Can you imagine in this day an age an entire country population that has never considered or adopted the concept of long range planning within its culture? I found this notion hard to envision until I visited the country of Israel a while back and became acquainted with its people’s way of life.

From the year of the country’s birth in 1947, the Israeli people have never had the luxury of bringing the concept of long range planning into their lives for one unrelenting reason: you can’t plan into future years when no one could be certain that the country would survive for two or three years – never mind fifteen years – down the road.  Surrounded by countries dedicated to its demise and terrorized by suicide bombers year in and year out, planning and investing five to ten to fifteen years ahead simply was not an option. Yet, how Israel and its people have succeeded and actually flourished in many ways through the years within this environment offers invaluable lessons that we Americans – now working through our own difficult times be they of a different nature (i.e., a steadily deepening recession) – can learn from.

The Israeli Way

Born out of necessity, the Israeli way is a beautiful enigma to behold; for example:

• always deal in the present because that’s all there is
• prepare well to maximize what you are doing because there will be no second chance
• be aggressive with life and when conducting business
• be result oriented
• emphasize schooling and education
• communicate directly
• balance work, play and family life, and finally,
• be respectful of neighbors but when neighbors take advantage of this trust – be willing and able to vigorously defend what you believe in.

In many ways, immediacy (what is left when long range planning is not available) is a far simpler, more effective way of dealing with life and doing business – especially in recessionary times – because it applies solid planning and necessary funding to problems before they can metastasize over time into something more difficult to deal with; i.e., put out the fire before it spreads. The single piece of evidence that irrefutably supports this premise is the fact that when left to its own devices Israel has developed and for some time maintained one of the strongest three or four economies in the world; i.e., better than the U.S. economy on a per capita basis.

Immediacy… applies solid planning and necessary funding to problems before they can metastasize over time into something more difficult to deal with; i.e., put out the fire before it spreads.

Lessons To Be Learned?

Rather than spell out what lessons I believe you should take from the above Israeli profile, I am asking you to do this for yourselves. In a few words, write out the one overriding lesson you take from the “Israeli Way” as described above; then, share your selection with your fellow readers by submitting it through the “Leave a Reply” section below. We can learn a great deal from each other if you will participate in this exercise. Thanks for this support.

Superintendents, want to help your assistant(s) on their career path? Print out these Career Corner posts and responses on an ongoing basis and assemble them in a hard copy binder for your assistants and crew.