My favorite book to recommend to Information Professionals is Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I believe that is not only the book most responsible for my personal success, but also the one that I have relied on most to improve the effectiveness of organizations with which I have worked.  I think that it contains special relevance for Information Professionals, and as such was far ahead of its time when written in 1989, because it was one of the first business books to publically declare that the Knowledge Worker was rising in the Information Age whilst all others were falling in the Industrial Age.

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For those of you who are not familiar with the work, Dr. Covey introduced the concepts of paradigm shift, the emotional bank account, synergy, and win-win in this masterpiece.  It was a #1 best seller on the New York Times listing and was on nearly every major business best sellers list for over five years.  It tends to pop back onto the best seller list every January and May showing that it is one of the most gifted books of all time.  Here is how Wikipedia describes it:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold over 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication, which was marked by the release of a 15th anniversary edition in 2004. Covey argues that effectiveness is achieved by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles of a character ethic that he believes to be universal and timeless.[1]

The book was enormously popular, and catapulted Covey into public-speaking appearances and workshops. He has also written a number of follow-up books:

  • First Things First
  • Principle Centered Leadership
  • The Power Of The 7 Habits: Applications And Insights
  • Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families
  • Beyond the Seven Habits
  • Living the Seven Habits, a collection of stories from people who have applied the seven habits in their lives
  • The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, a sequel to The Seven Habits published in 2004

There are many many excellent summaries of this book available online.  My favorite is from The Quick MBA website’s Summary of Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I recommend that you read this if you are curious what the “take-aways”  from this book are.  I caution, however, that you are really cheating yourself if you don’t absorb the material as Covey wrote it – in a story and developmental technique.

As a refresher, the 7 habits are:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Habit 6: Synergize

As I mentioned earlier, what strikes me most, as an Information Technology Professional, when I re-read this from time to time, is how forward leaning into the Information Age Covey was.  Within a chapter, he is discussion how we have come to the end of the Industrial Age and need to change our thinking, mental maps, and expectations to prepare for the Information Age.  He was writing this before the Internet, cell phones, and even the fall of the US car industry.  It almost seems omniscient today looking back.   He makes the first case that I ever saw for individuals needing to determine their own values and subsequently their value proposition to their employer.  He discusses the need to negotiate from a win-win only position now based upon the fact that it is ideas and not things that create the value of our world.  And, he provides the best argument in favor of diversity as a competitive advantage, vice social norm, that i have ever encountered.  Like most great works, I find myself discovering new insights and applications every time that I enjoy it. 

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I own every version that I know of.  I like the printed book, but particularly like the audio book, and downloadable Audible versions.  The versions that you listen to feature Dr. Covey’s unique voice and inflection that, I believe, significantly adds to the comprehension and appreciation of the message.

      

I highly recommend this book to any who have never written it.  I also truly recommend that you who have, read it again to find new insights, lessons, and value.  The knowledge contained in this work is of value to anyone, but especially to us Information Technology Professionals.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for January 4, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Stephen Covey

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