Drucker was interested in the behavior of people and his writings were marked by a focus on relationships among human beings, as opposed to crunching numbers. Drucker’s books were filled with lessons on how organizations can bring out the best in people and how workers can find a sense of community and dignity.

Some of Drucker’s key ideas:

• Respect of the worker. A manager’s job is both to prepare people to perform and give them freedom to do so.

• The need for “planned abandonment.” Businesses and governments have a natural human tendency to cling to yesterday’s successes.

• The need for community, fostering a healthy society where people find a sense of belonging and civic pride.

• The need to manage businesses by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value such as maximizing profit at all costs.

• A company’s primary responsibility is to serve its customers. Profit is not the primary goal, but rather an essential condition for the company’s continued existence.

• A belief in “the sickness of government.” Drucker made nonpartisan claims that government is often unable or unwilling to provide new services that people need.

• A belief in the notion that great companies could stand among humankind’s noblest inventions.

Closing quotes (all Peter F. Drucker):

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

NOTE: Contains significant direct quotes from Wikipedia.

By passing low expectations off as being nice or kind under the guise of going easy on someone, low expectations perpetuate another insidious myth: That discipline is mean. Discipline is simply a mental tool, a form of training that lets you develop the skills and abilities to make your life better. Like any tool, discipline can and has been misused at times but in general discipline is an incredibly valuable, frequently overlooked tool to create extraordinary value in your life.

Low expectations often involve mental laziness on both sides of the equation. Holding someone (or yourself) accountable is a LOT of hard work. It is much easier to just slide by. Easier that is until the time of testing comes and those who are not prepared diligently fail miserably.

Closing quotes:

“High expectations are the key to everything.” — Sam Walton, Walmart founder

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” — Charles Kettering, inventor of the electric starter; 1876-1958

“To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.” — Henry Louis Mencken; 1880-1956

“Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.” — Ralph Charell

The rapidly evolving field of neuroimaging (such as MRIs) has allowed researchers to monitor real time how a patient’s body responds to treatment. Neuroimaging shows that when a patient believes (or is deceived into believing) a placebo is an effective treatment, the body tends to respond positively. Physical changes occur in the body as a result of a treatment that by all rights should cause no change. Obviously, some sort of mind/body connection occurs, the outlines of which science is only beginning to tease out.

How great is the power of belief? Ritual? Suggestion?

Personally, I believe science will eventually find reams and reams of hard evidence for a tremendously strong mind/body connection and that the saying, “Think you can, think you can’t, you are right,” has a solid factual basis.

Closing quotes:

“Thoughts held in mind, attract in kind.”

“What you focus on expands.”

“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” — Albert Einstein

Note: This post is inspired by the article, “The Power of Nothing,” by Michael Specter, The New Yorker, December 22, 2011, pg. 30.

- Given $50, people react differently to a proposal that results in “losing $30” or “keeping $20” even though they are mathematically the same outcome.

- People feel more threatened by a disease that kills 1,286 of every 10,000 people versus one that kills 24.14% of the population, even though the latter is twice as fatal.

- People primed to think about money act more selfishly, picking up fewer dropped pencils than a non-primed subject.

- Even an oblique reference to old age results in people walking more slowly.

Basically, humans are NOT rational thinkers. To make good decisions we need to release the illusion of rationality, accept and understand our biases, and compensate.

- Framing: More people opt for surgery if told the “survival” rate is 90 percent, than when told the mortality rate is 10 percent.

- The sunk-cost fallacy: People wish to avoid regret; they continue to invest time and energy in failing outcomes rather than admit a mistake.

- Loss aversion: Most people choose to receive a sure $46 rather than take a 50% chance of making $100. A rational investor takes the bet, knowing the value of the bet is $50.

Closing quotes:

“Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.” — Sophocles, Greek playwright

“The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.” — Will Durant, Pulitzer Prize winning writer, best known for his 11 volume “The Story of Civilization”; 1885–1981

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week.” — George Bernard Shaw, British playwright

One of the most important duties of a society is to allocate resources to do the most good, create the most real value, lead to the greatest benefit.

You want to save lives?
400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco
250,000 Americans die each year from obesity
180,000 Americans die each year from mistakes in hospitals
15,000 Americans die each year from alcohol- or drug-related auto accidents

We incarcerate twice as many of our citizens as Europe or Japan or Australia, yet our crime rate is twice as high. This is incredibly expensive.

- Could it be our prisons are schools for crime?

- One out of 9 young Black American males has served prison time, usually for low-level drugs. Try to get a job with a felony record.

- Could it be the “War on Drugs” is a failed approach? Perhaps drugs are less a crime issue, more a health issue?

