Empowering Change

Ok, so here we are again..
Its been a little longer than I wanted, but inspiration comes when it comes.
Looking at this past weekend, we held a Covenant Orientation, and I was blessed with the opportunity to give talk 4: Culture of SFC

Well, I was excited, so excited that I just kept making cnonections, and opening doors.
Truly witnessing how amazing our God is.
From the sanctity of Life to the dissolubility of marriage to helping the poor and being stewards.

You see, the latest revelation for me has been on stewardship. Its been so inspiring that I even started writing letters to different leaders and folks about God's latest message to me.

I see it this way, God has asked that we be stewards of all that is his.. so that explains why we give God our talent, treasure and time.. right?

Well, what if you see it this way instead. God, in his great plan has left with us all our resources, that includes the people you lead, the people you influence, basically everyone you meet, he has his flock here on Earth for each of us to steward.

So for teachers, your students are your resources, you are called to steward them, to protect them, to love them and to bring them to God, even if the only way is through your examples.
Parents, your sons and daughters
Managers, your employees
Executives, you company...




These are all blessings bestowed upon you from God. And he has asked each of us by name to support and bring up his children, his lamb so they may know God.

We must serve all, we must be selfless and loving at all times. This sets the tone for evangelization and renewal. Not in the whole Bible banging sense, but in the kind caring, always living your life in a Christ-like manner sense.

Understand?

So we are all empowered to be change agents, we are all empowered for change.
The Change that we are called to now is the change of Corporate America.

It sounds like a big task, a tall order, but think about the messages and the times we are in.
I asked a bunch of our employees about what they thought if we launched an interest group for Christians so that they could support eachother and discuss how to live a Christian life at work. You know, the response was amazing, even the critics believe it would spread like wild fire. People are yearning and thirsting for Christ at work.

And don't forget, with 70% of y our time at work.. well, where else do you think these lessons will be learned to brign back home?

And what about the change environment. Well, companies are seeking for a foundation that is honest, high integrity, moral, serving, selfless, caring, nurturing.. hmmm sounds like Christian values to me.

And the days of seperating religion from work are over. I understood church and state, but when did we start seperating it in Corporate America?

We have diversity councils and groups for different races, different ages even different interests, so before the enemy figure out how to use those tools, let us as Christians stand up and use these tools for his greater glory. Start these groups to support eachother, and feel confident and free to talk about your honest feelings, your honest desires. There is no more need for a mask at work, be proud to be Christian.

I remember a shirt I own: Catholicism is not a spectator sport

I think that sums it all up, so lets get active, lets make it known and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide this work. He has called us by name.

Now let's answer and witness for him, let us not be a spectator.

All in the family

So, all this talk about Changing Servant.. Servant Leadership and Change Management, understanding the Poor, God's Love and so much more.. But how does this apply to us, everyday in our lives.

Sure, I wanna do good things, but I wanna do more than just say it..

Well, picture this, you are there at work 70% of the time, and you start to incorporate these ideas of service leadership to the workplace, and things start to change for the better. Better work-life balance and good relations. Nothing perfect but much better.. then you go home.

now what? What about taking that same attitude home and applying it to your family, or taking it back to your date, your significant other. These are traits that God has given us, built in and ready to use.

sure, selfishly, serving others makes you feel good, but imagine the work that is done from this new found freedom. If you serve your wife or your husband with that intend, imagine what it does for the marriage.

Guys and Girls, imagine the work with your relationship. treat marriage as a sacrament and a vocation, treat your relationship with great respect and always look for ways to serve each other. This is women's and men's liberation. There is nothing sexist or demeaning in serving each other.

This is exactly what we learned from Jesus. Every time we are selfless, the better we become.
We need to recognize the difference this would make.

So start at work, live it, witness it, then bring it home, bring it to every relationship you have and witness it. This will in turn reap many rewards. Instead of thinking how will my wife make me happy, or what can she do for me. You should be thinking what can i do for her, how can I make her happy, not expecting anything in return, except for the joy you receive back from her joy and thankfulness. and sometimes it won't be easy, but it will pay off.

I'll get to more examples later, but for know we must think about it. We must start that change, the environment we work at, we live at and we play at. We are change agents and we are changing servants, I know I am.

