Moses: Prophet of Differentiation

The job offer was unexpected. The challenge was attractive. Success would be very satisfying. The long-term compensation package was fabulous. He had credible guarantees for the kind of external support the challenge required.

But the problems were profound. The enterprise had lost its differentiated value and comparative advantage. Clients had become accustomed to making abusive demands. The enterprise had no real sense of purpose or direction. Years ago it had lost its identity and unique position.

Moses was well-past the prime of his life. He was not an effective public speaker. He had no track-record of success. He felt like an outsider and behaved mostly as a loner. But God asked Moses to lead his people and Moses, after some negotiation, agreed.

While it took a long time and he nearly failed on several occasions, Moses succeeded in transforming the descendants of Jacob from vanquished to victorious.

In modern business terms, Moses was a turn-around specialist. When he assumed leadership, the old family firm of Jacob & Sons was in trouble. Once a respected source of strategic consultants and senior officers, the organization had come to be taken for-granted and was commonly abused by their Egyptian client. Moses applied a consistent strategy of differentiation to transform the enterprise into a powerfully resilient and persistently renewing community.

Moses was a prophet of differentiation. Fundamental to his leadership was how his people could preserve themselves through differentiation. The struggles of the Exodus reflect an ongoing struggle of individuals – and a community – to find themselves, define themselves, and keep faith with their core identity.

The principles and techniques that Moses used to differentiate his people are still effective for both organizations and individuals and, if anything, even more valuable. Both organizations and individuals ask, what is my purpose? What is my unique contribution? What are my gifts? What is my authentic and essential identity?

According to Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, differentiation is one of the principal strategies for comparative advantage. “In a differentiation strategy, a firm seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimensions that are widely valued by buyers. It selects one or more attributes that many buyers in an industry perceive as important, and uniquely positions itself to meet those needs.”(Porter, Michael; Competitive Advantage, page 14)

The psychologist Rollo May has called differentiation “the life pilgrimage of the human being.” He writes, “All through life a person is engaged in this continuum of differentiation of himself from the whole, followed by steps toward new integration.”(May, Rollo; Man’s Search for Himself )

Moses recognized the fundamental desire that each of us have to be differentiated: to be recognized as unique individuals. He organized and focused that inclination. He was also effective in connecting our self-identity to our relationships with others in an extended community. As set out by Moses, participation in community serves to enhance the individual’s sense of differentiation.

More than 3500 years ago Moses implemented a framework in which individuals could flourish as part of a thriving community. How did he do this? We will consider the answers in the weeks ahead.

(NOTE: A reader has asked if he can share a link to this blog with others. Please do. With today's new focus on Moses and the self, this would be a good time for new readers and commentators to begin.)