- How much more money would we have to spend on schools and hospitals if we stopped arresting and imprisoning pot users?

- We applaud legislators for being “tough on crime,” but perhaps that simplistic rhetoric fails to address the true complex reality?

Want less crime?

- Open free family-planning clinics in every economically-deprived neighborhood.

- Promote the idea that every child deserves to be a wanted child with parents emotionally and financially ready.

- Educate kids about the incredibly high level of commitment being a parent requires. Programs exist where kids care for a digital baby that cries and records responses.

The problems we face are multifaceted and difficult. If it were easy, it already would have been done. Solving challenging problems often requires a new level of thinking, a deep understanding of complexities, and a willingness to persist, to take a longer view than just the next election cycle. Our hearts can provide the commitment but we need our brains to prioritize and create the solutions.

Closing quotes:

“Often the quickest way out of a complex problem is the quickest way back in.” — Principle from Systems Theory

“To him who has a hammer, everything is a nail.” (Tendency to limit solutions to those related to viewers’ expertise, experience, or available resources)

“What we need here is a bigger hammer. (Tendency to persist on a path once it is chosen, in part because any other choice would be to admit a mistake)

A British study of 3,853 people aged 52 to 79, published October 31, 2011, in the “Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences,” showed that “those who reported feeling happiest had a 35% reduced risk of dying compared with those who reported feeling the least happy.” (USA Today, November 31, 2011, p. 2a). Instead of relying upon recollection, the study asked them to rate their feelings five times during one specific day. Five years later, researchers examined the group for mortality rates and correlated the rates with the reported levels of happiness.

Happiness (and its close and often overlooked cousin, contentment) is very much a matter of what we choose to focus on, where we choose to put our energies. Don’t believe me? Do an experiment.

Spend one day solely focused on what is wrong with your life—your problems, what could be better, should be better, how unfair life is, how you are not appreciated at work or at home. This is how too many people spend too much of their time! Call it your Frown Day.

Spend the next day with a smile on your face and a cheerful greeting for everyone who comes your way. Think about all the blessings in your life, all the people and things in your life you would miss if they were gone. Banish any negative, judgmental, or downer thoughts. Walk briskly, with energy and purpose. Focus only on the sunny side of the street, keep your head up high, and smile, smile, smile, as mood often follows actions. This is your Smile Day, your Happy Day.

Monitor and record your energy levels and moods. No doubt about it, your smile day will be a much better day.

#2 “What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody, every team, every platform, every division, every component is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis.” — W. Edwards Deming; 1900–1993.

Deming was an American management guru widely hailed as architect of Japan’s quality movement that allowed car imports to eat Detroit’s lunch in the 70s and 80s. Deming was regarded as having more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, Deming was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death.

#3 “No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

#4 “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” —Babe Ruth

Response: “First, try stretching beyond the limits of what you thought possible of yourself. You might be surprised at what you are capable of accomplishing. Then, once you have pushed yourself that far, try stretching even further. Only then will you learn about yourself, your true potential, and whether your boss is an insane task master or a genius for bringing out the best in you.”

Source: The New York Post, October 31, 2011, p. 37. “Career Coach,” by Gregory Giangrade, Chief Human Resource Officer, Dow Jones

Closing quotes:

“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” — Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt (only U.S. President to be elected to 4 terms)

“One extends one’s limits only by exceeding them.” — M. Scott Peck, “The Road Less Traveled,” which was on the New York Times non-fiction best seller list for almost 15 years

The fourth in a series of blog posts appealing, beseeching, imploring YOU to design a written life plan for the coming year!

Life happens. Time passes. We age. This happens whether we are prepared for it or not, whether we like it or not.

There are many ways to look at life, to approach it, and most have some measure of validity.

I believe that certain actions, certain efforts, are high leverage.

I also believe greatly in the power of compounded effort, the power of (polite) persistence. I have seen first-hand the impact of compound interest in accumulating wealth over the years and its power to create prosperity.

Small efforts now, small investments of time, energy, and money made NOW, intelligently directed AND added to regularly, will yield, over time, large results. Large results that would be daunting to achieve over smaller time horizons, large results that will surprise even you, their originator and creator. Large results that will impress and awe those who lacked your foresight to begin. Large results that will intimidate those who attempt to duplicate them in shorter time frames.

Number one excuse: “Well, yes, if only I were younger. It is too late to start now. I’m ‘x’ years old, I have ‘y’ responsibilities.”

While it is true that the stage of your life may modify or impact where or how you choose to start your efforts (see the small truth that serves as cover for the big lie?), it is blatant self-sabotage to use your life stage as an excuse not to begin something. Sam Walton was in his early 50s before he opened his first Wal-Mart, Colonel Sanders was in his 70s before KFC took off, and Winston Churchill was in his 60s when he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Greatness has no fear of time.

