You're Invited to the Gospel Jubilee!

7/26/12...Today I wondered about the idea of Jubilee. In the Old Testament there were periods of time called the Jubilee and the Sabbath Year, as quoted below from Leviticus;

25 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. ⁶ Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, ⁷ as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

What I am wondering is this. The last two and half years the rate of change at our company is incredible. In fact there is a lady at work who is getting ready to retire. She has been with us for fourteen years, twelve more than me. Our location only started fifteen years ago. As I talked with her wishing her well, she said part of the reason she is now retiring is the change is just too much. There is no doubt, due to Lean and Six Sigma, our Plant is realizing improvements at a rapid pace. As she said, there has been more change in the last two years then she has ever seen in her fourteen years at the company. One of our newer leaders who just started this year said we were on a "psychotic pace of change." Quite funny...and true.

What I have noticed though is due to this unrelenting pace of change, there is never time to adequately rest and reflect. There is never time to tie up loose ends. There is never time to just hang out and fix all the small things not quite working in the created systems and programs. Instead it is on to the next big thing. What I have noticed is when there is a breather week ever so often, I am able to tend to the smaller things and fine tune at my own pace. Sort of like the Jubilee. The above passage speaks of not sowing new fields, or pruning the vineyards in the seventh year. Nor of reaping what grows or harvesting. There is a year of rest for the land, and man is to enjoy only what his untended crops yield by themselves.

What would this look like in business? The concept intrigues me and I imagine even pondering this would cause some in the business world to cringe with any number of thoughts. To me, I think of this a little more, some possibilities,

Not sowing equates to no new ideas, no new concepts, no new programs, no objectives, no performance reviews.

Not pruning equates to no fine tuning of existing systems and programs.

Not reaping equates to...well I am not sure. The dictionary meaning is to get as a return. We still have to produce and sell product to meet customer needs. There has to be a collection of money in order to stay in business. The concept is on a little shaky ground at this point. I suppose whatever our processes and systems yield is what we live on. In this vein, maybe this is how we reap.

Not harvesting equates to not gathering. Maybe in a way saying producing no more than the customer orders. No gathering of huge inventories or working more than necessary trying to build inventory. No going out and harvesting more knowledge is another possible thought.

I feel there is something to this, but I am not quite connecting to the possibility. This may take some time to ruminate for a while before I come back to it. Conceptually I just think what if we had an entire year in business of doing nothing more in a leadership capacity than letting the systems rest. We spend time listening, and in dialogue at only a day at a time. We create no task list. We simply take whatever fine tuning presents itself and work on it until completion. There is no sowing of task lists. We work but in a different way in that year. I certainly wonder if a year of rest in Lean Six Sigma is a need. Our plant officially started the journey in 2007, we are getting ready to enter our sixth year. Hmmm...maybe God will plant further thought regarding this matter in me in the coming year. Right now, not all the dots are connecting.

One final thought on Jubilee. I just remember when I was a young boy hearing the Gospel Jubilee music hour on Sunday mornings. Very catchy theme tune.

Jubileeee! Jubileee! Jubileeee! Jubileee! You're invited to the Gospel Jubileeee!