Most Important Things Learned

The Clayton Christensen article, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” and the case study on Chris and Alison Weston provide a powerful conclusion to this course on Managing People and Organizations.  After all the principles that we have covered, from Leadership and Erik Peterson to Change Management with Peter Browning, being inspirational leaders and effective managers comes down to our personal priorities and individual actions.

Christensen makes a powerfully moving argument to not “reserve your best business thinking for your career,” but to instead, to “create a strategy for your life.”  I personally have found his final recommendation to “Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success” to be incredibly insightful.

By contrast, the case study on Chris and Alison Weston provides a cautionary tale of what can happen when we don’t follow Christensen’s advice.  The Westons never expected the outcome they received, but their small unethical actions, each one justified and seemingly harmless, steadily led them to disaster.

In my personal experience, our daily decisions do determine our destiny.  Consider creating a personally meaningful strategy for your life and then acting each day in a way that will bring you there.

To help you in this process, take a few minutes and review the material covered during this course.  Consider the various readings, articles and case studies that you have read, and the answers that you have posted in the online discussion board and submitted for the written case study analyses.  Out of all the material that we have covered, what principles stand out the most to you?  Which do you think will be most important for you in your career going forward?  Of all the protagonists from the case studies, which one has had the greatest impact on you?  What are the most important things that you have learned?