1. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals: Broad-mind A quote by a great person: "Nothing makes a man more broad minded like adversity" Will Rogers Maria´s thought: The economic changes we are experiencing these days need to be a reason to broaden our entrepreneurial mind within own areas of expertise and related ones. Especially in projects for co-operation and co-working. It cannot be called an "adversity" that which tells you that new and different paths needs to be taken: it is a sign of the expiration of the old ways and a call to creativity and challenge. For a passionate entrepreneur there is no adversity.... there are just bells.
2. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals. Sense of community A quote by a great person: “Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community” St. Thomas Aquinas quotes (Scholastic philosopher and theologian, 1225-1274) Maria´s thought: As we do not create and foster work organization models based on the full extension of the word "persons", joyfully and responsibly orientated to the common good and service, we will not give creation and innovation the room they need to fly among us. Us people, are beings for others, we have a communal feature we cannot forget, if we do, de-humanization rapidly enters our homes, offices, public squares, economies....
3. Post crisis values: Simple Proposals: Courtesy A quote by a great person: “To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.” Benjamin Franklin
Maria´s thought: The life of the team and of the company is made up, not out of the incomes we receive everyday, but out of the smiles, little services and favors, empathy, laughs... that we share every hour. This would not be possible if we did not know each other to a good extent... That´s why social outings, in natural ways, are essential for the life of the company.
4. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals: Appreciation A quote by a great person: "We become wiser with adversity, prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right" Seneca Maria´s thought: There is no better moment than the moment we are living. For companies, for families, for individuals... Talking to the owner of a bookstore yesterday, I was persistent on referring to how financial institutions have created a total mess in Spain. He very wisely said to me that the problem was with the people: very true. The solution, the new ideas and ways of organization, financing etc... are in people too.
5. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals - Perspective A quote by a great person: “Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.” Christopher Morley quotes (American writer and editor 1890-1957)
Maria´s thought: Falling into one day´s, one week´s, one month´s perception of the company is the way to lose perspective and energies. Tracing a system by which you acquire a short, medium and long term perception of the events of the company is a great tool for a balanced management.
6. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals : Self-Knowledge A quote by a great person: "A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others" Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism Maria´s thought: Direction cannot be given if the director does not know where he is going, why he is going there, when it is necessary to stop and rest, when to run fast..External indicators, persons of wisdom you can trust can give the necessary mirror for directors to know themselves and be able to better lead others.
7. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals Love A quote by a great person: "If you judge people, you have no time to love them" Mother Teresa of Calcutta And a paragraph from a recent management book: Desde la empresa, con amor Argandoùa Ramiz, Antonio Editor: IESE Anyway, the importance of an act made with love, even imperfect, is not the result, but the intention. An action is excellent from an ethical point of view when the agent is looking for the good in others, even when the other person is unknown (as a client, for instance), even when the agent is wrong regarding what is good for the other, and even when the reaction from the other is against what it was expected by the agent. Excellence cannot be forgotten in a company if this is looking for efficiency" 8. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals. Correctness A quote by a great person: "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child" Maria Montessori Maria´s thought Correctness when leading a team consists basically on a deep knowledge of general human virtues and potential and a particular knowledge of every member of the team: strength and weaknesses, preferences, passions, gifts, advantages, inclinations, motivations, past, personal circumstances... It consists of looking at failures as possibilities to grow and complement each other and on looking at everyone´s gifts as tools for the team. It is art... it basically comes from the heart.
9. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals. Empathy A quote by a great person: "Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution". Kahil Gibran Or as Scott Adams says: every act of kindness creates a ripple with no logical end. Maria´s thought: In our companies, the Value of Heart needs to be re-discovered, repracticed, re-fostered... in order to create well-being among workers, towards clients, even, when litigating, towards the counterparty: a negotiation is always the best outcome. We cannot leave our human essence when we enter the office, that alteration of our nature does not bring efficiency to our professional activities, rather, the contrary. 10.Post Crisis values: simple proposals. Trust A quote by a great person: "He who does not trust enough, will not be trusted" by Lao Tzu Maria´s thought Trust from directors to members of the team (starting by this and following this order), from members of the team to directors, among members of the team it is like sap for plants.
