November 12, 2025 • 29 mins
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What if the most effective project plan you’ll ever follow began with prayer, clarity, and courage? We walk through Nehemiah’s 52-day rebuild as a living blueprint for modern leadership, translating Scripture into eight practical principles that help you start right, build momentum, and finish well. This isn’t theory-for-theory’s sake; it’s a field guide for owners, managers, and team leads who want to deliver real results while honoring God and serving people.
We begin with assessment over impulse—how fasting, reflection, and honest scoping prevent expensive false starts. From there, we show how to secure stakeholder buy-in with specific asks, measurable outcomes, and ongoing trust-building. You’ll hear how personal inspection sharpens scope, why a compelling “why” rallies teams, and how to assign roles by strengths so every contributor adds maximum value. We get practical with execution tools like schedules, visible milestones, and short stand-ups that keep the critical path moving without burnout.
Opposition and uncertainty are part of the work, so we break down risk management that actually works: identify threats, rate likelihood and impact, and pre-plan responses with cross-training and buffers. Just as vital, we press into morale and fairness—because exploited or exhausted teams quietly stall progress. Nehemiah reset justice, restored unity, and sustained pace; you can, too. Finally, we cover clean handover, public celebration, and lessons learned so the win lasts and the next project starts stronger.
If you’re ready to lead with conviction and competence—sword in one hand, schedule in the other—this episode equips you to assess, plan, mobilize, execute, and close with integrity. Subscribe, share with a leader who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the one principle you’ll apply this week.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, Harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners and becomingeffective, efficient, and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now here's your host, HaroldMilby.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
Welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business
Concepts Podcast.
I'm your host, Harold Milby, andeach week we explore very
important management andbusiness techniques and biblical
principles that will help usfind true godly success.
And uh and that's in everythingthat we do.
I believe that it'll affectevery area of your life, just
(00:38):
not business, uh, or not justbusiness.
So I believe that God wants notjust Christian-owned businesses,
but He wants Christian-runbusinesses in our world today.
As uh Christian business ownersand Christian business leaders,
we have really uniqueopportunities in having really
great impacts on those who uhwork with us, who we manage, or
(01:04):
that we're around.
We have an opportunity to reallyimpact the kingdom in a positive
way as a Christian-run business.
So whether you're an owner or amanager or a leader, uh, you're
going to be able to apply theseprinciples found in God's word
that help your business, helpyour department or your
organization, and help to impactuh that business and
(01:27):
organization as well as thepeople for God's glory.
So that's that's the importantpart, you know.
And now each week I do ask thatthat our listeners uh share uh
this podcast with other people,four or five other people that
you think it would help, and uhpost the link to this podcast on
your uh LinkedIn and Facebookpages.
(01:50):
That would be a tremendous helpto us here at CBC as we try to
get the word out.
And uh many of you do that everyweek to help us grow CBC, and we
couldn't be doing that withoutyou.
So I really appreciate yourefforts and and I ask uh all of
you uh, you know, to try to helpus uh in those efforts.
Thank you so much.
(02:11):
Now, this week I want to reachout and give a big shout out to
Perth and uh in WesternAustralia for having so many
downloads the last few weeks.
I hope this podcast is ablessing to you and to all of
you who listen on a regularweekly basis.
Thank you for letting CBC be apart of your growth plan for
(02:33):
your life.
If you don't have a growth plan,then you need to develop one.
But if you have and you includeus, we're we're so humbled by
that.
Thank you so much for having usbe a part of that.
Now, uh today, this week, I Iwant to talk a little bit about
project management.
Now we're I I don't want to gettoo much in the weeds here, but
(02:54):
but some of it is important.
And I want to talk to you uh anduse the example of Nehemiah in
the book of Nehemiah, which iswhich you know is in the Old
Testament, but it it's a greatexample and a very timeless case
study uh in project management.
You know, Nehemiah, he was acupbearer to the Persian king at
(03:18):
that time.
And uh so you know it was justthis time that God took this
this cupbearer, Nehemiah, and hetransformed this broken or
heartbroken exile really intothis visionary leader who
rebuilt Jerusalem walls and andput up the gates, and he did it
(03:41):
in just 52 days, which back thenwould have been a feat uh to
accomplish.
And I want to share with youeight key project management
principles from Nehemiah'sstory, primarily from Nehemiah
chapters one through six.
And uh, you know, we're gonnamap them to the to the modern
(04:02):
frameworks like um um a PMBOK,which is Project Management Body
of Knowledge.
If if you don't know about that,that's the big organization or a
big uh uh a big product for uhwhat most project management or
companies that have projectmanagement teams, it's kind of
(04:23):
what they go by, this productmanagement body of knowledge.
And um, each principle thatwe're gonna talk about today is
gonna have a biblical foundationand uh and it's gonna be a
project management applicationand then some business
leadership insights.
So we're gonna do that today.
Uh so what are, you know, whatare some of the things that we
(04:45):
want to accomplish?
Well, we want to help you to andequip you uh to be leaders, to
lead some really nice big, largeprojects, even little projects,
it doesn't matter.
But we want to give you thesebiblical, these biblical
principles and wisdom.
And we want to help developteams that glorify God through
these disciplined execution uhprinciples.
(05:06):
And uh we want to inspireresilience in the in in your
workplace uh as you're dealingwith your quote-unquote walls,
like Nehemiah did.
Uh maybe it's market shifts orteam conflicts, whatever it may
be.
So that's kind of our goal heretoday.
That's what we want to do.
So let's talk about the firstprinciple.
Well, the first principle isassessment.
(05:29):
Assessment.
And Nehemiah, when you look andread into Nehemiah, and because
of our time, we're not going tobe able to go through all the
scriptures.
I'm going to let you do that.
But in Nehemiah chapter 1,verses 1 through 11, Nehemiah
hears about Jerusalem's brokenwalls.
Now he's in exile there.
You know, he's from he's fromJerusalem.
(05:52):
And uh these these broken walls,they're just a symbol of
vulnerability and disgrace.
