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under-react to the stimuli we receive. Lashing out at family or co-workers needlessly and or not having sufficient mental capacity to recognize or respond appropriately to important occurrences throughout our day.
Allen’s focus is to understand how the mind works and to work with it as opposed to against it. Our minds are an incredible gift. It is what separates us from the animal kingdom and creates the incredible opportunity we have to devote our lives to making the world a happier place.
However, our minds have strengths, weaknesses and inherent limitations. We have to know these and understand how to build a complementary system to maximize the usefulness of our minds. Allen provides such a system by focusing on getting our minds to empty and therefore allowing us to focus only on the present moment. If there is something on your mind, it will not be functioning at its best.
The Dalai Lama makes a similar point in “The Art of Happiness”.
The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our peace of mind, the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life
Stop Doing Lists
Jim Collins points out in “Good to Great” that your stop doing list is every bit as important as your to-do list. Once you successfully work through your vision, mission and values statements and your two page business plan, you will be able to manage your time much more wisely because of all the activities you can stop doing!
I think Collins’ idea of a formal organization andor individual stop doing list is an incredibly leveraged way to increase you and your entire teams’ productivity.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s legendary work “The Goal” defines productivity generally as any activity that is bringing you closer to your goals. Therefore, after you clarify your goals and measurements on your two-page business plan, you can start to drill down over time on tightening up your understanding of the concept of productivity vs. activity.
Activity is simply thrashing about and throwing a lot of things up on the all and hoping something sticks. Productivity is calculated action management to bring you incrementally closer to your goals. This is a key ingredient in the mysterious recipe of execution.
Energy Management
The book “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz makes a case the energy, not time is our most precious resource individually and organizationally.
I think this is an important point. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Yet we accomplish such varying results with that same time. It makes sense that the relative amount of energy and engagement we feel would be a major contributing factor to the results we achieve.
The authors define full engagement as follows: physically energized, mentally focused, emotionally connected and spiritually aligned.
Physically energized relates to Covey’s seven habit of “Sharpening the Saw”. To attain physical energy, you need to train like an athlete, because you are one; a corporate athlete.
Mental focus equates to the David Allen principle of having a “mind like water” Emotionally connected is being passionate and purposeful and Spiritually aligned is the equivalent to the Buddhist principal of Right Livelihood.
The objective of the Full Engagement system is to allow us to “Perform in the storm” which is the same principal that rests at the top of the John Wooden Success Pyramid “Perform at your best when your best is needed”.
Our lifelong energy objective as stated in the book is “To burn as brightly as possible for as long as possible in the service of what really matters”. This bottom line of the Erwin Raphael McManus book “Chasing Daylight” as well.
Chasing Daylight
Another excellent resource in the time management arena is the book “Chasing Daylight” by Erwin Raphael McManus. He creates an excellent metaphor for time management and refers to it as moment management.
The basic premise of the book is to create a sense of urgency for you to choose to live in the context of listening to God and doing his work here on earth. I have taken his thoughts and secularized them below.
Moment Management
Life is all about the power of present moment choices. The first choice you need to make is to choose to live. There is a big difference between living, really living your life vs. existing, merely existing. Essentially going through the motions and punching the clock putting in your time in this life.
The Buddha taught that we need to appreciate this precious human life we are leading. To truly appreciate it, we need to make the most of each moment we are give. In any game, even the game of life, somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game.
We should therefore, live in a constant state of urgency, but short of a state of panic. We need to always stay in control and “never let them see you sweat”
We must seize the power in each present moment, because our decisions in a handful of these key critical present moments will likely define our lives. The interesting thing about these defining moments is that they rarely come at a convenient time and we run a great risk of missing them altogether because we are so wrapped up in our mundane lives we fail to recognize the significance of the moment.
Our schedules are so packed with the mundane and ordinary that we are irritated when we are interrupted with these potentially miraculous and extraordinary moments. Are you ready to react at a moments notice?
When we talk about Perfect Deed or Action in the Buddhist sense, we are really recognizing that the most important activity that we engage in each day is making choices; making choices in each of our present moments. Our lives become the cumulative result of all of our present moment choices.