11.Post Crisis Values: Simple proposals. Patience A quote by a great person: " If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent" Isaac Newton Maria´s thought: Patience which does not mean waiting for nothing, but, waiting wisely for the best to happen. Building actively the environment that it will facilitate this to happen. 12.Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals : Generosity “The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.” Albert Einstein Maria´s thought: Every professional act is an act of generosity which helps building yourself for the others and for other acts of generosity. 13. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals.:Autonomy
A quote by a great person: "A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment" Beverly Sills Maria´s thought: It also applies to companies as we need to be agents for the recreation of culture, independence, initiative... far beyond market and State´s criteria.
14.Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals :Humility A quote by a great person: "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants" Isaac Newton Maria´s thought: Humility is essential if you want to keep an open attitude towards continued learning. Humility is an essential value for team life, for every member of it and for the team as a whole. Humility is a gate to depth and mystery.... in our daily work and in relationships among us. 15. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals: Order. A quote by a great person: "Good order is the foundation of all good things" Edmund Burke Maria´s thought But... hum... never forget that sometimes order requires a little bit of mess, that order is a mean and not a goal and every person has a different sense of order. When establishing order rules in the company or within a team you need to take into account all workers´ personalities, talents and inclinations.... this way, you will find the order system that really matches the life of the company. That one that team- members can breathe through... Always avoid being an order fundamentalist as you can kill the life of the team.
16. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals. Comradeship A quote by a great person: "The greatness of a craft consists firstly on how it brings comradeship to men" Antoine de Saint-Exupery Maria´s thought It is as simple as we complement each other, finish each other, re-create each-other, discover each-other. To be practiced both in and out of team life: within the team and with external colleagues and professionals.
17.Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals. Identity A quote by a great person: " Identity is such a crucial affair that one shouldn´t rush into it" David Quammen. Maria´s thought Spain rushed into over building during the real estate and financial boom... we are now kind of......... an abandoned prostitute. The core of the current Spanish crisis, is in our opinion, a lack of identity. In a global trade, in a global world, where uni-culture, unifashion, uni-customs are massively promoted, uniqueness, identity and personality are going to become the most treasured values of a company, an organization and a country. Let´s be what is just us, what is uniquely us. Education and own brands to be promoted and exported: it is not all about public expenses cuts and taxes.
18. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals. Perseverance A quote by a great person: "It always seems impossible until it is done" Nelson Mandela Maria´s thought: Out of trying and trying and persisting and persisting again and again on legal formulas for the protection of the weaker part within the market forces ( the final consumer: the person), we are just trying to bring some balance to the voracity that has been present in the off plan purchases world in Spain before the credit crunch. So a balanced landscape can come out of this battle! 19. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals :Optimism A quote by a great person: “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship”. Louisa May Alcott Maria´s thought: Learning through difficulties is enriching, challenging, real.. it brings a company to maturity.
20.Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals X : Simplicity A quote by a great person: "The simplest things are often the truest" Richard Bach Maria´s thought Simplicity when negotiating, advising, litigating, communicating with clients, colleagues, opponents, brings a pleasant agility to the life of the company
21. Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals :Helpfulness A quote by a great person: “You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins” Jim Stovall Maria´s thought When as a director, you concentrate on positive aspects of people, members of the team, and help them to promote themselves, you are bringing to the team uncountable and unexpected richness: the first and most important one: the radical enthusiasm of the people, their full identification with the work they are doing and therefore the most sincere commitment to the company. 22.Post Crisis Values: Simple Proposals .Revision A quote by a great person: "Half my life is an act of revision” John Irving Maria´s thought Revision is creation, a great energy comes out of allowing ourselves to revise our strategies, opinion, stands and certainties... the power of being free, open to new things and not locked up with the conclusions we made when we have less or different data to be taken into account. Daily revision is an act of healthy courage. 23.Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals . Integrity A quote by a great person "The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity" Ziq Ziglar Maria´s thought When you fight for your own integrity every day, you do not need to worry anymore about your team´s commitment. You do not need to worry anymore about being credible. This constant and sincere work on your own values and attitudes makes your personal and family life, your professional career, your team life, your reputation to grow up in harmony, as just one sole thing, the same thing.
24. Post Crisis values: Simple Proposals XIV . Gratitude A quote by a great person: “Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted”. Aldous Huxley
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Maria´s thought Gratitude to each other, members of the team; to our clients, to our providers.... make the company environment light and fun. Self complacency and arrogance always creates a heavy and difficult atmosphere.