If you don’t face Monday mornings “filled with joy,” perhaps it is time to learn from companies that chose to embrace “fun” as a core value and bring joy back into work.

Mass Readings Audio

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_10_28.mp3

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 28, 2018

Welcome to the thirty-first episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, or on the right side of the page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  The first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah begins, “shout with joy,” (Jer 31:7) and the Psalm follows, “we are filled with joy,” (Ps 126:1) “our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy,” (Ps 126:2) and “we are glad indeed!” (Ps 126:3) Now, that’s a great message to take into work this week!

The truth is, most of us don’t face Monday mornings “filled with joy.” Instead, we start counting down the days until the next weekend. It wasn’t always this way. Before sin entered the world, work was not a burden, but a joyful activity derived from human nature. (CCC 378) Through our labor, we share in the Creator’s work and are contributing to the realization of the divine plan. (Gaudium et Spes 34) But because of sin, man is split within himself and as a result, life is a struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness (Gaudium et Spes 13) and between burden and joy of work.

According to the Gallup organization, only 33% of US employees are engaged, meaning they love their jobs and make their organization better every day. At the other end, 16% of employees are actively disengaged — they are miserable in the workplace and destroy what the most engaged employees build. The remaining 51% of employees are not engaged — they’re just there. That means 2/3rds of American workers are likely to not be shouting for joy when Monday morning comes around.

If your workforce follows the national average, you have a couple choices. You can take a lesson from Captain Bligh and continue the beatings until morale improves, or you can focus on bringing joy—the joy of the Lord—back into work.

In his book, Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job, Dennis Bakke shares the story of how he rejected workplace drudgery as a noxious remnant of the industrial revolution and set out to make work fun. At AES Corporation, the company he co-founded, Bakke sought not to create the empty “fun” of the Friday beer blast, but the joy of a workplace where every person has the power to use his or her God-given talents free of needless corporate bureaucracy.

The company has grown and changed in the past 13 years since Joy at Work was published and Bakke not longer works there, but “Fun” is still one of the company’s core values.

AES is not the only company that has chosen to embrace fun as a core value that shapes its culture. In last week’s podcast, I shared the story of Dina Dwyer-Owens Co-Chairwoman of Neighborly, a company whose core values are captured by the phrase Live RICH. Living RICH means Respect, Integrity, Customer Focused and Having Fun in the Process. A number of other organizations that have been recognized as best places to work share “fun” as a core value. These companies include SalesForce, Zillow, Carmax, Workday, Zocdoc, Etsy, Southwest Airlines, Aweber and Motley Fool.

Years ago, I worked with Holmes Custom, a manufacturer of personalized products, to identify and develop their core values. In addition to Integrity, Customer Focus, Respect, Teamwork, and Efficiency, the owners felt it was essential to include “Enjoy our Work.” To this end, they made commitments to have a positive attitude, celebrating achievements and appreciate learning from failures.

Which brings me to the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Nothing can steal joy more than a major flub-up. The thing is, we have a choice whether or not it does. As a leader, we must remember our role. Hebrews says, “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness.” (Heb 5:1-2) You may not be a high priest, but as a leader in your organization, you have been placed there by God. How do you deal with the ignorant and erring? Do you, like my client, make a commitment to appreciate and learn from your failures and those of others?

Henry Ford said, “Greatest thing in life is experience. Even mistakes have value.” It becomes a choice to appreciate the value in the potential lessons that are present in every mistake. I say “potential” lessons because not all people choose to learn the lessons and then all you have are mistakes.

But when you choose to learn the lesson, you grow and become better because of it and that is something to celebrate! Henry Ford also said, “All life is experience, and one level is exchanged for another only when its lesson is learned.” Whether or not you take that step to the next level is your choice. Whether or not you help someone else make it to the next level is your choice as a leader. How you choose to deal with mistakes—yours and others—will make or break you as a leader because it will make or break your relationships with those you lead.

Dr. William Glasser, Psychiatrist and Psychologist and author of Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, claims that the vast numbers of seemingly un-solvable human problems are relationship problems. This is true of relationships with spouses, family, and at work and the source of the problem is because we approach these relationships from a control psychology perspective. That is, we want to control how these people behave and we use coercion through rewards or punishment to control them. The problem is that it doesn’t work because it assumes that people are externally motivated, which is wrong.

Choice theory, as Dr. Glasser explains, says that we are internally motivated because the choice to respond to a reward or consequence is a behavioral choice which is generated inside our brains. We are presented with information from the external world and then choose how we will respond to it. When we do not choose to respond to a reward/consequence in the way the control-thinker wants us to, they become irritated.

Take this concept to the workplace. Dr. Glasser identifies seven deadly habits that underlie control-based relationships. 1) Criticizing, 2) Blaming, 3) Complaining, (4 Nagging, 5) Threatening, 6) Punishing, and 7) Bribing (rewarding to control.) When something goes wrong, control-thinking says, I should criticize, blame, or punish the guilty party so that they will avoid the wrong behavior in the future.

Contrast these habits to the seven caring habits that drive healthy relationships. 1) Supporting, 2) Encouraging, 3) Listening, 4) Accepting, 5) Trusting, 6) Respecting, and 7) Negotiating differences. In this case, when something goes wrong, I will accept that it is what it is, trust that you didn’t intend to screw up, listen to what happened, support you in fixing the problem and encourage you to move on and not make the mistake again. I will celebrate with you what you learned and that makes learning the lesson fun!

Which environment would you rather work in? Which do you think leads to success? Which is more fun? How you deal with mistakes and celebrate success will enhance your continued success (or not.)  If people are punished or made to feel stupid for making mistakes, they are more likely to avoid taking responsibility for the mistake. When you don’t own up to a mistake, you can’t learn from it. It is that simple. Remember to “deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,” (Heb 5:2) for you yourself have at some point been ignorant and erring too.

Finally, I’d like to reflect on the Mark’s Gospel. Bartimaeus, the blind man, calls out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” (Mk 10:47) When Jesus asked what he wanted, Bartimaeus replied, “Master, I want to see.” (Mk 10:51)

Certainly, a person who is physically blind and left with no choice but to beg for survival would want to see. Most of us aren’t in that position, but we still have limited sight. We fail to see things from the other person’s perspective. We fail to even try to understand what we cannot see, and we judge what we don’t understand. We fail to see how our choices are harming our relationships. We fail to see how we are the cause of our own lack of joy.

What if we were to take Bartimaeus’ approach and tell the Lord, “I want to see” how I am choosing to criticize instead of encourage? What if we wanted to see things the way others see them? What if we wanted to see how our actions impacted others? What if we wanted to see the other person the way God sees them? Imagine how different things would be if we really wanted to see.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to see. Like Bartimaeus, let us take courage, throw aside anything that is in our way, and go to Jesus “and follow[ed] him on the way (Mk 10:52) so that we too may be filled with joy.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth.

May God bless you abundantly and may you take the joy of the Lord into work this week and glorify the him by your life.  Amen

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