if aristotle ran general motors tom morris

IF ARISTOTLE RAN GENERAL MOTORS

PRESENTED BY:

GROUP A

DIRGHA RAWAL

GANESH LAMICHHANE

ISHA DHAUBHADEL

RAM SHARAN SUBEDI

Preface

The philosopher of the centuries, from Plato to Aristotle to the present day,

have left us the equivalent of huge bank account of wisdom that we can draw

on for a wealth of insight applicable to both business and rest of life.

We can invert this intellectual capital in our careers and experiences and reap

tremendous returns of new wisdom as a result.

In 1952 Charles Erwin proclaimed:

“What is good for country is good for General Motors, and what is good for

GM is good for country.”

It rose lots of comments and criticism

But when it is understood in the most fundamental way possible people think

that it’s absolutely right

Preface

This book shows why

This book explores four profound but simple foundations-

universally accessible, pervasively applicable and incredibly

effective – underlie the attainment and sustaining of the very

best result.

We will see how four foundations of human excellence should

govern all that we do, both inside our organizations and with all

our customers and suppliers.

Preface

The current climate

People have been talking about reengineering the corporation, redesigning

the processes by which work is done to attain greater efficiencies and new

forms of business excellence.

Management strategies have multiplied.

We are inundated in new techniques and nearly drowning in information

But behind the products, services, and processes of modern business, behind

all the strategies and techniques and data, are all the people who do the work.

The employees of modern businesses feel themselves more the victims, than

the beneficiaries of the new corporate strategies for success.

As a result corporate spirit has suffered immensely.

Preface

So

Corporate spirit needs to be reinvented.

Pressure from many directions threaten to kill the spirit of productive and

creative enterprise, smashing it into shards of cynical mistrust, a narrow

destructive self interest, and increasingly even low level of walking despair.

People feel insecure, threatened and unappreciated in their job.

As a result their motivation for digging deep and stretching themselves to

attain the best of which things capable has withered

In business as well as in all professions and in fact throughout entire culture,

we face a spiritual crisis.

If you have drained the tank of human goodwill and motivation, you can

continue to coast downhill for a while, even at a pretty rapid clip, but heaven

help you if you encounter any big bumps in the road, or competition forces

you into an uphill struggle.

Preface

“The greatest asset of any nation is to spirit of its people, and

the greatest danger that can menace any nation is the breakdown

of the spirit.” George B. Courtelyou

People at work are the only true foundation for lasting

excellence, so the time has come to focus on the deeply human

issues of happiness, satisfaction, meaning , and fulfillment in the

work place.

The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the

greatest of things without it.

Extrinsic rewards like pay raises, promotion, and bonuses can do

so much to motivate extra energy and creativity.

Preface

Without the intrinsic rewards of happiness, promotion,

fulfillment and a sense of goodness and meaningfulness at work,

people will never be fully motivated to attain and sustain the

heights of excellence of which they are capable.

Reinventing corporate spirit can be anybody’s job.

Anybody at any level can take initiative to reinvent corporate

spirit within our own field of influence, and can make a

difference that may be felt far beyond that domain.

The book shows how we all together can make a big difference

for good by using simple principles that will revolutionize the

way we think, not only about our businesses but about our

families and communities as well.

Introduction: Business Excellence and the Human Quest

• Conclusion – Need to understand the human condition more

deeply and apply it to the way we live and do business i.e. the

concept of philosophy

• Personal background of author Tom Morris

Business family, studied business administration (corporate law)

But interested in philosophy as deeper understanding of human

nature will be needed in business in future

Studied philosophy and religion and did Phd in same

Professor of philosophy at Notre Dame for 15 years

Modern day philosopher

The New Wave of Needs and Expectations at Work

Turning point - One of the most important conversation of his life with a

prominent women

Invitation to give a lecture on ethics to group of young business and civic

leaders

“We all need a little philosophy in our lives”

