hyrum smith q&a

7/28/2019 Hyrum Smith Q&A

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To Our Client Facilitators:

Weve just entered the 26th year since the founding

of our company and thought it perfect timing to

interview our co-founder Hyrum Smith. We asked

our facilitators to submit questions and I posed

them to Hyrum, with a few of my own. Im certain

youll enjoy reading his responses, so print off these

pages and sit back with a cup of hot cider and enjoy

some sage adviceon a broad range of topics.

You will also see a note from Sean Covey at the

end regarding the future of our Time Management

solutions.

A C A D E M Y

Client Facilitation

Questions & Answers With

Hyrum Smith

Scott Miller

G Mgc F Svs

1

We had our interview delayed a little bit.

Would you mind sharing with us what

happened in your life this week?

We were supposed to have the interview yesterday

and we had an emergency. I run a cattle ranch here in

southern Utah and I had a bunch o cows get through a ence

up on ourwhat we call our summer range. The BLM (Bureau

o Land Management) called and said get your cows o BLM

ground. We had to go up and nd the cows. My wie, son-in-law,

son, and my grandsonve o ustrailered ve horses up themountain yesterday and spent our hours in the saddle nding

cows. We ound one cow that was sick and we were able to corral

that one into the trailer and bring it back. Most o the other cows

had already made it back to the correct area.

Remind me of the old adage about owning a ranch

I you want to make a small ortune, buy a ranch with a large

ortune.

Tell usgo back 25 years almost and give us

a quick reminder of the principles that you

founded Franklin Quest on. Remind us of the

journey you started that literally tens of mil lions of us

have followed you on.

I started the company back in 1983. The reason I

started the company is because I had a passion to

teach. I went through the process o discovering my own

governing values. Benjamin Franklins autobiography had a

major impact on my lie and I decided that I would do wha

he did and nd out what my values arewhat matters most to

me. I discovered that one o the things that matters most to me

is to (a) make a dierence and (b) how do I make a dierence

I should teach, I should teach people what I believe to be true

and that can change and better their lives.

I let a very lucrative career at ADPAutomatic Data

Processing, a rm in New Yorkand started my own little

seminar company. The original name was Golden Eagle

Motivation, which I shudder to think about now. It was awul

In a year, we learned about the seminar business. In that year

I was living in Caliornia, and I knocked on every door on

Wilshire Boulevard and no one was interested in a seminar

on how to be a great person. That was my original seminar

How to Be a Wonderul Human Being. My original vision

was How to Become a Magnicent Human Being. I

bombed, but I learned a lot about the seminar business. I read

a book which I wish I could remember the name o. It was

about how to build your own seminar business. It said it takes

our to ve years to make a name or yoursel, so dont get


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Q & A With Hyrum Smith

discouraged. I learned, or example, that when people say they

will come to seminar they havent paid or, they dont come.

That was a hard lesson to learn. I did a lot o seminars or 3 to

4 people when I was expecting 50.

I gravitated to time management because there was a recession.People were being laid o and productivity o existing people

became a very big issue. I had aligned mysel briey with a

guy who was teaching time management as a consultant, so

I decided we could teach time management rom a values-

based position. It was my idea o helping people become better

human beings using the Trojan Horse o time management.

Time management, we discovered, was interesting to people.

Dick Winwood was my partner and, actually, my wie was my

third partner. We created a seminar called Focus on Time

Management. We started that thing and it just explodedaround us. The reason is our approach was nd out what

matters most to you and then do something about it.

I can give you the seminar in nine seconds: Find out what

matters most to you; bring the events o your lie in line with

what matters most to you and you have a right to inner peace.

Ive just given you the whole seminar. Thats basically it.

Initially, we used the Day Timer. The advent and creation o

the Franklin Day Planner was a wonderul mistake. We went

to Day Timer to see i they would make some changes ontheir ormat to t the mechanics we were teaching. They were

not interested in doing that. I you look at a Franklin Planner

and a Day Timer they were similar. We had some changes

we wanted made to the let and right pages. They were not

willing to collaborate. So we mocked one up o our own

and invented the Franklin Planner. We decided to call it the

Franklin Planner because Ben Franklin in his autobiography

talked about this little book he carried with him everywhere.

He recorded the weather every day and all o his thoughts.

So it was a un beginning. The whole idea was all around theidea o nding out what your personal governing values are

and building that productivity pyramid, because at the top

o the pyramid was a tool. Now you need a tool to bring

your governing values into some kind o daily activity because

that is the only way you can experience inner peace. It was a

un concept to teach because a lot o people, when you star

talking about inner peace, would become uncomortable at

rst. The more we got into the seminar, the more they realized

that is what they want. What I want is peace in my lie. I wan

to eel okay about me. I want to be in charge o me and to be

doing what matters most to me. I dont want to be reactive

I want to be proactive. Those words started to become buzz

words in the business community. That is how it started.

Youve been in this business now for 25 plus

years and are considered a world expert

on time management. What are some

fundamental principles that have not changed in

the midst of revolutionary technical changes in

how we lead our lives, operate our businesses, and

communicate?