So instead of rushing intoaction, he just begins to weep,
he begins to fast, he begins topray, and he does this for about
four months.
He begins confessing sin, hebegins seeking God's favor.
(06:13):
Uh he begins envisioning uh thisrestoration.
So he he assesses the problemvery deeply before he even
approaches the king.
Um and so we we need tounderstand that in the PMBOC,
uh, it talks about theinitiation phase, and that's
(06:34):
what this is.
Um, you know, and that guide,that PMBOK guide, it's it's it's
a foundational resource uh fromthe project management institute
that outlines the principles,practices, and standards for
effective project manager.
I just want you to know whatthat is.
Um you know, and that includesconducting stakeholder analysis
(06:58):
and creating, you know, ahigh-level plan.
And Nehemiah's prayer is like aSWAT analysis.
You know, during that time, he'she's trying to figure out the
strengths, the weaknesses, theopportunities, and the threats.
That's a SWAT analysis.
And uh he was trying to identifythe root causes, you know, what
(07:19):
happened uh at in the aftermathuh when the city was taken.
And he tries to align that withGod's divine promises to restore
Israel.
Uh, you know, and so he he firsthe makes this assessment.
He makes this assessment.
He doesn't jump right into it.
And a lot of times we make thebiggest mistakes in a project or
(07:42):
trying to develop something,whatever it may be, we'll call
it project management.
But a lot of times we make thatmistake as we see what needs to
be done and we immediately wantto jump right into it.
And I can tell you, the timesthat I have jumped into
something too fast is where wehad the biggest mistakes, where
we made our our had our biggestfailures.
We didn't take the time toreally do a really good
(08:05):
assessment.
So when we when we look at atsome of these uh some of these
things that we're talking abouttoday, we we look at about some
of the uh uh time, you know, youwant to spend about 5% of the
time making an assessment uh ofwhat the issue is.
You want to define it, you wantto know what it is, and then you
(08:26):
want to spend about 25%planning.
You know, you want to build thatroadmap.
And then you want to spend about50% actually executing, in other
words, doing the work.
And then you want to spend about15% of your time monitoring and
controlling, just make sure youstay on track.
(08:46):
And then you want to spend 5% onthe back end.
Uh we'll call that the closing,finalization.
You spend about 5% there, andwhat you want to do is you want
to learn.
Uh, you want to grow and youwant to learn.
So that kind of gives you abreakdown of what you want to
do.
But uh, you know, he Nehemiahconducted an audit.
(09:08):
That's what he did.
He gathered data uh on thebroken walls.
Um, and and maybe in your case,you're you're looking at
outdated processes or outdatedequipment or low morale.
Uh so you know, you may want touse tools like some kind of
survey or a Gantt chart.
You can use a Gantt chart.
(09:29):
Gantt charts are great.
Uh so you can use a Gantt chart.
Uh, you want to then uh you gotto build your team.
You gotta build your team, andwe'll we'll talk about that here
in just a second.
Um and then and then what youwant to do is you want to craft
a really good one-page projectstatement.
Uh you want to have the date bywhich you want it to be done.
(09:53):
You you want to have the peopleinvolved.
Um, you know, in Nehemiahchapter two, verse 17, Nehemiah,
he started with his vision andhe told the people, he said, Let
us rebuild the wall of Jerusalemso no longer will we be in
disgrace.
So he he he started with thisvision.
Um you know, so I think that'swhat you have to look at.
(10:16):
Now that's that's that'sprinciple number one.
Uh number two, you want to youwant to begin to then secure
some buy-in uh from decisionmakers.
Okay.
Uh again, Nehemiah chapter two,verses one through eight, he
approached the king withconfidence.
Remember, he'd been praying andfasting for four months, asking
(10:38):
for God's favor.
And so he goes to the king.
The king notices, he said,Nehemiah, why why why do you
look so depressed anddiscouraged?
You know, so Nehemiah took thatopportunity to share this
information with the king.
And uh he did it withconfidence.
And he he actually requestedletters of credit uh from the
(11:01):
king.
He he requested letters to gettimber.
He requested letters to makesure he had safe passage.
And uh so he was able to getthat all because of the four
months that he had spent infasting and prayer and uh uh uh
you know preparing himself uhbefore he could prepare other
(11:22):
people.
And that's the one thing I dounderstand is you have to
prepare yourself.
You can't give out until you putin uh into your own life.
So, you know, he began to planthose resources.
Um, you know, he got thosestakeholders involved, he
identified who the influencerswere, um, he began to manage the
(11:46):
expectations.
Uh Nehemiah used emotionalintelligent intelligence really
to kind of read the king's mood.
Um, you know, so I think I thinkthat's important.
And remember that buy-in, buy-inis a subscription, not a
transaction.
You've got to get people to wantto go along because buy-in
(12:07):
starts where egos ends.
Because you it's not about yourego.
Uh, you know, it doesn't startwith your ego.
The ego's got to be left at thedoorstep.
You know, buy-in isn't sold,it's caught.
So you have to have this vision.
If you're gonna get people tobuy in, you've got to have this
vision.
(12:28):
So the first thing that you haveto do is you've got to list the
executives, investors, mayberegulators, employees,
management people, whoever theymay be, uh to check out in your
mind to know what kind ofinfluence and power they have.
And then you've got to prepare apitch.
And this is like a five-minutepitch that talks about the
(12:50):
return on investment, what therisk may be, uh, those types of
things, right?
And then you've got to requestspecifics uh bodily.
You know, what are thetimelines?
What are the budgets?
What are the resources?
Like, you know, Nehemiah had atimber quota.
So so make sure that youunderstand that.
And then make sure you follow upfrom time to time.
(13:12):
You leave somebody a note.
Hey, great job on this projectso far.
Really appreciate all your helpof what you're doing.
And and uh so you you want to dothat from time to time.
That that's really important.
So let's go to principle numberthree.
So principle number three uhsays uh this it's about personal
inspection and and realistic uhscoping.
(13:37):
We'll call it scoping, okay?
Um so you know, upon arrival,Nehemiah he rides the walls, the
perimeter of the walls, but hedoes it at night.