Understanding Leadership

Some of this is borrowed from a good friend of mine Kuya R.S, (pic to be released after NE summit in March):

But I think what he speaks of here is true. I added to it the types of management/leadership and what happens when they reach the top.

Looking at the Bowl Leadership, everything appears to be in order, at first, it seems that the leader is making a sacrafice to lead the members. However, caution is in order. Too easily this can feed the ego of the leader, and still, all decisions and respect are given to one line of convergence: the leader. The leader can also start believeing that they provide everything to the member, they provide the raises, accolades and promotions. This tends to create an environment where members owe back their leader, and that they did not earn anything, but it was given to them.

Looking at the typical Top down leadership, that of a patriarch structure, we can see many faults here including a tendancy to mistrust the members. This in turn may lead into micro management and lack of respect. When this happens, members are only assests to the leader, and the leader turns selfish. They start viewing the members as ways for them to gain power and recognition.


Then we look at the Servant Leadership, some flaws may seem like the leader has no backbone, or free thinking, or that the leader is slow because they are always waiting for their members. But I believe the contrary. The leader is interested in serving others and helping their membership. They believe they are working for their members, and with their members, not the other way around. They can see the vision and share it with their members or at least guide them in the right direction. With these qualities, they end up building a stronger more productive team that can handle a multitude of tasks and are willing to give more for the effort because there is a tradeoff of respect and balance. They act as a steward of their resources and empower the membership to do the work.

Of course many choose to argue that no person is completely selfless, this may seem true when looking around at our current leaders and management. But maybe what we need to see is the hope for such a virtue. And then look at the leaders again, and not just judge them on their flaws, but on their strengths. They may end up being selfish over something small like feeling good about helping others, but at least it wouldn't feed larger desires that will distract from leadership.

To conclude, the above graphic demonstrates what happens when the different type of leaders reach the top of their organizations. The big difference is the motivation and loyalty to the people and organization once at the top. Not to mention the role model one provides as well.

Leading Change through Servant Leadership

Companies must lead, not manage.
They must know the language.
Low level employees are looking for communication on their level (X-Gen/Millennials) – are they value add? How? What can they contribute? Is there balance for them? Are they appreciated? What are true opportunities?
Meanwhile, your middle management is interested in what they know (Financial models, projections, security, proof of success) How does this help the bottom line? What do we need to do to get there? How does it increase productivity? Profit?

Change must occur from the top for all corporate changes.
The CEO / president must buy in, their mindset is the start
But the president, although should be visionary, must use other tools as well to manage the change. They must be able to show small successes and must be able to include as many as possible.

The high level management focuses on the why, the middle focuses on the what/how, the low level always focuses on the how.

This can happen if a consulting firm lived to the values it is developing, and then it provides consultants for leadership, not just management.

So what is needed for a servant leader? Servant leader means that you do not just dictate or lead without thought of your constituents, but instead lead with a role as a steward of the resources provided by the organization. In turn it should empower and encourage the leaders to serve others while still achieving results. This sets a better foundation on an organization’s values and integrity.

These changes of course must take place at the top level and trickle down; there will not be room for grassroots change to an age old structure that does not currently view itself as a steward for its people.

Do not lead your life or others by demands in which you do not partake, instead, use your resources and be a steward of them, it is this concept that allows one to overlook the fine china and see the food on the plate. Which one nourishes you more?

Servant leadership embodies values and virtues, not just principles defined by a group. The values and virtues are embodied by the soul.

It is through this type of leadership that change can occur with realism to the visionary. Because your team will be built around trust, ethical conduct, empathy, humility and service. This slowly destroys the lust for power, and instead is replaced by a love to serve others in order to succeed. You choose to lead because it will be good, not because you will get power and recognition. This should trickle down as growth to individuals and increase teamwork, which will in turn increase productivity.



One should think of executive corporate leadership as a vocation, and not just another job. We should be encouraging as Greenleaf puts it “a leap of imagination”

The change and the leadership must be based on humility, a humility that is God fearing. We all have talents and are all worth something. The times of managing with carrots and sticks dangling in front of the employees has come to an end. Instead management needs to start looking at positive reinforcement and creating an environment in which the entire organization is able to nurture a culture for leadership, particularly, servant leadership.

What is required for this to happen? First off, people have to be more important than the profit; second, you cannot use the profit as an excuse for a lack of respect for the employees. Next you have to be truly humble, and put people first, always.

