Work with Purpose Conference| Keynote 5 | August 2024
Description
Discover what collaboration in the Kingdom looks like and the fruit it can produce. To learn more about Work with Purpose click, here.
It has been a
great time today this is an amazing
conference I hope you guys have enjoyed
it we’ve got a couple more speakers here
um so stick in there we’re almost done
um but before we get into the me my talk
is going to be about collaboration today
um but before we get there little Brain
Break um who watched the
Olympics right just a few okay so nobody
watched Olympics it’s just me that’s all
right um yeah you know the Olympics is
the funny thing like it’s one of those
sports that I’m a I’m a sports guy I
love sports but it’s one of those things
that you find yourself rooting you’re on
the edge of your seat rooting for your
country and you have no clue the name of
this person you don’t even know all the
rules of the sport they’re playing I
watched a few sports that look pretty
cool but didn’t exactly know what I was
watching but honestly uh the Lord as I
Was preparing for this talk uh put a
question on my heart as I was watching
the
Olympics and the question
was which one is faster the 400 meter or
the 4X 100 meter and just a little bit
how my brain works I’m sitting here
thinking okay let’s see you got the 400
meter that’s a long way I haven’t ran
400 meters in a long long time I think
it was like ninth
grade um and so I couldn’t run that fast
but you get to do it alone right you
just get to run there’s nobody in your
way you just run a basically run a lap
right the 4X 100 meter you’re only
running 100 meters but you got to count
on your teammates and you got I don’t
know if any guys watch this but I mean
there’s a baton you’re at a full Sprint
you’re trying to catch this baton you
got to catch it can’t drop it it’s got
to be in the right spot it can’t be too
early too late and so that’s got to slow
it down right
and so I I think about this I really
couldn’t tell wh which do you guys think
show a hands who thinks the 400 meter
world record is
faster okay there’s a few of you guys I
was in that camp who thinks the 4X 100
meter is faster okay you guys are pretty
smart you guys are pretty smart I can’t
get that one by you seven full seconds
though the world record 43 seconds to uh
36 seconds that is pretty incredible but
we really shouldn’t be surprised by that
right because God has actually designed
us to accomplish things together that we
can’t accomplish
alone and it started this way from the
very beginning um Genesis 2:18 and the
Lord God said it is not good that man
should be
alone I will make him a helper comp
comparable to him and I like how One of
the speakers said earlier we don’t
really know how long Adam was alone it
doesn’t really say that in the Bible
um but we know that God saw him working
alone right in the garden he said this
isn’t good I need to I need to bring him
a Helper and so he made him a Helper and
and I like the word helper there he
didn’t just make Eve to just be a
companion he made Eve to be a helper so
that they could work together so they
could actually accomplish things greater
than Adam could accomplish
alone and so God wants you to work
together with others he’s actually put
people in your church in your families
uh he’s put people on your teams at and
in the workplace specifically so that
you guys could accomplish things
together that you could not accomplish
alone and honestly when I say that um
this is coming from someone 15 years ago
when I started uh in the workplace when
I started here at Bean Bo homes I would
not have said that I saw this quote um
around that time for the first time and
it’s an it’s an old African proverb you
may have seen it before it’s to go fast
go alone to go far go together and
honestly when I first saw this quote I
thought I think I’d just rather go fast
who cares about going far you know I
mean there’s some people that went fast
and they got gold medals that’s pretty
cool but honestly over the
years I have come to realize what the
power of teamwork can do um and and I
don’t I don’t know why you know years
ago I didn’t believe this um but some of
it goes back to you know in high school
and college you’re on a team project and
it always feels like there’s that one
guy he’s not doing anything you know and
then there’s you you feel like you’re
kind of pulling the weight and I had
that feeling a lot of growing up through
High School through college and even at
work when I started here um and honestly
that feeling is called Pride we’ve
talked a lot about it today um you can’t
work together pride gets in the way of
your ability to accomplish great things
together and so you have to get over
Pride first and for me that took many
years it actually held me back not only
in my personal growth um but it actually
held back the teams that I was on we
weren’t accomplishing things because I
thought you know I could just do that
better like you know move over let me
let me fix that um and that was honestly
the mentality I had and if I’m being
really really honest with you guys today
it actually still creeps up in my life
sometimes today and so it’s not
something that you ever just get over
it’s something that you have to continue
to
battle one of the stories that really