A point that I make in just about every speech is

that the basic principles that help a human being

become a better human being have not changed or 6,000

years. I think that is something we need to keep in mind.

have people come up to me, and this is literally true, and they

will lower their head and make sure no one around is listening

to them. They say, I wish I lived a hundred years ago when

they had more time. I would ask, How much more time did

they have? The only dierence between a hundred years ago

and today is that we have more options than they had. Why

do we have more options? Because we do things aster. That is

why we are into speed.

I my grandather missed the train, no big deal; in 24 hours

he would take the next train. I my ather missed his ight, no

big deal; he would take the next plane in 5 hours. I I miss one

section o a revolving door, I go nuts. And so does everybody

else. Why? Because we are into speed. You wouldnt tolerate

the speed o a PC 15 years ago today. Do you remember the

old dot-matrix printers? We would stand there in awe and

watch those suckers spin. We wouldnt tolerate that todayNow the point is, the basic principles that help a human being

become a better human being have not changed or 6,000

years. For example, the whole idea around the quest or inne

peacei you did a survey o the business executive 500 years


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ago and do that survey every 100 years or the next 500 years

and ask the person what they want, they want inner peace.

We did a study on this and it came back that people wanted

our things: balance in their lives, simplicity in their lives, they

wanted to be successul at something, and they wanted to

be more eective at what they do. Isnt that interesting? I

you wrapped those our items into one simple concept, what

people want is inner peace.

What is inner peace? It is br inging what I do every single day

in line with what matters most to me. That is an immutable

principle that has nothing to do with technology. Technology

can help. What has changed in the last 100 years is our

technology. The tools with which we implement these ancient

principles are moving at light speed. And that is very exciting.

The thing that has not changed in the last 100 years, 500years, is the human being. The human being is still the same.

We still go to the bathroom two to three times a day. We still

put our pants on one leg at a time. The human being is the

same. The basic principles, when you talk about the principles

o time managementocusing on your governing values,

changing those values into a long-range goal that turns into an

intermediate goal that eventually ends up on a daily task list

is a very old idea. You can nd that on the pages o Plato. But

why is it still relevant today? Because the human being is still a

human being. I still want to be in control o my lie. I want to

be in charge o what matters most to me. I dont want someone

telling me what I have to do every ve seconds. I would like to

be in charge o that. That is why reading the books that have

been written by great authors rom the very beginning o time

is such a worthwhile read; reading stu that Winston Churchill,

Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King had to say. Look at

the principles that they talk about. They are immutable, ancient

principles that still work today. Its treating people with respect.

Its the principle o love, the principle o orgiveness. Its a very

ancient idea. It still works today. Forgiveness is a good idea.

Do you want inner peace? Then you should learn to orgive.

There are 92 principles that help a human being become a

great human being. Im going to write a book about this, by

the way. Ive identied 92 principles that help a human being

become a human being. They are very old, ancient ideas.

Speaking of books, name the top three to

four books that you feel have had the bigges

influence on your life, shaped your thinking

on life.

First, the scriptures. I am a Christian and the

scriptures have had a major impact on my lie. The

second book that had the biggest impact on my lie is Le

Miserable. I you want to read a book that will change your

lie, you need to read the ull version1,400 pageso Le

Miserable. It is a magnicent read about a guy who had to learn

to orgive. It is also a book about the abundance mentality. It

is about a guy who discovered that giving is what mattered

Viktor Frankls book Mans Search for Meaning is a abulou

book. Viktor Frankl survived the Auschwitz death camps and

discovered the dierence between reedom and liberty, which

is really an interesting idea. Scott Pecks book The Road LesTraveledis a very worthwhile read. Jim Collins books are very

good, Good to Greatand Built to Last. Very good current stu.

Being a prolific author yourself, what is on

your nightstand right now?

I just nished one that Richard Godrey and I co-

authored called Home of the Brave. It was just released

It has to do with how Americans deal with adversity

We identied 10 great Americans and how they dealt with

adversity. In a time when we are having to deal with adversity

in a big way, the book on my brain right now is the one on the

92 principles that have to be integrated ultimately i we are

going to be great human beings. There may be a co-author

Are you amiliar with Wintley Phipps? He is the voice behind

Amazing Grace, anytime you hear it sung beautiully, thats him

He has the most amazing voice youve ever heard. We met

or lunch the other day and hes created a list also, which we

compared. He has a list o about 70 to 80 o these principles

and 90 percent o them are identical, what I thought was really

ascinating.

Youre well known as an American patriot and

your patriotism is contagiously inspiring. Wha

is the connection with you regarding Ben

Franklin? Why was it Ben Franklin that seemed to inspire

so much of your writing, thinking, and teaching versus

any of the other Americans from the same generation?


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he could hardly make it back to his seat. I thought, that will be

me. Im going to do that until I die. Im ocusing on a couple

o businesses with my sons and sons-in-law here in southern

Utah. I am just right under six million miles on commercia

aircrat. My biggest value, at this point, is spending time with

my amily.

