And so it goes April 22, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in 7 Habits, Change, consulting, executive coaching, executive leadership, Hope, Life Coach, Neurobiology, shared vision, Systems Thinking.Tags: 7 Habits, Business, change, executive coaching, Feedback, FranklinCovey, History of psychiatric institutions, hope, Natural law, neurobiology, Philosophy, Professional, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Social Sciences, Stephen Covey, systems thinking, Think, Wood Dickinson
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There was a full moon this week. I’ve run into other people who have said the same thing. That’s the origin of the term lunatic. In the Victorian era when many of the college campus size asylums were built they called them lunatic asylums. Now that work lunatic has taken on negative connotations like changing what you call it will change what it is. This exchange was invigorating and made me think! I enjoyed John’s view and hope he felt the same. Life’s to short for anything else.
my answer:
This is an interesting view on life and I thank you for sharing this with
all of us. As for a manual I really meant a copy of the 7 Habits book. I
agree that the imprint of infancy, the first 18 months of life, does leave
a basis for making choices in life. I just feel sometimes we don’t know
what it is that happened in the past that drives the choice today. These
events may be unrelated to current stimulus you are encountering. I suffer
with PTSD. There are two kinds 1) sudden onset and 2) Grand Canyon. The
* may never become activated so it doesn’t pose a problem but if it is
activated then searching for the root cause so memories can be properly
integrated can be a real trip. This is what I have and I’m here to tell you
it is no fun.
Principles govern. I believe that. Fight natural law and you will lose. Our
task is to bring our personal values in alignment with natural laws. An on
going process and a reason I keep compasses everywhere. When a plane takes
off from NYC bound for LA it spends something like 60% of its time going
the wrong way and needing attention from the pilot or auto-pilot. Scary
thought. Thank you for sharing your view. I’ll file them away with the
other info I collect on these subject.
Best regards,
Wood Dickinson
And John Said… April 22, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in 7 Habits, Change, consulting, executive coaching, executive leadership, Hope, Life Coach, Neurobiology, shared vision, Systems Thinking.Tags: 7 Habits, Business, change, Consulting, Enneagram, executive coaching, fear, Feedback, FranklinCovey, Future, hope, life coach, neurobiology, Proactivity, Professional, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Social Sciences, Stephen Covey, systems thinking, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Think, Wood Dickinson
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I think you’ll see that the steam is running down so I work to bring this to a close. It’s very difficult to debate philosophy via the internet! What I do hope is that these divergent views can be freely explored without anger or malice. I don’t think we got to a true dialectic here but much closer because neither John or myself closed the door saying your flat wrong. I know I learned and he gave me something to think about. All of this reinforces the wiring in the brain to build more pathway for understanding not fighting.
Greetings to Wood Dickinson.
I suggest that proactivity is as I have experienced it and how I have observed everyone else experiences it. I am not here to support or deny Stephen Covey. My response is therefore based upon my experience of observing Coveys ideas in action. I have not previously gone out of my way to look for flaws in his practice (as opposed to the principles I believe he is attempting to communicate.
Personal experience, not Covey, shows me at all times, that provided only that I do not let my monkey brain get in on the act, I am always able to respond in a good, true and beautiful manner. The extremes of these three parameters can also be expressed as subjective specification, objective evidence and subjectively and objectively aligned conclusions, each versus its complete opposite. It is these hopefully subjectively and objectively aligned but more often misaligned conclusions that provide the ongoing minimal adjustment to each person’s proactivity. In other words, each person relies upon the fixities of their infancy, childhood and adolescence instead of at all times questioning as to the alignment of their beliefs (expedient) and their actual experience (honesty).
Personal experience, not Covey, also shows me at all times, that provided only that I do not let my monkey brain get in on the act, it is awareness (not limited self-awareness but rather cosmic self-awareness) and intention (not selfish limiting stupidity, but rather cosmically responsible will) that is the basis of consciousness. Total consciousness would be total certainty on all things. This would be the ultimate (an absolute) proactivity.
