#26) The P and PC Balance

Hello and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham.

You may have noticed that I've been taking a little break. I just have a lot going on -- the music business is picking up again, and I must reassess my expectations. So, I've decided to slow down this video series -- just a little -- and give you a total of 30 videos this year instead of 36. I'm hoping this will result in better quality videos as well in the long run. We'll eventually get through everything I've planned.

Today we will continue on with the 7 Habits track. If you would like to watch these videos from the beginning, you can start here, but today's concept is a good standalone one.

Introduction to P/PC Balance

Throughout his whole book, Stephen Covey refers to something called the P and PC Balance. But what does that mean? It's all about effectiveness.

Covey explains with an Aesop's fable of the Golden Egg. In this story, a man is about to lose his farm but one day his goose lays a golden egg. The next day, the goose lays another golden egg. After the third egg, he's getting excited. He's super-rich, and wants more than one egg a day. So, he decides to kill the goose to get to the rest of the eggs inside. However, he doesn't find any more eggs, and only then realizes too late what he had done.

In this fable, the golden eggs represent production. This is what P stands for. This is getting things done. Of course, we always want production, because it makes us happy.

And the goose represents production capability. This is PC. This is the potential for something to produce. Why is this important? Well, since the man killed his goose, it can no longer produce. If you don't take care of the PC, you lose the P. On the other hand, if the man had failed to capitalize on the P, he would have lost the farm and the PC with it. For the best results, the man should have struck a healthy balance between production and capability.

We can apply this concept to three different kinds of assets.

#1) Physical Assets

The first are physical assets. Think of a lawn mower. When you first buy one, it cuts great. But if you fail to take care of it, the blades will get dull. The air filter will clog up, as will the injector tubes. And then one day it'll stop running. Okay -- maybe this has happened to me at least once before. P is the cutting of the lawn. PC is the lawn mower itself and its capacity to cut. If you don't take care of it, it no longer cuts. And on the other hand, if you don't use it, the grass won't get cut.

Another physical asset would be the whole world, which produces an enormous amount of resource (P). If we don't take care of the planet (PC), we will lose the resources. To maximize productivity, it's best to use the resources efficiently while taking care of and replenishing the planet.

Yet another physical asset is our bodies. We can do so much with our bodies (P). But if we don't take of them (PC) they'll get sick and then we get stuck in bed, no longer able to produce. I've already covered this aspect in our earlier episode on "Sharpen the Saw."

#2) Financial Assets

Next come financial assets. The best way to think of this is principal vs. interest. The principal is what we have to buy things and enjoy. PC = the principal. P = what we buy with that principal. And interest keeps the PC healthy. If we spend too much principal too fast, then we receive less interest to keep the principal high. If we spend way too much, then we end up going into debt, which is negative interest, which totally erodes our PC further. We cover this concept in our earlier episode on "Debt."

#3) Human Assets

And then finally come the human assets. These are more of the emotional and social aspects.

Think of any relationship. We all get something out of productive relationships. That would be the P. But in order to keep up these friendships, all parties must nurture the relationship to keep it going. That is the PC. We talked about this on our episode on the "Emotional Bank Account."

And lastly, this also applies to manager/employee relationships as well. I don't know how many times I've seen or have ended up in one-sided relationships. Many managers focus too much on the production but fail to take care of the employees -- the capability. I've seen many times when a manager has treated an employee poorly, only for that employee to leave and increase expenses for the company in training a replacement.

When one coworker found out everyone else got a raise and a bonus but him, he left within a few months. When one company took away all support of my actuarial exams, I, too, left within a few months to join with a company that would support me.

Nowadays, with the coronavirus upending staffing, there are increasing reports of managers taking care of their employees -- working on the PC to maintain the P. But at the same time, being careful not to invest too much into the PC so as to entirely negate the P.

	Production (P)	Capability (PC)	Nuturing
Lawn Mower	Short Grass	What the Mower Can Do	Regular Maintenance
The World	Resources	The Planet	Caring For and Replenishing
Our Bodies	All Kinds of Activities	What Our Body Allows Us To Do	Sharpen the Saw
Finances	The Things We Can Buy	Principal	Positive Interest
Relationships	Connections / Friendships	The Relationships	Emotional Bank Accounts
Employees	What Employees Accomplish	What Employees Can Do	Meeting Needs of Employees

The Challenge

So, over the next couple of weeks, I'd like for you to look around and find all kinds of examples of P and PC. Then for each example, see if you can figure out how one could best strike a balance between the two. Maybe you can even find a way to help improve your own life, if even just by a little amount.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks, here on "Always Be Better."