Love Justice

I have a sense and hope that there is coming a tipping point in the greed and audacity of the rich and powerful. I hope that it is in time to stop much of the exploitation of the leverage the rich have to set the rules of the economy to benefit them. This week Congress is planning to pass a tax plan that will grossly benefit the rich and ultimately cost the middle class and poor in income and social supports. In the same week they took away Net neutrality rules that allow those with the control of access to the internet to tax those without for access.

The problem with happiness in this country according to economists is not the lack of wealth at the top. The problems with happiness have to do with corruption and lack of social supports according the World Happiness Report 2017 (http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/). The argument for the Republican candidate in the last election was the corruption of the elite in Washington. Now the elite in Washington are capping a decade where we all spent digging out of a recession they created by taking more of the wealth. This is with a backdrop of already having the majority of the wealth already.

I hope that the wins in Virginia and Alabama are a harbinger of a populace sick of being squeezed. Last week, I was shocked that some medicine I had to buy for my daughter was over $200. After calling the doctor, she wrote a prescription costing $17. Imagine the lack of morality it takes to upcharge $200 on a prescription that a child needs to get well. The sad part is that other life-saving drugs have been raised much higher. Medicine was once a profession one got into to help other people get better, not to maximize profit.

The mindshift of seeing capitalism as a feature of Americanism is at the point of being strongly questioned. It has been assumed that capitalism is an American feature. That stands in contrast of the commonwealth that Christian communities first built in the New World. Christianity is primarily a "give to those in need" , non-material philosophy. Younger generations are heavily questioning the capitalistic/materialistic values of their parents and grandparents. They have seen the lack of happiness it creates. Bernie Sanders spoke to the younger generations and in that he may hold the future as people tend to get hardened in their positions as they get older.

Culture and symbols

This weekend we were honored to present the "arras", the coins representing wealth in a marriage ceremony. I hand the chest of coins to the husband, who then hands them to the wife. It is a showing that marriage is sharing our gifts with each other. It is what the essence of a marriage is defined and dependent on: giving of ourselves and our gifts and wealth to another. We cannot be assured that the gift will be returned. We can only give in faith and love because that is what we believe.

In organizational leadership, it is good practice to show sacrifice to the organization. Whether it be time or money, the important point is that we set the example of giving to others in order for the expectation to be followed throughout the rest of the organization. People want to believe that they are living and working for something good, something worthwhile. Giving is a noble act and creates a positive emotion in the organization that the group that they are working with is good.

Jesus spoke of his sacrifice, of how it was necessary for the holy spirit to come and help the church to succeed. That model of sacrifice was repeated over and over throughout the establishment of the church. The more the enemies of the church tried to kill the church, the more the church grew due to the willing sacrifice of those followers. Now even the military speaks in terms of shaping hearts and minds rather than body count because they have learned the futility of stopping a movement through the physical death of any number of followers.

Another interesting thing to know about sacrifice is that it is enjoyable. Though we believe that the truth "It is better to give than to receive." is only on a spiritual level, psychology has done experiments on giving and have found that spending on others gives us a more positive feeling for a longer period of time than spending on ourselves. According to the article, it has to do with reinforcing our self-image as a giving person.

As a leader, how do you sacrifice to others? What are some ways you can make sacrifice and giving to others a part of your organization's culture? Do you enjoy giving? What are new ways that you can give that you are not doing currently? What kind of giving will have the biggest impact on the people you serve?

Don't Conform, Transform

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:2

     I have been focusing my dissertation in the area of transformational learning. The thinking in an area of transformational learning is that we have three ways of learning, according to Kegan and Lahey's Immunity to Change:

1. The Socialized Mind - we think what we are told to think by society - our family and people in authority.
2. The Self Authoring Mind - We create our own set of beliefs, ways of thinking, and values and agendas.
3. The Self-transforming Mind - the ability to see our beliefs and ways of thinking and acting in an objective way and change them to help us improve.

     This verse has an interesting connection to this area of study, especially when looking at the terms conform, transform, and renew. Jesus had said that we should come into his kingdom as children, which is tied to the concept of beginner's mind. A beginner's mind is the idea that as we work and experience things, we start to filter out things that a beginner would notice. One example is how novice astronomers find stars because they don't have those filters and beliefs prejudged. We tend to look at our reality in he same way with these filters and don't renew our mind.

     One method of engaging in a beginner's mind is the Inquiry method. The Inquiry method is looking at things from an exploration and questioning frame rather than a knowing and explaining frame of mind. In many instances, fatal flaws in business were in the successul answering of the wrong questions. The patient formulation and reformulation of good questions become critical.

     Interestingly, in looking at economic transformation Jesus transformed from a manufacturing industry (carpentry) to a service industry (healthcare). Not just providing physical healing, but psychological healing over guilt, and social healing through love and forgiveness. Instead of conforming to social expectations, he transformed into something the world needed more. How can we use transformational learning to change the world?