“Jack Welch and the 4Es of Leadership”
McGraw-Hill, 2005
This sounds like an unlikely advice in the latest book on the leadership style of former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch. After all, Mr. Welch is renowned to have a “rulebook” that the bottom 10 percent (of low performers) of the multinational giant “be fired every year.”
But, that’s the paradox of Welch and of how he views business, according to author Jeffrey A. Krames in this book “Jack Welch and the 4Es of Leadership.” Krames writes of his icon:
“You have to shrink in order to grow; you have to give up things in order to gain things. By eliminating jobs and closing unproductive factories … he was creating the means to reinvigorate the places that would spark the company’s transformation.”
Averse to keeping things hanging, Krames adds: “Welch understood that many apparent contradictions in business resolve in the face of a larger vision – and may not be contradictory at all.” This so-called propensity for giving low achievers their “walking papers” has not endeared Welch with professors of the finest graduate business schools – at least in the Philippines.
And yet this new book may provide the answer to the riddle, as it lists the 4E’S of leadership, saying: The 4E Leader has energy … energizes … has edge and … executes.
As the author describes the 4Es of leadership, one notes a consistent theme running through the discussion like a unifying thread. Jack Welch wants his leaders to have “energy” – the fuel that drives the business, the passion to get things done. He wants a leader who runs 95 miles per hour --75 miles elsewhere in the same book -- “in a 55-mile-an-hour world.” (Don’t try this inside the North Luzon Expressway!) And so he is impatient with those who lack passion for their work, and who wind up in the bottom ten percent in his organization.
The next attribute – the leader who energizes – is simply the logical consequence of a suitably driven leader, who then “sparks others to perform.” In this section, the theme recurs, quoting Peter Drucker: “One can only build on strength.” And those who are weak, reminiscent of the Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” must go.
Welch does not waste time on those who are weak links (or, pardon the pun, “weaklings”) – since how can you energize one who has no energy in the first place? I remember a training manager who dished out a homegrown philosophy with this bald statement: “Huwag magtiyagang maghanap ng kuto sa ulong kalbo!”
The Welch style acquires more edge as Author Krames discusses the last two qualities in the 4Es of Leadership – the Leader has edge and the Leader executes. The book confronts “people decisions” so that the firm retains the competitive “edge” – making the principle sound bland enough: “Use a differentiation system to keep the best and weed out the worst.” The author says it simply, downplaying the bloody process of thousands of heads rolling: “He cut costs relentlessly (including the payroll).”
Krames shows the results in two sentences: “When Welch took over, GE had revenues of about $25 billion. When he stepped down, GE was a $130 billion company.”
Ever emphasizing the need for passion and strength, the last E – the leader executes – should mean that the boss must have the managerial will to drive the company effort to its desired conclusion, meaning: positive results. The book emphasizes the need to improve the leader’s “execution quotient,” chalking up high scores in nothing less than the bottom line.
The book, meant to develop leaders around the 4Es Leadership Formula, succeeds in making us understand Mr. Welch better who actually had to adopt a “retrench” policy just so he can mount an aggressive “offense”. He narrates how the controversial retired GE Chairman likened his business team with Super Bowl winners or Olympic gold medalists with this obvious conclusion: He wants only the best in his team.
So the seeming ruthlessness, the apparent indifference to human dimensions are better understood now under the overall theme of “winning,” the title of Welch’s other book. The author, earlier in the book, gives a hint: “To Welch everything is about winning, winning in the marketplace, winning customers, winning new business, winning for shareholders.”
Come to think of it. A local business leader, when he took over a giant beverage company shocked the entire organization with downsizing decisions. Today, the company remains the most admired in Asia.
Is winning the only metric by which to measure the caliber of an executive? Or, changing the question, we ask: Can you forgive a CEO who, due to some other considerations, bring your firm down to bankruptcy? Is business a game, and heads roll as a natural consequence of the overweening desire to win?
Even philanthropists believe in the primacy of “doing well” as a pre-requisite to “doing good.” Read this book, wade through the many digressions of the author, and you will hit oil – or gold. You will have the answers, but you will also ask even more questions. Isn’t that the paradox of business?
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Capturing the ‘moment’ to win, not to fail
“Lend Me Your Ears”
(Updated and Expanded Edition
By William Safire
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
The attention of the entire country continues to be riveted on the speech of apology of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, delivered recently over nationwide television. What the speech sought to achieve, when the Head of State said “sorry” over what are now called the “Garci tapes” was not, however, achieved.
Instead of assuaging the feelings of both her disappointed allies and unrelentingly acerbic critics -- the speech triggered a series of rambunctious and chaotic Congressional hearings and emboldened a lynch mob with even shriller voices crying for her resignation.
The mishandling (?) also planted a poisoned idea to politicians with moist eyes for the threatened Presidency and for a Senate seat two years from now, and prompted an unflappable Susan Roces to give vent to pent up emotions with uncharacteristic bravado – thus leaving the rest of us wondering what went wrong. And asking: What could have gone right?
Observers were wondering why the Palace, with its vast information resources at its command, could not even muster a phone brigade programmed to provide support to the President right after her “confession.” In fact, the confession was totally unnecessary, but the Palace committee of wordsmiths woefully stumbled all over to string together contradictory statements, needless absolute statements, and a sophomoric line: “I will serve you to the best of my ability.”
Those of you who still doubt the power of rhetoric to make or break a political career or to espouse or frustrate an idea must now be convinced that a careless phrase thrown into a speech invites disaster.
Some observers volunteered the insight that the Palace wordsmiths patterned the GMA speech after the apology of Bill Clinton concerning his links and acts of indiscretion with Monica Lewinsky. If they did, they committed a grievous wrong failing to note the contrasting contexts between Bill’s very private act at the Oval Office and Gloria’s very public act speaking to the arbiter of a Presidential election.
And, if you read Clinton’s speech (the delivered version), you would note the deft hand of seasoned rhetorician. This brings me to speak to you about “Lend Me Your Ears,” a book that I picked out at a cozy bookstore, Ink & Stone. This is actually the updated and expanded edition of “Great Speeches in History” selected by noted rhetoric expert and writer William Safire. The earlier edition was published in 1983.
Editor Safire says in his “introductory address” in this book: “What makes a great speech? Occasion. There comes a dramatic moment in the life of a person or a party or a nation that cries out for the uplift and release of a speech. Someone is called upon to articulate the hope, pride, or grief of all… Some great occasions are frittered away with pedestrian addresses.”
If you have a copy of the President’s speech, and you get hold of the “delivered version” of Clinton’s piece, you will note similarities – and contrasts. One difference is this calibrated phrase from Clinton: “I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.” Isn’t it clear that Clinton is apologizing about the consequences of his silence? Compare that with the lachrymose phrasing of GMA’s speech -- “Pinagsisihan ko ito ng lubos,” not even making clear what she is repenting of.
The book also includes the “undelivered” version of the Clinton apology which the former American President had the good sense to reject it. GMA’s contrite speech sounds like this other speech – not thanks to her advisers.
Three undelivered speeches are actually featured in this anthology of 1,156 pages, plus rhetorical pieces classified as memorials and patriotic speeches, war and revolution rhetorical classics, tributes and eulogies, debates and argumentation, trials, gallows and farewell speeches, sermons, inspirational speeches, lectures and instructive speeches, talks on social responsibility, media speeches, political pieces, and commencement addresses.
