I've read this book and I re-read it again after buying this new copy. The power of this book is immense and one can just adopt the 7 habits and change themselves into people of lasting character, something Covey insists on. He is not much for cosmetic quick-fixes which he makes clear right in the beginning. Building character based on timeless principles is important he says and he insists on values such as integrity, humility, temperance, courage, justice, patine, industry, simplicity and modesty as keys to long term efficacy. He also says we need guiding principles like these 7 habits and put them into practice for a lifetime of investment in the right principles and practices.
An interesting image was that where habits form at the intersection of Knowledge, Skills and Drive. Nice image. Before heading into the 7 habits Covey talks about the P/PC balance where P stands for Production and PC stands for Production Capability. Clearly, he says we can only produce as much as we have the capacity for - and he cites the example of the golden goose to warn us of what happens when we lose the balance. The Production Capability has to be built over time with incorporating habits like these 7.
The 7 habits are nicely divided into personal habits or tools for private victory and social habits or tools for social victory with the last habit being about renewal and sharpening skills.
1) Be Proactive
2) Begin with the end in mind
3) Put First Things First
4) Think Win-Win
5) Seek First to Understand and Then to be Understood
6) Synergise
7) Sharpen the Saw
Let's look at the 7 habits with my own insights and examples too.
1) Be Proactive
This is the beginning of all creation - the thought that you can create too. Covey explains how between an external stimulus and our response there is a gap, a freedom to choose and that can make all the difference. He cites the example of how Victor Frankl used that same freedom to make something of great value out of an experience like being a holocaust survivor. Cover talks about proactivity being about ability to respond, ably - response-ability. Proactive is taking responsibility clearly for an initiative we are taking up. We can differentiate between reactive people and proactive people - starting with the language they use.
A concept he gives which will hold well for us is that of the circle of concern and the circle of influence. We can be concerned about the state of the world but we can influence only some. So Covey says that we can shift our focus our time and energy from what we cannot influence, to what we can, and work on that area. In cricketing parlance, it is called - control the controllables. We play the ball, not the bowler, or the weather or the pitch.
As I understand it, being proactive is also about working on something that is not yet there, creating something with the hope that it will appear, and by dint of our proactive approach actually making it appear. It covers all angles, needs great preparation and planning and requires great alacrity. Like they say, when the bough is green, the songbird will appear.
In cricketing terms, being proactive is best described in fielding. Fielders can be reactive, active or proactive. Reactive fielders are those who react after the ball leaves the bat which makes them likely candidates to drop the catch because they are not prepared at all. Active fielders are those who are aware and can catch the ball if it comes straight at them- nothing more. Proactive fielders are the ones who anticipate catches in their field of control, including the farthest areas. These guys anticipate catches well before they become a reality and are so tuned to the minute changes in batsmen's mood and technique that when a catch comes anywhere in their range they are ready for it and give it a shot. By converting half-chances these fielders change the game. Proactive people do exactly that. They convert half chances into chances with their extra preparation. They are the winners.
This is the first habit. One of immense responsibility, one that takes into account all possibilities that can be covered and be prepared for every one of them.
2) Begin with the end in mind
Covey starts this chapter dramatically by taking us to our funeral three years from now. What are your family members saying, your friends, your co-workers, your community people about you? He says we have time to change our ways and change those speeches. Beginning with the end in mind is about having a clear destination so we can figure out the way. All things are created twice, once in the mind and once in reality. We are better off living by design than by default. Covey insists we write a personal mission statement which will serve as our guidebook, make our lives principle-centred and not work, money, family etc centred. With the right principles, everything will be taken care of in balance. He exhorts us to imagine and to affirm, to expand perspective rr as my friend AP Srinivas says - to hallucinate even about the big picture. Once you have a distinct vision look at your roles and goals and work on them.
To me this is incredibly insightful. Normally we start with what we have, let's say the resources we have in our pocket if we were to start a business. We would be severely impeding our vision when we start like that. It will be a stunted vision which may not do justice to our potential. The ideal way and this is what I learned while working in the bank, is to first envision the biggest scope of the dream and then look for the resources. Typically in life, we always find the resources when we want them if we look hard enough. All we need to do is to commit to a vision. So we start with the end vision of what we want to achieve as the first step. Then work backwards and you will find the resources you want. No one starts a huge project with all the money in his pocket, he sells the vision and people who believe in that vision invest in it.
In cricketing terms, this is the equivalent to starting with a long term goal, whether it is winning the world cup or being number 1 and working towards it. When the end is clear and everyone believes in it, they find the resources. India did in 1983, in 2011. We did when we won the league championship in 1994. The goal fuels energy into the present. that's why they say, dream big and hold on to it.
Covey gives an exercise where we write down all our roles and see how we are faring in it. It makes the road clear.
3) First Things First
Covey says that habit one says you're the creator and habit 2 says you begin with a mental creation. Now he says, this is time for execution. All effective management says - put first things first. as simple as that. It is one of the most powerful ideas ever to have been told and one that differentiates the wheat from the chaff, the successful from the not successful. In the Ivy Lee method, in the OKR method, in the big rocks experiment, it's always about the priorities. Most of us don't know our priorities and even if we do, we don't act on them because we are not able to see immediate results. Mostly our important things are long term and require daily incremental work.
