Issue No. 219 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests you borrow the author’s “52 Rules” idea and challenge your staff to write your own “rules to live by.” It might be a perfect team project to galvanize your staff around your mission, vision and values. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Steal This Idea!
You’ll get double value out of this week’s book if you read it—and then steal it. Steal the brilliant idea, that is.
Jerry White has been-around-the-block a few times. The president emeritus of The Navigators, Jerry is uniquely experienced to offer up his 52 “rules to live by.” With a PhD in astronautics, service as a former mission controller at Cape Canaveral, Air Force Academy prof and retired Air Force major general, his wisdom oozes out of every unique topic he tackles—about two pages per insight.
The table of contents got my reading/learning motors started—and I quickly checked 14 topics that immediately arrested my attention:
--Write Something Every Day
--Let Magazines Sit for Two Weeks
--Get Mad at the Right Things
--Don’t Get Mad at the Little Things
--Watch Out for Icebergs
--Call Back
--Do Some Things Poorly
--Leave Some Things Undone
--Focus on Contribution, not Position
--Make Lists
--Compete, but Don’t Be Competitive
--Do What You Say You’ll Do
--Expect Your Leaders to Disappoint You
--Learn in Depth—Don’t Be Shallow
White organizes his 52 principles into three categories: A Better You, Relationship Rules, and Enhancing Your Work and Effectiveness.
Here’s his wisdom on reading: “Someone has said if you can read but choose not to, you’re really no better off than someone who’s illiterate.” Jerry suggests a goal of reading at least one book a month. (And let me add this—if you delegate some of your reading to your direct reports, you can “read” four books a month if one staffer per week reports on a book.)
On the value of getting angry, White quotes Aristotle, “Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy.” White then shares briefly—and transparently—about his own anger when his son “was brutally and senselessly murdered in a random crime.” Powerful.
In the foreword to White’s book, Ken Blanchard suggests you read a chapter a week so you’ll chew slowly on all 52 chapters over the span of a year. And that’s where the stealing comes in. Steal the idea.
After you and your team read this book, then write and publish your own book. With so many self-publishing (print on demand) options available, challenge your staff to write their own “52 Rules to Live By.” Steal White’s format, but create your own memorable rules—unique to your organization’s culture and ethos. Ask everyone, at every level including volunteers and board members, to serve up their own wisdom, one per weekly staff meeting. Ask your best editor to spiff it all up and presto—in a year—you’ll have your book of 52 rules.
To order from Amazon, click on the title for for Rules to Live By: 52 Principles for a Better Life, by Jerry White.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) In his chapter on “Do Some Things Poorly,” White tells about meticulously filling five-pound seed bags as a teenager. But his perfection—to the ounce—was not appreciated by his boss who wanted production, not perfection! How have you coached someone who tilted more towards perfection than production?
2) If you were to contribute two pages of wisdom to our own “52 Rules to Live By” book, what topic would you like to address?
Balancing the 3-Legged Stool - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
Speaking of tilting inappropriately, one of the big ideas in Mastering the Management Buckets is that organizations must constantly monitor how balanced they are in the three arenas of Cause, Community and Corporation.
Like a three-legged stool, it takes all three arenas to be effective, yet some organizations focus only on Cause (results, customer, strategy, etc.) and ignore Community (people, culture, team, hoopla, etc.). Other organizations fine-tune the Corporation side (board, budget, operations, systems, etc.)—but a well-oiled machine without Cause or Community wears thin on activity without results. It’s a delicate dance and few leaders get it balanced 100 percent of the time.
For more on Cause, Community and Corporation visit the Management Buckets website—and complete the Management Buckets Self-assessment Tool to see how balanced your organization actually is.
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