#220-1. The future is not a place to which we are going, it is a place we are creating. The paths to the future are not found but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination. -(variously attributed to John Schaar, Martha Cleary and Peter Kenyon) #220-2. Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one. -Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854) #220-3. It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. -Sydney Smith, writer and clergyman (1771-1845) ____ I find the first one to be profoundly true at various levels. The second explains why creativity does not always result in innovation. The third is a mistake we often make. In these days when we are bombarded by tips on strategy from the McKinseys, Harvards and Sloans of the world, while Ram Charan, Hamel, Prahalad and other gurus exhort leaders to focus on action and innovation, the above three should be put up on large posters in any strategy discussion room.
#219-1. Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. -Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (1804-1864) #219-2. All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause—there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once. -Joss Whedon, writer and film director (b. 1964) #219-3. Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry. -Terry Pratchett, novelist (b. 1948) ____ On the surface these quotes are unrelated: on planting and exploring, on action orientation and on stupidly mischievous tendencies. I like to relate seemingly unconnected things. The first quote underscores the importance of change of role, environment or knowledge domain in order to achieve growth. This applies especially to accomplished and experienced folk who tend to stay in a comfort zone. The second exhorts each of us to initiate such change if the organization or circumstances do not provide it in the natural course of events. The third could be seen as a word of caution against doing something for doing’s sake. It can also be a salute to the innate curiosity of humans. Isn’t that what has given us all of philosophy, science, innovation and any kind of progress? I have always been intrigued by the emphasis on roots. Long ago, I used to envy those who had knowledge of and pride in their belonging to well-known categories of communities identified by their own place of birth or that of their parents or grandparents. Or the profession of their ancestors. But I could never cultivate such a tribal instinct—indeed, it diminished from negligible to zero to negative (i.e., anti-tribalistic preferences) as I read more of history and evolutionary biology. This topic deserves a longer article that I ought to write. For now, I am content with being a typical root-less, big-city-bred person who is biased favorably towards fusion, progress, novelty, globalization, modernization, the scientific spirit and even fresh perspectives on ancient universals.
#218-1. Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. -John Kenneth Galbraith #218-2. People like to imagine that because all our mechanical equipment moves so much faster, that we are thinking faster, too. -Christopher Morley #218-3. It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. -Rollo May _____ Thinking deeply or differently does not easily come without effort. We are slaves of "default" patterns, formed at an early age. It seems to suffice for most of us in today's ultra-multitasking lifestyle. Edward de Bono, though famous for propagating lateral thinking, has also done a lot of work in teaching better thinking of all types. K.R. Ravi has written a very readable and useful book called, "Thinking About Thinking" where he has debunked many typical remarks we make, showing the illogical thought processes behind them.
by William C. Taylor (highlights mine) William C. Taylor is the co-founder of Fast Company and the author of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, with Polly LaBarre. October 05, 2006 There is nothing more powerful in business than a truly original idea -- a distinctive point of view that redefines an industry, a breakthrough design that transforms a product category. In an era of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the one sustainable form of market leadership is thought leadership -- generating better ideas and making smarter adjustments than the competition. So where do great ideas come from? The traditional answer is the stuff of entrepreneurial folklore, the creation myth of the creative process. Big ideas come from big thinkers: the eccentric genius, the inspired founder, the visionary CEO. Business history is filled with tales of breakthroughs fueled by unique imagination and individual determination. In this old model of innovation, the leader did the thinking, rank-and-file employees did the executing. If you were in charge, you were the "smartest person in the room." But what happens when rivals become so numerous, when markets become so unpredictable, when technologies move so quickly, that no individual leader, no matter how inspired, can possibly think of everything? Then it becomes necessary to invent a new model of innovation. Today, one of the defining responsibilities of leadership is to attract the best ideas from the most people—to master a world in which "nobody is as smart as everybody." This is, I believe, the most important leadership mind-flip in business today. According to Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, the computer-book publisher, and an evangelist for open-source innovation, creativity is no longer about which companies have the most visionary executives, but who has the most compelling "architecture of participation." That is, which companies make it easy, interesting and rewarding for a wide range of contributors to offer ideas, solve problems and improve products? Ultimately, he argues, the companies that are most likely to dominate their business are the ones most adept at harnessing the collective intelligence of everyone with whom they do business. Leaders who embrace this new mindset ask different questions of themselves than other leaders. Questions such as: Can I exude personal strength, even charisma, along with intellectual humility? Am I the kind of person with whom other smart people want to work and contribute ideas? Can I conduct myself as openly and transparently as the participants in my project? Find the right answers to those questions, and you’re likely find yourself at the center of exciting innovations -- many of them from contributors whom you’ve never met. _____ The crazy, creative person stereotype is being replaced by the incremental innovation by many good thinking people. The fact that small, continuous improvements outweigh occasional, big-bang breakthroughs was strikingly demonstrated by Japanese manufacturing companies. The innovation process requires different kinds of contributors for success: questioners, dreamers, modifiers, adapters, practical converters, action-oriented implementers, business-oriented managers...
