with his inheritance, wasted all of it, and ended up eating with pigs. In the parable, the father lets his son go off and get into trouble. The son comes back because he acknowledges that to be a servant in his fathers house is better than eating with pigs.
We have to make that same decision. We need to acknowledge God. No matter what you are going through, the first step is always to acknowledge God.
Think about your last mistake. Were you seeking to glorify God? Were you giving thanks to God? This chapter in Romans goes on to demonstrate what happens to society when they do not acknowledge God. People worship the creature rather than the creator.
When we do this, we start to read God’s word according to our own interpretation of it. Don’t think you do this? Read Romans chapter 2. All of us, at some time in our lives, have gone down a path of righteousness and foolishness.
Another side point is some people think our culture today is the worse it’s ever been in history. That isn’t true. Rome’s sexual ethic was much worse than ours. We get to freely talk about Jesus without fear of oppression or any repercussions. What a gift! What we are seeing today in our culture is awful, but don’t get tricked into thinking this is the worst it's ever been.
Wisdom To Activate Strategy
A quick recap — we have to know the facts, possess situational insight, and act with resolve.
The first key is this: God’s thoughts beat human ideas every time. Here’s a verse to illustrate my point, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?... But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” – 1 Corinthians 1:20;27
Humans keep thinking there’s a new way to do it. And, it’s easy to see why. There are so many great minds who are creating and inventing great things, but we need to filter their wisdom through God’s word to discern if it’s worth anything.
Some of a need a strategy to rally our team at work. Some of us need a strategy to get the kids to bed at night. Some of us need a strategy for getting our coworkers on the same page. Some of us need a strategy for how to deal with the ups and downs of the economy. Whatever our strategy is, we need to align it with what God’s word says is true.
We have to make sure our 1 day or 2 week economic strategies are aligned with our goals that will last for eternity. If they are not aligned, this will be a source of frustration.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Are you frustrated? Whose wisdom are you using? Are you running to the end of your intelligence? Maybe what you are living by isn’t consistent with God’s word.
Consider the biggest event in world history — the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Following God cost Jesus everything. He sacrificed for others. Following the principles and person of Jesus will put us in similar situations.
Ask yourself how your strategy benefits all parties involved. What is love? How can this strategy love others?
It’s not love to rally your team around money. It’s about people and love — not money. Building strategies around loving people will cost you something. It might cost time and revenue, but it’s worth it.
Safety is another topic we’ve covered in our sessions and podcasts. The strategy of going and getting guns hasn’t worked very well. The strategy of buying more guns to be safe has made criminals' strategies change. Many cars are broken into every night because people commonly keep guns in their car. That’s not the only way criminals acquire guns, but it’s an example of how a strategy with safety at the center has gone off track.
Always choosing to protect yourself as much as you possibly can leads people to more and more paranoia. Next Door drives people crazy. The key is to start doing something to actually help solve the problem. Then you are an instrument of peace.
It’s the same for your work. Ask yourself, “How can I be involved with solving the problem instead of just complaining about it?” Complaining about the problem only leads to more frustration.
Wisdom To Implement Tactics
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – Matthew 7:24-28
When you build your house, business, family, or anything else in life upon sand, it’s more likely to crash. Building your house on money or safety is a road to disaster.
Wisdom serves the wise and the foolish daily. Paul says he was obligated both to Jews and Greeks — to the wise and the foolish. So are we! We deal with wise and foolish people every day. As you implement your tactics, look for situational insight as you assess where other people are. Are they wise? Are they foolish? You need to serve them regardless.
To wrap up, wisdom is the factual knowledge, situational insight, and necessary resolve that together succeeds in attaining full and everlasting happiness. I hope and pray that every person who listens to this podcast will have the resolve to implement the wisdom they know.
Resources
Complete Surrender — Wise or Foolish?
Romans 11:33-36
Romans 1:21-22
1 Corinthians 1:20-27
Matthew 7:24-28