Changing the Rules

In business we create guidelines, best practices and more similar types of rhetoric designed to assist people in their roles and responsibilities.

What happens when we are wrong? We define a best practice and someone raises the idea that you are wrong, what do you do? Most normal people would adjust your practice and move along after giving the item some thought.

In this weeks parsha we learn this from the discussion between the daughters of Zelophehad and Moshe and Hashem. The law had been stated that inheritance passed through the male side of the family. In this case there were only daughters after their father died, thus creating an imbalance among the tribes.So in 27:6-11 we see the answer:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:		ו. וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה אֶל משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר:
7. Zelophehad's daughters speak justly. You shall certainly give them a portion of inheritance along with their father's brothers, and you shall transfer their father's inheritance to them.		ז. כֵּן בְּנוֹת צְלָפְחָד דֹּבְרֹת נָתֹן תִּתֵּן לָהֶם אֲחֻזַּת נַחֲלָה בְּתוֹךְ אֲחֵי אֲבִיהֶם וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ אֶת נַחֲלַת אֲבִיהֶן לָהֶן:
8. Speak to the children of Israel saying: If a man dies and has no son, you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.		ח. וְאֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל תְּדַבֵּר לֵאמֹר אִישׁ כִּי יָמוּת וּבֵן אֵין לוֹ וְהַעֲבַרְתֶּם אֶת נַחֲלָתוֹ לְבִתּוֹ:
9. If he has no daughter, you shall give over his inheritance to his brothers.		ט. וְאִם אֵין לוֹ בַּת וּנְתַתֶּם אֶת נַחֲלָתוֹ לְאֶחָיו:
10. If he has no brothers, you shall give over his inheritance to his father's brothers.		י. וְאִם אֵין לוֹ אַחִים וּנְתַתֶּם אֶת נַחֲלָתוֹ לַאֲחֵי אָבִיו:
11. If his father has no brothers, you shall give over his inheritance to the kinsman closest to him in his family, who shall inherit it. This shall remain a decreed statute, as the Lord commanded Moses.		יא. וְאִם אֵין אַחִים לְאָבִיו וּנְתַתֶּם אֶת נַחֲלָתוֹ לִשְׁאֵרוֹ הַקָּרֹב אֵלָיו מִמִּשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ וְיָרַשׁ אֹתָהּ וְהָיְתָה לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְחֻקַּת מִשְׁפָּט כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהֹוָה אֶת משֶׁה:

Stand up and believe in what is important to you and when rules or laws are defined that exclude someone or something, try to find a way to make it inclusive.

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Parsha Pichas in the book of Bamidbar, Numbers 25:10-30:1
It is said that the Torah or Bible could be interpreted in over 70 ways. More likely these days 100's of ways. In light of this idea, I am writing some posts that bring a business sense to what we can learn on a weekly basis. Enjoy, Shabbat Shalom

Succession Planning

Never easy to follow in the footsteps of someone who looms so large they are almost mythical. Look at Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Jack Welch, various heads of state among others.

The person who follows them has to find their own path, sometimes they do, sometimes they do not. In some cases the executive or the entity has prepared others to step in, which is why in the US we have a Vice President and they have had to fill in under difficult circumstances usually. But we live in hope that they can keep it together.

And so it was in the desert for Moshe who after being told how and where he will die, then asked for a replacement. Interesting that moshe asked, did he really care about Israel that much? In 27:15-17:

15. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying:
16. "Let the Lord, the God of spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,
17. who will go forth before them and come before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
18. The Lord said to Moses, "Take for yourself Joshua the son of Nun, a man of spirit, and you shall lay your hand upon him."

A man of spirit. Indeed, taking someone that is infused with the Ruach as the Hebrew says which is a word that can be explained as the spirit of God or a very vibrant person.  Moshe knew that leading the not so small (in this Parsha it says they had over 600,000 people) nation into Israel would take someone strong willed and backed by Hashem.

Your average company does not need a God fearing person leading them, although some may argue it helps, but rather someone with the convictions and beliefs in themselves and the company in question to lead them into the next stages of their (business) life. Unfortunately it is not very common or easy, according to this CareerBuilder survey as referenced here:

Nearly one-third (31 percent) of companies with more than 1,000 employees say they don’t currently have a succession planning program at their organization, according to a new CareerBuilder survey. In addition, 50 percent of senior management (e.g., CEO, CFO, senior VP, etc.) and 52 percent of those in a vice president position say they do not have a successor for their current role. The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder from February 21 through March 10, 2011, among more than 1,000 employers with 1,001 or more employees.

So take the time to think about who will run your business after you, you never know what tomorrow brings.
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Parsha Pichas in the book of Bamidbar, Numbers 25:10-30:1
It is said that the Torah or Bible could be interpreted in over 70 ways. More likely these days 100's of ways. In light of this idea, I am writing some posts that bring a business sense to what we can learn on a weekly basis. Enjoy, Shabbat Shalom