Right now I am the president o the Command and Genera

Sta College Foundation at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It i

kind o a un thing. Three years ago, I got a call rom David

Petraeus, who was then the commandant o the school. He

was a three-star general then. I had lunch with him and he

said that he wanted to create a oundation and would I help.

said I would be happy to do that, and I am now the president

o that oundation and we raise money or the college. Wes

Point has a oundation; Annapolis and the Air Force Academyhave one. The Command and General Sta College is a very

prestigious, 125-year-old school. To move rom major to

colonel in the Army, you have to graduate rom the Command

and General Sta College at Fort Leavenworth. I got to know

David Petraeus beore he became a household name. Now he

is a our-star general running the war in the Middle East. He i

a abulous guy, by the way. This is my philanthropic urge right

now. I am back at Leavenworth every other month and were

having un raising money. I was in Ross Perots ofce two

weeks ago. Were honoring him next April at a dinner giving

him our annual Leadership Award or all the things hes done

or the military. I was in his ofce at Perot Systems. You should

see his ofce. Its a museum.

Technology today offers many electronic

options for managing time, but I still love

my paper Franklin Planner. Are we seeing

a return to paper and pencil, or is the trend going

toward electronic tools?

My impression is that there is a surge returning to

paper. I will never orget when 3Com brought in

and put on my desk the rst Palm Pilot. I played with it and

thought it was a great toy, but no one will ever buy one. I

turned out to be wrong about that. We strongly embraced

technology at FranklinCovey and sold 10,000 Palm Pilots a

week or several years, and then all o a sudden, we didnt

Ben Franklins autobiography is a wonderul read

and I would encourage everybody to read it. He talks

about his governing values and the impact these governing

values had on his lie. He didnt call them governing values;

he called them his 13 virtues and how he ocused on each

one. He would take one and ocus on it or an entire week.

The next week, he would ocus on another one. One was

temperance and one o them was humility; that was imposed

on him by a riend o his. He never elt good about the

humility one, which is interesting. Chastity was one o them.

As you read about Ben Franklin, you realize that is one he

struggled with. And he talked about it in his lie. As you study

the lie o Ben Franklin, I believe he is probably the most

productive, prolic American in our history. The things that

he ounded; the things that he created, invented; the role he

played in the Constitutional Convention as an old man; the

trips to Europe representing the United States; when you look

at the things the man did in his 82 years, it was amazing. At

the time, the lie expectancy was 55. I just think he was an

incredible person. You know, the impact that he has had on the

world, the impact he had on the Constitutional Convention

he imposed the idea o identiying governing values rst on

the Constitutional Convention, so that is what they ocused

on. They were screaming at each other or our months in

1787, What matters most to us? What would we cross the I-

beam or? Freedom o this, reedom o that, and that is what

ended up in our Constitution.

Other than the recent book youve just written

and the book youre considering writing

about 92 principles, what are you working on?

My major ocus right nowIm still giving three

to our speeches a month, which I will probably do

until I die because I love to do it. One o the highlights o my

speaking career was when I was asked by Norman Vincent

Peale, when he came to Salt Lake City, to warm up the crowd.

So I spoke or an hour beore Norman Vincent Peale, about 2

years beore he died 10 or 12 years ago. He was 92 years old

and the guy got up and gave a wonderul talk. He could hardly

get up to the podium, but when he did, it was like someone

stuck an electrode in him. He went nuts or an hour and then


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People stopped buying PDAs. I thought, Ive got to try the

Palm Pilot. I put away my paper planner or 13 months. I

went to a PDA and I discovered that I could do everything

in my Palm Pilot that I could do in my paper planner, but I

wouldnt. The reason I wouldnt is because it took too much

time. It was too hard to do. I came back to my paper planner

because o the ease o the operation. What I discovered was

that or managing tasks, appointments, and taking notes, a

paper planner is our times aster than any electronic device.

There is a whole host o reasons or that, but I will just leave

it at that level. A paper planner or tasks, appointments

managing meis our times aster. Now, there is a place or

technology. I carry a BlackBerry. I love my BlackBerry. What

do I use it or? I can communicate my calendar to my people.

I can download The Wall Street Journal. I can check my email. It

is a wonderul phone. But or managing me in the heat o the

day, my paper planner is more eective and it is aster.

I have had letters rom CEOs, senior vice-presidents rom

all over the country, telling me, Hyrum, Im back to my

paper planner. Ive got control back in my lie. In act, just a

year ago, a senior VP rom Merrill Lynch went through our

seminar. She said, Hyrum, you trained me 18 years ago, I

went to an electronic device 3 years ago, I lost control o

my lie. I went back to my paper planner and my control

is back. There is something about writing on paper that a

human being likes. The thing about those three things: tasks,

appointments, and taking notes, and i I know how to retrieve

those notesthe magic o the Franklin Planner is the retrieval

system. The minute I write a note in my planner, Ive given

that note a root in time. I will always be able to nd it. There

are three dierent ways or retrieving inormation rom a

Franklin Planner. I can do it with lightning speed. I you dont

understand the mechanics o the Franklin Planner, you dont

understand why people would use that instead o technology.