The speeches date to as far back as the time of Pericles years before Christ and as recent as Tony Blair’s spirited exhortation to fight terrorism right after 9/11. The “moment” cited by Author Safire has been captured by the masters of the spoken word. And when such a moment is “seized,” the speaker is rewarded – if not public support in his time and generation – with a special place in history. And be anthologized to join the ranks of “great speeches” and compelling speakers.
This book, obviously, is a timely read for Palace insiders. Executives in the corporate world can also keep this thick book handy when the moment comes to rally the corporate troops – not with a bland memo – with a soul-stirring speech.
(Updated and Expanded Edition
By William Safire
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
The attention of the entire country continues to be riveted on the speech of apology of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, delivered recently over nationwide television. What the speech sought to achieve, when the Head of State said “sorry” over what are now called the “Garci tapes” was not, however, achieved.
Instead of assuaging the feelings of both her disappointed allies and unrelentingly acerbic critics -- the speech triggered a series of rambunctious and chaotic Congressional hearings and emboldened a lynch mob with even shriller voices crying for her resignation.
The mishandling (?) also planted a poisoned idea to politicians with moist eyes for the threatened Presidency and for a Senate seat two years from now, and prompted an unflappable Susan Roces to give vent to pent up emotions with uncharacteristic bravado – thus leaving the rest of us wondering what went wrong. And asking: What could have gone right?
Observers were wondering why the Palace, with its vast information resources at its command, could not even muster a phone brigade programmed to provide support to the President right after her “confession.” In fact, the confession was totally unnecessary, but the Palace committee of wordsmiths woefully stumbled all over to string together contradictory statements, needless absolute statements, and a sophomoric line: “I will serve you to the best of my ability.”
Those of you who still doubt the power of rhetoric to make or break a political career or to espouse or frustrate an idea must now be convinced that a careless phrase thrown into a speech invites disaster.
Some observers volunteered the insight that the Palace wordsmiths patterned the GMA speech after the apology of Bill Clinton concerning his links and acts of indiscretion with Monica Lewinsky. If they did, they committed a grievous wrong failing to note the contrasting contexts between Bill’s very private act at the Oval Office and Gloria’s very public act speaking to the arbiter of a Presidential election.
And, if you read Clinton’s speech (the delivered version), you would note the deft hand of seasoned rhetorician. This brings me to speak to you about “Lend Me Your Ears,” a book that I picked out at a cozy bookstore, Ink & Stone. This is actually the updated and expanded edition of “Great Speeches in History” selected by noted rhetoric expert and writer William Safire. The earlier edition was published in 1983.
Editor Safire says in his “introductory address” in this book: “What makes a great speech? Occasion. There comes a dramatic moment in the life of a person or a party or a nation that cries out for the uplift and release of a speech. Someone is called upon to articulate the hope, pride, or grief of all… Some great occasions are frittered away with pedestrian addresses.”
If you have a copy of the President’s speech, and you get hold of the “delivered version” of Clinton’s piece, you will note similarities – and contrasts. One difference is this calibrated phrase from Clinton: “I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.” Isn’t it clear that Clinton is apologizing about the consequences of his silence? Compare that with the lachrymose phrasing of GMA’s speech -- “Pinagsisihan ko ito ng lubos,” not even making clear what she is repenting of.
The book also includes the “undelivered” version of the Clinton apology which the former American President had the good sense to reject it. GMA’s contrite speech sounds like this other speech – not thanks to her advisers.
Three undelivered speeches are actually featured in this anthology of 1,156 pages, plus rhetorical pieces classified as memorials and patriotic speeches, war and revolution rhetorical classics, tributes and eulogies, debates and argumentation, trials, gallows and farewell speeches, sermons, inspirational speeches, lectures and instructive speeches, talks on social responsibility, media speeches, political pieces, and commencement addresses.
The speeches date to as far back as the time of Pericles years before Christ and as recent as Tony Blair’s spirited exhortation to fight terrorism right after 9/11. The “moment” cited by Author Safire has been captured by the masters of the spoken word. And when such a moment is “seized,” the speaker is rewarded – if not public support in his time and generation – with a special place in history. And be anthologized to join the ranks of “great speeches” and compelling speakers.
This book, obviously, is a timely read for Palace insiders. Executives in the corporate world can also keep this thick book handy when the moment comes to rally the corporate troops – not with a bland memo – with a soul-stirring speech.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Key to real success: ‘Bulletproof integrity’
“Integrity Is All You’ve Got”
By Karl Eller
McGraw-Hill,2005
WITHOUT meaning to, this book is as timely as the headlines in print and broadcast media in this part of the world. I am referring to the political and ethical dilemma our head of state has been thrown into-to speak or not to speak about wiretapped voices. And to speak or not to speak the truth about her kin’s involvement in “jueteng” an illegal numbers game.
From this book, here’s a quote that may show her the light at the end of a dark tunnel. It begins with a question: “What should you do when your reputation takes a major hit?”
Answer: “Don’t hide, deny, dissemble or fake the truth. Above all, don’t lie. Face the facts. Speak immediately and frankly. Nothing disarms your critics as being totally candid and quickly correcting whatever went wrong.”
The author says it simply on other page: “A straight shooter is someone who does what’s right and keeps his or her world.”
This book is entitled, “Integrity Is All You’ve Got,” and yet it turns out to be an insightful guide for entrepreneurs-and leaders-about selling, creativity, hammering out win-win formulas, opportunity-seeking, making connections, the joy of giving-and, of course, success because (not in spite of) integrity.
Karl Eller, a billionaire who made good in the billboards business, tells his story with distilled truths. You sit up and listen, because the insights come from someone who, in his words, has his “follies, takeoffs, crashes, comebacks and final reckoning.”
It is one thing to talk about integrity or earning trust-but it’s another to live a life of complete honesty.
The author, after whom a school of management was named, has lived integrity first and now is talking about it.
In other words, unlike many people we know, he has remarkably gone beyond paying lip service to this much desired virtue.
Speaking of trust, Eller is laconic: “Your handshake matches the tightest contract drawn up by the fanciest law firm in town.”
“I’ve been around long enough to confirm that integrity is key to business life and success. Integrity is what allows you and me to trust each other. Without it, we begin suspecting and then fearing each other , and soon bad things happen.”
Written on a prominent wall at the Eller College of Management is a quote from the author:
“Without integrity, motivation is dangerous: without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind.”
The book laments that “the priority of MBA student seems to be learning a thousand ways to kill your competitors, rather than the one true way to really succeed – develop bulletproof integrity.”
At the home front, this seems to be not the case. My alma mater, the Asian Institute of Management, has ethics in its curriculum – so with other major graduate business schools.
While the author devotes an entire discussion titled “Integrity is your only collateral,” he dishes out words of wisdom on succeeding as an entrepreneur, and yet still peppered with ideas on forthrightness and earning trust.
For salesman, he has a brilliant one-liner: “Love selling and sell what you love.”
For those having a problem with optimism, he quotes Winston Churchill: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
And idea makers, this quote is graphic: “Minds are like parachutes; they work only when open.”
