Praying Scripture at Work

A day at work rarely does not involve a difficult decision, a challenging discussion, or a perplexing problem.

You may be deciding whether or not someone’s employment needs to be terminated, preparing for a debate about the pros and cons of a significant change, or figuring out how to conduct your business during a pandemic. Your decision may not always be an urgent or crucial one, but could be a minor frustration of a delayed delivery, an unkind remark (again), or an unhappy customer. If you look back at your past week, did you have to deal with any of the above scenarios?

As Christian women in the workplace, we desire to honor God and bless others in what we say and how we say it, in addition to how we act and react. This includes how we make decisions, treat others, and conduct our business.

Every objective we have and every goal we set needs to be based on the Word of God and prayed about. In this way, we are praying scripture at work.

One of the most well-known scriptures that reflects this commitment is Matthew 22: 37-39 –

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. (NIV)

What would your week be like if you started every day with this prayer?

Consider praying these words of Jesus as you begin your day. This will give you a focus on Him and is a beautiful scripture to remember to pray during the day. In this way, you can stay faithfully grounded in your intent and outlook for every situation.

Consider that Jesus is telling us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Therefore, we will want to do the right thing in God’s eyes, such as spending time in prayer and in His Word to learn about what the right thing is! There is a biblical principle which applies to every situation we deal with in the workplace, so this is the scripture we will need to pray at work.

Consider Jesus is telling us to love our neighbor (which includes the people we work with and serve at work) as ourselves. What would our workday look like if we always treated people the way we would like to be treated? I cannot help but believe that we would be better listeners, better communicators, and more in control of our emotions.

In this coming week at work, consider a situation you need to deal with that will be somewhat tricky. Decide to do the following three things:

1. Pray Matthew 22: 37-39 over this particular situation.

2. Read God’s Word and determine at least one Bible verse which applies to this situation. Pray that scripture over the situation. A lot!

3. Thank God that you can trust Him for His loving faithfulness as He leads you.

May God richly bless you as you pray scripture into your work day every day.

Have a wonderful week!

Bonny, Christian Women at Work

Putting out fires at work? Stop igniting them!

“Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.” Proverbs 26:20 Do you know the best way to put out a fire? Quite simply: “Don’t ignite one in the first place.” Although this may seem very obvious and straightforward, avoiding the igniting of a fire takes wisdom, planning, and time. And thankfully, putting processes in place to avoid putting out fires at work will lead to efficiency, calmness, and better use of time. About Risk Management One of the roles of an owner or manager is to engage in risk management. There are many definitions of this crucial task. I like the one by The Corporate Financial Institute that states, “Risk management encompasses the identification, analysis, and response to risk factors that form part of the life of a business. Effective risk management means attempting to control, as much as possible, future outcomes by acting proactively rather than re-actively. Therefore, effective risk management offers the potential to reduce both the possibility of a risk occurring and its potential impact.” In summary, risk management means identifying what risks may occur, analyzing why they might happen and figuring out how to avoid them. It could also be defined as “knowing how to avoid putting out fires before they start.” As you think about your business, can you see common components in the fires you regularly put out? Is the same issue occurring over and over? Do you find that your staff is constantly dealing with the same challenging scenarios? If so, it is time to sit down and talk with your team about why. A good idea is to have a “brainstorming session” and ask the questions about “what is going well, and what is not going well” or “what is continuing to fall through the cracks” or “what issues are we continuing to deal with that are wasting our time and energy.” You may consider having a brainstorming session with your whole staff, management team, or specific departments. Although you will see some things that need to improve as the manager or owner, the people “on the front lines” will have the best input regarding the severity and frequency of issues and potential solutions. This past week, I had a brainstorming session with the staff involved in Osteo-Circuit, our osteoporosis program. We went through the SWOT Analysis, where we reviewed Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. COVID has brought many changes, and we now have to decide how to deliver the program differently. One of the risks (or threats) is that many of our patients and clients have become accustomed to a particular structure. Much of the session revolved around their potential concerns (and complaints) and, therefore, how to provide choices to them that considered their past preferences, present financial realities of the clinic, and potential costs to them. If you are continuing to “put out fires at work,” then it is time to ask yourself three questions: What are the risks? This question refers to the specifics of the fire you are putting out. This will, of course, vary from business to business. It could be about ongoing customer complaints about service delivery, being short-staffed, running out of inventory, or continued staff change-over. In your brainstorming session, find out from people what ongoing issues they see that are concerning.

Why are the risks occurring? There could be many reasons why there are ongoing inefficiencies. They often refer back to the 4 M’s: “Man, Method, Material, and Machine.” In your brainstorming session, determine the “why.” It could be as straightforward as a machine not working or lack of materials. Some “Whys” under Man could be poor communication, lack of delegation, or lack of training on dealing with difficult people. Perhaps time frames are too tight to deal with unexpected emergencies. Some “Whys” under Method could be the lack of clear Policies and Procedures, or they are out of date. Some other “Whys” could include not giving adequate responsibility to front-line people or a lack of a clear strategy to communicate updates in Policies and Procedures. How can you avoid the risks? The strategy to prevent the risks depends on the risks and the reasons they are occurring. A brainstorming session on how to professionally and creatively mitigate these risks will be the next important step. Then, implementing a change should be followed up with how successful it is.