I youve gone through the class and youve been taught well

how to use it, it is a dangerous tool. Im a paper guy mysel.

eug FuGlobal operationS ManaGer GiSt aM&i

MarS inForMation SerViceS

The Franklin Planner and associated event-

management process was created by you during

the mid-80s a time which was arguably less global

focused and not as pervasive24/7 around the

clock. If you were creating the planner process today

would you change anything? And to that point, how

do you manage your own time? What would you

do differently if you were launching the company

today in the midst of the balance between paper vs.

technology and using Outlook or Lotus Notes and

the speed with which you can retrieve information

from paper? Also, will you address the environmenta

sensitivity of using paper in a paperless society?

First o all, the myth that we are a paperless society

needs to be blown up, because we are using more

paper today, globally, than ever in our history. What would I

do dierently? I would do everything exactly the same but

our message to the world when we started 26 years ago was

have everything in one place. That one place was the Franklin

Planner. There was no technology then. There were no PDAs

no PCs. There were no cell phones when we started. Have

everything in one place and that is your Franklin Planner. Tha

is your lie. Your lie was in your planner. It exploded. People

went nuts over the Franklin Planner: 172 countries, six million

people using Franklin Planners. It was amazing32,000 a

Dow Chemical, 15,000 at Merrill Lynch using the Franklin

Planner. It just became an amazing thing. Then technology

came along and technology, clearly, has a place. We changed

one word in our message to the world rom Have everything

in one place, to Have everything in one system. You create

a system that works or you.

My systemthe way I manage mysel. I have our pieces in my

system. I have my Franklin Planner or tasks, appointments, and

taking notes. I have my BlackBerry, a wonderul receptacle or

inormation. I can carry more inormation in my BlackBerry

than I could ever carry in my Franklin Planner. I have a cell

phone that is now combined into a BlackBerry so that I can

communicate with the world. And I have a PC so that I can

do all the things that a PC allows you to do. I have a nice thin

one that ts into a satchel so that I can do my email. That

is condensed into three items now because my cell phone

and BlackBerry are one and the same. That is how I manage

Hyrum Smith, and it works wonderully or me. I Im passing


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thing Ive got to accomplish today? That is the way you

start your pr ioritization. A lot o things are close. There are

a lot o heavy things weve got to do.

The act is, i you dont take the time to isolate yourselge

away rom the melee, close the door, put your eet up onyour desk and just thinkyou are going to live in a reactive

world. Most people dont take time to split the hair. What i

lie-sustaining and what is vital? Youve got to get down to

the nubs. What is the single most important thing today? I

nothing else happens, this must happen.

With respect to FranklinCoveys client

facilitators, two of the most popular solutions

are th 7 Hs f Hghy effv p

and FocUS: ahvg Yu Hghs ps. We

have tens of thousands of facilitators throughout

North America and the world teaching these solutionsA question from one of these facilitators reads:

D bwVice preSiDent HUMan reSoUrceS

tinDall corporation

It is gratifying to see participants in our company

make the commitment and continue to use a Franklin

Planner after attending one of our workshops.

would like to see more of a commitment to using the

system.

What else can facilitators and others do to increase

the number of their colleagues who use the Franklin

Planning system, whether it be the planning tool, themethodology, or the system? What have you learned

from other companies that had pervasive use? What

was the magic ingredient?

I think the magic ingredient iswe had a word or it

the breeder eect. For example, Dow ChemicalI

did the rst seminar there in December 1985. For the next

several years, they had a waiting list o like 300 to 400 people

waiting to get into the seminar. The impact o the seminar

with each group that went through it had a viral eect on

the rest o the company. Those who came out o the seminar

were very excited about their planner; very excited about

how to use that planner; very excited about the whole idea

o governing values and getting those into their daily task

lists. They talked about it. They carried it with them. People

around them would see their enthusiasm or managing their

somebody in the airport and ask or their phone number,

I write that in my Franklin Planner. I dont whip out my

BlackBerry and punch that in. That is a royal pain in the anny,

quite rankly. I can write that in my planner in nanoseconds. I

I want to transer it into my phone when Im on the plane, I

can do that; but initially, I write it down. The immediate need

to take a note Even when the Tablet PC came out and you

could write on the screen, while cool, they were a pain to

work. No one used them because paper was so much aster.

When people started moving to PDAs, they started carrying

yellow pads o paper. Why? They had to. Are you going to

take notes on a Palm Pilot or BlackBerry in a meeting and

try and keep up? There is no way. Still, it is not really socially

okay to sit there and bang on a computer. I I am going to

take a note, I write it so that it has a root in time so I canretrieve it when I want it. I I want to transer it to some kind

o electronic note-taking device I can do that. I can scan it in

i I want. I can save it on my computer i I want. In the heat o

the day, rom a time-motion standpoint, paper is aster.

V ZwskManaGer, traininG Hr DeVelopMent

corporate HUMan reSoUrceS

canon U.S.a., inc.

What do you do when everything is a top priority?