started to changing my mind there’s
probably hundreds of stories I could
have picked of great collaboration here
at beatbo um but one of the stories was
from a couple years ago in
2021 um we had just gotten through so
reminder 2020 virus hits right everybody
goes home and then everybody realizes
what that their home is terrible and
they need a new home and so working for
a home builder that sounds pretty cool
right sweet we got a lot of customers
coming in um but when you’re the leader
of the purchasing team during one of the
largest supply chain crisises the world
has ever seen it wasn’t so cool at times
it was actually pretty stressful um but
we had a team that was unmatched and we
were able to accomplish some things but
at the height of it we had a a brick
shortage a major brick shortage uh we
were over 150 homes behind on brick and
so to just a little perspective this is
a home here um one home takes about
15,000 brick so over so 150 homes that’s
a little over 2 million brick that we
were behind that we needed to get
delivered to the job site and we met as
a senior kind of group of of our
purchasing leaders some of other other
leaders in the company and we said what
are we going to do uh a lot of other
builders at the time were just stopping
production it’s like well there’s no
brick so I guess we’ll just let the home
home sit there for a while but we knew
that letting the home sit was going to
damage a lot of uh just it was going to
hurt a lot of people you know we had
customers who had already scheduled
their move in to their new home they
were maybe moving from out of town we
had our own employees who if we don’t
build homes if we don’t close homes then
we don’t make profit as a company this
could really hurt our company but also
the thousands and thousands of trade
partners that we employ every day who
live uh some of them paycheck to
paycheck trying to make sure and when we
when we pay them on a job they get that
money they’re able to feed their
families with that money and so we knew
that stopping for a month or two months
which is honestly very common amongst a
lot of builders in the country at that
time was going to really hurt our trade
partners and so we said we’ve got to do
something we can’t just sit around so
what are we going to do we called our
suppliers um we said hey we’ve got to
deliver 2 million brick in two weeks and
honestly when we walked out that goal I
was kind of like yeah right like maybe
we could get it in two weeks but you
know if we got it in a month it’d still
be a win right um but I’m going to cut
to the chase sh here because I don’t
have a ton of time we delivered 2
million bricks in two weeks and it had
almost nothing to do with me it had to
do with the team that we were on um but
there was no shortage of obstacles just
a few of the obstacles that we had um we
actually called and found the brick like
within 2 days turns out that wasn’t that
difficult there was 20 million bricks
that we found within 2 days of calling
plants um and we’re like sweet done
right no it turns out there was a major
Trucking shortage at the time there were
fuel
surcharges um there’s a thing called a
Moffet truck I don’t need to get into
but there was a shortage of those too uh
brick Forks that’s a specialized Fork
that lifts the bricks and so those there
was a shortage of those and so one after
another it seemed like obstacles kept
coming at
us but I’m proud to say that this is one
of the first homes it’s pretty sweet we
got a brand new new forklift we got our
brand new Fork sitting there that we had
acquired on the black market of brick
Fork um you know sales picked that bad
boy up and we started delivering brick
but honestly what made this possible
once again was the team and so I go to
the I go to the team and um man it was
the Dream Team these guys were awesome
Jennifer oh my gosh you’ve never met
someone more detailed than Jennifer um
she had all I mean the right color brick
the right amount of brick down the exact
brick to the address you had Mitch if
you’ve ever met Mitch you cannot walk
away from a conversation with Mitch
without smiling and honestly in a very
stressful time that was that was
critical to our mission you had Randy
there’s never an obstacle too big for
Randy he’s going to go through it around
it over it and he’s going to knock it
down and then you had me trying to kind
of get this whole group together with
some Vision you had Sawyer he’s a
connector he’s the guy on the phone that
found 20 million brick in two days you
had Brad you just got to meet him he’s
an innovator he can figure out problems
Trey the Challenger every group needs a
good Challenger someone to say you know
what I don’t think that’s going to work
let’s try this
instead Trey was awesome um and you’ve
got
Kendra she’s the organizer she kept it
all kept us all organized kept us all on
the same page and honestly there’s no
way I can that we would have been able
to deliver even 15,000 brick in 2 weeks
let alone 2 million brick if it it was
just
me and we shouldn’t be surprised by this
once again this is in the Bible this is
biblical if we go to the story of
Nehemiah so you guys have probably heard
this story but I’ll recap it a little
bit Nehemiah was the cut Bearer for the
king Artic
Xerxes and Nehemiah was sad one day and