Each individual moment is the context in which we live, our choices in the present moments chart our course and determine our destinations. Our present moment choices either move us towards long-term happiness or further away from that goal.
Here is a quote on the importance of present moment choices from the Dalai Lama’s “The Art of Happiness”
We need to be able to judge the long-term and short-term consequences of your behaviors and weigh the two.
People (Team Member) Management
Per Jim Collins (Good to Great), the people recipe for success is as follows; you need disciplined people to be engaged in disciplined thought and disciplined action. He refers to this as a culture of discipline. Collins’ premise is that all companies have a culture either on purpose or by default, some companies have some discipline, but only the truly great companies have a culture of discipline.
The major attributes these disciplined people need to display for success in the 21st century are entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and an internal customer service mindset.
Here is what the Dalai Lama has to day about discipline in “The Art of Happiness”.
A disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering. Discipline here means self discipline. Bringing about discipline in ones mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.
Creating Community
The second purpose in the five purposes tool described earlier is always to create community. It is essentially a people purpose.
Buddha recognized the mission critical function of community building and taught a specific system. I have paraphrased and modernized the Buddha’s language as follows:
• Practice sincerity of speech, avoiding gossip and double talk so that you might enjoy the joy of fellowship.
• Practice the kindness of action.
• Practice a sympathy of spirit
• Provide for an equal sharing of common property.
• Share a common purpose or mission
• Share a common vision and set of values
He also provided 7 rules for community building:
1. Gather together frequently and discuss your vision, mission and values. This is the essential purpose and function of the organizational meetings discussed in the communication tools section.
2. Respect one another.
3. Revere the purpose (mission) and observe the values.
4. Older and younger respect each other with courtesy. This is basically a mandate to value each others differences, also a key Covey principle.
5. Sincerity and reverence mark their bearing, serious people doing serious work, reframe from idle talk.
6. Purify your minds in a private place; meditate on how you can create value by plugging yourself into the organizations quest to create happiness for all of its stakeholders.
7. Be thrifty and frugal.
Rick Warren’s Advice on Community Building
The following is adapted from Rick’s “The Purpose Driven Life” book:
The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Do we spend enough time directly with our people? Do we spend enough of our time with people issues? When we spend time, do we give our people real focused attention?
In a real community you experience authenticity. Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives.
In a real community people experience mutuality. Mutuality is the art of giving and receiving, it is depending on each other. It is about building reciprocal relationships, shared responsibilities and helping each other.
In a real community people experience empathy. Every time you understand and affirm someone’s feelings, you build fellowship.
In a real community you experience mercy. Fellowship is where mistakes are not rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship is about resolution as opposed to retaliation.
Real community requires commitment. Real community takes honesty! When conflict is handled correctly, we grow closer to each other.
Real community requires humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.
Real community requires courtesy. Courtesy is respecting our differences, being considerate of each other’s feelings, and being patient with those who irritate us.
Real community requires confidentiality. Gossip always causes hurt and divisions and it destroys fellowship. The fellowship of the business is more important than any one individual in the organization. You must confront your “well poisoners”, and if they do not modify their behaviors, politely and professionally ask them to move on.
Real community requires frequency. You must have frequent regular contact within your group in order to build genuine fellowship. Relationship building takes time; there are no shortcuts to building a culture of community within your organization.
Justice System
Buddha taught the following justice system. There has to be a formal system to evaluate if team members or suppliers have violated the terms of their employment or the spirit of partnership in a value chain.
Buddha advised that a supervisor will temper their verdicts with compassion and in accordance with the following five principles:
1. Examine the truthfulness of the facts presented.
2. Ascertain they the alleged violation falls within his jurisdiction.
3. Judge justly, you must enter into the mind of the accused. A determination of the intent of the accused should weigh in the severity of the verdict.
4. The ultimate verdict should be pronounced with kindness and not harshness. You should apply a proper punishment but should not go beyond that. Instruct the violator with kindness and give them time to reflect upon their mistakes.