He does it silently.
He's assessing the damagewithout alarming other people.
That's important.
(13:57):
I I think you think about thatfor a minute.
He did that at night and he didit on purpose because he didn't
want to alarm everybody.
He just wanted first to assessit himself.
So he he scopes the full extentbefore he begins building a
team.
Because if you don't know whatthe project is going to entail,
(14:19):
you won't have the right teammembers.
You've got to have the rightteam members.
Okay.
So it it really helps him kickthis thing off right.
Uh, and it avoids any kind ofpremature panic that people may
have.
So you need to kind of schedulea, we'll call it a night ride,
like he did, and you walk yourproject's front lines, right?
(14:40):
You kind of look at that projectpersonally, you look at it
quietly.
Maybe it's the factory flooryou're walking, or out in the
warehouse, or maybe a res aremote team Zoom uh meeting to
maybe look for some gaps.
Uh, and then you want todocument.
You want to document everythingthat you see, that you
(15:02):
recognize.
Um, you want to use uh SMARTgoals, you know, specific,
measurable, achievable,relevant, time-bound.
And uh, and and you want to beable to do that.
So he kind of looked at thislike, you know, if we can
rebuild the wall in 52 days, ifwe could do 10% of the wall
every week, uh, you know, he'she's kind of trying to develop
(15:26):
this.
What whatever, whatever this,these numbers are, right?
So it's kind of like thisconstruction firm, you know,
they were facing a lot of delaysuh in in this building that they
were building.
And so the leaders on site, theydid an audit and they uncovered
some supply issues.
They dealt with those issues andthen they accelerated the
(15:46):
completion uh of that buildingnow by 20%.
So now they were behind, butbecause of identifying these
issues, uh they were able toaccelerate the completion by
20%.
So these are the things that youhave to look at that you have to
try to do uh when you do thispersonal inspection, you know,
when you're doing the scoping.
(16:07):
And now the other principle,number four, is you've got to
come past come uh cast acompelling vision so that you
can mobilize the teams.
Uh so you know, Nehemiah chaptertwo, verses 17 through 20, he
says this because he shares thisassessment.
He says, You see the trouble, weand I and Jerusalem, that it
(16:33):
lies in ruins and its gates havebeen burned with fire.
Come, let us rebuild the wall ofJerusalem, and we will no longer
be in disgrace.
So, you know, he he had thisvision.
Here's what the problem is, andlook at the end result.
The end result is that we're nolonger gonna be in disgrace
(16:53):
because the people at that timewere very discouraged, very
depressed.
He goes on to say, uh, he says,come, let us rebuild.
The God of heaven will give ussuccess.
So they all were thinking aboutlook, they're not gonna let this
happen.
We're gonna have people that'sgonna try to stop us.
But he gives them the why here.
(17:13):
He gives them the why.
And that's the compelling partof a vision for a project is the
why.
The why needs to be compelling.
He sold the why.
And then he he let families ownpart and uh certain parts,
certain sections.
He let families own that,basically.
(17:35):
You know, uh Habakkuk 2 and 2says, and the Lord answered me,
write the vision, make it plainon tablets so he may run who
reads it.
So again, it's a compellingvision, something that they can
see.
It needs to be a writtenstatement, okay?
And uh so then you can begin toform your core team.
(17:56):
You can begin to communicate.
Um, you know, his his speech,Nehemiah's speech, really
rallied people.
It boosted morale.
It was like a like a kickoffmeeting, uh, you know, almost
for a project.
So, you know, you have to dothat.
You you, you know, and maybe youwant to host like a kickoff, um,
(18:16):
you know, and then you can beginto assign the roles that people
need.
Uh, I think that that's reallyincredibly important.
And and let me share you sharesome things about teams.
Uh, just a few things that Iwant to share with you about
teams.
Um one is investing in teamscompounds over time.
(18:37):
So when you invest in a team, itit has a compounding effect.
Uh also, interaction fuelsaction.
So now, what I'm talking abouthere, I'm talking about
communication.
When you're doing a project andyou're in the middle of a
project, it is so incrediblyimportant that you talk, that
you communicate with your teammembers and let them know what's
(18:58):
going on.
And that's going to fuel action.
And remember this (19:01):
all players have a place where they add the
most value.
So you need to determine wherewill that team member will add
the most value and then put themthere.
So that's important.
And then realize this aboutteams.
As the challenge escalates, theneed for teamwork elevates.
So, in other words, the morechallenging it is, the more
(19:24):
important it is for teamwork.
And teamwork needs to go toanother level.
Uh, next, the team fails toreach its potential when it
fails to pay the price.
So if you've got team membersthat aren't willing to pay the
price, then you've got the wrongteam member on the team.
Because you'll fail when theybegin to not pay the price.
(19:45):
And then winning teams haveplayers that make things happen.
And that's why they're greatplayers, is because they help
you get things done.
So remember that about teams,you know, when you are trying to
build a team.
So let's look at principlenumber five.
Uh be focused on the executionand then the resource
(20:06):
allocation.
That's what Nehemiah did inchapter three of the book of
Nehemiah.
Uh, so he had teams workingsection by section from the
sheep gate to the dung gate.
He had nobles, he had priests,goldsmiths, uh, all contributing
in a very unique way and whatthey could do with their
(20:26):
strengths.
Nobody was idle, everybody wason it.
And uh so you've got to directthe work in your project.
I would use, I would useschedules.
I would, I would do some kind ofa, use some kind of a resource
that can help you with that, butbut you've got to have schedules
of when this needs to be done bythis point, this needs to be
done by this point.
(20:47):
You know, uh Nehemiah had a verysectional approach, uh, you
know, kind of like a criticalpath method, CPM is what they
call it.
Uh, but uh, you know,prioritizing a lot of the high
impact segments, you know, youwant to do that.
And then you have some modulardelivery uh that you have to
deal with there too.
(21:08):
Uh, but think about it, youknow, he had about 42 teams.
He had 10 gates uh that he hadto replace.
Uh there were zero idle time.
