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Transcript of Hyrum Smith Q&A
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To Our Client Facilitators:
Weve just entered the 26th year since the founding
of our company and thought it perfect timing to
interview our co-founder Hyrum Smith. We asked
our facilitators to submit questions and I posed
them to Hyrum, with a few of my own. Im certain
youll enjoy reading his responses, so print off these
pages and sit back with a cup of hot cider and enjoy
some sage adviceon a broad range of topics.
You will also see a note from Sean Covey at the
end regarding the future of our Time Management
solutions.
A C A D E M Y
Client Facilitation
Questions & Answers With
Hyrum Smith
Scott Miller
G Mgc F Svs
1
We had our interview delayed a little bit.
Would you mind sharing with us what
happened in your life this week?
We were supposed to have the interview yesterday
and we had an emergency. I run a cattle ranch here in
southern Utah and I had a bunch o cows get through a ence
up on ourwhat we call our summer range. The BLM (Bureau
o Land Management) called and said get your cows o BLM
ground. We had to go up and nd the cows. My wie, son-in-law,
son, and my grandsonve o ustrailered ve horses up themountain yesterday and spent our hours in the saddle nding
cows. We ound one cow that was sick and we were able to corral
that one into the trailer and bring it back. Most o the other cows
had already made it back to the correct area.
Remind me of the old adage about owning a ranch
I you want to make a small ortune, buy a ranch with a large
ortune.
Tell usgo back 25 years almost and give us
a quick reminder of the principles that you
founded Franklin Quest on. Remind us of the
journey you started that literally tens of mil lions of us
have followed you on.
I started the company back in 1983. The reason I
started the company is because I had a passion to
teach. I went through the process o discovering my own
governing values. Benjamin Franklins autobiography had a
major impact on my lie and I decided that I would do wha
he did and nd out what my values arewhat matters most to
me. I discovered that one o the things that matters most to me
is to (a) make a dierence and (b) how do I make a dierence
I should teach, I should teach people what I believe to be true
and that can change and better their lives.
I let a very lucrative career at ADPAutomatic Data
Processing, a rm in New Yorkand started my own little
seminar company. The original name was Golden Eagle
Motivation, which I shudder to think about now. It was awul
In a year, we learned about the seminar business. In that year
I was living in Caliornia, and I knocked on every door on
Wilshire Boulevard and no one was interested in a seminar
on how to be a great person. That was my original seminar
How to Be a Wonderul Human Being. My original vision
was How to Become a Magnicent Human Being. I
bombed, but I learned a lot about the seminar business. I read
a book which I wish I could remember the name o. It was
about how to build your own seminar business. It said it takes
our to ve years to make a name or yoursel, so dont get
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2
Q & A With Hyrum Smith
discouraged. I learned, or example, that when people say they
will come to seminar they havent paid or, they dont come.
That was a hard lesson to learn. I did a lot o seminars or 3 to
4 people when I was expecting 50.
I gravitated to time management because there was a recession.People were being laid o and productivity o existing people
became a very big issue. I had aligned mysel briey with a
guy who was teaching time management as a consultant, so
I decided we could teach time management rom a values-
based position. It was my idea o helping people become better
human beings using the Trojan Horse o time management.
Time management, we discovered, was interesting to people.
Dick Winwood was my partner and, actually, my wie was my
third partner. We created a seminar called Focus on Time
Management. We started that thing and it just explodedaround us. The reason is our approach was nd out what
matters most to you and then do something about it.
I can give you the seminar in nine seconds: Find out what
matters most to you; bring the events o your lie in line with
what matters most to you and you have a right to inner peace.
Ive just given you the whole seminar. Thats basically it.
Initially, we used the Day Timer. The advent and creation o
the Franklin Day Planner was a wonderul mistake. We went
to Day Timer to see i they would make some changes ontheir ormat to t the mechanics we were teaching. They were
not interested in doing that. I you look at a Franklin Planner
and a Day Timer they were similar. We had some changes
we wanted made to the let and right pages. They were not
willing to collaborate. So we mocked one up o our own
and invented the Franklin Planner. We decided to call it the
Franklin Planner because Ben Franklin in his autobiography
talked about this little book he carried with him everywhere.
He recorded the weather every day and all o his thoughts.
So it was a un beginning. The whole idea was all around theidea o nding out what your personal governing values are
and building that productivity pyramid, because at the top
o the pyramid was a tool. Now you need a tool to bring
your governing values into some kind o daily activity because
that is the only way you can experience inner peace. It was a
un concept to teach because a lot o people, when you star
talking about inner peace, would become uncomortable at
rst. The more we got into the seminar, the more they realized
that is what they want. What I want is peace in my lie. I wan
to eel okay about me. I want to be in charge o me and to be
doing what matters most to me. I dont want to be reactive
I want to be proactive. Those words started to become buzz
words in the business community. That is how it started.
Youve been in this business now for 25 plus
years and are considered a world expert
on time management. What are some
fundamental principles that have not changed in
the midst of revolutionary technical changes in
how we lead our lives, operate our businesses, and
communicate?
