Brett Johnson's Blog, page 2

How do I innovate with God?

I had just finished a project for Cisco Systems on how to capture innovation in a part of their business. I thought it was done and dusted but the night after the project ended I had a dream. I could see (in my dream) all the tools we had used to set up a systematic approach to innovation... but they were slightly tweaked. Now they were asking a different question: "Was the innovation inspired?" Did it have the “ah ha” fingerprints of the Divine? Was it beyond logic and reasoning? Did the innovation have the X factor?

 

I woke, grabbed pen and paper, and sketched out “The Inspired Innovation Playbook”. Then I went on vacation to Italy for a couple of weeks and pondered more what I had seen in the dream.

 

I visited Cisco when I returned and said, “I had a dream...” and they graciously agreed to re-do the project, this time looking for the inspired among the ordinary.

 

Just today I read an Al Jazeera article about a man who is now a friend. I met him in 2017 when he went through our Repurposing Business training. I discovered Brandt and his brother had a company making nutraceuticals. As we discussed inspired innovation I told him, “God is not done inventing; he has plenty of products on his mind that we have not seen on earth yet. Ask God for a new product.”  Brandt Coetzee did just this and, inquiring of God and collaborating with God, developed a coffee substitute that is caffeine-free and a super-food. The Al Jazeera news article states:

 

The crowd is waiting to sell mesquite seedpods to Brandt Coetzee, a burly 57-year-old Afrikaaner who invented Manna Brew, a caffeine-free coffee substitute made from the roasted beans. The self-styled “superfood espresso”, which tastes earthy and slightly sweet, not only offers health benefits, but it also contributes to the eradication of an alien tree species that’s infesting the arid Northern Cape. And it provides an annual cash injection to about 700 people – in a town where only 36 percent of adults have formal employment. Perhaps most importantly, collecting the seeds before they are allowed to germinate saves billions of litres of groundwater every year.

 

When God gives you an inspired innovation it not only delivers multifaceted benefits but often transforms liabilities into assets. Inspired Innovations can include divine exchanges: beauty instead of ashes, joy instead of mourning, and good news from bad news. For many like the people in Calvinia of the Northern Cape in South Africa “good news” is “you have a job” and “here’s a product that really meets a genuine need.”

 

PS: You might want to read this case study for yourself. It leaves out the essentials of the innovation process but does a good job of highlighting the benefits. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/24/this-superfood-coffee-is-made-from-thorny-alien-trees

 

Contact brettj@inst.net to request an Inspired Innovation Consultation

How do I find a biblical operating model for business?

“The Operating Model of an organization is the processes and procedures it uses to design, build, market, and manage its products and services.” (i-Operations, Daichendt and Johnson). Every organization has an operating model, a way in which it does what it does. The problems around operating models are many:

Some are not fit to purpose
Many are old, outdated
Others follow industry norms but are not aligned behind the organization’s calling. This creates disconnects and inefficiencies
Too many are not biblical, based on the ways of God and the heart of God. (I am not talking about a set of rules or regulations.)

 

When Jesus said you should put new wine in new wineskins these are two different “new” words. The wine is the product; the wineskin is the operating model that includes delivery to customers. New wine—neos in Greek—means a fresh batch of wine that is the same as before. New wineskin—kainos in Greek—is a totally new, not seen before wineskin. Operating models need to paradoxically meet two criteria: they must be based on eternal, universal truths AND they must constantly flex so that the focus is on delivering Purpose and not maintaining the organization.

 

The 10-P Model® was created by The Institute and helps flush out the scriptural imperatives underpinning each of the 10 drivers of business impact. Based on an alchemy of scripture, historical examples, best practices and inspired innovations the 10-P Model® is a framework for an operating model for any business. Gary Daichendt and Brett Johnson wrote i-Operations (based on The Institute’s 10-P Model) during the 2nd wave of the Internet/Web, and the truths are still relevant to any emerging technology today. 

 

Interested in finding out more? Visit these links:

I-Operations
rēp (Repurposing Business)

How do I reset my foundations and have a fresh start?

I talked to business owners from around the world since April 2020, and many saw the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to rethink their business. Most were considering service, not just survival. How could they better meet people’s needs? Could they get rid of unprofitable products? Should they go virtual and have a greater reach? Are there opportunities closer to home? How can supply chains be reworked for good? Do they need an office at all? How can they serve their local communities better?