Goldsmiths, priests, merchants,everybody contributed.
So what you want to do is youcan do a Gantt chart.
You know, you could do a Ganttwith a 52, like he would have
(21:28):
done if he'd had a Gantt chartback then.
It'd been a 52-day timeline,assigning the gates and then the
milestones to all the teams.
And a Gantt chart is just aproject management tool named
after its inventor, Henry Gantt.
Uh, and it just uses horizontalbars really to represent a
project schedule.
But you can develop that on aspreadsheet or you can buy one
(21:51):
online inexpensively, and and Ithink it it's just uh again a
spreadsheet.
Uh, but you want to monitorstuff every day.
You want to make sure you're ontrack, you're on target, and
that's why Gantt chart reallyhelps.
But you can do it just a regularcalendar and and blow up a
calendar, put it on a wall, andyou can do it that way too.
And then have some weeklystand-up meetings, you know,
(22:14):
that's where you just kind ofgather everybody around right
before everybody starts for theday and just, you know, ask
questions.
You know, how did we advance?
What did we get done yesterday?
Uh so, you know, you have tolook at that.
And and Nehemiah knew that therewas opposition.
It came early.
Opposition came early.
And so Nehemiah's move was hehad 50% of the people that were
(22:35):
building, and the other 50% ofthe people were stood guard.
And that way it kept a real goodstandard, a real strong pace.
But he also had trumpet signals.
Uh, it talks about that he hadtrumpeters that would give a
certain sound uh to let themknow what was happening uh so
that they could protectthemselves.
(22:56):
And uh so, you know, he he didthat.
He had like an MVP, you know,per gate uh that was in charge
of that.
So, you know, those are thethings that are important when
you're at this uh at thisparticular junction here when
you're talking about executionand allocating all your of your
resources.
And uh and then principle numbersix, you need to make sure that
(23:20):
you look at your risk.
You you need to practice somegood risk management and have
some contingency planning.
You know, like I said, hisopposition came early.
You know, Nehemiah uh 2 and 10says, when Sanbalat the the
Horonite and Tobiah the Ammoniteofficial heard about this, they
were very disturbed that someonehad come to promote the welfare
(23:42):
of the Israelites.
You know, so those two they theymocked him, they threatened him.
But, you know, Nehemiah justprayed, and then he posted
guards and he armed the workers.
At that point, instead of having50-50, he had uh, you know, the
uh it says in Nehemiah, it saidthat that, you know, you with
your one hand you're building,with the other hand, you're
(24:04):
holding a sword.
And uh so we just don't stop, wekeep going.
But everybody's gonna be readyto protect, everybody's gotta be
ready to defend.
And so project management isthat way, is that you have to
look for risks.
You have to look for things thatcould come up that you're not,
that you didn't see coming, andhave some contingency plans for
(24:26):
that.
So you've got to identify whatthose threats are.
Uh, you've got to have someresponses, you've got to try to
mitigate it, transfer it toanother department.
What however you have to do it,but you have to be looking for
risk uh as you do this.
So you need to brainstormsometimes with your team about
what kind of risk there couldbe.
(24:47):
Uh maybe it's competitors comingand taking your customers or um,
you know, whatever it could be,but you want to rate on a scale
of one to ten what thelikelihood is and what the
impact could be.
Uh, and then you want to buildin some redundancies.
You know, you want tocross-train some teams, you want
(25:07):
to budget a little extra for,you know, for the for the risk
management for things that maypop up.
Uh, you may have a supply chaincrisis or whatever.
And then let's look at principlenumber seven, and that's where
you want to maintain morale andwork-life balance.
You know, uh, Nehemiah inchapter five, the workers begin
(25:30):
to complain because of hunger,because of debt.
Um, and Nehemiah confronts it.
You know, they were beingexploited.
And so he commanded that thedebts be forgiven, and he begins
to share meals with them and herestores unity again.
So that's important to maintainmorale and work-life balance
during any project because a lotof times you're working extra,
(25:51):
extra hard.
Uh, so you want to make sure youdo that.
So make sure you auditeverybody's welfare, make sure
that you're taking some surveysfrom time to time and checking
on the workload, checking on thepay, and do what you can to
adjust just like Nehemiah didwhen he relieved the debt.
Uh, and so that's important.
And then uh principle numbereight, as we get ready to finish
(26:15):
up here, principle number eightis the completion, the
completion.
So in Nehemiah chapter six uhthrough seven, first part of
seven, and then even chaptertwelve, twenty-seven through for
forty-three, the walls arefinished in fifty-two days,
despite all the plots, Nehemiahthen dedicates the walls and the
(26:37):
and the gates, he appointsgatekeepers and registers
people, basically secures theirfuture.
And so, you know, when you getto this point, you you want to
look at what lessons did youlearn?
Who are you handing the projectover now that it's completed?
Who gets that?
And then celebrate the win.
(26:58):
Celebrate it.
Have a great time of celebrationof this.
You know, Proverbs 1 5 says, Letthe wise hear and increase in
learning, and the one whounderstands, obtain guidance,
learn from what the projecttaught you and some of the
things that took place.
So you you you plan that out.
Make sure you dedicate theproject, do it in public.
(27:19):
Make sure people see it.
They can all celebrate with you,celebrate your team, and that
this came about and you got thisproject done.
So Nehemiah's project wasn'tjust bricks.
It was his was kingdom work.
I mean, he restored a city, herestored a people, restored a
purpose.
And as Christian leaders, weneed to apply these principles
(27:40):
that we talked about today to besuccessful in some of your
toughest and most challengingprojects, no matter how large or
small they are.
So, Lord, we come before youtoday, Lord, and we just thank
you for sharing with us so manygreat principles on project
management, Lord, through yourword and through the life of
(28:00):
Nehemiah.
Lord, we thank you for that.
Lord, help us to look atprojects that are before us with
your eyes as we look at all ofthese principles.
Lord, help us to be successfulin every uh each and every
project, Lord, that we tackle.
And Lord, we ask this in thename of Jesus.
Amen and amen.
