Paradigms and Principles
In this part, the author introduces us to the basic principles and paradigms that make up the Habits of Highly effective people. He also explains how important they are to changing and creating new habits which in turn increases our effectiveness. He writes about the foundational structures that holds the habits of effectiveness in place. The Character ethic has been since replaced by the Personality ethic. The character ethic which promotes traits like integrity, humility, fidelity, courage, patience, etc. required to live a successful life as been replaced by the Personality ethic which promotes getting a good public image; getting people to like you, manipulation of other people through various skills and techniques, "you can achieve if you believe", etc. The personality traits did appear to be effective but still turned out to be temporary success. People in this category still experienced deep emptiness in their lives in relation to work, family, business and social lives. Strategies and Techniques won't make you fully effective. It's like cramming your way through school, you might pass all exams and get good grades through the skills and techniques, but if you don't study and develop an educative mind, you will never achieve true mastery of the subjects. Many people with secondary greatness -- that is, social recognition for their talents -- lack primary greatness or goodness in their character.
He also talks about the power of paradigms and perceptions. Paradigms are like maps; they are not the territories but they explain the territories. They're the way we interpret and perceive the world around us. The character and the personality ethics are examples of social paradigms. We all have different perceptions about the things around us. He gave an example of paradigms with the picture below. The young, pretty lady in that picture can also be viewed by others as an old ugly looking woman. It depends on your understanding and perception. The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.
The author also talks about how we experience paradigms shifts in our everyday lives. Explaining that moment when people discover there's another way to perceive a situation. That "AHA AHA" moment as he calls it He gave examples of various paradigm shifts, from when the sun (and not the earth) was discovered to be at the centre of the universe, when germs were discovered to be the cause of diseases in man. He also explains that paradigm shifts sometimes mean breaking laws that already exists even though there are huge repercussion for the actions. Some paradigm shifts are also negative, like the shifts from the character ethic to the personality ethic. Many people experience a similar fundamental shift in thinking, when they face a life-threatening crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, manager or leader. We could spend weeks, months, even years labouring with the personality ethic trying to change our attitudes and behaviors and not even begin to approach the phenomenon of change that occurs spontaneously when we see things differently. It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.
In all of life, there are sequential stages of growth and development. A child learns to turn over, to sit up, to crawl, and then to walk and run. Each step is important and each one takes time. No step can be skipped. This is true in all phases of life, in all areas of development, whether it be learning to play the piano or communicate effectively with a working associate. It is true with individuals, with marriages, with families, and with organizations. Every step must be taken. You can't skip to level 5 if you don't complete levels 1 to 4. There are quick fixes to skip growth stages but it's temporary and brings about disastrous after-effects. There's a saying that goes, "A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step". Similarly, If you don't let a teacher know what level you are -- by asking a question, or revealing your ignorance -- you will not learn or grow. The admission of ignorance is often the first step of learning.
My favourite section of this part is when he explained habits and how habits can be changed. He starts off with the saying, "Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny". He explained that habits can be formed with Knowledge, Skill and Desire. Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the what to do and the why. Skill is the how to do. And desire is the motivation, the want to do. Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.
He also talks about Dependency and Interdependency. Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success. He writes in this section, that we need to learn to be independent before we can become interdependent.
He finally explains the P/PC Balance, which means product and production capability. He explains this term with an old fable about the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering
golden egg. The egg is pure gold! The farmer can't believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the nest and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy. But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the
goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs -- and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them. The product was the golden egg and the product capability was the goose. In other to get more golden egg, we need to take good care of the goose. It can be applied in all forms of life, Physical belongings, relationships, business, etc.
So far, Stephen Covery as explained the basis of effectiveness and after reading this, I've been given an insatiable hunger to keep reading. I'm inquisitive about the 7 habits and how it can be applied in our various lives. I apologize for the length of the post. The Link to the summary of the next part can be gotten below; in this part, He talks about the first Habit of Highly Effective people.
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