Begin something! Keep at it regularly. Modify it as feedback and circumstances suggest, but continue. You are worthy of your dreams.

In the final analysis, it is really only you (and life and energy you allow your fears to possess) that can truly stop you. The question life asks of you is “If not now, when?” What will your answer be?

This is a classic from the NSC Blog archive. Originally posted December 29, 2008.

Third in a series of blog posts urging, begging, pleading with you to turbo-charge your existence with a WRITTEN life plan for the coming year!

I think you are pretty special. I think you have greatness within you and tremendous potential. A sleeping giant slumbers inside you, waiting for you to awaken him. An awesome genie lies trapped within you, just waiting for your summons.

“Huh?” you reply. I can hear it now: “You don’t even know me. How can you say such things? How can you know these things about me?”

Well, I do know you and I do know some things about you. I know that in many respects we are alike. I know we all are members of the human race, and I know the joy and the triumph of us humans is the potential that lies within us as individuals and as teams and as communities. I also know the tragedy of how often we turn our backs on our inchoate greatness.

I also know something very specific about you: You want to grow, you want to tap your potential. I know this because you are reading a blog on personal leadership, on personal and professional growth. And I know to have read this far your interest and commitment is real.

I also know that our greatness as individuals is tightly bound with our greatness as a group, with our links to others. And I know that for those who I can assist along the way, my life is inexorably enriched and enlarged.

So join with me. Write out your life plan. Write large, with bold strokes and great dreams. Tap into your passions, notice what energizes you, what makes you bound out of bed in the morning full of vim and vigor, bursting with anticipation and enthusiasm. Try to get more of that into your life.

Notice the little things you remember, the small things that brighten your day. Write them down. Think about how to attract more of those moments into your life.

What do you look forward to? Why? Tease out the elements that truly move you, resonate within you. Become an expert on what moves you, what motivates you.

Increase your awareness of your underlying motivations. Go deeper into yourself. Understand the levels within the levels of that complexity that is you. Learn how to play the instrument that is you, how to create a symphony of your life and the emotions that move you most.

Become the playwright of your life. Write out your own script as if you were a producer, a director, a scriptwriter for your own life. How would the plot develop? What would the subplots be? Who or what would you write into upcoming episodes? Or write out? What would the season finale include? What would the cliffhangers be (issues to be resolved)? How would the new season open? How would it evolve (what is your life plan for next year)?

This can be an incredibly powerful exercise, so helpful in tapping into your true dreams, desires, and goals. Stepping aside, viewing your life from the outside (such as from the role of a scriptwriter or director) can spark some wondrous insights. This can be an ongoing exercise in planning and visualization; feel free to write up new episodes, acts, or chapters as the muse moves you.

But whatever you do, please, please create a written life plan that is aligned with your values AND that you visit often. NOW! Your life is waiting.

This is a classic from the NSC Blog archive. Originally posted December 22, 2008.

The second in a series of posts prodding, pushing, and poking you to get moving on your life plan for next year.

The clock is ticking. Your life is happening. Each day, each hour, each moment precious jewels once spent never to be recovered, even by all the power of the greatest among us.

What is your life plan? What are your goals? Your dreams? Your ambitions? Your hopes? Are you the you you wish to be?

What five things would you really like to see happen next year? What three facets of your personality would you love to change?

What ONE THING would be a WOW to change in your life, that would really impress even you if you could bring it about? What would it take? What small steps could you take TODAY to make it more likely to happen?

There are no real secrets to success. Just as most weight loss boils down to eating less and exercising more, so too does success in any area of life boil down to hard work and intelligent effort. A key aspect of intelligent effort is having a WRITTEN plan that aligns with your true values and that you visit (think of, visualize, refer to) often.

Sooooo…

Is your life plan in writing? Broken down into time-bound segments (day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, decade to decade)?

Specific? Action oriented? Measurable? (How do you measure progress? How will you know when you’ve succeeded? None of this shooting an arrow at the side of a barn and then painting a bullseye around it!)

Keep it fun. Keep it aligned with YOUR values (not your partner’s, not your parents’ or siblings’ or peers or society’s, but YOURS. It is your life, right?). Have some realistic goals in there and have some BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). The kinds of goals that are wild and woolly, that excite and scare you, the kind that even if you only make it part of the way, it will change and enlarge your life. The kind that invigorate you, challenge you, force you to grow.

All right, enough. Get started!

Remember: A fool with a plan has a head start on a genius without a plan.

