Occasionally I am called in as a consultant to discuss a "good idea" with an organization's leadership. After listening to the good idea, I am asked to give my opinion as to whether this is something the organization should pursue. While I am glad to participate in this type of exercise, it is usually not a productive one. If the folks in the organization would only review the purpose of the organization and the leader, the decision would be obvious to them.
If they would ask if the idea fits the purpose of the organization, they would have their answer. If it doesn't fit, then ignore it or give it to some other organization, even if it could be the next replacement to the microwave oven. If you want your company to be the one to create the replacement for the microwave oven, then start a new organization, but don't confuse the purpose of your first organization.
There are a million good ideas floating around. Sadly, some ideas are rejected before anyonecan evaluate the potential of the idea to see how it fits the organization. While there are many failed ideas, there are also a few incredible successes such as Federal Express, in which a good idea took quite a while to become a reality. We see this same relevance to purpose and focus in organizations that try to diversify.
When companies diversify along the lines in which they have already been successful, the organization obviously has a greater chance of success. For example, if a fast food company diversified into making movies, the probability of success would be quite low since the success factors are quite different. However, it seems logical that if a fast food company diversified into a 10-minute oil change business, the probability of success would be high, since the same success factors of advertising, location, operations, customer throughput, etc., are the same. The holding company of both the fast food company and the oil change company would have a purpose that was common and overarching to both firms.
Now let's take a look at what this Beatitude means to be undefiled in thought. The leader who is pure in heart would never over react to seeing a 60-Minutes camera crew waiting outside the office. If you only think of good things, then you will only do good things, except for the occasional mistake, and mistakes do happen. It is not the mistake itself that gets some people into trouble, but the cover up of the mistake. If you only think good things, then you'll think enough to own up to the mistake and it won't need to be covered up. Is this a Pollyanna view? Perhaps just a little, given the number of people whose behavior is the opposite of this Beatitude. But,
I have observed this kind of honesty at work. I have shared these lessons from The Beatitudes with many groups of people. In one of these seminars, I asked people to tell me if they worked for a boss who represented the characteristics of The Beatitudes. Usually, I find that one or two people out of twenty-five work for someone who portrays three of the Beatitudes. But it is rare to find employees who recognize more than three of the Beatitudes in their leader. In this seminar, as we discussed each Beatitude, I found two people who truly believed that their boss lived out each Beatitude. Curious about this, I asked if I could meet their boss. A month or so later, I received an invitation to present the seminar, "Be a Leader for God's Sake," to the department where this agapao leader worked.
When I arrived, I met this leader and was convinced after a few minutes, that he probably did live up to all of the Beatitudes. This particular department provided a service to the organization (anonymity is kept here as a courtesy to the people involved) that was known in the industry to be a high-turnover, high-stress type of profession. Yet, I found out that most of the people in this department had been with the department for over five years and that twenty percent had been there at least ten years. These numbers reflected astounding staying power in an industry that averaged less than one year.
During and after this same seminar, I asked if these employees' leader had ever made mistakes. The answer was an overwhelming "yes" followed by, "but we love him anyway." In probing this response, I learned that this leader did, in fact, make mistakes. Lots of them! But, because his heart was so pure, his employees always knew that he never meant to harm anyone, and usually the leader discovered the mistake before anyone else did, and he announced it himself. The employees commented that they had learned what their leader's weak spots were and where he usually made mistakes. So they just made sure that someone else did those activities, thus improving the success rate of the leader. This does not mean that the leader was inept -- he was far from it!
When your motives are obvious to everyone, people don't suspect you of doing wrong. When you know that your motives are pure, you can engage in more activities with a more relaxed approach, thus reducing stress and accomplishing more.
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