Excerpted from "10 Principles for Sustainable Execution" in the Human Services Newsletter: -Comfort should be discomforting. -Mood management is as important as fiscal management. -Unconscious confidence in old habits of business behavior creates performance quicksand. -The riskiest place is to stay where you are. _____ Move out of the comfort zone, it is too risky to continue with the same old habits when there is so much that is changing rapidly all around us. And we know all this intuitively, as pointed out by the bestseller, "Who Moved My Cheese?". Taking responsibility for one's own mood or the mood of one's team is important. "I am not in the mood" and "I am like this only" are more of cop-out strategies than assertion of individuality. #215 |
-William Lloyd George
#215-2. If you hit every time... the target is too near or too big.
-Tom Hirshfield
#215-3. A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.
-Winston Churchill
_____
Simple reminders to think big, be boldly ambitious and to keep working on one's ego and temper. Humility and greatness go together.
| #214: Deepavali Special |
As Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the US, said, Diwali—the festival of lights—symbolises the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. So here’s a bumper edition of i-TFTD on knowledge.
#214-1. Lead us from the unreal (illusion) to the real
Lead us from darkness to light.
-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad c. 800BCE, I.3.28
#214-2. Everyone has the right to... knowledge... the supreme goal is attained by... knowledge alone.
-Adi Shankaracharya (great Indian philosopher and spiritual leader, 788 CE - 820 CE) in Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya 2.2
#214-3. It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
-Epictetus (Greek Stoic philosopher, 55–135CE)
#214-4. The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
-Henri-Louis Bergson (French philosopher, 1859–1941)
#214-5. We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.
-John Naisbitt (author of Megatrends, b. 1929)
#214-6. Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.
-Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese born American philosophical poet, 1883-1931)
#214-7. The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.
-Malcolm Forbes (publisher, 1919–1990)
#214-8. The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.
-Thomas Berger (American novelist, b. 1924)
#214-9. If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
-Isaac Asimov (author, 1920-1992)
#214-10. It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.
-Enrico Fermi (Italian physicist, 1901-1954)
#214-11. A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak.
-Michael Garrett Marino (author?)
____
Through the centuries, the wise have advised the sincere pursuit of knowledge. One has to have a thirst for it, and seek with a mind open to change, with humility and curiosity.
| #213 |
#213-1. Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
-Roger Miller
#213-2. You can do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
-Colette
#213-3. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.
-Anon
_____
These caught my attention when watching a set of very senior people preparing to present something on stage in a corporate event. The progress from extreme inhibition to getting coached by a ‘local’ choreographer to actually performing a rather amateurish dance was fascinating. The end result was that we all had fun.
The message is to let one's hair down occasionally, to stop overanalyzing and worrying, and have fun. Think of any enthusiastic person and you will find someone who people like to have around.
| #212 |
-Robert Fulghum
#212-2. Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
-Elbert Hubbard
#212-3. Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what a reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.
-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
_____
The first and the third could be related. Focusing on our actions is a better bet than worrying about how we are perceived. Similarly, focusing on watering our current pasture is more productive than jumping to various other greener-looking ones. I crave for another role or title or job that looks attractive but meanwhile I miss opportunities to do well in my current one. My neighbour's gadget or car seems to have cool features but regular maintenance of my earlier version might give me better comfort and utility value.
In all these dilemmas of life, a true friend is one who connects with our real self, with whom we feel no pressure to pretend about anything.
| #211: Loosening Steering and Control |
Excerpt from a Mar-Apr 1997 article in HBR titled, “The Living Company” and a book of the same name
If long-term corporate health and survival across generations require a willingness to change the business portfolio, managers must heed the opinions and practices of other people. The organization must give people the space to develop ideas. They must have some freedom from control, from direction, and from punishment for failures. In other words, managers must put the principle of tolerance into practice by taking risks with people and looking in new places in search of fresh ideas. Perhaps the best way to illustrate that notion is through the metaphor of rose gardening.