 

I also gathered leaders (via Zoom, of course) from many nations to brainstorm new opportunities and we created a huge Mind Map of possibilities. This was coupled with several weeks of daily live streaming with business leaders from around the globe looking at what you might call “eternal principles” or “ancient truths” regarding restarts. We are not the first to encounter plagues and crises; I gleaned 50 restart principles from the ancient account of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. 

 

The Covid pandemic may be over but it will not be the last crisis. Often what happens in the world is a parallel or counterfeit of what is happening in the spiritual realm. People who are desiring God often live in a counterpart world called “the Kingdom of God.” The WEF is not wrong when they say the world is broken, but their solutions are not from heaven. Don’t let the global elites be the only ones to reap benefits from current opportunities to shift the house onto a new foundation. At this transitional time in history, we have had a “press pause” on business-as-usual thereby giving us time to reflect on whether we want future business to look like old business. My gut feeling is that the stream of crises over the last few years has been enough to lull people into resignation, but there has not been enough activation to stir them to a fresh future. If we don't have our own plan we will accept someone else's plan.

 

I therefore believe there is value in deliberately activating things we know to be true but which might be lying dormant. (During a crisis dormant seed might sprout, but the seeds may also rot.) We need space to talk through these things and ensure we emerge on the right side of the Red Sea in this continuing transitional era in history.

 

Want to read more? Follow this link:

rēStart




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How can I be restored?

I lost it. I lost capital, I lost family, I lost reputation, I lost relationships... what have you lost? Life on this planet involves losses and gains. History is filled with epic stories of loss beyond comprehension. Sometimes there was a redemptive story, other times not so much. Psalm 88 is one where there isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

You have put me in the lowest pit,      in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me;      you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them... You have taken from me friend and neighbor—      darkness is my closest friend.

 

When you are in the middle of the mess it is hard to imagine the way out and there are no simple formulae. That said, in one of the down seasons in life I came across a sequence of 10 Steps to Restoration in the book of Isaiah which made me question what I would have thought was logical.

The book is short and designed to encourage warriors on the journey not to eliminate what life is designed to be, a walk of faith.

 

Interested in reading more? Visit this link:

10 Steps to Restoration




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A trail of seed

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Christmas 2014. I grew up in South Africa where year-end is February 28, at least from a financial and tax perspective, which allows you to have Christmas holidays in financial denial. Here in the USA annual goals, finances, performance reviews, connecting with friends all get squeezed into the pre-Christmas funnel like reluctant ingredients in a Christmas fruitcake. Year-ends are therefore a particularly pensive time for me. Since I like to have the books reconciled and the year accounted for at the calendar close my days are generally not filled with Christmas stockings and mulled wine, but with taking stock and mulling over whether I have made progress this last year. Yesterday morning was different: I woke at about 3 AM wondering, “What progress have I made in the last decade?” I opened a file marked Journal:2002 to 2010 and scrolled to December 2004. Some of the things I longed for back then are still on my list… no apparent progress.

…I have told the Lord that the longing of my heart is a piece of land in California where we can live, maybe have teams come for equipping, mostly have places where our kids can live with us for seasons, and where our children and grandchildren can come, spend time, play on a swing under a tree, pick fresh fruit, and continue to generations of those who will be faithful.

In 2004, there were less me-focused things happening too, world events that would draw us into new places.

While I muse these things it would be remiss to not note that on December 26th the largest earthquake in decades, 9.0, hit Indonesia where they estimate about 150,000 have died, and tens of thousands remain unaccounted for. The islands roundabout experienced terrible destruction. The largest world relief effort ever is underway. Just today another 4,000 bodies have been pulled from rubble that is 6 feet high. The 100-foot wave traveled at 500 m.p.h and devastated Sri Lanka and other nations. One third of all children in Sri Lanka have died – the death toll there is 30,000. I lay in bed this morning thinking, “Couldn’t we have some businesses in a box that would be ready to plant in areas of such massive destruction where entire towns have to be rebuilt?” Lord, give me revelation into these things and what we can do in response, I pray.

