Organ-ization

Have you ever known an organization that just seemed to have trouble thriving? (I guess in these times that is like asking if you have ever seen a traffic jam or a long line in the grocery store). Some people on staff have read books about organizational performance, and I think I would like to read some of those too. I'll have to get some recommendations.

One thing I know is true, though, from my own experience with various organizations, is that they will not be blessed until they interact outside of their business sphere and do something for others, give back. They will struggle unless they focus, at least a tiny part of the time, on something other than themselves. When you think of organizational greed over the past decades, that is always a consistent theme-executives thinking of their own wealth and self-preservation over the well being of the lower level employees, the investors, or the consumer public.

I'm not an etymologist, but the obvious root of the word "organization" is "organ." And an organ is interdependent; your heart is just a blob of tissue and blood, useless altogether without the rest of you. As amazing as bodily organs can be, they are as functional as roadkill unless they are part of a bigger whole. That interdependency is a trait of any healthy person. The organs are relying on each other to keep a body functioning. 

It would follow, then, that an organization that is completely self-absorbed and perhaps relying on itself alone for "success" (however that may be defined) will be an unhealthy organization. It will be a human heart lying on the side of a road-not being fed by any other organ, and not feeding any body. 

Paul reiterates this to the Corinthians in his first letter to them: "if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?" Paul cautions this group, this organization of people, to make sure that there is an interdependence among them so that they can act as a body.  So they can act as the Body.

So if your business is struggling, what should it do? Consult a marketing professional? Maybe. Reign in unnecessary spending? Probably. Act outside of itself, and give money or services to those in need? Absolutely. 

Otherwise, there's a good chance your business will be roadkill.