Personal experience also shows me that the reactions for which we need to take responsibility are the consequence of our belief systems, each of which is stuck in infancy, childhood, adolescence and possibly young adulthood. By transferring from the use of belief system nonsense to reliance on personally verified universally applicable principles, we shift from illusion (the school, subjectivity and cramming) to certainty (the farm, objectivity and pragmatic behaviour. The more we operate as a farm, the more proactive we become. Covey’s four endowments to me seem somewhat out of alignment. Aware-Will most certainly, through their paradoxical mutual opposition and mutual support evolve into Aware-Will-Consciousness (another way of describing proactivity)
Imagination is a tool, created by aware-will (along with the other tools of Requirements and Expectations) for the purpose of playing around with the materials of Belief Systems (Beliefs and Attitudes, Feelings and Thoughts, Options and Decisions). In the absence of intentional ongoing honesty, these nine components of belief systems are the nearest to proactivity we ever get. However, through systematic honesty we can question everything that we experience as negative and turn it from shit (bad, untrue and ugly) into proactive fertiliser (good, true and beautiful).
I do not have the Facilitators’ Manual, so I am unable to comment on that. I use the Pythagorean Enneagram as a universal flow diagram. Having applied it to many superficially very different natural processes I have never been able to find any flaw in its predictions. The underlying 7 habits, plus 2 more (subjective quality assurance or the school, after habit 3, and objective quality control or the farm, after habit 5) provide the entire circuit. It is actually the systematic alignment of Quality Assurance (as pumped into us at school) and Quality Control (as experienced in our actual lives) that leads to Quality Leadership (the honesty based integration of subjective and objective experience.
Dr. Siegel is absolutely correct. In the infant mother relationship there is a mutual “tuning” of psychobiological states between mother and child. It seems that this early bonding is central to the creating of secure attachments later in life. Biological, psychological and social domains do begin to lose meaning and mostly do disappear completely in reference to developmental and cognitive neuroscience.
Visit Helen Palmer’s website at http://www.enneagram.com/. It is rich with details of how actuality loses its hold as subjective beliefs systems take over and how self knowledge can eventually lead not just to self-knowledge but on to interpersonal knowledge and eventually pan determinism.
What I Think April 22, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in 7 Habits, Change, consulting, executive coaching, executive leadership, Hope, Life Coach, Neurobiology, shared vision, Systems Thinking.Tags: 7 Habits, Business, change, Covey, executive coaching, fear, Feedback, FranklinCovey, hope, Jesus, life coach, neurobiology, Proactivity, Professional, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, systems thinking, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Think, Wood Dickinson
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I’m a communications guy but I also feel over the years I’ve become somewhat a philosopher. One thing I love is a lively debate. In essence to create a truly interpersonal relationship you need to construct a dialectic. Now I’m sure I’ve lost you so hang on. A dialectic is simply a framework where two (or more) people come together with the idea of learning what the other person thinks and feels. It is based on the idea of a dialog. The word discussion is percussive and doesn’t really address talking at all. If I grab one of my kids for a discussion they hear lecture. In dialectic relationships I always want to be in you and you in me. That way we can understand the underlying reason for your action and you might understand the source and reason of my fear.
With this we learn and change. This is why I feel habit 4 doesn’t go far enough and it comes too late. Thinking win/win is all fine and everything but it’s just words. If I have worked on myself to the point where winning is meaningless then I will live for establishing a dialectic with you so I can soak in who you are and give you who I am. I think Jesus said it best and with a lot fewer words, “Love one another as you would love yourself.”
Now for my answer to John:
John Lester,
I think you have the wrong idea about “Be Proactive” as Covey explains it. I’ve taught this habit to a lot of people and the reactions I get is what drove me to look deeper. Covey states clearly that between a stimulus and a response is a space. This space is our place to chose the response we want to give. Covey thinks if you work on your 4 human endowments (self-awareness, Imagination, conscience and Independent Will) you can strengthen your proactive muscle and widen that space between stimulus and response so you are truly choosing your response not just reacting. This is the information I’m asked to teach on page 128 of the facilitator’s manual. Look at that section in the book if you have a copy.
