Have you ever wondered what makes a human system work - whether it be a family, church, business, school or government?

One finding suggests that “the influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows….only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform possibilities into fact….and only a similar combination can make a culture take form over a thousand natural obstacles….man, not the earth, makes civilization.” Will and Ariel Durant

Therefore, we see that human factors are more important than other factors in creating a high performing human cultures.  So, what drives the ability to enjoy a high performance human system?  Know this, the synergy of innovation and execution will create something greater than the sum of their parts – and, this is the high performance we all seek.

What is your cultural operating system?  Does it provide constant, gentle pressure to continually bring things back to your core values and principles?  Can you speak truth to power?  Do you depend on a handful of people to drag the others along? Can anyone hold anyone accountable?  Do great ideas come to nothing?

Based on significant research on business operations, four crucial skills of a high performance human system were discovered.  These include:

• Self-Directed Change – Are people continually engaged in self-directed change?
• Interpersonal – Can anyone say anything to anyone?
• Team – Can anyone hold anyone accountable?
• Organizational – Are leaders skilled at influencing rapid, profound, and sustainable behavior change?

As these crucial skills are embraced, the ability to innovate and execute soars.  And, you will be better able to live your Godly destiny.

Purpose and a sense of destiny applies to your business decisions and everyday life.  By being aware of the effect of purpose on your personal motivation as well as on the behavior of others, you will be better able to live your Godly destiny.

There are three principles for engaging your destiny and the destiny of others.  They require understanding that:

Principle #1 - People will OFTEN, not always, do the right thing.
Principle #2 - It's important to remind people of their purpose.
Principle #3 - People at all levels of society respond to purpose.

Consider this, we overemphasize the "how" of doing things and we ignore the "why" of doing things.  By adjusting our conversations to include an element of why we do things, we enhance overall performance.

Finally, we need to understand the difference between the big "P" of PURPOSE and the little "p" of purpose.  The big "P" is the kind of purpose that makes a difference in the world and the little "p" is the kind makes a contribution to the people you work, live and play with.  People are wired to respond to both levels of purpose.

Would you agree that attaining a Godly destiny requires that you be actively engaged and motivated to discover, unlock and live that destiny? 

In this video, Daniel Pink boils down 50 years of research about how people are motivated in the workplace to accomplish tasks into a few words.

The concepts in this video apply directly to the workplace, but also can be applied to the process of staying motivated to walk out your destiny.

Daniel says that we need to update the way we motivate people. He suggests that for complex creative work, people must be beyond the worry about resources. He discusses how the traditional "if-then" motivators are great for simple and short term tasks, but not so great for complex and long term tasks.

So how do we stay motivated to walk out our destiny in Christ?

Daniel develops the concepts of autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Simply stated, autonomy is your dominion over your time, technique, team and task.  By combining high standards with autonomy (think of this as the freedom God gives us to be self-directed and independent, and not overly controlled by others), many have lived their God designed purpose. This happened because they were totally committed and engaged on the journey with Christ.

We pray that you would stay motivated, committed, and engaged on the journey with Christ. Be creative and have fun with the journey! :)

This TED talk offers leaders some perspective.  General McChrystal tells his story of leading a diverse force across great distance with ever changing, life threatening, challenges.  In it we see how he adapts to the situation.  It is his devotion to relationship, humility and leadership that ultimately creates the environment for learning, change and victory.

From TED's website, "Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets?  By listening and learning — and addressing the possibility of failure.

With a remarkable record of achievement, General Stanley McChrystal has been praised for creating a revolution in warfare that fused intelligence and operations."

What can you do to better lead your family and organization toward its ultimate Godly  destiny?  What can you take from General McChrystal's talk to help you be a better leader?

In this brief video, Simon Sinek teaches us about the split that often occurs in organizations between financial success and satisfaction with one's work.  What if, the single most important thing you could do was to stay true to your organizational purpose?  What if, the focus on measuring results was why your people have the lost the passion they once had?  What if, as you focused on God's purposes for your job and/or business; God focused on providing an exceeding great abundance?  Can you say, "pressed down, shaken together and running over."

Please kindly consider these points as you listen to Simon explain, in just a few minutes, why purpose matters.  And remember, "Seek 1st the Kingdom of God and all other things will be added to you."

In this video Paul Zak explains how serving others with purpose releases happiness.  He further explains how God designed us to be fulfilled satisfied in this role.  The more we understand of God's design and the nature of Godly destiny, the more excited we become.  It is as if everything is pointing to this grand idea of being Christlike, so that Christ's destiny through you is fully released in the earth.  What could be more interesting than that?

The Center for Neuroeconomic Studies shares,"Question: Can neuroeconomics work for individual businesses?

Paul Zak: There are direct applications for organizational leaders on how you design an environment in which you can be both profitable, productive and have very fulfilled employees. So one way to do that is to lead by fear. So if your business is about exploiting individuals, taking advantage of people, making the biggest profits possible, this is the kind of "greed is good" model, then you kind of just want to whip people into doing things that are not fun, not interesting, it’s a nine to five job.

If instead, the oxytocin research is correct, that individuals normally connect with each other, that’s our motive being as social creatures as human beings, and it means that if business is about service to others then business itself is a virtue – you are engaging in a virtuous activity by serving the needs of somebody else. When you do that, when you serve the needs of your employees, of your customers, you will induce oxytocin release and they will want to reciprocate. So can you say, “Customer loyalty?” This is how you do it.

Okay, so if you can induce this oxytocin rich environment, if you can create this environment, then you have a way to drive productivity and drive individual satisfaction for being part of this organization. We have a purpose, we are here to serve others and we see this as some endeavor that we do together. When do it together we feel good about ourselves and about the people that we’re helping. So what this means is that in the old model, "greed is good," the measurement technique is: lead with fear. In the model, empower individuals to be the best they can be in an organization with purpose, you’re going to lead with love. So if you lead with love then you have this oxytocin environment that will motivate people going beyond, exceeding expectations and leading to delighting the customer, delighting the people around me. And delight is what we really want from a customer experience."

Are you living the life you had hoped you would live?  Do you know that it is far more blessed to give than to receive?  Might your Godly destiny be measured by how many people you helped and how many lives you blessed?

"It's actually really important that you succeed at what you're succeeding at, but that isn't going to be the measure of your life." - Clay Christensen

"Too often, we measure success in life against the progress we make in our careers. But how can we ensure we're not straying from our values as humans along the way? Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and world-renowned innovation guru, examines the daily decisions that define our lives and encourages all of us to think about what is truly important." (Tedx Talks)

In the real world, after all the seminars and research dust settles - the one thing that makes the biggest impact is knowing your unique purpose - also known as your unique destiny. 

Do you know your purpose personally, professionally, or socially?  Let's find the real purpose inside of you.

Is there something you can leave the world that is bigger than yourself that will help other people become better people?  How will you measure whether you are achieving the goal of making the world a better place?  Do you start the day thinking, "Who can I help today?"

Society will become prosperous and peaceful as individual people live their purpose with some degree of accountability.  

Your purpose and your internal moral compass go hand in hand.  Everybody plans to live a life filled with honor and integrity but that life plan can quickly degrade if you are not following a morally sound personal and organizational purpose.