Not all process improvement needs to be transformational or disruptive. Incremental improvement just requires you to be open to challenging the status quo and making things a little better every day. In this edition of By Your Life, we discuss how continuous improvement happens by asking “Why are we doing this?”

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_05_26.mp3

Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 26, 2019

Happy Easter Season again, and welcome to the sixty-first episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I want to thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please sign up for notifications on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Himalaya, or wherever you listen, or on the right side of the page so I can let you know when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend, if you think they 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’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.

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Last week we talked about Changing How We Change so we can endure the suffering involved with moving from the old to the new. We are more creatures of habit than we are creatures of change. These two forces pull against each other causing us stress. But this week, we have a different view of the world from our readings. What is being proposed is not to make our lives more difficult, rather, what is offered is less burden and more peace.

In the first reading, the Apostles set out to correct unauthorized teaching that in their words, “have upset you… and disturbed your peace of mind.” (Acts 15:24) So they clarified that “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities.” (Acts 15:28) Sometimes, well-intentioned people can burden us with what is unnecessary because that is “how things are done around here.”

Years ago, I heard a true story about a company that had a problem internally with delivering the mail. For some reason, it took 2-3 days from the time the USPS would make a delivery for a package or letter to make its way to the recipient inside the building, so a process improvement team was assigned to investigate the problem.

They followed the mail clerk around for a week, watched him as he worked, and interviewed him about each step in his mail delivery process. They discovered that before he sorted the mail for delivery, he would weigh it. Then, he created a report that was printed (this was years ago before everything was electronic) and distributed to a dozen people for their review. When they asked the clerk why he was weighing the mail, he didn’t know. This was how he was taught 15 years earlier when he started working in the mailroom and had always done it.

So, the team interviewed the recipients of the report to find out what they did with the information about the weight of the mail. Not one of them even looked at the report, let alone used the data for any useful purpose. They tossed it.

Think about this. A person was spending a few hours each day, weighing the mail and creating a report that was sent to a dozen people who threw it in the trash, and this had been happening for over 15 years! I’d hate to calculate the cost of the waste in terms of labor and materials, not to mention the indirect cost of the lack of timeliness for mail that was delivered a day or two late. How did this happen?

We can only guess that someone, way back when, needed to justify the number of employees in the mailroom, so they weighed the mail to document the volume of work that needed to be done. Over 15 years later, they were still weighing the mail.

In our first reading, the early Church gathered its own “process improvement” team who questioned whether it was necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised in accordance with the Mosaic practice. Yes, they had always done this as a part of their covenant with God, but was it still necessary post-Jesus? Jesus changed things.

The world is constantly changing so it is always good to step back and ask, “Why are we doing this?”, “Is this still necessary?”, or “Is there a better way to achieve the result we’re looking for?”

I have a client whose vision statement is “Making Things Better Every Day.” It drives their approach to serve their clients and it drives their work internally. You don’t need to have Black Belts in Six Sigma to incorporate continuous improvement in your work. Not all process improvement needs to be transformational or disruptive. Incremental improvement just requires you to be open to challenging the status quo and making things a little better every day.

Asking “Why are we doing this?” is important for other reasons that have nothing to do with change. Rather, it is a reminder of the “why” you do what you do. Sometimes, because we do the same things over and over we lose track of the “why” and therefore our actions become meaningless habits.

At work, everything you do should be aligned with your company’s vision and mission and done in a way that honors your core values. But sometimes, in the process of completing mundane tasks, it is easy to forget the “why” and when you forget the “why,” you can drift away from what is important.

One of the companies I highlighted in my book, The Value of Core Values, is a construction company that designs and builds luxury homes. Their mission statement is “to bring honor to God and to have a positive, life-changing impact on people.” They want to be the best custom home building company they can be by striving for excellence in all they do, focusing on their processes, and completing projects well. They do this by operating with integrity, being open and transparent with employees, clients, and sub-contractors, and developing meaningful relationships along the way.

