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December 31, 2002
Lessons of 2002 (Part 1)
I am going to take the next few days to summarize some of the things I learned in 2002, in the tradition of "Best of ..." lists.
One of the things I'm most excited about is a book that I started reading this summer, on the recommendation of Jim Stewart, UEN Technical Director. The Fifth Discipline is the first business book I've read that really helped me see how "it all fits together." I've read a lot of business books, but Fifth Discipline is one that addresses the fundamentals of successful productive relationships, whether they be within a company to achieve business success, or between partners, or between parents and children.
Unfortunately, I think this is a book that takes a moment to read and a lifetime to understand. We (UEN management team) began this fall to implement a few of the principles (effective dialogue and shared vision), and have found that while it is very rewarding to experience improved internal business relationships, it's a lot of work. Just mastering basic dialoguing techniques will take many months, if not longer. But the potential we've seen to become a learning organization appears to be worth the effort. It has been interesting to see how simple dialogue techniques have dramatically improved the effectiveness some pretty disfunctional communications.
I'd highly recommend this book, as well as the field guide, to any business person, employee, teacher or parent. I think the principles are both effective and enduring to improve any kind of interaction.
The continued understanding and implementation of Fifth Discipline principles is one of my areas of focus for 2003.
Posted by pete at December 31, 2002 01:27 PM
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