Dr Stephen R Covey exhorts us to live according to principles (Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Mango Media. Kindle Edition). He mentions several principles by name. The word principle appears 287 times in the Kindle Version of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
I agree with Dr Covey.
Many others also mention Principles, but those “principles” do not fit with the concept Dr Covey shares – other authors refer to practices as principles. I have given the concept of principles some thought. The concept of a “principle”, it turns out, is not an easy one.
Looking at Product Management, Brandon Chu also approached this subject recently. Despite a valiant attempt, I think he fell short. This is my opinion and does not reflect on the value of the ideas he conveys, just that I disagree that the term principle is applicable to his writing.
Oxford Dictionary: “Principle – a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning.” I attempt to display the words in the picture above.
From the definition I deduce that
- Not all statements are principles.
- Not all platitudes are principles.
- Not all ideas/terms/sayings are principles.
- Not all values are principles. Values flow from principles.
Furthermore, the name of the principle does not always say what the principle is. The principle requires an explanation, which allows one to build a link from the principle towards behaviour or understanding, and the consequences one can expect from violating or adhering to the principle.
Principles can only be defined within a certain context to build a system of belief regarding that context. The context is a system.
Principles, as far as Covey is concerned, are timeless, universal, self-evident and in operation whether we accept or understand them or not.
Dr Covey’s material deals with Human effectiveness in personal and work life.
Therefore, for principles in this context to be sensibly described, they must link the name of the principle to the values/beliefs/behaviour/habit of human effectiveness.
The context that I choose for principles is not chemistry, physics, or mathematics – if such principle were available.
I choose the context or system to be human effectiveness in personal and work life.
To soften the claim that most principles are not principles, I propose the use of the term “Fundamental Principle”.
The time has come to put together a working definition that will guide me through several posts:
Fundamental principles express what people are or have and serve as the foundation for a chain of reasoning to support human effectiveness.
Therefore, grammatically at least, a fundamental principle will not describe what people do. As an example, when someone claims that they are mentioning a fundamental principle, and describe a human action, they are indeed not discussing a fundamental principle.
Now I will go back and apply this definition to my thoughts before I share a list of fundamental principles and disagree with myself in public.
Green Octahedron Blogging 