He has advice for CEOs who think they can take over any company, even a different industry and erroneously think they can succeed: “If you’re going to take over a business, you had best arrive with a real understanding of what makes it work.”
“I learned that lesson the hard way,” he says, and he relates heartbreaking stories when he lost billions of dollars because of disastrous decisions.
What about the seeming staple of entrepreneurs – luck? Quoting his friend, Mort Feinberg, he writes: “You need to keep running, so that when the train comes by you’re ready to jump on. If you keep missing the train, you have no one but yourself to blame.”
This book is for rising managers – and for CEOs who must still run their businesses and are daily confronted with ethical decisions.
The book also throws in nuggets of wisdom on what makes business a calling and an exciting life’s work.
After giving us the impression that everything is business to him, using all his waking hours thinking and concluding business deals, he dishes out a life-saving advice. He asks: “How do you keep failure from wrecking your life?
His answer could prevent a disastrous bout with depression: “Business is only part of life, and not the most important. Your family, your friends, role as citizen of your community and nation – these are what counts.”
After reading this book, remember the truth in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ quote: “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension.”
By Karl Eller
McGraw-Hill,2005
WITHOUT meaning to, this book is as timely as the headlines in print and broadcast media in this part of the world. I am referring to the political and ethical dilemma our head of state has been thrown into-to speak or not to speak about wiretapped voices. And to speak or not to speak the truth about her kin’s involvement in “jueteng” an illegal numbers game.
From this book, here’s a quote that may show her the light at the end of a dark tunnel. It begins with a question: “What should you do when your reputation takes a major hit?”
Answer: “Don’t hide, deny, dissemble or fake the truth. Above all, don’t lie. Face the facts. Speak immediately and frankly. Nothing disarms your critics as being totally candid and quickly correcting whatever went wrong.”
The author says it simply on other page: “A straight shooter is someone who does what’s right and keeps his or her world.”
This book is entitled, “Integrity Is All You’ve Got,” and yet it turns out to be an insightful guide for entrepreneurs-and leaders-about selling, creativity, hammering out win-win formulas, opportunity-seeking, making connections, the joy of giving-and, of course, success because (not in spite of) integrity.
Karl Eller, a billionaire who made good in the billboards business, tells his story with distilled truths. You sit up and listen, because the insights come from someone who, in his words, has his “follies, takeoffs, crashes, comebacks and final reckoning.”
It is one thing to talk about integrity or earning trust-but it’s another to live a life of complete honesty.
The author, after whom a school of management was named, has lived integrity first and now is talking about it.
In other words, unlike many people we know, he has remarkably gone beyond paying lip service to this much desired virtue.
Speaking of trust, Eller is laconic: “Your handshake matches the tightest contract drawn up by the fanciest law firm in town.”
“I’ve been around long enough to confirm that integrity is key to business life and success. Integrity is what allows you and me to trust each other. Without it, we begin suspecting and then fearing each other , and soon bad things happen.”
Written on a prominent wall at the Eller College of Management is a quote from the author:
“Without integrity, motivation is dangerous: without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind.”
The book laments that “the priority of MBA student seems to be learning a thousand ways to kill your competitors, rather than the one true way to really succeed – develop bulletproof integrity.”
At the home front, this seems to be not the case. My alma mater, the Asian Institute of Management, has ethics in its curriculum – so with other major graduate business schools.
While the author devotes an entire discussion titled “Integrity is your only collateral,” he dishes out words of wisdom on succeeding as an entrepreneur, and yet still peppered with ideas on forthrightness and earning trust.
For salesman, he has a brilliant one-liner: “Love selling and sell what you love.”
For those having a problem with optimism, he quotes Winston Churchill: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
And idea makers, this quote is graphic: “Minds are like parachutes; they work only when open.”
He has advice for CEOs who think they can take over any company, even a different industry and erroneously think they can succeed: “If you’re going to take over a business, you had best arrive with a real understanding of what makes it work.”
“I learned that lesson the hard way,” he says, and he relates heartbreaking stories when he lost billions of dollars because of disastrous decisions.
What about the seeming staple of entrepreneurs – luck? Quoting his friend, Mort Feinberg, he writes: “You need to keep running, so that when the train comes by you’re ready to jump on. If you keep missing the train, you have no one but yourself to blame.”
This book is for rising managers – and for CEOs who must still run their businesses and are daily confronted with ethical decisions.
The book also throws in nuggets of wisdom on what makes business a calling and an exciting life’s work.
After giving us the impression that everything is business to him, using all his waking hours thinking and concluding business deals, he dishes out a life-saving advice. He asks: “How do you keep failure from wrecking your life?
His answer could prevent a disastrous bout with depression: “Business is only part of life, and not the most important. Your family, your friends, role as citizen of your community and nation – these are what counts.”
After reading this book, remember the truth in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ quote: “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension.”
Sunday, April 17, 2005
How to deal with gov’t deficit?Use principles, tools of business
“The Price of Government”
By David Osborne & Peter Hutchinson
Basic Books, 2004
The government is one gargantuan bureaucracy. And it remains such a huge challenge to make it efficient that “government efficiency” has sounded like an oxymoron!
In some elections here and in America, some politicians ran on a platform to “run government like a business enterprise.” Ross Perot did, but later dropped out of the U.S. Presidential race, and thus kept Americans wondering what a Perot presidency could have done to improve the nation’s finances.
Not known to many, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (more renowned for his “crisis leadership” in the 9/11 aftermath) introduced efficiency in the country’s largest city – dramatically solved crime, streamlined the bureaucracy, and improved public service.
Close to home, Lito Osmena, who once ran Cebu City as Mayor, used business principles to transform the Queen City of the South into a bustling metropolis, earning a much deserved name “Ce-boom.” Current Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte applied political will to install sound management and fiscal systems may yet reap the fruits of his managerial resolve, but had so far chalked up the achievement of realizing revenues in the billion peso range.
In the past, even in a graduate business school I attended, a professor once said that one cannot compare the performance of government with that of private business – “because they are driven by a different logic.” For example, he said, a governor cannot downsize because he must promote employment for his constituents. And realistically speaking, the government cannot compete with the private sector precisely because its costs are higher (translated: it is unavoidably inefficient).
Will citizens now resign to the fact that government, by its very nature, cannot be efficient in the same way businesses are called, not only to be efficient, but to be profitable? Given the mounting deficit piling on the national government and the hidden costs of local government units, shouldn’t there be method and strategy to dismount a white huge elephant?
The good news is, there is a book, “The Price of Government,” that discusses principle and process that would liberate government from the yearly classic dilemma: How can you deal with a growing deficit, on one hand, and mounting resistance against new taxes, on the other? These and other major issues are confronted by this new book written by David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson.
The authors underscore this predicament thus: “Elected officials are always looking for ways to demonstrate their fiscal prudence while also supporting their favorite programs.” Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?
Osborne and Hutchinson want to see the budgeting process based on “desired outcomes” – and not on previous figures. “Last year’s numbers are not an entitlement” – or these budget numbers should be challenged.
Actually, more than three decades ago, the zero budgeting process was already at work in the world of private business. Osborne’s prescriptions seem to be a take-off from policies and strategies that have already made businesses not only profitable but leading-edge winners.
