TALK BY ELDER CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN GIVEN AT A FIRESIDE ON 25 JULY

by Charlie Chan  

Elder Clayton Christensen is an Area Authority Seventy and a Professor at the Harvard Business School. He addressed 250 church members and friends at a fireside in Singapore on 25 July 2004. The subject of his talk was ‘ Balancing Work and Family in a Competitive Society’. His talk touched many hearts as seen by the many people who besieged him after his talk with personal questions as well as offering well wishes.

Many friends of church members were seen talking to missionaries who were doing a great job as ushers and arranging appointments for discussions.

Following is a transcript of Elder Christensen’s talk:

Elder Clayton Christensen, who is a Professor at Harvard Business School, began by saying that most management of enterprises has set visions for their companies to achieve. Usually their strategies for achieving their visions require investments that may not pay off until the longer term.  But often, the criteria that these managers use when making investments causes them to invest their resources in products and services that can provide the fastest payback. These seemingly rational investment decisions often caused their companies to fail. The reasons were that the criteria that management uses to guide their day-to-day and year-to-year investments are inconsistent with their vision for what they want their company to become.

Elder Christensen said that in a few weeks he would be attending the 25th reunion of his Harvard Business School class of 1979. Over the years, while attending similar reunions, he found that more and more of his classmates had encountered problems in their families including divorces. Although all his classmates had visions of successful and happy families,  the criteria by which they used to adopt their strategies to achieve their visions invariably were not consistent with reaching their goals.

Because they were so achievement focused, his classmates had a tendency to invest every available spare moment in their careers. The evidences of success in their investments in careers were more immediate and recognizable than investing in their own families.

Elder Christensen said the same principle could be applied to the way we serve in our callings. Evidences of success in our callings are usually quicker than successes in nurturing our children and families. The successes of the investments in our children are usually not seen for 15 to 20 years.

Elder Christensen recounted his experience working with the Boston Consulting Group. He had discussed with his boss his reservations about working beyond the normal working hours, as he wanted to go home to be with his family. His boss told him that a year earlier a member of the church had also make a similar request. This person had agreed to terms of employment whereby he worked fewer hours than normal at a proportionately reduced pay. A year later, because of his need for achievement, this member had begun to work long hours like his colleagues. Thus his boss told him that the battle was not between the company and him but was within himself.

Elder Christensen said that he stood firm on his principle of not working on Saturdays and Sundays, because if he was to implement his personal strategy of raising a strong family and serving God, he needed to reserve priority time to invest in those things. On one occasion, his colleagues had called for an urgent meeting on Sunday to prepare for an important presentation to a potential client the next day. When he told them that he could not work on Sunday his colleagues were upset, as the potential client was very important to the company. His colleagues asked if he could not make an exception to an extenuating circumstance. Elder Christensen said that life is a series of extenuating circumstances and if he made an exception for one extenuating circumstance, he will be making exceptions all his life.

Initially this did not endear himself to many of his colleagues. However, by working very hard in his job and contributing to his company, he was able to gain their acceptance as somebody who left the office at 5.30pm and did not work on weekends.

Elder Christensen recounted his experience as a graduate student at Oxford University where he studied for two years. He was determined to compress a three-year course in economics into two years. While at Oxford, he attended church faithfully. Soon, he was extended a call to serve as the Young Men President. At first, he was hesitant but finally he accepted when the Bishop told him that they were desperate. There were 48 Young Men on the ward’s records but only one was active. He made it a point to study till 6pm every day and after a short break, he would go around the ward in the vicinity of Oxford to meet all the Young Men. Soon he had 8 Young Men attending church meetings regularly. The priesthood meetings were held on a staircase landing on the upper floor of a pub and the boys sat on kegs of beer. They had a wonderful spirit and eventually all the young men served missions.

In time he realized that he was very far behind in his studies. His professor told him that unless he studied 18 hours a day, he would not be able to pass his examinations. However he had made a commitment to the Lord to serve his calling faithfully. He continued to study till 6pm every day and did his calling in the evenings. He prayed to the Lord for help in his studies. He told the Lord that he had done all he could and now he needed the Lord’s help to get through his examinations. Soon he discovered that he could focus his preparations for his examinations by studying his professor’s past year’s examination questions. The spirit helped him to ‘spot’ certain questions and he wrote and studied the answers for these questions as part of his preparations. On the day of the examinations, he found that the questions were those that he had ‘spotted’ and he had no problem answering the questions and passing his examinations.