Covey splits up time into Important and Urgent work. In his time management matrix, he gets four quadrants. In Q1, which is Urgent and Important, we are loaded with crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects which lead to burnout and stress. In quadrant 2, which is Important and Not Urgent, we are spending most of our time in prevention, production capability building activities, recognising opportunities, planning and recreation with less urgent work which show vision, perspective, balanced outlook and control over crises. In quadrant 3 we have Not Important but Urgent work, which is mainly filled with interruptions, some mails, some calls, some reports, some meetings and popular activities leading to short term focus, crisis, no goals and plans, a victim mindset and shallow relationships. In quadrant 4, we have Not Urgent and Not Important which is trivia, busy work, time-wasters and pleasant activities which leads to no work done.
In an ideal world, we should be in quadrant 2 where we are doing Important and Not Urgent work. As simple as that. Pick up what's most important in your life and work on it first, then pick the second priority and work on it, and so on. Nothing else comes in the way unless there's some grave emergency - not a phone call, not an SMS.
I understood it best when I sat down to write books. I would easily get distracted and write blogs or browse the net, Until one day I started working from 5 am to 8 am and realised I could get an amazing amount of work done. A walk after that and I was done with my two big jobs for the day - writing and exercise. By 930, I had the whole day out in front of me.
In cricketing terms also we address priorities. Mostly we find that at net practice we are doing everything but what's important like working on a specific area. Easily the most powerful idea for productivity. First things first is a 10x idea that can be applied anywhere.
Covey also talks of building an emotional bank account which s interesting. He asks us to make six different types of deposits - understanding an individual, attending to little things, keeping commitments, clarifying expectations, showing personal integrity and apologising sincerely when we let people down. Doable.
Interpersonal -Leadership
4) Think Win-Win
With this habit, we move into the realm of interpersonal leadership. Of the 6 possibilities that arise out of negotiations - win-win, win-lose, win, lose-lose, lose-win and win-win or no deal, Covey suggests we look at win-win or win-win or no deal. He emphasises that there are five dimensions to win-win - character, relationships, agreements, support systems and processes. He urges us o balance courage with consideration.
A powerful idea where every collaborator gains. Instead of the old ideas where someone had to lose for us to win, here we are all saying we will all win. we will stand by one another and we will pull it off together. Win-win is a secure and abundant mindset, where everyone has enough, where we don't have to grab and hoard and take another's share.
It is a brilliant idea and one that will open up your mind to the abundance of things in the world when we start to share.
5) First Seek to Understand then Talk
This is a brilliant one to make connection and win over people. Nothing works like empathic listening. Listen to their viewpoint first instead of listening to them from autobiographical responses such as Probing, Evaluating, Advising and Interpreting. Listen without judgment, with empathy and only after fully understanding, prescribe.
This habit is all about empathy, about really communicating from a space of understanding. It means that first we set our agenda aside, then set our judgments aside, then genuinely listen to what the other person is trying to say by understanding, listening and asking questions until we fully get their perspective. Most times, the fact that they have been listened to, itself gives people a lot of comfort. They do not feel insecure, nor do you need to feel insecure. When we approach interactions from this angle, we start from a space where we have the best chance of helping one another.
In cricketing terms, I never felt this more acutely than when I was a selector. One of our colleagues was continuously creating some issues or another until one day I asked him to come with his ideas first. He was surprised at this space and came with the perfect team we could think of. I realised later that he always felt insecure because he had lesser academic qualifications and never felt heard. This time he felt heard and behaved rationally and not from a threatened space.
6) Synergise
Covey talks of creating synergistic communication by creating and safe environment and opening your heart. It appears that the cornerstone of synergy to happen is trust, valuing each others differences, being vulnerable. A bit like what Project Aristotle found out - that the best teams felt they were in a secure space where hey could make mistakes.
Synergising is the simple principle of making two and two add up to five. This is about seeking out the efficiencies in the system, to leverage what we have to the utmost. It is something we must be proactively looking to doing every reaction, that the sum of the whole should always be greater than its parts. Every association and relation should aim for this ideal.
But then it is easier said than done. It certainly needs someone who knows he to create that space where everyone feels they can contribute. MSD was one such. One concept I found helpful in this area are the two questions by the Acces Conscious guys - 'what else is possible' and 'how can it get better than this'. What an amazingly simple concept to reach for better and never be satisfied.
7) Sharpen the Saw
Covey talks of renewal, the time to sharpen the saw as improving our PC, our production capability. This includes four areas - Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Mental. In physical renewal, we focus on exercise, nutrition and stress management. we work on endurance, speed, strength and flexibility. In emotional renewal, we build empathy, service orientation, synergy and internal security. In spiritual management, we work on value clarification, commitment, study, meditation. In mental renewal we work on reading, writing, visualising and planning.
The idea is that a blunt axe won't cut efficiently so you need to work and renew your tools so they are best when you get to the real work. Whether it is about training during the offseason, or taking time off to renew and recharge on a daily basis or annual basis, or just going to training from someone who can change your life, reading or listening to talks or viewing videos, continuously sharpen the saw says Covey.
I never realised the importance of this until I jumped off the corporate bandwagon and decided to do work on my own. I then started reading, so much more and deliberately. Now I read 70-80 books a year and completely enjoy the process of queuing them up. Saw with movies, which I now choose with deliberation and rarely watch something that is out of the blue. I feel the books, movies, videos have all added to me and I love the different perspectives and angles each one comes from.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is as good as any to begin one's guiding principles and adopt these habits as second nature. It is perfect at many levels and creates an environment of high energy, of cooperation, of being secure as a person and in the world. Everyone should own a copy of it and read it every now and practice the values one by one.
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