A point that I make in just about every speech is
that the basic principles that help a human being
become a better human being have not changed or 6,000
years. I think that is something we need to keep in mind.
have people come up to me, and this is literally true, and they
will lower their head and make sure no one around is listening
to them. They say, I wish I lived a hundred years ago when
they had more time. I would ask, How much more time did
they have? The only dierence between a hundred years ago
and today is that we have more options than they had. Why
do we have more options? Because we do things aster. That is
why we are into speed.
I my grandather missed the train, no big deal; in 24 hours
he would take the next train. I my ather missed his ight, no
big deal; he would take the next plane in 5 hours. I I miss one
section o a revolving door, I go nuts. And so does everybody
else. Why? Because we are into speed. You wouldnt tolerate
the speed o a PC 15 years ago today. Do you remember the
old dot-matrix printers? We would stand there in awe and
watch those suckers spin. We wouldnt tolerate that todayNow the point is, the basic principles that help a human being
become a better human being have not changed or 6,000
years. For example, the whole idea around the quest or inne
peacei you did a survey o the business executive 500 years
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Q & A With Hyrum Smith
ago and do that survey every 100 years or the next 500 years
and ask the person what they want, they want inner peace.
We did a study on this and it came back that people wanted
our things: balance in their lives, simplicity in their lives, they
wanted to be successul at something, and they wanted to
be more eective at what they do. Isnt that interesting? I
you wrapped those our items into one simple concept, what
people want is inner peace.
What is inner peace? It is br inging what I do every single day
in line with what matters most to me. That is an immutable
principle that has nothing to do with technology. Technology
can help. What has changed in the last 100 years is our
technology. The tools with which we implement these ancient
principles are moving at light speed. And that is very exciting.
The thing that has not changed in the last 100 years, 500years, is the human being. The human being is still the same.
We still go to the bathroom two to three times a day. We still
put our pants on one leg at a time. The human being is the
same. The basic principles, when you talk about the principles
o time managementocusing on your governing values,
changing those values into a long-range goal that turns into an
intermediate goal that eventually ends up on a daily task list
is a very old idea. You can nd that on the pages o Plato. But
why is it still relevant today? Because the human being is still a
human being. I still want to be in control o my lie. I want to
be in charge o what matters most to me. I dont want someone
telling me what I have to do every ve seconds. I would like to
be in charge o that. That is why reading the books that have
been written by great authors rom the very beginning o time
is such a worthwhile read; reading stu that Winston Churchill,
Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King had to say. Look at
the principles that they talk about. They are immutable, ancient
principles that still work today. Its treating people with respect.
Its the principle o love, the principle o orgiveness. Its a very
ancient idea. It still works today. Forgiveness is a good idea.
Do you want inner peace? Then you should learn to orgive.
There are 92 principles that help a human being become a
great human being. Im going to write a book about this, by
the way. Ive identied 92 principles that help a human being
become a human being. They are very old, ancient ideas.
Speaking of books, name the top three to
four books that you feel have had the bigges
influence on your life, shaped your thinking
on life.
First, the scriptures. I am a Christian and the
scriptures have had a major impact on my lie. The
second book that had the biggest impact on my lie is Le
Miserable. I you want to read a book that will change your
lie, you need to read the ull version1,400 pageso Le
Miserable. It is a magnicent read about a guy who had to learn
to orgive. It is also a book about the abundance mentality. It
is about a guy who discovered that giving is what mattered
Viktor Frankls book Mans Search for Meaning is a abulou
book. Viktor Frankl survived the Auschwitz death camps and
discovered the dierence between reedom and liberty, which
is really an interesting idea. Scott Pecks book The Road LesTraveledis a very worthwhile read. Jim Collins books are very
good, Good to Greatand Built to Last. Very good current stu.
Being a prolific author yourself, what is on
your nightstand right now?
I just nished one that Richard Godrey and I co-
authored called Home of the Brave. It was just released
It has to do with how Americans deal with adversity
We identied 10 great Americans and how they dealt with
adversity. In a time when we are having to deal with adversity
in a big way, the book on my brain right now is the one on the
92 principles that have to be integrated ultimately i we are
going to be great human beings. There may be a co-author
Are you amiliar with Wintley Phipps? He is the voice behind
Amazing Grace, anytime you hear it sung beautiully, thats him
He has the most amazing voice youve ever heard. We met
or lunch the other day and hes created a list also, which we
compared. He has a list o about 70 to 80 o these principles
and 90 percent o them are identical, what I thought was really
ascinating.
Youre well known as an American patriot and
your patriotism is contagiously inspiring. Wha
is the connection with you regarding Ben
Franklin? Why was it Ben Franklin that seemed to inspire
so much of your writing, thinking, and teaching versus
any of the other Americans from the same generation?
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Q & A With Hyrum Smith
he could hardly make it back to his seat. I thought, that will be
me. Im going to do that until I die. Im ocusing on a couple
o businesses with my sons and sons-in-law here in southern
Utah. I am just right under six million miles on commercia
aircrat. My biggest value, at this point, is spending time with
my amily.