And yet to apply it to a huge bureaucracy and sharing a wealth of lessons learned and successes scored are remarkable feats by themselves, considering the Herculean task of virtually cleaning up the mythical Augean stables. The authors have written a piece that has both governing principles, details of execution and success stories that will make this book a valuable manual not only for planners and budget chiefs, but more so the state’s chief executive or local governors to get real results.
The book would like to see the day when budget officer’s job “shifts from padding the base to being essential players in steering the organization toward results.”
This book is not only about budgeting, though, tackling “rightsizing,” based on the principle of “the right work, the right way with the right staff.” It, however, has a word of caution: “If done wrong, downsizing can cripple performance, leading to crises of another sort: failing police departments, rising crime rates, dirtier cities, longer wait for service and deteriorating road, rails and buses.”
The book recommends something radical: “You can change almost everything, except the values.”
The authors also have a revolutionary thought about government welcoming competition. Citing an example – a water or sewer utility -- they point out: “Unless the service is a natural monopoly, the customers purchase the service wherever they choose. If it is a natural monopoly, give it a customer board and regulate its prices.”
What about performance bonuses for government officials and employees? The book calls that “gainsharing,” a profit-sharing plan for the public sector. This is largely unheard of in government!
The book, 370 pages in all, is a tour de force for authors – and readers like you and me – but there is one supreme benefit from reading it: You come away with a stronger conviction that a government that is efficient, responsive and useful to its “customers” – the citizens – is in the realm of the possible. Its call is compelling, quoting a native American saying: “When you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” Stretching the metaphor, they consider the old budgeting and planning process a “dead horse” – and thus declare an imperative: Find a new horse – “then saddle up and ride.”
By David Osborne & Peter Hutchinson
Basic Books, 2004
The government is one gargantuan bureaucracy. And it remains such a huge challenge to make it efficient that “government efficiency” has sounded like an oxymoron!
In some elections here and in America, some politicians ran on a platform to “run government like a business enterprise.” Ross Perot did, but later dropped out of the U.S. Presidential race, and thus kept Americans wondering what a Perot presidency could have done to improve the nation’s finances.
Not known to many, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (more renowned for his “crisis leadership” in the 9/11 aftermath) introduced efficiency in the country’s largest city – dramatically solved crime, streamlined the bureaucracy, and improved public service.
Close to home, Lito Osmena, who once ran Cebu City as Mayor, used business principles to transform the Queen City of the South into a bustling metropolis, earning a much deserved name “Ce-boom.” Current Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte applied political will to install sound management and fiscal systems may yet reap the fruits of his managerial resolve, but had so far chalked up the achievement of realizing revenues in the billion peso range.
In the past, even in a graduate business school I attended, a professor once said that one cannot compare the performance of government with that of private business – “because they are driven by a different logic.” For example, he said, a governor cannot downsize because he must promote employment for his constituents. And realistically speaking, the government cannot compete with the private sector precisely because its costs are higher (translated: it is unavoidably inefficient).
Will citizens now resign to the fact that government, by its very nature, cannot be efficient in the same way businesses are called, not only to be efficient, but to be profitable? Given the mounting deficit piling on the national government and the hidden costs of local government units, shouldn’t there be method and strategy to dismount a white huge elephant?
The good news is, there is a book, “The Price of Government,” that discusses principle and process that would liberate government from the yearly classic dilemma: How can you deal with a growing deficit, on one hand, and mounting resistance against new taxes, on the other? These and other major issues are confronted by this new book written by David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson.
The authors underscore this predicament thus: “Elected officials are always looking for ways to demonstrate their fiscal prudence while also supporting their favorite programs.” Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?
Osborne and Hutchinson want to see the budgeting process based on “desired outcomes” – and not on previous figures. “Last year’s numbers are not an entitlement” – or these budget numbers should be challenged.
Actually, more than three decades ago, the zero budgeting process was already at work in the world of private business. Osborne’s prescriptions seem to be a take-off from policies and strategies that have already made businesses not only profitable but leading-edge winners.
And yet to apply it to a huge bureaucracy and sharing a wealth of lessons learned and successes scored are remarkable feats by themselves, considering the Herculean task of virtually cleaning up the mythical Augean stables. The authors have written a piece that has both governing principles, details of execution and success stories that will make this book a valuable manual not only for planners and budget chiefs, but more so the state’s chief executive or local governors to get real results.
The book would like to see the day when budget officer’s job “shifts from padding the base to being essential players in steering the organization toward results.”
This book is not only about budgeting, though, tackling “rightsizing,” based on the principle of “the right work, the right way with the right staff.” It, however, has a word of caution: “If done wrong, downsizing can cripple performance, leading to crises of another sort: failing police departments, rising crime rates, dirtier cities, longer wait for service and deteriorating road, rails and buses.”
The book recommends something radical: “You can change almost everything, except the values.”
The authors also have a revolutionary thought about government welcoming competition. Citing an example – a water or sewer utility -- they point out: “Unless the service is a natural monopoly, the customers purchase the service wherever they choose. If it is a natural monopoly, give it a customer board and regulate its prices.”
What about performance bonuses for government officials and employees? The book calls that “gainsharing,” a profit-sharing plan for the public sector. This is largely unheard of in government!
The book, 370 pages in all, is a tour de force for authors – and readers like you and me – but there is one supreme benefit from reading it: You come away with a stronger conviction that a government that is efficient, responsive and useful to its “customers” – the citizens – is in the realm of the possible. Its call is compelling, quoting a native American saying: “When you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” Stretching the metaphor, they consider the old budgeting and planning process a “dead horse” – and thus declare an imperative: Find a new horse – “then saddle up and ride.”
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Tap the Power of Emotion to drive corporate change
“The Heart of Change”
By John P. Kotter
Harvard Business School Press, 2002
The myth that denizens in the corporate world are rational – or cerebral -- has long been shattered. But, the way our corporate leaders manage organizations and people betray their hard-to-break habit of going into long-winded analysis, dishing out cold facts and colder figures.
Thus, they succeed more in boring their peers and subordinates rather than in igniting their enthusiasm for goals to be achieved or, at the very least, for the job at hand.
But times have changed – or have they? Has the bastion of cerebral managers been demolished by the decisive march of “resonant” leaders. A landmark book titled “Primal Leadership” by Daniel Goleman (who also authored an earlier work “Emotional Intelligence”) prompted renewed interest in the power of emotions to move and lead people.
And yet resonant leadership was – and is -- demonstrated by leaders in times past and present – from Moses to Mandela, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King, from George Washington to Winston Churchill, from Simon Bolivar to Tony Blair, from CEOs Jack Welch to Bill Gates.
It is thus appropriately not a discovery, but a re-discovery, of a type of leadership that “connects” to the hearts of people. Someone said that a leader is allowed to fail in many things, but never must he fail to “inspire.”
The more recent beneficiary of this return to “resonant leadership” – one that inspires people (as opposed to “toxic leadership) – is the science of managing and effecting change in corporations. A book, titled “The Heart of Change,” addresses issues and narrates real-life stories about change campaigns that worked in large enterprises simply because they decided that “the heart of change is in the emotions.”
