Teach Your Team to Fish: Using Ancient Wisdom for Inspired Teamwork

Laurie Beth Jones has given hundreds of thousands of business readers insight into how the ideas of Jesus can be used to enhance performance. One of the most critical work areas for anyone, whether a manager or a CEO, a teacher or a pastor, is cooperative teamwork. Leaders today face their greatest challenges not only in defining strategies and getting updated information but also in getting diverse human beings to pull together without falling apart. Jesus can be a role model for team leaders everywhere. When Jesus called out to his future disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he transformed them from people who worked for themselves to people who were part of a larger team. Jesus was constantly exhorting his people to “gather in my name” and “go out two by two” and always think and pray “as one.” Jesus’ final prayer was “that they might be one, Father, even as you and I are one,” which is ultimately about union and communion, common values and purpose—all of which form the bedrock of an inspired team. Teach Your Team to Fish offers dozens of stories from the Bible showing how Jesus managed his team of disciples and other followers, with suggestions for how to apply these lessons to real-world teambuilding and management problems. It offers guidance and inspiration on: * how to excite your team in order to motivate them; * how to ground them so they’ll be realistic about what can be achieved; * how to transform them into a truly well-functioning team; * and how to release them into the world to improve other teams elsewhere. Along the way, the book gives examples of companies in which teams work well together and offers lessons that can help team leaders everywhere sustain themselves and achieve their common goals.