If all mankind is born with a bias to sin, then how does someone produce useful work?
A bias to sin is a bias against God, but to produce work efficiently and effectively one must follow the best practices defined by the Creator of the universe. Therefore the only way that rebellious people can produce excellent work is through divine empowerment.
Scripture reveals that people living in rebellion against God can produce at least some fruitful work. For example, the people who built the tower of Babel (Genesis 11) enjoyed a modicum of success before the project was stopped by the Lord. The basis of their limited success was partial obedience to some of the best practices from God. Theologians call this limited capacity to obey "common grace." It is so called because God appears to give all mankind this limited ability to obey Him, at least enough to survive for a time in a state of rebellion against Him.
But partial obedience leads to only partially effective work and more complete obedience leads to more efficacious work. So the question is, how does one move beyond common grace to a more profound ability to obey the Creator's best practices?
From a Christian worldview, the answer is to be rooted and grounded in Christ.
This sounds easy, but the problem is that mankind, in its natural state of rebellion, does not want Christ. And even those who are genuinely regenerated are not instantly delivered from rebellion. Rather they enter into a lifelong process of transformation from a state of rebellion to a state of obedience.
Regenerated people enjoy the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, which enables them to be more obedient to God. Though regenerated man's ability to obey progressively improves, the transformation process is never completed in this life. Nevertheless, only regenerated people can produce work that goes beyond common grace and is more aligned with divinely defined best practices.
Wise organizational managers will seek workers who are truly regenerated and therefore empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey God beyond the minimal alignment that common grace affords.
How does management help workers move into this state of better alignment with God's best practices? One of the most efficacious management practices is prayer.
Consider, for example, the prayer of Epaphras (see the above text) who labored faithfully and diligently, beseeching the Lord that his disciples would stand firm in "all the will of God." Standing firm in the will of God means to be aligned with the purpose of God, which empowers people to be more effective workers who can produce superior work products.
Given that workers don't naturally seek this alignment, managers must earnestly, consistently, and sacrificially pray for them.
Here is your business tip. To build excellent organizations requires obedience to the best practices of economics and business established by the Creator. It isn't enough to build an organization with workers limited to the empowerment afforded by common grace. Management must seek to find and build with workers who are empowered by God to obey divinely defined best practices, that is, workers who are working congruent with their callings and in accordance with a Christian worldview. One of the key practices of wise management is to fervently pray for their workers to be firmly established in the calling of God on their lives and to fulfill that calling using the divinely ordained best practices.
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