I agree there is nothing new in the 7 Habits and Covey as much as says so. It’s common sense organized. Elements I feel are good is the see do get model. This is a rudimentary approach to using systems thinking (which includes feedback loops) and people understand it right away. It shows how you can be your own worst enemy. These constant actions that validate a point of view that isn’t right builds strong wiring in the brain.
There is no doubt in my mind that the 7 Habits contains a lot of truthful and useful information. I grew from my contact with it. What I’m saying is in the last 10 years a lot has changed. Neuroscience has shown us that there are remarkable connections in the brain but still we don’t know where the mind is. We understand much better the role of cognition in a person’s life and that’s good.
7 Habits challenges us to look deep inside, into that deep interpersonal life and bring about alignment and discover what it is I want to create. Mission, vision, values. Empathic listening is vital but really empathic relationships is what we are looking for. That creates the true interpersonal. I like the inside out approach and the idea the private victory precedes the public victory. I think all these ideas help us place those somatic markers that guide our thinking.
Dr. Siegel posits that in the infant mother relationship there is a mutual “tuning” of psychobiological states between mother and child. It seems that this early bonding is central to the creating of secure attachments later in life. As a matter of fact Siegel points out that biological, psychological and social domains begin to lose meaning and might disappear completely in reference to developmental and cognitive neuroscience. I’ll leave it there for now and blog a bit more in depth about these issues.
Best,
Wood
From John Lester April 22, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in 7 Habits, Change, consulting, executive coaching, executive leadership, Hope, Life Coach, Neurobiology, shared vision, Systems Thinking.Tags: Business, Business plan, change, Consulting, executive coaching, fear, Feedback, First Things, FranklinCovey, neurobiology, Proactivity, Professional, Psychology, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Social Sciences, Stephen Covey, systems thinking, Think, Time management, Wood Dickinson
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enneagram
This next section is a reply I received from John Lester, a member of the group. I think this shows how wide an interpretation can be made of the same material. If you are running an organization and I think my way and John his then we are not aligned in our vision, mission and goals. That isn’t to say we all have to be 1984 robots; I’m talking about core values.
You and I can agree that education is important so the problem comes in the “how” it will be done. If you think about I bet most confrontations you have in your life are based more on methods not meaning. That’s why as a leader you focus on outcomes. Tell a worker, this is what I want at the end of the day. How you do the task, I don’t care just don’t break the law. This is a form of delegation focused around trust and respect. Many of us want to micro-manage the person doing the task. In that case, just do it yourself. If the point is to gain more time for other tasks and promote pride in the team then micro-manage is out.
I’ll go more into delegation later but for now here is John’s reply:
Mr Wood Dickinson appears to have a misunderstanding regarding the concept of proactivity. He states that “much of what the 7 Habits proposes is false”. Self determinism, group determinism and pan determinism are all demonstrably down to earth practical objectives.
It is temporarily sad that his “continued research” has led him up a dead alley, but at a later date he is likely to discover that his research was not wasted, only clouded by his own misunderstanding.
Each person’s proactivity is nothing more than their own current reality, which is the same as the implementation of their beliefs as they gradually convert dodgy beliefs into eventual knowledge (personally experienced certainty). Every time we cycle through the Seven Habits (or through any other experience for that matter) we finish up drawing conclusions. These automatically combine with our previous realities, changing or consolidating our beliefs and our operating basis at the same time.
It may be that Stephen Covey, by suggesting that “Be Proactive” is the first Habit rather than the last, confused the entire subject. Even a new born baby has a high level of animal need reaction (proactivity) and security need reaction (proactivity), plus a high level of demand for relationship (proactivity). Proactivity is the point from which every process begins its next cycle.
A Perfectionist Personality (such as a religious evangelist or a religious terrorist has a highly consolidated and totally locked up proactivity that leads both of them into their own personally chosen form of hell.