This week, plan a day and time to have a brainstorming session with your staff on avoiding putting out fires at work. This session is essential to do even if you are assuming that all is going well. Risk management is about dealing with present situations and wisely reflecting on possible future risks.

May God richly bless you this week as you wisely consider Risk Management in your business.

Have a great week!

Bonny, Christian Women at Work

Avoiding the Spark of Poor Communication

“Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.” (Proverbs 26:20) You have likely heard the expression, “There is no fire without a spark.” Something causes these fires. According to www.borealforest.org, forest fires are either naturally caused or humanly caused. Natural fires are commonly started by lightning, and human-caused fires are usually triggered by several reasons, including smoking, recreation, equipment, and “miscellaneous.” Human-caused fires constitute the higher percentage of forest fires, but natural fires constitute the more significant majority of the total area burned. The reason for this is that human-caused fires are usually detected early and are typically contained easily. In comparison, natural fires can burn for hours before being seen. “Human-caused” fires appear to be caused by carelessness or not tending to a critical malfunction. I wonder, if people were more careful, paid more attention to surroundings, and regularly checked to ensure everything was running smoothly if there would be a significant decrease in the number of fires. I cannot help but think of the analogy of “putting out fires at work.” If we were consistently more careful with what we said and how we said it, paid more attention to the people around us and were more sensitive to what was being done around us if we could prevent sparking an offensive, damaging, and unproductive reaction or situation. As per forest fires, there are many things that we can be doing to prevent having to “put out fires at work.” There will be, however, situations we may not be able to foresee or control. COVID 19 would be one example. It has caused many unusual circumstances and numerous extensive disruptions, and we have felt we were running from one new situation to the next. A sudden change in regulation or legislation would also cause a business to be putting out unforeseen fires of employee anxiety and urgent policy changes. However, human errors can ignite disorganization, last-minute situations, and continued stress leading to wasted energy and resources spent putting out these fires. And, these are the fires that can often be prevented. The issue is to determine what sparks them. And miscommunication is a familiar spark. Miscommunication can often spark circumstances where things need to be dealt with quickly to not get out of control. If you look back and thoroughly analyze an intense situation, you may see that poor communication is a common cause. Last week, I had a case at work when someone was accused of poorly handling a situation. This triggered a response of “needing to put out a fire,” so it did not escalate. Although I needed to deal with how a person was treated, I also needed to determine why things were said. As I spoke to others involved (which took their time and mine from other scheduled duties), I could see that a miscommunication several months ago was the spark for this heated response. If this had been clearly communicated earlier and followed up, then this” “fire may not have occurred. This did not excuse how someone was spoken to, but I could see why it happened and wanted to prevent a similar circumstance from occurring again. In this situation, following up with this schedule change would have likely prevented this. If poor communication is sparking ongoing disagreements that need to be resolved, hurt feelings that need to be addressed, or repeated discussions on how something is not up to standards, it is time to review your communication strategy. Consider the following eight practical approaches that will help to prevent wasted time putting out fires caused by a lack of communication or misunderstandings in communication:

• Are you holding regular staff meetings to ensure everyone is aware of new policies and procedures? If some people cannot attend, then make sure you are recording the session to send to them and/or sending out minutes of the meeting.

• Are you providing opportunities for all your staff to give input on how they can best do their job so you can decrease the possibility of things getting out of control for them? If you notice that some people are not as vocal, try to approach them separately and ask them.

• Are you providing opportunities for all your staff to ask questions about things that are unclear to them to avoid work being done incorrectly? Sometimes, people may not know of a policy change. Ensure that you speak with them as soon as you notice something being performed poorly, no matter how small it may seem.

• Are you providing opportunities for all staff to express their concerns regarding any policy changes? Change is usually difficult, but it is often less stressful when people can share their concerns. This allows everyone to problem solve.

• Are you following up with new policies, procedures, and changes and asking staff if they have any questions or concerns? Make sure you follow up in your regular staff meetings and also if you start to see something “falling through the cracks.”

• Do you measure your business metrics so you can quickly see if something is not functioning well? If something is just “smoldering,” it is best to address it as soon as possible.

• Are you individually speaking to people about anything that they feel can be improved? Open communication in all areas not only improves efficiency but also job satisfaction.

• Are people with similar job responsibilities meeting to discuss what is working well, what needs to be improved, and following up with quality improvement projects? Meeting together is often much more efficient and satisfying than many emails and messages going back and forth.

The way to prevent, or decrease the frequency of “putting out fires at work, is to detect problems early. This week, consider your workplace’s communication strategies and see if there is room for improvement. We hope you will also share your ideas on what works well for you! May God richly bless you this week as you communicate with wisdom, direction, professionalism, and grace. Have a great week! Bonny, Christian Women at Work