If you're a gardener, every spring you must decide how you will prune your roses: hard or long. Pruning hard means that you select three of the plant's strongest stems and cut them down to three or four growth buds. That technique forces the plant to channel all its resources into a relatively small number of growth buds. Why would you prune your roses in that way? Because you want the biggest roses in the neighborhood in June.
I don't prune hard. Why? Because it's a high-risk strategy. Where I live, the most terrible things can happen to my roses. I live on a hill, where night frosts in April or even early May are not uncommon. Also, many deer roam freely on the hill, and they love to eat rosebuds. If I prune hard and the nights are frosty and the deer are hungry, I might have no roses in June at all. So I prune long: I leave between five and seven stems on each plant, and on each stem I leave between five and seven growth buds. As a result, the plant is allowed to spread its resources over many growth buds. I have never had the biggest roses in the neighborhood, but I do have roses every June.
And something else happens when you prune long for a number of years: you get surprises. In two or three years, some of the spindlier stems have grown much stronger and have begun producing buds, and some of the old stems do not produce roses anymore. So what do you do? You remove the old stems and encourage the new ones. A tolerant pruning policy gradually renews the rose portfolio.
Synopsis of the above by Tom Peters in his book, “Re-imagine!”
The long-term fate of a rose garden depends on this decision of how to prune our roses. Pruning hard represents a policy of low tolerance and tight control. You force the plan to make the maximum use of its available resources, by putting them in the rose’s ‘core business’. Pruning hard is a dangerous policy in an unpredictable environment. The alternative is pruning long—a policy of high tolerance. Tolerant pruning achieves two ends: (i) It makes it easier to cope with unexpected environmental changes (ii) It leads to a continuous restricting of the plant. The policy of tolerance admittedly wastes resources - the extra buds drain away nutrients from the main stem. But in an unpredictable environment this policy of tolerance makes the rose healthier. Tolerance of internal weakness, ironically, allows the rose to be stronger in the long run.
(Thanks to Anirudha Indurkar for sharing this.)
____
This is yet another management lesson (online here) borrowed from nature.
I would like to apply it in my area of interest: career planning and coaching.
Not only organizations, even as individuals we often have to make such tradeoffs in our career: between specialization and versatility, depth and breadth, vertical and lateral growth. My observation is that we do not always get to choose this as such but it is a useful way to analyze our past and then use it to nudge our career path in a desired direction. Depth and specialization has to be assigned priority in the initial stage in order to establish credibility and achieve significant goals. This opens up more opportunities that we feel better equipped and confident to explore. Breadth and lateral moves make more sense at this point, though meteoric vertical rise is not necessarily bad for everyone. A shift puts us back into the learner mode and we need to focus and the cycle begins again.
Many of us seem to learn these fundamentals of career growth a bit too late. We aspire to become generalists too early, thereby lacking the necessary depth of expertise, or we stay stuck comfortably in our so-called core competency for too long, making ourselves inflexible and uncomfortable when circumstances demand change.
| #210 |
-Stephen Leacock
#210-2. I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
-Gilda Radner
#210-3. And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
_____
We often refuse to see some unpleasant facts that are clear, as brought out in the bestseller book, "Who Moved My Cheese?". Ambiguity in certain areas of life is one such fact. We should try to achieve better clarity but remain aware that there will always be some residual unknowns. Intuition or gut feel or hunch can sometimes be a good guide in such situations.
| #209: Buzan's Bytes on the Brain |
-From the Age of Agriculture, humankind progressed to the Age of Industrialization, then to the Age of Information, then the Age of Knowledge but now, we have moved to the Age of Intelligence. The brain, as the manager of knowledge, needs to be managed now since information and knowledge have become easily accessible commodities. Notice the increasing frequency of magazine cover stories on the Human Brain in the past decade and a half
-While the brain does have specific regions with specialized functions, most of our thinking activities involve both hemispheres of the brain. Effectiveness is increased by synergetic utilization of different parts of the brain
-It is simplistic to characterize Einstein's thinking as left-brained (logical, analytical) and Leonardo da Vinci's as right-brained (visual, spatial imaginative) but these and many other great thinkers demonstrated ample use of both types of thinking. One commonality across Einstein, Newton and da Vinci is regular daydreaming!
