Sharing in the Divine Life

Your heart shall swell with joy...

Isaiah 60:5

Jesus ... is fully human, body, soul and spirit. And yet we believe, as Christians, that this is the Son of God. Without confusion of his divine and human natures, he is the absolute in human form. Perhaps we can understand Jesus' identity as the Son of God more clearly by thinking of him in terms of the revelation of the Trinity.

That revelation affirms what the mystics of all religions have intuited: that the ultimate nature of infinite being is love. God, the ultimate reality, the absolute, in a way beyond our comprehension, is a community of persons. As the Father has life in himself and pours it into his Son, and they rejoice in it together in the procession of the Holy Spirit, so the Son who has life in himself, shares the divine life with the whole human family through the outpouring of the holy Spirit, and invites everyone to the banquet of eternal life.

Isaiah 60:5

Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy...

Linking Strategy to Structure

Should strategy drive structure or should structure drive strategy?

Having developed your options, it is important to consider how your organization would implement a selected strategy. part of addressing this is deciding whether the organization is structured in the right way to support the new strategy, or whether, despite all good intentions, the old organizational structure will lead to its failure.

Should strategy drive structure or should structure drive strategy? Strategy is clearly more important than structure, because by implementing a new strategy your team or organization can create the future. It is clear, therefore, that strategy must come first -- an organization must create the right strategy and then adjust its structure to ensure that the chosen strategy has the greatest chance of success.

ACTION POINT: Consider the following questions when evaluating strategy and structure:

• Can you change your company structure to better support your chosen strategy?
• Can you change your company structure in the longer term to open up more strategic options?
• As a last resort, can your strategy be changed or amended to better align it with your company structure?

Balancing Interests

...assess the balance of power, and consider this against your values and those of the organization.

Managing multiple stakeholders can often present a dilemma. For example, your investors want you to always be seeking to reduce costs, while your employees want to receive higher salaries. When making decisions that affect multiple stakeholders, use the information you have gathered in your analysis to assess the balance of power, and consider this against your values and those of the organization.

Possible stakeholders in your organization include:

• Investors - They want to know that their money is safe in your hands
• Employees - They want their loyalty and productivity to be rewarded
• Customers - They will decide whether they want to be associated with you
• Suppliers - They need to know that their invoices will be paid

Influences to your organization include:

• Industry Associations - Set standards and best practices
• Community - They are a source of the staff and support you need
• Trade Unions - They require their members to be treated well
• Competitors - They act in ways that may affect your options and influence your decisions
• Government - The can provide mutual support that may be a source of power
• Pressure Groups - They may put their cause above your future
• Media - They have the power to influence many, for good and for bad

ACTION POINT: Balance the needs of your stakeholders and understand the focus of your influences.

Involving Stakeholders

While all of the stakeholders in your organization are important, not all will have equal impact upon you.

Stakeholders are individuals or organizations that have an interest in how your organization is run. The ready availability of information, especially through the media and the Internet, means that stakeholders have an increasingly strong voice, and some may seek to influence your strategy. It is vital, therefore, to identify and manage your most important stakeholders.

While all of the stakeholders in your organization are important, not all will have equal impact upon you. Stakeholder mapping is a tool that can help you identify and manage the stakeholders that are most influential in you business. Start by identifying every stakeholder that has an interest in your organization. Then look at the names on your list:

• Determine each stake-holder's level of interest in your activities.
• Assess their level of power over your organization.
• Identify who are the most powerful and the most interested stakeholders.

Use this information to assess how important stakeholders will respond to different strategic options, and to plan how to influence them.

ACTION POINT: Know who your stakeholders are as well as their value and influence.

Painting Scenarios

...assessing how your organization would fare in each circumstance.

Some factors move unpredictably, so it is not possible to use historical data to predict future movements. For these, scenario planning is more appropriate. This form of planning involves painting alternative scenes -- images of your future business environment -- assessing how your organization would fare in each circumstance. A classic case is the price of oil, which fluctuates in response to a complex mix of political, financial, and production factors.

One scenario envisages oil prices remaining stable over three years; another has prices at 150 percent of current levels; and a third has them at 75 percent. How would your business be affected by each? How would each influence your strategy?

ACTION POINT: Paint alternate images of the future business environment to determine how you may react to them.