WHAT DOES BREAD HAVE TO DO WITH CONSULTING?
The Parable of the LEAVEN
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the Parable of the Leaven. This is one of the shortest parables recorded.
He also asked, “What else is the Kingdom of God like? It is like the leaven a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”
—Luke 13:20-21
Bread dough rises because yeast produces bubbles of carbon dioxide. Yeast is a living single-celled organism that feeds on sugar and starch and converts it to gas which makes the bread rise. Only a pinch of yeast will eventually find its way to every part of the dough.
Although Jesus is clearly not talking about consulting in this parable, the image bears a striking resemblance. Consultants can act like leaven—getting worked into all the different places or aspects of your organization. It is often the small adjustments or tweaks that we bring that maximize and leverage the existing resources to provide more access to patients or better care. Maybe we provide coaching to your team on how to communicate more effectively or how to make decisions efficiently, maybe we develop your board by promoting best practices, maybe we clearly define workflows or evaluate current processes, maybe we build a custom dashboard that helps you visually understand organizational or financial data so you can analyze it accordingly and make the most informed decisions. We are a small consulting group that acts as leaven to your organization. How do we do that? Through People, Process, and Performance.