Rising Above It All

Dear reader, I want you to know what an honor it has been for me to write this book. I hope that you will feel as inspired reading it as I felt writing it. The objective of this work is to inspire you to live a more fulfilling and productive life.

Through my own life experiences I have come to realize that we are social creatures that need to feel like we belong and contribute to something worthwhile if we are to experience higher levels of fulfillment.

Knowledge and understanding is a very important element in living a more fulfilling and productive life. Knowledge and understanding have the potential of ultimately creating purpose. If there is no purpose in life then you will not find fulfillment or productivity. With that being said I will begin this study by teaching you the nature of human nature.

Throughout this discussion I will refer back to two laws of human fulfillment:
1. You will never become greater than that which motivates you.
2. You stop becoming greater the instant you think your great.

Throughout this discussion we will also define leadership as:
• Leadership is the ability to change culture. Culture is often referred to as an organizations personality.

So let’s begin. I have identified three levels of human behavior:
Phase I behavior
Phase II behavior
Phase III behavior
This model uses two basic assumptions concerning human nature. The first assumption is that the mother of all motivators is survival. We do amazing things just to survive. There is a program called Survival Stories that goes over the amazing things people do just to survive. A few years back, there was an individual who was hiking in the state of Utah when a rock somehow fell on his forearm. As a result of this misfortune, he stayed pinned under that rock for three or four days, at least until he felt he wasn’t going to last much longer. Finally, just to survive, he took out his pocketknife and cut off his arm and then managed to hike out to get help. That shows how strong a motivator survival is. Remember, the first assumption is that the mother of all motivators is survival. The second assumption states that if people do not perceive they stand out in a crowd they will die. Using these two assumptions I will attempt to explain the nature of human nature.

Figure 1
This model will be symbolized, as shown in the illustration above. Phase I behavior is symbolized by an individual holding a sword, Phase II behavior is symbolized by an individual with a graduation cap, and Phase III is symbolized by an individual lifting someone up.

Figure 2
In an effort to survive Phase I behavior tears other people down in an effort to help us perceive that we are standing out in a crowd. If we cut everyone down around us, then, relatively speaking, we will be standing out in a crowd—it’s all relative. Phase I behavior is the starting point of human behavior. For example, what happens to a child who goes to grade school and is different in some way? Phase I behavior identifies unique characteristics, magnifies them, and belittles them. Imagine the shock of the child who has been taught that his uniqueness makes him special and then goes to school and his uniqueness is amplified and belittled by the other students. The child then comes home believing that the message that his uniqueness makes him special is nothing but a big lie and that in reality his uniqueness only qualifies him for some kind of freak show. That’s what Phase I behavior does—it amplifies uniqueness and then belittles it. Phase I organizations tend to gravitate to the center. Everyone tries to be the same so no one will belittle them.

An important thing to understand here is that Phase I behavior doesn’t just take bad characteristics and belittle them. It doesn’t matter if it is a positive or a negative characteristic; it just needs to be a unique characteristic. I’ve heard of children who went to school, and just because they got good grades they’d be teased and belittled. Then they would go back and purposely get bad grades just so they could belong to the crowd. That’s the nature of Phase I behavior. Remember that it doesn’t have to be anything bad; it just has to be something different—something unique. Phase I behavior will always amplify uniqueness and belittle it.

To continue on with the story, of course the child comes home and is usually crying, and the response of the mother is, “How can children be so mean?”

Phase I behavior, by its very nature, tends to be insecure, and thus the starting point of human nature tends to believe the critics. Critics are very powerful in a Phase I environment because everyone cares what they think. For example, when the child goes to school and the other kids say he’s a freak because he gets good grades, he tends to believe them; we tend to believe the critics in Phase I. This gives Phase I behavior the power to do negative things, especially if it happens within a Phase I organization that values and supports Phase I behavior. Phase I behavior is the birthplace of practices such as racism, sexism, and other destructive behaviors.

Phase I behavior will attempt to keep people from evolving out of this lower level of behavior. It will attempt to convince people that they are incapable of improving. Phase I behavior is inherently destructive. Thus, Phase I behavior is inherently incapable of creating an environment of fulfillment and productivity. People who exhibit Phase I behavior are incapable of being leaders in the world of organizational change, at least change for the good. I will be referring to this organizational change for the good as organizational transformation. The definition of leadership in the world of organizational transformation is the ability to change culture for the good. Culture is defined as how an organization acts out on its value system. Culture is also referred to as the personality of an organization.

Organizational culture is very difficult to change. A leader must be very influential if they are to change organizational culture. Phase I behavior is not influential for the good and as a result is incapable of true leadership.