Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts

Monday, January 02, 2012

Leadership & The Power of Listening


Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore the message is a simple one… talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic, and intuitive listeners. They recognize that knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader that comes to mind…you’ll find that they are very adept at reading between the lines. They have the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. In today’s post I’ll quickly examine the merits of developing your listening skills. Warning: this post isn't going to coddle you and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy – it is rather blunt and to the point.
Want to become a better leader? Stop talking and start listening. Being a leader should not be viewed as a license to increase the volume of rhetoric. Rather astute leaders know that there is far more to be gained by surrendering the floor than by dominating it. In this age of instant communication everyone seems to be in such a rush to communicate what’s on their mind, they fail to realize the value of everything that can be gleaned from the minds of others. Show me a leader who doesn’t recognize the value of listening to others and I’ll show you a train-wreck in the making… 
It is simply not possible to be a great leader without being a great communicator. This partially accounts for why we don’t encounter great leadership more often. The big miss for most leaders is that they fail to understand that the purpose of communication is not to message, but to engage – THIS REQUIRES LISTENING. Don’t be fooled into thinking that being heard is more important than hearing. The first rule in communication is to seek understanding before seeking to be understood. Communication is not a one way street. I’ve interviewed and worked with some of the most noted leaders of our time, and to the one, they never miss an opportunity to listen. In fact, they aggressively seek out new and  better ways to listen.
Simply broadcasting your message ad nauseum will not have the same result as engaging in meaningful conversation, but this assumes that you understand that the greatest form of discourse takes place within a conversation, and not a lecture or a monologue. When you reach that point in your life where the light bulb goes off, and you begin to understand that knowledge is not gained by flapping your lips, but by removing your ear wax, you have taken the first step to becoming a skilled communicator. A key point for all leaders to consider is that it’s impossible to stick your foot in your mouth when it’s closed. Think about it…when was the last time you viewed a negative soundbite of a CEO who was engaged in active listening?  
The next step in the process is learning where to apply your new found listening skills. Listen to your customers, competitors, your peers, your subordinates, and to those that care about you. Ask people how you can become a better leader and then LISTEN. Take your listening skills online, and don’t just push out Tweets and Facebook messages, but ask questions and elicit feedback. Use your vast array of social media platforms, toolsets and connections to listen. If you follow this advice not only will you become better informed, but you’ll also become more popular with those whom you interact with.
Have you ever walked into an important meeting and wondered who the smartest person in the room was? If you mull this over for a moment you’ll find that almost universally the smartest person in the room is not the one doing all the talking – it’s the person doing all the listening. You’ll also notice that when intelligent people do speak-up it’s not to ramble-on incoherently or incessantly, but usually to ask a question so that they can elicit even more information. The quiet confidence of true leaders has much greater resolve than the bombastic displays of the arrogant.
Following are 6 tips for becoming a better listener:
  1. It’s not about you: Stop worrying about what you’re going to say and focus on what’s being said. Don’t listen to have your opinions validated or your ego stroked, listen to be challenged and to learn something new. You’re not always right, so stop pretending you know everything and humble yourself to others. If you desire to be listened to, then give others the courtesy of listening to them.  
  2. You should never be too busy to listen: Anyone can add value to your world if you’re willing to listen. How many times have you dismissed someone because of their station or title when what you should have done was listen? Wisdom doesn’t just come from peers and those above you – it can come from anywhere at anytime, but only if you’re willing to listen. Expand your sphere of influence and learn from those with different perspectives and experiences – you’ll be glad you did.
  3. Listen to non-verbals: People say as much (if not more) with their actions, inactions, body language, facial expressions, etc., as they do with their verbal communications. Don’t be lulled into thinking that because someone is not saying something they’re not communicating. In fact, most people won’t overtly verbalize opposition or disagreement, but they will almost always deliver a verry clear message with their non-verbals.
  4. Listen for opportunity:  Intuitive listeners are looking for the story behind the message, and the opportunity beyond the issue. Listening is about discovery, and discovery can not only impact the present, but it can also influence the future.
  5. Let listening be your calling card: One of the best compliments you can be paid is to be known as a good listener. Being recognized in this fashion will open doors, surface opportunities, and take you places that talking never could. Listening demonstrates that you respect others, and is the first step in building trust and rapport.  
  6. Recognize the contributions of others: One of the most often overlooked aspects of listening is thanking others for their contributions. If you glean benefits from listening to someone, thank them. Even if no value is perceived, thank them for their time and input. Never forget to acknowledge those who contribute energy, ideas, actions or results. Few things go as far in building good will as recognizing others.     
Allow me to leave you with one final thought to reflect on – if you’re ready for advanced listening skills, don’t just listen to those who agree with you, but actively seek out dissenting opinions and thoughts. Listen to those that confront you, challenge you, stretch you, and develop you. True wisdom doesn’t see opposition, only opportunity. I believe is was Benjamin Franklin who said, “Speak little, do much.”
In my opinion great talkers are a dime a dozen, but great listeners are a rare commodity. What say you?
By Mike Myatt