Big dreams, but what has been accomplished? I could add up the new cities since 2004 – Jakarta, Johannesburg, Chennai, Kochi, Lagos, Knysna – and the people – hundreds of people, maybe thousands. Today, however, I needed a context-setting scripture. I opened my iPad and there was a text I highlighted recently:

He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.

This has been a theme verse for my wife, Lyn, who speaks of sorrow seed as producing the best harvest. I dug into the meaning of original words in this stanza and have paraphrased what I see there:

Practitioners of righteousness

who keep plodding with a bag of seed

that seems to have a hole

even through humiliation and tears

leave a trail of offspring

and are brought back

lifted up like those returning from exile.

The seed we have sown these last 10 years has doubtless produced. My job is to plod, holes in my bags, accepting the fact that what is poured in scatters out, more looking back over my shoulder for progeny along the path than forward for seeds in my storehouse.

More from my site Rejoicing in… A “new” kind of currency A whale could ruin your day Interest free loans Vacuum sealing the year Comfort, or Comforter?

Home bodies on the move

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I have been constantly on the move.” 2 Corinthians 11:26

Recently a young woman who has know us tangentially for a decade or so asked where we were living now. I explained briefly that we were between houses right now and did not have a permanent home and were using this as an opportunity to travel. Her reply: “Well, you aren’t really home bodies.” Actually, we are. We love having a home and using it as a base for hospitality, friendship, equipping and mobilizing. Lyn loves to have seasonal tubs close at hand so decorating a Fall or Easter season is easy and fun. We prefer having clothes in a closet, rather than in a suitcase or storage. 39 years ago (today) when we started dating, neither of us expected we would be on the road with essentials in a small travel case. (We probably suspected we would be watching grandkids play in a garden in South Africa.)

“I have been constantly on the move.” 2 Corinthians 11:26

To be clear, there have been long seasons when we delighted to stay at home with our children. Once or twice a year we traveled on vacation overseas, but mostly we were “home bodies.” Even in these times when we could not go to the world, however, we invited the world to come to us. Friends visited from other countries–lots of them–and we reciprocated. Missionaries (many of the young and cool variety) sat around our table and told stories of God’s amazing deeds. Our kids, now living in America, knew there was a world outside California. We moved house more than once, but not as many as those in the military. If you are thinking, “Well, when you sign up for the military you know you will move a lot” then ask yourself, “When I signed up with Jesus did I not sign up for active duty and a life of following a mover and shaker?”

We are home bodies, but we value three homes: the one on earth, which we temporarily do not have, and the spiritual home we create for others on this planet, which is wide and welcoming, and a home in heaven. Your earthly home will never match your heavenly mansion, but it is okay to long for a place on earth that reflects in some way your heavenly long-term address.

All of us are made to be home bodies… and we are made to be “constantly on the move.” The bible does not say, “Blessed are those who settle, who stop taking risks, who hole up at home and watch the world on CNN, who have ‘stay’ and ‘they’ buckets in their brains.” In this season I take comfort from one of the Apostle Paul’s marks: “I have been constantly on the move.” 2 Corinthians 11:26

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Topsy-turvy

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When the earth goes topsy-turvy

And nobody knows which end is up,

I nail it all down,

I put everything in place again.   GOD

God made this observation in Psalm 75. Pity he is not running for office, or sorting out the healthcare malaise, or the budget mess. What if we had Godspan instead of Greenspan? Would the world be in this sorry state? The answer is, “Of course not,” not if God were running government, or healthcare, or the economy. The problem, however, is that God is a delegator, and mankind has taken the assignment without the Source, or better stated, the Source out of the assignment. We create policies that are bereft of Power. We design systems–and many churches do this too–that are designed to run without God.

Then things go topsy-turvy, pear-shaped, farce about ace… or whatever your colloquialism is. We don’t know which end us up. Life is hardly “nailed down.”

Perhaps it is time to invite God to “put everything in place again.”

More from my site Is a nation without a rudder? Topsy-turvy Favor, Grace, Hope The mythical obstacle Antidote to anxiety Rest and proceed

A whale could ruin your day

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Not that long ago I was sharing with a group of friends the strategy that Jesus used when he met a young businessman. The man was rough around the edges, an outdoor kind of guy, running a blue collar business. He had dirt under his finger nails and smelled of fish and nets and boat. No one got points for hanging around his business. There was no, “I had lunch with the mayor”-factor in meeting with him. Yet Jesus got into his boat. After I shared the story I saw the photo of the whale and the sailboat… and it got me thinking.