so the king noticed that he was sad he’s
like man why is he sad so he said why
are you sad and he said man my people um
gosh there you know Jerusalem the walls
they’ve been torn down for years and
it’s just it’s a disgrace to my people
I’d really like to go back and and try
to rebuild it for them and so the king
said sure all right I’ll let you do that
why don’t you go back and then neemia
Nehemiah said well wait H one more thing
um I need uh I need some letters to some
of the other people because it’s
actually a dangerous Journey getting
there so if you could give me a letter
to provide me safe passage if I could
also get a letter um to Asaf so can give
me some Timber I need some gates also
would love a residence that I could live
in and so I’d like some timber for that
and the King was like okay sure I’ll
give you the letters and so Nehemiah
went and he assembled he goes he he gets
the he gets the wood he assembles like
the the dream team of dream teams
thousands of people the tribe leaders of
of Judah all around Jerusalem and they
start building this wall and this wall
was 1.7 Mi long 12 M High and so we’ve
got people here that can tell you how
much brick that is um that is 3 million
brick so we delivered 2 million brick
this wall was 3 million brick that’s
quite a few they didn’t have trucks back
then so they had to like carry that or
use donkeys or so they had to get all
that brick there um it’s pretty
impressive the feat of what they
accomplished um but let’s look at the
team oh this is the last little part
almost for this is one of my favorite
verses when I read this I was like what
I can’t even imagine talk about word
picture so they’re building the wall
right and all of the enemies of
Jerusalem are like why are what they’re
rebuilding this wall let’s go fight him
let’s go take him down we can’t let him
rebuild this wall so they go and attack
and it says that those who carried
materials did work with one hand and
held a weapon in the other and honestly
think about that for a second okay we’re
laying brick got one brick and then over
here they’re attacking okay I got a
sword you know I think
I mean I’m not sure this is kind of like
to rub your stomach Pat your I’m not
sure I could do that I think I would
have told Nehemiah hey this was a cool
man it’s a great Mission you got going
here um but I think I’m out you guys
could rebuild the rest of the wall so
let’s look at the team real quick what
are the characteristics that they had
you had Nehemiah the boldness of
Nehemiah um actually being sad in front
of the king at that time was a crime
punishable by death so just him being
sad sad in front of the king he could
have been killed right
then um for him to even and then the
king grants his wish and he’s like oh
hey actually can I get one more favor
and he ask another favor he was bold he
was bold in his faith and that’s really
what allowed him to do that and then you
have King Artic xeres think about the
empathy that the king had he let his cup
Bearer The guy protecting him so the cup
Bearer at that time was the person who
like tasted the food to make sure it
wasn’t poisoned he let him go like
that’s literally inviting someone to
come poison you everybody would know
like hey the cup bear is gone you can
poison the king now and so the empathy
that he had um to be able to empathize
with nehemiah’s situation and then you
had all the resolve the tenacity of all
of the tribe leaders of Judah that were
there laying bricks and fighting and
they kept doing it like until the wall
was done they they had the resolve and
tenacity to finish that
project and so honestly um when I go
back this
quote this African proverb after all
these years I’ve kind of realized um
that there’s a lot of truth to this to
go fast go alone to go far go together
but I think it’s not quite right and so
I I wanted to modify it a little bit I’m
not sure if I’m allowed to do this but I
created my own proverb okay I’m going to
call it ties proverb and it’s actually
to go fast go together to go far again
it Still’s got to be together you really
can’t accomplish much on your own and
once again this coming from a guy that
absolutely didn’t believe that 15 years
ago and so you may be sitting in the
crowd thinking that today um but I could
have told a bunch of other stories um
but really the the heart of this is is
that you can never accomplish alone what
you could with those around you and that
means everybody that’s not just your
best buds that’s that’s all of the team
members on your team and if you can’t
see the unique qualities of every team
member on your team you might need to
check your own Pride because you might
be judging yourself higher than others
and I know that’s where I
was so thank you guys um here’s some
reflection
questions what one obstacle is in the
way of you having the power of
collaboration in your
work and two has Pride caused you to
have a cynical view of working with
others and I want to say right before I
leave the last speaker today Lauren my
dear friend Lauren Hayes is going to be
the absolute best speaker so please do
not get up and go to the bathroom please
do not leave she is going to be amazing
and you’re going to want to hear what
she has to say thank you guys
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