The Second Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Principles

Living unchanging principles in ever-changing ways

There are three great life principles we should understand and use to guide us in our everyday life:

1. We decide our attitude
   
   
2. We get what we give / the law of the farm / what goes around comes around
   
   
3. We have freedom of choice concerning how we feel, what we think, what we do, and who we are
   
   

Living these principles in ever-changing ways leads to living a life that means doing business successfully in our global village. Failure to live these principles is likely to mean the painful and slow death of our businesses.

These principles are unchanging and uncluttered by dogma - the hallmark of fundamentalists whether religious, political, business or otherwise. Fundamentalists believe their way is the only way and create dogma to justify their ideology. These great life principles don't change, nor do they favour ideology, beliefs, mindsets or culture; they simply just are.

We decide our attitude

When I was faced with a potentially life-ending illness 30 years ago, my doctor's advice was to first have an ‘attitude of gratitude'. He told me that in order to get well, I first must be grateful. I remember my reply as if it were yesterday. ‘You're telling me I may die and you want me to be grateful. You have to be joking!'

In recovery I learnt, and I am still learning, a great truth: "When we are grateful for what we've got, we can have more of what we want." The key to living this principle is to be grateful for all the circumstances we find ourselves in, regardless of whether they are positive or negative.

We get what we give / the law of the farm / what goes around comes around

My grandfather, a farmer, taught me this law. Grandfather knew it as "you reap what you sow". He believed, as I do, that, more often than not, if you have fertile ground, plough it, seed it and nurture it, you get a harvest. Today we phrase this law as "we get what we give" or "what goes around comes around". The key to living this principle is to focus on processes and detach ourselves from outcomes.

We have freedom of choice

We are the sum of the choices we have made and those we haven't. As history has demonstrated repeatedly, regardless of where we were born and even in the direst of circumstances, we can live a fulfilling, happy life that influences and inspires others. The key to living this principle is to make decisions that are based on the other principles and stick with the decision we make.

Key outcomes of living these principles - the world we share

We live in three worlds:

• The world in here;
  
  
• The world out there; and
  
  
• The world we share.
  
  

In here our views are just that, out there are other people's views. In the world we share there are the views we agree on. In any successful relationship the world we share is the critical one.

Human conflict is fundamentally the result of failure to agree on the goal or failure to agree on the strategies to achieve the goal.

I guarantee that today all of our troubles, personal, local and universal, are fundamentally based in our perceived need to hang onto the world in here, our issues with the world out there, and our failure to focus more on the world we share.

In the free countries we can express our personal views without fear. What makes life really worthwhile, is when we can share our views and come together with a shared view, which may mean we let go of things we previously held dear.

The world we share is the key to making globalisation work

I trust that today and every day you will resolve to build more of the world we share and be less precious about the world in here or the world out there.

Implications for your life and work

When we are grateful for what we've got we:

• Appreciate others more and others return the compliment
  
  
• Are more likely to deliver value to others, the essence of life and work
  
  
• Stop wasting time and energy on what we once saw as important and now see as frivolous
  
  
• Have far less conflict and as a result are more productive
  
  
• Are less precious about ‘my way' and more focused on finding a way together
  
  
• Make the most of what we have
  
  
• Get more of what we want
  
  

When we focus on processes and detach from outcomes we:

• Enjoy the journey and have less anxiety about achieving results
  
  
• Live in the now, the only moment that counts
  
  
• Create systems that fully support people as they fulfil their roles
  
  
• Develop more common sense policies, procedures and practices
  
  
• Pay more attention to detail while completing transactions and therefore have far less re-work
  
  
• Interact easily and more naturally, meaning we attract the best from others
  
  
• Achieve more of what we want and less of what we don't want
  
  

When our decision making is based on an attitude of gratitude and we are focused on processes and detached from outcomes we are more effective and efficient because we:

• Get things right first time more often
  
  
• Do the right thing by others who return the favour
  
  
• Learn from failures and mistakes, not just successes
  
  
• See the devil in the detail and therefore avoid disasters
  
  
• Remove the likelihood of unforeseen problems and challenges
  
  
• Involve people effected by our decisions and therefore have less resistance from them along the way
  
  
• Reap the rewards for being open, honest, and transparent
  
  

We are all in the same business: delivery of the value all stakeholders (directors, leadermanagers^TM employees, customers, suppliers, governments, communities, shareholders, nations, planet) demand, desire and deserve.

Living these unchanging principles in ever-changing ways means we:

• Can arrive at a shared view with our stakeholders of value without many of the problems and challenges of the past
  
  
• Are better equipped to live in our global village, a world where the internet means we can buy and sell any product or service from anywhere, with anyone
  
  
• Leave behind the conventional ways of doing business that are no longer effective
  
  

Read the article "The First Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Purpose"

Read the article "The Third Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Passion"

Read the article "The Fourth Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Promise"

Read the article "The Fifth Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Parables"

Buy Ian Berry's Audio Seminar CD from the Resource Centre:

What Real Leaders Do And Fake Ones Don't 

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