The act is, everything is not a top pr iority. That is

why I spend a major part o teaching time, telling

people to take 10 to 15 minutes o time each day, isolating

yoursel rom the world in a period o planning and solitude,

and really ocus in on what I have coming down the pike

today. What in act is the most important thing? The A-B-C

system o prioritization is just as relevant today as it was

1,000 years ago. It is a very old idea o prioritization. A is

vital, B is important, C is maybe. What is vitalId even

add lie-sustaining? I you add the word lie-sustaining

to a task or something that is coming down the pike, that

changes things dramatically. When I hear everything is atop priority, I ask, Is everything lie-sustaining? What on

this list may take your lie? You have to get down to the

point and ask, What will I lose my job over? What will cost

the company money? What is the most vital, lie-sustaining


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lives. They would say, I have to have one o those. How do

I get one? The trainer director had people lining up at their

door.

I the seminar is being taught well, that means the instructor

has to believe in what they are teaching. They have to use theplanner. I have seen instructors try and teach the program and

when they dont use a planner, it bombs. It dies very quickly.

The importance o the instructor being a total believer in

what they are teaching is absolutely critical. I I could tell the

client acilitator anything, it would be that when you get up

and start talking about governing values, you need to have

identied your own so that when people ask you about them

you can pull out your list and show them. I have had, literally,

hundreds o thousands o people ask me or copies o my

governing values. We nally printed them in the What Matters

Mostbook. Teaching a seminar is not telling the seminar. Some

people can tell the seminar and it sounds ne and it can be

entertaining or six hours, but those who teach the seminar

have done it themselves. They have had the impact in their

own personal lives and they get up and teach with six times

the energy that someone who is telling the seminar had.

People come out o the experience a believer and then the

breeder eect takes place. The next thing you know, we have

the spouses there. We did seminars at Dow Chemical or the

children o the executives. The powerul aspect o our seminar

is that it gets under peoples skin. The whole idea o nding

out what really matters most to me writing your personal

constitution, equating the quest o discovering your governing

values to writing your own constitution people would go

nuts over that. That is what the Americans did. They created a

Constitution. What is a Constitution? It is a list o governing

values o our ounding athers. No law is ever ratied in this

country until it is measured against our set o governing

values. That is identical to what we teach. Measure the events

o your lie. I you value being physically ts and you weigh

400 pounds, there is a gap between what you are doing and

what you value. Whenever there is a gap between what you

are doing and what you value, there is pain. How do I get rid

o the pain? Close the gap. You cut down to three meals a day

and cut out rench ries and ice cream, and all o sudden, Im

down to 300 and then 250 and then Im experiencing inner

peace on that value. I value being physically t. In act, let me

share a letter with you that I recieved.

I did a seminar at Merrill Lynch many years ago, and a

year later, I got a letter rom the senior VP o the ofce inCleveland, Ohio. I cant remember his name. Hyrum, I wen

to your seminar a year ago and it never occurred to me that

I needed to manage my lie around what matters most to me

I took your challenge, identied my own constitution, and

discovered in the process that one o my governing values was

a good lie or my son. When I discovered that was one o my

governing values, I also had to admit there was a huge gap. I

was not doing anything or my son. Ive dedicated this last year

to making my sons lie wonderul. Then he listed the thing

he has done with his son this last year. On the last page o theletter, it said, Last week my son, nine years old, was killed in

a car accident. I have experienced some real pain at the loss

o my son, but I have not had to experience any guilt. Then

he said, For the rst time, I nally realized what you talked

about when you talked about inner peace. I elt peace when

my son let, because I had dedicated my lie to making his lie

wonderul the last year I had him.

You cant look at an experience like that without getting goose

bumps on your arms. He discovered at a Time Managemen

seminar at Merrill Lynch, that i he wanted peace in his lie, he

ought to nd out what matters most to him and do something

about it. To me, that is exciting stu.

How many children do you have?

Six

How many grandchildren do you have?

Twenty, with one in the oven. I lost a daughter in a car acciden

in 1995. She was 24. I have ve living children. I also lost 2

grandchildren, so I have 18 living grandchildren.

With 20 grandchildren and one on the

way, you are well aware of the differences

between Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials, Baby

Boomers, and Traditionalists. A prominent question

comes frequently, like this one.


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to it, that 20-year-old today going into the business world ha

to be able to decide what matters most to me today. What

am I going to do that is the most eective thing that I could

do? How am I going to make my relationships better with

the people that I work with? The sad thing that is happening

is that because o our ability to communicate immediately

and electronically, we are dehumanizing the interpersona

relationship issue on the planet. In act, I heard the other day

that at a high school dance, students were asking each other

to dance by text message across the dance hall. What is that al

about? Because texting is so pervasive now, the actual human

interaction is becoming less. When you dont have that human

interaction, to me, that is a very dangerous thing. I think we

need to be careul about that. Back to the issues o managing

me. None o the principles changed rom generation to

generation. I would be very bold about saying, when Im

teaching someone who is part o the new generation and

were high-tech, that paper is high-tech. Paper is technology

Paper will always be high-tech. It is a conceptual thing. It i

not a device thing. It is part o my system, and part o my

system happens to be paper. Why? Because it happens to be

very eective.

