A Flat World: How the rules of the game have been changed forever

The forces of globalization have flattened our world. New players have entered the "playing field" from every corner of the world. What does that mean for you and the level of productivity you will need to remain competitive?

The follow African parable imprinted on the floor of a factory in China gives a powerful hint, and a powerful warning:

"Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running."

The message: in our global world, whoever you are, you are going to have to run a lot faster. I first read that quote in the book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. It is an eye opening book. It lists ten forces that are flattening the world, tearing down walls and increasing competition for jobs and everything else many times fold. This flattening will require you to develop new and better organizational skills. It also graciously will give you many new tools for productivity, and thank goodness because you are going to need them!

We will look at each of the ten flattening forces and how they effect you in the next post of this series on "A Flat World."


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Additional posts in the series:

A Flat World: How these ten forces are flattening the world and effecting your productivity

Art of Virtue: How 13 virtues can change your life

In my previous post in this "Art of Virtue" series we all learned a valuable lesson from Benjamin Franklin: we need to change our habits!

Today we will look at the details of the "Art of Virtue" and how they can help us make that change. The method involves focusing exclusively on one of thirteen positive character habits for an entire week while recording how you fared at keeping to it. The next week focus is on another habit, and so on, until all of the habits have had a turn. Benjamin Franklin explains it best.

From the Autobiography By Benjamin Franklin:

"I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable and annexed to each a short precept which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning. These names of virtues with their precepts were:

1 TEMPERANCE: Eat not to dullness drink not to elevation
2 SILENCE: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself avoid trifling conversation
3 ORDER: Let all your things have their places let each part of your business have its time
4 RESOLUTION: Resolve to perform what you ought perform without fail what you resolve
5 FRUGALITY: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself that is waste nothing
6 INDUSTRY: Lose no time be always employed in something useful cut off all unnecessary actions
7 SINCERITY: Use no hurtful deceit think innocently and justly and if you speak speak accordingly "
8 JUSTICE: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty
9 MODERATION: Avoid extremes forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve
10 CLEANLINESS: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body clothes or habitation
11 TRANQUILLITY: Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable
12 CHASTITY
13 HUMILITY: Imitate Jesus and Socrates

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once but to fix it on one of them at a time and when I should be master of that then to proceed to another and so on till I should have gone through the thirteen And as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others I them with that view as they stand above "

So if we want to develop these habits we must take them one at a time, one week at a time.
But first, let's take a look at our current habits,... next time on TenaciousFrog .

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Other possible posts in the series:
Art of Virtue: Why examine your habits
Art of Virtue: Why developing habits is better than learning "tricks"
Art of Virtue: How to modify the method to fit your particular situation and character
(will cite How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger)

Art of Virtue: What We Can All Learn From Ben...

Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin, in his highly influential autobiography, dedicated an entire part (of the four part book) to a method of building virtuous habits. To this method Franklin attributed all of his successes in science, in politics, in business, and in life.

Even if that high recommendation does not move you to give this method your utmost attention, I have recommendation better: try it out for yourself and see if it does not recommend itself to you.

That is what Benjamin Franklin did and he learned something from it that we should all consider: All the tricks, tips, and faddish personally traits in the world will not help you if you do not develop a balanced character through changing your habits.

In this series we will discover how this method, the "Art of Virtue" can help you change your habits and develop your character.

So stay tuned for the next post in our "Art of Virtue" series when we will take a look at how the method works!

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Other possible posts in the series:
Art of Virtue: How 13 virtues can change your life
Art of Virtue: Why examine your habits
Art of Virtue: Why developing habits is better than learning "tricks"
Art of Virtue: How to modify the method to fit your particular situation and character
(will cite How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger)

I'm Listening

Everyday outside a busy train station in downtown Tokyo a small man with his hair dyed orange sits on a tiny orange plastic chair across from another tiny plastic orange chair and waits. The sign in his hands reads "I will listen to your story" in Japanese and everyday, without fail and despite some bewildered stares, someone sits in his little guest chair and spills his/her guts.

You may think this man is "nuts," but I think he understands something very valuable. He knows that, of the many needs we have as humans, there is likely no greater need than "the need to be understood."

Likewise, I know that to create a useful blog I need to hear you and seek to understand your needs. Only when there is listening and mutual respect can a community develop. And that is what I want to create around this blog, a community of people working toward building better organizations via great business software.

So, I am listening. What are your organizational problems? What obstacles are you facing? What information do you need? And how can I serve you best? Let me know!

I will listen to your story

Scheduling

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The link to these sheets on Google Docs ---> Schedules on Google Docs

They are free for you to use and distribute under creative commons:




This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.