Kotter, the author, is categorical about the message of his latest book: “People change … because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.” Kotter bats for shocking, or grabbing the attention of, people so that, first, they “sit up and listen,” and then are suitably empowered to embrace and initiate change.
This is an engaging and useful book, since it lives up to the promise of its sub-title which runs, “Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations.”
The narratives revolved on the Eight Steps for Successful Large-Scale Change. The steps are as follows: Increase Urgency, Build the Guiding Team, Get the Vision Right, Communicate for Buy-in, Empower Action, Create Short-Term Wins, Don’t Let Up, and Make Change Stick. Kotter calls these steps “a flow in a successful change effort.”
Every point made by the author on the Eight Steps was illustrated by a number of stories written by real people – some named, some not.
In the first step, “Increasing Urgency,” the book tells of a story titled “The Videotape of an Angry Customer.” It’s the story of a customer suitably frustrated by the seeming lack of listening skills of the front liners of a company. The narrator, presumably a top manager, decided to video tape the “angry customer.” He did not use the usual memo or speech extolling the virtues of customer relations, but showed the video tape to the firm’s managers and employees who got the complaint in the raw. Result: Most agree that they must do something about it.
Another success story, this time dealing with the refusal of people to change a work process, is about building an aircraft. A guy called Koz (author failed or decided not to give him a title) wanted to change the way an aircraft is assembled in many locations – resulting in ineffective quality control, delay in delivery of parts and high costs. In a management meeting, he announced: “We are not going to move an airplane until it is complete in its position… Until the plane is done and done right, no movement. Period.”
Kotter’s immediate commentary: “Everyone thought Koz was off his rocker.” But since Koz cannot be moved to abandon his decision, people followed his orders. As a result, quality has gone up and all aircraft have not only been on time, “they’ve been early.” Until today, says the book, the “story is still being told.”
Stories abound in this book. The tale of “Gloves in the Boardroom,” where 424 types of gloves were displayed at the large expensive table, delivered the urgent message to change a policy among division presidents of a conglomerate. There is story of a courageous CEO who refused to hang his portrait alongside portraits of former CEOs of a company since 1885. He did even more to shock the old timers: He removed the other portraits and, in their place, showed pictures of customers’ stores.
What the book is saying in stories and commentaries is that people respond to the need for change if they are confronted the truth – in a compelling or shocking way. That’s driving change through the gut.
And when you succeed in introducing change, improve processes dramatically, and evolve a completely new culture – how do you make sure the resulting changed culture stay as such. The book offers stories to illustrate the ever-present risk for people to revert to “good old tradition”. The tale, “The Boss Went to Switzerland,” is so familiar it could happen to a CEO who was successful in his role as “change leader,” only to come back after a three-year absence that the people went back – if I may say so – to worshipping the Baal of bureaucratic fat and smugness.
By John P. Kotter
Harvard Business School Press, 2002
The myth that denizens in the corporate world are rational – or cerebral -- has long been shattered. But, the way our corporate leaders manage organizations and people betray their hard-to-break habit of going into long-winded analysis, dishing out cold facts and colder figures.
Thus, they succeed more in boring their peers and subordinates rather than in igniting their enthusiasm for goals to be achieved or, at the very least, for the job at hand.
But times have changed – or have they? Has the bastion of cerebral managers been demolished by the decisive march of “resonant” leaders. A landmark book titled “Primal Leadership” by Daniel Goleman (who also authored an earlier work “Emotional Intelligence”) prompted renewed interest in the power of emotions to move and lead people.
And yet resonant leadership was – and is -- demonstrated by leaders in times past and present – from Moses to Mandela, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King, from George Washington to Winston Churchill, from Simon Bolivar to Tony Blair, from CEOs Jack Welch to Bill Gates.
It is thus appropriately not a discovery, but a re-discovery, of a type of leadership that “connects” to the hearts of people. Someone said that a leader is allowed to fail in many things, but never must he fail to “inspire.”
The more recent beneficiary of this return to “resonant leadership” – one that inspires people (as opposed to “toxic leadership) – is the science of managing and effecting change in corporations. A book, titled “The Heart of Change,” addresses issues and narrates real-life stories about change campaigns that worked in large enterprises simply because they decided that “the heart of change is in the emotions.”
Kotter, the author, is categorical about the message of his latest book: “People change … because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.” Kotter bats for shocking, or grabbing the attention of, people so that, first, they “sit up and listen,” and then are suitably empowered to embrace and initiate change.
This is an engaging and useful book, since it lives up to the promise of its sub-title which runs, “Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations.”
The narratives revolved on the Eight Steps for Successful Large-Scale Change. The steps are as follows: Increase Urgency, Build the Guiding Team, Get the Vision Right, Communicate for Buy-in, Empower Action, Create Short-Term Wins, Don’t Let Up, and Make Change Stick. Kotter calls these steps “a flow in a successful change effort.”
Every point made by the author on the Eight Steps was illustrated by a number of stories written by real people – some named, some not.
In the first step, “Increasing Urgency,” the book tells of a story titled “The Videotape of an Angry Customer.” It’s the story of a customer suitably frustrated by the seeming lack of listening skills of the front liners of a company. The narrator, presumably a top manager, decided to video tape the “angry customer.” He did not use the usual memo or speech extolling the virtues of customer relations, but showed the video tape to the firm’s managers and employees who got the complaint in the raw. Result: Most agree that they must do something about it.
Another success story, this time dealing with the refusal of people to change a work process, is about building an aircraft. A guy called Koz (author failed or decided not to give him a title) wanted to change the way an aircraft is assembled in many locations – resulting in ineffective quality control, delay in delivery of parts and high costs. In a management meeting, he announced: “We are not going to move an airplane until it is complete in its position… Until the plane is done and done right, no movement. Period.”
Kotter’s immediate commentary: “Everyone thought Koz was off his rocker.” But since Koz cannot be moved to abandon his decision, people followed his orders. As a result, quality has gone up and all aircraft have not only been on time, “they’ve been early.” Until today, says the book, the “story is still being told.”
Stories abound in this book. The tale of “Gloves in the Boardroom,” where 424 types of gloves were displayed at the large expensive table, delivered the urgent message to change a policy among division presidents of a conglomerate. There is story of a courageous CEO who refused to hang his portrait alongside portraits of former CEOs of a company since 1885. He did even more to shock the old timers: He removed the other portraits and, in their place, showed pictures of customers’ stores.
What the book is saying in stories and commentaries is that people respond to the need for change if they are confronted the truth – in a compelling or shocking way. That’s driving change through the gut.
And when you succeed in introducing change, improve processes dramatically, and evolve a completely new culture – how do you make sure the resulting changed culture stay as such. The book offers stories to illustrate the ever-present risk for people to revert to “good old tradition”. The tale, “The Boss Went to Switzerland,” is so familiar it could happen to a CEO who was successful in his role as “change leader,” only to come back after a three-year absence that the people went back – if I may say so – to worshipping the Baal of bureaucratic fat and smugness.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Never a dull moment in using commas, etc.
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves”
by Lynne Truss
Gotham Books, 2004
A grammar class, many must admit, is never interesting. The English teacher recites the rules, asks you to draw a sentence diagram, and is ambivalent about when to use the preposition “of” or the preposition “for.” On other occasions, she insists that we should never end our sentences with a preposition.