Similarly a predominantly Carer, Promoter, Romantic, Observer, Questioner, Adventurer, Asserter or Peacemaker Personality will have their own appropriately self prejudiced proactivity. The ultimate proactivity is to synergise all of these nine differing “godlike qualities” into each person’s own unique personality. This is what religious people call salvation and psychologists call self realisation.
Stephen Covey is not actually teaching anything new. He is teaching ideas that are as old as Pythagoras (500 BC) and Plotinus (500 AD) in a very modern down to earth practical manner.
Mazlow taught exactly the same principles with his Seven Universal Needs. The psychologists who specialise in Enneagram Studies teach exactly the same principles. The Seven Deadly Sins and their corresponding Seven Heavenly Virtues are teaching the same thing. Only the practices vary. It seems likely to me that Mr Wood Dickinson only taught practices and that he has never understood the universality of any of the many seven step principles.
I trust that Mr Wood Dickinson will tell us specifically which of Covey’s ideas he considers to be false. I hope he will also explain his (presumed) research into more than just Covey’s Habits. Maybe his experience will enable him to explain why Mazlow’s Seven Needs, The Psychologists Seven Psychological Types and The implied steps of the International Standards Organisation’s Quality Management System Model ISO 9001 are all also false.
Regards
John Lester
MSc. C.Eng. M.I.Mech.E., F.C.Q.I
I’m sorry but… April 14, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in Change, Hope, shared vision.Tags: Barack Obama, Business, change, Democratic Party (United States), Entrepreneur, Future, Home mortgage interest deduction, Internal Revenue Service, NPR, Sales tax, Small business, Startup company, Tax, Think, United States, Wood Dickinson
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I listened to the news today and that, along with the speech made on April 13th by Obama, leaves me feeling very pessimistic about this country. Once again the Democrats wage war on “wealthy” Americans. The problem as Obama sees it, we don’t tax enough and we can keep spending at the current rates as long as we justtax people more.
OK…tax those that own small businesses and tax those who invest in the economy and take the risk, monetarily, to help drive the economy (that ultimately creates jobs). Just have the Feds create more jobs instead. Let’s just ramp up the old class warfare argument. I have to ask, where is the bipartisan? When did it become a crime in the USA to make money? Don’t people who make money spend it? If they don’t then aren’t jobs lost and local economies hurt?
Call me stupid but I don’t see how raising taxes on anyone works. It promotes the idea that middle class people and poor people (especially those who are unmotivated to work) should get part of the success of hard-working Americans who have made a few bucks. I’m not talking about our billionaires in this country or even those with 10 million and up in assets. Does anyone really think a person who has saved up 2 or 3 million dollars through hard work are “the rich!”
Why oh why can’t we just for this one time seriously cut government spending. Roll it back to pre 9/11 levels. Defund all non-essential and repetitive programs. Yes, The National Endowment for the Arts and NPR are non essentials. I’m an artist, writer, filmmaker and I have never used any federal money. States can offer tax credits (again back to NOT paying taxes) to attract filmmakers.
I do believe that true solutions to problems are usually simpler than the solutions dreamed up and implemented. The same is true here. End the IRS, stop federal taxes both personal and corporate, institute a national sales tax and I bet you’d have more than enough money. I know, the problem is EVERYONE would pay tax now. This would hurt the poor. Right? Well they are being hurt now with state and local sales tax. Exempt food and other essential items. This way everyone pays even all the gray market workers. Even the criminals!
Taking away the deduction for giving to non-profits by really wealthy people will hurt all those agencies trying to help society. Giving is already down. Go ahead and remove an incentive. You might say the rich should give regardless the deduction. Do you? The government by its tax rules shape how we act. They want us to save they create IRAs and 401Ks. They don’t want us to buy a house, remove the mortgage deduction.
Just think about it. Republican or Democrat I don’t care. I’m an independent and I’m sick of the excuses.