Right now I am the president o the Command and Genera
Sta College Foundation at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It i
kind o a un thing. Three years ago, I got a call rom David
Petraeus, who was then the commandant o the school. He
was a three-star general then. I had lunch with him and he
said that he wanted to create a oundation and would I help.
said I would be happy to do that, and I am now the president
o that oundation and we raise money or the college. Wes
Point has a oundation; Annapolis and the Air Force Academyhave one. The Command and General Sta College is a very
prestigious, 125-year-old school. To move rom major to
colonel in the Army, you have to graduate rom the Command
and General Sta College at Fort Leavenworth. I got to know
David Petraeus beore he became a household name. Now he
is a our-star general running the war in the Middle East. He i
a abulous guy, by the way. This is my philanthropic urge right
now. I am back at Leavenworth every other month and were
having un raising money. I was in Ross Perots ofce two
weeks ago. Were honoring him next April at a dinner giving
him our annual Leadership Award or all the things hes done
or the military. I was in his ofce at Perot Systems. You should
see his ofce. Its a museum.
Technology today offers many electronic
options for managing time, but I still love
my paper Franklin Planner. Are we seeing
a return to paper and pencil, or is the trend going
toward electronic tools?
My impression is that there is a surge returning to
paper. I will never orget when 3Com brought in
and put on my desk the rst Palm Pilot. I played with it and
thought it was a great toy, but no one will ever buy one. I
turned out to be wrong about that. We strongly embraced
technology at FranklinCovey and sold 10,000 Palm Pilots a
week or several years, and then all o a sudden, we didnt
Ben Franklins autobiography is a wonderul read
and I would encourage everybody to read it. He talks
about his governing values and the impact these governing
values had on his lie. He didnt call them governing values;
he called them his 13 virtues and how he ocused on each
one. He would take one and ocus on it or an entire week.
The next week, he would ocus on another one. One was
temperance and one o them was humility; that was imposed
on him by a riend o his. He never elt good about the
humility one, which is interesting. Chastity was one o them.
As you read about Ben Franklin, you realize that is one he
struggled with. And he talked about it in his lie. As you study
the lie o Ben Franklin, I believe he is probably the most
productive, prolic American in our history. The things that
he ounded; the things that he created, invented; the role he
played in the Constitutional Convention as an old man; the
trips to Europe representing the United States; when you look
at the things the man did in his 82 years, it was amazing. At
the time, the lie expectancy was 55. I just think he was an
incredible person. You know, the impact that he has had on the
world, the impact he had on the Constitutional Convention
he imposed the idea o identiying governing values rst on
the Constitutional Convention, so that is what they ocused
on. They were screaming at each other or our months in
1787, What matters most to us? What would we cross the I-
beam or? Freedom o this, reedom o that, and that is what
ended up in our Constitution.
Other than the recent book youve just written
and the book youre considering writing
about 92 principles, what are you working on?
My major ocus right nowIm still giving three
to our speeches a month, which I will probably do
until I die because I love to do it. One o the highlights o my
speaking career was when I was asked by Norman Vincent
Peale, when he came to Salt Lake City, to warm up the crowd.
So I spoke or an hour beore Norman Vincent Peale, about 2
years beore he died 10 or 12 years ago. He was 92 years old
and the guy got up and gave a wonderul talk. He could hardly
get up to the podium, but when he did, it was like someone
stuck an electrode in him. He went nuts or an hour and then
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Q & A With Hyrum Smith
People stopped buying PDAs. I thought, Ive got to try the
Palm Pilot. I put away my paper planner or 13 months. I
went to a PDA and I discovered that I could do everything
in my Palm Pilot that I could do in my paper planner, but I
wouldnt. The reason I wouldnt is because it took too much
time. It was too hard to do. I came back to my paper planner
because o the ease o the operation. What I discovered was
that or managing tasks, appointments, and taking notes, a
paper planner is our times aster than any electronic device.
There is a whole host o reasons or that, but I will just leave
it at that level. A paper planner or tasks, appointments
managing meis our times aster. Now, there is a place or
technology. I carry a BlackBerry. I love my BlackBerry. What
do I use it or? I can communicate my calendar to my people.
I can download The Wall Street Journal. I can check my email. It
is a wonderul phone. But or managing me in the heat o the
day, my paper planner is more eective and it is aster.
I have had letters rom CEOs, senior vice-presidents rom
all over the country, telling me, Hyrum, Im back to my
paper planner. Ive got control back in my lie. In act, just a
year ago, a senior VP rom Merrill Lynch went through our
seminar. She said, Hyrum, you trained me 18 years ago, I
went to an electronic device 3 years ago, I lost control o
my lie. I went back to my paper planner and my control
is back. There is something about writing on paper that a
human being likes. The thing about those three things: tasks,
appointments, and taking notes, and i I know how to retrieve
those notesthe magic o the Franklin Planner is the retrieval
system. The minute I write a note in my planner, Ive given
that note a root in time. I will always be able to nd it. There
are three dierent ways or retrieving inormation rom a
Franklin Planner. I can do it with lightning speed. I you dont
understand the mechanics o the Franklin Planner, you dont
understand why people would use that instead o technology.
