Home Of the Blog Book

Busting Your Corporate Idol

Is a Day Without Work Too Much To Ask?

March 10, 2013 by 2 Comments

Chapter 10: The People-First Life Part 13

Now that you are saying no to your boss, I suggest that you work towards a six day work week. One day with no email and no phone calls. I know, there is a perception that we are all expected to be on call all the time. Sometimes this is reality, but more often it is merely perception.

When I was interviewing people for the book, I sometimes pushed to understand why someone was working every day. Some people said “Don’t blame the company, I’m choosing to do this.”  I would smile and nod, but I wanted to scream “Yes, that proves my point! You are choosing to work all the time!” The other common answer went something like this “The more senior you are, the more there is an expectation that you need to be available 24/7.” Again I nodded, but inside I was thinking of the CEOs and senior VPs I interviewed who said that they felt a day away from work was critical to their success.

I’ve defined corporate idolatry as a company-first or work-first value system. And people who are caught up in corporate idolatry create illusions that support he company-first lifestyle. I think both of the arguments above are indicators of corporate idolatry.

Way back in Chapter 2, I pointed out that the first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions against idolatry. The Fourth Commandment instructs us to “Keep the Sabbath,” a day without work. Did you know that some Rabbis argue that the most important holiday in Judaism is the Sabbath? Yes, we are commanded to take a holiday every week. It was heresy in the pagan world.

For example, the Greeks and Romans criticized the Jews for the Sabbath, because leisure was something for the upper classes only, not to be shared with common workers. In an ironic twist, the corporate idolators of today think that the more senior are expected to work more than junior employees.

Is there a competitive advantage for a business that has people working seven days a week?

<Previous  Next>>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 10 The People-First LIfe Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Secret To Saying No To Your Boss Is To Say Yes To Someone More Important

March 8, 2013 by 2 Comments

Chapter 10: The People First Life Part 12

Most of the time, your boss is the single most important person to you at your job. And given our propensity to obey authority figures, it is especially hard to say no to the boss – after all, it is part of your job to work on what they tell you to work on. And if you like the boss and like the company, saying no is even harder.

The trick to saying no in the post-idolatry world is to remember that work is no higher than the third priority in your life. If you are a believer, I don’t need to tell you that God is more important than work. And if you aren’t a believer, your health and the people in your life are more important than work.

So when your boss asks you to do something that you want to say no to, think of someone more important in your life, e.g a spouse, a child, or a friend. Now give that other person in your life more authority than your boss. If you say yes to the boss and work longer hours,  it will take away from a more important part of your life.

Imagine this other person is inviting you to be with them. Maybe it is a hike, maybe it is having dinner, maybe it is just sitting together. Visualize how they look at you. They see you for the person you really are, and love you for it. And because they are more important to you than the company, your mind is clear.  You are in the moment with them, free from the mental chatter of the work world.

Say yes to the other person, and then let your boss down easy.

<<Previous  Next>>

You might also like: Bags Packed and Ready To Lead

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 10 The People-First LIfe, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What You Can Learn From Black Swans, Forecasting, and Idolatry

January 22, 2013 by 4 Comments

Chapter 9 Paint Your Environment Part 8

In this chapter I’ve told several stories about forecasting, because so many dysfunctional companies live and die by the forecast because they can’t seem to agree on anything else they stand for.  I am drawn to the topic because it reminds me of an extensive commentary by the medival Jewish philosopher known at the Rambam which is shorthand for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, (AKA) Maimonides.

The Rambam argued that soothsaying, fortune telling, divining and related “black arts” are forms of idolatry perpetuated by unscrupulous leaders as a means to control other people by fear. The Rambam said that “It is not fitting for the Jews who are wise sages to be drawn into such emptiness. ”[i]  To put it in a more kindly and general context, he was saying that educated people should know better.

In a similar way, I think that people in the business world should know better than to blindly follow forecasts or other business means of predicting the future, which is exactly what Professor and former hedge fund manager Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues in his book The Black Swan.  Taleb, like the Rambam, marvels that people seem to ignore the terrible track record of those who routinely predict the future and get it wrong.

Taleb uses the example of the black swan as a metaphor.  For hundreds of years, bird experts said that Black Swans do not exist, because one had never been seen. Which was true until Europeans reached Australia, and found them in plenty.  Taleb shows that financial analysts have a terrible track record at predicting the future – they are no better than someone who looks just at the last quarter’s data and extrapolates.  In fact, the analysts tend to follow the herd, and are unlikely to make predictions that are outliers.[ii]  But the biggest events that change history, like September 11 or the Arab Spring are almost never predicted.

