Living on the Real World

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – generally attributed to Abraham Lincoln

In his 1989 management classic, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey emphasizes three personal habits: be proactive; begin with the end in mind; and put first things first. He then articulates three habits essential to effective collaboration with others: think win-win; seek first to understand, then to be understood; and synergize.

To wrap up, he highlights habit 7 : continual self-renewal.

He suggests attention to four aspects, fleshing out each with examples:

He adds this exhortation:

As you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish…

…Feeling good doesn’t just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It’s all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being. You can experience vibrant energy. Or you can procrastinate and miss out on the benefits of good health and exercise. You can revitalize yourself and face a new day in peace and harmony. Or you can wake up in the morning full of apathy because your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone. Just remember that every day provides a new opportunity for renewal–a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall.

Covey’s encouragement might seem totally inadequate in the face of today’s turbulent times – in a word, Pollyannish[1]. Even in the calmer times of the late 90’s and the early “aughts” I remember articles from the Washington Post chronicling the brutal schedules of White House staffers, their physicians’ concerns, and pointed questions: Doc, (in the White House, in my federal agency…fill in the blank) I don’t have time for both sleep and exercise. Which is more important? (back then, most of the doctors reluctantly came down on the side of sleep).

Unrealistic? Inadequate? Maybe. Put that question aside for the moment (we’ll get back to it). Look closely and you’ll find some particularly endearing features of these four aspects. To start, they are all well within your circle of influence. You decide what you prioritize, how you allocate your sharpen-the-saw time. You get to select your preferences from today’s rich and varied physical-fitness menu. You get to decide what you read and learn about. For a variety of reasons, in the course of your entire day, you have to make meaningful social connections with people across the full spectrum, but you do get to choose your closest handful of friends, and sort out how you’ll invest in those special relationships.

Then there’s the issue of cost. In 2025, you can spend as much money as you want on these activities. You can buy not a single exercise bike, but a fleet: a road bike, a mountain bike, a stationary bike… You can decide that you want to learn, but through world travel. Luxurious spas stand by to help you with meditation and rest. But you can also progress in each of these four respects for little money or even for free. Dissatisfaction with today’s consumer-driven society combines with today’s economic uncertainties might make the cheaper options especially attractive.

And don’t forget the umbrella-label for this set of habits – sharpening the saw. As the Lincoln quote suggests, attention to these aspects of the seventh habit will make your day job easier, and at the same time improve your performance, expand your usefulness and impact. And all that will show! Others will be attracted by what they see, imitate your example, ask for your advice. Your circle of influence might expand a bit, maybe even a lot.

________________

This brings to a close our look at Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits from a 2025 vantage point. Perhaps you’ve read this far, or have been reflecting on these seven habits, but are still wondering whether they can prove effective – or adequate – to the challenges posed by today’s turbulent world. Then do a thought experiment. Ask yourself: if everyone – all eight billion of us – subscribed to and practiced these habits, would the world be a better place, or would we quickly discover a point of diminishing returns? Would we have a better chance of coping with climate change, reducing world poverty, ending war, rationalizing immigration, and creating a more promising future for our children? Or is a different stance required?

There are other leadership models out there to choose from. You may remember Jack Welch, GE’s CEO from 1981-2001. At the height of his career and reputation, he began offering management wisdom, showing others how he did it – writing books, setting up an eponymous management institute, and more over the next to decades.

A sampling of his approach: Welch spoke of 4E’s and a P: energy, energize, edge, execute, and passion.

Energy: the ability to go, go, go – to thrive on action and relish change.

Energize:the ability to get others revved up.

Edge: having the courage to make tough “yes or no” decisions. Smart people can assess a situation from every angle–but smart people with edge know when to stop assessing and make a tough call, even without all the information.

Execute:having the ability to get the job done… put decisions into action and push them forward to completion, through resistance, chaos, or unexpected obstacles. People who can execute know that winning is about results.

Passion[2]: People with passion have a heartfelt, deep, authentic excitement about work. They care–really care in their bones–about colleagues, employees, and friends. They love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick out of people around them doing the same.

But along the way, he also spoke and wrote a book about Winning. And it was indeed about winning more than about win-win. There’s a difference in tone between his famous quote Control your own destiny or someone else will and Covey’s quieter encouragement to be proactive (and differences as well between his other attributes and those propounded by Stephen Covey. Again, ask yourself the same question: if all eight billion of us followed Jack Welch’s advice, would the world be better off? Or would the noise be deafening? And the level of competitiveness be stifling?

Unsurprisingly, with so much time in the goldfish bowl that comes with leadership of a major corporation, Welch built up his share of detractors, especially as the wheels came off GE’s business model. By comparison, Stephen Covey was offering perspective from the gentler terrain of the sidelines and its more-forgiving level of scrutiny. But he made a major point that merits your attention. In introducing his book, he argued that a century or more ago, management books emphasized the virtues (hard work, integrity, perseverance, trustworthiness, respect, etc.) as the way to be effective. He contrasted that with what he saw as the present-day tendency for such self-help to focus instead on manipulative techniques. He called leaders to return to the virtues.

You be the judge: who is walking the walk? Which approach, if widely adopted, would bring better societal outcomes? Why? Or put your own favorite body of leadership advice to the test. Or synergize: meld the models into a framework that helps you.

But don’t stop at mere judgment or analysis. Take the next steps! Be proactive! Whatever the task at hand, continue setting your priorities and working with others to make this real world a better place.

Bon courage![3]

[1] But dig deeper, and you’ll discover Pollyanna was right and the detractors in her dispirited town were wrong – and she brought them around rather than vice versa.

