Case studies, detailed write ups of real-life business situations, are a common teaching tool for business students. From these examples, students are supposed to draw lessons for their own job and for management. One case study I read covered Nordstrom; a large retailer famous for their strong customer service[1]. At the time studied in the case, Nordstrom had recently hired an up-and-coming manager with a strong track record and trusted him with a lot of power to run the business. Since the purpose of a retailer is to sell things, management decided to pay every employee in every store more if they sell things. Seemed to make sense.
However, there’s a thing called the “Law of Unintended Consequences,” or more simply, a lack of foresight. In the Nordstrom case study, this Law led to disaster. Employees stopped cleaning the store. They stopped stocking shelves and organizing displays. Customers couldn’t find what they wanted, but they were hounded by enthusiastic employees who were eager to sell them something (and get credit for it). Instead of each employee doing what they specifically needed to do, they all swarmed around annoyed customers.
Not only did sales go down as a result, but Nordstrom damaged what had been its key strength of customer service. This happened decades ago, and Nordstrom has recovered, but what an interesting story. More recently, JC Penney had a similar disaster when they decided to back off their aggressive discounting strategy – the entire reason many people shopped there. A lack of foresight can lead to disastrous unintended consequences.
Nordstrom’s problem was what economists call a “coordination problem,” where a group of people aren’t properly organized to achieve a goal. Even if you have a theory that sales are the sole objective, making everyone focus on sales might not be the right way to coordinate. As Yogi Berra apparently said: “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” Humans don’t usually behave the way theory says they will.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11, titled “The God-Given Task” in my study Bible, says this:
“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
The point is the scope of man’s awareness, in his business, or economically. Man works, and sometimes it looks like pointless toil, and sometimes it is beautiful. But, as an image-bearer of God, man knows there is more to it – eternity in his heart. Therefore, we have some sense of a bigger picture, but the whole picture can’t be seen, only bits of it.
God on the other hand sees all, and nothing appears as unpredictable chaos to Him. His foresight includes all future circumstances, and everything is predictable. In the movie Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum’s character explains chaos by putting drops of water on the back of someone’s hand and saying there’s no way of knowing which direction the water will flow. But, when God watches Jurassic Park, he knows exactly which way the water would go. Every. Single. Time. And not because He’s seen the movie before. We look at water and see chaos, but God looks at it and says “Peace! Be still!”
Proverbs 3:19 tells us:
“The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding He established the heavens;
by His knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.”
Because the world was created with wisdom (and not by accident), gravity does what it’s supposed to do, photosynthesis does what it’s supposed to do, and likewise with many “laws” of science. God as omnipotent creator orchestrates all those laws of science how He wants, but in terms of people He has the same raw material as the managers of Nordstrom.
However, God doesn’t get blindsided by anything, including but not limited to:
People not doing what they’re told – He can, and does, include this in His plan.
Second- and third-order effects of rules, such as employees not stocking shelves.
Theory that might not apply in practice.
Managers of your company or organization don’t have perfect foresight. They can’t be certain that their strategy is correct, and they probably don’t know what every employee does on a daily basis, but God as CEO of the entire universe knows all and has a personal relationship with every member of the “company” – and all its competitors.
He has a plan, and while He doesn’t tell us the entire plan, He “has put eternity into man’s heart” that we may learn to trust Him and know that everything will be fixed in the end. Therefore, dedicate more of your time, treasure, and talent to God and see what happens. He intends that there will eternally be good consequences, and when He intends something, it happens. Guaranteed.
Our God is the God of Intended Consequences.
[1] I can’t find the case online or in my files so I’m going from memory here. Forgive me if I go astray, or if you work at Nordstrom.
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 