Tag Archive for: member care

A Gap in the BAM Ecosystem: BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being

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BAM Global initiates working consultations under its BAM Global Think Tank initiative where there are identified gaps in the BAM ecosystem. BAM Global Consultations open up an unprecedented opportunity for discussion, collaboration and networking as a group works through a process of connecting, listening, learning, sharing and recommending. The results are captured in a published BAM Global Report and outworked in new projects and communities of practice. These enable the next generation involved in business as mission to go further, faster.  We are excited to announce the launch of a new BAM Global Consultation.

by Jo Plummer

Business is a powerful strategy in the mission of the global Church today. Those engaging in business as mission (BAM) have a unique opportunity to bring the whole gospel to the whole world with for-profit solutions to pressing global issues. Yet these BAM practitioners also face the unique pressures of integrating holistic missional impact with for-profit business. These pressures can take a toll on the spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational health of the BAM practitioner and that of their family and team. Ultimately these attritional effects can endanger the long-term viability and fruitfulness of BAM companies, especially where there is a lack of support and care for the people involved. 

Mature businesses may have access to human resource departments, staff training, chaplains or coaches. Mission agencies often have ‘member care’ provision for their workers. However, often BAM practitioners are at a unique intersection of business and mission with little to no support or resource provision for their personal and inter-relational well-being. There is a corresponding lack of research on the felt-needs of BAMers in this area, nor work seeking to identify and redress resource gaps. The new Consultation on BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being will address these concerns.

Consultation Introduction

Jo and Mike introduce the new Consultation at the BAM Global Connect event in November:

Vision and Purpose

Our vision is for thriving BAM practitioners, with healthy spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational lives, able to effectively lead businesses that are transforming people and nations––for God’s glory!

The purpose of the Consultation is to strengthen the BAM ecosystem to be able support BAM practitioners in the areas of life care and well-being—through greater access to training, coaching, counseling, support structures, and resources—in order to increase the fruitfulness and longevity of business as mission companies. 

Specific Objectives

  1. Identify critical life and career needs of BAM practitioners (through surveys and interviews)
  2. Share case studies and stories that highlight current needs, solutions and approaches
  3. Explore the current landscape (map the ecosystem) and identify current best practices and resource gaps.
  4. Make recommendations about what training, coaching, counseling, support structures, and resources are most effective and how best to intentionally close gaps and provide resources/training going forward.
  5. Strengthen relationships among interested individuals and organizations for this area of work in order to further catalyze partnerships, collaborative projects and action in response to the recommendations made.

Outcomes we anticipate from this work include:

  • A growing community of practice around this area of interest
  • A recommended resource list for BAMers and organizations to utilize
  • A BAM Global Report on BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being to serve as a guide for the BAM movement on this topic
  • New providers that respond to identified gaps with training, resources and solutions

Our Ask – How you can help:

 

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 Jo Plummer is the Creative Director & Co-Founder of BAM Global and the co-editor of the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission. She has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and currently serves as Editor of the Business as Mission website and The BAM Review Blog. 

 

 

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Thriving vs Surviving: Building Skills and Support for BAMers

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by Robert Andrews

Editors Note: When we asked veteran BAM leaders to identify some of the pressing issues that are facing the business as mission movement in the next decade, among the issues they identified were several areas that could broadly be categorized as ‘resource gaps for BAM companies’, including:

1. Adequate financial capital flow.

2. Adequate human capital flow – both in terms of a) recruiting the right kind of people to begin and sustain a BAM company, and b) succession planning and the successful transition of a BAM company from one generation of owners to another.

3. Adequate support for BAM practitioners, especially mentoring, accountability and care.

We have been posting articles covering each of these issues during the month of June, this week concluding with providing adequate support for BAMers.

Building Adequate Skills and Support for BAM Practitioners

There are many challenges facing the BAM community and it’s encouraging to see so much effort going to understanding and addressing these. One of the thornier issues is how best to support BAM practitioners in their work. These can be nationals trying to build the Kingdom in their home countries or foreigners who have committed to business in a cross-cultural setting. Both need support, but what support to give and how to give it is a current and urgent discussion.

Leading a BAM business requires a large set of skills, some of which one hopes the BAM practitioner has at the outset, but many of which will have to be learned, hired, purchased, or borrowed from others. A beginning list of these skills could fall under the following headings:

  • General business:  finance, marketing, sales, HR, strategy, operations, business law; the stuff of an MBA
  • Industry specific:  how to make the product or deliver the service, the industry sales and pricing dynamics, and familiarity with the global market leaders
  • BAM general:  the theology of BAM and an understanding of how to make a spiritual impact while operating a business, plus access to a BAM network
  • Country/Region specific:  language, culture, worldview, local religion, local political, social or environmental issues, local business practices and law; plus the local spiritual dynamics, the status abd challenges of the local church, and an awareness of what God is doing in the region
  • Personal/Family: emotional intelligence, strong personal spiritual life, character, care for family members, marital strength, physical health and habits

Read more

Identifying and Maximizing BAM Success Factors Part 2

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By Paul Harrington

In this new series on ‘BAM Success Factors’ we invite guest authors to share what they consider the key factors contributing to success and growth for BAM practitioners. To open up the series, Paul Harrington gives us an overview of the most important BAM success factors he has identified through research. Read Part 1 here.

BAM Success Factors Part 2: Interpersonal and Relational Considerations

In the first part of the two-part series on the factors that determine success for BAM practitioners, we looked at the professional and technical characteristics that research shows help determine the likelihood that a BAM practitioner will meet the goals which were established for the enterprise. Many of the factors that indicate future professional success for BAM practitioners are similar to those for small business owners and include:

  • Training and/or experience in operating small or medium-sized businesses,
  • Technical and professional capabilities
  • Cross-cultural norms and skills in the context where the BAM enterprise will operate,
  • Spiritual skills both in and outside of the cultural context of the BAM enterprise, and,
  • Mentoring, support resources and capital.

There are a separate set of interpersonal/relational factors which also affect the likelihood of success for BAM practitioners. Most of these factors are shared with expatriate workers as well as missionaries and other non-profit or religious workers. Multinational companies generally spend much more on sending and supporting their workers than religious or non-profit organizations, although many of the same risk and success factors have been identified with both groups of organizations.  Read more