Corporate life with or without consultants bears an uncanny similarity. Everyone is an expert when it comes to telling you what is wrong with something, anything but his or her self, yet few have any concrete ideas about what can be done for the future. It is as if the answer to any questions is “let’s do more of what we have been doing.”
It is easy to fall into the trap of pointing out the negative. Look at any political race and the themes appear to revolve around two phrases. “I understand the problem better than you do” and “Yesterday’s decisions (whatever they were) are the wrong ones.” Read the report from any investigation. Check the newspaper – any edition will do. Negative pays. Disasters are interesting. Doing something about today so tomorrow will be better is a luxury and an option that we do not seem to value.
Even when we try “improve” something we rarely focus on what is wrong; start fresh they say – ignore reality and paint a new picture. Politicians strive for policy and laws that have no chance of improving the quality of communities and life, corporate managers naturally focus on profits at the expense of communities and the people that live and work in them, and business owners look only at the benefits generated, never at the price extracted along the way.
As only natural, I find myself assuming that God looks at life the same way I do. Yet John testifies of something quite different. “God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” (John 3.17)
Could it be that our framework for looking at life, others, and the future is all wrong? Is our negative way of looking at life looking backwards while we squander the future? Life is about dealing with today in the context of living the future richer, fuller, and more completely!
Course corrections are never too late!
