Month September 2008

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My Read of the Month:

Title:The Horizontal Organization : What the Organization of the Future Actually Looks Like and How it Delivers Value to Customers
Author: Frank Ostroff
Published: 1999
Genre: Business Leadership & Management
Ratings: 3.0 out of 5 stars

In my opinion, the adoption of horizontal organisation is very much lacking in today’s organisations. Most are still operating in the vertical approach which may also be referred to as the hierarchical approach.

According to the author, this (vertical) can be observed by how important information might get loss as knowledge travels up and down multiple levels across departments which focuses more on functional goals rather than an outward-looking proposition on delivering value and winning people. Another shortcoming of this would be the stifling of creativity and initiative at lower levels.

I find this a helpful read to understand what organisations must do to see true transformation: (1) Top-down, (2) down-up and (3) aligning and streamlining of core processes to meet organisational value proposition. And the horizontal approach concept releases and empowers people by giving them the tools, skills, motiviation and authority to make decisions essential to the team’s performance.

Though overall this is a good book with credible case studies, it can be a bit technical and dry. But still are must-read if you enjoy leadership or management matters and understand how to build an organisation that will be able to respond swiftly and effectively to market forces and trends in remaining competitive and relevant.

Who should read it: For management/CEO level or for those keen to learn more about management like me =p

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My Doodling:

To all ladies! Check out this online fashion store for your shopping needs- http://www.tristarfashion.blogspot.com/. Only available in Singapore and set up by my sister-in-law, so if you need any special discounts let me know lor… =p

Looking Onwards, Running Forward

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With all the attention on the Singapore’s inaugural F1 Night Race, many other Singaporeans like myself are also gearing up for annual Singapore Marathon by Standard Chartered in December.

Like any marathon, staying ahead and to keep on keeping on is the challenge. Ask any veteran and they will agree that besides stamina, the real battle is in the mind in focusing on the finishing line.

Life is like a marathon

Ever wonder how easy it is to slow down when you see others behind you when you’re ahead? Or how tempting it is to give up with the many excuses that arises at the half-way point?

If you follow on, I think you will agree with me that running a marathon is so parallel to our journey in life. For instance, when our culture in general accepts pre-marital sex, isn’t it easy to give in to the crowd and lower our moral standards?

In the marketplace where integrity may not be highly practice and compromised for quick personal promotion, isn’t it easy for us to conform in order not to lose out?

In our Christian community, we may also start to look at our peers and conclude that since most are not serving or obeying God around me, then it is alright that I don’t to either.

Running with excellence

Like running in a marathon, in life we need to look onwards and keep going forward. Allowing complacency to creep in would prove detrimental. And to focus, requires a much needed paradigm shift.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

Instead of choosing to look at those around us or behind us, we need to learn how to tune our focus on a leader who is setting a high standard. In the case of moral and godly excellence, we have Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as we run this marathon of faith in our lives, let’s not aim low or live our faith in mediocrity by following the majority- the wide gate (c.f. Matthew 7:13).

Today, choose to set a high standard by fixing our eyes on Jesus who has ran ahead of us for us to follow.

A Man after God’s Heart

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It is something noteworthy that despite having committed adultery and murder, King David was still singled out by God as “a man after His own heart” (c.f. Acts 13:22).

So how did he qualify as a man after God’s heart?

Being after God’s heart

I believe that David qualified as a man after God’s heart because he lived a life of repentence. He was a man that kept his heart soft and tender to the love, leading and voice of God. 

Even when he fell into sin, he was humble enough to respond to God in obedience when rebuked. And God honoured his obedience as it was under David’s rulership that Israel was at its peak and enjoyed political stability, peace and prosperity for many years.

Learning from David

I take heart that God does not look at our accomplishments or our good works in determining our righteousness. It is by the saving grace of Jesus that I can stand righteous before Him with confidence.

Being man that is still prone to sin, I am assured that with this same grace and the power of Jesus’ blood, I have the ability to overcome sin and sustain my pursuit of holiness.  

Thanks to God for the deposit of the Holy Spirit in us for sensitivity and power against sin.  And His truth to guide and set us free from the enemy’s schemes and bondages in our lives.

Being a Trailblazer for God’s Culture

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New International Version:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The Message:

“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time.

Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.”

Matthew 7:13-14

Creating Culture

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Our best response is to make something out of it.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY
By Andy Crouch

I wonder what we Christians are known for in the world outside our churches. Are we known as critics, consumers, copiers, condemners of culture? I’m afraid so.

Why aren’t we known as cultivators—people who tend and nourish what is best in human culture, who do the hard and painstaking work to preserve the best of what people before us have done?

Why aren’t we known as creators—people who dare to think and do something that has never been thought or done before, something that makes the world more welcoming and thrilling and beautiful?

The simple truth is that in the mainstream of culture, cultivation and creativity are the postures that confer legitimacy for the other gestures. People who consider themselves stewards of culture, guardians of what is best in a neighborhood, an institution, or a field of cultural practice gain the respect of their peers.