If the wall street experts can’t get it right, what chance has the average forecast in an average company?

You might be wondering what this has to do with your quest for a more balanced life. There is a right and wrong way to use forecasts.  Taleb suggests that forecasts are a good way of charting possible outcomes, what is a potential large seller, but the actual outcome can’t be predicted, which is why every company should have a diversified portfolio of high risk and safer projects.  (And why a one-trick pony startup is inherently risky.)  But many companies, (like Sabina’s),  even if they have the proper portfolio mix, act as if the forecast is a real prediction of the future.

Companies with too much emphasis on forecasting and making the numbers have a higher risk of an idolatry prone culture, that devalues people as individuals. And Sabina allowed forecasting to have too large an impact on her self-esteem.

Someone looking for balance in a numbers first environment has a few options.  1. Play the politics to gain the power to set your own boundaries.  2. Take a lower profile product or project that will bring lower stress.  3. Become an expert at sandbagging the forecast.

Another option, which I will explore in the next post, is to find another company with a different, longer term and more flexible approach to doing business.

What is your experience with forecasts and numbers-first cultures?

<<Previous  Next>>

[i] Mishneh Torah Volume 3: Hilchot Avodat Kochavim. By MaimonidesEdited by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger.  Moznaim, (1990) P.212-213

[ii] The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Random House (2007) p 148-150.

 

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 9: Paint Your Environment, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Advice For Singles On Work-Life Balance

December 4, 2012 by 2 Comments

My Corporate Idolatry Time Profile

Chapter 8: Build Your Community Part 4

One question I have gotten from readers is this: Greg, I’m single.  The suggestions to spend more time with family don’t apply to me.   I’m on my own, and my work is what I have.  What can I do?

To begin my answer, I’ve included the Corporate Idolatry Time Profile to the left.  Working too many hours squeezes out the opportunity to do other things in life.  Building a community is particularly important if you are single because we all need people to support our change in priorities.  And the most reliable way to be happy is to spend time with friends.

The first step is to leave the office.  “George,” a Silicon Valley Business development and strategy executive did just that, in an effort to give himself the opportunity to meet new people.  Here is how he describes the experience.

“You never know what that [new person or thing will be], but you’re not going to find it staying two more hours staring at your spreadsheet.  Part of it is chance encounters, and so you are not going to create new parts of your life unless you have the opportunities to encounter new places or new foods or new people or people from your past.  If you limit your chances of encountering those things, in a sense you only have yourself to blame.  By sending the hours from 6pm to 10pm working on your spreadsheet you are vastly limiting the hours where you can discover new things about yourself.”

What opportunities are there in your life for chance encounters that may lead to community?

<<Previous  Next>>

You might also like this post from the archives:  Treat a Community Opportunity Life a Career Opportunity

 

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 8: Build Your Community, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Life Lessons From Abraham: The CEO Of a Startup Religion

November 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity Part 15

Abraham was raised in ancient Sumeria, a world where the dominant culture was pagan.  Gods were everywhere, from Anu the sky god, to regional gods, to small amulets and magic charms that were a big part of everyday life.  Abraham’s cause was not simply a matter of a single divinity- it was a completely different way of life. And if we look at the number of followers as a scorecard, I think he was onto something.  According to the Big Religion Comparison Chart, there are 14 Million Jews, 2 Billion Christians and 1.3 billion Muslims on the planet, all of whom look at Abraham as the father of monotheism.   For those of us looking to bust  our modern idols, there is a lot we can learn from Abraham.

For Abraham, monotheism was not an abstract, metaphysical question about the number of deities.  Abraham was the CEO of a start up religion, and he was looking to change the world.  He had an unshakable identity and powerful personality that attracted followers.  And like any good startup CEO, he could lay out a vision and make others believe.  By intellectual reasoning, Abraham showed that something created by man should not become the object of worship.  For Abraham, there was one creator who put forth rules of right and wrong that did not change.  This was very different than the pagan world, where right and wrong changed depending on the deity, and is also different than the corporate world, where right and wrong behavior is defined by corporate culture.

As I argued in Chapter 2, the universal values are The Golden Rule tempered by The Rule of Self Preservation.  In the next post, we’ll look at the limitations of Abraham’s identity-based approach to change.