(28:23):
Well, thank you for downloadingand listening to this week's
Christian Business ConceptsPodcast.
You know, we have about 160 uhon the podcast, so you can go
back and look at some otherepisodes that maybe you haven't
heard and that may be veryencouraging to you.
But today I pray that this oneencouraged you.
I pray that it enlightened you,and I pray that it empowered you
(28:45):
to tackle the next project thatyou have with confidence.
Well, that looks like that's allthe time we have for today.
So until next time, rememberJesus is Lord and He wants you
blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (29:05):
Thank you for tuning in to this week's Christian
Business Concepts Podcast.
Go to Christian BusinessConcepts.com for more
information and resources.
Be sure to check on anotherpodcast that will help you take
your business and your personallife to your whole level of
success.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, Harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners and becomingeffective, efficient, and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now here's your host, HaroldMilby.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
Welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business
Concepts Podcast.
I'm your host, Harold Milby, andeach week we explore very
important management andbusiness techniques and biblical
principles that will help usfind true godly success.
And uh and that's in everythingthat we do.
I believe that it'll affectevery area of your life, just
(00:38):
not business, uh, or not justbusiness.
So I believe that God wants notjust Christian-owned businesses,
but He wants Christian-runbusinesses in our world today.
As uh Christian business ownersand Christian business leaders,
we have really uniqueopportunities in having really
great impacts on those who uhwork with us, who we manage, or
(01:04):
that we're around.
We have an opportunity to reallyimpact the kingdom in a positive
way as a Christian-run business.
So whether you're an owner or amanager or a leader, uh, you're
going to be able to apply theseprinciples found in God's word
that help your business, helpyour department or your
organization, and help to impactuh that business and
(01:27):
organization as well as thepeople for God's glory.
So that's that's the importantpart, you know.
And now each week I do ask thatthat our listeners uh share uh
this podcast with other people,four or five other people that
you think it would help, and uhpost the link to this podcast on
your uh LinkedIn and Facebookpages.
(01:50):
That would be a tremendous helpto us here at CBC as we try to
get the word out.
And uh many of you do that everyweek to help us grow CBC, and we
couldn't be doing that withoutyou.
So I really appreciate yourefforts and and I ask uh all of
you uh, you know, to try to helpus uh in those efforts.
Thank you so much.
(02:11):
Now, this week I want to reachout and give a big shout out to
Perth and uh in WesternAustralia for having so many
downloads the last few weeks.
I hope this podcast is ablessing to you and to all of
you who listen on a regularweekly basis.
Thank you for letting CBC be apart of your growth plan for
(02:33):
your life.
If you don't have a growth plan,then you need to develop one.
But if you have and you includeus, we're we're so humbled by
that.
Thank you so much for having usbe a part of that.
Now, uh today, this week, I Iwant to talk a little bit about
project management.
Now we're I I don't want to gettoo much in the weeds here, but
(02:54):
but some of it is important.
And I want to talk to you uh anduse the example of Nehemiah in
the book of Nehemiah, which iswhich you know is in the Old
Testament, but it it's a greatexample and a very timeless case
study uh in project management.
You know, Nehemiah, he was acupbearer to the Persian king at
(03:18):
that time.
And uh so you know it was justthis time that God took this
this cupbearer, Nehemiah, and hetransformed this broken or
heartbroken exile really intothis visionary leader who
rebuilt Jerusalem walls and andput up the gates, and he did it
(03:41):
in just 52 days, which back thenwould have been a feat uh to
accomplish.
And I want to share with youeight key project management
principles from Nehemiah'sstory, primarily from Nehemiah
chapters one through six.
And uh, you know, we're gonnamap them to the to the modern
(04:02):
frameworks like um um a PMBOK,which is Project Management Body
of Knowledge.
If if you don't know about that,that's the big organization or a
big uh uh a big product for uhwhat most project management or
companies that have projectmanagement teams, it's kind of
(04:23):
what they go by, this productmanagement body of knowledge.
And um, each principle thatwe're gonna talk about today is
gonna have a biblical foundationand uh and it's gonna be a
project management applicationand then some business
leadership insights.
So we're gonna do that today.
Uh so what are, you know, whatare some of the things that we
(04:45):
want to accomplish?
Well, we want to help you to andequip you uh to be leaders, to
lead some really nice big, largeprojects, even little projects,
it doesn't matter.
But we want to give you thesebiblical, these biblical
principles and wisdom.
And we want to help developteams that glorify God through
these disciplined execution uhprinciples.
(05:06):
And uh we want to inspireresilience in the in in your
workplace uh as you're dealingwith your quote-unquote walls,
like Nehemiah did.
Uh maybe it's market shifts orteam conflicts, whatever it may
be.
So that's kind of our goal heretoday.
That's what we want to do.
So let's talk about the firstprinciple.
Well, the first principle isassessment.
(05:29):
Assessment.
And Nehemiah, when you look andread into Nehemiah, and because
of our time, we're not going tobe able to go through all the
scriptures.
I'm going to let you do that.
But in Nehemiah chapter 1,verses 1 through 11, Nehemiah
hears about Jerusalem's brokenwalls.
Now he's in exile there.
You know, he's from he's fromJerusalem.
(05:52):
And uh these these broken walls,they're just a symbol of
vulnerability and disgrace.
So instead of rushing intoaction, he just begins to weep,
he begins to fast, he begins topray, and he does this for about
four months.
He begins confessing sin, hebegins seeking God's favor.
(06:13):
Uh he begins envisioning uh thisrestoration.
So he he assesses the problemvery deeply before he even
approaches the king.
Um and so we we need tounderstand that in the PMBOC,
uh, it talks about theinitiation phase, and that's
(06:34):
what this is.
Um, you know, and that guide,that PMBOK guide, it's it's it's
a foundational resource uh fromthe project management institute
that outlines the principles,practices, and standards for
effective project manager.
I just want you to know whatthat is.
Um you know, and that includesconducting stakeholder analysis
(06:58):
and creating, you know, ahigh-level plan.
And Nehemiah's prayer is like aSWAT analysis.
