Finally got around to reading this influential book, and I can see how so many others took pieces out of it and expanded on them. A lot of it is still very applicable, which clearly shows the power of the 7 habits. What I found most compelling was the emphasis on Character Ethic rather than the more recent interest in Personality Ethic. It reminded me of an argument in Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking – currently, especially in the U.S., what matters is how loud, exuberant, outgoing you are. If you cannot be that kind of personality, then your contributions may go unheard and unseen.
Turning this kind of Character Ethic into something that can be practiced and thus turned into habits ties in nicely with learning theories around practice and repetition in order to learn something – and that learning is hard work. I am having a bit of a harder time with the claims around the enduring principles, as they do sound rather solidly grounded in the author’s U.S.-Christian cultural upbringing that does not question any of this kind of underlying structure. Still, the conversation around paradigm shifts may be useful as one way to address systematic racism in places where this book would have been successful. Reminding readers that they need to change their paradigm so that others are included in their world view may be the second important lesson of this book.
And then giving readers the tools to form these habits that are grounded in knowledge, skill, and desire is also important - recognizing the value of education in both its theoretical and practical aspects, combined with the necessity of intrinsic motivation.
I am sure most of us are familiar with the actual habits, so I will not dig into these, just list them to invoke curiosity for anyone who has not thought about them:
1. Habit 1 – Be Proactive
2. Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind
3. Habit 3 – Put First Things First
4. Habit 4 – Think Win-Win
5. Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand then to Be Understood
6. Habit 6 – Synergize
7. Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw
What are your thoughts around these habits?
There's a version of this for college students, and I used that as a text to help train the students working in the peer mentoring program I started. Pretty useful in that context.
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