The CEO told me many stories about how they have grown and made incremental changes and improvements to how their company operates because they focused on the “why” and “how” of their mission, vision, and core values. One story that stood out was really a little thing, but important, nonetheless.

To honor their mission and values, they price their houses fairly and consistently, with a reasonable margin, considering the service and other aspects they offer. Unlike a lot of builders, their billing process is transparent, and they charge their clients at direct builder cost. They say right up front that they don’t get any commissions, rebates or “kickbacks” from their suppliers.

There was a vendor of a water softening product who set up the contract with their purchasing department so that they got a 10 percent future credit or discount on every unit they bought. He charged the builder the regular price on his invoices but built up credits on the account throughout the year. At the end of the year, the supplier wrote the builder a check for the credit amount.

The CEO didn’t know about this arrangement at first, but technically, it violated the promise they made to their clients that they wouldn’t mark-up supplier invoices. It happened innocently, but when he found out, he didn’t do anything about it. He kept putting off dealing with it. Then he started rationalizing that they might as well keep the credit. After all, the transactions were old and the invoices to clients reflected reasonable market prices.

Later, however, he knew he had compromised on the part of their values that said they will be fair and straightforward in all dealings. So, he sent checks to all the clients who had been affected, telling them that he had received a credit for their purchases. The builder received some positive response from their clients, but it wasn’t overwhelming. That didn’t matter. What mattered was doing the right thing, even if it was a small thing, and keeping their word.

We are challenged enough as humans to keep our own word—to do what we said we would do. In the Gospel, Jesus said, “Whoever loves me will keep my word.” (John 14:23) If we have a hard time keeping our word, it is even more challenging to keep Jesus’ word—to do what He said we should do. This has been a life-long, continuous improvement process for me because although he said many things, they were summed up in the commandment we heard in last week’s Gospel. Jesus said, ““I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (Jn 13:34) He took the commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18) up a few notches from how we love ourselves to how He has loved us. Now, He is telling us that if we love him, we will keep his word and love one another as He loves us. What an incredible objective to strive for! What a challenging commandment to keep.

This week, Florida executed a serial killer who had been on death row for 34 years. As expected, with this type of event, there were comments on both sides of the death penalty issue on social media. Those opposed believe in the sanctity of life, even the life of a person who confessed to heinous crimes. They believe in the potential for remorse, repentance, and rehabilitation. They believe that killing a killer is still killing a person and thou shall not kill. They believe that God gives life and only God should take it away.

Those who were in favor of his execution talked about justice. They talked about closure and peace for the families. While this is understandable, it is a myth. Jesus told his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” (Jn 14:27) The world thinks that revenge can bring peace, but that is a lie. The death of this person cannot bring peace. But keeping Jesus’ words can, specifically his words from the cross. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)

I acknowledge that I have never had to endure what the families of the 10 women he admitted to murdering endured, nor have I lived through what dozens of women that he raped have. I can only imagine that keeping Jesus’ word to forgive them is almost impossible. But that is what Jesus told us in this week’s Gospel. If we love him, we will keep his word, and He will give us peace. There are no conditions, no exceptions, no nuance to this command. As difficult as this may sound, Jesus didn’t command us to do anything that would harm us, nor was He kidding when He spoke the truth to us. Jesus commanded us to keep his word and in return, He will give us peace.

At work, I’m pretty sure that as difficult as people can be, they’ve not likely done anything as heinous as the crimes for which Jesus forgave his executioners. But, He still knew that we would not be able to do this on our own. That’s why he said, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you… Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (Jn 14:26-27) We don’t have to be anxious about keeping his word, forgiving others as we have been forgiven, and loving others as He loved us, because we don’t have to do it on our own. In fact, we can’t do it on our own, so let’s stop trying!

We do need to allow the Father to love us and allow the Father and Jesus to come to us and make their dwelling with us. (Jn 14:23) If we let go of the hate that prevents us from forgiving, and replace it with his love, we can love others as he has loved us. Let us open our hearts to the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, so that we may remember all that Jesus said, know what to do, and reflect his love by our lives.

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.

~ St. Augustine

May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life. Amen.

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