[2] Couldn’t find an exact reference to this, but my memory from the time is that Passion was an add-on to what began as simply the 4E’s, and may reflect the thinking and influence of his partner and wife Suzy Welch.

[3] Using this instead of the more familiar bon chance. That’s because hard work lies ahead. You may or may not reach your goals, and chance will play its role, but your success will largely reflect your effort as well as the effectiveness of your effort.

E pluribus unum (out of many, one) For years, the unofficial motto of the United States[1].

…Our differences are our glory, and we need to examine what it would look like to really celebrate them—to face them boldly, and respond with the trusting inquiry that leads to love. – April Lawson

Our differences are our glory? Celebrate them? Use them as a starting point for synergizing, building unity? Getting to love? Surely all that’s a little over the top?

But here’s some of what Stephen Covey had to say back thirteen years ago. Worth a slow, thoughtful read:

“To put it simply, synergy means “two heads are better than one.” Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty–you name it.

When people begin to interact together genuinely, and they’re open to each other’s influence, they begin to gain new insight. The capability of inventing new approaches is increased exponentially because of differences.

Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word–boring! Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life”.

A small, entirely personal example: When my wife and I moved from Colorado to DC in 1987, we had been married for eleven years. We could only afford one car, so we drove to work from home and back together (45 minutes or so, each way). For the first time in our married lives, we started listening to Morning Edition and All Things Considered on the radio. As a result, we found ourselves talking about a wide variety of subjects we had never discussed before. We came to see vast areas of unexplored disagreement. At the same time, the stress of living and working in DC had the side effect of teaching us the hard way that our differences, which we had previously seen as weaknesses to overcome, were really strengths to build on. We came to realize that most of the bad decisions and mistakes we’d been making as a couple came when we started out in agreement – with the same blind spot. By contrast, when we would disagree initially on some matter, we had a better chance of coming to a single good approach.

As a result, during this period our good marriage transitioned to a great one. As a couple, we had synergy.

Back to Stephen Covey. Read from his 1989 book and you’ll find that he, like Lawson, wasn’t referring to slight differences. Both focused their attention on seemingly irreconcilable differences, of massive scale, pervading large swaths of society. He, as she, saw the search for synergy in the face of such great divides as high-risk but also high reward.

Perhaps through a 2025 lens this task looks far more daunting, and chances for success seem far less likely. We face a choice: give up? Or double down?

Which brings us to E pluribus unum. In today’s perspective, the Latin E pluribus discidium (separation, division, divorce, discord, disagreement, tearing) or E pluribus dividia (dissension, discord, care, vexation, trouble) might seem more realistic. The differences we face here in the United States do seem on their face to be irreconcilable.

But remember: the thirteen original colonies were themselves by no means homogeneous. Their interests and cultures varied radically. Nor were they virtuous or of one mind. Their morals and values were seriously flawed. Some practiced slavery. Others saw that as an abomination. Democracy was thought to be the province of men, not women, and to be confined to landholding men at that. Even within each colony there was polarization; revolutionaries and Tory loyalists lived (and argued) side by side. Disagreement and discord were the order of the day. But they ultimately found unity – synergy – in their desire to break away from British rule. Years later, the stain of slavery, still festering, would reach a flashpoint. The resulting Civil War threatened to rip the country asunder. Again (though only at the cost of many lives), the United States would make a critical choice in favor of synergy. Later, more quietly, women would achieve the vote. Time and again, throughout our history, Americans have done the arduous synergizing needed to deal with social fault lines, to achieve or maintain unity.

In building and articulating his first three habits – be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and put first things first – Stephen Covey is encouraging and equipping each of us individually to be effective and responsible by nature. Only then, he says, will we be able to work with others effectively to build a better world. Provided, as we enter such collaborations, that we bring to the table additional social skills, practiced to the point of habit: that we think win-win; that we seek first to understand, then be understood; and that we synergize. Without the first three habits, attempts at collaboration will lack a proper foundation and be compromised; without the last three habits, the first three will be sterile[2].

Whew! No pressure!

But isn’t there a seventh habit? What about the seventh habit? More on that next time.

[1] Since 1956, the official motto of the United States is “One Nation, under God” (but that is a subject for another day).

[2]There’s an analogy with team sports here. It’s the individual athlete’s responsibility to show up for practice physically and mentally fit. The coaches and the practice sessions will concentrate on teamwork.

If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” –  Stephen R. Covey

Years ago, when I was living and working in Boulder, two of my favorite scientist-friend-colleagues coauthored a series of great papers. Their happy place was a shared office with a blackboard where they could discuss their calculations and the implications for hours. They would sometimes go on like this for days. One, you see, was Greek, the other Italian, and they were communicating in English. Before they could be sure that they truly understood each other and were in full agreement about an equation or a piece of text, they had to state and restate their arguments again and again.

They sought to understand, then be understood. The product was always magnificent.

As today’s quote suggests, of the Habits 4-6, it is #5 that Stephen Covey himself thought was the big one. Thirteen years ago, his website amplified on the subject in this way:

Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?

If you’re like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you’re listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. Do any of the following sound familiar?

“Oh, I know just how you feel. I felt the same way.” “I had that same thing happen to me.” “Let me tell you what I did in a similar situation.”

Because you so often listen autobiographically, you tend to respond in one of four ways:

You might be saying, “Hey, now wait a minute. I’m just trying to relate to the person by drawing on my own experiences. Is that so bad?” In some situations, autobiographical responses may be appropriate, such as when another person specifically asks for help from your point of view or when there is already a very high level of trust in the relationship.

