In 2006, the World Cup soccer final, France was playing Italy.  One player on the France teams in a Zinedine Zidane was an illustrious French soccer player, very accomplished, very famous, and one of the top players in the world and probably the top player on the France team. 

Well, this World Cup final was his final game as a professional soccer player.  And during the game, in the second period, the score was tied, and the ball had been sent to the other end of the field. And so he was retreating down the field and a player from the Italy team said some words to him.  And as he passed by, he stopped. He retreated.  And he took his head and he put it into the chest of the Italian player, causing him to fall on the on the ground.  This resulted in a red card being issued to Zidane and he was ejected from the game.  

In the last image of this illustrious French soccer player, leaving the field of players as he was walking past the World Cup trophy, as he went to the locker room, his team went on to lose the game.  And this was the last game of his career. 

So what was it that the Italian player said to Zinedine Zidane that caused him to lose his focus on the last game of his professional career on a worldwide stage with millions of people watching and cause an offence that winds up having him ejected from the game?   Later, Zidane reported that what the Italian player said to him was an insult regarding his sister. 

Now to you and I who are not world-class soccer players, that seems ironic that an insult about your sister would cause you to lose focus in such a situation.  I call these types of situations the heat of competition.  The heat of competition is a moment in competitive conflict when team or organizational relationships are at risk because of team dysfunction. 

In Zidane’s case, he was playing in a world title game.  And for that moment in time, a comment was made that took his focus off of his task, got him distracted, and caused him to take an action that resulted in him being ejected from the game, no longer able to help his team and serve his team take the victory.  His team wound up losing the game in overtime, and because of that lack of focus, because of that temptation that came his way and he crossed the line, he lost his opportunity to serve. 



Now Zinedine Zidane is no different than you and I.  We all face moments of conflict in an organizational setting, whether it be a ministry setting, whether it be a business setting, or a family setting, or maybe even a setting with friends in a social context.  Something happens, someone says something and we're tempted to cross that line and do something that we’ll later regret or do something that's going to damage a relationship. 

The consequences of giving into the heat of competition are usually damaged relationships but they can also sometimes result in a loss of position, a loss of job, and sometimes affect the marriage and family structure.  

There are three relationship engines that we're going to talk about in these next few sessions that impact the way conflict is handled in an organizational setting.  Those three engines are already running at every organization that you're a part of.  They’re three engines that are so basic they're rarely talked about and discussed and, in fact, most of them have such a negative connotation that they're completely ignored because nobody wants to deal with them. 

The first is the engine of authority.  The second is the engine of correction.  And the third is the engine of conflict. 

Those may seem like quite simple concepts and engines to you. That yes, there's authority, yes, there's correction going on in our organization, and yes, there's conflict in our organization.  Have you ever thought of those things as engines that drive the direction of your organization, your ministry, your business?

Those engines are running at your organization, and they're taking you somewhere.  Every time that there is a heat of competition moment, the authority engine takes you in a certain direction.  Every time there's a heat of competition moment in relationship to correction, those engines are taking your organization in a direction.  So my question for you is, are they taking you where your leadership wants it to go? 

Remember, you are a Christian leader if you're watching these sessions.  You may lead your family, you may lead your marriage, you may lead a business, you may lead a ministry, you may lead a church.  Whatever your position of leadership is, I encourage you to engage with these next few sessions and consider the way your organization authority engine is running.  Where is it taking you?  What direction is the correction engine taking your organization, and what direction is the conflict engine taking your organization?  We're going to explore these engines, each of them in the next three sessions.  

Each of these engines runs on fuel and we're going to talk about the fuel that runs these engines in each session.  When the right fuel is in the engine, the engine is going to take your organization to places of growth, to places of opportunity, and to places of transformation.  But when the wrong fuel is in the engine, these engines will create dysfunction in your organization. 

So my  hope for you in these next few sessions is that as we talk about each engine you'll examine them in light of the organizations where the Lord has you serving and that you can take before Him these opportunities to examine these engines, and ask Him to have His way and to reveal to you the things that He wants to teach you about these engines that in these relationships, in these relationship dynamics that will bring blessing and growth and transformation to your ministry, to your business, to your family, to your life. 

Understanding the heat of competition dynamics and the three engines that impact the heat of competition can improve the way your organization serves people.  It can improve the way your team and the people you serve are satisfied with the service that your organization provides. 

You can improve the areas of retention, whether it’s of membership, whether it’s of customers, those who are temporarily dissatisfied.  It also can help recover those people who leave or customers who take their business elsewhere because of something that happened, because these engines all influence that dynamic of how do we bring those people back.  How do we serve the customers we have?  How do we serve the people that the Lord has sent to us in a way that pleases Him and glorifies Jesus Christ?

So I look forward to talking about these engines. In the next session. We're going to talk about the engine of authority.  

God bless you and we'll see you next time.



Last modified: Thursday, July 27, 2023, 8:17 AM