Comebacks

In any competition, early leaders can get complacent and be surpassed by those who started behind. Initial success leads to idleness while adversity fuels creative growth. The rapid success frontrunners achieve early on makes them idle and stagnant. Meanwhile, those counted out early must work harder to catch up, finding solutions and building momentum.

By the end, the trajectory may reverse. The underdogs now surpass the early leaders who grew comfortable. Life’s journeys are not linear. Early advantages can become handicaps while disadvantages generate hustle. The seeds of later success are often planted in early setbacks. Those discounted at the outset may still prevail through persistent effort and growth.

Where one starts does not determine the outcome. It is those who endure through challenges who ultimately succeed.

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Matthew 19:23-30. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-234: AUGUST 22, 2023]

Designing for positive externalities

When designing policies, products, or services, we should consider how they can create positive spillover effects or externalities that benefit society. Too often, businesses and organizations focus narrowly on financial returns without accounting for social impacts. But well-designed initiatives can simultaneously achieve an organization’s goals while also improving conditions for the broader community.

For example, public transportation design that emphasizes accessibility, sustainability, and rider experience produces positive externalities like reduced traffic congestion, cleaner air, and interconnectivity. Urban planning that prioritizes public spaces, walkability, and mixed-use development creates positive community externalities in public health, social capital, and local economic prosperity. Product design should consider end-of-life recycling and reuse potential. Service design should aim to cultivate human skills and relationships, not just transactional efficiency.

Considering positive externalities moves us from a mindset of isolated benefit to considering our interdependence. By recognizing how our actions radiate out to touch others, we can purposefully generate shared value that improves society as whole.

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Matthew 15:21-28. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-232: AUGUST 20, 2023]

When things are combined in a seamless way, it allows for new properties and capabilities to emerge that did not previously exist in the individual components alone. Take an orchestra for example. The various sections – strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion – each have their own unique musical qualities. But when brought together and blended in harmony under the direction of a conductor, something magical happens. The symphonic whole is far more moving and profound than any single section could ever be on its own.

Seamless combination enables emergence. Emergence is the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns, and properties through the interaction of a system’s components. The seamless integration of parts allows them to interrelate and combine in extraordinarily complex ways, giving rise to wondrous phenomena like consciousness in the brain, swarm intelligence in schools of fish, or a captivating melody in a symphony. When things mesh without friction or discontinuity, they tap into hidden potentials. What may appear at first to be mere addition soon reveals itself to be multiplication, and synthesis yields not diminishment but transcendence. Seamless combination thus allows for more than the pieces alone – it births emergent novelty, value, and meaning.

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Matthew 19:3-12. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-230: AUGUST 18, 2023]

When individuals come together in harmony and flow, something magical emerges that is bigger than any one person. Aligned in purpose, a synergistic energy allows the group to achieve heights unattainable alone.

Yet this transcendence requires suspending ego and listening deeply to connect with others authentically. When we embrace diverse viewpoints, synthesizing them into a coherent vision, a shared mission manifests. By blending our gifts, we cover each other’s blind spots. Our differences become strengths. Trust and cooperation unlock potential. When the collective enters flow, powered by empathy, creativity, and open communication, it gains an intelligence surpassing the individual members. Therein lies the foundation for meaning, purpose and unified action towards noble goals. True leadership then comes from facilitating this emergence of synergistic potential. When we harmonize, we transcend.

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Matthew 18:15-20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-228: AUGUST 16, 2023]

True excellence calls us to be more in every facet of life. It is not enough to achieve prominence in one area while neglecting others. The highest human potential requires balancing commitments to family, community, work, spirituality, and health.

While extraordinary talent in any single dimension commands admiration, we must also attend to the wholeness of life. The genius scientist who neglects family bonds serves little. So too for the CEO absorbed in work at the expense of community or the pastor ignoring personal health. Real fulfillment lies in maximizing our talents across all spheres we inhabit. This is no easy task. But embracing the challenge of excellence in all realms is the only path to being fully human. It takes courage to be more, but that is the calling. We must nurture every dimension of life, building a legacy that encompasses all we touch. That is true greatness.

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Matthew 17:22-27. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-226: AUGUST 14, 2023]