Articulating a clear mission, vision and core values is essential for a company’s success. Without it, you can’t attract or retain people who believe what you believe and are willing to sacrifice for your cause. In this edition of By Your Life, we talk about the infinite rewards of furthering a just cause.

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_06_23.mp3

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – June 30, 2019

Welcome to the sixty-sixth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life. If you haven’t already, please sign up for notifications on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Himalaya, or wherever you listen, or on the right side of this page so I can let you know when each new episode is posted. And while we’re speaking of where you listen, we’re interested in knowing how you are listening to By Your Life. So, leave us a comment and let us know which app you’re using.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life. If you know of someone who can benefit from By Your Life, I’d appreciate it if you’d forward to a co-worker or a friend.

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. I don’t know about you, but I find this Sunday’s scripture to be very difficult. It isn’t so much that it is difficult to understand or want to follow, as much as it is difficult to live. The message is very demanding.

This week, I was watching another YouTube video of leadership guru Simon Sinek. He was speaking to the How to: Academy about The Infinite Game. (The Infinite Game: How to Lead in the 21st Century on YouTube.) I first talked about this concept last year in Episode 17: A Perspective on Empathy, but Simon Sinek has been thinking about and developing this concept in regard to the game of business for several years. This video was just posted last month, and it reflects an elaboration of his earlier work. Specifically, he explains the requirements of an infinite game mindset and as I listened, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to this Sunday’s readings.

I encourage you to watch or listen to the video in its entirety, but briefly, let me back up and explain what Sinek means when he talks about companies that take a finite view of business, where there is a winner and a loser and success is measured by comparison to the competition, versus companies that take an infinite view of business, where the company competes against itself to make itself a little bit better every day.  The company with a finite perspective is obsessed with the competition. A company with an infinite perspective is driven by purpose and obsessed by where they are going—and so should it be for us.

Simon Sinek identifies five requirements for playing the infinite game. 1) A just cause; 2) Courageous leadership; 3) Trusting teams; 4) A worthy rival, and 5) A flexible playbook. I found parallels to each of these in this Sunday’s readings.

In business, a “just cause” is the answer to the question “Why does your organization exist?” Most organizations don’t have a good answer to this question. They understand why their industry exists. But when it comes to each individual company in an industry, if you are honest, nobody needs you, others do what you do, and in many cases, they do it better than you do. On the other hand, great organizations understand their just cause and so do the people who work there. So much so that the people are willing to sacrifice to see the advancement of that just cause.

Simon Sinek used the Declaration of Independence as an example of clarity of the just cause: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Sinek noticeably left out “by their Creator” when he paraphrased this text, but I digress.) For 243 years since, Americans have sacrificed for this just cause.

What do you stand for and will you attract people who believe what you believe? This is a requirement for playing the infinite game and it is one of the “Six Immutable Principles of a Dynamic Culture” proposed by Matthew Kelly in his new book The Culture Solution—and that is, “Mission is King.” Everyone in the organization rallies around furthering the mission. He says, “One clear mission is critical to the success of any organization. Men and women on mission are very different than women who are simply going to work.”

This is as true personally as it is professionally. Matthew Kelly wrote, “Life is about choosing priorities and putting them at the center of our lives,” and this is exactly what Bishop Barron said in his homily for this week’s Gospel. “When Jesus is the unambiguous center of your life, everything else finds it’s place around Him and in relation to Him. We cannot be indifferent to Him. This is the challenge. Either you give your whole life to Jesus or you should reject him. You can’t be wishy-washy about Him.”

No one’s “just cause” is greater, and no one was willing to sacrifice more for that cause, than Jesus. In Sunday’s Gospel, Luke wrote, “He resolutely determined (literally, “he set his face”) to journey to Jerusalem.” Christ’s determination to travel toward Jerusalem was a sign of his complete obedience to the will of the Father. Jerusalem is the city of destiny where his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension takes place, where salvation is accomplished, and from where the proclamation of God’s saving word is to go forth. Our salvation is the “just cause.”

This “just cause” is why the Church exists. 2,000 years later we continue to advance the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ. The Church is playing an infinite game. The question and the reason this Sunday’s readings are so challenging is, do you choose to be in this game? Are you willing to sacrifice for the “just cause”?

A lot of people want to answer “yes” to these questions, but when the rubber meets the road, they—you and I—aren’t able to follow through. We hear it in the Gospel. “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” (Lk 9:59) “I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” (Lk 9:61) We also hear it in our lives. “My kids are in the traveling soccer club, so we can’t make it to Mass on Sunday.” Or, “If I didn’t do what my boss told me, even though it was unethical, I would lose my job.” Or, “My client was involved in immoral activity, but I looked the other way. It didn’t involve me, and I was afraid to lose his business.” Or, “Personally, I’m against abortion, but I can’t force my beliefs on others.”

Burying your father, saying farewell to family, soccer, work, and respect for different views are all good things, and this is what makes this Gospel so difficult. They are good and noble things, but they aren’t the #1 thing, and if you make them the priority, according to Jesus, you aren’t “fit for the kingdom of God.” (Lk 9:62) Who then is?