I youve gone through the class and youve been taught well
how to use it, it is a dangerous tool. Im a paper guy mysel.
eug FuGlobal operationS ManaGer GiSt aM&i
MarS inForMation SerViceS
The Franklin Planner and associated event-
management process was created by you during
the mid-80s a time which was arguably less global
focused and not as pervasive24/7 around the
clock. If you were creating the planner process today
would you change anything? And to that point, how
do you manage your own time? What would you
do differently if you were launching the company
today in the midst of the balance between paper vs.
technology and using Outlook or Lotus Notes and
the speed with which you can retrieve information
from paper? Also, will you address the environmenta
sensitivity of using paper in a paperless society?
First o all, the myth that we are a paperless society
needs to be blown up, because we are using more
paper today, globally, than ever in our history. What would I
do dierently? I would do everything exactly the same but
our message to the world when we started 26 years ago was
have everything in one place. That one place was the Franklin
Planner. There was no technology then. There were no PDAs
no PCs. There were no cell phones when we started. Have
everything in one place and that is your Franklin Planner. Tha
is your lie. Your lie was in your planner. It exploded. People
went nuts over the Franklin Planner: 172 countries, six million
people using Franklin Planners. It was amazing32,000 a
Dow Chemical, 15,000 at Merrill Lynch using the Franklin
Planner. It just became an amazing thing. Then technology
came along and technology, clearly, has a place. We changed
one word in our message to the world rom Have everything
in one place, to Have everything in one system. You create
a system that works or you.
My systemthe way I manage mysel. I have our pieces in my
system. I have my Franklin Planner or tasks, appointments, and
taking notes. I have my BlackBerry, a wonderul receptacle or
inormation. I can carry more inormation in my BlackBerry
than I could ever carry in my Franklin Planner. I have a cell
phone that is now combined into a BlackBerry so that I can
communicate with the world. And I have a PC so that I can
do all the things that a PC allows you to do. I have a nice thin
one that ts into a satchel so that I can do my email. That
is condensed into three items now because my cell phone
and BlackBerry are one and the same. That is how I manage
Hyrum Smith, and it works wonderully or me. I Im passing
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Q & A With Hyrum Smith
thing Ive got to accomplish today? That is the way you
start your pr ioritization. A lot o things are close. There are
a lot o heavy things weve got to do.
The act is, i you dont take the time to isolate yourselge
away rom the melee, close the door, put your eet up onyour desk and just thinkyou are going to live in a reactive
world. Most people dont take time to split the hair. What i
lie-sustaining and what is vital? Youve got to get down to
the nubs. What is the single most important thing today? I
nothing else happens, this must happen.
With respect to FranklinCoveys client
facilitators, two of the most popular solutions
are th 7 Hs f Hghy effv p
and FocUS: ahvg Yu Hghs ps. We
have tens of thousands of facilitators throughout
North America and the world teaching these solutionsA question from one of these facilitators reads:
D bwVice preSiDent HUMan reSoUrceS
tinDall corporation
It is gratifying to see participants in our company
make the commitment and continue to use a Franklin
Planner after attending one of our workshops.
would like to see more of a commitment to using the
system.
What else can facilitators and others do to increase
the number of their colleagues who use the Franklin
Planning system, whether it be the planning tool, themethodology, or the system? What have you learned
from other companies that had pervasive use? What
was the magic ingredient?
I think the magic ingredient iswe had a word or it
the breeder eect. For example, Dow ChemicalI
did the rst seminar there in December 1985. For the next
several years, they had a waiting list o like 300 to 400 people
waiting to get into the seminar. The impact o the seminar
with each group that went through it had a viral eect on
the rest o the company. Those who came out o the seminar
were very excited about their planner; very excited about
how to use that planner; very excited about the whole idea
o governing values and getting those into their daily task
lists. They talked about it. They carried it with them. People
around them would see their enthusiasm or managing their
somebody in the airport and ask or their phone number,
I write that in my Franklin Planner. I dont whip out my
BlackBerry and punch that in. That is a royal pain in the anny,
quite rankly. I can write that in my planner in nanoseconds. I
I want to transer it into my phone when Im on the plane, I
can do that; but initially, I write it down. The immediate need
to take a note Even when the Tablet PC came out and you
could write on the screen, while cool, they were a pain to
work. No one used them because paper was so much aster.
When people started moving to PDAs, they started carrying
yellow pads o paper. Why? They had to. Are you going to
take notes on a Palm Pilot or BlackBerry in a meeting and
try and keep up? There is no way. Still, it is not really socially
okay to sit there and bang on a computer. I I am going to
take a note, I write it so that it has a root in time so I canretrieve it when I want it. I I want to transer it to some kind
o electronic note-taking device I can do that. I can scan it in
i I want. I can save it on my computer i I want. In the heat o
the day, rom a time-motion standpoint, paper is aster.
V ZwskManaGer, traininG Hr DeVelopMent
corporate HUMan reSoUrceS
canon U.S.a., inc.
What do you do when everything is a top priority?