But even with that last bit of sugar-coating, Mr. Covey is indeed saying that is “so bad.” He encourages us to listen with more empathy – to understand and share the feelings of the other person, to see things from their point of view. That requires listening wholeheartedly versus half-listening while formulating what we will say next. When it finally is time to say something (much later in most conversations than any of us tend to think – as Mr. Covey notes, we’re generally guilty of prematurely jumping in), we might make that something a question or two, looking for points of clarification. Often, when we speak a common language it’s too easy to jump to the conclusion that we know exactly what the speaker is saying, and the thought process that lies behind it.[1]

Let’s jump ahead to the year 2025. We see habit #5 observed mostly in the breach. And we see it on the big-screen – the largest of national political issues, multiple issues. the great polarization and disunity tearing at our basic social fabric.

In the previous LOTRW post, I referred you to a sobering essay by April Lawson. Perhaps you’ve read her article already. If you haven’t, I again encourage you to do so. By way of motivation, here is another set of excerpts:

…A variety of organizations have sprung up in more recent years to forge a kind of depolarization field, most of them sincere and well intentioned. But there is a bias in the soil: a Blue bias. (Blue = leans liberal; Red = leans conservative.) The vast majority of leaders, funders, and participants in the bridging field are Blue, and this imbalance dictates the approach taken to depolarization…

… The virtue of Blues is that they are very open (at least at the beginning), and they’re always the first to reach out a hand and say they want to learn about the other side. The vice, however, hidden to themselves most of all, is in the fact that many Blues assume that if Reds could just be taught what is true, they would be enlightened into Blueness…

…If you are a Blue, you may be thinking, “but wait—we want to celebrate differences! We love diversity, that’s what we’re all about.” And I commend your intention. But what I’ve found, over and over again, is that Blue organizations say they love diversity, but not when it comes to viewpoint diversity. Oh sure, they can handle your standard libertarian who works in IT, but when it comes to real difference—like being a Trump supporter because you genuinely love Trump and think he’s one of the great Americans of our generation—somehow the celebratory fanfare dims.

The reasoning Blues will offer is typically that they want to celebrate difference as long as everyone is tolerant. The problem is that many powerful forms of religious, political, and philosophical belief make claims that are in direct conflict with the idea that all ways of being are equally valid. Blue insistence on “tolerance” functions as a fence to keep those beliefs and their adherents out. In simpler terms, when Blues say they want to “celebrate difference,” Reds often hear the caveat: that some are “approved differences” and others, like their political persuasion, are not…

… To my mind, this is one of the most profound causes of our present polarization: the ethic of tolerance, which goes in the guise of a neutral standard, denudes public argument of its profound spiritual dimensions and thereby guts the richness of pluralism…

…Our differences are our glory, and we need to examine what it would look like to really celebrate them—to face them boldly, and respond with the trusting inquiry that leads to love.

Whew! A lot to wrap our heads around! The stakes are high, and the difficulties commensurately great. A closing thought. Perhaps one arena where we come closest to getting this right is the marriage, or a lifelong partnership, or family relationship where the starting point is we are unified, united – we’re one. Nothing can tear us apart; we will work it out. Now what was that disagreement we were having again? Where do we start?

Maybe habit #6 – synergize – provides some hints. More soon.

[1] Logicians in the crowd might smell a problem here: what if both parties enter a conversation with this point of view? Do they sit there, silent, waiting for the other to speak first? And for how long? My answer is: you’re bright. You’ll work it out. The Old Testament speaks to this. In the book of Job, when Job is suffering, his three friends gather at his side. When they see his condition, they rend their own garments and sit on the ground with him for seven days in silence. Finally Job speaks. So far so good! But after that beginning, things go downhill. It’s not long before Job’s friends start probing, evaluating (negatively), and offering chapter-after-chapter dollops of useless advice.

“No man is an island…, entire of itself; …any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” – John Donne (1624)

Effectiveness cannot be accomplished as solitaire.

Stephen Covey’s habits 1-3 speak to us as individuals. He asks us to view life proactively, not reactively, or (worse) through a lens of victimhood. He encourages us (a) to discover or (b) to invent (there’s a little of both here) our long-term goals and bring these to a conscious awareness – to the forefront of our minds. He exhorts us to translate those desired ends into concrete steps that will get us there, and give those steps priority amidst the other necessary tasks we face each day (lest desired progress towards our long-term aspirations be stymied by the urgent).

But habits 4-6 take us outside ourselves. They recognize that effectiveness is something achieved in community.

Each of these next three habits has much to teach us. Let’s begin with think win-win. A reminder: LOTRW visited each of these habits in 2012. (You can find the earlier post here.) At that time, Mr. Covey’s website (not his book) had this to say:

“Think Win-Win isn’t about being nice, nor is it a quick-fix technique. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing–that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it’s not fair, and I’m going to make sure you don’t get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?

Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!

A person or organization that approaches conflicts with a win-win attitude possesses three vital character traits:

1. Integrity: sticking with your true feelings, values, and commitments
2. Maturity: expressing your ideas and feelings with courage and consideration for the ideas and feelings of others
3. Abundance Mentality: believing there is plenty for everyone

Many people think in terms of either/or: either you’re nice or you’re tough. Win-win requires that you be both. It is a balancing act between courage and consideration. To go for win-win, you not only have to be empathic, but you also have to be confident. You not only have to be considerate and sensitive, you also have to be brave. To do that–to achieve that balance between courage and consideration–is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to win-win.”

Today, Franklin Covey (Stephen Covey’s son) has it boiled down to another four-quadrant matrix:

Win-lose    steamroller_________________________ Win-win      partner

Lose-lose   saboteur ___________________________Lose-win    doormat

7 Habits emphasized the following point. Win-win is not a matter of I-win-this-time and you-win-next-time (then repeat). Stephen Covey emphasized that the goal is both-parties-win-transaction-by-transaction-all-the-time. And it wasn’t a mere goal. He stressed that to be effective, neither party can settle for anything less.

