Back in the early Noughties
there was a relatively well known case study that we management consultants
liked to use of a certain restaurant chain that had turned their business
around by one simple but significant step – they had moved from rules to
values.
Instead of giving their
staff a handbook with rules about how they should deal with every different
type of situation that they might face, they instead decided to trust their
employees and give them some ‘company values’ by which they were to make their
own decisions. So, for instance, if a
waitress found herself faced with a dissatisfied customer who was upset with
their food or service, then they left it to her discretion to decide what to do
for the best. The key, though, was that
they gave her some simple overarching values to make these decisions by – that
the customer needed to be treated fairly and politely (whether or not they
deserved to be) and that it was in the company’s interests that the customer
left feeling as satisfied as possible.
It was a win-win situation
– the staff felt empowered and trusted, the customers felt understood and
valued, and the restaurant chain gained a reputation as being ‘great on service’
with a positive attitude to dealing with problems.
It was a case study that
impacted many businesses as they moved from a ‘rule book’ approach to a ‘value
based’ approach. Across the world
organisations started talking about their ‘shared values’, which led to most
producing ‘Vision & Values’ statements.
The power of this was
driven home to me when a few years ago I was taken along one of the long
corridors of Westminster by a very senior Law Lord, who showed me the shelves
containing the bound volumes of English law.
I remember her showing me the amount of shelf space needed to house the
books up to 1990 and then the vast amount needed for the remaining years. ‘We
seem to legislate for everything nowadays’, I remember her sighing, and so I
told her the above story. We agreed that
what we needed was more shared values.
It is interesting that it
seems that the government has also now decided to try and take this approach –
whether successful or not – with their recent re-messaging following the easing
of the lockdown. ‘Stay Alert’ does not
give rules for every situation that we might each find ourselves in, but instead
it tries to give us a mantra for us to make our own decisions by. It is arguably about trying to empower people
to make their own choices about the levels of risk with which they each feel
comfortable, in order that they can get on with their lives.
As a society we need
shared values not, I would suggest, a long set of rules.
Of course there will
always be some who will abuse the trust that this freedom then gives, but on
the whole it allows people to flourish and gives them a level of independence
that enables them to live their lives to the full, without the state
intervening or legislating for every different type of scenario.
The good news is that this
is where we, the people of God, can truly lead the way. For the Christian faith has one simple core
value, to which if we all adhered, then I am convinced that we would find that life
would be so much better. It is quite
simply - Love. Just Love.
And that, in a nutshell,
is what my book is about. It documents
the journey I have taken to understand fully that we worship a God of Love rather
than a God of Law. It explains how I have
had to change the spectacles with which I read our Book of Life, from one that
speaks of sets of rules to one that breathes and reveals the source of love in
the form of Jesus.
Just Love is a book that I hope will challenge and
encourage many. It tells of how God
spoke so powerfully to me about Jesus’ New Commandment to, yes, Just Love.
Once we have grasped the
principle that life is about values not rules, then I believe that we can become
free to be all that God has called us to be.
We can live lives that are fulfilled, and which strive to build God’s
Kingdom here on earth – full of hope, joy, peace and yes, love.
***
This is the latest
Lockdown Blog article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors,
offering a personal reflection on our current situation in life. These blogs
post are written sometimes in reference to one of the writer’s books, and
sometimes about how they are living in response to the coronavirus and our
current world situation. We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and
diversity of DLT’s list – books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the
needs and interests of all.
Today’s post is by Jayne
Ozanne, author of the recently-published memoir Just Love, which
you can buy here.
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