What’s the problem?

/ mkessenburg

Soil. The soil, not the seed, is the problem. Seeds just don’t grow well in poor soil. Jesus emphasizes this in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23). The seed (the Gospel) that fell on hard ground or rocky ground did not do well, while seed that fell on good soil produced a crop.

As a Christian leader, I’ve been doing a good deal of thinking about the Parable of the Sower. From my perspective in Christian organizations, leaders are the gardeners who plant the seed (God’s people, the staff) in soil (organizational culture). 

Now, I realize that the seed (God’s people, which includes me) is still affected by sin and still sins. However, please keep in mind that the seed is God’s image bearers whom Jesus died to save, whom God has gifted, in whose heart the Holy Spirit is at work, and for whom God has prepared good works in advance for them to do—amazing! 

If I want to equip them for the good works God has prepared, if as a gardener/leader I want them to flourish, it’s my responsibility to provide good soil, really good soil. And as Al Lopus points out, “Healthy culture is the organizational equivalent of fertile soil” (Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, loc 35). 

Question: How good is your soil? In terms of soil, how would you categorize your organization’s culture? Be brutally honest:

  • Hard/toxic: The seed either can’t get into the soil (not good), or when it does, there’s bad stuff that harms it (double not good). The result? No growth. Lupus notes, “It’s impossible to produce good fruit from toxic soil” (Road to Flourishing, loc 33). 
  • Rocky: There isn’t enough soil to grow. The seed feels unwelcome (like it doesn’t really belong), has at best has only a vague idea what’s valued and what to focus on, finds that systems/processes aren’t user-friendly, and is told to work harder by a supervisor who thinks the seed is the problem (when in reality it’s the soil).
  • Good/fertile: The seed can grow, sink its roots deep, get the nutrients it needs, flourish, and, consequently, vibrantly use its gifts to do the good works God prepared in advance.

Providing the seed with good soil 100% of the time is challenging and often doesn’t happen. Or to put it another way, in Christian organizations, the culture doesn’t live up to what God wants: “When a Christian-led team is working together, it’s supposed to flourish while the whole world is watching and thereby lead it to Jesus” (Road to Flourishing, loc 95). That’s right—in Christian organizations our soil (our culture) should be so fertile and the seed (our staff) is flourishing to such an extent that onlookers ask, “How do they do that? What’s going on?”

If you find that your culture isn’t 100% good, take heart. As a leader, you can enhance the quality of the culture, and it’s going to take sustained effort. In an actual garden, for example, improving soil quality involves focusing on conserving water, adding organic matter, using mulch, developing good soil structure, and going organic:

So, what can you do to enhance your culture? Be brutally honest in your assessment of your culture. Take responsibility—culture is largely and actually a reflection of what leaders do and tolerate. And fix your focus on:

  1. Flourishing staff, on helping the seed (God’s people) to grow.
  2. Transformation, on real change and growth (instead of on looking good or maintaining false harmony).
  3. A trust-and-inspire mindset (instead of a command-and-control mindset).
  4. The 4 disciplines of organizational health.
  5. Radical candor (instead of ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, or obnoxious aggression). 
  6. Intentional purpose, healthy relationships, vibrant well-being, and deep learning.
  7. The 8 drivers of a flourishing culture. “If you want to cultivate a flourishing workplace and see fruit as you’ve never seen before, it starts with the soil” (Road to Flourishing, loc 68). 
  8. The outward mindset (instead of the inward mindset, see video):

What about you? What’s the problem? Whom do you tend to hold responsible—the seed (others) or the soil (which you as leader/gardener are responsible to provide)? How good is your soil/culture? What can you do to enhance your soil/culture?

Here’s what I’m learning from Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others:

  • “Command & Control leaders operate under a paradigm of position and power. Trust & Inspire leaders operate under a paradigm of people and potential” (loc 575).
  • “If you’re still trying to win by containing people instead of unleashing their potential, by motivating others instead of inspiring them, by focusing on competing and self-interest above caring and service—you’re playing tennis with a golf club” (loc 363). 
  • “Instead of asking ‘Why aren’t my people motivated?’ a far better question to ask yourself is ‘How can I better inspire those I lead?’” (loc 693) 
  • “As a leader, do I motivate my team to compliance, coordination, and incremental improvement? Or do I inspire them to commitment, collaboration, and creative innovation?” (loc 718) 

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 8 quotations from things I’ve read that contain the word soil:

  1. “You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken, and an accurate measure of your soil will empower you to lead with clarity” (Road to Flourishing, loc 65).
  2. “…truly great leaders can create the right conditions to awaken the potential within a person. Approaching leadership like a gardener, these leaders recognize that the power is in the seed. They curate conditions in which a person can flourish—not unlike the soil, water, air, and sunlight that enable a seed to flourish” (Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others, loc 222).
  3. “…leaders not only guide and implement strategy, but also shape overall school cultures that are conducive to flourishing. In other words, leaders—both those in formal roles and those in more informal or unstructured roles—help to plant the seeds for flourishing through strategy, and then till and water the soil of school culture, so that flourishing can emerge” (Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools, loc 335).
  4. “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root…. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”(Matthew 13:3-8, NIV).
  5. “It had been planted in good soil by abundant water so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine” (Ezekiel 17:8, NIV).
  6. “The health of the soil is imperative to maximizing the yield of the crops. The soil of any company is its culture. Just like soil, corporate culture is the key to the growth of the seed of innovation, employee engagement, inclusion, and revenue” (The Soil of Culture).
  7. “The foundation of a good culture is preparing the soil or making the environment right – that includes a clear vision and defined core values. Those must be in place before anything else. Non-negotiable” (The Secret Is in the Soil: How to Cultivate a Mission-Driven Culture).
  8. “Whether we choose to invest in or ignore the soil of workplace culture, it runs deep, affecting every aspect of our mission. We can create an intentional culture that produces consistent growth, flourishing, and results. Or we can overlook and neglect our soil, yielding an accidental culture that produces weeds and perhaps only incidental success” (Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, loc 36).