Let that sink in. He didn’t say this, but he could have: For most of us, in most of our dealings with others, we settle for win-some, lose-some. In fact, the place we’re most likely to catch glimpses of this level of win-win is in our marriages – and that’s only in the good marriages. But that simply isn’t good enough. The standard has to extend to our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, the clerk behind the counter, the telemarketer…everyone.

To make a connection to our circumstance in 2025, you might give this 2021 essay by April Lawson a read; it’s entitled Building Trust Across the Political Divide. She starts out this way:

We are arguably living in the most polarized time since the Civil War. And what’s more, the particular variety of polarization that presently plagues our society is an especially nasty one. Two kinds of polarization are spiking: negative polarization—“It’s not that I like my team, I just hate the other team”—and affective polarization—“Not only do I disagree with you, I think you’re a bad person.”

To be Stephen-Covey-level effective in 2025, we have to bring win-win to bear on the most extreme polarization; not just to our relatively comfortable transactions with family and friends, or within our occupational or political tribe.

Bring that level of courage, and that degree of acceptance, and that willingness to find ways to collaborate, across such divides? That may sound impossible. Maybe. But it’s necessary. It’s what’s needed to move beyond merely clinging-on, existing – to satisfying living – on the real world.

We might help the process along with Habit #5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

More on that next time.

Let’s review.

Are you living on the real world? Do you want to make that life – your life – effective? Do you want your life to matter? If so, Stephen Covey advises, you’ll be proactive. You’ll see the world for its true vastness, its powerful trends, its turbulence and complexity – and within that, you’ll see your circle of influence – the bits you can (and should!) change for the better. And you won’t lose sight of your long-term goals – the ends you have in mind, both personally and professionally.

But then, Stephen Covey says, you must take a third step. There’s no shortage of the actions you’ll need to take day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year, to achieve your ends.  Chances are good you may not have fully thought these through. You must therefore clarify these actions in your own mind. You need to articulate them, sequence them. Which steps come first? Which can only come later?  You need to plan. Note that because these are your ends, there’s no external urgency associated with them. You set the schedule[1].

At the same time, you operate within a context of necessary actions that are more-or-less imposed on you by that larger world. Showing up for work/doing your job. Paying your bills and your taxes. Keeping the fridge stocked. Raising children if you have them. These categories, and the individual actions within them, whether large or small, vary in importance. But the larger world, not you, sets the schedule. Sooner or later, if left unattended, they all become urgent. Finally, there’s so-called me-time.

Hmm. We’ve backed into the four-quadrant picture, sometimes called the Eisenhower matrix (he claimed he got it from a former college president). Eisenhower used to say he had two kinds of problems, important and urgent. And he would add that the important were never urgent, and the urgent never important.

In the context of this matrix, Stephen Covey argues that we want to spend as much energy/effort in the important/non-urgent quadrant as we can; devote the time/energy to the important/urgent quadrant that we must; do no more in the urgent/unimportant quadrant than we need to get by; and do all we can to eliminate the time we waste in the unimportant, non-urgent quadrant.

A couple of points. First, Covey argues that toward this end, it helps to schedule our priorities versus prioritize our schedules. (you can find commentary on this distinction here.) Second, it might seem that those life-ends have no urgency, but the fact is that they do. Tim Urban’s masterful 13-minute TED Talk Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator drives this point home, hilariously and effectively (just what the doctor ordered in these turbulent times). Finally, you really do want to reduce greatly the amount of time you’re wasting. And this is both subtle yet fundamental. Turns out that one contributor to wasting time in this quadrant is the daily accumulated stress of operating in the other quadrants. And much of this stress is self-imposed, not external. That means we can do more to minimize it. Here’s a maxim that might help, especially if you’re able to meditate on it, live it out: Instead of resting from your work, work from your rest. This draws strength from Mr. Covey’s first two habits. When you and I are thinking and working proactively, based on our internal end goals for our lives, we are in a more peaceful, relaxed, and effective posture than when we are reacting willy-nilly to someone else’s priorities. And to the extent we’re taking care of those important but externally-driven priorities before they become urgent, we are also more effective. Reminds me of the wall sign in the workshop of the Boulder lab where I had my first government job: lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

To be crystal clear. Careful attention to and execution of Habit #3 is both more challenging and more vital in the year 2025 than it was in 1989 when Mr. Covey wrote his book.

In closing, a confession. I might be the last person who should be holding forth in this vein. In this instance, you should be doing as I say, not as I do. One of the first management courses I ever took was a 1976 two-day course entitled time management. As I’ve told people for the past half-century, my wife-to-be was handling the on-site arrangements for that course. We were married seven weeks later – and she’s been managing my time ever since. (Meanwhile) one of her instructor’s sobering lines? Most of you will sit through this course, and you won’t put it into practice. You are time slobs – and you might as well admit it.

Too true. Later, for most of my AMS years, I had a boss who was a master at getting things done. At one point, early on, he shared with me he owed a lot to David Allen’s book by that title. He even gave me a copy. (A gentle-but-not-too-subtle hint?) At the time, the approach was paper-based (it now accommodates paperless/electronic means) and it wasn’t my cup of tea. I gave the book to co-workers, and noticed that their reaction was positive and that uptake was rapid and noticeable. Over time, I gave the book a (more-open-minded) re-read, to find that its message had grown on me. That said, implementation has been a continual struggle. I have not one but two copies of the book, but only fragments of Allen’s methodology are in evidence in my workspace. Sigh.

[1] This presentation leaves the impression that the first three habits follow a linear sequence. That’s an oversimplification. The reality is you want to be cycling through these first three steps, iteratively refining or redefining them, on some kind of regular rhythm.