You know, during that time, he'she's trying to figure out the
strengths, the weaknesses, theopportunities, and the threats.
That's a SWAT analysis.
And uh he was trying to identifythe root causes, you know, what
(07:19):
happened uh at in the aftermathuh when the city was taken.
And he tries to align that withGod's divine promises to restore
Israel.
Uh, you know, and so he he firsthe makes this assessment.
He makes this assessment.
He doesn't jump right into it.
And a lot of times we make thebiggest mistakes in a project or
(07:42):
trying to develop something,whatever it may be, we'll call
it project management.
But a lot of times we make thatmistake as we see what needs to
be done and we immediately wantto jump right into it.
And I can tell you, the timesthat I have jumped into
something too fast is where wehad the biggest mistakes, where
we made our our had our biggestfailures.
We didn't take the time toreally do a really good
(08:05):
assessment.
So when we when we look at atsome of these uh some of these
things that we're talking abouttoday, we we look at about some
of the uh uh time, you know, youwant to spend about 5% of the
time making an assessment uh ofwhat the issue is.
You want to define it, you wantto know what it is, and then you
(08:26):
want to spend about 25%planning.
You know, you want to build thatroadmap.
And then you want to spend about50% actually executing, in other
words, doing the work.
And then you want to spend about15% of your time monitoring and
controlling, just make sure youstay on track.
(08:46):
And then you want to spend 5% onthe back end.
Uh we'll call that the closing,finalization.
You spend about 5% there, andwhat you want to do is you want
to learn.
Uh, you want to grow and youwant to learn.
So that kind of gives you abreakdown of what you want to
do.
But uh, you know, he Nehemiahconducted an audit.
(09:08):
That's what he did.
He gathered data uh on thebroken walls.
Um, and and maybe in your case,you're you're looking at
outdated processes or outdatedequipment or low morale.
Uh so you know, you may want touse tools like some kind of
survey or a Gantt chart.
You can use a Gantt chart.
(09:29):
Gantt charts are great.
Uh so you can use a Gantt chart.
Uh, you want to then uh you gotto build your team.
You gotta build your team, andwe'll we'll talk about that here
in just a second.
Um and then and then what youwant to do is you want to craft
a really good one-page projectstatement.
Uh you want to have the date bywhich you want it to be done.
(09:53):
You you want to have the peopleinvolved.
Um, you know, in Nehemiahchapter two, verse 17, Nehemiah,
he started with his vision andhe told the people, he said, Let
us rebuild the wall of Jerusalemso no longer will we be in
disgrace.
So he he he started with thisvision.
Um you know, so I think that'swhat you have to look at.
(10:16):
Now that's that's that'sprinciple number one.
Uh number two, you want to youwant to begin to then secure
some buy-in uh from decisionmakers.
Okay.
Uh again, Nehemiah chapter two,verses one through eight, he
approached the king withconfidence.
Remember, he'd been praying andfasting for four months, asking
(10:38):
for God's favor.
And so he goes to the king.
The king notices, he said,Nehemiah, why why why do you
look so depressed anddiscouraged?
You know, so Nehemiah took thatopportunity to share this
information with the king.
And uh he did it withconfidence.
And he he actually requestedletters of credit uh from the
(11:01):
king.
He he requested letters to gettimber.
He requested letters to makesure he had safe passage.
And uh so he was able to getthat all because of the four
months that he had spent infasting and prayer and uh uh uh
you know preparing himself uhbefore he could prepare other
(11:22):
people.
And that's the one thing I dounderstand is you have to
prepare yourself.
You can't give out until you putin uh into your own life.
So, you know, he began to planthose resources.
Um, you know, he got thosestakeholders involved, he
identified who the influencerswere, um, he began to manage the
(11:46):
expectations.
Uh Nehemiah used emotionalintelligent intelligence really
to kind of read the king's mood.
Um, you know, so I think I thinkthat's important.
And remember that buy-in, buy-inis a subscription, not a
transaction.
You've got to get people to wantto go along because buy-in
(12:07):
starts where egos ends.
Because you it's not about yourego.
Uh, you know, it doesn't startwith your ego.
The ego's got to be left at thedoorstep.
You know, buy-in isn't sold,it's caught.
So you have to have this vision.
If you're gonna get people tobuy in, you've got to have this
vision.
(12:28):
So the first thing that you haveto do is you've got to list the
executives, investors, mayberegulators, employees,
management people, whoever theymay be, uh to check out in your
mind to know what kind ofinfluence and power they have.
And then you've got to prepare apitch.
And this is like a five-minutepitch that talks about the
(12:50):
return on investment, what therisk may be, uh, those types of
things, right?
And then you've got to requestspecifics uh bodily.
You know, what are thetimelines?
What are the budgets?
What are the resources?
Like, you know, Nehemiah had atimber quota.
So so make sure that youunderstand that.
And then make sure you follow upfrom time to time.
(13:12):
You leave somebody a note.
Hey, great job on this projectso far.
Really appreciate all your helpof what you're doing.
And and uh so you you want to dothat from time to time.
That that's really important.
So let's go to principle numberthree.
So principle number three uhsays uh this it's about personal
inspection and and realistic uhscoping.
(13:37):
We'll call it scoping, okay?
Um so you know, upon arrival,Nehemiah he rides the walls, the
perimeter of the walls, but hedoes it at night.
He does it silently.
He's assessing the damagewithout alarming other people.
That's important.
(13:57):
I I think you think about thatfor a minute.
He did that at night and he didit on purpose because he didn't
want to alarm everybody.
He just wanted first to assessit himself.
So he he scopes the full extentbefore he begins building a
team.
Because if you don't know whatthe project is going to entail,
(14:19):
you won't have the right teammembers.
You've got to have the rightteam members.
Okay.
So it it really helps him kickthis thing off right.
Uh, and it avoids any kind ofpremature panic that people may
have.
So you need to kind of schedulea, we'll call it a night ride,
like he did, and you walk yourproject's front lines, right?
(14:40):
You kind of look at that projectpersonally, you look at it
quietly.
