Page 198 - Stephen R. Covey - The 7 Habits of Highly Eff People.pdf

other people. The more we can see people in terms of their unseen potential, the more we
can use our imagination rather than our memory, with our spouse, our children, our co-
workers or employees. We can refuse to label them --we can "see" them in new fresh ways
each time we're with them. We can help them become independent, fulfilled people
capable of deeply satisfying, enriching, and productive relationships with others.

Goethe taught, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can
and should be and he will become as he can and should be."

Balance in Renewal

The self-renewal process must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions of our
nature: the physical, the spiritual, the mental, and the social/emotional.

Although renewal in each dimension is important, it only becomes optimally effective as
we deal with all four dimensions in a wise and balanced way. To neglect any one area
negatively impacts the rest. I have found this to be true in organizations as well as in
individual lives. In an organization, the physical dimension is expressed in economic
terms. The mental or psychological dimension deals with the recognition, development,
and use of talent. The social/emotional dimension has to do with human relations, with
finding meaning through purpose or contribution and through organizational integrity.

When an organization neglects any one or more of these areas, it negatively impacts the
entire organization. The creative energies that could result in tremendous, positive
synergy are instead used to fight against the organization and become restraining forces
to growth and productivity.

I have found organizations whose only thrust is economic -- to make money. They
usually don't publicize that purpose. They sometimes even publicize something else. But
in their hearts, their only desire is to make money.

Whenever I find this, I also find a great deal of negative synergy in the culture,
generating such things as interdepartmental rivalries, defensive and protective
communication, politicking, and masterminding. We can't effectively thrive without
making money, but that's not sufficient reason for organizational existence. We can't live
without eating, but we don't live to eat.

At the other end of the spectrum, I've seen organizations that focused almost exclusively
on the social/emotional dimension. They are, in a sense, some kind of social experiment
and they have no economic criteria to their value system. They have no measure or gauge
of their effectiveness, and as a result, they lose all kinds of efficiencies and eventually
their viability in the marketplace.

I have found many organizations that develop as many as three of the dimensions -- they
may have good service criteria, good economic criteria, and good human-relations
criteria, but they are not really committed to identifying, developing, utilizing, and
recognizing the talent of people. And if these psychological forces are missing, the style
will be a benevolent autocracy and the resulting culture will reflect different forms of
collective resistance, adversarialism, excessive turnover, and other deep, chronic, cultural
problems.

Organizational as well as individual effectiveness requires development and renewal of
all four dimensions in a wise and balanced way. Any dimension that is neglected will

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