Dan Wooldridge uncovers the true formula for decision making, in business and in life.
Commentary on the marketing tone of a Christian publisher
Dan Wooldridge protests the idea that those who have the “proper” understanding of the meaning of work are in the Christian pulpits and publishing houses.
One of the unique traits that makes humans unique, different from animals, is our ability to use our skills and talents to shape material things to reflect our individuality - and when we do this, we create property. Material things in and of themselves are not property; they become property only when humans creatively find ways to use them productively. An example is a sticky, black, smelly substance that was nothing but a nuisance until humans developed technology for refining it - then, suddenly, oil became a source for wealth. Seen in this light, the defense of the right to property is not a defense of material things per se, but rather of the dignity of human creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness.
Charles Colson
How Now Shall We Live (p 385), Tyndale Publishers, 1999
Critics sometimes suggest that competitiveness is foreign to a religion of love, meekness, and peace. They have no idea how hard it is to be meeker than one’s neighbor. There are abuses of competitive spirit, of course, as there are of love, meekness, and peace. But to compete - com + petere, “to seek together although against each other” - is not a vice. It is, in a sense, the form of every virtue and an indispensable element in natural and spiritual growth. Competition is the natural play of the free person. All striving is based upon measurement of oneself by some ideal and under some judgment. When that judgment is ominscient and omnipotent, such measurement is keener than any scalpel. Human sports, lotteries, and contests of every sort - in oratory, song, drama, horsemanship, the arrangement of flowers, the winning of tenure - would make no sense if the competitive spirit were foreign to human nature and learning. Most humans rejoice in it.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that individuals could ever discover their own potential unless they were blessed with good friends and rivals, whose exploits teach them how to push themselves harder than they yet have. To live in a slack age of low standards is a curse upon self-realization. To live among bright, alert, striving rivals is a great gift to one’s own development.
Michael Novak
The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (p. 347), Madison Books, 1991
Is health and wellness a business issue?
Coach Don Nava shares how God gave him insight, empathy, and compassion for those who struggle with their fitness through the life of his 10-year old son, David.
Such companies have a personality and what some have called a soul. You can almost smell it, when it is there. I once asked my students to walk into an office or a plant and without speaking to anyone, to make a guess at what kind of environment it would be to work in, and what kind of attitudes and values the management would hold. They were amazed at how accurate their guesses turned out to be when we later visited the same places more formally and conducted surveys of the staff.
Charles Handy
The Hungry Spirit - Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World (p. 71-72), Broadway Books, 1998
Is health and wellness a business issue?
In this second of three videos, Coach Don Nava asks, “Can you ever feel young again?” Coach Nava explains the choices you must make to live young again and shares his thoughts on his personal 100-year plan for his life.
Is health and wellness a business issue?
Health and wellness is a huge business issue and poor company health can incur costs in absenteeism, disability, and productivity. We interviewed Coach Don Nava to learn more about what it means to have total fitness.
Over the past two decades, the American business and academic community has produced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of management-type business books prodding and showing Americans how they can work smarter, get better results, and compete with those wily Asians … By and large they all urge companies and managers to aspire to greatness by listening to their customers, championing innovation, fostering empowerment and leadership, and ratcheting up quality. Many companies have done very well following the advice contained in these books. Others have faltered. Such inconsistency is a result of two apparent flaws with many of these best-selling tomes. The books, with few exceptions, are mostly geared for managers and mostly preach using techniques on task-driven thinking, not critical thinking.
LeGault, Michael R.
Th!nk: Why Crucial Decisions Can’t Be Made in the Blink of an Eye (p. 50-51), Threshold Editions, 2006
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Leaders must be careful about what and how they say things. Dan Wooldridge illustrates the unintended consequence of a leader thinking he was being clear but unintentionally communicating something quite different.
John was a successful Christian businessman in his forties. He considered himself a casual drinker and liked to spend time at the bars in the hotels where he stayed. He would say to himself, I will have only one drink tonight, but the truth was that he liked drinking too much to quit after just one. He also liked talking to the people he met in the bar.
John was firmly committed to his wife, but often he would slip into conversation with the women he met in the bars. They were often just as lonely as he was. One scotch and soda after another would lead him through the conversation.
Sometimes he caught himself flirting with these women. When he went back to his room, he was always alone, but he would fantasize about whomever he had just talked with.
The longer he traveled, the more comfortable he became with this routine. One dark night of drinking turned into a darker night of fantasizing…
Stephen Arterburn and Sam Gallucci
Road Warrior: How to Keep Your Faith, Relationships and Integrity When Away from Home (p. 67), Waterbrook Press, 2008
The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.
Attributed to Albert Einstein
The New Quotable Einstein (p. 292), by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, 2005
Why Worldview Matters
Dan Wooldridge follows up on Jim Hancock’s post on Enron: Innovation Corrupted with thoughts on how worldview trumps values in decisionmaking and the impact that has on personal and corporate life.
We’re going to relentlessly chase perfection knowing full well that we will not catch it, because perfection is unattainable. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because, in the process, we will catch excellence. I’m not remotely interested in being good.
Vince Lombardi
Legends of Alabama Football (p. 77-78), Sports Publishing, 2004
From Best Practices to Next Practices
In this final part of a series on best practices, Dan Wooldridge points out that chasing best practices by definition demonstrates that you are lagging. He urges us to move toward the front by developing next practices.
