Jan-Maat's Reviews > The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This was recommended reading following on from a course and I found it to be an odd mix of the homely and the disturbing.

On the whole it's probably the dogmatic air of absolute certainty that I find disturbing, that and the way he describes how he reduced his son to tears over keeping the garden in good order. Reading this book is rather like having a very one-sided conversation with a particularly earnest and opinionated drunk who isn't shy to jab you in the chest with a fore-finger to underline a point.

That's not to say that the seven habits are bad, far from it. They are a quite reasonable and potentially useful set of habits. Whether effective people tend to have these habits or if having these habits will make you more effective is presumed but not proven by this book which is heavily anecdotal, but that is neither here nor there. The power of the argument and the vast number of sales lies in how the seven habits tap into our moral beliefs about the kind of habits we want to be able to have to make us successful, and more to the point the kind of habits that we want to believe make people successful, and in the great tradition of self help books it asserts the primacy of the individual will over any and all other circumstances. No war, want, injustice, disease, political, economic or social structure can hinder the truly just man girt by the seven habits. Business in this account is a battlefield in the moral universe, the victor, a sage at least if not a saint.

Be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergise and sharpen the saw are the seven habits. That's the meat of the book in one sentence.

I wonder if all of Covey's seven habits could be cribbed out of Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? But equally perhaps we should remember that seven is a magic number, this really isn't a business book, it is a spiritual book. The seven habits are to stand firm against the seven deadly sins. Life on Earth for Covey is a probationary period for the life ever after, since Covey was a Mormon being true to his faith was due to be rewarded with stewardship of an entire planet. Clearly one needs to demonstrate effective stewardship over the smaller business of mortal life to be judged ready for such a substantial reward.

In turn this was another disturbing element to the book for me because this means that everything becomes functional. Having a picnic with your sweetheart isn't about enjoying life it is an important Quadrant II activity! This is a mechanistic view of the human experience and, sadder yet, a harsh one. The path to life everlasting is a narrow one, beset with dangers while storms around do rage. Fear not, lonely pilgrim, for Covey illuminates the way with quadrants and diagrams.

Yet there is optimism in his approach. Understanding triumphs eternally. Despite what he repeats about paradigm shifts he believes that everybody can come to see both alternative paradigms and appreciate their validity. Personally I suspect that every reader will be able to think of occasions when opposite points of view are not reconcilable. Honesty and realism has to temper any reading of this book.

Maybe my problem with this book is that everything is spelt out. It's a Sunday sermon and the pastor is going to read out every word and isn't going to be hurried on to his inevitable conclusions. Worth reading for a taste of the horror and the glory of late twentieth- early twenty-first century corporate life - but keep some salt handy.