Barnabas File

When Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Balmer as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he took the helm of a once thriving company that now seemed adrift.     The problem was not so much profitability but a stagnant culture.     The company that Bill Gates founded was now more concerned about return on investment than creativity.    According to Mark Miller in Culture Rules , the emphasis was on transaction rather than transformation.   In 2015, Nadella unveiled a new mission: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”  This was definitely a desire to be transformational rather than simply transactional.  But how would he help create a culture to achieve this aspirational goal?   To accomplish this, Nadella challenged every frontline leader to model, coach, and care.   First, the leader should have a growth mindset and embody the values of the organization.  A leader should be committed to an expansive and productive future for himself/herself and for the company.

Culture is the water in which we swim; it is the air we breathe.     The culture of our organization is something we tend to accept without really understanding it.     And culture makes all the difference about whether our organization thrives or fails.    Despite what we declare as our mission or vision, the organization—church or other—will prosper only if the culture provides the proper environment.   In his latest book, Mark Miller makes a deep dive into culture.  In Culture Rules , he provides three simple guides for creating and sustaining a culture for a thriving organization.  The rules are Aspire, Amplify, and Adapt. This is the task of a leader.   First, aspire—share your hopes and dreams for the culture.   Second, amplify—assure that the cultural aspiration is reinforced continuously.   Third, adapt—always work to enhance the culture.   Unlike most of his previous books, this is not a management parable but a well-researched volume that share lessons from a diverse group of

Sometimes we struggle with the more brutal passages of the Hebrew Bible.     For example, when the Israelites conquer the Promised Land, there are many bloody battles, including the taking of the city of Jericho.     Joshua 6:21 reports that the victors   “devoted   the city to the   Lord   and destroyed   with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.”     Although we may cringe at these events that seem to be sanctioned by God, but we can learn something from the mindset of the citizens of Jericho.  When the men who Joshua sent to spy out the land arrived at Jericho, they found a great walled city. A friend was teaching on the passage several years ago and made this comment: “People who are afraid build walls.”  His conclusion is that the citizens of Jericho were not only in a defensive but a fearful mode.  My friend went on to say, “People of faith build bridges.”   I was talking with a seminary student recently, and she came around