What barriers then must take place, and why always start from the top? Well think of it this way. The only true servant leader who have ever lived was Jesus Christ. Most CEOs and COOs do not want employees that are more loyal to God than themselves, because in this world of the “individual with the most toys wins” the CEO/COO are the gods.

Also, at no time should think that a “Servant” is that of secular and modern times, it is not one who is strictly obedient and lacking free thinking, but just the opposite. Because the servant knows what is right in the heart and follows these notions, they are more free thinking than ever. They have the ability to go forth with courage and conviction about a task knowing that the result is worth more than the money that is exchanged. Do not therefore think of servant as a connotative term, but instead as a leader with integrity and commitment to both the work and their people.

In a world that is shocked by Enron and 9/11, it is no wonder that the new companies and new CEOs are seeking such leaders, one that can accept change and lead the people out of harm while staying on a moral track. These new generations of leaders are the forefront role models of the X-gens and Millennials.

In this sense, the law of the farm holds true, in managing change thru servant leadership you must sow first, reap later.

God’s Form of Change Management, the awakening.

Preface:Ok, so my brain has not stopped since tues..to be honest. it feels really good, and in prayer I have been seeking answers.. we all do I suppose..anyways.. here's the latest in my connections line of thought on the work we are doing..I think you'll see where I am going on this..
Most of this has been inspired from this last week, from people I met, words exchanged, the planning, the mass, the march, the rally, etc… as you can imagine….a lot has happened this past week..

If you have any questions..let me know.. I'll try to expand and expound as time permits.. but I believe this ties to the other doc I sent about connecting GK and pro life, but this connects our daily lives and Pro-Life, us as 'agents of change' and a 'Holy revolution'.
Amazingly.. the last paragraph came to me, and as I read it over again, it reminded me of the vision R spoke of on Tues.Rs vision was of the upper room expanding into a large room, with thousands of people praying, and then a darkness came across the room, a think liquid, but then a "V" was resonating and broke through the black, and light was revealed, the room turned white.. we all had similar visions, all pieces of this vision… in the need it was a celebration of victory over the culture of Death..

Start:
Imagine.. I was praying to understand the connections made on Tuesday’s planning about the formation track of 100%Pure and the pure lifestyle we are called to live, and earlier about our service and the culture of life.

From that sprung all these things that are the foundations that need to be set.
Then, connections were made about change management as a tool for service only, meaning that we could use it to help our members see this change needs to live pure lifestyles. I did not realize the other potentials.

A corporate tool that can be used in our service and our personal lives in all of its aspects. It is a mindset, a way of thinking and understanding that involves many skills in order to communicate and provide a vessel for change.

And I thought that would be a good work environment, hey I'd love that.

But then... if you look at it, working with change management and consulting to the large corporations is a huge opportunity. Slowly, the change due to generation gaps has to be dealt with. (There are conflicts in the work place due to management styles and values of different generations)

This is the only time in history four generations are working side by side. (Matures, Boomers, X-generation and Millennials)
The biggest conflict is the baby boomers and the X-gens and Millennials.
Well, considering that the boomers biggest influence was two assassinations of people poised on freedom (John f Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr) then the sexual revolution of which roe v wade is a product of.

The X -gens sat and waited and some were influenced by the boomers, they have become the teachers and inspirational leaders and then a Pope rose that delivered something to them and to the start of our generation (The Millennials): The Theology of the Body, and although our influences were of 9/11 and bombings and Enron. We are also PJPII generation, united with the X-gens. 9/11 and Enron are signs that the world as it is, is fragile and under the culture of death.
Yet, the glory of God can be seen by the three Vatican documents:
Centesimus Annus (PJPII), God is Love (PBXVI) and Theology of the Body (PJPII)

Change Management is about managing change by creating an environment, a new environment for the change to flourish in.
Our executives now are of the boomer generation, worried about money and quantity. They are materialistic in nature. Family is second par, divorces are high and this influences the younger generations as well.

But there has been many touched by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and out of the fire and ashes has sprung forth an army for God.
Through change management and Centesimus Annus (brining dignity to man at work) these tools can be used to create and influence a new environment built on the foundation of life itself: family.

Is this not what is happening and proving to be true in Gawad Kalinga? Restoring the dignity and family has created a happier community and has laid the foundation for life.
If we can push family and values to the top, and gain respect for it and show through financial analysis (the language of the boomers) that it is for the good of their business, then we will grow the next generations on the culture of life, surrounded by an environment that is pro family and ultimately, Pro-Life.

