First Things Only

You know, there’s a lot of truth and value in the old expression, “First Things First.”  It reminds us that there are first things, things that are more important than the mountains of activities and detail that continually demand our attention.  It reminds us that we should put those first things at the head of the line.  And it reminds us that we have to make a point of it or this just won’t happen.  It also tells us something else that’s very important – that it takes mindfulness and effort to keep those first things at the top of the list of where we spend our time and energy.

In the actual world we live in, however, first things are often not put first.  Sometimes, they’re not in the middle of the list, or even on the list.  At times, first things are the last things that get people’s attention.  Why is this?  Well, partly because first things are often hard things.  They’re big and tough and difficult to get your arms around.  They take attention that we don’t seem to have, collaboration that we can’t seem to develop, passion that we just can’t muster.  Partly first things need a lot of focus and concentration to make something out of them, and the 21st century doesn’t leave much room for those.  Partly, we haven’t even defined first things as first things.  And partly, we often don’t even know where to begin.

But first things are where the game is won or lost.  That’s where the 80/20 rule really works – 80% of the results from drilling down on 20% of the decisions and actions.  It can even be the 90/10 or 95/5 rule, where very, very few things really make all the difference, where almost all of the results come from just one or two things done exceedingly well.

This is why, at Luman International, we say First Things Only.  If it isn’t a first thing, why are we working on it?  Or to say it differently, why are we working on anything else when there’s a first thing floating around that hasn’t been fully addressed?

But what really happens in organizations?  I was talking with the Senior VP of HR in a Fortune 500 company, who told me that his “first thing” was to create a sense of passion and commitment, and in the process to elininate their pervasive sense of entitlement and “doing only what I have to do.”  I gave him a lot of ideas about how to go about Building a Passionate Organization, something we’ve been helping leaders do for almost 29 years, something that should be on every leader’s list of First Things.  When I met with this executive some weeks later, I asked him what he had been working on.  His answer?  “I’ve spent every waking minute since then trying to get our new physical education/fitness center completed.”

Now, health is important, and organizations that try to help their employees be healthy have a commendable concept.  But could this really be a First Thing?  Aren’t employees ultimately responsible for their own health?  How will this contribute to building passion and commitment (it won’t, because they come from 10 Keys that have nothing to do with benefits)?  In fact, isn’t this likely in an entitlement culture to build an even greater sense of entitlement? 

In a way, this is more than just a performance question.  First Things Only is a question of everyday ethics.  Someone is paying for the time spent on second and third things, someone is paying for the first things that are going unattended.  Working on second and third (and often ninth and tenth) things when first things are crying out for attention is a waste of lives and resources.  It’s guaranteed to produce sub-optimal results, along with a lot of damage to a lot of human beings.

First Things Only.  Anything else is…well, not that important.

Terms in italics are trademarked property of Luman Interntational.  All rights reserved.

Everyday Ethics

Here’s what the business world doesn’t need: Another high-sounding “code of ethics.”

Some of these read like a cross between the The Night Before Christmas, a smarmy pre-school set of rules about “being nice” , and the Ten Commandments with all of the reality stripped out.  People are urged in a lofty way to “be good for goodness’ sake.”  Whether captured in an actual “code” or in a vision/values statement, the words have the interesting dual capacity of being both too high-brow to relate to actual life on the ground and too nitty-gritty to relate to all of the ways in which things can go south.

Often these are captured or expanded upon in policy and procedure manuals, an ever-growing volume (or set of volumes) that attempt to cover all of the ways in which people can do wrong (or careless, or stupid, or whatever).  When the government does it, it becomes 250,000 people engaged full time in writing rules and a thousand or more pages added to the Federal Register every year.  Whoever does it, the more the volume the less the meaning, expecially since a lot of the effort involves making and justifying exceptions to the code/policy/procedure/rule.

This is why we at Luma talk abou everyday ethics.  What are everyday ethics?  They’re ethics that address things that can happen every day, violate people’s sense of right every day, waste resources every day, destroy the possibilities of the organization every day, produce mediocrity every day.  Things like focusing on the wrong (or even bad) priorities, drowning people in distractions, allowing internal warfare and destructive competition, burying truth (top-down, bottom-up, side-to-side), letting greed prevail over serving people successfully.  I addressed these and more in my book High-Performance Ethics, where the main guideline was to talk about ethics that are critical to having team integrity that leads to better results. 

There is a place for lofty prose, but too often the prose is all we get.  Talk is cheap.  Action is the proof of the pudding.  Is this ethic something that relates to real human beings with real strengths and weaknesses, living in organizations with real opportunities and challenges?  If so, it’s worth talking about.  If not, we should save it for the next conversation we have with a cleric or philosopher.

Even they would do better talking about everyday ethics.

NEW! High-Performance Ethics ONLINE COURSE!

We are proud to announce that our first comprehensive online interactive course is now available for instant access. This course teaches leaders how to achieve performance through the power of ethical behavior.

High-Performance Ethics includes groundbreaking principles of leadership taught by author and internationally acclaimed speaker James R. Lucas. This comprehensive 12 module course (approximately 9 hours of interactive learning) covers the 10 Timeless Principles for Next-Generation Leadership that Jim Lucas and Wes Cantrell (Former CEO of Lanier Business Systems) cover in the book, High-Performance Ethics.

To learn more or to order, click here: High-Performance Ethics Online Course

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Just what in the world are “ethics?”

If you see what most large businesses, C-level leaders, and politicians are talking and writing about, you would think that it means “avoiding breaking the law and going to jail.”

But that’s like saying, “being successful means that your business doesn’t go bankrupt.” It’s true in a sense, but it’s the lowest possible level of truth. There’s a lot more to being successful than just staying in business and out of foreclosure. Just as there’s a lot more to ethics than avoiding an indictment.

Here’s the problem, and it’s huge: We train people to be unethical every day.

What? Am I kidding? Not at all. Let’s look at a typical meeting with “the boss.” He or she asks at decision time, “Do you all agree with me on this?” Ten people are in the room, and ten heads are nodding up and down. But inside, five of those heads are nodding “No.” They are pretending to agree, without really agreeing. A few of them may even think the idea is nuts.

So what do we call this? Typical company behavior? Sadly, yes. But it’s a whole lot more. It’s building lying – yes, lying – into our everyday business interactions. Inadvertently, perhaps, we’re teaching people that not speaking the truth is good for their careers. So is it any surprise that the might fudge the truth in other areas, like who made this mistake or missed this opportunity?

At Luman, we believe that ethical organizations start at the everyday level. And if you start there as a leader, you probably won’t have to spend any time worrying about ethics at the grand-jury level. Our course Leading with High-Performance Ethics addresses 10 areas that , if you get them right, will produce an ethical powerhouse from the ground up.

And yes, lead to higher performance too. Why? Well, how can you reach top performance as an organization when most of your people aren’t even telling the truth?

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NEW! High-Performance Ethics Online Presentation

Delivered by James R. Lucas, this streaming presentation delves into 10 Timeless Principles for Next-Generation Leadership. It answers questions like:

• How do we compete with unethical businesses?
• How do we stay focused & avoid countless distractions?
• How do we build strong & effective working relationships?

To read more and to order, click here: High-Performance Ethics Presentation. The DVD video version will be available soon!

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