i-TFTD #183

#183-1. The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel, and misrepresentation.

-C. Northcote Parkinson

#183-2. The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

but they, while their companions slept

were toiling upward in the night.

-Henry W. Longfellow

#183-3. The real question is, once you know the right thing, do you have the discipline to do the right thing, and, equally important, to stop doing the wrong things?

-Jim Collins, author of Good To Great

____

Any communication is an attempt to influence beliefs and consequent action. We should remember the risk of not trying to do it, whether it is at home or at work. Parkinson is famous for his Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill the time available for its creation) and wrote many books. In India he co-authored, with MK Rustomji,  many short books on management illustrated with cartoons.

Significant achievements require the sacrifice of comfort and rest, plus consistency and perseverance.

His research on enduring companies and their management styles has been summarized in two bestselling management books by Jim Collins, “Built to Last” and “Good to Great”. In the corporate environment whenever anyone (typically someone new to the organization) points out some deficiency, a typical response is, “That’s the way it is. What could anybody do?” Even at an individual level most of us know most of the right things we must do or wrong things that we must stop doing.