Do you have the strength and courage to do the right thing?

It's been said before: people only change if they want to, no matter how much they "know" they should.

David Maister is a successful professional services firm adviser who has made a life study of what people want and what firms need to do to be chosen to provide their services.

His new blog gives a clue to his findings: it is entitled Passion, People and Principles.

A recurrent theme in his work is that firms need to give away information in order to gain people's trust as a precursor to forming a relationship.

He argues that firms can be more successful and people can enjoy their work more if they do what they do with integrity and with passion, for clients they are interested in. This is a paradox because most businesses are tempted to take whatever comes in the door, whether it is work they specialise in or not, whether it is a client in a sector they want to work for or not.

Maister's site is full of articles, podcasts and videos and other information.

If you want a great introduction watch his video Think of Work on the videos page.

But he knows that personal change is critical to organisation change: we all know the right thing to do but don't always have the strength and courage to do it. To live for the long term, rather than immediate gratification. Watch his Fat Smokers video.

Comments

[David Maister]

Thanks for sharing the news about the availablity of my blog, videos, etc. Having just begun blogging and revising my website, I am reminded of the old philosophical question: "If a tree falls in the forest and no-one hears it, did it happen?"

I think that was Bishop Berkeley's argument to prove the existence of God (God hears, so it must exist.) And that makes you a god to me for noticing!