I recall that the irrepressible Winston Churchill followed that principle when he objected to a policy, saying: “Up with which we shall not put.” It sounds ridiculous, but it is decidedly grammatical.
I had a long discussion once with writers and critics in writers’ workshops, and I was told that there is a trend toward “minimalism” even in the use of commas. “If you can avoid commas, the new rule says, just do it! In an intended pun, they say: “Never lapse into a comma!”
And yet, no one can argue about the need to place the commas in their right places. Here’s a sampler:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
What a difference a comma makes, you may explain. It may trigger an endless anthropological debate!
What about this sign in a restaurant: “No dogs please.” Without the comma before “please,” the statement is “an indefensible generalization, since many dogs do please.”
The examples above are just two of numerous illustrations offered by an entertaining and instructive book titled “Eats, Shoot & Leaves,” by Lynne Truss. Even the title has its own story to tell. It’s about a Panda which suddenly develops the impulse to shoot. Check out the book and find out.
The book is actually a well-reasoned piece asking “sticklers” (those who care about punctuation) to unite and save the world – and the word – from ruin. The author expresses her lament: “While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight.”
“When words such as ‘phenomena’, ‘media’, or cherubim” are treated as singular, some of us cannot suppress actual screams.”
I have a collection of manuals of style from the respected newspapers around the world – those of the New York Times, Associated Press, The Economist, Wall Street Journal -- and their rules for precise language and unerring punctuation are laudable. This book by Ms. Truss, however, stands out as one of the most passionate – and interesting – about the need for correct (or proper) punctuation.
When the author is not seized into frenzy by a misused word, she settles for a sober thought like this: “Punctuation is a courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling.”
She continues: “The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it, there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. Punctuation herds words together, keeps others apart. Punctuation directs you how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play.”
Older editors of newspapers, including a respected boss of mine, rue the fact that many of our deskmen are no longer sticklers for punctuations. Read the newspapers any day and you will know that the misuse of punctuation is as widespread like common cold.
The author of this book cares enough about this trend – and has written a magnificent piece to serve as a call to arms against further misuse of punctuation, and against the deterioration of expression.
Well structured language expression has even suffered further with the wide use of emails, which has defied many rules of punctuation. Worse, the era of text messaging'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">text messaging has introduced an alien language that assaults the sensibilities of people who respect the language – whether English or our local dialect.
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is must read book. You don’t have to be an English major to find it useful. When you struggle over the letter composed by your secretary, or you are thrown into confusion by a hastily made report by your manager – chances are they have thrown overboard our only hope in communicating clearly and in making sense of this already confused world.
And yes, wrong punctuation can even trigger a theological debate. The book cites these two sentences as examples, where commas are placed in different locations:
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
“Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The author has this to say: “The first version, which is how Protestants interpret the passage, lightly skips over the whole unpleasant business of Purgatory and takes the crucified thief straight to heaven with our Lord. The second promises Paradise at some later date, and leaves Purgatory nicely in the picture for Catholics, who believe in it.”
You can have many uses for this book. It can actually be a manual for grammar. It can also sharpen your sensitivity to any punctuation infractions, if it does not clarify some fine distinctions about the use of such grammar marks.
The book has done something else, which to me is very important: The book has just communicated one central truth: There is actually never a dull moment in the world of punctuation.
by Lynne Truss
Gotham Books, 2004
A grammar class, many must admit, is never interesting. The English teacher recites the rules, asks you to draw a sentence diagram, and is ambivalent about when to use the preposition “of” or the preposition “for.” On other occasions, she insists that we should never end our sentences with a preposition.
I recall that the irrepressible Winston Churchill followed that principle when he objected to a policy, saying: “Up with which we shall not put.” It sounds ridiculous, but it is decidedly grammatical.
I had a long discussion once with writers and critics in writers’ workshops, and I was told that there is a trend toward “minimalism” even in the use of commas. “If you can avoid commas, the new rule says, just do it! In an intended pun, they say: “Never lapse into a comma!”
And yet, no one can argue about the need to place the commas in their right places. Here’s a sampler:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
What a difference a comma makes, you may explain. It may trigger an endless anthropological debate!
What about this sign in a restaurant: “No dogs please.” Without the comma before “please,” the statement is “an indefensible generalization, since many dogs do please.”
The examples above are just two of numerous illustrations offered by an entertaining and instructive book titled “Eats, Shoot & Leaves,” by Lynne Truss. Even the title has its own story to tell. It’s about a Panda which suddenly develops the impulse to shoot. Check out the book and find out.
The book is actually a well-reasoned piece asking “sticklers” (those who care about punctuation) to unite and save the world – and the word – from ruin. The author expresses her lament: “While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight.”
“When words such as ‘phenomena’, ‘media’, or cherubim” are treated as singular, some of us cannot suppress actual screams.”
I have a collection of manuals of style from the respected newspapers around the world – those of the New York Times, Associated Press, The Economist, Wall Street Journal -- and their rules for precise language and unerring punctuation are laudable. This book by Ms. Truss, however, stands out as one of the most passionate – and interesting – about the need for correct (or proper) punctuation.
When the author is not seized into frenzy by a misused word, she settles for a sober thought like this: “Punctuation is a courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling.”
She continues: “The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it, there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. Punctuation herds words together, keeps others apart. Punctuation directs you how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play.”
Older editors of newspapers, including a respected boss of mine, rue the fact that many of our deskmen are no longer sticklers for punctuations. Read the newspapers any day and you will know that the misuse of punctuation is as widespread like common cold.
The author of this book cares enough about this trend – and has written a magnificent piece to serve as a call to arms against further misuse of punctuation, and against the deterioration of expression.
Well structured language expression has even suffered further with the wide use of emails, which has defied many rules of punctuation. Worse, the era of text messaging'; return true;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">text messaging has introduced an alien language that assaults the sensibilities of people who respect the language – whether English or our local dialect.
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is must read book. You don’t have to be an English major to find it useful. When you struggle over the letter composed by your secretary, or you are thrown into confusion by a hastily made report by your manager – chances are they have thrown overboard our only hope in communicating clearly and in making sense of this already confused world.
And yes, wrong punctuation can even trigger a theological debate. The book cites these two sentences as examples, where commas are placed in different locations:
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
“Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The author has this to say: “The first version, which is how Protestants interpret the passage, lightly skips over the whole unpleasant business of Purgatory and takes the crucified thief straight to heaven with our Lord. The second promises Paradise at some later date, and leaves Purgatory nicely in the picture for Catholics, who believe in it.”
You can have many uses for this book. It can actually be a manual for grammar. It can also sharpen your sensitivity to any punctuation infractions, if it does not clarify some fine distinctions about the use of such grammar marks.
The book has done something else, which to me is very important: The book has just communicated one central truth: There is actually never a dull moment in the world of punctuation.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
A window into the mind, heart of the healing profession
“In Defense of the Physician”
By Homobono Calleja, M.D.
Many of the comments on the professional descendents of Hippocrates (400 BC) – the physicians – have been coming from outside the profession, whether good or bad, unflattering or complimentary.