Monday, December 26, 2011

The Multividual Man


The Multividual Man

Narayan Devanathan /  December 26, 2011 (The author is National Planning Head, Dentsu Marcom)


The Indian man of the future isn’t one. He’s many. Meet the Multividual Man. He’s the ways he is because of social forces around him. And because he can be. But first, those social forces.

Pre-Independence, the Indian Male was defined by a single-minded patriotism. “I wear my country on my Khadi sleeve. Test it at your own risk.”

Post-Independence, the Indian Male was about security. Ensuring it for himself and his family. At all costs to himself. It was only after roti, kapda and makaan were secured by the 1980s Indian Male to a certain extent that he started focusing on himself, as an individual.

As a Ladies Man. As the “Impossible is Nothing” man. As the man that others looked up to. Especially female others, gazing up at him while riding pillion on a fast and not-so-furious bike. Or so he saw his own image. Being seen by others as emulate-able was important for him.

And then along came Liberalisation. Of the wallet and the mind. And a new millennium that brought with it an inner-directedness. To an extent only though. It manifested itself as the man who oozed confidence as India on the global stage, enjoying its many moments in the limelight. He was no longer showing off to the galleries. He was merely showing his prowess at the helm.

All around him though, the world was changing furiously, doing more things simultaneously to itself than it had ever seen in multiple millennia. It was as if the world could only keep pace with itself by multi-tasking. Not surprisingly, it asked the same of its people. Do more. Be more.

That’s when he morphed into the Multividual Man. His identity was now to be split into many. How to manage this schizophrenia without becoming unbalanced was the challenge before him. How is this different from the different life roles that man has played in the past? Was he not Brother, Career Man, Lover, Husband, Father, Caregiver before too? It’s just that he’s made peace with paradoxes. Inside him and in the world outside. He doesn’t think having a good time has to be at the cost of the earth. Or cost the earth either. Responsibility doesn’t have to hamper his freedom. Nor do career considerations need to temper his adventurous spirit. Because I am We.

Some marketers have marked this multividuality as experimentation, restlessness or just the ephemeral nature of youth. Like FasTrak, urging him to move on. Multividual Man, though, doesn’t feel the need to move on so much as move around, within his multiple selves. Other marketers, like Titan, seem to recognise his multividuality, and equip him to Be More.

So what selves should a marketer engage with? As people, we are not uni-dimensional. Neither are brands. So recognise the single entity that Multividual Man is, but cater to the multiple selves within. While this is contrary to all the accepted wisdom about single-mindedness of messaging and positioning, the fact is that if a brand’s persona has to engage with real persons, then it must be as colourful, as diverse in its characteristics as the people it wants to engage with. E unum pluribus will be the new mantra. Out of one, many.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

4 ways to take control of your email



If your email Inbox is out of control, you might want to rethink your methods for organizing your email and emptying your Inbox. Developing a new approach to processing your Inbox can help you to gain more control, improve your response time, and keep up with critical actions and due dates.

This article covers four key factors that can help you process your email more efficiently—both at home and at the office. Although some of the productivity tools mentioned here are specific to Microsoft Outlook (Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, and Outlook Web Access), most of the techniques—and even the organizational attitude described here—can help you to more efficiently process email and empty your Inbox, even if you use an email application other than Outlook.


1. Set up a simple and effective email reference system
The first step toward an organized Inbox is understanding the difference betweenreference information and action information.

·     Reference information is information that is not required to complete an action; it is information that you keep in case you need it later. Reference information is stored in your reference system—an email reference folder, your My Documents folder, or a company intranet site, for example.
·    Action information is information you must have to complete an action. Action information is stored with the action, either on your to-do list or on your Calendar. (If the action needed is a detailed reply, try converting information into professional communication using these tips on Creating incredible documents more easily using Office 2010.

Most people receive a considerable amount of reference information through email. Sometimes as much as one-third of your email is reference information. So it is essential to have a system that makes it easy to transfer messages from your Inbox into your email reference system—a series of email file folders where you store reference information to ensure you have easy access to it later. Learn more about setting up a reference system.