The act is, everything is not a top pr iority. That is
why I spend a major part o teaching time, telling
people to take 10 to 15 minutes o time each day, isolating
yoursel rom the world in a period o planning and solitude,
and really ocus in on what I have coming down the pike
today. What in act is the most important thing? The A-B-C
system o prioritization is just as relevant today as it was
1,000 years ago. It is a very old idea o prioritization. A is
vital, B is important, C is maybe. What is vitalId even
add lie-sustaining? I you add the word lie-sustaining
to a task or something that is coming down the pike, that
changes things dramatically. When I hear everything is atop priority, I ask, Is everything lie-sustaining? What on
this list may take your lie? You have to get down to the
point and ask, What will I lose my job over? What will cost
the company money? What is the most vital, lie-sustaining
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Q & A With Hyrum Smith
lives. They would say, I have to have one o those. How do
I get one? The trainer director had people lining up at their
door.
I the seminar is being taught well, that means the instructor
has to believe in what they are teaching. They have to use theplanner. I have seen instructors try and teach the program and
when they dont use a planner, it bombs. It dies very quickly.
The importance o the instructor being a total believer in
what they are teaching is absolutely critical. I I could tell the
client acilitator anything, it would be that when you get up
and start talking about governing values, you need to have
identied your own so that when people ask you about them
you can pull out your list and show them. I have had, literally,
hundreds o thousands o people ask me or copies o my
governing values. We nally printed them in the What Matters
Mostbook. Teaching a seminar is not telling the seminar. Some
people can tell the seminar and it sounds ne and it can be
entertaining or six hours, but those who teach the seminar
have done it themselves. They have had the impact in their
own personal lives and they get up and teach with six times
the energy that someone who is telling the seminar had.
People come out o the experience a believer and then the
breeder eect takes place. The next thing you know, we have
the spouses there. We did seminars at Dow Chemical or the
children o the executives. The powerul aspect o our seminar
is that it gets under peoples skin. The whole idea o nding
out what really matters most to me writing your personal
constitution, equating the quest o discovering your governing
values to writing your own constitution people would go
nuts over that. That is what the Americans did. They created a
Constitution. What is a Constitution? It is a list o governing
values o our ounding athers. No law is ever ratied in this
country until it is measured against our set o governing
values. That is identical to what we teach. Measure the events
o your lie. I you value being physically ts and you weigh
400 pounds, there is a gap between what you are doing and
what you value. Whenever there is a gap between what you
are doing and what you value, there is pain. How do I get rid
o the pain? Close the gap. You cut down to three meals a day
and cut out rench ries and ice cream, and all o sudden, Im
down to 300 and then 250 and then Im experiencing inner
peace on that value. I value being physically t. In act, let me
share a letter with you that I recieved.
I did a seminar at Merrill Lynch many years ago, and a
year later, I got a letter rom the senior VP o the ofce inCleveland, Ohio. I cant remember his name. Hyrum, I wen
to your seminar a year ago and it never occurred to me that
I needed to manage my lie around what matters most to me
I took your challenge, identied my own constitution, and
discovered in the process that one o my governing values was
a good lie or my son. When I discovered that was one o my
governing values, I also had to admit there was a huge gap. I
was not doing anything or my son. Ive dedicated this last year
to making my sons lie wonderul. Then he listed the thing
he has done with his son this last year. On the last page o theletter, it said, Last week my son, nine years old, was killed in
a car accident. I have experienced some real pain at the loss
o my son, but I have not had to experience any guilt. Then
he said, For the rst time, I nally realized what you talked
about when you talked about inner peace. I elt peace when
my son let, because I had dedicated my lie to making his lie
wonderul the last year I had him.
You cant look at an experience like that without getting goose
bumps on your arms. He discovered at a Time Managemen
seminar at Merrill Lynch, that i he wanted peace in his lie, he
ought to nd out what matters most to him and do something
about it. To me, that is exciting stu.
How many children do you have?
Six
How many grandchildren do you have?
Twenty, with one in the oven. I lost a daughter in a car acciden
in 1995. She was 24. I have ve living children. I also lost 2
grandchildren, so I have 18 living grandchildren.
With 20 grandchildren and one on the
way, you are well aware of the differences
between Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials, Baby
Boomers, and Traditionalists. A prominent question
comes frequently, like this one.
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to it, that 20-year-old today going into the business world ha
to be able to decide what matters most to me today. What
am I going to do that is the most eective thing that I could
do? How am I going to make my relationships better with
the people that I work with? The sad thing that is happening
is that because o our ability to communicate immediately
and electronically, we are dehumanizing the interpersona
relationship issue on the planet. In act, I heard the other day
that at a high school dance, students were asking each other
to dance by text message across the dance hall. What is that al
about? Because texting is so pervasive now, the actual human
interaction is becoming less. When you dont have that human
interaction, to me, that is a very dangerous thing. I think we
need to be careul about that. Back to the issues o managing
me. None o the principles changed rom generation to
generation. I would be very bold about saying, when Im
teaching someone who is part o the new generation and
were high-tech, that paper is high-tech. Paper is technology
Paper will always be high-tech. It is a conceptual thing. It i
not a device thing. It is part o my system, and part o my
system happens to be paper. Why? Because it happens to be
very eective.