 <<Previous  Next>>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Your Identity Matters To Work-Life Balance

November 20, 2012 by 5 Comments

Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity Part 13

In the last post, “Janet Wolf” described how her identity was wrapped up in the company, and how a layoff allowed her to realize that “she was above all that.”  What does it mean to have an identity wrapped up in the company?

Stanford Business School professor James G. March describes identity as an expected set of behaviors that apply in certain social situations. Put another way, identity is an automatic pilot that guides behavior without the need to stop and think what to do in a given situation.  An identity is reinforced by the social context, that rewards “behavior consistent with the definition of the identity and penalizing behavior inconsistent with behavior.”[i]

For example, a parent identity is reinforced by parenting-related activities, such as the appreciative smile that comes from going to the soccer game.  An identity that comes from the company is reinforced daily by the interactions, both positive and negative, that happen at work.  Some companies, like Google, go to great lengths to strengthen the identity of employees from the time of hire. (See this post on Nooglers.)

As I wrote earlier in the chapter, we all have multiple identities that apply in different situations.  Corporate idolatry arises when the company-first identity becomes dominant.  In the year I went from working 90 hours a week to 60 hours a week, I was in a virtuous cycle – the more time I spent at home, the more my parent/husband/friend identities became stronger, which in turn made it easier to work even less.

For Janet, her change in identity was catalyzed by a change in environment.  It was only when she was out of the workplace that she her non-work identity re-asserted itself.  In the next post, I will explore this dynamic further, and will return to the story of Abraham that was started in Chapter 2.

<<Previous Post  Next Post>>

[i] Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen by James G. March Free Press. (1994) p 64-65

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

How To Change The Habit Of Stress

November 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
The Habit Loop

The Habit Loop

Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity Part 6

Prior to his stroke, David was living a life of corporate idolatry, where the company was the top priority to the detriment of his health and family.  After the stroke, David changed his values, and refocused his personal identity.  He was in the habit of deriving positive reinforcement from job-related activities, and shifted his focus to family related activities.  Remembering that a significant portion of idolatry derives from a collection of habits is an important clue to change.

In his book The Power Of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains that in a typical habit, there is some kind of cue that triggers a behavior that has a reward at the end of it.  For example, if someone puts a plate of cookies on the table in front of me, I will take and eat the cookie, even though I am trying to lose weight.  The cue is the cookie, the behavior is eating, and the reward is a burst of pleasure and sugar.  In addition, when my brain sees the cookies, it anticipates the pleasure, and I start craving the cookie, such that it becomes harder and harder over time not to take a cookie.

Habits are mediated by a primitive part of the brain called the basal ganglia which operates independently of rational, cognitive thought.  In other words, a habit is similar to a reflex, something we just do without thinking.  The best way to change a habit  is to disrupt one of the three stages of a habit, which means avoid the cue, change the middle behavior, or change the reward.

In David’s case, the work stress became a self fulfilling prophecy.  For example, Duhigg explains that checking email becomes a habit.  Executives get a reward from the temporary distraction a new email provides.  For me, I got an adrenaline burst from all kinds of work-related issues, and I think that was David’s issue.  The rewards for his people first values were calm and peace.

<<Previous  Next>>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Time Management Is Not the Answer To Chronic Overwork

November 5, 2012 by 4 Comments

Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity Part 2

The first thing I tried to reduce my hours was a time management course taught by the American Management Association.  I was frantically busy and thought that by managing my time better, my issue would be solved.  It was a great class, and I learned two things.  I flew to New York City for the class, and was the only person with a high tech job.  But everyone in the class had the same personal story: my hobby used to be such and such, but I don’t have time for it anymore because of my job.  This was people in construction, high school yearbook sales and in the media.  My first lesson: it’s not just high tech or Silicon Valley with an overwork issue.  It’s everywhere.

The second thing I learned was to be more efficient.  Less procrastination, better goal setting, and better prioritization.  This class was good.  My life became better for a few months, but pretty soon I was just as busy.  It was a better planned busyness, but my life was once again out of control – all work and no play made Greg an out of shape and crabby boy.

Now, I understand why.  The overwork was a symptom, but was not the root cause.  The root cause was my corporate idolatry.  I had adopted and internalized a company-first value system.  The company was (unconsciously) the most important thing in my life.  So all of the time that I saved from greater efficiency was put back into the company.  Things started to change for me when I reconnected with people.  It came down to my values and priorities.