-Many people say they are not good at drawing but that is due to a flaw in how we were taught. Everything else we have learnt as children (speaking, writing, arithmetic) involved imitating first and then giving freedom to make mistakes. Somehow when it comes to drawing, there is ridicule at the initial attempts, and copying is not encouraged
-Progress involves classifying and creating specialized branches of knowledge but we should not forget the reality of inter-connectedness.
____
Once, when narrating some anecdote from an early stage of my career, I mentioned that there was no Google or even Internet in those days, and a participant at the training programme wondered aloud, "Without Google, how could you do any work?!" Many of us have witnessed a dramatic tranformation in our work and lifestyle with the advent of the worldwide web but we rarely pause to consider whether it requires us to act differently with respect to our thinking habits.
Leonardo's notebooks were a mixture of textual notes and drawings. Einstein's "thought experiments" involved visualizing strange scenarios combined with reasoning.
Buzan's propounding the use of mind maps in any topic he covers can put off some people but he deserves credit for bringing such simple tools to widespread use.
| #208 |
-Slogan of the 1997 technology awareness and promotion campaign launched by the Estonia Ministry of Foreign Affairs
#208-2. One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.
-William Feather
#208-3. If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.
-Daniel Goleman
_____
With so much talk today of Web 2.0 and social networking, I find it interesting that many Internet gurus predicted this accurately in the mid-90's.
The intent behind the second quote is not the same as the age-old proverb, "Ignorance is bliss." A thinking mind is likely to often experience dissatisfaction with things as they are and aspire for improvement. The progress of civilization is based on this.
The third is a crisp summary of emotional intelligence from the originator of EQ. To understand and apply EQ requires a fair amount of IQ, I believe.
| #207 |
-Plutarch
(Thanks to Mona Cheriyan for sharing this.)
#207-2. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Thanks to Rajeev Shah for sharing this.)
#207-3. A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
-Bruce Lee
(Thanks to Ankur Pandey for sharing this.)
____
True friendship rests more on a general sense of trust than agreeability. Note that trust here does not necessarily mean truth or honesty at all times.
Vivekananda, a person with a different background from Emerson, said the same thing in another context. He recommended leading a life of values and contemplation of the divine amidst the ordinary affairs of living in society as a better alternative to retiring to the mountains—where, of course, we will have no excuse for our mind wandering back to what we ran away from. I also recall Chinmayananda's hilariously explained commentary of Chapter 2 of The Gita, which says the perfect person stays awake where others are asleep and sleeps when others are awake.
Some i-TFTD readers tell me that they feel motivated on reading the good words of great people but somehow are unable to translate it into action in a sustained manner. Bruce Lee's quote above provides a useful perspective on this. We should keep aiming and trying, suddenly we may find the goal nearer. I like to believe that some of the ultimate goals are not even goals but useful goal posts. As a new addict of Nintendo Wii (it's not just a glorified video game), let me add a golf analogy: The flagstick is there to help the ball reach the green, not always to get into the hole.
| #206: Personal Change is Tough |
Marshall Goldsmith is a great teacher who conveys practical tips based on solid experience in a humble manner that belies the fact that he is one of the world's leading executive coaches.
The short article below lists five traps people tend to fall into, when trying to make a personal change in behaviour. Notice how many times Marshall uses the word, "real". It would help to reflect on the example statements listed against each trap and whether we have ever spoken like that. I have highlighted a few statements that are worth savouring. The quoted CEO statement is superb. The Harvard column
I have included my comment on this post. I was glad to receive a good response, which is also pasted below.
Don't Give Up on Change
10:12 AM Friday September 4, 2009
(From Marshall Goldsmith's Ask the Coach column at HarvardBusiness.org at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/goldsmith/2009/09/dont_give_up_on_change.html)
Change takes longer than we think and the process is difficult. Acknowledging these facts can make your attempts more successful. My co-author Dr. Kelly Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, and I researched why people give up on their goals. We discovered that there are five common reasons. Understanding these roadblocks will help you apply some preventive medicine—and increase the odds that you won't fall into the same old traps.
1. Ownership ("I wasn't sure that this would work in the first place. I tried it out—it didn't do that much good. As I guessed, this was kind of a waste of time.")
The classic mistake made in leadership development, coaching, and self-help books is the promise that "This will make you better!" After years of experience in helping real leaders change real behavior in the real world, I have learned a hard lesson. Only you will make you better.
To have a real chance of success, you have to take personal ownership and have the internal belief that "This will work if, and only if, I make it work. I am going to make this work."
