Today I will be going over the concept of competition, enemies, and partnerships. This post will be continued on Saturday. [Read part 2 here]

This is the fourth post out of twelve as I read through the book “Ben Franklin’s 12 Rules of Management” by Blaine McCormick. As I go through the chapters I will be extracting information that I find interesting or useful.

In this chapter of the book we are shown that Influence is more important than victory. The underlying idea is that it is more important to create working relationships than it is to be a cut-throat competitor. More than one person or company can win, and creating trust is always win-win.

Tit-for-Tat
We are shown four rules that governed a simple game for navigating treacherous social situations. The game was called Tit-for-Tat and was programmed to follow four simple rules.

1) Never be the first to pick a fight.
2) Be retaliatory when it is necessary.
3) Be forgiving when asked.
4) Be completely clear about your intentions.

This little model is very straightforward and will work in most business situations. The company must not attack anyone. The company must punish those who attack them. The company must forgive others when they are asked. Lastly the company must be clear about their intentions, which is probably to maximize profits.

Understanding the Socratic Method
In case you aren’t familiar with the Socratic Method, it is basically using questioning to undermine another person’s argument. After a series of questions the person with the original statement will believe they have found their flaw by themselves and therefore won’t be upset at the person asking the questions.

[continued]

This is the third segment in the book review for Blaine McCormick’s “Ben Franklin’s 12 Rules of Management.” In total I will be posting twelve as I discover the rules and extract tidbits from the book. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book and read along as I will be omitting portions in the interest of keeping the integrity of Blaine’s work.

Franklin’s third rule of management is ‘Seek to manage yourself, then to manage others.” The major idea behind this chapter is that it is important to set a positive example by managing yourself. After you have are able to do this, than managing others should be no problem whatsoever.

You are in charge of being your own manager. In life and work you are in charge. The book contains an excellent quote on the subject, “If you never learn to manage yourself, somebody else will always be managing you.”

While this chapter is much lighter than the first two, the message is still equally as valid. Seek to improve what you do on a regular basis before trying to motivate those under you. The chapter ends with a great statement on benefit of getting self managed people on your workforce. “Rather than eliminating the need for managers, self-managing workers actually change the role of the manager’s job. Managers are liberated from the role of motivator and scorekeeper and can concentrate more on such activities as growing the business and building up external contacts”

This post is second in a series of twelve as I read through the book Ben Franklin’s 12 Rules of Management. In these posts I will bring to you some of the points that I have found interesting or stimulating. I would recommend that you pick up a copy to extract maximum benefit. There is much more packed in the pages than the tidbits that I am extracting. Let’s get started.

Today I am going to be breaking down with the second chapter of the book, “A Simple Recipe for Lifelong Learning.” Benjamin Franklin once wrote that “All education is self-education.” He also believed that if you learned only from yourself, then you had a fool for a teacher. So exactly how can we balance out the two forces?
Ben Franklin advocated learning as much as possible. He recognized that you could only learn if you wanted to. His system was arranged in the following three parts: Reading, Meditation, and Discussion.

These three little steps aren’t that complicated when you think about them. Read something to collect the information. Analyze the information to turn it into knowledge, and finally discuss the information with others to strengthen your understanding.

Ben Franklin created a social network called Junto (pronounced JUNE-tow) for mutual improvement. The basic idea was to have a group that would be able to share thoughts and ideas expand their own mind.

(Continue reading this article…)