Union Woes February 23, 2011
Posted by wooddickinson in Change, shared vision, Systems Thinking.Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business, change, Employment, fear, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Future, Politics, Private sector, Public sector, Small business, Social Sciences, Startup company, systems thinking, Think, Trade union, United States, vision, Wisconsin, Wood Dickinson, Work
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According to Yahoo! News (HERE) The governor of the state is trying to save $165M. I’m sorry but we must face facts. There isn’t enough money and enough taxes to counter this kind of problem. It runs ram-pet through all states and the Federal Government. The current answer is Tax more, Spend more, pass the buck to our children.
I’m not speaking a political opinion just recounting facts. Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on 1/21/2011 the union membership information for 2010.
I’ll quote:
“In 2010, 7.6 million public sector employees belonged to a union, compared with 7.1 million union workers in the private sector. The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.2 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private sector workers (6.9 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 42.3 percent. This group includes workers in heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with high unionization rates included transportation and utilities (21.8 percent), telecommunications (15.8 percent), and construction (13.1 percent). In 2010, low unionization rates occurred in agriculture and related industries (1.6 percent) and in financial activities (2.0 percent). (See table 3.)” Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
What is obvious is more of us are not in a union than those who are. No one cares much about private sector unions even though they do effect the cost of goods, it is the public sector (government workers) that the voting public should be worried about.
Public policy has been to bend over for public sector labor unions thus driving the cost of government into the stratosphere. Now unions are not the only reason we have out of control spending on the local, state and federal level but it is a significant part. Here again we have a minority holding a majority hostage for political gain.
I understand we are talking about peoples lives but consider the fact that all the non-union workers, employers and corporate risk takers that drive business growth have no such protection. They are villains and takers. Especially management even though these people create the jobs the union folks fill. When the unions should be supporting management so the company is successful they act as a drain possibly driving the company out of business. All that happens to the union employee is lay off or getting fired. The business owner’s life is ruined by a business failure.
I’m not going into the corporate greed argument always pulled out of the hat because almost all businesses run honestly.
Now, what does all this mean? Looking at current trends in societal anger about tax and spend I can for see a revolt against the public sector employees and the politicians who support them. This could get bloody because unlike taxes where workers say, “Let the rich pay,” this will be their own jobs on the line. The workers will have to pay.
It’s obvious to all of us that state and federal governments are bloated. Departments are too large, spending is out of control and staffing to expansive. When a politician tries to get a grip on this just look at Wisconsin to see the reaction. All unions rally behind government employees even though we as a nation can’t afford them.
This country is on a collision course and many people are living in a fantasy world when it comes to this issue.
Related Articles
- Beyond Wisconsin, This Could Be the End of Labor Unions (dailyfinance.com)
- Wisconsin: The fight for the future (politico.com)
- Is the Teacher’s Union as Dead as a Doornail? (lewrockwell.com)
- The Peculiar Practice of Taxing Public Worker Income (whatithinktank.wordpress.com)
- NYT throws public sector unions under the bus. (moelane.com)
- Working in America: Public vs. Private Sector (blogs.abcnews.com)
- “Jonah Goldberg: Public Unions Must Go” and related posts (townhall.com)
- Public sector workers taking more sickies (telegraph.co.uk)
- Why Republicans Want To Bust Unions (alan.com)
- Liberalism and the post-union future (salon.com)
- “A Brief, Illustrated History of the Public Sector Unions That, Together With The Democrat Party, Are Waging War on the Taxpayer” and related posts (directorblue.blogspot.com)
Are you in control of you life? October 22, 2010
Posted by wooddickinson in Change, consulting, shared vision.Tags: change, fear, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Freedom of speech, Health care, New York Times, Politics, Tax, Taxation, Think, United States, vision, Wood Dickinson
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Every day I hear on the radio, TV in advertisements and in news reporting that no one really knows what the future holds. This leaves a person wondering if they have any control over their lives at all. Now that new massive government programs are in place, companies have no idea how to handle things like health care.
The unknown is, can I afford to keep my company healthcare or do I just drop it forcing every one on the public program? How many jobs will this cost me?
