This Week’s Good Work Insight

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Have you ever heard of The Colson Principle?

Chuck Colson started Prison Fellowship Ministry–after Watergate, being in jail, reading C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, and becoming a Christian. And he came up with a version of this principle.

I love it. It is concise and insightful. And it is undervalued as it relates to work, work communities, and decision making.

Here is the summary: a society (or person) stays ordered (which is good) by relying on a combination of cops (extrinsic enforcers of order/good) and conscience (intrinsic self-ordering or self leadership).

The more a society or person relies on conscience, the less cops are needed. The less conscience a society or person has, the more there is a need for cops. If there is a breakdown–cops and conscience stop working to keep a society ordered–then society (or a person) falls into chaos.

Here is a visual:

Ordered

Society or Person

Cops (Extrinsic Ordering Force)———————Conscience (Self-Ordering Force)

Chaotic

Society or Person

Self-leadership (conscience) is essential to work order. And work order = work happiness.

Our team is our external conscience: they are friends of order / enemies of chaos.

If you find change challenging like me, make reflective change a habit. I recently added a 15-minute slot to my Monday morning calendar: “Reflect: Self-Leadership.”

Feed your conscience. Make it better. Work better.

Cordially,

CEO & Founder

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