(Continuing the seven-part LOTRW mini-series)

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”  (we all remember this question from our childhood – perhaps not that fondly)

Stephen Covey, in his 1989 book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, adopted a different spin. He asked readers to imagine their own funerals: what would they like their family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, bosses, employees to say about them? At the time, he did acknowledge that some might find the image troubling, but encouraged readers to work through it just the same. And he made clear the “end” was not the end of our lives, but rather the end as in our lives’ purpose – the aim, the aspiration.

What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you hope folks will say at your funeral? You and I benefit from regular intervals self-evaluation along such lines. We need to ask: are we becoming the person we always wanted to be, dreamed we’d be? Are we doing what we always wanted to do? Or do we find ourselves doing something less? Succeeding at something that masquerades as the vision but in reality is coming at the expense of the vision?

To Mr. Covey, a dozen years ago,

Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.

He argued that

One of the best ways to incorporate Habit 2 into your life is to develop a Personal Mission Statement. It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. Your mission statement makes you the leader of your own life. You create your own destiny and secure the future you envision.

Personal Mission Statement? The most important bit is about your uniqueness and living a life and building relationships with others in ways congruent with your moral code and spiritual beliefs: being trustworthy, loving, faithful, dependable, and all the rest.

But for purposes of this post let’s focus on the career part, the work part – and how to look at that amid the present upheaval: wrenching changes in US policy towards climate change and environmental issues; chainsaw-downsizing of federal agencies; eye-watering uncertainties for the adjoining corporate-, university-, and NGO-sector communities enabling such work. With some over-simplification, Mr. Covey’s message in this context would be something like: if we’re focused on the next research paper, the current project or product, this year’s budget, then we risk being overwhelmed. Instead, we need to remain fixed on the long-term goal.

Some generic version of which for LOTRW readers might be:

Do all I can to enable the world’s present and future population to live satisfying, fulfilling lives on a planet that:

• Though generous with food, water, and other natural resources, is finite/limited;
• Is dangerous, even though only intermittently; and
• Though seemingly robust, is actually fragile – vulnerable to human despoilation in many ways.

Readers should formulate their own, more tailored versions. Want a concrete example? Here’s one.  Dick Hallgren, a former director of the National Weather Service and Permanent US Representative to the WMO (and much, much more), used to describe his agency’s mandate this way:

The National Weather Service mission is to protect lives and property.

Then, if he felt you didn’t get his point, he would add, for emphasis: The mission is not simply to forecast the weather, or even to make weather forecasts more accurate. If you stop there, you haven’t done your job. Your job is to save lives and property.[1]

So to repeat: if you haven’t done so already, you might start developing your own. That’s the kind of thing Stephen Covey is talking about/looking for. What is your true long-term objective – the point on the horizon that is your true goal despite the storms you’re weathering where you are now? The standard by which you wished to be judged at every point on life’s journey?

An aside: In turbulent times, as you develop and implement your personal mission statement you might well take heart. You might begin to realize that

• The world need for what you have to offer is not going to go away any time soon.
• There will always be a shortage of people like you who have the skills, experience, vision, and motivation to address that need. The world will always be looking to you and others like you for help.
• What suspense there is, if any, falls on institutions – governments, companies, universities and like entities. Which will history reveal to be the agents of change? Which will history bypass?   

In closing: to be proactive, you make your proactivity tangible and beneficial, it helps to make a mission statement, to begin with the end in mind.

And that in turn will lead you to the next habit: Put first things first. More soon.

[1] Today he might add a bit about growing the economy, or explain how that’s covered under protecting lives and property, but you get the idea.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi[1]

In the face of today’s national turmoil and worldwide geopolitical upheaval, how can and should individuals seek to make a positive difference? Lament, in the form of news pieces and op-eds, has been in ample supply, and largely on point. But those people who have been directly impacted by the institutional wrecking balls need real help. Here in the United States, that may eventually come from the courts, the Congress, and the agency heads who find their mandates compromised.

Meanwhile, there’s a lack of on-the-ground assistance to the impacted individuals and institutions who most need it. How can they remain effective under current realities?

There are books about that! One stands out. Those of a certain age will remember it. In 1989, Stephen Covey published to much acclaim The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Over the next three decades, his book would sell over 20 million copies, be translated into 40 languages, and be acknowledged as one of the top 25 most influential management books of all time.

So far, so good! But how effective do these habits look when stress-tested by the often-brutal events and trends of today’s world? Here’s the surprising thing. In some ways, they seem prescient, on point: possibly even more relevant and useful today than they were during the calmer times of decades past. Perhaps we should double down.

But you be the judge. This and the six following LOTRW posts^[2] will look at each in turn.

Start with be proactive. Mr. Covey argues that our lives don’t just happen to us so much as we design them. In the face of real-world circumstances, we can choose happiness. We can choose sadness. We choose success. We choose failure. We choose fear. We choose courage. (Recall these are our labels for what’s happening versus what’s actually going on.)  Positive choices give us the ability to do things differently and work for more satisfying outcomes.

He argues that we need to take responsibility for these choices/master them. Interestingly, he talks about the importance of what we say as well as what we do. Proactive people choose phrases like I can, I will, I prefer, while reactive people use the opposite: I can’t, I have to, if only. Reactive people fail to see they have positive choices.

Mr. Covey encourages us to be proactive within our circle of influence – those things we can actually do something about: health; family, day-to-day problems at work. He advises against the tendency of reactive people to spend too much effort on the much broader circle of concern: things that matter, but over which we have no control. Worldwide war, convulsions in the economy, political turmoil, the national debt, and much else fall into this latter category.