If you look at how you spend your time and make decisions, what are your priorities?  What is most important to you?

<< Previous  Next >>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What Happens If Your Self-Worth Comes From Your Job?

November 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity Part 1

When I finally resigned from the corporate world, I told everyone it was not because of the product, the company, or the people.  It was about my personal journey, to take care of the kids, and to figure out what to do next.  I was both lying and telling the truth.  In public, management was supportive, but in private it got nasty.  One person, pressuring me to work an additional two months, went so far as to say “You will never work in this field again if you leave the company in a difficult position.”  If I’d resigned to work for a competitor, they would have walked me out the door, and happily had a beer with me the following week.  But to turn my back on the system was heresy.

Leaving the corporate world was not the means to regain control of my life, it was the result of it.  I had been living with a reasonably healthy work life balance for a few years when I finally resigned.  A lot of it was about the circumstances of the position.  I was never going to be happy at that company, and needed space to figure out what to do next.

The change for me started when I recognized my corporate idolatry, that I was doing what was best for the company instead of what was best for people.

It came down to a fundamental question that I asked myself: Who are you?  I was a lot of people: a father, husband, son, friend, marketer and scientist.  But the one I thought of most, day to day, was the guy who worked for the genomics company.  I was the guy who was changing the world.  But on a deeper level, I was a guy whose self-worth came from the job.

I now understand that identity is not one thing, it is a choras.  And it is possible to consciously change the lead singer.

<<Previous  Next>>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 7: Secure Your Identity, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Do You Work In a “Just Make the Date” Culture?

October 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

Chapter 6:  Corporate Culture -The Invisible Hand of the Company Part 2

Last post talked about the impact of corporate culture on my decisions leading a team that launched a product way before it was ready.  We had a “make the date” culture, and there was not much room for dissent. Of course none of this absolves me of responsibility for the choices I made.  I also don’t want to make this seem like a bigger deal than it was.  I don’t think I or anyone else at the company was involved in the types of major ethical lapses that one reads about on Wall Street or in the Enron case.  This was more of the garden variety business as, if not quite usual, certainly not all that unusual.

In this chapter, I will be writing about the influence of corporate culture on a lifestyle of corporate idolatry.  And my decision to give blind obedience to the company certainly fits that definition.  As you may remember from Chapter 3, the major drivers of unethical behavior at work are unethical people, challenging circumstances, and an unethical corporate culture.  And the drivers of corporate idolatry are similar, people (Chapter 4), circumstances (Chapter 5) and corporate culture (here in Chapter 6.)

According to a survey by the American Management Association, 70% of respondents said that “pressure to meet unrealistic business objectives/deadlines” was one of the top three reasons for unethical conduct, which far outpaced the second most common answer, “desire to further one’s career” at 39% and “to protect one’s livelihood” at 34%.[i]   Another survey, meeting deadlines was second to the need to “follow the bosses directive.”

These answers have one thing in common – compliance, either to the peer pressure of culture, or to the manager.

<<Previous  Next >>

You might also like

Why Good People Do Bad Things At Work

Corporate Idolatry Is Not The Same As Business Ethics 

[i] The Ethical Enterprise: A global Study of Business Ethics 2005-2015 (2005) American Management Association. http://www.amanet.org/HREthicsSurvey06.pdf  P 5

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 6: Corporate Culture, Featured Tagged With: , , , , ,

How Do Scorpions, Foxes, and Wolves At Work Relate To Idolatry?

September 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

Chapter 4: Who To Trust At Work Part 17

The chapter primarily describes a way to categorize people into Scorpions, Foxes, and Wolves to help you determine another persons motivations and by proxy their values.

Motivated by Strength Weakness Suggested Approach
Scorpion Strict set of ideas Execution & vision Inflexible, polarizing Avoid or exit situation
Fox Self advancement Talking, motivating Poor execution Force them to do more
Wolf Getting it done for self, company, ideas Execution, relationships Too trusting Cooperate, partner

So what does all this have to do with idolatry?  As a reminder, I’ve defined corporate idolatry as the adoption of a value system that puts the company ahead of all else, including your family and your own well being.  And as we saw in Chapter 2, idolatry is defined by actions that do not put people first, and is something one can adopt for personal gain or by mistake.  So really, the SFW system is something to help you determine the degree to which a colleague is following people-first values, and if they are not, trusting them could lead to an increased risk of corporate idolatry.

