Notes of “7 Habits of Highly Effective people” by S.Covey
I’ve read this book on english so decided it would be more effective (lol) to write these notes also on english.
Few words about how I got to read this book and why should anyone read it at all. First of all this book can be seen in many lists “favourite books of XX“, from time to time I stumble on its mention in some personal blogs and lastly it’s promoted as bestseller in different blogs about management.
The general impression of this books is that it is a framework on how to organise and develop your live. I’m the one of those who strive to set any action to some kind of framework and formalize it’s need and expected effect. Generally speaking I liked the book, and even though I read it for almost 3 months there are a number of things I would like to go deeper with.
Structure of the framework (book)
Independence
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
Interdependence
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
Continuous Improvements
7. Sharpen the saw
Independence — is about ability to change the world around you by changing you paradigm — the way you see the things and act upon them. In the books it is discussed in such terms as Paradigms and Principles & Inside-out. Below is the list of interesting quotes from the book.
Interdependence —is how to communicate and cooperate with people effectively. Author focus on win-win and synergize strategies.
Thoughts and Conclusions
Proactive people
In Independence part of the book author pay much attention to proactivity and its power comparing to reactivity. It is about ability to control yourself and response wisely on any event. This is very important for me personally because I’m a kind of emotional person and often I react the way that makes me regret. So the explanation that had most influence on me is:
Knowing that we are responsible — “response-able” — is fundamental to effectiveness and to every other habit of effectiveness we will discuss.
Priorities and things to do
That’s the main thing discussed in GTD (getting things done). First of all we should understand what to do, and especially why should we do it. Right questions can help us to find us such deeds, and the practise described in the book “begin with end in mind” is a good tool to understand what is really important.
Next step is to organize our everyday work. There are always a plenty of things to do so we should prioritise them in some wat. There is a good scheme that can help to group all the things you need to do, and than prioritise them:
Avoid Quadrant 4 things, and try to organize and decrease loss of time on Quadrant 3. Don’t Ignore Quadrant 2 things because you “have no time”. It’s the thing I would like to hear every morning I got to work.
Listening and importance of understanding
Empathic listening is so powerful because it gives you accurate data to work with. Instead of projecting your own autobiography and assuming thoughts, feelings, motives and interpretation, you’re dealing with the reality inside another person’s head and heart.
Skill of listening and understanding other persons is important in interdependence. I often interrupt people trying push them with authority and try to make discussion as much effective as possible. Making discussion effective can be achieved in less iterations if you listen carefully without iterations at first.
That’s the skill I would like to practise. Listening carefull and continue the discussion only after you 100% sure you got the talk partner point.
There is an opposite side of listening without interruption. There could be a discussion with person who either have difficulties with articulating an idea or just don’t understand his point yet.
Different terms and vision
In Chapter 6 there were some examples of people in order to synergize — first one have to understand their partners and used partner language to explain the win-win proposal.
I would use here the “ubiquitous language” term from DDD by Martin Fowler. More and more I came to understanding on how important to understand each other, to develop a culture where people use the same language and understand other team paradigms. In particular, Sprint demos is one of the activities that allows our teams to see user problems in same paradigm (I’m trying it to be the user’s paradigm) and describe these problems with same language.
Wait a minute
In chapter 7 there was a nice story sharpen the saw. I resonated with it and it made me thing about taking a break from time to time to understand my current position and remind myself about the goals and principles (habbits) I’m trying to follow.
Actually chapter 7 is about balance in 3 directions: health, spirit and mental state.
I’m quite clear about health, and understand what great impact physical activity have on my productivity. I practise jogging, however not often. Same with mental activity — reading books, public talks affect my work — the things I do and the way I do them. As for spirit.I do not meditate, but last several months showed me that there should be some practise to get out of the everyday rush and look around with clear mind.
Some interesting quotes
We began to realize that if we wanted to change the situation, we first had to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.
Almost all literature in the first 150 years focused on character ethic as the foundation of success things like Integrity humility Fidelity Temperance courage Justice patience industry Simplicity modesty and the Golden Rule.
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
This new level of thinking is what the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about. It’s a principle centered, character-based, inside-out approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness.
About effectiveness:
Effectiveness lies in the balance — what I call the P/PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs.
We can not change anyone:
as Marilyn Ferguson observed, “No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or by emotional appeal.”
About a Paradigm (I like this word btw):
A paradigm is like a pair of glasses; it affects the way you see everything in your life. If you look at things through the paradigm of correct principles, what you see in life is dramatically different from what you see through any other centered paradigm.
Priorities and Management Matrix Quadrants:
There are other people who spend a great deal of time in “urgent, but not important” Quadrant III, thinking they’re in Quadrant I. They spend most of their time reacting to things that are urgent, assuming they are also important. But the reality is that the urgency of these matters is often based on the priorities and expectations of others.
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
About delegation and possible ways to do it.
There are basically two kinds of delegation: “gofer delegation” and “stewardship delegation.” Gofer delegation means “Go for this, go for that, do this, do that, and tell me when it’s done.”
Stewardship delegation is focused on results instead of methods. It gives people a choice of method and makes them responsible for results. It takes more time in the beginning, but it’s time well invested. You can move the fulcrum over, you can increase your leverage, through stewardship delegation.
In leadership style, Win/Lose is the authoritarian approach: “I get my way; you don’t get yours.” Win/Lose people are prone to use position, power, credentials, possessions, or personality to get their way.
Relationships with children:
When a child comes to them with a problem, instead of thinking, “Oh, no! Not another problem!” their paradigm is, “Here is a great opportunity for me to really help my child and to invest in our relationship.”
Reward should stick to the goals:
If you want to achieve the goals and reflect the values in your mission statement, then you need to align the reward system with these goals and values. If it isn’t aligned systematically, you won’t be walking your talk. You’ll be in the situation of the manager
How we listen:
Because we listen autobiographically, we tend to respond in one of four ways. We evaluate — we either agree or disagree; we probe — we ask questions from our own frame of reference; we advise — we give counsel based on our own experience; or we interpret — we try to figure people out, to explain their motives, their behavior, based on our own motives and behavior.
Synergy:
What is synergy? Simply defined, it means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It means that the relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself. It is not only a part, but the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting part.