After you take care of filing your reference information, you can use the next three steps to handle the email that you have to do something with—your action information.



2. Schedule uninterrupted time to process and organize email

How many times are you interrupted every day? It's nearly impossible to complete anything when there are constant interruptions from the phone, people stopping by your office, and instant messaging. So it's critical that you set aside uninterrupted time to process and organize your email.

Many email messages require you to make a decision. The best decisions require focus, and focus requires uninterrupted attention. Establish a regular time each day to process your email so that you can empty your Inbox. Of course, you can scan your email during the day for urgent messages or requests from your boss.
Book yourself a recurring appointment for an hour a day to process email, and mark that time as "busy." During that hour, don't answer the phone or take interruptions, and work only on processing your Inbox. You can also turn off the audio alert that sounds each time you receive a new email—which can be a distraction in itself. In Outlook, click the Filetab. Click Options. On the Mail tab, under Message arrival, clear the Play a sound check box.

At first, keeping these appointments will take discipline. But over time, the discipline becomes habit. And after you completely empty your Inbox, you'll see the value of this one hour a day and you'll stick to it like glue.
Microsoft Outlook 2010 makes it easier to keep this email appointment and to process your Inbox. The new anywhere access features of Outlook 2010 mean that you don’t have to be at home or at the office to keep your daily email management appointment.

Conversation view in Office 2010 enables you to organize email folders by date and conversation. When Conversation view is turned on, messages that share the same subject appear as conversations that can be viewed as expanded or collapsed, helping you to quickly review and act on messages or complete conversations.

Also, improved search tools in Office 2010 make it easier to narrow your search results by using criteria, like sender or subject keywords, and other information, such as attachments. The Search Tools contextual tab includes a set of filters that efficiently focus your search to isolate the items that you want. For more information, see Find a message or item by using Instant Search.
Instant Search in Outlook 2010 provides many ways to search your email for specific messages.



3. Process one item at a time, starting at the top

When you sit down to process your email, the first step is to sort it by the order in which you will process it. For example, you can filter by date, by subject, or even by the sender or receiver of the email message. In Outlook 2010, on the View tab, in the Arrangement group, click the arrangement option you want.
From the View tab, you can filter your email by date, category, sender or receiver, and more.
You can also change the arrangement directly from your Inbox. To display the list of options, under the Search box, right-click the Arrange By: box.

The Arrange By: box in your Inbox gives you convenient access to even more options to arrange your messages.
Tip: If you use Outlook 2010, enable the reading pane (called the preview pane in Outlook 2007) so that you can view your messages without having to open them. To enable the reading pane, on the View tab, in the Layout group, click Reading Pane. To enable the Outlook 2007 preview pane, on the View menu, click AutoPreview.

Resist the temptation to jump around in your Inbox in no particular order. Begin processing the message at the top of your Inbox and only move to the second one after you've handled the first. This can be hard at first, when you might have thousands of messages in your Inbox. But as you reduce the number of messages over a few sessions, eventually you'll get to the point where you can process the 60–100 messages you get every day and regularly get your Inbox down to zero.



4. Use the "Four Ds for Decision-Making" model

The "Four Ds for Decision-Making" model (4 Ds) is a valuable tool for processing email, helping you to quickly decide what action to take with each item and how to remove it from your Inbox.
The expanded Ribbon in Office 2010 is designed to help you quickly find the tools that you need to complete your tasks. Features are organized in logical groups collected together under tabs. You can also customize the Ribbon to include tabs you personalize to match your own style.
The expanded Ribbon in Outlook 2010 replaces Outlook 2007 menus, giving you easy access to tools on conveniently organized tabs.
The Quick Steps feature, new in Outlook 2010, speeds up managing your email even more. This feature enables you to perform the multi-stepped tasks you use most often, such as moving email to a specific folder or moving a message and replying to it with a meeting request, with a single click. The Quick Steps gallery includes buttons for one-click file and flag, sending messages to your team, and other popular commands. For more information, see Automate common or repetitive tasks with Quick Steps.
The Quick Steps feature turns your most frequent tasks—whether forwarding messages to your co-workers or copying messages to a specific folder—into one-click operations.
Tip: Learning a few basic keyboard shortcuts in Outlook 2010 can make performing these tasks even easier and faster. Read our article on how to save time with quick computer shortcuts.