2. Time ("I had no idea that this process would take so long. I'm not sure it's worth it.")
Goal setters have a chronic tendency to underestimate the time needed to reach targets. In setting our goals for behavioral change, it's important to be realistic about the time we need to produce positive, lasting results. Habits that have taken years to develop won't go away in a week. Set time expectations that are 50% to 100% longer than you think you will need to see results—then add a little more.
3. Difficulty ("This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It sounded so simple when we were starting out.")
The optimism bias of goal setters applies to difficulty as well as time. Not only does everything take longer than we think it will, but it also requires more hard work than we anticipate.
In setting goals, it's important to accept the fact that real change requires real work. Acknowledging the price for success in the beginning of the change process will help prevent the disappointment that can occur when challenges arise later.
4. Distractions ("I would really like to work toward my goal, but I'm facing some unique challenges right now. It might be better if I just stopped and did this at a time when things weren't so crazy.")
Goal setters have a tendency to underestimate the distractions and competing goals that will invariably appear throughout the year. A piece of advice that I give all of my coaching clients is: "I'm not sure what crisis will appear, but I'm almost positive that some crisis will appear."
Plan for distractions in advance. Assume that crazy is the new normal. You will probably be close to the reality that awaits.
5. Maintenance ("I think that I did actually try to change and get better, but I have let it slide since then. What am I supposed to do—work on this stuff the rest of my life?")
Once a goal setter has put in all of the effort needed to achieve a goal, it can be tough for him to face the reality of what's needed to maintain the new status quo. When one of my high-potential leaders asked his boss, the CEO, "Do I have to watch what I say and do for the rest of my career?" the CEO replied, "You do if you plan on ever becoming a CEO!"
Here are the cold, hard truths. Real change requires real effort. The "quick fix" is seldom a meaningful one. Distractions and things that compete for your attention are going to crop up—frequently. Changing any one type of behavior won't solve all of life's problems. And finally, any meaningful change will probably require a lifetime of effort.
____
Posted by Ganesh Ramakrishnan
September 7, 2009 7:00 AM
Long ago I heard about the four steps involved in any personal change: Awareness, Acceptance, Desire for Change, and Change (Action). The killer is that one can get stuck at any stage for years (or one's entire life)! In some situations when we are receptive, a trigger event can make us progress through the first three stages in a few seconds. A typical example is a remark from a loved one that suddenly focuses our attention on our unthinking reaction, which we instantly regret.
Many of the examples of top executives you have quoted elsewhere (e.g. "I am open to suggestions" while my subordinates don't think so) seem to be stuck in the awareness stage. Feedback and coaching could help with awareness. The next trap is denial. We find it easier to find fault with those who make us aware of something we ought to change.
Things are not necessarily easy after we surmount the acceptance hurdle. Some seem to consider it fashionable to say, "Well, this is who I am. Learn to accept it." Or, "We all have our faults." The simple answer to that is, "Do you care about the consequences?"
After all this, initiating and sustaining a changed behavior requires willpower, humility, and positive belief tempered with realism. Your five points brilliantly capture the traps to beware in this stage.
You caution against optimism bias. But a dose of optimism seems essential to even believe that one could change one's habitual behavior. I guess Balance and Flexibility (with uppercase 'B' and 'F') are universal prescriptions in all these matters.
----
Posted by Marshall Goldsmith
September 7, 2009 9:07 AM
Ganesh - Thank you for these thoughtful comments. I had never thought about it that way, but you are so correct. We can get 'stuck' in any phase for years. I like what you said about optimism. I agree optimism is wonderful - when it is combined with hard work!
| #205 |
-Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986)
#205-2. Memories are interpreted like dreams.
-Leo Longanesi, journalist and editor (1905-1957)
#205-3. The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes a little longer.
-Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)
____
The small but subtle shift in language, taking responsibility, does wonders to our demonstrated sense of ownership. Practise it and you shall experience a positive change in how others react to you.
Memories are not only interpreted, recent research confirms that we actually reconstruct descriptions of past events on-the-fly. The remembering function of our brain is not at all comparable to a computer retrieving data from a storage disk. Key impressions and perceptions, highly influenced by emotions and experience, are stored as snippets and mysteriously manifest as we create stories as part of the recalling process. What does this imply? We should leave a little door or doubt open when we are "100% sure" of what we "clearly remember" when arguing with someone who has a different take of it. If we wish to learn something or teach something to someone, emotion in the form of humour and example stories would help in retention and recall.
