Creating an Atmosphere for Growth

    HayssenSandiacre is a South Carolina company, headquartered in Duncan, SC. Bob Chapman took over the company and created a new ethos within its employees. Your typical CEO would bring his own management team and strategy to turn the company around. But, Chapman did things a little differently. He started by sitting down with the current employees and listened to what they had to say.

    As Simon Sinek, in the book Leaders Eat Last, tells the story, Chapman brought empathy and trust into the company. He began to see everyone as human beings instead of assembly-line workers or employees. He tried to make sure all the workers were treated the same way. Chapman believed that if he wanted his workers to trust him, he would have to trust them. Pay phones were removed and employees were given access to the company phone.

    You can imagine that it did not take long for the company to begin feeling like family. From the top down, people started treating each other differently, better. With a new ethos in the company, people put their heads and hearts into their work.

    One employee’s wife was a diabetic and risked losing her leg. He needed time off to be with her but, being an hourly employee, he could not afford to lose his pay. His “family” (co-workers), without being prompted, transferred their own paid vacation days to this man so he could have more days off. Nothing like that had ever been done there.

    The human body operates to a high degree of efficiency. Each part performs its work as it should. When one part loses effectiveness, God designed other body parts to make up for it and to begin repairing whatever has gone wrong.

    The apostle Paul uses the human body, in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, as an illustration of how efficiently and effectively the church of Christ can perform if each member performs his or her work as he or she should. If one member suffers, all suffer with it. We rejoice when others rejoice and we weep when others weep.

    The church of Jesus Christ will work most efficiently when we, as a congregation, put our hearts and our heads into our service to Christ. When we are inspired to cooperate, trusting each other to handle responsibilities and being loyal to Jesus Christ and His design for the church. If we treat each other, in the church, like family, then we will have this efficient and effective organism, worshiping God, serving others, and sharing the Gospel as God has designed for the church to do.

Paul Holland