BJ#12 Learning & Growth - Strategic Job Roles

After you have picked the customers you want to serve, designed the processes that will deliver the maximum impact on the customers, you now need to define the scope of work for the staff to do. This scope of work is known as "Strategic Job Roles" or "Strategic Job families". The person doing this job must have the necessary skills i.e. competence at the job. In a small start-up, a person may need to multi-task and have to do multiple "Strategic Jobs". For a large company, there could be many people doing the same "Strategic Job". For an existing company, there may need to be a re-assignment of job duties so that people are taking up strategy jobs and leaving the non-strategy jobs ( they can be outsourced too.).

Examples in Church Organization
Eph 5:11-12 shows us that the Church has the Five-Fold ministries (Strategic Job Roles) of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. In Rom 12:6-13 and 1 Cor 12:28, we find other job roles. e.g. healers, miracle workers, helpers/ Servers, organizers /ruler/managers, giver, exhorter (coaches?), and those that Sheweth-mercy.

All working together in unity as members of the body of Christ to build each other up into maturity and fullness in Christ. Eph 4:13.

In the OT, we can find the proper organization of processes and distribution of Job Roles(Tasks) towards accomplishing the worship of God and life in God. In the Book of Numbers we have Distribution of Tasks and The Levi Groups, Processes, Distribution of Work from Moses to 70 Elders 11:6, Trumpets and Signals - Command Control Communications for Orderly Movement

Competence & Training
As a company, you need to develop your staff. But you need to develop your staff according to your strategies and the derived "Strategic Job Roles or Job Families". Your staff must have the right competence level to perform the tasks either through training or self-learning.

• Integrity or Trust = honesty + ability

Integrity is more than just being honest. It must have the ability or competence to deliver the promised. It is only in meeting the expectation that trust can be earned.

A common misunderstanding about training is to treat it as a rewards. Staff are sent for training because of some good performance. This creates two problems with training. Firstly, if training is a rewards, then I do not need to learn well. Secondly, the staff is likely to be sent to a training that has nothing to do with his job. It is not unusual to hear people attending training saying "I am not sure why I am sent to this training". Mat 7:6 shows us that your good intentions may not be appreciated. We have the following 2 principles for training.

1. Training should be planned according to the Strategies of the Company
2. Staff attending the training should be briefed properly on the purposes and expectations of the training.
   

Teaching Methods

1. Teaching by Engaging Full Channels
   Everyone has their own learning styles. Some prefers listening to lectures while others prefer reading. Some learn better through pictures. Some prefer watching a movie. We have the 5 senses - hear, see, feel/touch, taste and smell and one more, motion or learning by play-acting. See Maximize Learning Channels how Jesus instituted Baptism and the Holy Communion as wonderful object lessons for us to remember the teachings well.
   
   
2. Teaching by Story-Telling
   Jesus frequently taught the people through parables - ie.. stories. A story facilitates a return to the basics of human connection, inspiration and common purpose. The power of a story to breakdown fences and get conviction can be seen in the story told by Prophet Nathan to King David to get David convicted of his act of murder. (2 Sam 12:1-7)
   

Watch out for False Prophets (Mat 7:15-20). "by their fruits ye shall know them" teaches us to select our Trainers, Consultants or Mentors carefully. Ask for references and see their works and not just hear their speeches and their brochures.

Our Attitudes towards Training & Learning
There is a famous saying - "You can bring the horse to the water but you cannot force the horse to drink". We can send our staff for training but we cannot be sure he can learned. The word "Training" put the responsibility of gaining-skill unto the trainers. Some organization prefer to use the word "Learning" to highlight the responsibility of gaining-skill is with the staff - the learner. We could say that Company provide Training and Development opportunities and we the staff must do the learning - acquiring of skills and knowledge. The important guides for learning are:

1. Learning is a never ending process. If we don't learn, we don't grow. By staying still, we would be left behind. We should always stay up-to-date.
2. There is no short-cut to life. Mat 7:13-14 read the Message Bible version.
3. By tutoring others we also learned. Mat 7:12.
4. Have courage, confidence and ask, seek, explore and you shall surely find. Mat 7:7-8
5. Going for Excellence - Beyond Normal Expectation. Mat 5:3-12 The Beatitudes.
   

Your may want to compare it with the teaching from the Ancient Chinese on learning. See Mind Value: What Ancient Chinese Can Teach Us about Learning

Succession Planning and Coaching
One major success factor of Jesus' Ministry is "Disciplining" - Creating your own clones that they will also make their clones. Mark 3:14-15, Mark 6:7-13 contains the methods Jesus used to train up his 12 disciples. It is teaching, practical practices and feedback. Luke 10:1-17 show Jesus picked 70 disciples and send them out and review their experience.

Matching of Personal & Corporate Goals
The corporate objectives are successively cascaded downwards from unit to department to teams to individuals. Individual must align their own personal goals with the corporate goals. Any mis-alignment will result in poor performance and dissatisfaction.

See also Bible for Business Seminar#13 Learning & Growth

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