Just before Christmas in 2013, Pope Francis shocked his Vatican leadership with a blistering in-your-face indictment of the church’s leadership. In his speech, he outlined the “15 Ailments of the Curia,” which specifically addressed the aberrant behaviors that he believes cause the Catholic church to lose focus on the fundamental mission of the church. In his eyes, the culture of the Vatican bureaucracy empowered the Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests to use their careers to grab power and wealth. He
I am not a Catholic, so I can’t claim to understand the inner workings of the church. Still, I think you will agree that it is infrequent to read about the CEO of a vast organization/empire delivering such a powerful, violent, strongly-worded challenge like this. If this happened at Apple, Boeing, the Dallas Cowboys, or Chase Manhattan Bank, the media talking heads would be on it for weeks. Employees would be polishing their resumes, checking job websites, and pointing fingers at others.
The news reports said that Vatican members present for the Pope’s seismic speech sat stone-faced, with little applause or affirmations. I guess they were boiling inside with anger and fear that they were getting called out in public when this was not the historical way to drive change. Seeing how they embrace the Pope’s new behavioral expectations will be exciting.
I am writing about this today because there are some incredible lessons about culture and driving change for those who own and run a business.
If you want to learn more about driving change and success in your business, please email me at dave@daveschoenbeck to get a pre-release version of my eBook “The 10 Critical Responsibilities of a Business Owner”.
Coach Dave
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