Was confused about the consequence of how participants would response

Since then he is engaged actively in preaching about philosophy such as

success, ethics, happiness, personal satisfaction, corporate life and

collaborative excellence

Have discovered exciting development: People all around the world are

changing which from the viewpoint of philosopher is deeply right

People are thinking like philosophers and philosophize about the way of

living and working

The Vanishing Dream The dream that is vanishing – Hard work always paid off and will bring some

measure of basic human comfort and security

Now, even the hardest work is not paying well and instead forced to be

unemployed

Decrease in overall job satisfaction and morale as well as reward and

incentives

Modern formulas for happiness have failed and no ready made recipes for

how to create a deeply satisfying and sustainable way of life; a life truly worth

living

Philosophy is love of wisdom, its not only about new questions and deep

knowledge but an enterprise of the heart (genuine insight about living)

Now have understood the importance of work in our lives as well as

importance of bringing more of life to work; new strategy of workplace

transformation

Business Values and Personal Commitments

People will not give their best until and unless an environment

which respects and supports their values is provided

This book is all about catching the new wave of wisdom at work

and creating the right environment for ultimate motivation in the

workplace

This book will help in laying the right foundations for long term

business excellence by bringing deepest and most naturally

renewable motivation into all the endeavors together

Just a motivational lecture of few hours or days is not enough

The seeds of inspiration is to be dropped into the fertile soil so as

they take root and produce results

Aristotle and the Human Quest

Cicero Socrates Plato Aristotle Cicero – First man to bring philosophy into marketplace

Socrates – First model of man engaged in courageous questioning in search of

true wisdom

Plato - Had extensive impact on Western thought of philosophy

Aristotle – Combined pragmatic ethical interests of Socrates with systematic

mentality of Plato

According to Aristotle, every human being pursue different things; wealth, fame,

power, love

But beneath the surface everyone is chasing same thing- HAPPINESS

Happiness is universal human quest and if we can understand it then we can touch

the heart of motivation and unlock secret to sustainable development

Three views of happiness

Happiness as Pleasure Happiness is just the same thing as pleasure

If you want happiness pursue pleasure and seek to avoid pain

Large income best source of happiness as it can buy things that will make

them happy or at least contribute significantly to happiness

These things will eventually bring pleasure either in themselves or in what

they make possible

But is happiness same thing as pleasure?

Pleasure is only one part of much larger puzzle

Examples of self destructive behavior of the rich and famous

The enjoyment of money, status, recognition and power can be recognized as

contributing to happy life if these things are received and used well

But these are not same as happiness; what matters is the overall process in

which these enjoyments have a place

Happiness as Personal Peace Happiness is ultimately personal peace (Tranquility, equanimity, peace)

Meditation with the purpose of obtaining ultimate inner peace

But people are all the time worried about their jobs, marriages, kids, their future;

this anxiety needs to be overcome by maintaining peace

We need inner shock absorbers as we hit the potholes and speed bumps of life

Without personal peace happy life is impossible

But, its vain to say that human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they

must have action

What human beings need is not a tensionless state but rather a struggling and

striving for a worthwhile goal

We human need action and a healthy amount of tension

Happiness at work need same calmness at certain occasions but not a total

workplace tranquility

Happiness as Participating in Something Fulfilling

Happiness is participation in something that brings fulfillment

We are at our best when we are engaged in a worthy task

Its not about piling money or stuffs to be enjoyed but joy of doing

Happiness is not passive and it is a dynamic phenomenon of participating in

something that brings fulfillment and is accompanied by pleasure and inner

peace

What exactly does bring fulfillment to human beings?

Different things for different individuals

These things can bring fulfillment only when it is respected and nurtured with

four fundamental dimension of human experience

One will not be fulfilled in what one is doing unless these four dimensions

are addressed

The Four Dimensions of Human Experience Keys to individual happiness at work as well as sustainable corporate

excellence

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Truth : The Intellectual Dimension at Work

We need good ideas as much as we need good food, good air, and good

matter and finally what we need is truth.

