Strategic Discipline Blog

Do you believe you’re a prisoner to your genes?  Is your family’s past afflictions, diseases, and maladies a prediction of your future? 

You’re wrong!  I’ve been wrong.

What’s this have to do with creating a business culture?  What can genes influencing our lives or not have anything to do with how my business culture affects the performance of my business.  

Please, bear with me while I provide a tale of my journey prior to my cancer diagnosis, through remission, to my experience with businesses I work with and the dynamic transformations and success these businesses achieve through building a healthy, thriving culture.

More than ten years ago one of my clients, Dennis Haefner, Ideal Computer Systems (see details on his successful sell of his business) introduced me to Bruce H. Lipton, The Wisdom of Your Cells.  Dennis’ engineering background, inquisitive, and curious mind led him to quantum physics.  Much of Lipton’s book supported many of these ideas.  The book fascinated me; however I never understood the significance of it until after I was diagnosed with cancer. 

My miraculous recovery from Acute Myeloid Leukemia was fueled by the meditation guidelines of Joe Dispensa’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself which are remarkably supported by Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D, The Wisdom of Your Cells and subsequent book The Biology of Belief.

So please stay with me as I provide the connection from my recovery from cancer to how your business culture sets the stage for success.

First you need to understand that your genes are not the limiting factor or predicting tool you think they are.  From The Biology of Belief, “Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a “contractor” who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a cell’s life. It is a single cell’s “awareness” of the environment, not its genes, that sets into motion the mechanisms of life.”

If you still don’t believe this here’s more from The Biology of Belief, “The problem is related to the fact that over 99 percent of the rest of the population, the “lay audience,” is still operating from antiquated and disem-powering beliefs about being victims of their genes.”  Still more, “The media worsens the situation by misleading the public with a never-ending onslaught of stories presumably identifying a gene that controls this cancer or that malady.”

This next quote from The Biology of Belief may not be surprising since it is eerily similar to another book and audio by Claude M. Bristol, The Magic of Believing, “Using these cell communities as role models, I came to the conclusion that we are not victims of our genes, but masters of our fates, able to create lives overflowing with peace, happiness, and love.”

What does all this mean?  You and your company, just as I and any individual are products of our environment.  Most importantly we are the product of the environment we create! 

Businesses that build a positive, active, vigorous, lively, and robust work place environment provide the ideal foundation for the business and the people within that company to be masters of their fate and create a business that thrives and achieves beyond what any business can imagine, simply because they are in harmony.  It’s the foundation for Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage and Jim Stengel’s Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's 50 Greatest Companies.

A business that creates a positive environment for its people is bound to grow and thrive just as a person who creates a positive environment for themselves will prosper.  From the Lipton’s The Biology of Belief, “Positive thoughts have a profound effect on behavior and genes but only when they are in harmony with subconscious programming. And negative thoughts have an equally powerful effect. When we recognize how these positive and negative beliefs control our biology, we can use this knowledge to create lives filled with health and happiness.”

Over the years I’ve watched and been profoundly influenced by the momentum and strength that businesses gain as they follow the principles of Strategic Discipline and the Rockefeller Habits.  Much of the disciplines we coach our customer on support the creation of a healthy culture.  “Just like a single cell, the character of our lives is determined not by our genes but by our responses to the environmental signals that propel life.”

A business that develops and continually works to improve its culture is destined for greatness.  A great culture almost always guarantees success and puts a business on the path to distinguishing itself against any competitor.

The culture of any business creates either a positive or negative belief structure.  Negative thoughts limit us.  Positive thoughts release our potential. 

This doesn’t mean developing a healthy, positive culture is easy.  Understanding the elements and components of building your business culture is not without trial and error.  What it should unequivocally assert is the path to success is clearly developing a culture of greatness.