Dw M. K,cplp, acc, cpcc

Hr traininG ManaGer

cacHe creeK caSino reSort

As a life coach, I regularly help others navigatechange but I dont seem to be able to do it for myself

as well as I would like to. Do you have any words o

wisdom to help an individual make the changes their

head is wanting?

Its back to the idea, Have you taken the time to

identiy your own personal governing values? Have

you written your own personal constitution? What I have

ound is that there are many who have not yet done this. There

are many acilitators out there who teach governing values and

teach the FOCUScourse and do it very well, but they have

never taken the time to sit down with themselves and identiy

what their governing values are. There is a reason why people

dont. We did a study some years ago and discovered that 92

percent o the people that we taught continue to use their

planner. Only 12 percent had taken the time to identiy and

Mh SufforGaniZational DeVelopMent

aGia inSUrance SerViceS

As a facilitator, I come into contact with many

Millennials who are skeptical about either the paper

planner or the longevity of the Franklin Planning

System or both. Many of these younger customersmay be concerned that your system is old-fashioned

or that it is appropriate for their parents, but not for

them, and they are looking for alternative planning

systems such as David Allens book and content

around getting things done.

What would you say to the indisputable fact that

the workforce in the world is absolutely undergoing

a complete transition with Baby Boomers and

Traditionalists exiting, and a new, much younger,

tech-addicted profile of workers entering?

I go back to the premise that we started with. There

are, in act, no new principles. The basic principles

that help human beings become better human beings are the

same as they were 6,000 years ago. Regardless o what the

Millennials think, they are still human beings. They are not

any smarter than the Traditionalists were. They still have the

same challenges. They still have to get up every morning and

make a living and support a amily. The basic principles that

will help them nd peace in their lives are the same principles

that their athers and grandathers had to discover to get peace

in their lives. The tools that are available to help them nd

inner peace are changing at warp speed and thats great. The

act is, the paper planner still, or the human being, is the most

eective device. I go back to the system idea. Create a system.

Have all the bells and whistles you want. You will discover

in the long run that the most eective tool or you or tasks,

appointments, and taking notes is the paper planning device

o some kind. Have your BlackBerry. Have your PC. Create

a system that makes you the most eective you can be. Inner

peace or you is having balance in your lie; its simplicity; its

being successul at something. You want to be more eective

at what you do. That is what human beings want. I dont care

what label you put on the generation. That generation is still

human beings.

This stu about labeling the generations is ne. It creates

magazine articles, and thats cool. When you come right back


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9


write down their constitution. What a gap. I never had anyone

come out o a seminar and say That idea o the Productivity

Pyramid was a stupid idea. Im not going to do it. Ive had

hundreds o thousands o people say that is a wonderul idea

and Im going to do it. But they dont. Here is why they dont.

I I sit down with mysel and identiy my governing values,

the highest priorities in my lie, and write them down, I also

have to come ace to ace with the gap between what Im not

doing about those governing values. The gap is painul and

so people steer away rom it. They intuitively know that the

minute they sit down and identiy the values, they have to be

a better husband or wie, lose weight, this or that. They are not

prepared to do that. Light is the best disinectant on the planet.

The minute you identiy your governing values, you put light

on what matters most to you and all o a sudden, the gaps are

all very clear.

Dr. Coveys Habit 3: Put First Things First is

a great illustration around big rocks. One of

the most popular tools with facilitators is in

fact the Big Rocks kit. This question relates to Habit

3 and placing the big rocks into their week.

G SZionSVille, inDiana

Many of my participants try to action-plan their

relationships and miss the whole point of relationship

building. Or these relationships are so broken, they

dont feel it is worthwhile to spend any time on them.

This is a great question. What is the balance between

action planning fitting time in for your relationships

in an efficiency model versus seeing the value and

managing around relationship building?

I think this all boils down to how much value you

place on relationship building. There are managers

in our society who place a low value on relationship building.

They couldnt care less i they have a good relationship

with those they work with, as long as they get their jobs

done. The issue is really how much value do you place on

relationship building? I you really do place a high value

on that, then you will gure out waystaking it through

the Productivity Pyramid. I value relationships. Long range

goals; intermediate goals. What am I going to do today about

building relationships? Then all o a sudden, you nd yoursel

looking or ways to enhance and build the relationships tha

you have with people around you. You have to identiy, rst o

all, what are my most important relationships. Is it my spouse

my signicant other, my children, my boss, the people I work

or or with? Just exactly how important is that? The minute

we consciously start thinking about that, then suddenly

we start doing something about it. Ive discovered that the

minute you start thinking about and ocusing on an issue, you

automatically nd ways to do something about it. It starts with

deciding that the relationships are important and then all o a

sudden, you are nding ways to do it. I youre mechanically

setting aside an hour a day or relationships, its not going to

work.

What is the most common question you are

asked from participants across the million

plus people attending your seminars?

