F O U R T H G E N E R A T I O N T H I N K I N G
Our whole purpose, as strong, independent individuals, is to help create other equally strong, equally independent individuals with whom we can interact. We have strengths. They have strengths. We can use their strengths to offset our weaknesses — and vice versa. This is how we become interdependent.
It’s the consequence of a change in our motives.
It’s natural for human beings to respond to new-found mastery in any sphere of life with such excitement, such exhilaration, that we want everyone to share our feelings of fulfilment. Brand new parents want everyone to experience the intense joy that they feel. A child who’s just mastered a bicycle wants to have us watch them as they share their joy with us by showing us how well they ride — over and over and over again! (At the time of writing, Lynne and I have five kids from 28 to 9 years of age. We know about learning to ride!)
This is the very same motive that makes Multi-Level Marketing so inherently different to all other systems of business.
This is how we want our customers to feel when they experience the brilliant benefits of our products, because we feel the same way, too. And we want them to be so excited that they’ll want to share those benefits with others, creating even more customers for our products.
It’s also how we want new distributors to feel. We want them to experience the same thrill that we did when we sold our first product, when we sponsored our first person… to discover for themselves that this business really does work!
The teaching process that leads us to interdependence is a form of sharing. It’s the way we share the knowledge, attitudes and skills we mastered in becoming independent, so that our dependent new distributors can share our exhilaration and satisfaction for themselves.
Look at the Freedom Continuum once more. Like the learning process (A), the teaching process (B) consists of four activities, each higher leverage than the one before.
B1. Example
This is the lowest leverage teaching activity. But, like personal experience in the learning process, it’s also indispensable. To teach without example is hypocrisy. It’s “do as I say, not do as I do”. Unless we practise what we preach, our words have a hollow ring to them. They won't hear our words because our actions are deafening.
There’s a saying that sums it all up in Network Marketing… “Your people will do what they SEE you do.”
If you do nothing else but set a good example, people will learn from you. They’ll emulate you, even if you give them no other help.
B2. Formal Tuition
This is nothing more than the teacher’s perspective on learning activity number A3 (Formal Tuition). We actively teach them the knowledge, attitudes and skills we’ve mastered so that they can become independent faster and with greater mastery. The faster it happens, the more jubilant they’ll be — and the more they’ll want others to share the same experience. When that response occurs, you’re well on your way to the top as a successful MLM leader. Remember… there’s no connection between time and success in this process.
B3. Delegation
As our new distributors demonstrate a sound understanding of the things we’ve been teaching them, we delegate more and more responsibility to them. We encourage them to participate in training sessions, business presentations and other business activities, always under our supervision so that they enjoy the security of an emotional safety net — they won’t make a fool of themselves, or lose control of their circumstances.
This allows us, as leaders, to assess their progress and to offer any extra training to help them master what we’re teaching them.
B4. Duplication
This is the ultimate effect of our teaching. It occurs when they finally emulate us in every aspect of mastering independence. There’s nothing more we can teach them. They’re our equals in terms of mastery of the essential knowledge, attitudes and skills.
The Key to Interdependence
Being surrounded by a group of independent distributors is of no use until we acquire the key to interdependent relationships. That key is synergy.
Synergy is the product of applied leverage. In other words, it’s several things working in harmony to produce a result that’s far greater than just the sum of the parts. In our case, it’s a group of independent distributors working in harmony — interdependently — to build income and security that’s truly exponential. (You can learn more about synergy here.)
Without synergy we can never progress to the ultimate fulfilment.
©1998 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 1 October 2005.
