Hunger and Thirst

The first three preconditions for strategic insight – humility, learning from experience, listening and cooperating – are focused on self-control. But in the fourth, and again in the final beatitude, there is encouragement for self-expression.

Jesus taught: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Righteousness is a difficult concept. The English word suggests “being right,” but this tends to beg a question rather than provide an easy answer. What is right?

The Greek in which the Gospel of Matthew was originally written uses the term: dikaiosune. For the ancient Greeks dikaiosune was the quest for the right way to live. The nature of dikaiosune is the central issue in Plato’s Republic. Aristotle used the term to describe the well-balanced or well-ordered life.

The book of Isaiah uses the term tsedaq which implies a condition of being spiritually clean. When we are righteous we are clean; we are restored; we are renewed. The implication is we have reclaimed an earlier and more fundamental identity. This is almost certainly the concept of righteousness to which Jesus was referring. For Jesus our true self is an expression of God and represents the outcome of our relationship with God.

Jesus congratulates us if we hunger and thirst for finding our true self. Until we become our true self we are empty, weak, and distracted. Only in claiming our true self and behaving consistently with our true self will we experience fulfillment.

For business leaders this strategic insight relates to both individuals and organizations.

What is the strength of each individual? How can management unleash and focus that strength? What is the firm’s core competence? How can management deploy and refine that competence?

Answering these questions provides much of the explanation for why the strategy of each enterprise will be different. The individuals involved are always unique. The organization’s core competence – emerging from these individuals, the mix of customers, the culture, and so many other contingencies – will never be the same as even the closest competitor in the most generic product-line.

Margaret Wheatley, an American management consultant, writes:

Companies organized around core competencies provide a good example of how an organization can obtain internal stability that leads both to well-defined boundaries and to openness over time. A business that focuses on its core competencies identifies itself as a portfolio of skills rather than as a portfolio of business units. It can respond quickly to new opportunities because it is not locked into the rigid boundaries of preestablished end products or businesses. Such an organization is both sensitive to its environment, and resilient from it. In deciding on products and markets, it is guided internally by its competencies, not just the attractiveness or difficulty of a particular market. The presence of a strong competency identity makes the company less vulnerable to environmental fluctuations; it develops an autonomy that makes it unnecessary to be always reactive.

The core competence of a firm emerges from a wide array of interrelationships. If recognized, the core competence can be refined and enhanced. Too often it is neglected and never finds its potential.

The authentic self also emerges from a wide array of interrelationships. The potential of the authentic self is dependent on the choices that each of us make to nurture or neglect our true self.

Thomas Merton, a Twentieth Century mystic in the Catholic tradition, writes:

A tree gives glory to God first of all by being a tree. For in being what God means for it to be, it is imitating an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree… With us it is different. God leaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as we please… There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find him, I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him. (Seeds of Contemplation, pages 24-29)

Wheatley argues that during periods of profound change the ability of an enterprise to respond rapidly and effectively to feedback requires a “strong competency identity.” It is this fundamental sense-of-self that provides an essential stability in the midst of dramatic environmental fluctuations. She writes:

Self-reference is what facilitates orderly change in turbulent environments. In human organizations, a clear sense of identity – of the values, traditions, aspirations, competencies, and culture that guide the operation – is the real source of independence from the environment. When the environment demands a new response, there is a reference point for change. This prevents the vacillations and the random search for new customers and new ventures that have destroyed so many businesses over the past several years. (Wheatley, page 94)

Righteousness is discovering who we are meant to be and becoming that unique expression of God that is available to no other person.

The core competence of an enterprise can be understood as the sum of righteousness found in its relationships. Each employee, investor, and customer is seeking his or her authentic self. Nurturing this seeking provides the firm a unique position and a sustainable competitive advantage.

In our organizations, we should hunger and thirst for finding our core competence and keeping faith with it. In our individual lives, Jesus proclaims we should hunger and thirst to find our true self. We should behave as if our very existence depends on finding ourselves.

In today’s rapidly changing world without a unique sense of self it is unlikely that either organizations or individuals will survive much less flourish.