Lets review some of the stories – Vijay early in his career was misled by a scorpion to submit an incorrect method for tracking inventory, which eventually cost him his job. Had Vijay recognized that it was a Scorpion was making the request, he would have been much less likely to comply and could have avoided the issue.  Plus, Vijay mistakenly thought the company had a value system that would reward people for doing the right thing, when in fact it kept the dishonest person.

We met Liz and Jack who did not recognize the spoor of a Fox, which had negative career consequences, and Harry who did identify a fox and proactively removed him from the organization.  Of course understanding the values of the people you work with is only part of the issue.  In the next post, we’ll meet Jill, someone who masters a fox but remains in a difficult situation.

<<Previous Next>>

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 4: Who To Trust At Work?, Featured Tagged With: , , , , ,

Did Tom Peters Warn Us Of The Danger Of Corporate Idolatry?

August 21, 2012 by 3 Comments

Chapter 3: The Real American Idol, Part 13

In his article “What Is So Terrible About Idolatry?” Rabbi Tzvi Freeman connects a culture of idolatry to the dangers of hierarchy.  “[In the pagan world] Rulers found that a good mix of secret knowledge and convenient mythology could be an instrument of power over the populace; that by controlling the flow of knowledge they were able to hold the people in awe and obedience.”

Leadership guru Tom Peters also wrote of the dangers of hierarchy in his book In Search of Excellence. Peters found that the “Excellent” companies had strong central values brought the organization cohesion.  Peters rightly points out that people crave meaning in their lives, and a company that can provide its employees meaning will motivate them to work harder. (For more, see this post.)

But Peters also recognizes the danger and downside of this dynamic for individual employees.  “So strong is the need for meaning in fact that most people will yield a fair degree of latitude or freedom to institutions that give it to them.” He goes on to argue that the unscrupulous will use the drive for meaning as a means to exert power for its own sake.[i]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing that everyone in company management abuses their power and is only in it for the money.  And I’m also not arguing that everyone else is caught up in the company mystique. But at the same time, we cannot pretend that those dynamics don’t exist.

Learning to recognize the motivations of the people you work with will be covered in the next chapter in great detail.

<<Previous Post  Next Post>>

[i] In Search Of Excellence: Lessons From America’s Best-Run Companies.  Thomas J Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. Harper and Row (1982) p 77-78

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 3: The Real American Idol, Featured Tagged With: , ,

Learn To See The Difference Between Dedication and Excess Company Devotion

August 3, 2012 by 2 Comments

Chapter 3: The Corporation, The Real American Idol Part  5

In his book “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,” philosopher Alain De Botton illustrates how idolatry and non-idolatry both exist in the English company United Biscuits.  He describes the development, marketing and manufacturing of “The Moment,” a round chocolate covered biscuit designed to address the yearning of low-income mothers for more “me-time.[i]” (You can see an ad for Premium Indulgance McVitie’s Moments here.)

Without using the word “idolatry” he describes a corporate office where employees are motivated to surrender their lives/time to the ideal of helping the mothers in order to create the product.  According to De Botten, “the leaders at the biscuit company harboured no doubt as to which divinity they were worshipping.”   Even the investors would “genuflect before pastry.[ii]”  There were “no jokes at any biscuits expense.”  He goes as far as to “wish a plague on the house of biscuits so its directors might tremble before the right gods.”

It’s easy for an outsider like De Botton to poke fun at the people working in marketing and the corporate office because he hasn’t walked in their shoes.  From the inside, it seems very natural, especially when most people around you are doing the same thing.

But after initially opining the triviality and wasted labor going into making a sugary snack, De Botten gets a glimpse of the economic realities that drive a business.  He visits the factory in Belgium where the Moment is manufactured.  Most of the other factories in the area have been shut down, and unemployment is rampant.  The plant manager is extremely dedicated to his job and his employees.  Although the company has enjoyed a number of years of profit, it remains vulnerable to a fierce competitor and changing market conditions.  A change in the balance sheet could lead its owner, the Blackstone group, to close the factory.  Jobs in marketing that are initially viewed as meaningless and trivial, are recast in a new light – a fight for subsistence.  A change in manufacturing productivity or a failed marketing campaign could lead to a dramatically lower quality of life for the employees.  They live in a world where it is understood that machines will replace people in the relentless drive for cost savings.

Somewhere along the way, a line is crossed between being a professional, dedicated to your job, and surrendering weekends and evenings to the company.  Once I realized there was a  line, it was easier to regain control of my life.