It usually has to do with identiying their governing

valuessomething that has gotten under their skin

I rarely get mechanical questions about the planning system

or how to use it. It usually has something to do with a deep

challenge in their lives. The biggest question is How do I sit

down and identiy my governing values? What books can I

read that will help me identiy my governing values? That

is when I steer them to the autobiography o Ben Franklin

Viktor Frankls Mans Search for Meaning, or Scott Pecks The

Road Less Traveled. They are wonderul books that help people

identiy governing values. Talk to people who have identied

their governing values. The biggest question usually is Im

excited about this, but how do I do this? That is whats asked in

most o the letters I receive: How do I do this? Im struggling

in discovering my governing values. The reason that is hard

is that when they sit down to identiy their governing values

they start with a list o things that somebody else thinks they

should have rather than what I think I should have. When I

started out the process mysel, I had 43 governing values. I

ended up with 16. I discovered that most o them werent mine

they were somebody elses. I have 16 now. These are pretty

solid. What changes is the description o them. We encourage

everyone to write a paragraph about what the value means to

them, and that paragraph has changed dramatically over time


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10


my C44. Take your A1 somewhere else. You dont have to be

rude, but the act is, that i youve taken the 10 to 15 minutes

in a solitude time every single day, you will have amazing

ability and courage to say no.

Ive had the privilege of seeing you speak 15or 20 times over the course of my career at

FranklinCovey, and one of the points I find

most inspiring about you is your ability to condense

broad, esoteric thoughts into quick quotes and quips

that I can memorize. My PDA is full of one-liners from

you that have had profound impact on me. One of my

favorites is your definition of character. Another one

is about vocabulary and the ability to think. Would

you share these and a few of your favorites? Tell us

again your definition of character.

Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision ater the

emotion o making that decision has passed.

Is that original to you, Hyrum?

Yes, that is, actually. I take credit or that one. It i

not a dictionary denition o character, but it is a

proound one in that character is doing what you say you

are going to do. I you say you are going to lose weight, lose

weight. I you say you are going to be on time, be on time. I

is easy to make commitments. The whole idea is that we make

these commitments and we get excited about them. We go

back to our desk, but nothing has changed at our desk. And

then we dont do what we say we are going to do. A person

character is ultimately measured by what they do, when they

say they are going to do it.

The other one my ather introduced me to: You cannot think

any deeper than your vocabulary will allow you to. I was

12 years old when I rst heard that and it took me 20 years

to realize that is a very proound statement. We think in the

words we understand. There are 340,000 words in the English

language. Winston Churchill had a working vocabulary

o 25,000 words. We think he had the biggest workingvocabulary o any English-speaking person in history. The

average business person has 12,000 to 13,000. The average

teenager has about 2,500. I you want a scary experience, walk

through the hallways o any high school in America and listen

In act, Im looking in my Franklin Planner sitting in ront

o me to pull out my list o governing values. Number 3 or

me is I am an outstanding husband and ather. I encourage

people to write them as afrmations so that it is an active

statement, not a passive statement. So my governing values are

written as active statements. This is what Number 3 means

to me: I take sufcient meaningul time with my wie and

children to help them with their spiritual, intellectual, social,

proessional, physical, and nancial needs. I love my wie with

care, respect, kindness, and maintaining with her a spiritual

physical union o excellence. I build strong amily unity. I have

helped develop leadership skills in all amily members and

guide them in living all the commandments o God. I help

them build their sel-esteem and help each maximize their

potential. That paragraph has changed dramatically now that

I have been married or almost 44 years. That paragraph has

evolved. Thats changed as I have a better understanding about

what it means to be an outstanding husband and ather.

a bkXcel enerGY

How do I diplomatically say no to requests

for assistance?

That is a great question because o what happens

when people have really sat down and created their

own constitution. Theyve written their governing values. The

rst thing that comes out o a clear understanding o whatmatters most to me is the magnicent ability and the courage

to say no. Automatically. Why? Because I recognize now, what

matters most to me. This is my ocus; this is where Im going.

And so all the requests that take me o that ocus, o that

direction, I have to say no to. I I dont have that clear vision,

then I dont have a good reason to say no. And then Im into

that Im going to oend them i I say no because I just dont

want to do it. Well, why dont I want to do it? I youre saying

no, people are going to expect an explanation. Quite rankly,

you dont owe anybody an explanation, but they want one.So when someone says, Can you do this? No! Well, why

not? Let me tell you why not. This is what I have discovered

today. It comes rom long-term planning, a solitude session,

and there is no way I can squeeze that in today. Your A1 is


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to the vocabulary you hear and you wont sleep or a month,

because their vocabulary is so awul.

Im assuming the quote from your father drove a love

for reading and writing books.

Absolutely! The only way to build a vocabulary is to read. Butour young people dont read today. Why? Because they have

TV, and these Xboxes and these crummy, stupid games that

they play. Nobody is reading. Newspapers are going out o

business at an alarming rate. USA Today is a popular newspaper

because you dont have to read it. You can see it at 30 eet and

many o the words are misspelled. In all o the studies done on

successul people on this planet, rom all walks o lie, the one

common denominator that they ound is a large vocabulary.

Indulge us. Share a couple more of your favorites that

you think our clients can benefit from.