Maybe it's the factory flooryou're walking, or out in the
warehouse, or maybe a res aremote team Zoom uh meeting to
maybe look for some gaps.
Uh, and then you want todocument.
You want to document everythingthat you see, that you
(15:02):
recognize.
Um, you want to use uh SMARTgoals, you know, specific,
measurable, achievable,relevant, time-bound.
And uh, and and you want to beable to do that.
So he kind of looked at thislike, you know, if we can
rebuild the wall in 52 days, ifwe could do 10% of the wall
every week, uh, you know, he'she's kind of trying to develop
(15:26):
this.
What whatever, whatever this,these numbers are, right?
So it's kind of like thisconstruction firm, you know,
they were facing a lot of delaysuh in in this building that they
were building.
And so the leaders on site, theydid an audit and they uncovered
some supply issues.
They dealt with those issues andthen they accelerated the
(15:46):
completion uh of that buildingnow by 20%.
So now they were behind, butbecause of identifying these
issues, uh they were able toaccelerate the completion by
20%.
So these are the things that youhave to look at that you have to
try to do uh when you do thispersonal inspection, you know,
when you're doing the scoping.
(16:07):
And now the other principle,number four, is you've got to
come past come uh cast acompelling vision so that you
can mobilize the teams.
Uh so you know, Nehemiah chaptertwo, verses 17 through 20, he
says this because he shares thisassessment.
He says, You see the trouble, weand I and Jerusalem, that it
(16:33):
lies in ruins and its gates havebeen burned with fire.
Come, let us rebuild the wall ofJerusalem, and we will no longer
be in disgrace.
So, you know, he he had thisvision.
Here's what the problem is, andlook at the end result.
The end result is that we're nolonger gonna be in disgrace
(16:53):
because the people at that timewere very discouraged, very
depressed.
He goes on to say, uh, he says,come, let us rebuild.
The God of heaven will give ussuccess.
So they all were thinking aboutlook, they're not gonna let this
happen.
We're gonna have people that'sgonna try to stop us.
But he gives them the why here.
(17:13):
He gives them the why.
And that's the compelling partof a vision for a project is the
why.
The why needs to be compelling.
He sold the why.
And then he he let families ownpart and uh certain parts,
certain sections.
He let families own that,basically.
(17:35):
You know, uh Habakkuk 2 and 2says, and the Lord answered me,
write the vision, make it plainon tablets so he may run who
reads it.
So again, it's a compellingvision, something that they can
see.
It needs to be a writtenstatement, okay?
And uh so then you can begin toform your core team.
(17:56):
You can begin to communicate.
Um, you know, his his speech,Nehemiah's speech, really
rallied people.
It boosted morale.
It was like a like a kickoffmeeting, uh, you know, almost
for a project.
So, you know, you have to dothat.
You you, you know, and maybe youwant to host like a kickoff, um,
(18:16):
you know, and then you can beginto assign the roles that people
need.
Uh, I think that that's reallyincredibly important.
And and let me share you sharesome things about teams.
Uh, just a few things that Iwant to share with you about
teams.
Um one is investing in teamscompounds over time.
(18:37):
So when you invest in a team, itit has a compounding effect.
Uh also, interaction fuelsaction.
So now, what I'm talking abouthere, I'm talking about
communication.
When you're doing a project andyou're in the middle of a
project, it is so incrediblyimportant that you talk, that
you communicate with your teammembers and let them know what's
(18:58):
going on.
And that's going to fuel action.
And remember this (19:01):
all players have a place where they add the
most value.
So you need to determine wherewill that team member will add
the most value and then put themthere.
So that's important.
And then realize this aboutteams.
As the challenge escalates, theneed for teamwork elevates.
So, in other words, the morechallenging it is, the more
(19:24):
important it is for teamwork.
And teamwork needs to go toanother level.
Uh, next, the team fails toreach its potential when it
fails to pay the price.
So if you've got team membersthat aren't willing to pay the
price, then you've got the wrongteam member on the team.
Because you'll fail when theybegin to not pay the price.
(19:45):
And then winning teams haveplayers that make things happen.
And that's why they're greatplayers, is because they help
you get things done.
So remember that about teams,you know, when you are trying to
build a team.
So let's look at principlenumber five.
Uh be focused on the executionand then the resource
(20:06):
allocation.
That's what Nehemiah did inchapter three of the book of
Nehemiah.
Uh, so he had teams workingsection by section from the
sheep gate to the dung gate.
He had nobles, he had priests,goldsmiths, uh, all contributing
in a very unique way and whatthey could do with their
(20:26):
strengths.
Nobody was idle, everybody wason it.
And uh so you've got to directthe work in your project.
I would use, I would useschedules.
I would, I would do some kind ofa, use some kind of a resource
that can help you with that, butbut you've got to have schedules
of when this needs to be done bythis point, this needs to be
done by this point.
(20:47):
You know, uh Nehemiah had a verysectional approach, uh, you
know, kind of like a criticalpath method, CPM is what they
call it.
Uh, but uh, you know,prioritizing a lot of the high
impact segments, you know, youwant to do that.
And then you have some modulardelivery uh that you have to
deal with there too.
(21:08):
Uh, but think about it, youknow, he had about 42 teams.
He had 10 gates uh that he hadto replace.
Uh there were zero idle time.
Goldsmiths, priests, merchants,everybody contributed.
So what you want to do is youcan do a Gantt chart.
You know, you could do a Ganttwith a 52, like he would have
(21:28):
done if he'd had a Gantt chartback then.
It'd been a 52-day timeline,assigning the gates and then the
milestones to all the teams.
And a Gantt chart is just aproject management tool named
after its inventor, Henry Gantt.
Uh, and it just uses horizontalbars really to represent a
project schedule.
But you can develop that on aspreadsheet or you can buy one
(21:51):
online inexpensively, and and Ithink it it's just uh again a
spreadsheet.
Uh, but you want to monitorstuff every day.
You want to make sure you're ontrack, you're on target, and
that's why Gantt chart reallyhelps.