Truth – Mapping of reality that corresponds to the way things are

Aristotle – “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is so, is

false; while to say of what is so that it is, and of what is not so that it is not

so, is true.”

Truth is our lifeline, Truth is our guide.

“Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and those

who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.” – Confucious

“ A good leader should have a visceral affinity for truth, the capacity to

handle the truth, the ability to get it, and the skill to use it well brings with its

exercise great power.” - Tom Peters

Truth & Respect

According to Martin Buber in his book I and Thou

I – It Relationship- a way of relating to something as a thing, or object whose

only value is extrinsic or instrumental

If you stand in I –It relation to sth. You value it only insofar as it serves your

purpose.

I – Thou Relation – one human being ought always to take toward another

person, a relationship of respect.

The other being is viewed as having intrinsic values, value in and of himself

or herself, regardless of whether that individual can produce any future value

for you.

We should never use other people precisely in the way that we use objects.

We should never view other people as having value only for what they can do

for you.

Truth & Respect

Martin Buber in his book I and Thou

When we do not create an environment in which truth is

respected, we do not have a working environment in which

people are being respected. The only way to enter a truly I- Thou

relationship with other around us is to seek from them, and to

give to them, the truth about what we are doing together.

To the extent you are truthful with another person you show

that individual respect. This is at the heart of morally sound

relationship.

Given and received properly a concern with sharing truth

inevitably helps to generate a spirit of cooperation crucial to

good working relation over the long run.

Knowledge and Need for Truth

Truth is Foundation for Trust

Nothing is more important for any business than trust

Trust is an absolute necessity for truly effective interpersonal

activity

Truth , even hard truth , if passed on with as much

understanding, kindness, and sensitivity as possible is always the

foundation for solving any problem in a sustainable way.

Avoiding truth inevitably see a mess of speculation, gossip and

despair, with sinking morale, decreasing productivity, and

inevitable failure at the result.

Knowledge and Need for Truth

Story at a restaurant

Manager went beyond the call of duty to repair a possibly

damaged relationship, told the truth , and thereby brought it

about that the relationship would go up to a new level.

A relationship built on falsehood is like a house built on sand :

one built on truth is like a fortress anchored on rock.

The Double Power Principle

“The greater the power, the more dangerous abuse” - Edmund

Burke

To the extent that something has power for good, it has

corresponding power for ill. Most of the time it’s up to us how

to use that power.

Truth has great power for good. But double power principle

applies here also.

If thuth is abused, if it is used in the creation of ugliness, evil,

and disunity, terrible ill can result.

Because truth is so powerful, it can be used to do great good or

to bring about significant damage.

Knowledge and power

“Knowledge is Power.”

Sharing of knowledge yields more than shared power.

When you share your knowledge, you expand knowledge.

Share your knowledge and multiply your power

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” –

Benjamin Franklin

The Open Book Game

Truth liberates

It frees people to be and do their best

Human being can be surprisingly creative when they are just

given the raw materials and the proper opportunity

The more people know about company, the better that

company will perform

You will be more successful in business by sharing information

with the people you work with than by keeping them in the dark

Don’t use information to intimidate, control or manipulate

people

Working smart is every bit as important as working hard

The Open Book Game

Use it to teach people how to work together to achieve common goals

“Only the educated are free” – Epictetus

Working smart is not possible apart from access of truth

Everyone who works around us has intellectual dimension no matter what

their formal education and current job description might be

If we respect and nurture this side of their lives with a give and take of ideas

and with all the truth we helpfully can provide, we make an important

contribution toward their feeling, some measure of meaningfulness,

fulfillment and happiness in their work with us. And thereby in turn create

for ourselves a better environment in which to flourish.

TRUTH AND LIES For Biz results, Manipulate others by

manipulating truth. Truth is victimized by our

desires.

No one can be happy who has been “thrust

outside the pale of truth.”

Two ways - Being lied to; by lying.