5. Judge in sympathy but not
Allen’s focus is to understand how the mind works and to work with it as opposed to against it. Our minds are an incredible gift. It is what separates us from the animal kingdom and creates the incredible opportunity we have to devote our lives to making the world a happier place.
However, our minds have strengths, weaknesses and inherent limitations. We have to know these and understand how to build a complementary system to maximize the usefulness of our minds. Allen provides such a system by focusing on getting our minds to empty and therefore allowing us to focus only on the present moment. If there is something on your mind, it will not be functioning at its best.
The Dalai Lama makes a similar point in “The Art of Happiness”.
The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our peace of mind, the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life
Stop Doing Lists
Jim Collins points out in “Good to Great” that your stop doing list is every bit as important as your to-do list. Once you successfully work through your vision, mission and values statements and your two page business plan, you will be able to manage your time much more wisely because of all the activities you can stop doing!
I think Collins’ idea of a formal organization andor individual stop doing list is an incredibly leveraged way to increase you and your entire teams’ productivity.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s legendary work “The Goal” defines productivity generally as any activity that is bringing you closer to your goals. Therefore, after you clarify your goals and measurements on your two-page business plan, you can start to drill down over time on tightening up your understanding of the concept of productivity vs. activity.
Activity is simply thrashing about and throwing a lot of things up on the all and hoping something sticks. Productivity is calculated action management to bring you incrementally closer to your goals. This is a key ingredient in the mysterious recipe of execution.
Energy Management
The book “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz makes a case the energy, not time is our most precious resource individually and organizationally.
I think this is an important point. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Yet we accomplish such varying results with that same time. It makes sense that the relative amount of energy and engagement we feel would be a major contributing factor to the results we achieve.
The authors define full engagement as follows: physically energized, mentally focused, emotionally connected and spiritually aligned.
Physically energized relates to Covey’s seven habit of “Sharpening the Saw”. To attain physical energy, you need to train like an athlete, because you are one; a corporate athlete.
Mental focus equates to the David Allen principle of having a “mind like water” Emotionally connected is being passionate and purposeful and Spiritually aligned is the equivalent to the Buddhist principal of Right Livelihood.
The objective of the Full Engagement system is to allow us to “Perform in the storm” which is the same principal that rests at the top of the John Wooden Success Pyramid “Perform at your best when your best is needed”.
Our lifelong energy objective as stated in the book is “To burn as brightly as possible for as long as possible in the service of what really matters”. This bottom line of the Erwin Raphael McManus book “Chasing Daylight” as well.
Chasing Daylight
Another excellent resource in the time management arena is the book “Chasing Daylight” by Erwin Raphael McManus. He creates an excellent metaphor for time management and refers to it as moment management.
The basic premise of the book is to create a sense of urgency for you to choose to live in the context of listening to God and doing his work here on earth. I have taken his thoughts and secularized them below.
Moment Management
Life is all about the power of present moment choices. The first choice you need to make is to choose to live. There is a big difference between living, really living your life vs. existing, merely existing. Essentially going through the motions and punching the clock putting in your time in this life.
The Buddha taught that we need to appreciate this precious human life we are leading. To truly appreciate it, we need to make the most of each moment we are give. In any game, even the game of life, somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game.
We should therefore, live in a constant state of urgency, but short of a state of panic. We need to always stay in control and “never let them see you sweat”
We must seize the power in each present moment, because our decisions in a handful of these key critical present moments will likely define our lives. The interesting thing about these defining moments is that they rarely come at a convenient time and we run a great risk of missing them altogether because we are so wrapped up in our mundane lives we fail to recognize the significance of the moment.
Our schedules are so packed with the mundane and ordinary that we are irritated when we are interrupted with these potentially miraculous and extraordinary moments. Are you ready to react at a moments notice?
When we talk about Perfect Deed or Action in the Buddhist sense, we are really recognizing that the most important activity that we engage in each day is making choices; making choices in each of our present moments. Our lives become the cumulative result of all of our present moment choices.
