Replace sticks and boxes with circles, cycles and rapid adaptation.
ADAGE
Create Organic Structure
RESPONSE
Replace sticks and boxes with circles, cycles and rapid adaptation. Read John Boyd’s “Organic Design for Command and Control”. Understand the advantage to be gained by implementing his OODA (observe, orientation, decision, and action) loop, adaptive command structure, and getting inside your adversary’s OODA loop. Replace your existing command and control with a mission based, rapid decision cycle, command and control structure. The best source for organization structure is not the Harvard Business School but the military (they have been working at it for thousands of years). The military continues to experiment with command and control structures designed to delegate and drive decision-making to the front lines. Lessons business can learn from. Consider your decisions carefully, but always make your decisions in alignment with God’s principles recorded in His word. As a Christian, the way you organize your enterprise is critical to your enterprise’s success. The Synoptic Gospels provide a wonderful organizational case study.
SCRIPTURE
Psalm 119:59-60: I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
QUESTIONS
How do the Scripture(s) apply to the business adage?
Do you manage a team of Christians differently than a mixed team? How?
Can prayer be part of your weekly staff meetings if secular employees attend?
Can an all-Christian management team become myopic? Explain.
Does Jesus’ “management” style provide a model?
Should we be borrowing ideas from the military?
DOWNLOAD
Download the free PDF worksheet for this adage, print it, and use it in your meeting, conference, or group.