Decide what to do with each and every message

How many times have you opened, reviewed, and closed the same email message or conversation? Those messages are getting lots of attention but very little action. It is better to handle each email message only once before taking action—which means you have to decide what to do with it and where to put it. With the 4 Ds model, you have four choices:

1.    Delete it
2.    Do it
3.    Delegate it
4.    Defer it

Delete it

Generally, you can delete about half of all the email you get. But some of you shudder when you hear the phrase "delete email." You're hesitant to delete messages for fear that you might need them at some point. That's understandable, but ask yourself honestly: What percentage of information that you keep do you actually use?
If you do use a large percentage of what you keep, your method is working. But many of us keep a lot more than we use. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide what to delete:
·    Does the message relate to a meaningful objective you're currently working on? If not, you can probably delete it. Why keep information that doesn't relate to your main focus?
·    Does the message contain information you can find elsewhere? If so, delete it.
·    Does the message contain information that you will refer to within the next six months? If not, delete it.
·    Does the message contain information that you're required to keep? If not,delete it.

Outlook 2010 helps you get rid of the “noise” in your Inbox by providing two new commands: Ignore Conversation and Clean Up Conversation. If a conversation is no longer relevant, you can prevent additional responses from appearing in your Inbox. TheIgnore command moves the whole conversation and any future messages that arrive in the conversation to the Deleted Items folder.

Easily delete an entire conversation so that no new responses to it will appear in your Inbox.

When a message contains all the previous messages in the conversation, you can clickClean Up to eliminate redundant messages. For example, as people reply to a conversation, the response is at the top and the previous messages in the conversation are below. Use the Clean Up command to keep only the most recent message that includes the whole conversation. For more information, see Use Conversation Clean Up to eliminate redundant messages.

Cleaning up your conversations makes it easier to stay focused on the task being discussed.

Do it (in less than two minutes)

If you can't delete the email messages, ask yourself, "What specific action do I need to take?" and "Can I do it in less than two minutes?" If you can, just do it.

There is no point in filing an email or closing an email if you can complete the associated task in less than two minutes. Try it out—see how much mail you can process in less than two minutes. I think you will be extremely surprised and happy with the results. You could file the message, you could respond to the message, or you could make a phone call. You can probably handle about one-third of your email messages in less than two minutes.

Office 2010 helps you respond to email messages faster. You can view the availability of a person and instantly reach out to them using a variety of communication methods—all on a new easy-to-access contact card. You can even customize the context menu of the contact card to include tasks you perform most often, saving you more time.

Delegate it

If you can't delete it or do it in two minutes or less, can you forward the email to an appropriate team member who can take care of the task?

If you can delegate it (forward it to another team member to handle), do so right away. You should be able to compose and send the delegating message in about two minutes. After you have forwarded the message, delete the original message or move it into your email reference system.

Defer it

If you cannot delete it, do it in less than two minutes, or delegate it, the action required is something that only you can accomplish and that will take more than two minutes. Because this is your dedicated email processing time, you need to defer it and deal with it after you are done processing your email. You’ll probably find that about 20 percent of your email messages have to be deferred.

There are two things you can do to defer a message: Turn it into an actionable task, or turn it into an appointment. When you're using Outlook, you can defer emails that require action by dragging the messages to your Task List to turn them into tasks. Name the task to clearly state the required action so that you don't have to reopen the email message. The result is a clearly defined list of actions on your Task List that you can prioritize and schedule to complete on your Calendar. Or you can turn the message into a meeting request by dragging it to your Calendar.

Tip: Use the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007 to drag an email message from an email folder to a date on your Calendar or to your Task List. On the View tab, in the Layout group, click the To-Do Bar. When the bar appears, drag the message to your Calendar or to your Task List. This copies the message to the new location; it doesn’t move it out of the original mail folder, so you’ll still be able to find what you need. Learn more about managing your Task List in Outlook.

Use the 4 Ds model every day

Using the 4 Ds model on a daily basis makes it easier to handle a large quantity of email. Our experience shows that, on average, people can process about 100 email messages an hour. If you receive 40 to 100 messages per day, all you need is one hour of uninterrupted email processing time to get through your Inbox. 

Our statistics show that of the email you receive:
·  Fifty percent can be deleted or filed.
·  Thirty percent can be delegated or completed in less than two minutes.
·   Twenty percent can be deferred to your Task List or Calendar to complete later.