Hence... over turning the culture of death
This explains why many of us have been in jobs that seem hard or useless or challenging. It seems like we are getting nowhere, and that we are surer about our service than our careers. For if we did not witness the need for change, then how would we know when to start change?
Christ suffered on the cross so that we may see the sufferings we didn't have to endure, and his death freed us from sin, but when society entered into the sexual revolution, they shut their eyes to Jesus, and he was no longer the center of their lives, they denied the gift of Life from God, and all became dark and now the Holy Spirit has broken through the darkness and is starting the revolution which will change the world.

For God’s greater glory. Amen

Pro-Life Celebration of Life, Anniversary of Roe Vs Wade

Good Day to All of you Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Praise God for the wonderful success and his awesome power during the March for Life events.God was truly present this weekend in all of our regions through our work with Pro-Life.Here in DC, the Rally on Sunday kicked off the Celebration/ Anniversary.
Brothers and Sisters, God once again has shown us that he is the way, the truth and the Lifeand we are called to follow him. And on Monday, many of us did just that, we took a stand for Life andmarched alongside with thousands upon thousands of marchers that all believe in the sanctity of Life with over 150 people, possibly 200 in our contingent alone for CFC from half a dozen states, we were a loud and strong force in the march. It felt so amazing, like an epic movie almost, with God's army marching towards the supreme court and capitol.

God's message was slowly unfolding as the rally started, and then was affirmed strongly at the Verizon Center Mass where more than 20,000+ people gathered for the Eucharist and then we continued and pressed on towards victory for our King!
God revealed to me how important this whole Pro-life movement really is, not just as a pillar, but as a lifestyle. it is something that we ought to embrace wholly and with confidence as the Lord's own hands are upon us. You could feel the Holy spirit's presence at every step, every turn and every praise.

And its amazing how all of our service, all of our programs all stem from the truth found in God's plan for us to live pure lifestyles and witness to others the way of the cross. The message is so simple, God is Love, and we are made in the image and likeness of God, and we are called and desire to Love as God Loves!

Let us not just march for the anniversary of Roe Vs Wade, because we all know victory is at hand, and it will be overturned, but let us march in Celebration of Life, in celebration for each breath we take and each child that is molded by God and brought into this world. Let us all embrace a pure lifestyle as God has asked of us, let us be BOLD in our faith and continue to witness our lives for Christ and let us live out the fight for the Culture of Life everyday, not just once a year.

You are always in my prayers,
Thank you everyone that tunred out and helped in making this a success, all of prayer warriors, event folks and members,We'll see our numbers more than double for next year's celebration.

Empowering the Poor For Life

Some thoughts and reflections on our work with ProLife and Gawad Kalinga, Helping the poor. These words were inspired when I was talking a FTW in the Philippines about GK and finding a secular understranding of this spiritual connection: I'm sure there is more to be added, but for me this has been quite a revelation in better understanding our work as Catholics. Please pass on to those that may be looking for a foundation of the work we do for the poor and for Life. God Bless

We must empower the poor to choose, to hope and plan for their future and to make the responsible choices for their lives and their children's lives, in turn this will provide a foundation for the culture of life, and creates a more aware and more accountable population that can plan accordingly to their needs within control, recognizing that the control is in the values, and not the governance..

If we can't change their viewpoint, then we have issues that won't go away, and the cure for this is not by limiting the population thru governance or human intervention, but through holding their hand, giving them hope and rebuilding their lives
"We don't need to limit their amount of kids, we need carefully discern the number of children God wants them to have"

When you talk with the impoverished women as to why do they get pregnant?

And they have answers like...

We weren't really thinking, we just needed temporary release that time and now I’m pregnant

OR My husband was drunk and I couldn't stop him

OR It's okay, the more kids we have the better chances that one of them will make it and get us out of poverty

Middle class families carefully plan out their familiesand there is some proof that it's among the poor that population can grow...so we must look to the poor. By creating the homes and relationships in GK, we are really creating with the values the foundation of the culture of life. Which in turn is raising a new generation of people that will be grounded in the values that God has shown us...So we restore the dignity of both the body and soul..

