On Discipline

Often we're asked: "Why did you call it Six Disciplines?"

To many, "discipline" has a negative connotation.

An article here helps to understand what discipline is all about:

"There’s something to this, I think. Although it was necessary for us as children to be disciplined by our parents, it was often negative. Most of the time for good reason and with love -- for our safety and general well-being."

"Gradually, our parents disciplined us less and less and we assumed more and more responsibility for ourselves. However, others took over our parents’ roles -- teachers, coaches, employers, et al. As a result, discipline as a matter of practice remains essentially an external control for many of us. Sometimes I think even our use of Day Timers and other such systems are as much an effort to provide discipline from outside ourselves as they are to remind us of meetings and tasks to be done."

"Time management is all about self-discipline. And self-discipline depends on saying "yes" to ourselves to accomplish what is important to us. So, spend some time determining how your work reinforces your personal values, create your goals on that foundation, and keep those goals fixed firmly before you."

BOTTOMLINE: And so it is in business. Six Disciplines is about learning how to continually improve processes that reinforce the organization's mission, vision and values. It's about deciding what's important, setting goals that lead, aligning people, processes and technologies to attain those goals, working the plan, innovating purposefully - then stepping back and repeating the process annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily.

Six Disciplines is a holistic business-building methodology than enables organizations to continually improve, to learn how to work ON their business rather than just IN it. Want to know more? Read Six Disciplines for Excellence.