But you can do it just a regularcalendar and and blow up a
calendar, put it on a wall, andyou can do it that way too.
And then have some weeklystand-up meetings, you know,
(22:14):
that's where you just kind ofgather everybody around right
before everybody starts for theday and just, you know, ask
questions.
You know, how did we advance?
What did we get done yesterday?
Uh so, you know, you have tolook at that.
And and Nehemiah knew that therewas opposition.
It came early.
Opposition came early.
And so Nehemiah's move was hehad 50% of the people that were
(22:35):
building, and the other 50% ofthe people were stood guard.
And that way it kept a real goodstandard, a real strong pace.
But he also had trumpet signals.
Uh, it talks about that he hadtrumpeters that would give a
certain sound uh to let themknow what was happening uh so
that they could protectthemselves.
(22:56):
And uh so, you know, he he didthat.
He had like an MVP, you know,per gate uh that was in charge
of that.
So, you know, those are thethings that are important when
you're at this uh at thisparticular junction here when
you're talking about executionand allocating all your of your
resources.
And uh and then principle numbersix, you need to make sure that
(23:20):
you look at your risk.
You you need to practice somegood risk management and have
some contingency planning.
You know, like I said, hisopposition came early.
You know, Nehemiah uh 2 and 10says, when Sanbalat the the
Horonite and Tobiah the Ammoniteofficial heard about this, they
were very disturbed that someonehad come to promote the welfare
(23:42):
of the Israelites.
You know, so those two they theymocked him, they threatened him.
But, you know, Nehemiah justprayed, and then he posted
guards and he armed the workers.
At that point, instead of having50-50, he had uh, you know, the
uh it says in Nehemiah, it saidthat that, you know, you with
your one hand you're building,with the other hand, you're
(24:04):
holding a sword.
And uh so we just don't stop, wekeep going.
But everybody's gonna be readyto protect, everybody's gotta be
ready to defend.
And so project management isthat way, is that you have to
look for risks.
You have to look for things thatcould come up that you're not,
that you didn't see coming, andhave some contingency plans for
(24:26):
that.
So you've got to identify whatthose threats are.
Uh, you've got to have someresponses, you've got to try to
mitigate it, transfer it toanother department.
What however you have to do it,but you have to be looking for
risk uh as you do this.
So you need to brainstormsometimes with your team about
what kind of risk there couldbe.
(24:47):
Uh maybe it's competitors comingand taking your customers or um,
you know, whatever it could be,but you want to rate on a scale
of one to ten what thelikelihood is and what the
impact could be.
Uh, and then you want to buildin some redundancies.
You know, you want tocross-train some teams, you want
(25:07):
to budget a little extra for,you know, for the for the risk
management for things that maypop up.
Uh, you may have a supply chaincrisis or whatever.
And then let's look at principlenumber seven, and that's where
you want to maintain morale andwork-life balance.
You know, uh, Nehemiah inchapter five, the workers begin
(25:30):
to complain because of hunger,because of debt.
Um, and Nehemiah confronts it.
You know, they were beingexploited.
And so he commanded that thedebts be forgiven, and he begins
to share meals with them and herestores unity again.
So that's important to maintainmorale and work-life balance
during any project because a lotof times you're working extra,
(25:51):
extra hard.
Uh, so you want to make sure youdo that.
So make sure you auditeverybody's welfare, make sure
that you're taking some surveysfrom time to time and checking
on the workload, checking on thepay, and do what you can to
adjust just like Nehemiah didwhen he relieved the debt.
Uh, and so that's important.
And then uh principle numbereight, as we get ready to finish
(26:15):
up here, principle number eightis the completion, the
completion.
So in Nehemiah chapter six uhthrough seven, first part of
seven, and then even chaptertwelve, twenty-seven through for
forty-three, the walls arefinished in fifty-two days,
despite all the plots, Nehemiahthen dedicates the walls and the
(26:37):
and the gates, he appointsgatekeepers and registers
people, basically secures theirfuture.
And so, you know, when you getto this point, you you want to
look at what lessons did youlearn?
Who are you handing the projectover now that it's completed?
Who gets that?
And then celebrate the win.
(26:58):
Celebrate it.
Have a great time of celebrationof this.
You know, Proverbs 1 5 says, Letthe wise hear and increase in
learning, and the one whounderstands, obtain guidance,
learn from what the projecttaught you and some of the
things that took place.
So you you you plan that out.
Make sure you dedicate theproject, do it in public.
(27:19):
Make sure people see it.
They can all celebrate with you,celebrate your team, and that
this came about and you got thisproject done.
So Nehemiah's project wasn'tjust bricks.
It was his was kingdom work.
I mean, he restored a city, herestored a people, restored a
purpose.
And as Christian leaders, weneed to apply these principles
(27:40):
that we talked about today to besuccessful in some of your
toughest and most challengingprojects, no matter how large or
small they are.
So, Lord, we come before youtoday, Lord, and we just thank
you for sharing with us so manygreat principles on project
management, Lord, through yourword and through the life of
(28:00):
Nehemiah.
Lord, we thank you for that.
Lord, help us to look atprojects that are before us with
your eyes as we look at all ofthese principles.
Lord, help us to be successfulin every uh each and every
project, Lord, that we tackle.
And Lord, we ask this in thename of Jesus.
Amen and amen.
(28:23):
Well, thank you for downloadingand listening to this week's
Christian Business ConceptsPodcast.
You know, we have about 160 uhon the podcast, so you can go
back and look at some otherepisodes that maybe you haven't
heard and that may be veryencouraging to you.
But today I pray that this oneencouraged you.
I pray that it enlightened you,and I pray that it empowered you
(28:45):
to tackle the next project thatyou have with confidence.
Well, that looks like that's allthe time we have for today.
So until next time, rememberJesus is Lord and He wants you
blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (29:05):
Thank you for tuning in to this week's Christian
Business Concepts Podcast.
Go to Christian BusinessConcepts.com for more
information and resources.
Be sure to check on anotherpodcast that will help you take
your business and your personallife to your whole level of
success.
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.