The Need for Discipline

When a person or an organization is disciplined, they usually have plenty of options…many of them good ones.

When a person or an organization is undisciplined, options are usually limited…and none of them are good!

We are seeing or have seen quite a few examples of the second of these statements in recent days and in recent months. Where does one begin?

· The auto industry…
· The financial industry…
· The housing industry…
· And the list goes on…


Discipline starts at the top…and if the discipline is not there and this lack of discipline spreads…others began to see that “lack of discipline” is the standard of the day and they too began to feast on the beast. And, the lack of discipline spreads throughout the land.

My biggest disappointment is that financial discipline broke down in a major way. My background is in finance and I was brought up with the idea that finance people were the ultimate arbiters of discipline, both in terms of individual behavior as well as organizational behavior. The first CEO I worked for told me that, as the CFO, I had to speak up strongly for the discipline of finance for if I didn’t…there was no one else in the organization that would take that position!

Well, we have seen that when the financial standards break down…there is no one left to maintain discipline.

That is the past. We now have to deal with the future. The options are not good for anyone!

Let me reiterate the statement I made above…

The culture of an organization starts at the top!

So here we are…and we still have to do something…invest our money…run our businesses…live our lives…

There are several things that I believe have to take place…

First, we have to re-establish discipline…individually…in our families…in our businesses…in our government.

Second, we have got to retrench. Here we have conflicting objectives. On the one side, we have to get back to basics, strengthen our balance sheets, and focus on what we do best. In this we have to do the best that we can…and we should not assume that someone is going to bail us out. If we do…we are bound for disappointment.

The other side of this is that retrenchment weakens the economy because the basic plan is to “pull back”, cut spending, reduce debt, and, if we can, save. This is the other side of the lack of discipline. It is fun on the upside when discipline is eased…it is tough on the down side when discipline is being re-established. This leads to the third point.

Third, we must also be community focused, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. While we are establishing discipline once again, we must not isolate ourselves and refuse to talk with one another. We must engage one another, talk and dialogue about what is needed, and work together to introduce solutions that build up communities in this time of trial. This will include government programs to stimulate the economy. This will include new regulations to improve the process of finance and economics. This will include new efforts at international cooperation to help us to work together and support one another. This must include the acceptance of change because the world that is coming is going to be different from the world that we have left behind.

But, this effort is going to require leadership and it is going to require leadership at the very top.

On another note, we still have much to be thankful for…so let us give thanks for what we have.

Everyone…have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mase