We also protect life through the opportunity of nurturing the poor, so countless of lives are not just saved, but also have seen witness of Christian work and can pass these values onto further generations.

More info on Gawad Kalinga can be found at http://www.gawadkalinga.org

or http://www.ancopusa.org (ANswer the Cry Of the Poor is the US advocacy arm of GK)

The Pro-Life in Humanitarian.

When the world was created, it was created with one thing in mind. To hold, grow and develop life.

In our world of millions of people, we seem to forget easily the poorest of the poor. But worse off than that is we forget to remember that they are people like us. We start to develop new plans, new governance and new economics for them, but are missing the integral aspect of their development: nourishment.

Models exist today that baffle the mainstream critics and scientists. They look at these basic groups and don’t understand why they can build thousands upon thousands of homes and educate hundreds of thousands more but not worry so much about following the guidelines that our brightest minds came up with. The basis of Gawad Kalinga and so many other nation building movements is to give care from the start to the end for all peoples involved. There is not a time in point where care will not be given. From the details of the plans, the supplies, education, health, productivity to the broadness of scope of building thousands of homes within a short time span, these movements represent something that we, in the first world countries should be aware of.

They represent a type of change that no matter how magnified under the microscope, no matter how picked apart they will get, the basis of our human integrity is to help others.
Why then if this is the basis for us, we seem to have failed over all these years. Two percent of the world holds the world’s riches? Is this the work of the devil, is this the work of the conquest and colonization state of minds that founded our own first world paradise?

I think the issue really is that we have blinded ourselves from the work we are doing. We have found places that are comfortable to us and that allow us to retreat into our little hole. Yet all the meanwhile, we can give countless dollars to some organization and be happy that we don’t have to step into the mud pile with them in order to calm our conscious.

This also seems to be the reason why we find a lot more donors than we do volunteers. This reoccurrence of people deciding to give their riches but not their time seems to be a norm. In all reality, the riches are needed, but have we not thought that these represent the same worldly distractions that got us to where we are today.

Which leads to the next topic: Today, we find ourselves in a world that seems to everyone else, more or less ideal. I choose not to use the word perfect, because that should be reserved for non worldly ideals. But when we dig deep, we seem to find ourselves in quite a comfort zone. We find that we have history of problems and currently have other risks and disasters out there, but our ability to pay any attention to the negative things is quite limited. A programming of sorts that allows us to continue on feeling good about ourselves once we empty the change in our pocket to the less fortunate. But how are we really helping them out? Are we not motivated most of the time due to a pressure, a feeling that in order to do something right, I should give just a little of my myself. We give end of the year donations not because it is Christmas, but because there are tax breaks. We support current storm victims, but months later choose to find more selfish reasons to spend our cash. Now go to the shelters where we find the poorest of the poor, and we find all sorts of volunteers, go there again next year, and it’s the same people. Look around the city at all the volunteer opportunities and it pretty much is the same people.

Now lets broaden our scope. Lets look at the less fortunate in the third world countries. They seem to find themselves way out of their comfort zone, yet we can snap lots of photos of them smiling. And how do we decide to help them? We send them money and supplies. But lately, we have been sending them supplies that we thought were good for them, after all, it’s said these people are sub-par to our living standards. “They need us” we say. In fact, we need them, this is our opportunity to heal ourselves, and make right in the world what we ignore. It’s more than just showing up there as well, it is all about listening to their needs. They love life as much as we do, yet we try to say their poverty problem is due to population and so we should fix that. They life as much as we do, yet we say the problem is their government, cause its not like ours, so we should fix that. We want to westernize the world in order to feel good about ourselves. Instead let us embrace this diversity.

The really interesting part of this of course is that there are individuals and organizations that realize we have no clue on or care much about what happens after our taxes and checks are passed on to the volunteer groups, There are groups out there that are still trying to change the world to one standard. Who are they to claim they are right? Well, no one has chosen to fight them for it. It is a sad world when there are people trying to pass on the idea that overpopulation leads to poverty, it’s a sad world when women are given a “Free” medical checkup and instead are illegally and unknowingly implanted with IUDs, it is a sad world when the only organizations willing to fund are the ones with agendas. Since when were condoms and birth control part of the bartering chips for funding? Since when did we pay off other countries politicians to pass laws that are anti-culture and anti-life in nature? Unfortunately, this has been going on for years, while we stayed in our comfort zone.