<<Previous Next>>

[i] The Pleasures and Sorrows Of Work by Alain De Botton.  Vintage (2010) p. 81

[ii] Ibid p. 82

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 3: The Real American Idol, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

Three Aspects Of Corporations That Will Surprise You

July 30, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Corporation: The Real American Idol. Chapter 3 Part 1

Is a thunderstorm evil?  You might think it is if you don’t understand how it works.  The noise, the lighting, the destructive power can be frightening and dangerous.  Is a thunderstorm good?  You might think so, given the life-giving rain.  When faced with the unknown, the mind naturally creates a story to explain what is happening.  And when we don’t have all of the information, our imagination fills in the blanks. Of course a thunderstorm is neither good nor evil, it just is.

And so it goes with corporations, they are neither good nor evil.   A corporation can do “good” things like donating money to flood victims, or “bad” things like polluting a river.  But good and bad are labels added by people, and are not drivers of the company decisions.  For example, the oil company Texaco donated money for 63 years to allow radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera (a good thing), but the sponsorship started to help repair its reputation that damaged by its support for Nazi Germany (a bad thing)[1].

So what is a corporation?

In the words of Chief Justice Marshall of the United States Supreme court, “a corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of the law.[2]”  It is striking to me how this definition of the corporation resembles following definition of a pagan idol.

Reverend Carlton Wynne of the Westminster Theological Seminary writes that idols in the Bible have personhood, are thought to have power, and have the ability to both accept sacrifices and bless supplicants[3].  Corporations meet all three of these criteria, except of course that corporations actually do have power.  And as for the third criteria, employees regularly make sacrifices for the company, and receive bonuses, promotions, and recognition as rewards.

Of course the primary definition of idolatry that I gave has to do with the adoption of a relative value system.  Do you think this definition fits corporations as well?

<<Previous Next>>

[1] Corporate Social Strategy: Stakeholder Engagement and Competitive Advantage

By Bryan W. Husted, David Bruce Allen Cambridge University Press (2010)  p 141-142.  Google eBook.

[2] Dartmouth College v. Woodward, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation Retrieved July 29, 2012

[3]   Is Idolatry the New Sin? By Carlton Wynne Reformation 21.org  November 2009.  http://www.reformation21.org/articles/is-idolatry-the-new-sin.php Retrieved most recently July 29, 2012

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 3: The Real American Idol, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Mistake You Can’t Afford To Make

July 24, 2012 by 2 Comments

Chapter 2: Idolatry Then & Now Part 14

There was a time when I thought my work in the genomics industry was going to revolutionize medicine.  The products I managed were going to help scientists find all the genetic predispositions for disease, and usher in an era of personalized medicine, where an individual would be prescribed the most appropriate medicine based on his or her genetic makeup.  My mistake, however, was thinking that anything the company asked me to do was in service of this laudable goal.  In other words, I had made an idol of my company, in that I let it be the mediator of my altruistic aims.

The Rambam, one of the great medieval Jewish philosophers, explained the origin of pagan idolatry as a similar error. “At first men believed in one God who governed the world through intermediary forces” like the stars and other heavenly bodies.  They worshipped the intermediaries as a way of bringing honor to the creator, and then made statues to give their worship a point of focus.  After a few generations, people forgot that the statues and heavenly bodies were only intermediates, and thus began to worship the idols outright. [i]  And the values associated with the statues began to drift and diverge from God’s values.

Intermediaries distort the original message.  This can be an innocuous process, like a child’s game of telephone, or may constitute deliberate manipulation by unscrupulous individuals.  Karen Armstrong, international expert on comparative religion and TED Prize winner gave the following example “Often when people talk about God, we attribute to Him the thoughts and feelings and opinions we have ourselves.  … It is often noticeable that the opinions of the deity coincide with those of the speaker.  This is a form of idolatry because what you are doing is worshipping a deity in your own image.”[ii]

Take a moment to reflect on your values, goals, and passions.  Now, reflect on how you are spending you time.  What is the biggest influence on how you spend you time?

<<Previous Next>>

[i] Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest  by David Hartman the Jewish Publication Society (1976) p 54-56

[ii] NPR Talk Of The Nation: Interview with Karen Armstrong January 10, 2011 about her book Twelve Steps To a Compassionate Life. Listen here.

Filed Under: Busting Your Corporate Idol, Chapter 2: Idolatry Then & Now Tagged With: , , , , ,
«Older Posts