Breaking the natural sequence of things, like going against any of the fundamental principles or principles deduced from them, has consequences.
Related principles are
All things are created twice – the first mental then the second – physical.
You reap what you sow.
Actions are more important than words in some circumstances and for some people.
You cannot talk yourself out of a situation you behaved yourself into.
S(M)R Covey
A natural sequence that often plays itself out is for resources, human capacity or words. If you do not look after resources, humans or words, these may go from being beneficial, to becoming of neutral effect and eventually end up as negative or even harmful.
The fundamental principle that people are different from each other summarizes many of the personality descriptors.
My view is that personality descriptors help only when one uses those descriptors to acknowledge and then act in accordance with the fundamental principle that people are different and require different treatment, to be treated the same.
Say that again. Slowly.
People are different. To treat everyone in the same way would be wrong. As Dr Covey says, we treat people the same when we treat them as they need to be treated – differently.
Personally, I wish we could claim that “people are responsible for themselves” is not valid. Simply, because I battle with the consequences of knowing that I cannot blame others for my poor behaviour – he made me do it . . . is such a nice cop-out. But not true.
If the fundamental principle that people are responsible for themselves is not accepted, there can be no responsibility and no accountability, which means there can be no order.
Denying that people are responsible for themselves, would allow everybody to think that somebody is responsible, and, in the end, nobody does anything.
I postulated that fundamental principles express what people are or have and serve as the foundation for a chain of reasoning to support human effectiveness.
The fundamental principle that people are consistent with themselves will find more support if I formulate it as “people cannot remain inconsistent with themselves for long” Alas, I have made my bed and will lie in it.
Dr Covey emphasises integrity, which can be defined as being consistent with oneself.
Practically, a person might be able to use the personality ethic to get away with personal defects for a while but will eventually succumb to this fundamental principle. Their true colours will emerge. I am not saying we must not hide our flaws; I am saying that if we have flaws do not cover them up, work on them. Become the person you want to be. Easier said than done.
It is better to work on yourself than on a false reputation that you could lose in a moment when your true (unwanted) nature presents itself.
Even the flattest pancake has at least a top and bottom and side!
Why would we need this as a fundamental principle of human effectiveness? Because without the fundamental principle of everything having at least two significant sides, people would not be inclined to talk to each other they would know everything from one point of view. That one point of view would be all that is necessary. We know that reality is never that simple and that we need to look for another point of view, which might be right or wrong, but at least worth looking into if we want to be effective.
The fundamental principle leads to the dictum to not judge prematurely.
If you are like me, you are trying to think of exceptions to the fundamental principle, once something is let out, it cannot be put back.
I mean surely if I let my dog out of the gate, and my dog returns I have put the dog back into the safety of my home. But is it the same dog? Has my dog not gained more knowledge – read all the faxes left against every tree? Become tired? Dirty? Thirsty? Hungry?
You are welcome to think of other examples that fall flat, once the principle is accepted.
What does this fundamental principle do for us? It is a starting point for getting to other expressions of human effectiveness.
Let’s take an example: Words matter. Is “Words Matter” a fundamental principle, or can it flow from the fundamental principle?
The fundamental principle that once something is let out, it cannot be put back, leads one to guard one’s words and actions, because words cannot be taken back – 0ops, that’s not what I meant. That was not my intention. . .
A casual word or act can break an important relationship. Even if the words could be withdrawn – putting the genie back into the bottle – damage is already done – the bottle now contains a new, different genie.
The fundamental principle that the outside must be let in to affect change flows from the physical example of the liquid in a container. This goes for energy flow as well.
To become an effective human, we must allow the energy in the room to influence us. We cannot continue to generate energy from within. The flow state (where we automatically deliver our best performance) is not our default state. For all other times, we must get energy from somewhere – a good place to get such energy is from those around us. We are interdependent of each other.
The fundamental principle that the outside must be let in to affect change supports the idea that people must be humble to accept outside influence to be effective. To open ourselves to the influence of others, is to have the consideration to understand first, and then seek to be understood – Covey’s habit 5.
The inside cannot affect the outside unless the inside is let out. Think about that for a moment?
Is it true? In other words, self-evident?
Is it timeless?
Is it universal?
The inside will not be able to affect the outside unless the inside is let out – now or forever, or here or there.
For human effectiveness “the inside cannot affect the outside unless the inside is let out” clearly indicates that we cannot wish others to be different unless we talk to them, invest in them, and walk with them.
As a hint of what is to come: when we combine the fact that “the inside cannot affect the outside unless the inside is let out” with the fact that “people are interconnected” and “the outside cannot affect the inside unless the outside is let in,” we find that the fundamental principles from a chain of reasoning that leads to the psychological principle of reciprocity.
The fundamental principle that people are interconnected, can also be worded as: “no man is an island.”
People who are interconnected and have a shared vision, purpose and alignment will have synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This requires cooperation and leveraging each other’s strengths.
Since people are interconnected it flows that people are more important than things. The fact that people are more important than things support the principles mentioned by Ray Dalio:
Separate the people from the problem.
Focus on interests, not positions.
Being interconnected allows one to live by the motto: Live and let live.
Interconnection gives us a reputation to take care of, contributions to make and feedback to value.
Today, I take a break from describing a specific fundamental principle of human effectiveness. I will take a step back and explain how I landed on some of the fundamental principles.
Like Altschuler I would like to start in the physical sciences with liquid contained in a bottle.
The liquid is in the bottle.
If the liquid is outside of the bottle, the liquid is not inside the bottle.
If the bottle contains soapy water, you cannot draw orange juice from the bottle.
If the bottle is not made to hold, say strong chemicals the bottle will deteriorate and might burst completely.
Once the liquid is outside of the bottle the liquid cannot be put back precisely as it was, the liquid, now exposed to the outside of the bottle, has picked up some contaminants.
The all-time favourite is that the liquid can only come out of the bottle if something else is let into the bottle. If the liquid is let out, without allowing air in, a vacuum is formed which will either stop the liquid from flowing out or will make the bottle collapse onto itself.
When the bottle is empty, it is empty. There is a finite amount of liquid in the bottle.
If you have water in the bottle and wish to make juice from a concentrated solution of the juice, the water will only become diluted juice if the concentrated juice is allowed into the bottle.
The above thinking gets me to the following fundamental principles of human effectiveness:
The inside cannot affect the outside unless the inside is let out.
The outside cannot affect the inside unless the outside is let in.
Once something is let out, it cannot be put back in.
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