UTA EMBA 中国校友论坛

Please refer to my summay regarding 7 habits of highly effective people:

I heard and knew 7 habits in year 2000, my colleague showed some training materails, explained to me what were 7 habits. Now I still remembered he applied a lot in the working place, what I benefited from him much was to be proactive. This year in Novartis I got a chance to explore 7 habits of highly effective poeple.

Habit 1: Be proactive

Be proactive is a attitude to work, to people and to lives. There is a saying "Attitude determines everything".

There is a priciple I learned "Stimulus - Response mode", it says between stimulus and response, in nature people within 6 second response to a stimulus, but some of responses are negative, not proactive such as angry, no patience, give-up, escape or out of self-discipline, actually through learning and training, people can has a freedom of choice between stimulus and response, be proactive can bring positive results, here I have real example between me, my wife and my daughter:

My wife and I sometimes has no patience and are short of effective methods when we coach my daughter(8 years old). When I realized this, I tried to calm down first, then choose a better time to coach, ask questions to guide and at the same time I gave freedom to be asked by my daughter. The postive results I got from this case are to respect and give opportunities to the my daughter to develop and think, later my daughter wrote two compositons, she wrote "My dad has an advantage "patience" and "Doing things can not be in hurry, must be step by step". Both compostions are evaluated as "excellent' by her chinese teacher.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

People always says "busy", why? Actually there are three spaces of personnel, they are "Public life", "Private life", "Inner Heart Life". People spend too much time on "Public life", less time on "Private life", no time on "Inner Heart Life" to reflect himself. This is why people feel "so busy". And we also watch personnel, family, organization, country and society need be clear on their mission. Without mission, it will lose direction and way. NASA mission: "We send people to Space", 29 Beijing Olypics game mission: "One World, One Dream"

I developed my own mission from the view of three aspects:

My family and my family to the society
Friends and people around me
I and myself

Habit 3: Put first things first

The video showed an experiment "stone and sand", which gave me much thinking, compared with experience. Phase I "Important, Urgent things" should be figured out with professional way, amount should be reduced; Phase II "Important, not urgent things" should be planned well with executive way, amount should be increased. Phase III "Not important, urgent things" should be managed properly, is easily confused with Phase I, is called "cheat" phase; Phase IV "Not important, not urgent things" should happen as less as it is possible, is called "waste" phase.

Emotional Bank Account is interesting and essential topic during training:

Emotional Bank Account deposit behaviours:
- Be proactive to understand others
- Keep promise
- Respect persons who are not present
- Clarify expectation
- Apologize  
- Give feedback
- Learn to forgive and forget

Emotional Bank Account withdrawal behaviours:
- Suppose to understand others
- Break promise
- Say bad words to persons who are not present
- Self proud  
- No feedback
- Blame

Habit 4: Win Win thinking

Win Win thinking is a high efficeincy, long term relationship, basing on respecting, benefiting each other. Win Win thinking does not mean Win Win situation or results, it means people is seeking shared benefit, cooperation and listening and expressing. I applied this thinking mode to practice during people recruitment and process optimization.

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Listening, seek to understand, then to be understood. In real working place and private life, everybody has a blind area for others, if we try to seek to understand others by ways, then we can be understood either. One marriage exists depending on ability how the couple resolves problems and issue together.

Habit 6: Synergy

Synergy is not taking my or your protocol in simple way, is basing on trust, respect difference and seeking the third best way for both sides. Wide goose can fly more 70% further together using V shape than single wide goose flies. Instruments play sound music when synergying, however it can also make noise when not synergying. When a team is formed with its culture, synergy can bring super results and fun at work.
 
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw

Principle: To keep and enhance efficiency, we have to sharpen the saw, continue improving on four aspects:

To  live (excise, nutrition, rest, pressure management)
To love (keep depositing in important emotional bank account)
To learn (read, write and learn)
To leave a legacy (service, clarify values, silently think, nature)

In summary, 7 habits training give me a systematic program I can apply to working place, private life. Wherever I applied, I received feedback positively and felt more effective and happier in the life.

诚挚的敬意，Best regards
 
Witten by

李可乐，Li Kele