“The lie swiftly ruins the liar.” – Mircilio

Ficino

Once you have burned a bridge with lies, it

may be that nothing short of divine

intervention can rebuild the relationship and

create a positive result.

THE PRICE OF DECEPTION

Lying is one of the most dangerously corrosive and subtly

destabilizing activities to be found in human life.

When trust is endangered, ongoing excellence is hard to find.

Once anyone has torn the fabrics of truth, it is exceedingly

difficult to reweave the pattern and regain that most important

of qualities.

Nothing will destroy corporate spirit more quickly than lies and

deceit.

THE BASIS OF TRUST Truth is like a lubricant for human relations.

The only deeply prudent way to run an organization is to insist

that people tell the truth to each other.

Truth has to be one of the leading values of any organization

that values its own health.

Be true to your own deepest instincts about what the truth is and

how it can best be used as the basis for your actions.

THE TRUTH ABOUT EXCELLENCE: A POWERFUL IDEA

“Objects and structures of our world can be seen as reflections of ideas.

What we do in the world is the consequences of what we think. How we do

in this world is a result of how we think.” – Plato

Ideas Rock the World

WINNERS AND LOSERS

Excellence - actual state of superior performance rising out from an original

state of potentiality

Competitive thinking in pursuit of excellence can be helpful

An exclusive mindset, as the only way of thinking about excellence, can

become very harmful.

Problems of Exclusively Competitive Thought

Competitive victory model tends to promote individualistic and

adversarial thinking about excellence.

Individualism out of control and too much adversarial thinking

has recently been pulling our society apart

One can possess competitive excellence without having

individual excellence

That is a business or a team can be the best in its league or field,

without being its best as long as it happens to be performing

better than any currently exiting competition.

Problems of Exclusively Competitive Thought

If you don’t have conceptual resources to see the difference

between what is properly called competitive excellence and other

forms of excellence your net will be inadequate for capturing

some very important truth.

If you want to avoid that dangerous vulnerability, you need a

way of thinking about excellence that is not merely competitive

in nature.

UNVARNISHED TRUTH Straightforwardness

Story of cat’s death – being straightforward as possible

Oblique way of communicating can be a waste of time.

If you have something important to say, you should say it

Competition is not what should determine attention every

waking hour of everyday

Most competitively successfully people in the world think of

something else before they think of competition

A FOCUS ON GROWTH

“I don’t try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance

better than myself.”- Mikhail Baryshnikov

Comparative Growth Model - Development or growth,

teleology – purposive movement in the direction of a telos, or

goal.

Am I closer today to my goals than I was yesterday?

Are we better as a company than we were at this time last year?

A FOCUS ON GROWTH

To put comparative thinking about excellence into action requires

A clear standard or envisioned goal

An accurate state of relevant self – knowledge

A strategy for improvement

A scale of measurement

The major religions share three part ideological structure

A conception of where we are

An ideal for where we ought to be

A path from former to later

Overriding Concern of Improvement in the Condition

Problems of Self Absorbed

Self centeredness is self- defeating

Self giving is Self- fulfilling

If all my thinking is about my predicament, my problems, my

conditions, my quest, my enlightenment, my final realization of

the ideal, I can easily lose touch to other individuals around me.

Their cares, about the value of broadening my focus beyond the

bonds of my own progress are forgotten.

Problems of Self Absorbed

So I lose interest in structure, institutions, and relationship – that

do not serve myself defined goal

Comparative growth model encourages self centeredness, it can

lead to self defeating

In fact the more purely altruistic an act of self giving is in its

intent, the less merely altruistic it is in its results

By seeking to benefit others, you can end up benefiting yourself

beyond any expectation.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP

Competition can be energizing and productive or directing and

exhausting.

“What it lies in our power to do, it also lies our power not to

do.” – Aristotle

Further over on our spectrum, we come to the cooperative

relationship – the characteristic stance of agreeing. The key

attitudes, actions and consequences are acquiescence, non-

resistant obedience, and a multiplication of hands to get the job

done.