Dw M. K,cplp, acc, cpcc
Hr traininG ManaGer
cacHe creeK caSino reSort
As a life coach, I regularly help others navigatechange but I dont seem to be able to do it for myself
as well as I would like to. Do you have any words o
wisdom to help an individual make the changes their
head is wanting?
Its back to the idea, Have you taken the time to
identiy your own personal governing values? Have
you written your own personal constitution? What I have
ound is that there are many who have not yet done this. There
are many acilitators out there who teach governing values and
teach the FOCUScourse and do it very well, but they have
never taken the time to sit down with themselves and identiy
what their governing values are. There is a reason why people
dont. We did a study some years ago and discovered that 92
percent o the people that we taught continue to use their
planner. Only 12 percent had taken the time to identiy and
Mh SufforGaniZational DeVelopMent
aGia inSUrance SerViceS
As a facilitator, I come into contact with many
Millennials who are skeptical about either the paper
planner or the longevity of the Franklin Planning
System or both. Many of these younger customersmay be concerned that your system is old-fashioned
or that it is appropriate for their parents, but not for
them, and they are looking for alternative planning
systems such as David Allens book and content
around getting things done.
What would you say to the indisputable fact that
the workforce in the world is absolutely undergoing
a complete transition with Baby Boomers and
Traditionalists exiting, and a new, much younger,
tech-addicted profile of workers entering?
I go back to the premise that we started with. There
are, in act, no new principles. The basic principles
that help human beings become better human beings are the
same as they were 6,000 years ago. Regardless o what the
Millennials think, they are still human beings. They are not
any smarter than the Traditionalists were. They still have the
same challenges. They still have to get up every morning and
make a living and support a amily. The basic principles that
will help them nd peace in their lives are the same principles
that their athers and grandathers had to discover to get peace
in their lives. The tools that are available to help them nd
inner peace are changing at warp speed and thats great. The
act is, the paper planner still, or the human being, is the most
eective device. I go back to the system idea. Create a system.
Have all the bells and whistles you want. You will discover
in the long run that the most eective tool or you or tasks,
appointments, and taking notes is the paper planning device
o some kind. Have your BlackBerry. Have your PC. Create
a system that makes you the most eective you can be. Inner
peace or you is having balance in your lie; its simplicity; its
being successul at something. You want to be more eective
at what you do. That is what human beings want. I dont care
what label you put on the generation. That generation is still
human beings.
This stu about labeling the generations is ne. It creates
magazine articles, and thats cool. When you come right back
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write down their constitution. What a gap. I never had anyone
come out o a seminar and say That idea o the Productivity
Pyramid was a stupid idea. Im not going to do it. Ive had
hundreds o thousands o people say that is a wonderul idea
and Im going to do it. But they dont. Here is why they dont.
I I sit down with mysel and identiy my governing values,
the highest priorities in my lie, and write them down, I also
have to come ace to ace with the gap between what Im not
doing about those governing values. The gap is painul and
so people steer away rom it. They intuitively know that the
minute they sit down and identiy the values, they have to be
a better husband or wie, lose weight, this or that. They are not
prepared to do that. Light is the best disinectant on the planet.
The minute you identiy your governing values, you put light
on what matters most to you and all o a sudden, the gaps are
all very clear.
Dr. Coveys Habit 3: Put First Things First is
a great illustration around big rocks. One of
the most popular tools with facilitators is in
fact the Big Rocks kit. This question relates to Habit
3 and placing the big rocks into their week.
G SZionSVille, inDiana
Many of my participants try to action-plan their
relationships and miss the whole point of relationship
building. Or these relationships are so broken, they
dont feel it is worthwhile to spend any time on them.
This is a great question. What is the balance between
action planning fitting time in for your relationships
in an efficiency model versus seeing the value and
managing around relationship building?
I think this all boils down to how much value you
place on relationship building. There are managers
in our society who place a low value on relationship building.
They couldnt care less i they have a good relationship
with those they work with, as long as they get their jobs
done. The issue is really how much value do you place on
relationship building? I you really do place a high value
on that, then you will gure out waystaking it through
the Productivity Pyramid. I value relationships. Long range
goals; intermediate goals. What am I going to do today about
building relationships? Then all o a sudden, you nd yoursel
looking or ways to enhance and build the relationships tha
you have with people around you. You have to identiy, rst o
all, what are my most important relationships. Is it my spouse
my signicant other, my children, my boss, the people I work
or or with? Just exactly how important is that? The minute
we consciously start thinking about that, then suddenly
we start doing something about it. Ive discovered that the
minute you start thinking about and ocusing on an issue, you
automatically nd ways to do something about it. It starts with
deciding that the relationships are important and then all o a
sudden, you are nding ways to do it. I youre mechanically
setting aside an hour a day or relationships, its not going to
work.
What is the most common question you are
asked from participants across the million
plus people attending your seminars?
