In the business of caring

Young Mormon missionaries in their crisp white shirts and dark ties have an air of solid integrity as they walk the streets of Dublin and Belfast. Travelling in pairs, they always seem eager and expectant, even though the likelihood is that the next open door will be slammed in their faces. Their persistence has paid off. The Mormon church is now established in Ireland.

One of those dedicated young missionaries, a man named Stephen R. Covey, spent four years in Belfast and Dublin, where he found a depth of community and interpersonal relationships which moved him and has always stuck with him. His son, Sean, was born in Ireland.

Now aged 66, Covey is one of the biggest selling authors of all time. One of his four best-selling books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has alone sold 10 million copies worldwide. It describes a holistic, principle-centred approach to solving personal and professional problems, based on the notion that we are all interdependent and therefore responsible for each other's welfare. Oft-quoted phrases from the book include, "interdependence is a higher value than independence" and "there is no real excellence in this world which can be separated from right living".

When 7 habits was published in 1989, Covey's ideas struck home to a me-generation jaded by the self-seeking personal growth movement. Almost overnight, Covey transformed corporate America's hunger for values into a global industry. His Franklin Covey Co. now turns over $600 million each year as it communicates Covey's ideas to a global audience through books, software, conferences, workshops and the Internet. Covey places particular importance on scheduling the day in order to fit in carefully graded interpersonal and professional priorities and his Franklin Day Planner is found on corporate desks around the world. The Covey Leadership Centre has an influence in business which must be unparalleled, advising 82 of the Fortune 100 companies.

In politics, Dr Covey has advised the key players in Northern Ireland politics and was present during the negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement. He told politicians that their agreement would hold only if the community backed it. He advised them to ignore extreme rhetoric, to involve rather than manipulate the media and - most importantly - to "listen to the people". Whether or not it was due to Dr Covey's influence, "listening" has become a key method for Mo Mowlam and others in the North.

Dr Covey has had particularly close relationships with Bill Clinton, whom he describes as "a fine man" and with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has always had her own political agenda which is now reaching fruition. It was Covey who advised Hillary, after the devastating collapse of her healthcare reform programme, to learn to genuinely listen rather than just pretend.

Covey also recently advised the president of Korea on how to nurture family life in that country, now that both mothers and fathers are working and inter-generational family life is disappearing.

Next month, Covey will be speaking by video link to the Republic's community, church and corporate leaders at a conference in Ennis, Co Clare. Entitled "Working Towards Balance: Our Society in the New Millennium," the conference will address issues such as corporate responsibility to communities, the human dimension in the workplace and power and ethics. The conference is Father Harry Bohan's follow-up to last year's ground-breaking event, "Are we forgetting something?"

It may seem ironic that Father Bohan, a Catholic priest, would be so keen to spread the influence of a practising Mormon from Utah. But Covey's universally Christian message has a resonance at a time when Ireland, Inc. is making money so fast that it has lost count of anything but profits. Pressure is mounting on families due to the lack of a childcare policy. A spiritual vacuum is rapidly developing into a void that cannot be filled with punts.

As the unprecedented growth threatens to turn once stable communities into US-style strip malls, the issues of traffic, planning and quality of life are topping the agenda. Dr Covey will be telling Irish business leaders that if corporate Ireland that does not give care to communities, schools, families and the environment, "it will kill the goose that laid the golden egg". This concept of productive geese is a central one for Dr Covey, who argues that you must always treat your employees exactly as you would treat your best customers if you want them to trust you, trust being key to productivity.

Now he is extending the philosophy to the community at large, preaching the view that corporations must value and nurture people in order to make the world a better place.

"There needs to be in the corporate mission statement great respect for employees, families and communities," he says. This should include flexible hours and homebased working for parents, in his view.

The extraordinary thing is that corporate America is listening. "The more you deal with the deepest hunger of people, the more you tap into their most noble impulses, impulses which are necessary not just for the survival of the self, but of society," says Dr Covey.

Part of the success of Covey's philosophy is that it is profoundly spiritual, yet it is couched in a language which appeals to corporate America. Rather than talking about "do unto others as you would do unto yourself", Covey sums up the concept with a catchy slogan, "win/win".

He predicts that "trust" will be the main problem of the next decade as we learn to adjust to a highly competitive global economy. The only way corporations will get their workers to efficiently produce high-quality goods at low cost will be to gain their trust, which corporate leaders can do only by being trustworthy. Covey thinks that in the Republic we have a head start. "Ireland is such an intrinsically beautiful country with such deep values, where people value relationships rather than things," he believes.

Last year, Covey had a runaway success with yet another book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, which he wrote out of his concern that this fundamental unit of society is breaking down. Too many parents are "selfish brutes", pursuing their own agendas at the cost of their children's emotional security.

"Men and women need to learn to value and appreciate each other's differences," he thinks.

Covey is in the forefront of the new movement towards a more holistic attitude to work, family life and personal fulfilment. More people are asking why you have to be a workaholic to be a business or political leader. It doesn't makes sense that many of the people who guide the structure of our society, do not themselves know how to live a balanced life. The crisis in family life is the greatest symptom of this imbalance, as parents, in particular, begin to question whether it is actually possible to combine full-time work and child-rearing while remaining healthy mentally and physically.

Too often, downshifting for the sake of the children requires career sacrifices. Covey believes that parents should be able to work part-time and still gain leadership roles in work and community. It isn't such a big leap when you think about it. As creativity and commitment become more prized, big business may begin to realise that workers are most creative and committed when they are happy.

Working Towards Balance: Our Society in the New Millennium, will take place November 3rd - 5th at the conference centre, West County Hotel, Ennis, Co Clare. Places cost £150 and closing date for receipt of bookings is October 1st. To book: call Rural Resource Development Ltd, Town Hall, Shannon, Co Clare. Tel: 061-361144, fax 061-361594, e-mail rrd@tinet.ie Conference website: http://homepage.tinet.ie/ `millenniumcon