It is collaborative relationship – partnering – “synergistic

interaction.”


Peer Relation Stance Key Characteristics

Combative Fighting Aggression, Resistance, Damage

Competitive Striving Rivalry, Mixed Motivations

Cooperative Agreeing Acquiescence, Obedience

Collaborative Partnering Synergistic Interaction Cooperation – as a multiplication of hands to get a job done

Collaborative – a multiplication of heads as well

When you collaborate with others, you partner up, you bring the best of

who you are and what you know to the table, as does your partner, and

together you think and act in ways that might not have been available

to either of you alone.

Immense Enrichment/Sufficiently in Harmony


Collaborators don’t think exactly alike but are sufficiently in

harmony with one another that their differences create new

insight, and each is taught by the other.

Collaboration is about community, creativity, learning building

and pioneering.

Collaborative thinking and working can create more fulfilling

and productive relationships, making for better and stronger

organization.

Personal excellence is relational and so is corporate excellence

and at the core of corporate excellence is the reality of corporate

spirit.


Objects are excellent by functional terms. Human excellent is

to some extent relational and so is corporate excellence.

What is Required for Corporate Spirit/Spirit of

Superior Collaboration? Truth

Beauty

Goodness

Unity is central

Bedrock of Excellence in any Organization.

Motivation for Excellence

How do we motivate people if we are thinking mainly for

collaboratively about excellence?

Competitive Motivation- Straightforward - a simple kind of

interpersonal interaction – the PUSH

In an ideal competition I am pushing you to push me to be the

best I can be; and you are pushing me to push you to be the best

you can be.

Competition is a lot like cod-liver oil. First it makes you sick.

Than it makes you better.


Comparative Growth Motivation – teleological – purposive the

PULL.

It is the lure of an attractive goal, or a strongly desired goal.

A lustrous objective embodying a valued ideal, vividly imagined,

itself inspires us to work harder toward its realization.

The greater the ideal, the greater the power it can have in our

lives.

Collaborative Motivation

Collaborative motivation involves the power of shared vision

mutually developed


Aristotle distinguished four basic kinds of causes in the world

that contribute to making things what they are:

1 A material Cause – the most fundamental stuff what it is.

2 A formal Cause – for a pattern – makes something a kind of

thing it is

3 An Efficient Cause – Brings about something’s being what it

is.

4 A Final Cause – A form that pulls, drawing something out into

being what it is capable of being.


The final cause is in a modern business context a goal or

purpose or mission or plan that, as an attractive and state,

intended and desired because of its luminous, anticipated good,

draws us on toward bringing it into realization.

Mindset Motivation

Competitive The Push

Comparative The Pull

Collaborative The Partnership

A Combination of Forces

Collaborative work requires taking other people’s ideas seriously, treating all

our associates as individual with mind, with real intellectual experience, from

which we can benefit.

Collaboration is founded on Truth. Far apart from sharing truth, no

productively synergistic interaction is possible.

To reach the human heights of human excellence, the corporate spirit must

be one of collaboration.

Collaborative efforts work best only when they are founded on a clear sense

of how the people and the company or companies involved need to

experience comparative growth in order to flourish within their particular

competitive situation.

Ultimately in true collaboration, a leader will be a learner, as will every other

partner to the enterprise.

A Combination of Forces

Collaborative thinking doesn’t demand the abandonment of competitive and

comparative thinking, but quite the opposite.

The best competitive and comparative thinking require a great measure of

collaborative thinking.

A good collaborative thinking and working depends on the guidance of

competitive and comparative thinking.

But it is collaborative work that is at the hub of the wheel.

When we contemplate the potential effects of an overarching collaborative

conception of excellence, we come to appreciate the power of an idea, the

impact of truth, and the role of how we think in how we act.

Ideas do Rock the World

Thank You!

if aristotle ran general motors tom morris

Education

result corporate spirit

new corporate strategies

greatest of things

new techniques

best result

spirit of productive

prefacesocorporate spirit

processes of modern