Covey's The 8th Habit--Chapters 1-3

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I am currently reading Dr. Stephen R Covey’s book The 8^th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. In the third chapter he suggests that we teach and share as we go. That interested me because that’s the primary purpose of this blog, to teach and share what I learn as I go.

In this first post I would like to summarize the first three chapters. Chapter 1, “The Pain”, Chapter 2, “The Problem”, Chapter 3 “The solution.”

Chapter 1, “The Pain”

I think this chapter can be summarized by a question Dr. Covey would often ask his audiences. He would ask his large audiences “How many agree that the vast majority of the workforce in your organization possesses far more talent, intelligence, capability and creativity than their present jobs require or even allow?” He then goes on to give some facts and figures that can be best be summarized with the following quotation: “If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only four of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is there’s. Only two of the 11 would care. Only two of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but two players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.”

Dr. Covey then goes on to explain what voice is. Voice is, “unique personal significance… Lies at the nexus of talent, passion, need, conscience.”

Chapter 2, “The Problem”

This chapter is fairly simple. The basic idea is that we’ve inherited business and managerial tactics from the industrial age where we tend to manage people as things while neglecting the whole person. Dr. Covey argues that we need to view people as multidimensional wherein we have for components represented by the mind the heart the spirit and the body which represent our basic needs as individuals. The most thought-provoking idea for me came on page 22 where Covey talks about organizations inspiring their people to “volunteer their highest talents and contributions.”

Chapter 3, “The Solution”

In this chapter Covey invites us to 1) find our voice, and 2) inspire others to find their voice. In my mind voice is that which truly inspires us and pushes us to volunteer our best efforts and to use our highest talents to make the greatest contribution. And that, I presume, is what the rest of the book is about.