Of course, if you have a backlog of hundreds of messages, it will take time to get to the point where your daily routine keeps you up to date. It's important to get that backlog down, so I would suggest setting blocks of time aside to work through it. Then, you can really enjoy processing your messages every day using the 4 Ds.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The 50 New Rules of Work


  1. You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
  2. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
  3. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
  4. To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
  5. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
  6. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
  7. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
  8. Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
  9. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
  10. Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
  11. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
  12. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
  13. Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
  14. Get fit like Madonna.
  15. Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
  16. Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
  17. Good enough just isn’t good enough.
  18. Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
  19. An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
  20. If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
  21. Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
  22. Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
  23. Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
  24. The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
  25. If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
  26. Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
  27. The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
  28. The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
  29. Smile. It makes a difference.
  30. Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
  31. Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
  32. Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
  33. Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
  34. The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
  35. In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
  36. In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
  37. Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
  38. You become your excuses.
  39. You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
  40. The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
  41. It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
  42. The client is always watching.
  43. The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
  44. To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
  45. People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
  46. Every visionary was initially called crazy.
  47. The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
  48. Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
  49. Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
  50. Lead Without a Title.
I encourage you to share + discuss + debate these with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results

Friday, August 05, 2011

Key Concepts about Goals

  • Determine your long range goals. Make sure you are aiming at what you really want.
  • Be sure to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed
  • Don’t try to keep your goals in your head, write them down
  • Read your long range goals at least once every day. You will find it easier to sort out all the trivia that comes your way.
  • You need short range goals to know what to do today. You need long range goals to add continuity and meaning to all your short range goals.
  • Consider projects carefully. Make sure they will move you toward your goals. Identify the critical steps, when they should be done and who should do them.
  • Set deadlines for all your projects. Estimate the time needed and determine the logical starting time to avoid last-minute rush jobs.
  • Focus on your goals at all times. “Will what I am doing right now help me achieve my goals?” if the answer is “no”, then switch to something else that will help.
  • Be sure that you have at least one significant goal every day. Don’t quit until you reach your daily goals. Before long you will develop the habit of setting goals and reaching them.
  • Write out long range personal goals. Strive to balance your time across all aspects of your life.
  • When conditions change, you may need to modify your goals. And, as you achieve your goals be sure to set new ones.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Emotional commitment: The most important Manager Commitment

A manager's emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined. It's the kind of commitment that solves unsolvable problems, creates energy when all energy has been expended, and ignites emotional commitment in others, like employees, teams and customers.

Emotional commitment means unchecked, unvarnished devotion to the company and its success; any legendary organisational performance is the result of a bunch of emotionally committed managers.

Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted, said Einstein. This is a guy who conducted early nuclear experiments on his own hair and so is perhaps not your most reliable organisational thinker; still, he had a point.

The really important measurements of emotional commitment include the ones a company can't see until managers need to show them. Ferocious support for the company when the company needs it most is one of these hidden metrics.

Any manager can appear fully productive and enthusiastic simply because they're financially, intellectually and physically committed. But if you've ever witnessed a human being emotionally committed to a cause — working like they're being paid a million when they're not being paid a dime — you know there's a difference and you know it's big.

The old conflict

It may be big but it's not easy. The key neurobiological source of emotional commitment is the ability to live your own deepest values in a relationship or environment — I'm not telling you this; your brain is telling you this. As a manager this means the relationship with your company and your environment at work.

Manager may be a great job to have and you may be having a great time doing that job but embedded in the job description of any manager is the requirement to constantly subordinate or compromise personal values in favour of company priorities.

What your company wants done and how it wants it done must regularly take precedence over your own deep preferences. This is what it means to be a manager: serve your company first.

A company is an organism and like any organism its natural first priority is to survive. It needs managers to survive and it needs them to marginalise their own values and beliefs in favor of company goals and methods. As the company believes it needs to be the dominant organism in the relationship, it causes managers to detach emotionally from their jobs.

To really get that emotional commitment, a company would have to reattach managers to their own deep drivers — allow them to live their own values and act according to their own personal codes.

This has Company Nightmare stamped all over it. If managers were allowed to live their value of Family, maybe they wouldn't work 50 hours a week, stay away from home constantly or constantly take the job home with them.

If managers were allowed to live their value of Integrity, maybe they wouldn't represent a product to customers as performing the best and at the lowest cost when it doesn't, it isn't — or it doesn't even exist yet. If managers were allowed to live their value of Health, maybe they would resist conditions of constant stress.

If managers were allowed to live their value of Freedom, maybe they would demand autonomy in decisions that must be executed exactly as conceived.

It is understandably the great fear of the corporate organism: If I set you free to pursue your own priorities, you'll leave me and I'll die. The problem is, managers are already free. They're free to detach, which is about as free as one can get. The company may have captured their minds, their bodies and their pockets, but that doesn't mean it's captured their hearts.

The New Truth

The cause cannot always be the company; instead, it must also be managers' pursuit of their own values within the company. This isn't licensing chaos; it is ensuring control. There is no more reliable way for the company to become the cause than by not always insisting on being the cause.