2024

August Edition

Welcome to the August edition of A Few Good Things.

The Key Outcomes and Results Dashboard topic discussed in July's newsletter is crucial to The Good Place Organization Operating System. It gives us a structure to determine if we're fulfilling the Charter.

Successfully managing the KOR dashboard requires continual stewardship and ongoing planning. It's important to note here the difference between stewardship and ownership mindsets.

Ownership is the default mindset in the world's economy. However, A stewardship mindset calls us to a higher order of taking care of what we've been entrusted with. To paint the picture, let me tell you about a time I borrowed my friend's truck.

It was spring—mulching season—and I needed a truck to haul some mulch. So, I needed my friend's work truck.

When I picked up the truck, it had a half tank of gas. I also noticed dirt and debris already rolling around in the truck bed. Inside, there was a good amount of wear and tear, a few fast-food wrappers, and empty bottles—just the kind of mess one would expect in a well-used work truck.

What if after I completed my mulching job, I returned the truck in worse shape than before? What if I didn't refill the gas tank, didn't wash out the truck bed, and didn't clean out the inside?

Would I be a good steward of what I borrowed? No. Not at all.

With a stewardship mindset, I'm motivated to fill the gas tank, wash out the truck bed, clean and wipe down the inside, and return the truck in better shape than when I received it.

This illustrates how we should approach stewarding our organizations, and this is where the Stewardship Cycle comes in.

The Stewardship Cycle is one of the main ways an organization lives out the Good Place Organization Operating System. The Operating System's ten areas are like a house's structure or framing. Once the major organizational building blocks and the house's main structures are in place, we apply the Stewardship Cycle as the focal point of our leadership team meetings, discussions, and conversations with leaders and employees. We live out our organizational life by stewarding the resources we've been entrusted as leaders.

Let's take a look at the Stewardship Cycle:

• Charter – We always start with our Charter—the embodiment of purpose, vision, mission, and values.

• Stewardship Planning – We then aim to steward well all that has been entrusted to the organization to fulfill the Charter, building a roadmap of Strategic Initiatives and System Improvements and understanding their positive impact to produce improved Key Outcomes and Results.

• Manage – We manage systems and provide opportunities and encouragement for people to grow to their full potential.

• Monitor – We monitor the Key Outcomes and Results our systems have produced, are planning to produce, and are currently producing.

• Learn – We seek to understand why the system is producing what it is producing to learn the root cause of performance—whether stable and consistent or unstable and inconsistent.

• Improve – We enhance what is going well and correct what is not going well.

With this flow, the planning, managing, monitoring, learning, and improving process becomes circular, resulting in continuous stewardship, improvement, and ongoing planning.

We have a Stewardship Cycle because we are called to be stewards of all God has entrusted to us. We are called to plan, organize, and improve our activities and resources towards our purpose. We manage things—people, processes, resources—under our care with careful planning as stewards. In this way, the process becomes part of the DNA of our organizational culture as we build with what we have been given and improve upon what we have, directed toward fulfilling our Charter and achieving the aims of Good Place organizations.

In November, our team will be heading to Cincinnati Ohio for event with Three Corners Capital. We will be there connecting with organizational leaders and team members at a Faith, Business, and Investing Luncheon on November 12^th

Name: Miguel Gomez

Organization: Tecnolika

Location: San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Why did you decide to work with The Good Place Institute?

I identified with the purpose of experiencing life the way God intends to relate to people, organizations, and communities.

What has been your most significant impact experienced from the application of the Good Place Organization Operating System?

The Good Place Organization Operating System has had a profound impact on our organization. It has provided us with a structured methodology to achieve flourishing for our people and the communities we serve. This system has empowered me to articulate my personal purpose, our organization's purpose, the concept of systems versus departments, and the identification of the key outcomes and results (KORs) that will drive our success.

As other Leaders of organizations desire kingdom transformation for their organization, what would you tell them regarding taking the next steps to engage with GPI?

If you feel a resonance with the word of the Lord and a conviction that there's a better way to run your business, then I urge you to take the next step and join the GPI. Your journey with us will be one of inspiration, growth, and transformation.

“I’ve been in year-long leadership development program and left confused about what my responsibility is as an executive leader…  you just explained it in 5 min 💯.” 

“Recently, God has been prompting me to really make Jesus the center of my business. For the longest time I have just been sprinkling Christianity on top of a worldly business model and definition of success.”

These are two powerful statements we've recently heard from organizational leaders. If you resonate with these sentiments, we're here to help. We're passionate about assisting you in finding clarity about your purpose and aligning your organization to reflect the Kingdom as you follow the King.

Thank you for checking out our newsletter. Our purpose at The Good Place Institute is to help leaders multiply Good Place organizations! If you know anyone who would benefit from this newsletter or The Good Place Institute, I would love for you to share this email! Thank you!

Shalom, my friend!

— Chris Young