“Sustaining and Maintaining Irresistible Environments”

(S1+S2)(C1+C2)(W+D)= (ML/1)(ME/1) or (ROI)

This formula may not mean much from a quick view, but plugging in meaning to the letters will ultimately reveal the meaning behind the formula. S1 is Safety. S2 is Security. C1 is Cleanliness. C2 is Comfort. W is for Wishes, and D is for Desires. ML stands for Minimal Liability, and ME stands for Maximum Efficiency.

Grouping Safety and Security together with the intent to create a one hundred percent bulletproof system is what separates successful, thriving organizations from non-successful, failing organizations. Whether for-profit or non-for-profit, the organization needs to both feel safe and secure while being safe and secure. This takes a balanced, diverse, group of professionals in vast fields pulling every bit of their knowledge and influence together.

A prison is safe and secure, but is it inviting? No. Hospitals do a great job of making things safe, but is it secure? Not really. When we think of schools in the modern twenty-first century their is a major battle on how communities can keep kids safe while they are entrusted to the public school system. The government of the United States is trying its best to resolve ongoing problems like gun violence, threats of terror, and overall unsafe communities that can surround a school depending on geographical and demographical logistics.

For schools, when it comes down to ultimate safety of kids in commercial spaces the weight of responsibility will be reflected through how the overall facility or campus is managed and maintained. Does the structure and it countless fixtures within function properly, or does every perspective from floor to ceiling reveal a lack of care and maintenance.

Creating, Sustaining, and Maintaining Irresistible environments it not just something that is critical for the modern world to get right for churches, but also for schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and any place where people gather. Certain protocols in place from IBC, IFMA, ADA, NFPA, and others have allowed for safety and security to be common-law across the United States, but what about modern technologies regarding surveillance and tracking? Smartphones and applications designed to track have created a safer world for everyone, but there are also holes that still need to be filled without crossing the threshold of invading privacy. Sadly, this is not what this topic is about. The primary focus is maintaining and sustaining Irresistible environments and achieving a positive return on investment as either a stakeholder, investor, or even employee.

Safety and Security should be every single organization’s number one priority. This is the foundation on which everything else can be built. The second priority is that on cleanliness and comfort. It is known the cleanliness is paired religiously with holiness or purity, but in the secular world cleanliness is paired handsomely with comfort. Being comfortable and selling comfort is what allows people to catapult from lower class poverty to upper class sustaining generational wealth. Those with the gift of innovation and sales intuition who gravitate towards selling comfort seldom find themselves out of work or without pay.

The third tier for maintaining and sustaining Irresistible environments is having the ability to fulfill both wishes and desires of people who step foot into any facility. Creating loyalty in a guest is far beyond just safety and security, or cleanliness and comfort. Obviously, if the first is missed the second and third are irrelevant. Also, if the second is missed the third is irrelevant. The first and second have to be syncopated with waterproof systems and structures so that the third can take root in a healthy soil or foundation where it can thrive and bloom indefinitely.

And so, achieving Minimum Liability for an organization and/or achieving Maximum Efficiency for an organization is how a return on investment is possible. ROI is often referred to as the bottom line in whether an organization is successful or not. Seldom do people share the formula for achieving a successful ROI. A positive ROI can be achieved by either minimizing liability (which is good for companies with desire to cash-out or minimize cashflow) whereas maximizing efficiency tends to maximize cashflow with the intent of growth and longevity.

An organization seeking to merge should focus more on minimizing liability whereas an organization seeking to absorb should focus on maximizing efficiency. Clarity in communication and Transparency from the stakeholders, leaders, or executives is required when forming an approach of how to achieve ROI. Regardless the formula to reaching ML or ME is the same formula. True, healthy success comes from a balance of both minimizing liability and maximizing efficiency. Regardless, the formula to one or both is prioritizing safety and security as two wholes coming together to create one hundred percent effectiveness, or one whole.

Once there is a system in place to maintain and sustain balance between safety and security, then cleanliness and comfort can be added together and then multiplied by safety and security to balance one hundred percent effectiveness (or more) which will act as a magnet to the community surrounding the organization. Once the people are coming in, then there needs to be something fulfilling, or a reason to keep coming back. This is why fulfilling wishes or desires is critical in achieving a positive ROI.

Adding the one hundred percent effectiveness between fulfilling wishes and desires with the wholeness of both safety and security, and cleanliness and comfort will result in an organization with a positive ROI that leans towards either Minimal Liability, Maximum Efficiency, or a blend of both totaling to one hundred percent.

(S1+S2)= 100% or more

(C1+C2)= 100% or more

(W+D)= 100% or more

Collectively, (S1+S2)(C1+C2)(W+D)= Minimal Liability over 1 multiplied by Maximum Efficiency over 1. (ML/1)(ME/1).

With this, (ML/1)(ME/1)= a return on investment. The goal should be for the return to equal at least one hundred percent meaning to break even, or more. As a nonprofit, there is not as much focus on surpassing the wholeness of an ROI, but there is much more pressure to maintain and sustain a perfect balance of at least one hundred percent.

For-Profit organization are more high-risk and high-reward which drives most people to seek the power of the dollar in positive ROI, but when it comes to Not-For-Profit organizations the intent is to achieve economic buoyancy. People tend to choose non-profit status as a reason to avoid taxes, but in truth the non-profit status should be decided upon based on the organization’s mission, focus, and purpose. Are you selling anything tangible? or not. Are you selling someone a service? or not. These are tax questions. The question that should be asked is, “Is your ultimate goal to make money, or to help people?”

If the answer is, “I want to make money, so that I can help people” then for-profit is where you need to be. From that, we can ask, “should the church be for-profit, or not-for-profit”. Honestly, it depends on the model of church. Some churches should probably be for-profit because it would allow smaller community churches to actually thrive in a way that is needed to pull communities out of generational poverty. This is not a one size fits all concept. Churches that experience overflow from for-profit success should maintain not-for-profit status because they are experiencing generosity from those who decided to make money to help people.

Churches that do not have teaching pastors who make millions by becoming best selling authors and well paid public speakers should consider a for-profit status that can allow a stronger stream of income to pass through the community. The church acting as the living room for the community would allow for a centralized economy to be built around the church and through Christian principals and leadership. Ultimately this is just theory, but a fun concept nonetheless.

To digress, if the intent for your facility is to sustain and maintain an Irresistible environment, then the process by which to do that should be in tandem with prioritizing safety and security, cleanliness and comfort, and fulfilling wishes and desires in that order.

I hope you enjoyed and as always, God Bless,

James Arthur Ferguson