Mark Victor Hansen asked:
People gather to work and live together in a variety of organizations.
Families are organizations. Companies are organizations. Religions are organizations.
All come together for some common purpose and are organized to achieve that purpose.
How well those organizations are put together can create a legacy beyond the life of the organizer or organizers.
You can live a life that will stretch out long beyond your life by creating an organization that can impact the lives of others today and into the future.
As an organizer or a leader, will you choose to learn the principles of leadership and create an enduring organization?
Even though the players in the organization may change, will you discover and implement primary organizing principles that will endure beyond your mortal years?
Great men and women of history have passed on to us their legacy through identifying and applying such truths.
Some of the most profound leaders to do this were the originators of the United States Constitution. Drawing on lessons learned from the English Magna Carta, the writers of the Constitution created a document that captures the great principles of governing law. These truths that were documented in the Constitution have lived well beyond the founders’ years and have provided a model for dozens, if not hundreds, of other governments and organizations. The Constitution has now positively impacted the lives of millions, if not billions, of people for more than 200 years.
On a smaller scale but equally as profound in liberating the lives of individuals is the family. The parent or parents of great families, like the authors of the United States Constitution, have sought out organizing truths that establish the foundation of their leadership. Those truths, when implemented, have created families of enduring value, measured not only by the members of that family but also by other families and individuals who have associated with them.
Today’s high-impact organization is “the company.†Billions of people each day participate in companies in order to produce products and services for their customers and create value for the people in the company.
Company leaders hugely impact how well these organizations succeed in creating value for the end user, for the organizer, and for the people working in the company.
Great companies such as Toyota, the Ritz-Carlton, General Electric, and Boeing, and others provide jobs products, and services that far surpass the lives and contributions of their founders.
In order to live a life that will outlive you as a leader, you must find the enduring principles of organization that will be embedded in the DNA of the organization you build and put in place enduring structures and systems that do not require you for their value to manifest.