His next challenge was his involvement in the Oxford’s basketball team. Because of his height advantage (2.07m), he was able to win a place in the university’s basketball team as a starting center. It was a terrific team with a great spirit. The team progressed through the local tournaments to the nationals. Eventually the team made it into the Finals. However the final was to be held on Sunday and posed a dilemma for him as he had committed long ago not to play basketball on Sundays. He talked to his coach who was aghast that his starting center was not going to play in the finals. To make matters worse, the back up center was injured in the semi-final match and could not play in the finals. His coach and his team-mates made strenuous efforts to persuade him to make an exception and to play in the final match. They seemed to have a compelling case for making an exception as it was the final game of the season and it was apparently very difficult for future Oxford teams to repeat this feat. Elder Christensen told them he had to pray about it. He went home with the intention to pray for an answer. But before he could start to pray he knew that he could not play in that final basketball match. He could not make an exception and cross the line and break the commandment, otherwise it would be very easy for him to make other exceptions in future.

Elder Christensen said that he was raised in the church. He had strived to obey the commandments and live the gospel as best as he could. However he felt that he needed a personal testimony of the Book of Mormon. He decided to read the Book of Mormon every night from 11pm to 12 mid-night in his poorly heated room. He knelt and prayed before he read and after reading one page he stopped, thought about what he had read, and then knelt and prayed again for testimony of the truth of what he had read. He prayed with real intent, meaning that he committed to God that if God revealed to him that it was true, he intended to devote his life to sharing this gospel with others.  He would do the same for every page. He continued this routine for many days. One night, as he was thus praying, he felt the spirit very strongly and he could see beyond the words that were printed on the pages of the book and beheld visions of eternity. He experienced a wonderful feeling in his heart, receiving a sure confirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. So exquisite was the feeling that he wept.  Every night as he continued to follow this process, that spirit returned; and it changed his heart.

Back in Boston while doing graduate study in Harvard, Elder Christensen had married and started a family. He strived very hard to teach his children the gospel. He held family home evenings regularly although most of them were disasters. He said that children would learn when they were ready to learn and not when the parents were ready to teach them. He discovered that the best teaching moments were when they were in bed getting ready to sleep. He would use these moments to share his testimony, tell his children stories about his mission and about the prophets and faithful servants of the Lord from the scriptures. Although investing in nurturing children took a long time to bear fruit, nevertheless the joy and comfort in seeing them grow up faithful in the gospel were worth many times the labors and sacrifices.

Elder Christensen shared an experience involving his son, Matthew. Matthew was a very good basketball player in high school. He was recruited by many colleges. He finally decided to go to Duke University. However, he told his coach that he would put his basketball on hold for two years so he could serve a mission. Many people did not know why Matthew would risk a bright basketball career by going on a mission. In an interview with one of Boston’s newspaper, Matthew said that he had no qualms about putting his college basketball career on hold to serve a mission because when he was young his father had often talked to him at bedtime about his own missionary experiences.

While striving to balance work and family, Elder Christensen said it was important to teach our children and testify to them the truth of the gospel. However, as we serve in our callings we need not neglect our children – if we find ways for our children to join with us in serving God. He said the yoke of the Lord should be put on the shoulders of father and children; the children will come to know that the Savior’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light. (Matt 11 : 28-30). Thus he tried to serve together with his children and involved his children in service projects such as fixing meals for those who are sick and helping ward members to move in or out of the ward.

In conclusion, Elder Christensen said we must develop faith in our Lord and believe that He will help to accomplish the things that we are asked to do. If we are worthy, we will succeed even if we put certain constraints around our careers in order to serve God and our family. The Lord will prepare a way for us. (Alma 32 : 31)

Elder Christensen bore his testimony as a special witness of Jesus Christ. Christ loves us and is our Savior. His hands are always outstretched to us and to all those who seek Him. Elder Christensen encouraged the saints to lead those who are seeking the truth, to our Savior.