Effectiveness lies only in the ability to balance both the P and the PC.
Effectiveness lies only in the ability to balance both the P and the PC.
On how the P and PC paradigm is one of the core of personal effectiveness; and my huge takeaway from Money Heist season four.
Heyy guys! How are you doing? I’m doing great! It’s raining at the moment so the weather is just perfect to write this newsletter.
Intro is really short today because somehow, I have run out of intros. Let’s get to the real deal anyway.
******
Something I found interesting in the book I’m currently reading, 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, is the P/PC Balance Theory. P stands for production (of desired results) and PC stands for Production Capability.
He made illustrations with Golden Eggs (which are actually real gold) and the Goose, the former being the P, and the latter, the PC, in which the goose lays golden eggs. If the farmer focuses solely on the golden eggs —neglecting the goose— he would soon run out of golden eggs. Also, if he pays attention to the goose alone, abandoning the golden eggs, he would soon lose the capacity to feed both himself and the goose. Stephen explained that true effectiveness can only be attained when you balance both.
Let me make a quick sketch..
**I tried to sketch something and it was horrible. So here’s a picture from the net.
In his book, the theory was applied to about three areas; physical, financial and human.
Physical
If you buy a car and focus on only the P (how fast it goes, etc) neglecting the PC (maintenance of the car), the car would work pretty well for a period of time, then start to deteriorate and maybe breakdown completely. Effective use of the car can only be attained when the P/PC is balanced.
Financial
Investment is one good way to take care of the PC. Inability to invest in PC makes us economically dependent. Also, investing ALL our money, and leaving none for emergency or miscellaneous or whatever is not effective either. Effectiveness can only be attained if both of them are balanced.
Human
A parent having the golden egg mentality when it comes to a parent-child relationship is being authoritative — always having your way even if it requires yelling or force, or permissive —always pleasing them so you can be liked. Either way, attention is being paid only to the golden eggs, the result. What then happens to the goose (the child)’s sense of responsibility, self discipline or confidence few years down the road?
Again, effectiveness lies only in the ability to balance both the P and the PC.
In Stephen Covey’s words,
To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgmental call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness.
*****
I watched season 4 of Money Heist recently (I know, I know, I’m late to the party) and even though I envisaged Nairobi’s death, I was still moved! Sorry if you haven’t seen the episode yet, it was spoiled for me too and it must go round. Hehehe, just kidding.
What really struck me, in the last episode, I think (literally all episodes, thinking about it now) was how they used empathy to their advantage. From announcing Nairobi’s death, to and displaying her corpse in grandstyle (I think I cried at this point), to putting up posters of Rio and airing him to explain how he was tortured. That was their own missile!
The police had all the ammunitions in the world, ready to kill them all, but the thieves won the battle without pulling a trigger. They launched their missile one by one and before you knew it, the whole world was on their side. Madt ting fam!
That only explains one thing. That Empathy is stronger than any other emotion and that it will always win no matter how impossible the situation seems. We, human beings, are emotion-driven and even though these emotions have sort of made life complicated for us, they have also made life easy (as in the case of the team winning an almost impossible battle).
So my theory is, Empathy will always win if you play your cards right, unless you are in a fist fight, plix throw that punch back.
Of course, this is my theory, and I’m not sure it has been proven or anything, so you may not exactly agree with me. Also, please do not come for my head if my theory doesn’t work for you hehe.
*****
If you enjoyed this newsletter or found it helpful in anyway, please please share it with your friends (and enemies) and have them subscribe.
If you haven’t subscribed, please subscribe to get subsequent episodes delivered directly to your mail.
Also, do well to leave a comment on what you think about this episode.
See you around!
Yosola.
PS. Ramadan Kareem to my muslim fam reading this. May Allah accept it as an act of ibadah and grant us the blessing of the holy month. Amin.
Great work