Extract from Increasing Profits Without Hurting People

The following is an extract from Ian Berry’s book Increasing Profits Without Hurting People. This extract is a great example of Ian’s insight and wisdom and his unique use of one of the great unchanging principles of life, the Law of the Farm
© Ian Berry 2002 All rights reserved

“The key to champion teamwork is personal magnificence. Personal Magnificence means to continually be the best we can be. This does not mean perfection. I have not yet met a perfect human being. We all fall short of our glory from time to time.

Personal Magnificence, takes commitment in 4 areas

• Human Wisdom
• Competing With Ourselves
• Cooperating With Others
• Forming Partnerships With Others

Human Wisdom

There is much discussion today about intelligence. We have added EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and SQ (Spiritual Intelligence) to the familiar IQ. We speak about the knowledge worker and even the knowledge nation. Being clever is not enough however. Personal magnificence is more about being wise, that is, we must be good at successfully applying what we know.

My father once advised me, when I was a boy, that happiness lay in being mentally alert, physically active and spiritually alive.

During my early thirties, while painfully discovering that real men must be able to relate to and share their emotions, I added emotionally healthy. Appreciating how small the world really is, thanks to significant advances in human consciousness and technological capability, I also added, universally aware.

We must be wise in all five areas to be the best we can be.

The fertile ground for being wise lies in how much we are Spiritually Alive. To be spiritually alive is to be authentic, in striving every moment to be in harmony with ourselves, others, and the world. We can say we are spiritually alive when our main focus in life is balance, and that we are achieving it.

Athletes talk of being in the zone, as if nothing can stop them throwing the basket, hitting the ball or whatever the action. Being in the zone is a spiritual phenomenon, at such times we are living a life of synchronicity, living our lives in a space where nothing seems impossible.

The ploughing for being wise is to be Universally Aware. When we have a clear purpose and intention and a plan to fulfill them, when we live our values and mirror the wisdom of the ages, then we are beginning to be Universally Aware.

To be Universally Aware is to understand the Oneness of life, that there is interconnectedness with all things.

When we are Universally Aware we are continuously asking ourselves, ‘how aware, how in touch am I with where the world has been, is, and is going, and am I forever making adjustments to ensure I am in sync with everything that is?’

The seeding for being wise is to be Emotionally Healthy, to be passionate about what and whom we love. It is to understand the power of relationships that work, to be able to follow our intuitive juices, and to be in the flow of things.

To be Emotionally Healthy means to be in touch with our deepest desires and therefore able to follow our hunches with conviction. To be Emotionally Healthy means to be forever creative and be, as the great mythologist Joseph Campbell said, “Following Our Bliss“.

The nurturing for being wise is to be Mentally Alert, which means to have a deep understanding of our perceptions, paradigms and mindsets and know that we view the world through these eyes.

When we are Mentally Alert we are more than “knowledge workers“ for we understand that applying knowledge (wisdom) is really where it’s at. Paradox and truth are the domain of the Mentally Alert.

The harvest of being wise is to be Physically Active. We are action beings. When we are spiritually alive, universally aware, emotionally healthy and mentally alert, we build whatever relationships and complete whatever tasks are necessary to get the job done and are experts at the objective and subjective measuring of all our actions. Putting in the effort and perseverance required are no problem for the physically active.”