This is a classic from the NSC Blog archive. Originally posted December 15, 2008.

Time to start thinking about your roles and goals for the coming year.

It is mere days until the New Year. You have limited hours to map out and plan the next year of your one and only life.

This is not a dress rehearsal. This life you are living is the ONLY chance you get.

So make the most of it and live your life with purpose. With spontaneity, yes, but with a plan and a purpose as well.

So start planning your next year TODAY.

Your life is important. Do not wait until the last moment.

Think it through, plot and plan. Start setting your goals and thinking through your roles NOW!

It is important to have goals in ALL the major areas of your life, to balance all the important roles you have.

What is important to you? What would excite you to accomplish or achieve in each of these areas?

- Family/Friends

- Health/Physical

- Spiritual/Creative

- Social/Community

- Education/Mental/Personal Growth

- Career/Financial

The time to start thinking about your roles and goals is NOT New Years Day, but NOW!

The more time and energy you spend focusing on them (like anything else), the more successful you will be.

Remember: A fool with a plan can beat a genius without one.

This is a classic from the NSC Blog archive. Originally posted December 8, 2008.

Ah, the old Goldman Sachs halo. But is it portable? Didn’t help former Goldman great John Thain, who resigned as CEO of Merrill Lynch after greater than anticipated losses or Robert Rubin, another Goldman legend whose post-Goldman investments were far from golden. Nor did the halo save Chris Flowers, who left Goldman in 1998 and whose most-recent fund lost just shy of $4 billion.

So what is it? Were all these former Goldman stars really flakes? Flukes? Or perhaps they have true genius, just genius in need of structure, support and, yes, at times even a culture of restraint. Did they need a system the equal of their genius, perhaps the system that was the institution of Goldman Sachs?

For all its mythical reputation as a modern-day King Midas minting money at will, Goldman also has a lesser known but equally strong reputation for risk analysis, internal audit, and compliance. They have strong internal cops (risk managers) who have access to the top, and the top has a history of listening. This vital but more plebeian aspect of Goldman’s success is not widely known or appreciated or copied.

Good people need good systems to achieve their best. Focused training, effective checks and balances, and prompt, useful feedback leverage the efforts of good people and achieve great results.

Unfortunately, bad systems (sadly, often government) can hamstring good people, resulting in mediocre results. This can create a downward spiral were the good people become dispirited and leave, while the apathetic stay.

Note: Full disclosure: I’ve visited (and been visited by) Goldman Sachs multiple times, discussing joint ventures. Goldman associates have been uniformly impressive.

The theoretical solution is simple: Get health care workers to wash their hands, preferably within 10 seconds of entering AND leaving a patient’s room. But easier said than done. Hospitals have tried secret shopper style monitoring but it’s labor intensive and also fallible: Behavior tends to be modified when people are aware they are being observed. One cutting-edge hospital uses a video camera to monitor when someone enters and exits patients’ rooms. The camera is tightly focused on the sinks and hand sanitizer dispensers located just inside each patient room (patients are not visible). Real-time feedback is provided and is an integral portion of the system’s success: The shift supervisor is provided with compliance rates 3 hours into the shift and at the end of the shift, and prominently-located LED signs share results with the entire staff.

One hospital was shocked when video monitoring showed its true hand hygiene compliance rate was only 6.5%, especially since its secret shopper reports had claimed 60% compliance. Installation of instant feedback video monitoring raised compliance to 80%.

Lessons?
- Sometimes the best solutions involve changing human behavior
- Sometimes the most important problems to be solved are not the most dramatic
- Be skeptical, double check all results and critical feedback

NOTE: This post is based on a November 24, 2011, New York Times article, “An Electronic Eye on Hospital Hand-Washing,” by Tina Rosenberg.

P.S.: The skeptic in me notes:

1. The article did not get into results: Did increased hand washing result in lowered infection rates?

2. There was no true independent, third-party verification of outcomes. Even the best professionals can become vested in a project and find what they are looking for.

As an entrepreneur, as the founder of a successful business now employing almost 500 Team Members after 35+ years of operation, I repeatedly have been accused of

- asking too much,
- expecting too much,
- demanding the impossible.

I am guilty as charged. And I will continue to do so, for it is only in pushing beyond our supposed limits that we find what we are truly capable of accomplishing.

Closing quotes:

“ ‘Come to the edge.’ ‘We can’t. We’re afraid.’ ‘Come to the edge.’ ‘We can’t. We will fall!’ ‘Come to the edge.’ And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.” — Guillaume Apollinaire; 1880-1918, French poet, philosopher

“Midway showed what ‘must be’ need not be at all.” — “Incredible Victory,” by Walter Lord