What Are My Values III

Organizations, like people, have values.

Whether a business should be run for short-term results or with a focus on the long term is likewise a question of values.  Financial analysts believe that businesses can be run for both simultaneously.   Successful businesspeople know better.  To be sure, every company has to produce short-term results.  But in any conflict between short-term results and long-term growth, each company will determine its own priority.  

This is not primarily a disagreement about economics.  it is fundamentally a value conflict regarding the function of a business and the responsibility of management.

Value conflicts are not limited to business organizations.  One of the fastest-growing pastoral churches in the United States measures success by the number of new parishioners.  Its leadership believes that what matters is now many newcomers join the congregation.  The Good Lord will then minister to their spiritual needs or at least to the needs of a sufficient percentage.  Another pastoral, evangelical church believes that what matters is people's spiritual growth.  The church eases out newcomers who join but do not enter into its spiritual life.

Again, this is not a matter of numbers.  At first glance, it appears that the second church grows more slowly.  But it retains a far larger proportion of newcomers than the first one does.  Its growth, in other words, is more solid.  This is also not a theological problem, or only secondarily so.  It is a problem about values.  In a public debate, one pastor argued, "Unless you first come to church, you will never find the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven."

"No," answered the other.  "Until you first look for the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven, you don't belong in church."

Organizations, like people, have values.  To be effective in an organization, a person's values must be compatible with the organization's values.  They do not need to be the same, but they must be close enough to coexist.  Otherwise, the person will not only be frustrated but also will not produce results.

ACTION POINT: Ensure your values are compatible with your organizations values.