Most of us would agree that over recent years and especially the past few months, that circle of concern has expanded while at the same time it is also hitting closer to home. Technology has aggravated this. Today, in 2025, internet-based social media continually bombard us with new reasons for anxiety moment by moment – with immediacy and gut-wrenching detail that wasn’t so pervasive in 1989. We’re being carried along, up to our necks, by a violent flood of sad, even heartbreaking news from our hometowns, our nation, and the world as a whole. Brokenness and dysfunction are rampant, and that news is delivered to our smartphones and other devices in real-time. Worse, the actual news is aggravated by social media’s attendant misinformation and lies

Amidst that tumult, it’s not getting any easier to follow Gandhi’s advice – or Mr. Covey’s related version of it. That’s especially so if we merely approach the task in the abstract. However, the stakes are higher and the rewards for even partial success can be correspondingly great.

To succeed, we need to make that circle of influence more tangible, more concrete. Perhaps that’s where Mr. Covey’s second habit comes in: begin with the end in mind. More on that next time.

[1]Some say that what Gandhi actually said was less concise (but possibly more illuminating): “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” 

[2]This isn’t the first time I’ve written on Mr. Covey’s book. You can find the first of a series of seven LOTRW posts that ran in 2012 here.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey

The previous two LOTRW posts have focused on oral history – which at its core might be thought of as a form of assisted life-examination. Oral historians midwife the process in several ways. They certainly probe the personal events making up individual lives. But they also look deeper. They help interviewees see and give voice to how their lives have been shaped and built by larger historical circumstances and trends. And at the back end – through transcription, interpretation, archival, analysis, and sharing – oral historians make the whole accessible to many others. They inform and inspire.

Having recently been interviewed myself, I’ve come away with several strong impressions.

1. Being interviewed certainly provides significant personal benefits. I’m profoundly thankful to have had the experience. I not only learned a lot about myself, but I also came to grasp more concretely which bits of my life mattered most to me, and why. More importantly, it sharpened my understanding of which aspects of my story might be useful or helpful to others – and which might be much less so. It’s even changed how I prioritize my day, and how I view current events. For these (admittedly self-interested) reasons alone I’d recommend the process to others. If you’re invited to give an oral history, you should accept. You might even consider thinking about what you might have to offer the oral historian and then take the initiative – reach out to one.

2. But throughout the process I was conscious that a lot of the Q&A covered events and memories going back half a century or more, and I was seeing them through the lens of an octogenarian – at the same time both rose-colored and less sharply-focused, possibly (oh, the horror!) even in error here or there. That brings up the second conclusion. Most oral histories tend to be one-offs, developed at a late stage in the lives and careers of those interviewed. Oral histories might even be more useful if they had a longitudinal dimension, stretching over decades, and capturing both the immediate effects of historical events and any longer-term impacts[1].

And more useful still if they captured the experiences of much larger numbers of subjects.

3. That ran up against a third point. The conversational tone of much oral history might mislead one to believe that oral history is somehow simple or easy – that it’s little more than a chat, and therefore almost anyone can do it. Much of the currently archived material – recordings of conversations between close colleagues, personal friends – might contribute to this impression. They certainly have a special value of their own. But Socrates and Stephen Covey provide stretch goals. Push the conversation. Take it to the realm of piercing examination. Achieve genuine understanding. Balance the larger trends of history with personal reminiscence. All this benefits from disciplined guidance. Oral histories are labor intensive, and to some degree bespoke.  The oral historian may start out with a basic framework, but an important part of the process is follow-up to the initial questions and answers that branch off from some predetermined script and draw out fresh insights. And then there’s the curation part. Oral historians are few – and oral history sources are perishable.  

4. All this led me to wonder – could diaries or journaling be useful adjuncts? I think the answer is yes, although when I was doing an internet search on journaling and storytelling I was surprised to find several sources speaking to the hazards of such activity – mostly along the lines of becoming to self-absorbed, and/or developing grandiose ideas of one’s importance and centrality. Think of it as violating the Stephen Covey idea – jumping past the seek to understand part and preemptively seeking to be understood. Perhaps oral history, by maintaining a focus on how the historical moment shapes our lives, could help us avoid this pitfall.

I chased a rabbit: could artificial intelligence be useful? I fed my iPhone ChatboxAI a bio and asked it to interview me orally, versus in text. “Amelia” turned out to be happy to do so. She was super helpful, polite, and supportive – scarily so. I’m guessing AI is probably already assisting oral historians with bits of their overall process (first-cuts at transcription, say), but to bring it to the point of conducting useful interviews calls for caution – and for framing by oral historians. it might be some time in coming.

6. A closing thought. Perhaps in addition to scaling up oral history directly, in one fell swoop, it might be a useful first step to increase public awareness of and appetite for oral history. One pathway might be K-12 public education. Today’s technology should make it practical for teachers to bring oral histories into every school subject from STEM to history, from economics to band and physical education… The right conversations would bring subject matter alive and energize the students.

Might even prompt them to examine their own lives a bit more intentionally; seek understanding a bit more broadly. We’d all benefit from that, and over time that benefit would grow.

[1]I’m told a few such studies exist. Britain’s The Up Study provides a rare (possibly unique?) example.  

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? – Lin-Manuel Miranda^[1]

Continuing our LOTRW oral-history thread. Just outside DC here, my senior-living community occupies a dozen or so large buildings, spread over 56 acres. The buildings look separate but are connected by indoor walkways. The residents total nearly 2000. I’m now in my early 80’s; that makes me one of the younger ones; the average age might be closer to 90 years.

That adds up to some 180,000 years of life histories under one roof.

Nearly everyone eats at least one meal a day at one of several big community dining rooms and a comparable number of small eateries dotting the premises. This means a lot of meals with strangers whom you’re meeting for the first time. With tables-for-four, that turns most dinners into four intermingled oral history interviews.