It usually has to do with identiying their governing
valuessomething that has gotten under their skin
I rarely get mechanical questions about the planning system
or how to use it. It usually has something to do with a deep
challenge in their lives. The biggest question is How do I sit
down and identiy my governing values? What books can I
read that will help me identiy my governing values? That
is when I steer them to the autobiography o Ben Franklin
Viktor Frankls Mans Search for Meaning, or Scott Pecks The
Road Less Traveled. They are wonderul books that help people
identiy governing values. Talk to people who have identied
their governing values. The biggest question usually is Im
excited about this, but how do I do this? That is whats asked in
most o the letters I receive: How do I do this? Im struggling
in discovering my governing values. The reason that is hard
is that when they sit down to identiy their governing values
they start with a list o things that somebody else thinks they
should have rather than what I think I should have. When I
started out the process mysel, I had 43 governing values. I
ended up with 16. I discovered that most o them werent mine
they were somebody elses. I have 16 now. These are pretty
solid. What changes is the description o them. We encourage
everyone to write a paragraph about what the value means to
them, and that paragraph has changed dramatically over time
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my C44. Take your A1 somewhere else. You dont have to be
rude, but the act is, that i youve taken the 10 to 15 minutes
in a solitude time every single day, you will have amazing
ability and courage to say no.
Ive had the privilege of seeing you speak 15or 20 times over the course of my career at
FranklinCovey, and one of the points I find
most inspiring about you is your ability to condense
broad, esoteric thoughts into quick quotes and quips
that I can memorize. My PDA is full of one-liners from
you that have had profound impact on me. One of my
favorites is your definition of character. Another one
is about vocabulary and the ability to think. Would
you share these and a few of your favorites? Tell us
again your definition of character.
Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision ater the
emotion o making that decision has passed.
Is that original to you, Hyrum?
Yes, that is, actually. I take credit or that one. It i
not a dictionary denition o character, but it is a
proound one in that character is doing what you say you
are going to do. I you say you are going to lose weight, lose
weight. I you say you are going to be on time, be on time. I
is easy to make commitments. The whole idea is that we make
these commitments and we get excited about them. We go
back to our desk, but nothing has changed at our desk. And
then we dont do what we say we are going to do. A person
character is ultimately measured by what they do, when they
say they are going to do it.
The other one my ather introduced me to: You cannot think
any deeper than your vocabulary will allow you to. I was
12 years old when I rst heard that and it took me 20 years
to realize that is a very proound statement. We think in the
words we understand. There are 340,000 words in the English
language. Winston Churchill had a working vocabulary
o 25,000 words. We think he had the biggest workingvocabulary o any English-speaking person in history. The
average business person has 12,000 to 13,000. The average
teenager has about 2,500. I you want a scary experience, walk
through the hallways o any high school in America and listen
In act, Im looking in my Franklin Planner sitting in ront
o me to pull out my list o governing values. Number 3 or
me is I am an outstanding husband and ather. I encourage
people to write them as afrmations so that it is an active
statement, not a passive statement. So my governing values are
written as active statements. This is what Number 3 means
to me: I take sufcient meaningul time with my wie and
children to help them with their spiritual, intellectual, social,
proessional, physical, and nancial needs. I love my wie with
care, respect, kindness, and maintaining with her a spiritual
physical union o excellence. I build strong amily unity. I have
helped develop leadership skills in all amily members and
guide them in living all the commandments o God. I help
them build their sel-esteem and help each maximize their
potential. That paragraph has changed dramatically now that
I have been married or almost 44 years. That paragraph has
evolved. Thats changed as I have a better understanding about
what it means to be an outstanding husband and ather.
a bkXcel enerGY
How do I diplomatically say no to requests
for assistance?
That is a great question because o what happens
when people have really sat down and created their
own constitution. Theyve written their governing values. The
rst thing that comes out o a clear understanding o whatmatters most to me is the magnicent ability and the courage
to say no. Automatically. Why? Because I recognize now, what
matters most to me. This is my ocus; this is where Im going.
And so all the requests that take me o that ocus, o that
direction, I have to say no to. I I dont have that clear vision,
then I dont have a good reason to say no. And then Im into
that Im going to oend them i I say no because I just dont
want to do it. Well, why dont I want to do it? I youre saying
no, people are going to expect an explanation. Quite rankly,
you dont owe anybody an explanation, but they want one.So when someone says, Can you do this? No! Well, why
not? Let me tell you why not. This is what I have discovered
today. It comes rom long-term planning, a solitude session,
and there is no way I can squeeze that in today. Your A1 is
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to the vocabulary you hear and you wont sleep or a month,
because their vocabulary is so awul.
Im assuming the quote from your father drove a love
for reading and writing books.
Absolutely! The only way to build a vocabulary is to read. Butour young people dont read today. Why? Because they have
TV, and these Xboxes and these crummy, stupid games that
they play. Nobody is reading. Newspapers are going out o
business at an alarming rate. USA Today is a popular newspaper
because you dont have to read it. You can see it at 30 eet and
many o the words are misspelled. In all o the studies done on
successul people on this planet, rom all walks o lie, the one
common denominator that they ound is a large vocabulary.