Even more so, those who go beyond being mere custodians to creating new cultural goods are the ones who have the world’s attention.

Read the full article here>>>

Breaking Free from the Law

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I AM FREE FROM THE LAW: I am DEAD to the law and am no longer “under” it. It has no POWER over me…

  • I am FREE FROM THE LAW’S CONDEMNATION and demand. It has no power over my conscience. My sins are paid for, and I have Jesus’ obedience. I need not look to the law to save me
  • I also need not look to the law to sanctify me. It is not my growth. I grow by faith, which results in obedience. I am FREE FROM THE LAW AS MY HOLINESS — Christ is my holiness
  • I am FREE FROM THE LAW BEING A MEASURE OF MY CLOSENESS TO GOD or my spirituality
  • I am FREE FROM USING THE LAW AGAINST OTHERS
  • I am FREE FROM THE PRIDE of keeping the law

Living in the Era of Grace & Truth, not Law

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From my personal experience and observation, I have realised how many of us, Christians (knowingly or unknowingly) are still pre-dominantly living our lives under law, rather by grace.

This is despite of us knowing the truth that none of us are saved by works, but only by grace through faith in Jesus.

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

John 1:17

Notably, there is a drastic difference in how intimately we will walk with God and how accurately we will reflect His likeness in our relationships with others whether or not we walk under law or grace.

Bound under law, not love

Ironically, Jesus came and died for us so that we might have freedom, but somehow we bound ourselves by our wrong understanding of the truth or even our human tendencies of having security in the things of this world which includes things of christian culture that we refer as “spiritual”. 

First and foremost, there should not be any divide between the spiritual and the secular, or the Church and the world. The Church is in the world, but yet, not of the world. And we are in the world, in order we can influence the world.

Like the passage of the Samaritian woman at the well, Jesus did an unconventional act by approaching the woman for a drink. Even this “unclean” woman was taken aback and astounded by this Jewish Rabbi. But that was love reaching out to her and not theology or the law.

If we are honest, many of a times we allow theology or the law to hinder us from showing love to others who are or have broken the laws.

Is our love conditional and based on performance in carrying out the law? Does God loves us in that manner to?

Living in the era of grace and truth

As modern day God-fearing believers, it is imperative that we understand that we are positioned to live in the era of Jesus, and not in the era of Moses. The former is a life lived by grace, and the latter is a life lived under law.

Living in grace  transmits the Spirit of God in living out the laws “naturally” in truth. Living under law subjects one to obey out of rules and regulation which relies on one own’s strength and only alters a pattern of behaviour.

But obedience by grace and truth is following God with a heart motivation of loving and pleasing Him which is compelled by His unfailing and inconditional love. This inside-out change will eventually manifest in the alteration of behaviour that will last.

“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”

1 Corinthians 8:1

As people living in the era of grace and truth, let us not attempt to win others by our theology or amassed knowledge of the law, but let us rather win others primarily by love that stems from theology just as Jesus did. 

Living under Law or by Grace?

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Which do you see most in yourself? Print this and circle items which you most see in yourself.

LIVING UNDER SELF-IMPOSED LAWS . . .

  1. Means thinking my actions or things I do will make people like me.
  2. Brings a preoccupation with self
  3. Fosters an independent spirit.
  4. Will always be critical and judgmental.
  5. Creates high expectation (of performance) — of self and others.
  6. Means fears and anxieties control our life.
  7. Requires strength in ourselves to complete a task.
  8. Means we do not know how to love.
  9. Means we do not know how to forgive.
  10. Means we do not know how to bring others to Christ because we do not know how to bring ourselves to Christ.
  11. Destroys confidence in Christ’s ability to bridge the gap between God’s demands and man’s sinfulness.
  12. Determines worth by what we are doing.

or LIVING UNDER THE GOSPEL . . .

  1. Means believing there is no goodness in us to perform a single act of obedience without the power of the Spirit.
  2. Means believing our sins are forgiven, and we can then forgive others.
  3. Means accepting our position as sons/daughters without condemnation.
  4. Means knowing the power of the flesh (if given into) will bring internal conflict and conflict with others.
  5. Means believing we now have the Spirit’s power to love our neighbor.
  6. Means understanding there is a warfare with the flesh, the world, and the devil, but they are not greater than Christ.
  7. Means believing our life is under God’s sovereign control and that His will is good, acceptable and perfect.
  8. Means learning to go to our Heavenly Father in prayer to settle our problems and to have our needs met.

The Saint in this Devil

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Manchester United’s latest Red Devil, Dimitar Berbatov speaks…

“And when I realise I give myself airs, the red light in my head flashes. Many times I was ashamed because of some of the things I had done….. And I am religious and I take the bible everywhere with me. There are many good pieces of advice for those like me in it.”

View the enlarged version of this article here>>>