Each individual moment is the context in which we live, our choices in the present moments chart our course and determine our destinations. Our present moment choices either move us towards long-term happiness or further away from that goal.
Here is a quote on the importance of present moment choices from the Dalai Lama’s “The Art of Happiness”
We need to be able to judge the long-term and short-term consequences of your behaviors and weigh the two.
People (Team Member) Management
Per Jim Collins (Good to Great), the people recipe for success is as follows; you need disciplined people to be engaged in disciplined thought and disciplined action. He refers to this as a culture of discipline. Collins’ premise is that all companies have a culture either on purpose or by default, some companies have some discipline, but only the truly great companies have a culture of discipline.
The major attributes these disciplined people need to display for success in the 21st century are entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and an internal customer service mindset.
Here is what the Dalai Lama has to day about discipline in “The Art of Happiness”.
A disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering. Discipline here means self discipline. Bringing about discipline in ones mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.
Creating Community
The second purpose in the five purposes tool described earlier is always to create community. It is essentially a people purpose.
Buddha recognized the mission critical function of community building and taught a specific system. I have paraphrased and modernized the Buddha’s language as follows:
• Practice sincerity of speech, avoiding gossip and double talk so that you might enjoy the joy of fellowship.
• Practice the kindness of action.
• Practice a sympathy of spirit
• Provide for an equal sharing of common property.
• Share a common purpose or mission
• Share a common vision and set of values
He also provided 7 rules for community building:
1. Gather together frequently and discuss your vision, mission and values. This is the essential purpose and function of the organizational meetings discussed in the communication tools section.
2. Respect one another.
3. Revere the purpose (mission) and observe the values.
4. Older and younger respect each other with courtesy. This is basically a mandate to value each others differences, also a key Covey principle.
5. Sincerity and reverence mark their bearing, serious people doing serious work, reframe from idle talk.
6. Purify your minds in a private place; meditate on how you can create value by plugging yourself into the organizations quest to create happiness for all of its stakeholders.
7. Be thrifty and frugal.
Rick Warren’s Advice on Community Building
The following is adapted from Rick’s “The Purpose Driven Life” book:
The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Do we spend enough time directly with our people? Do we spend enough of our time with people issues? When we spend time, do we give our people real focused attention?
In a real community you experience authenticity. Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives.
In a real community people experience mutuality. Mutuality is the art of giving and receiving, it is depending on each other. It is about building reciprocal relationships, shared responsibilities and helping each other.
In a real community people experience empathy. Every time you understand and affirm someone’s feelings, you build fellowship.
In a real community you experience mercy. Fellowship is where mistakes are not rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship is about resolution as opposed to retaliation.
Real community requires commitment. Real community takes honesty! When conflict is handled correctly, we grow closer to each other.
Real community requires humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.
Real community requires courtesy. Courtesy is respecting our differences, being considerate of each other’s feelings, and being patient with those who irritate us.
Real community requires confidentiality. Gossip always causes hurt and divisions and it destroys fellowship. The fellowship of the business is more important than any one individual in the organization. You must confront your “well poisoners”, and if they do not modify their behaviors, politely and professionally ask them to move on.
Real community requires frequency. You must have frequent regular contact within your group in order to build genuine fellowship. Relationship building takes time; there are no shortcuts to building a culture of community within your organization.
Justice System
Buddha taught the following justice system. There has to be a formal system to evaluate if team members or suppliers have violated the terms of their employment or the spirit of partnership in a value chain.
Buddha advised that a supervisor will temper their verdicts with compassion and in accordance with the following five principles:
1. Examine the truthfulness of the facts presented.
2. Ascertain they the alleged violation falls within his jurisdiction.
3. Judge justly, you must enter into the mind of the accused. A determination of the intent of the accused should weigh in the severity of the verdict.
4. The ultimate verdict should be pronounced with kindness and not harshness. You should apply a proper punishment but should not go beyond that. Instruct the violator with kindness and give them time to reflect upon their mistakes.
5. Judge in sympathy but not
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