It is more like how many jobs will it cost all of us. Being a consultant I meet with many organization from small mom and pop’s to Universities. I hear the very same story. I don’t know if I will have enough money? The individual, which is where business starts, feels scared so he doesn’t buy anything. I’ll pass on the lawn over-seeding this year or cut back in how many times I go out to eat and then watch the cost of those places. Little things a million times become big things. Small companies fail, cut backs happen, unemployment remains unchanged.
There are many things we can do to control our lives. Eat out less. Go to the movies less. Skip shopping trips. Skip vacations. On and on but at some point when we’ve done all we can do then you ask yourself, “Am I in control of my life?”
The stress level around me is way up. Miss a payment by a day and people call millions of times harassing you for the check that is in the mail. Patients has gone out the door and so has wisdom.
I feel that I can be in control of my life. I have to decide where I stand. Today American’s need to decide what the vision of the future is going to be. Big government control and a socialistic economy or a free economy with smaller government and less tax burden and over regulation.
The town I work in is Mission Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. They just don’t have enough money to do everything they want to so the government has instituted a driveway tax! You will be taxed by the linear feet of concrete or asphalt you have in your driveway. Maybe a $70 tax increase on every home but the kicker is when you get to the Target store they will have to pay about $65,000 in tax. Now I ask you where will Target get that money from? They project earnings and staff and order goods based on that projected revenue. Out of that revenue there needs to be a profit or Target as a company can’t grow and create more jobs.
The way I see it this tax will cost Mission at least 3 to 4 jobs just at Target. It will put a strain on the store which will cause the corporate office to decide if it is or isn’t worth having a store in Mission and BANG.
Go to my website and vote by clicking HERE. Somehow we DO need to be in control of our own lives.
Like this:
Getting the Basics Right October 7, 2010
Posted by wooddickinson in 7 Habits, Change, consulting, executive coaching, executive leadership, Life Coach, shared vision.Tags: 7 Habits, change, fear, life coach, Think, vision, Wood Dickinson
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Times are hard now and there’s always two things that suffer when a company gets worried about money issues. The first is IT. Information Technology, even thought it is the back bone of business, is always cut. Staff is reduced and infrastructure is left to languish. Next is HR. Sure I need some Human Resource people to help in hiring and especially firing (no “laying off”) people but training, skills improvement, leadership and the like can be put on hold. The very time you need something like a strong 7 Habits program started, or executives need coaches the company cuts those efforts.
I know, I’ve been there. Even as the leader of an organization it can get difficult to get employees support for strengthening IT and initiating a strong leadership program, working to create a new organizational structure by learning what it is that you are doing right and wrong. The CEO feels he will be looked upon as wasteful and neglectful if he has to lay off people yet he spends money on an executive coach.
The very things that can help the organization survive and thrive during difficult times are the things that are shut off when they are needed most. If you face tough economics now and find that laying off people is inevitable then so be it but stress innovation for survival to the rest. There must be trust with in an organization and a lot of CEOs just feel like trust can’t happen when layoffs are occurring and pay increases are lacking.
So what to do? Be open about the corporations condition. Engage everyone in the process of reorganization so a shared vision of what needs to take place is had by all. This may take consulting help which does spend money but in the long run it may save some jobs, stop knee-jerk reactions and most of all help to build trust. If the consultant or even an executive coach seems to be offering ideas that can be formed into action plans that restructure your organization to be more effective no one will be complaining as If top management involves all levels of employees in the effort to become a more effective organization. Then the trust level will go up even as some (but maybe fewer) people are laid off.
Don’t take the easy way out by just doing business as usual and making cutbacks and causing fear among your work force. You don’t need the who’s next mentality becoming the prevailing norm. That will cut productivity as people worry if they will have a job tomorrow and reduce innovation because who wants to create new ideas or products or processes when they may get the pink slip this Friday.
I would suggest the CEO hire an executive coach that will think differently and offer alternatives and use consultants when needed to help guide the company through change. The change has to be real and substantive. It must involve everyone so a shared vision is created, trust increased and everyone feeling they are part of the solution not pawns in a chess game.
