Summary – The 8th Habit “From Effectiveness to Greatness” — Stephen Covey

Summary – The 8th Habit – From Effectiveness to Greatness – Stephen Covey

In summary, the 8th Habit is all about finding your voice as an
individual, as a team and as an organization.

There are four disciplines which can help close the gap between
focus and execution for any organization:

1. Always focus on the one thing that is wildly important.
People are naturally wired to be able to do only one thing
at a time to a standard of excellence. Therefore, have just a
few goals which are of the greatest strategic importance and
which will provide you with maximum leverage.

To decide your organisation’s top two or three “wildly
important” goals:

Use an importance screen
Ask: Which goals, if not achieved, would render all other
goals to be of little or no consequence?
Use a stakeholder screen
Ask: Which goals are the most important for your
stakeholders?

Use a strategic screen
Ask: What is the most consequential thing that can be done
to advance your strategy?

2. Create a compelling scoreboard everyone will want to use.
People play differently whenever they know a score is being
kept. With this in mind, it’s vital that you create a scoreboard
which is highly visible and which will reflect how you’re
doing. Your scoreboard needs to be highly visible and must
reflect progress towards your wildly important goals. It must
be visible, dynamic and accessible. It also must be updated
daily to reflect the impact of current events.
Your scoreboard may be in the form of a bar graph, a trend line,
a pie chart, a Gantt chart or it might look like a thermometer
or speedometer. For example, a scoreboard for a services
company might look like this:

3. Translate lofty goals into very specific actions.
There’s always a vast difference between lofty goals and
what’s happening at the front line. The stated strategy is
what leaders talk about. The real strategy is what people do
every day. Close the gap by explaining exactly what everyone
is supposed to do about the organization’s goals.

Usually, this will take some creativity. You’ll have to identify
the new and better behaviors needed to achieve your goals
and then translate those intentions into specific weekly and
daily tasks. This is necessary, however, if you want the people
at the front lines to be suffi ciently empowered.

4. Hold each other accountable for results all the time.
People need to meet together frequently – monthly, weekly
or daily – to account for progress on goals. These sessions
should then help the organization to refocus on what’s wildly
important.

To make these accountability sessions work, keep them brief.
Focus on three key issues only:

A quick report on the vital few issues at hand.
A quick discussion on any viable new alternatives which
have come to mind.

A short give-and-take discussion where managers focus
on clearing the path forward and removing obstacles for
the people in the organization.

The key to institutionalizing a culture of execution is to regularly
measure and track how well the organization is doing. Some
people develop a collective measure of execution which is
analogous to an IQ (intelligence quotient). This new measure
– xQ (execution quotient) – may be quantified by grassroots
information gathering at regular intervals. If the organization is
getting better at executing, its xQ will rise.

Once an organization becomes eff ective using the 8th Habit,
it can then use its voice to serve others. As this happens,
organizations will take the lead in solving some of society’s most
pressing problems and needs. This will enhance the sustainability
of the organization and move society as a whole into an era of
wisdom that has never before been feasible. In this environment,
organizations will no longer be focused on “What’s in it for me?”
Rather, the key question to be answered will become, “What can
we contribute as an organization?”

“I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of
mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of
selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.”
– John Rockefeller, Jr.

“The surest way to reveal one’s character is not through adversity but
by giving them power.”
– Abraham Lincoln

“The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and
far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of
before, and which they are not capable of alone. The consciousness of
belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part
of a personality that reached where we know not where, in space and
time, greatens the heart to the limit of the soul’s ideal, and builds out
the supreme of the character.”
– General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

© 2005 Copyright Sound Ideas

Find your voice… and inspire others to do likewise
Find your voice Inspire others to find their voices

On this day…

• Mark 2 – 2024
• Mark 1 – 2024
• Micah 6 – 2023
• Hosea 5 – 2023
• Take Courage, Young Mother – 2011
• “Never” – A Word Worth Its Weight in Gold – 2011
• Ephesians 2:4 – 2009
• Sola Gratia – 2009
• Day 8 – David and Goliath – 1 Samuel 16-17 – 2009
• Day 7 – Conquering The Promised Land – Joshua 1 – 2009