There is a denition o wisdom that I like to use: Wisdom

is knowledge rightully applied. My son, when he was our,

we were in the kitchen together. I said, When the stove is

hot, it burns. Dont touch the oven. I gave him knowledge.

What do you think he did when I let the kitchen? He has

wisdom now on the tips o all our ngers on his right hand.

Wisdom is knowledge rightully applied. At the start o all

seminars, I say, All I can do today is share some knowledge

that has been pulled together rom some wonderul sources.

The issue is, are you going to do anything with it? Id like to

share with you a denition o success: a successul manager

o time is willing to do that which the unsuccessul manager

o time is not willing to do. Im going to give you a prole

o what a successul manager o time is willing to do. The

question is, are you going to do anything about it? A successul

mother, ather, business person, athlete is willing to do that

which an unsuccessul mother, ather, business person, athlete

is not willing to do.

I was having dinner with Gary Player a ew years ago and I

asked, How many gol balls have you hit in your lietime?

He looked at me and said, I dont know. I asked, How many

balls do you hit in a day? He knew that number500. I said,

You hit 500 gol balls in a day? Well, Gary Player is now 74

years old. He has hit 5 million gol balls. I you are willing to

hit 5 million gol balls, you are going to be Gary Player. Who

is Gary Player? He is one o the top six golers ever to play the

game163 tournaments. Tiger Woods is at 60 something a

this point. Hes won 163 tournaments. The guy is a machine.

This aligns with the writings of Malcolm Gladwelin ous and Geoff Colvins t is ovd

that, in fact, genius may be more about disciplined,

rigorous practice versus solely innate. Some are just

willing to practice more.

Right. Its like dening time. I you dont know what time

is, you will never get control o it. What is time? Time is the

occurrence o events in sequence one ater the other. Too

oten, people conuse time with having something to do with

a clock. It has nothing to do with a clock. All a clock does is

tell you how long it takes the sun to go across the sky. Time

is the occurrence o events in sequence one ater the other

Everything is an event. Your getting out o bed this morning

is an event. Getting in your car is an event. Picking up your

phone is an event. Time is the occurrence o all these event

in sequence one ater the other. The issue, then, is what events

do I have any control over? Now we are in the prioritizing o

things. Can I control what time I get up? Can I control wha

I wear? Can I control what I eat? Can I control when I do

my email? Can I control when I take that phone call? Now

we are starting to manage time. Only when you understand

what time is can you manage it. Too many people think it hasomething to do with a clock. Its got nothing to do with a

clock.

Lets finish with this question. What have you

learned? I imagine youve had some fantastic

business successes and some great failures.

also suspect youve both gained and lost some great

friends along the way. As you come into what Dr

Covey calls the crescendo of your life and career, tel

us what youve learned?

I think the biggest thing that Ive learned that was

really brought home to me in vivid clar ity when my

daughter was killed in the car accident, and this is a statemen

that I learned many, many years ago: Pain is inevitable, misery

is optional. In act, I wrote a book with that title, Pain I

Inevitable, Misery Is Optional. The act is that we are not going


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FranklinCovey. All rights reserved. CFS090875 Version 1.0.5

to get through the mortal experience without some pain. Pain

comes in lots o dierent orms. Theres spiritual pain, theres

physical pain, emotional pain, psychological pain. Theres all

kinds o pain. But the act is, we choose whether or not we

are going to be miserable about it. Some o the most amazing,

antastic, serene, magnicent people I know have had to deal

with some sort o excruciating pain o some kind. But they

chose not to be miserable. So I think that is the biggest lesson

that Ive learned. I made a lot o big mistakes. Ive caused pain.

Ive had to experience pain. Ultimately, the measure o who

we are is how we deal with pain.

You have long trusted FranklinCovey to bring you

the very best in personal productivity and time

management. For nearly 30 years, we have worked

to help you facilitate timeless productivity principles

in relevant and impactful ways. While our FocUS

workshop has been a life-changing experience for

literally hundreds of thousands of people around

the world, we feel the time has come to make this

content even better.

This year we will be reinventing our Time Management

curriculum and making it more engaging, practical,

and powerful than ever. We will be gathering data from

around the globe to improve everything from what

we teach to how we teach it; from the materials we

provide to you, our valued partners, to the tools and

resources we provide your participants. Our videos will

be inspiring, our tools will be more current and useful,

and our research will be world-class.

A lot has changed in the last few years, and people have

moved to a whole new level of tools and technologies

to help them cope with the nearly overwhelming

crush of information, tasks, and appointments. Were

not sure exactly what will emerge from our innovation

efforts, but you can be assured that if FranklinCovey

is doing it, it will be world-class. We owe you nothing

less.

If you would like to be a part of this process, let

us know. Our development process involves a lotof customer input and on-site testing, and wed be

delighted for any feedback or contributions youd

like to offer. If you would like to be involved, please

contact our General Manager of Innovations, Adam

Merrill, at [email protected].

Thanks,

Sean

Sean coVeYchf pdu ah d S. Vp

ivs, pdus, d Vus

hyrum smith q&a

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