Outbehave

OUT-BEHAVE:
"verb: to conduct one's business
by exhibiting values and principles
that differentiate and win in the marketplace"

The word "Out-behave" is not a word currently recognised by any dictionary. It is most frequently used as part of the concept of - Outbehaving the competition. This idea is explored in considerable depth by author, LRN Inc Chaiman and CEO and ethics thought leader Dov Seidman.

The thesis: In this transparent world, "how" you live your life and "how" you conduct business matters more than ever, because so many people can see in and directly tell so many others about it.

For individuals, this means second chances will be tougher to come by. Says Seidman:

"In the information age, life has no chapters or closets; you can leave nothing behind, and you have nowhere to hide your skeletons. Your past is your present."

For businesses (and nonprofits) likewise, it will be tougher to clean up your messes, since everybody is a reporter with global reach.

But there are opportunities too for organizations that figure out how to excel, differentiate and compete at behaving well. That's where Seidman's "How" comes from -- how you engage customers (donors), how you keep your promises, how you collaborate with partners, how you build trust and so forth.

In a flatter, consolidating world our real differentiator is our culture, in order to win we need to behave better than our competitors in every action we take.

The out-behave concept has been discussed at length in the following areas:

The Agitator website -

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat -

On TV at the Businessweek site -

Interview with Dov Seidman at PersonalLifeMedia.com's DishyMix podcast -

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