Hardly do doctors take time to make their views heard. Rarely do they engage government, media, or civil society in a debate – except in their own journals whose readers are confined to fellow medical practitioners. When the Generic Act of 1988 was yet a bill, the debate was lopsided in favor of the piece of legislation. Little did we know that the entire membership of the Philippine Medical Association opposed the bill, calling it the “Genocide Act.”
With the rise of non-traditional medicine, the return to natural healing, and the increasing popularity of “herbal medicine” – not to mention religious cults that rule out any need for surgery or other tested remedies – how we wish we would hear a voice from their favorite “whipping boy” – traditional medicine.
Little did we know that there is such a voice – and a book – published at the turn of the century. The voice has an eloquence and literary flourish that’s rarely (so we thought) found among the men and women donning stethoscopes in regulation white gowns.
The book, “In Defense of the Physician,” by noted cardiologist Homobono B. Calleja, is notable for its forceful essay about the profession and the profession’s creed, commitments and concerns.
Listen: “Only the physician sees the kaleidoscopic spectacle of life from cradle to grave, not merely as a passive witness to the creation, development, growth, and end of being – but also as an active, caring advocate of life. His intricately woven knowledge of the chemistry of carbons and the electricity of atoms of life makes him the healer of the body.” Is this your doctor talking?
That’s the author of the book speaking. The book is a collection of essays, speeches and articles fro medical journals, and turn out to have popular appeal to people who have always wanted to have a window into the physician’s mind and heart. The seemingly sedate, almost passionless and taciturn professional turns out to ban a advocate of unmatched devotion to a cause and an uncharacteristic intensity reserved for firebrand activists.
In a chapter titled “Generics or Genocide Act of 1988,” the author dared to lock horns with fellow physicians, now Senator, Juan Flavier. Calling it a second-class medical delivery system,” Dr. Calleja questions the fundamental basis of the Generics Law, which states that “drugs with the same generic ingredients and the same dose are equivalent.”
The author counters: “The statement has no grain of truth,” pointing out that drug preparations are “equivalent” if they satisfy three “equivalence” requirements: chemical, biologic, and therapeutic. For laymen like us, the author provides explanation in the book.
On the same controversy, the author likens the medical association with Galileo (1633) who was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition of the Vatican for supporting the Copernican “heliocentric theory” (the sun is the universe’s center), when the acceptable belief was “geocentric” (the earth as center).
The author stretches the analogy identifying his profession with Galileo, saying: “The true science of medicine will prevail over the pseudo-science of political medicine formulated by the callous of the Department of Health and Congress.”
The book is not all passionate polemics and stirring defense. It is peppered with appropriate quotes from the world’s greatest thinkers and verses written by the author. A verse, directed at what he calls a “health provider licensed by an HMO,” with this line laden with sarcasm: “Once I saw a doctor and his license/ He used to diagnose disease by his expertise/ Now he is limited by his HMO plan.”
The book is interesting because it also touches on patient rights, malpractice suits and even media’s favorite topic: doctors playing God. On the latter, the author treads carefully and very thoughtfully on an ethical dilemma: “physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.”
He declares: “A physicians is sworn to cure the sick and alleviate suffering… he cannot be an instrument of death; hence he cannot inject the lethal drug. However, he can lend his medical expertise to pronounce the criminal dead or still alive after the injection is given.”
Rarely does one come across a book where the taciturn physician speaks. In this book, not only is a medical doctor opening his heart and mind. The author’s voice is compelling, and his thoughts navigate the seas of God-given and human wisdom in history, poetry and science – or lack of it (in politics, the author’s nemesis)
Amid high profile views on non-traditional medicine, this book provides a reassuring picture of both profession and physician – who is steeped in medical training fiercely committed to his Hippocratic oath, and – as the book shows – one driven by a single devotion to heal. This book is a must read, especially for executive concerned with their health (after worrying about wealth) or when, at time, they contemplate their own mortality.
By Homobono Calleja, M.D.
Many of the comments on the professional descendents of Hippocrates (400 BC) – the physicians – have been coming from outside the profession, whether good or bad, unflattering or complimentary.
Hardly do doctors take time to make their views heard. Rarely do they engage government, media, or civil society in a debate – except in their own journals whose readers are confined to fellow medical practitioners. When the Generic Act of 1988 was yet a bill, the debate was lopsided in favor of the piece of legislation. Little did we know that the entire membership of the Philippine Medical Association opposed the bill, calling it the “Genocide Act.”
With the rise of non-traditional medicine, the return to natural healing, and the increasing popularity of “herbal medicine” – not to mention religious cults that rule out any need for surgery or other tested remedies – how we wish we would hear a voice from their favorite “whipping boy” – traditional medicine.
Little did we know that there is such a voice – and a book – published at the turn of the century. The voice has an eloquence and literary flourish that’s rarely (so we thought) found among the men and women donning stethoscopes in regulation white gowns.
The book, “In Defense of the Physician,” by noted cardiologist Homobono B. Calleja, is notable for its forceful essay about the profession and the profession’s creed, commitments and concerns.
Listen: “Only the physician sees the kaleidoscopic spectacle of life from cradle to grave, not merely as a passive witness to the creation, development, growth, and end of being – but also as an active, caring advocate of life. His intricately woven knowledge of the chemistry of carbons and the electricity of atoms of life makes him the healer of the body.” Is this your doctor talking?
That’s the author of the book speaking. The book is a collection of essays, speeches and articles fro medical journals, and turn out to have popular appeal to people who have always wanted to have a window into the physician’s mind and heart. The seemingly sedate, almost passionless and taciturn professional turns out to ban a advocate of unmatched devotion to a cause and an uncharacteristic intensity reserved for firebrand activists.
In a chapter titled “Generics or Genocide Act of 1988,” the author dared to lock horns with fellow physicians, now Senator, Juan Flavier. Calling it a second-class medical delivery system,” Dr. Calleja questions the fundamental basis of the Generics Law, which states that “drugs with the same generic ingredients and the same dose are equivalent.”
The author counters: “The statement has no grain of truth,” pointing out that drug preparations are “equivalent” if they satisfy three “equivalence” requirements: chemical, biologic, and therapeutic. For laymen like us, the author provides explanation in the book.
On the same controversy, the author likens the medical association with Galileo (1633) who was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition of the Vatican for supporting the Copernican “heliocentric theory” (the sun is the universe’s center), when the acceptable belief was “geocentric” (the earth as center).
The author stretches the analogy identifying his profession with Galileo, saying: “The true science of medicine will prevail over the pseudo-science of political medicine formulated by the callous of the Department of Health and Congress.”
The book is not all passionate polemics and stirring defense. It is peppered with appropriate quotes from the world’s greatest thinkers and verses written by the author. A verse, directed at what he calls a “health provider licensed by an HMO,” with this line laden with sarcasm: “Once I saw a doctor and his license/ He used to diagnose disease by his expertise/ Now he is limited by his HMO plan.”
The book is interesting because it also touches on patient rights, malpractice suits and even media’s favorite topic: doctors playing God. On the latter, the author treads carefully and very thoughtfully on an ethical dilemma: “physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.”
He declares: “A physicians is sworn to cure the sick and alleviate suffering… he cannot be an instrument of death; hence he cannot inject the lethal drug. However, he can lend his medical expertise to pronounce the criminal dead or still alive after the injection is given.”