This works out to something like 1000 oral history interviews every evening.

Of course, they aren’t archived; they’re perishable. And given the demographic, a cynic might expect that much of these are medical histories. There is some of that. But remember that this is DC. A number of the residents are retired military, spanning every service and every rank. A number are former government workers. They’ve seen some history, and they’ve made some. They have stories to tell.

An pertinent example. Early in 2024 I sat down to dinner with a guy here who turned out to be interested in weather – as in, making daily reports to CoCoRaHS from instruments on his balcony.

Putting aside issues on the representativeness of his site, that’s pretty serious. Anyway, he said he knew two other meteorologists living here. One thing led to another, and he gathered the four of us for dinner (along with his wife and mine – patient souls!). One was a retired NWS senior forecaster who’d gotten a masters degree of from MIT in 1958 – Andrew James Wagner, who was/is also a lay church leader, including a one-year stint as an adjunct professor of New Testament Greek at a local seminar.

The other was Elizabeth (Libby) Haynes, recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal in 2014, along with something like 200,000 other members of the Civil Air Patrol, in belated recognition for their efforts in submarine hunting (and some kills) during World War II (think of this as analogous to the gaggle of geoscientists who received the Nobel Peace Prize for their contributions to the IPCC). The state of Virginia piled on with its own commendation for Libby in 2017.

Libby’s story was fascinating. Picture a young woman graduating from high school on the eve of World War II, enlisting so that she could be trained as a nurse in 2.5 years versus four (military nurses were allowed to skip pediatrics and geriatrics). A young woman who not only learned to fly but managed to buy her own plane. Who then joined the Air Force and applied for and worked a stint as a secretary at Bolling AFB in order to position herself for a chance to study meteorology at MIT. Who then was the only woman in her 24-member Air Force group sent to MIT for training in the 1950’s. Who by virtue of her one week of seniority on the others was put in command of that group. Who served as a meteorologist in US air force bases in Canada… well, you get the idea.

A natural subject for an oral-history interviewer, right? And as good fortune would have it, an AMS Summer Policy Colloquium alum, Kristine Harper, a former Navy meteorologist, who got a Ph.D in history (check out the book Meteorology by the Numbers: the Genesis of Modern Meteorology, based on her thesis), though now working in Denmark, was able to swing by and interview Libby in September[2].  

At the age of 100 years give or take, Libby has told her story.

Who tells your story is an issue for the famous as well as the obscure. Take Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton helped make the United States what it is today. One of the Founding Fathers, he served in the Revolutionary War, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, co-authored the Federalist Papers with John Jay and James Madison, and served as first Secretary of the Treasury. His vision for a strong American economy and a sound financial system probably contributed as much as anyone to the strong position of the United States in the world today, despite the fact that we total only some four percent of the world’s population. Wow! What a cv!

Since 1928 his face has been on the ten-dollar bill – though in today’s cashless society that familiarity will soon fade into oblivion. School children probably still hear his name at some point in their courses, but his role has been given minimal coverage compared with others of the time – Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin et al. If Hamilton has been rescued temporarily from this obscurity, it is largely because of Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography. And that biography would not have worked such magic had it not first captured the imagination of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who turned it into one of the greatest stage musicals (and movie) of all time. As the biography and the musical make clear, Hamilton, coming to the mainland from the West Indies as a child born out of wedlock was something of an outlier among the Founding Fathers, belonging neither to the group of Virginia plantation owners or the New England faction. After their presidencies, Jefferson and Adams had decades to tell and re-tell their own stories and versions of the Revolutionary War – and share their negative views of Hamilton. By then, Hamilton was long-dead, his life abruptly and violently cut short by his duel with Aaron Burr. Telling his story fell upon his wife Eliza.

Miranda captures this in an extraordinary way in the musical’s remarkably somber and deeply moving closing number. You can view and listen to a brief video here. I’ve put the full lyrics in a footnote[3].

The important question for you and me is this: who tells our stories? More in the next post.

[1]Lyrics from the close of the musical Hamilton; a rather somber finale as these things go.  

[2] Libby and Kris allowed me to sit in the room during the interview. What a privilege! Unsure where the archival of that interview stands, but am hoping that if not accessible already, it will be soon.

[3]Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

President Jefferson
I’ll give him this, his financial system is a work of genius
I couldn’t undo it if I tried
And I’ve tried

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

President Madison
He took our country from bankruptcy to prosperity
I hate to admit it
But he doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave us

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story

Every other founding fathers’ story gets told
Every other founding father gets to grow old

And when you’re gone, who remembers your name?
Who keeps your flame?
Who tells your story?
Who tells your story?
Who tells your story?

I put myself back in the narrative
(Eliza)
I stop wasting time on tears
I live another 50 years
It’s not enough (Eliza)

I interview every soldier who fought by your side
(She tells our story)
I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings
You really do write like you’re running out of time

I rely on Angelica
While she’s alive, we tell your story
She is buried in Trinity Church near you
When I needed her most, she was right on time
And I’m still not through
I ask myself, what would you do if you had more time
The Lord, in his kindness
He gives me what you always wanted
He gives me more time

I raise funds in D.C. for the Washington Monument
(She tells my story)
I speak out against slavery
You could have done so much more if you only had time
And when my time is up, have I done enough?
Will they tell your story?

Oh, can I show you what I’m proudest of?
(The orphanage)
I established the first private orphanage in New York City
(The orphanage)
I help to raise hundreds of children
I get to see them growing up
(The orphanage)
In their eyes I see you, Alexander
I see you every time
And when my time is up
Have I done enough?
Will they tell your story?

