“The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

There are five types of adopters to new ideas, programs, processes or technology.  We’ve looked at Innovators Fast Followers, and Pragmatists. Today, we will explore Conservatives.

When we read the word, “Conservative”, we here in the U.S. immediately think of political thinking and philosophy.  This is not the definition or connotation of the word conservative that we are looking at here.  A conservative can be very beneficial to a team or an organization.  These are the people who can uphold, probably more than others, the mission, vision, values and principles that have been agreed upon.  While they may be harder to introduce the new or different, once they have signed-on they can be counted on to stick with the decision and to follow up with execution through success.  Again, it is important that we find balance within our organizations and when we are selling or influencing that when we are working with those who are more conservative that we tailor our approach to meet their needs.

There must be a conservative part in all of us if we are to be full followers of Jesus. His way is not the broad path of our world. He calls on us to sacrifice and not allow those things that separate us from Him to influence us.  So, if we are to follow Him and bring glory to Him in our work and lives, we must be conservative in how we approach how we live our lives.  This doesn’t mean we are to be hermits or withdraw from others, but it does mean that we can’t be the person that maybe our world and culture would like us to be.

Reference:  Luke 10:27 (New Living Translation)