For a while Jesus did nothing directly related to the fisherman’s business. He didn’t evaluate his fishing practices to see if they were dolphin free. He didn’t review his books and look at his daily yield. He didn’t give advice on time to market. He was just there.

Then he turned to Simon and said, “Let’s go fishing!” and Simon said to him, “We already tried fishing… and they ain’t biting.”

“Put your net on the other side.” Jesus effectively said, ‘Go counter to your business logic, go against your best instincts, and try it my way.’ Whether desperate for a business result or just curious at the teacher, Peter and team took the challenge and fished God’s way.

It took an investment to let Jesus into the business. Looking back, of course, it was a simple decision, but on the front-side of the miracle Peter was like many businesspeople today, asking ‘Do I want to risk my reputation, take time away from practical tasks, invest time and effort…?’

Peter was never the same again. If you invite Jesus into your business — seriously including God in all the practices — he will most likely show his presence with miracles There will be a whale in the boat you cannot ignore. Are you willing to take the risk?

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Love like a Luminary

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When I teach on LEMON Leadership those in the audience relate to the Networkers (the N in LEMON) as the warm, fuzzy and lovable ones. But… Luminaries also love, like luminaries, of course. Paul, a Luminary if there ever was one, said this to his friends in Philippi:

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you. I love you with all my heart… 8 God can give witness that I long for all of you. I love you with the love that Christ Jesus gives.

So far, so good. The Luminary feels, he loves with all his heart, he longs for his friends. Friends want the best for friends, so what is the desired outcome that the Luminary has for his friends?

9 I pray that your love will grow more and more. And let it be based on knowledge and understanding.

Love based on “knowledge and understanding.” Wait… what about the heart? To the Luminary, it is okay for love to come from knowledge and understanding. I know more than one person who arrived at pre-marriage counseling with a spreadsheet.

10 Then you will be able to know what is best. 

For the true Luminary, knowing without living is never enough. Love untranslated to life is love-in-theory. True love results in pure living, not unbridled emotion.

You will be pure and without blame until the day Christ returns. 11 You will be filled with the fruit of right living produced by Jesus Christ. 

What is the time-frame of loving like a Luminary? “until the day Christ returns” — Luminaries see until eternity, and should love for a lifetime. I asked a Luminary friend, “When do you feel loved? “When he thinks about the long term implications of what he says…” she said without hesitation. “How long?” I asked. “Multiple generations.”

Which leads to the “why” about which the Luminary is so concerned:

All of those things bring glory and praise to God.

The bottom line of Loving like a Luminary is not so that we all feel loved and great, but “so that” all of life “brings glory and praise to God.”

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Kingdom business midwife

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“I feel like a midwife for kingdom businesses.” In the past I have described what we do as Corporate Chiropractors: coming alongside existing businesses and helping them align with biblical truth. This is still true, but this happens after a regular old Christian business gets a born again, as one client put it. Just as Christian parents do not automatically give birth to Christian children, likewise Christian businesspeople do not inevitably have businesses under the rule and reign of King Jesus. It takes a deliberate effort as a parent to “train up a child in the way they should go” and part of that training is creating the climate where they make a crucial decision of surrender, submission and lifetime obedience.

Why do we think it should be any different for whole corporations, for households, for the oikos? I find we have to be even more deliberate, as determined, as conscious of the stakes involved. For most people, work and household will be the context in which they discover life purpose.

I recently spent a week casting vision for a Christian leader who had not yet discovered the kingdom purpose for his business. I pondered what scripture says about his industry, I prayed, I PowerPointed, I shared perspectives, I spoke prophetically, I proclaimed life-purposes for him and his household, I laid the case for kingdom purposes surpassing a man-sized legacy. I travailed, coached, encouraged, and even added a little godly pressure. This is the work of a midwife. It is deliberate, takes investment and skill.

Not every birthing process is successful.There is a haunting verse in Isaiah 37.

This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

Before we can “chiropract”or align, we often have to bring to birth. Thanks for all in the rēp Community who repurpose businesses with us… work that produces new life.

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