He Showed Us The Way

Written by Jason Haines

“I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all,” Cash admitted. “But my faith in God has always been solid as a rock that I’ve stood on, no matter where I was or what I was doing. I was a bad boy at times, but God was always there for me, and I knew that. I guess maybe I took advantage of that.” -quote by Johnny Cash from the book Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon, written by Greg Laurie w/ Marshall Terrill

We are about to celebrate Easter this coming weekend and for a lot of us this is a time to get together with family and friends, watch kids hunt for easter eggs, get gifts, and eat some good food. These are all great reasons to gather because, as you all know me, it is great to be around your family and friends. But this isn’t the real reason we celebrate Easter, the real reason is to celebrate the rising of our Lord, Jesus Christ. No one before, or after him has risen from the dead and none of us will ever be as perfect as him. We are all flawed creatures, and all will be sinners, but Jesus Christ was sacrificed by his father God to forgive us of our sins because he was the unblemished lamb. I know a little deeper than what I thought I would go, but this is what I have taken from studying the bible.

Over the past few years, I have enjoyed studying the Bible, Leadership, and Lean Thinking, and have seen many similarities between all of them. One of those big things is that we are provided with what we need in life we just must open our eyes and go look and see. Many of us in the Lean world know this as going to the Gemba, which is where the good work is done, this is where we show others how to do things that help while the workers show us the work that they are doing. The people of the world were doing when they were showing and telling Jesus of their ways, while Jesus was teaching them how to repent and be forgiven of their sins. Jesus wanted to save everyone and knew no one was perfect and had their flaws. The Pharisees on the other hand were dead set on associating with sinners and shunned them from anything they thought holy. Why?

Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…,” Luke 5:31, because he knew these people meant well but when they were constantly shunned and pushed away from the church, they would not trust it or come near it. This same goes for places we work for. I hear many things when working in organizations, both those I have been employed by and that I consult for, and one of the big takeaways is a mistrust and lack of communication between the frontlines and the leadership. I do not want to say any one group is at fault for this issue because I have worked on both ends, and they are all stubborn, misunderstanding people. But if the onus had to go on one group over the other it would have to be the leadership team. Because attitude reflects leadership, and people need guidance.

Just as the people back in the early times of Jesus felt as if what is the point, it doesn’t matter what we do, we are sinners and all going to hell, so we may as well just do whatever because the Pharisees will only condemn us despite how hard we try. Many workers feel this way today because there is a lack of trust and communication and many feel there isn’t any where to turn to make things better. One area, and I have been put in this situation, is many in the office are told not to help the frontline employees. Others think they are better than those at the frontlines because they have an education, higher education, than those at the frontlines. Others are scared to rock the boat for fear they may be fired. And there are probably a few others, but these are the main that I have seen. And to be put in these situations is wrong by leadership for anyone. Whatever the case though there isn’t any one right way other than going out to the Gemba and seeing the work that is being done. This is what Jesus did, and this is what Lean asks us to do.

I grew up as a frontline worker from the very beginning of my life where I grew up in rural southeastern Ohio. A country boy, or as my profile says an ordinary hillbilly, who learned how to work with my hands at very early age and later learned the art of leading. Now I wasn’t great at mechanics, or working as a carpenter, but I loved gardening and trying to figure out how things were done. Usually when I found a new way, I would start to make improvements and help guide others through the newer, easier process. At the time I had no clue I would use this later in life but learning these skills helped me, especially working on my grandfather’s farm. I also learned working many of these jobs that people want to be and do good, but sometimes they are told they won’t because of who they are and where they come from. People lose hope when they don’t think there is anywhere to go or improve. They give up.

Working in manufacturing, I was told at an early age that it was something I didn’t want to be part of because of no future in it, but for some reason it drew me in, and I fell in love with the industry. Regardless of the product we were producing, it was something that I loved to do. I started at the frontlines and found that there were many people at the frontlines who had great talents, but many times they were overlooked. Some of their problems though was from outside circumstances, such as children, family illness, or they just weren’t interested in going to college after high school. I know I struggled with college after, in matter of fact I was still going to school while at work, so I understood a lot of the people I worked with and their issues. But one problem I found was many times these people didn’t have the time to do school, work, and family. Which many of them had and I did not at that time. I was always a late bloomer on everything, so I didn’t have family at that time, but I felt bad for them because the biggest thing they didn’t have was time.

Time was something I wanted to help them have, whether that was to have time with their family or to grow themselves. I also wanted the organization to have time to train these people so they wouldn’t have to always find people outside the company to fill the skilled work. I wanted a win-win for everyone. Get people out to be with their family and friends and help the organization by creating future leaders and ambassadors. People will start developing better processes because they will have more time which is provided to them by the leadership of the organization through the up-front improvements that they did. This is what Jesus did for the people of the world.

He showed we had all we needed through his teachings and parables. Jesus used his guidance to teach people only to worry about what they could control and not the uncontrollable things in their life. He does this when he talks about giving Caesar what is his and giving God what is his, or when Jesus says in Matthew 7:3-5 NIV, “why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? We cannot control what other people do, such as leadership, whether that is what they do to themselves or to us.” This same goes with the current things going on in the political landscape, though there are many people who want to control things, we cannot control anything that others do. We can only influence them to do the correct thing as Jesus even told us this when asking us to live right. Jesus told Nicodemus we all have a choice when he said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him,” John 3:36 ESV. If we keep down the path of trying to control others bitterness and resentment sets in and then quite possibly evil will. Pray we do not get to that stage.

The big thing we must remember when we celebrate Easter any year is that Jesus sacrificed himself so that we could all be saved of our sins. He accepted all of us, with all our flaws and wanted each of us to do the same. But he also gave us the choice to which path we will follow in our life. I followed the wrong path early in my life and I am trying, and hopefully succeeding at changing that pathway because I know Jesus, and God will accept me back in. This means regardless of where we are from, what we are, or how we got there, he accepted all of us. We just must have faith that he will carry out the plan for us and help us through any struggles and suffering that we may endure. Please have a safe and enjoyable Easter and remember why we really celebrate this holiday every year!

“That whoever believes?in him?may have eternal life. For?God so loved?the world,?that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not?perish but have eternal life.?For?God did not send his Son into the world?to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.?Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not?believed in the name of the only Son of God. ?And this is the judgment:?the light has come into the world, and?people loved the darkness rather than the light because?their works were evil.??For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light,?lest his works should be exposed.?But whoever?does what is true?comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” -John 3:15-21

Helping build future leaders and ambassadors while also getting people home to their families. Allowing employees to enjoy their life and their jobs. This is what Lean is about. Respect for people (Stakeholders) in all areas and in all ways. If you do not know where to start give Industrial Solutions a call to start the conversation.

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