Rarely does one come across a book where the taciturn physician speaks. In this book, not only is a medical doctor opening his heart and mind. The author’s voice is compelling, and his thoughts navigate the seas of God-given and human wisdom in history, poetry and science – or lack of it (in politics, the author’s nemesis)
Amid high profile views on non-traditional medicine, this book provides a reassuring picture of both profession and physician – who is steeped in medical training fiercely committed to his Hippocratic oath, and – as the book shows – one driven by a single devotion to heal. This book is a must read, especially for executive concerned with their health (after worrying about wealth) or when, at time, they contemplate their own mortality.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Have some quiet and know what really matters in life
"In The Sphere of Silence"
By Vijay Eswaran
RYHM Publishing House, HK, 2004
We begin the New Year with a bang, but this book wants us to begin each new day of the year, not with a bang, but in silence.
Is this one of those books meant for cloistered life, or one that nurtures the soul of the recluse? No, it is written for CEOs, other executive and consultants in the midst of a dizzying workaday life.
Is this one of those contemplative or escapist books addressed to those who want to get away permanently from the workaday world, run to the sanctuary of the monastery – and yes, miles away from the arena where the action is? No. this book is, in fact, written by a top global executive presiding over a conglomerate that is into large-scale online marketing, aggressive distribution, unrelenting innovation and strategic entry into new business.
“The sphere of silence,” says author Vijay Eswaran, “is a rest for the tongue, the single most worked-out organ in the whole body.” The Scriptures call this “taming the tongue.” Mother Teresa, quoted in the book says: “In the silence of the heart, God speaks.”
Actually, the book recommends to managers and other people with bias for action to begin the day with a one-hour quiet time. A time for quietude opens the heart – and the mind – to what is essential.
That brings to mind another slim book – now a classic – “The Little Prince,” where one quote has become unforgettable: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Herein lies the reason why this book by Eswaran is a real find. It brings us back to what is truly fundamental (not in a political or religious sense) – or essential. In a world of too many words – and thus noise – a book comes like a whiff of fresh wind.
In this nicely designed book – less rhetoric, elegant interplay of fonts and white space – the form truly captures the substance. The author’s sayings are pithy, and have a ring of the elemental to them. Perhaps, that really happens when you have an hour of silence each day. Consider this powerful metaphor:
“Thought, word, deed. The thought is the arrow; the word which carries your thoughts, the bow; the action which releases the arrow, the pull of the string.” The syntax captures the measured cadence of a guru speaking – where pauses and silences are part of the message.
It’s true that when you shut out the world – turn off the radio, switch off the ubiquitous TV, ask the housemaid to keep quiet for a change, and then close the door – there are only two begins left to deal with in silence: yourself and the Divine. Then, it’s reflection time.
“Know thyself,” says the Greek philosopher. Eswaran is more contemporary with this pithy sentences: “Take your life back. Dedicate one hour out of 24 and you get 23 back in your control.” Spoken like an executive – with a difference. He has the gift of brevity and clarity.
The handy book, running into 120 pages, is an easy read. The author’s saying, edited and transcribed by Gemma Luz Corotan, deals with practical issues like anger, war, learning, courage, doing your job, and a host of other daily concerns. And yet he speaks of them in their simplest form whence comes principles.
As they say, when you teach principles, your students will take care of the techniques. It begins with the principle of silence, and from such center of quiet will emerge the power of focus, clarity and, yes, wisdom. Many leaders of whatever creed and persuasion, when led to silence, came upon a central truth that first changed their lives – and then transformed a nation.
Of late, books have come into the scene and continues to change or enrich lives. The bestseller, “Purpose Driven Life,” has crossed religious boundaries to be a handy practical guide to people.
This book – which draws wisdom from the wellspring of a variety of philosophical and religious thought – may yet quench the thirst for something that touches the heart, or the desire for essential principles that make sense or create order in this topsy-turvy world. For that alone, this book deserves to be at your bedside at night, or at your desk by day.
By Vijay Eswaran
RYHM Publishing House, HK, 2004
We begin the New Year with a bang, but this book wants us to begin each new day of the year, not with a bang, but in silence.
Is this one of those books meant for cloistered life, or one that nurtures the soul of the recluse? No, it is written for CEOs, other executive and consultants in the midst of a dizzying workaday life.
Is this one of those contemplative or escapist books addressed to those who want to get away permanently from the workaday world, run to the sanctuary of the monastery – and yes, miles away from the arena where the action is? No. this book is, in fact, written by a top global executive presiding over a conglomerate that is into large-scale online marketing, aggressive distribution, unrelenting innovation and strategic entry into new business.
“The sphere of silence,” says author Vijay Eswaran, “is a rest for the tongue, the single most worked-out organ in the whole body.” The Scriptures call this “taming the tongue.” Mother Teresa, quoted in the book says: “In the silence of the heart, God speaks.”
Actually, the book recommends to managers and other people with bias for action to begin the day with a one-hour quiet time. A time for quietude opens the heart – and the mind – to what is essential.
That brings to mind another slim book – now a classic – “The Little Prince,” where one quote has become unforgettable: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Herein lies the reason why this book by Eswaran is a real find. It brings us back to what is truly fundamental (not in a political or religious sense) – or essential. In a world of too many words – and thus noise – a book comes like a whiff of fresh wind.
In this nicely designed book – less rhetoric, elegant interplay of fonts and white space – the form truly captures the substance. The author’s sayings are pithy, and have a ring of the elemental to them. Perhaps, that really happens when you have an hour of silence each day. Consider this powerful metaphor:
“Thought, word, deed. The thought is the arrow; the word which carries your thoughts, the bow; the action which releases the arrow, the pull of the string.” The syntax captures the measured cadence of a guru speaking – where pauses and silences are part of the message.
It’s true that when you shut out the world – turn off the radio, switch off the ubiquitous TV, ask the housemaid to keep quiet for a change, and then close the door – there are only two begins left to deal with in silence: yourself and the Divine. Then, it’s reflection time.
“Know thyself,” says the Greek philosopher. Eswaran is more contemporary with this pithy sentences: “Take your life back. Dedicate one hour out of 24 and you get 23 back in your control.” Spoken like an executive – with a difference. He has the gift of brevity and clarity.
The handy book, running into 120 pages, is an easy read. The author’s saying, edited and transcribed by Gemma Luz Corotan, deals with practical issues like anger, war, learning, courage, doing your job, and a host of other daily concerns. And yet he speaks of them in their simplest form whence comes principles.
As they say, when you teach principles, your students will take care of the techniques. It begins with the principle of silence, and from such center of quiet will emerge the power of focus, clarity and, yes, wisdom. Many leaders of whatever creed and persuasion, when led to silence, came upon a central truth that first changed their lives – and then transformed a nation.
Of late, books have come into the scene and continues to change or enrich lives. The bestseller, “Purpose Driven Life,” has crossed religious boundaries to be a handy practical guide to people.
This book – which draws wisdom from the wellspring of a variety of philosophical and religious thought – may yet quench the thirst for something that touches the heart, or the desire for essential principles that make sense or create order in this topsy-turvy world. For that alone, this book deserves to be at your bedside at night, or at your desk by day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)