Another interesting phenomenon is "the expert misses the obvious" or "you don't see the water if you are a fish". It is a good habit to quickly state or list the top-of-mind ideas to free up our mind to delve deeper for new thoughts. Another useful technique when faced with intractable problems or complex challenges is to periodically examine the fundamentals: what exactly is the problem? why is it a problem? what is the consequence to whom if we do not solve it?
| #204: Don't Send Your Ducks to Eagle School |
by Jim Rohn
The first rule of management is this: Don't send your ducks to eagle school. Why? Because it won't work. Good people are found, not changed. They can change themselves, but you can't change them. If you want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them.
I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full-page ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad read, "We do not teach our people to be nice." Now that got my attention. The second line said, "We hire nice people." I thought, What a clever shortcut!"
Motivation is a mystery. Why are some people motivated and some are not? Why does one salesperson see his first prospect at seven in the morning while the other sees his first prospects at 11 in the morning? Why would one start at seven and the other start at 11? I don't know. Call it "mysteries of the mind."
I give lectures to a thousand people at a time. One walks out and says, "I'm going to change my life." Another walks out with a yawn and says, "I've heard all this stuff before." Why is that?
The wealthy man says to a thousand people, "I read this book, and it started me on the road to wealth." Guess how many of the thousand go out and get the book? Answer: very few. Isn't that incredible? Why wouldn't everyone go get the book? Mysteries of the mind.
To one person, you have to say, "You'd better slow down. You can't work that many hours, do that many things, go, go, go. You're going to have a heart attack and die." And to another person, you have to say, "When are you going to get off the couch?" What is the difference? Why wouldn't everyone strive to be wealthy and happy?
Chalk it up to mysteries of the mind and don't waste your time trying to turn ducks into eagles. Hire people who already have the motivation and drive to be eagles and then just let them soar.
_____
A somewhat controversial viewpoint in these days of political correctness where one cannot even openly have the age-old Nature versus Nurture debate. It can be seen as pessimistic but another way to look at it is as an acknowledgement and celebration of individual differences.
Sometimes, in our focus on solving problems of poor performers, we tend to ignore extracting the best out of high performers.
An even better interpretation it is to look at it as personality aspects of the same individual. Instead of focusing on eliminating weaknesses it is better to build on the strengths. This is a management idea gaining force recently, endorsed strongly by Marcus Buckingham (formerly of Gallup) in his books.
| #203 |
-Samuel Johnson
#203-2. There is a vast difference in some instances between what we really need and that which we think we must have, and the realization of this truth will greatly lessen the seeming discomfort in doing without.
-William M. Peck
#203-3. You grow up the day you have your first real laugh—at yourself.
-Ethel Barrymore
_____
The first one is profound. At least as we grow older it is important for our true character to manifest itself and bring genuineness to all our interactions.
What I want and what I need might sometimes be the opposite of each other. If I paid attention to the difference, which one would I want?
Laughing at oneself is one of the milestones in maturity. Anyway if you don't do it, others will.
| #202 |
-Eliyahu Goldratt
#202-2. The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.
-John Holt
#202-3. Live as if everything you do will eventually be known.
-Hugh Prather
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Any numerical measurement programme makes people automatically align to show up well in that system. Organizations struggle to achieve what their top management says is important because their actual reward and punishment schemes and actions are not in sync with the stated goals.
On the other hand, as individuals, we must strive to do what is right, regardless of whether it is being watched or whether we have been given explicit instructions to do or not do something. My personal experience is that this is tough. And it might not always lead to material success. But it does give a tremendous inner satisfaction that strengthens our character, our true self.
| #201: More Learning from the Dictionary |
quidnunc (KWID-nungk)
noun: A nosy or gossipy person. Etymology: From Latin quid nunc (what now), implying someone constantly asking "What's new?"
svengali (sven-GAH-lee)
noun: A person who manipulates and exercises excessive control over another for sinister purposes
bunbury (BUN-buh-ree)
noun: An imaginary person whose name is used as an excuse to some purpose, especially to visit a place
verb intr.: To use the name of a fictitious person as an excuse.
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This dictionary-sourced theme has been popular, as seen by the responses received to the past i-TFTDs on this theme (available here and here).
Sad but true: quidnuncs, svengalis and bunburying are not as infrequently observed in the workplace as we would like to believe. Unlike the original fictional character who invented it in Mark Twain’s story, in the modern world, bunburying is a popular tactic when we miss an appointment—excuse for not visiting a place!
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