Is the kingdom reserved for the few who vow poverty, chastity, and obedience? Is there no hope for those of us whose vocations are in the family and in the business world? I hope not! Again, Bishop Barron helps clarify. He says, “Anything that would take his central position in our lives is an idol and temptation. So, when something or someone else wants to take that position, it must be resisted. Worldly goods will fall away once Jesus is recognized as Lord. They still have value, but they should not take the central place in our lives. Instead, they find their value in relation to Him.”

They find their value in relation to Him. He is the #1 priority and everything else is secondary. In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus says, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Mt 6:32-33) We need these things to live, but we don’t live for these things. We live for the mission.

So too in our businesses. We need profits to fuel the furthering of the “just cause” but the “just cause” is not profits. When we start making decisions to increase profits instead of furthering the “just cause”, we are sliding down the slope to destruction.

Which brings me to the second requirement of players in the infinite game: Courageous Leadership. Courageous leaders are willing to say no to the money, willing to say no to short-term measures, and willing to do what is right to advance the cause. They sacrifice themselves and their personal interests for the sake of the cause, and for the sake of their people. They never sacrifice their people to protect their personal interests.

There have been several times since I started my own business that I’ve had to walk away from a client because their practices violated my just cause: respect for the dignity of each human life. Although these organizations had a worthy “just cause” of their own, some of their practices included promoting human embryonic stem cell research and funding abortion. Although my work with these organizations was far removed from this activity, if I was successful, my work advanced the organizations’ ability engage in these practices, so I had to walk away, respectfully explaining why I was doing so. These were the easiest difficult decisions I’ve ever made. They were easy because I was grounded in my beliefs, but difficult because I never know where my next “paycheck” will be coming from. However, I know I can trust: “Seek first the kingdom of God…and all these things will be given to you.” It turned out alright and I’m here to tell you about it years later.

The third requirement of an infinite game is Trusting Teams. In Episode 64: Team God, I talked about dysfunction #1 from Patrick Lencioni’s book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which is an absence of trust. Trust is the foundation upon which relationships are built. But there is a little “Catch-22” going on here because trust cannot be built in the absence of relationship, and you can’t have a great relationship if you do not have trust. This is where a “just cause” and “courageous leadership” come in. Trust is built when leaders create an environment where everyone knows that decisions are made to further the cause. When this happens, people can trust each other’s intent. As a result, they can feel safe being vulnerable and ask for help, ask forgiveness, and ask for clarification, without fear of being perceived as incompetent, weak, or stupid.

The fourth requirement is a Worthy Adversary. In business, a worthy adversary is the competitor who is so good that they that point out your weaknesses. This is good for you because they help you focus your efforts on where you need to improve. Although you may hate them for highlighting your limitations, the competition is not someone you want to beat, rather someone you respect, admire and want to learn from. So instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on improving yourself because the purpose of the infinite game is to keep playing so you can further your just cause.

Neither are we competing against each other on the road to heaven. As St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.” (Gal 5:14-15) Instead, we are competing against ourselves. St. Paul wrote: “For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other.” (Gal 5:17)

Like the flesh challenging the Spirit, in our businesses, the profit motive will always challenge advancing the “just cause.” But instead of giving in to the temptation to measure success based on some arbitrary financial number, the goal should be to improve your culture, improve yourselves, and become a better version than you were last year, so you continue to further the cause.

This brings me to the last requirement: A Flexible Playbook. The world is always changing, the players come and go, but the infinite game keeps on going. A flexible playbook means your courageous leadership is willing to make a dramatic shift in strategy because you find a better way to further your cause. It is a willingness to walk away from the way you’ve always done things. In our first reading, Elisha was plowing in the field, but after Elijah called him, “Elisha left him, and taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to his people to eat. Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant.” (1 Kg 19:21) Elisha abandoned his old way of life to succeed Elijah.

There are a lot of examples of companies that held on to the old way, afraid of making bold moves, not because they didn’t know, but because they focused on short-term profits instead of furthering the cause. Kodak invented digital cameras but didn’t focus on marketing them. Instead, they clung to the film business where they made most of their money rather than furthering the cause of personal photography. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

For the Church, Vatican II was a bold and dramatic shift in how the Church goes about furthering the cause. The expansion of the role of the laity and incorporating local culture in worship, are two notable changes in how the mission is advanced, while the mission itself remained unchanged.

Our lives may be finite, but we live an infinite life. We get to choose how we play the game. As St. Paul tells us, “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1) But St. Paul warns, “Do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.” (Gal 5:13) If we choose to live with a finite mindset, we are playing to win and for someone else lose. That’s not love. We are envious, comparing scores constantly. That’s not love. We hoard information, gossip, or play office politics. That’s not love. If you live this way, you might get rich in the process, but when you die, you can’t take it with you, and no one will miss you.

Instead, live with an infinite mindset. Choose the infinite “just cause”, the salvation of souls. This may sound incongruent with our business vocations, but it isn’t. It may be crazy and idealistic, but it is altogether possible, and necessary. When we pass, others will pick up the torch and continue without us. Our legacy is whether or not they will continue to further the cause.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to embolden us to courageously further the mission. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in us, the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.

And may God bless you abundantly this week, as you make him the #1 priority and glorify him by your life.

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