Spirit of an Organisation
“It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.”
Two sayings sum up the “spirit of an organ-isation”. One is the inscription on Andrew Carnegie’s tombstone:
Here lies man
Who knew how to enlist
In his service
Better men than himself
The other is the slogan of the drive to find jobs for the physically handicapped: “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.” good example was President Franklin D Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II, Harry Hopkins. dying, almost dead, man for whom every step was torment, he could work only few hours every other day or so. This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters. He did not lose effectiveness thereby; on the contrary, he became as Churchill called him once, “Lord Heart of the Matter” and accomplished more than anyone else in wartime Washington. Roosevelt broke every rule in the book to enable the dying Harry Hopkins to make his unique contribution.
• Extracted from Peter Drucker’s book The Daily Drucker.
