muddling about

One of the great things about having a lengthy holidays is you get a chance to do the things you have been meaning to do for a while but never found the time. Well, this holiday I decided to continue reading Covey’s 8th Habit book. I was initially reluctant to read it as his work seems overly commercialized. However, after reading a few chapters I can tell it is a worthwhile read. I have been a Covey fan since I read the 7 Habits book ten years ago.

 Anyhow, chapter 2 deals with what Covey identifies as “the problem” with organizations and I assume is the motivation behind the book. His fundamental claim is that organizational problems are problems of paradigms of human nature . In particular, the fact that many employers treat people as objects, similar to an industrial model of management. Therefore, in order to succeed in the modern era, organizations must rethink  how they treat “Knowledge Workers”.

 For me there are three key things to take away from this part of the book:

1) People in organizations characterized by the problems Covey outlines create codependency between workers and management. In the end, workers stop believed leadership is a choice, instead believing it is part of a position.

2) Organizations must change from viewing people in a “thing” paradigm and instead view them in a “Whole Person” paradigm. Otherwise we are leading blindly.  It is interesting to see how Covey’s principle of “seek first to understand” is really manifested in this new principle of the Whole Person paradigm.

I have always held to a belief that at the root – leadership is about relationships…I think I’m really going to enjoy this book.