Indulge us. Share a couple more of your favorites that
you think our clients can benefit from.
There is a denition o wisdom that I like to use: Wisdom
is knowledge rightully applied. My son, when he was our,
we were in the kitchen together. I said, When the stove is
hot, it burns. Dont touch the oven. I gave him knowledge.
What do you think he did when I let the kitchen? He has
wisdom now on the tips o all our ngers on his right hand.
Wisdom is knowledge rightully applied. At the start o all
seminars, I say, All I can do today is share some knowledge
that has been pulled together rom some wonderul sources.
The issue is, are you going to do anything with it? Id like to
share with you a denition o success: a successul manager
o time is willing to do that which the unsuccessul manager
o time is not willing to do. Im going to give you a prole
o what a successul manager o time is willing to do. The
question is, are you going to do anything about it? A successul
mother, ather, business person, athlete is willing to do that
which an unsuccessul mother, ather, business person, athlete
is not willing to do.
I was having dinner with Gary Player a ew years ago and I
asked, How many gol balls have you hit in your lietime?
He looked at me and said, I dont know. I asked, How many
balls do you hit in a day? He knew that number500. I said,
You hit 500 gol balls in a day? Well, Gary Player is now 74
years old. He has hit 5 million gol balls. I you are willing to
hit 5 million gol balls, you are going to be Gary Player. Who
is Gary Player? He is one o the top six golers ever to play the
game163 tournaments. Tiger Woods is at 60 something a
this point. Hes won 163 tournaments. The guy is a machine.
This aligns with the writings of Malcolm Gladwelin ous and Geoff Colvins t is ovd
that, in fact, genius may be more about disciplined,
rigorous practice versus solely innate. Some are just
willing to practice more.
Right. Its like dening time. I you dont know what time
is, you will never get control o it. What is time? Time is the
occurrence o events in sequence one ater the other. Too
oten, people conuse time with having something to do with
a clock. It has nothing to do with a clock. All a clock does is
tell you how long it takes the sun to go across the sky. Time
is the occurrence o events in sequence one ater the other
Everything is an event. Your getting out o bed this morning
is an event. Getting in your car is an event. Picking up your
phone is an event. Time is the occurrence o all these event
in sequence one ater the other. The issue, then, is what events
do I have any control over? Now we are in the prioritizing o
things. Can I control what time I get up? Can I control wha
I wear? Can I control what I eat? Can I control when I do
my email? Can I control when I take that phone call? Now
we are starting to manage time. Only when you understand
what time is can you manage it. Too many people think it hasomething to do with a clock. Its got nothing to do with a
clock.
Lets finish with this question. What have you
learned? I imagine youve had some fantastic
business successes and some great failures.
also suspect youve both gained and lost some great
friends along the way. As you come into what Dr
Covey calls the crescendo of your life and career, tel
us what youve learned?
I think the biggest thing that Ive learned that was
really brought home to me in vivid clar ity when my
daughter was killed in the car accident, and this is a statemen
that I learned many, many years ago: Pain is inevitable, misery
is optional. In act, I wrote a book with that title, Pain I
Inevitable, Misery Is Optional. The act is that we are not going
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FranklinCovey. All rights reserved. CFS090875 Version 1.0.5
to get through the mortal experience without some pain. Pain
comes in lots o dierent orms. Theres spiritual pain, theres
physical pain, emotional pain, psychological pain. Theres all
kinds o pain. But the act is, we choose whether or not we
are going to be miserable about it. Some o the most amazing,
antastic, serene, magnicent people I know have had to deal
with some sort o excruciating pain o some kind. But they
chose not to be miserable. So I think that is the biggest lesson
that Ive learned. I made a lot o big mistakes. Ive caused pain.
Ive had to experience pain. Ultimately, the measure o who
we are is how we deal with pain.
You have long trusted FranklinCovey to bring you
the very best in personal productivity and time
management. For nearly 30 years, we have worked
to help you facilitate timeless productivity principles
in relevant and impactful ways. While our FocUS
workshop has been a life-changing experience for
literally hundreds of thousands of people around
the world, we feel the time has come to make this
content even better.
This year we will be reinventing our Time Management
curriculum and making it more engaging, practical,
and powerful than ever. We will be gathering data from
around the globe to improve everything from what
we teach to how we teach it; from the materials we
provide to you, our valued partners, to the tools and
resources we provide your participants. Our videos will
be inspiring, our tools will be more current and useful,
and our research will be world-class.
A lot has changed in the last few years, and people have
moved to a whole new level of tools and technologies
to help them cope with the nearly overwhelming
crush of information, tasks, and appointments. Were
not sure exactly what will emerge from our innovation
efforts, but you can be assured that if FranklinCovey
is doing it, it will be world-class. We owe you nothing
less.
If you would like to be a part of this process, let
us know. Our development process involves a lotof customer input and on-site testing, and wed be
delighted for any feedback or contributions youd
like to offer. If you would like to be involved, please
contact our General Manager of Innovations, Adam
Merrill, at [email protected].
Thanks,
Sean
Sean coVeYchf pdu ah d S. Vp
ivs, pdus, d Vus