Oh, I can’t wait to see you again
It’s only a matter of time
Will they tell your story? (Time)
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? (Time)
Will they tell your story? (Time)
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

         The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,

         And waste its sweetness on the desert air. – Thomas Gray[1], Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

The AMS 2025 New Orleans Annual Meeting – long awaited, and then enjoyed – is now in our rearview mirror.

Like its predecessors, AMS 2025 was a cluster of specialized conferences and symposia. And actually, “Annual Meeting” is a rather tame word when used to describe what’s more like an Annual Celebration of the rapid expansion and progress – and growing utility – of our field. So much is happening! You had to look hard across the acres of the Convention Center, the thousands of participants, the splashy Presidential sessions, the AI-buzz, the review of 2024 weather impacts (there were plenty) and more to uncover this gem: a Monday, January 13^th joint session^[2] entitled Oral History in the Geosciences: Why it Matters, How It is Done, and What We Can Learn.

“Gem” indeed.

The program was assembled and structured by Patricia Pinto da Silva, the Project Lead for NOAA Fisheries’ VOICES Oral History Archives; Molly Graham, the Project Manager and Oral Historian; and Mona Behl, associate director of NOAA’s Sea Grant Program at the University of Georgia (and also future chair of the AMS Culture and Inclusion Cabinet). Terrence Nathan from UC Davis, and Chair of the AMS History Committee, chaired the session. The focus reflected that of NOAA VOICES itself: firsthand accounts related to the changing environment, climate, oceans, and coasts from around the US and its territories. In addition to a panel discussion, the session provided presentations from across the world (on the Ocean Decade) and on topics ranging from the BP oil spill and its impacts on Gulf communities, to engaging community in climate adaptation efforts, to a look at marine-harvester responses to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to the Navajo elder experience of culture, environmental, and landscape change, to Gullah Geechee local ecological knowledge… links here and here provide further detail.

The occasion and the talks themselves are now history. More precisely, a bit of oral history. From Wikipedia: Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. And through those same AMS links, you can access these recordings.

Which brings us back to the three questions raised by the Session title. These were touched on, illustrated (versus fully resolved) by case studies comprising the session. Impossible to do more in a few hours, with a handful of speakers, and limited time for Q&A.

But this is the year 2025, not 1925. And we not only have Google- and similar search engines, but AI-enabled search. A matter of a few key clicks and mere seconds to input the three questions, and receive answers like this:

1. Why does oral history matter? Oral history is important because it preserves people’s memories and experiences, which can help us understand the past and present. Oral histories can also help to fill in gaps in historical records and give voice to people who are often excluded.
2. How is oral history done? Oral history is conducted by interviewing individuals with firsthand experience of a historical event, recording their narrative through audio or video, and then transcribing and analyzing the recordings to capture their personal perspective and add depth to the historical record; essentially, it involves a structured conversation between an interviewer and an interviewee to document personal memories and experiences about the past, often focusing on specific topics or time periods
3. What can we learn? Oral history allows us to learn about the personal experiences, emotions, and perspectives of individuals from the past, providing a deeper understanding of historical events beyond just the facts by capturing how people lived through them, often shedding light on marginalized voices and filling gaps in the historical record that might be missing from traditional written sources; essentially, it helps us understand “what it felt like” to live in a particular time and place. 

Results may vary. But good enough, you and I might say. However, that is only because we have been anesthetized by our present (largely scientific, for this LOTRW readership) subculture, and frenetic/largely virtual (read secondhand) experience of ways of doing business, not just at work but across the whole of daily life. We’re anxiously dashing through this read because we need to move on to the next one.

Still, far better to bring those words to life, to make them personal. Look at how the NOAA VOICES website does this. It addresses the same three questions, although indirectlyand far more powerfully:

Oral history is a unique example of qualitative data that is co-created by the narrator and interviewer.   It is defined by its commitment to a diversity of perspectives, recognizing and valuing individual voices and collective experiences within society. Through deep engagement and active listening, oral history helps us answer, in profoundly intimate and detailed ways, fundamental questions:

• Who are we?
• How are we connected?
• How do we relate to each other and the world around us?
• How do we know what we know?
• How can we recognize and honor embodied knowledge?
   

Whoa.

So – oral history enlarges our view of the world and the individual importance of every person in it. In so doing, it also remakes us. It reminds us that our science, or technology, or use of that S&T to make a better world is at its heart, a human enterprise (and that it therefore has a heart). Oral history builds our self-awareness, helps us identify/put ourselves in touch with the core meaning and purpose of our lives. Now, if you can make the time, take things a step further and watch an actual oral-history video or two. You will experience all this in the topics covered and the subjects interviewed, and for that matter, the impact of the process on the interviewers themselves. You won’t be just educated. You’ll be inspired and energized^[3].

Time to wrap it up! Let’s close with this. A key part of the oral history discipline, repeated above, is the capture of marginalized voices, the observations and experiences and perspectives of individuals and groups who might be overlooked in the big-picture overviews of mainstream history. Poets know this well. One of these who captured it better than most was Thomas Gray. In his 1751 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (read or re-read the whole of the poem to get the full effect) he looked at the tombstones and speculated on the lives and fortunes of the unknowns buried there, comparing them to unseen, spectacular beauty in God’s natural world.

Marginalized voices? Obscurity? Born to blush unseen and waste our sweetness on the desert air? That’s your life! That’s mine! Should we care? Can we do something about it?  More in the next post.

[1]From Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

[2]bringing together the 23^rd History Symposium, the 20^th Symposium on Societal Applications, Policy, and Practice, and the 6^th Symposium on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.   

[3] A quote (variously attributed to “ancient sources,” or “Native Americans,” or this or that modern-day figure) captures this so perfectly that it appears on oral-history websites everywhere. It goes this way:

Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.