If you conduct an online search of “business operating systems,” you will find dozens of results. Some are more well-known and established than others, such as EOS. When implemented and infused into a business culture, these systems are designed to help the organization be successful and achieve its vision. So, which operating system is the best to use? Which one is right for your organization? Which will yield the best results? Which will impact the bottom line the fastest?
These are all very reasonable and logical questions, but are they the right questions?
We believe that before we ask those questions, we must ask ourselves about the organization’s purpose, vision, and definition of success. What is our purpose? What is our vision? What kind of culture do we want? Ultimately, what is our definition of success, and what does it look like?
A business or organization operating system is simply a set of processes, methods, and tools that help an organization build toward achieving success and fulfilling its purpose and vision.
At The Good Place Institute, we believe we should make subtle but significant tweaks to these initial questions and ask questions like What is God’s purpose for our organization and work? What is His vision for our company? What does a Kingdom culture look like, and how do we build one in our organization? Ultimately, how does God define success in His economy? Then we can ask ourselves, which business/organization operating system is right and/or is designed to bring about Kingdom impact and Biblical success criteria?
Without a vision for a Kingdom-minded culture and biblically based success criteria, it makes sense to use the most popular system. Do a search and pick the one that looks best. If that one doesn’t work, choose a different one.
It is like choosing a ladder to scale a wall. Which one is the right ladder to select for the job? Well, what kind of wall are you trying to scale? Is the ladder designed to scale that kind of wall? Or will you have to modify the ladder because it was actually built to scale a different kind of wall? I know the analogy eventually falls apart, but you get the idea.
At GPI, we desire to derive purpose, vision, and the definition of success from God’s Word, which includes God’s glory and human flourishing. The methods and tools we use to pursue this kind of purpose and vision are specifically designed to achieve Kingdom success and results.
These methods and tools fit together like puzzle pieces to create a beautiful, robust picture of the culture and success we’re looking for. It provides a comprehensive framework of modular methods and tools to bring about principles and values derived from the Bible. It’s called the Good Place Organization Operation System (GP-OOS). |