The Seat of the Soul - Gary Zukav

Started reading this book because Oprah had said something along the lines of this book being the second most impt book next to the Bible, to her.

This book is essentially a New Age spiritualism book, and I feel that its ideas have a lot of similarities with Buddhism concepts. in a nutshell, the key idea here is that humans' end goal is to evolve beyond the five-sensory world into a more spiritual one, which can only be possible if one connects more deeply with one's soul.

I think that many of the concepts that the author talks about do contradict each other somewhat, and he tends to talk in very absolute terms, which makes me feel uncomfortable as I'm really not sure where he is getting his ideas from or on what basis he derives them.

Anyway, I do find certain concepts rather appealing, and I've put down the top three here.

Karma being generated with intention. I intuitively am drawn to the idea of karma, and that there is ultimately a chain effect to the things that we do. The author goes further and says that mere thought is sufficient to generate good and bad karma. Hence we need to be careful what kind of thoughts we seed and cultivate. This certainly sounds really Buddhist. While I'm not sure whether mere thought itself immediately creates karma, I do think that thoughts ultimately seep into one's personality; it is difficult to be a person of good character if one predominantly thinks badly of other people.

Addictions in life. I think this also stems from the Buddhist concept of "fixation". We are often addicted to all kinds of wants that we crave to fulfill, esp material ones. These cravings are bottomless pits, although I do think that there is some joy to be had in succumbing to them once in a while :p I'm not ready to lead an ascetic life. Notwithstanding, I do think that I need to guard against having too much of them - they do point to deeper issues that need to be thought through and addressed.

Power. I think instinctively, I often find myself drawn to "power" in the aggressive and ostentatious way (think macho movies, Vin Diesel, fast cars, etc). However, the true power that the book talks about is a different kind: an alignment with love, clarity, understanding, compassion, and being strong enough that one needs not harm other beings to demonstrate one's "power". Based on my interpretation, it seems to be an inner peace, acceptance and awareness of things. I intuitively seem to understand that this "authentic power" means, but I'm unable to put it into words properly. I also think that this authentic form of power goes against the more traditional and "masculinised" form of power. I will need time to understand this point much better, as I observe myself in various situations and how I react to issues.

How to Act like a CEO - D.A. Benton

An enjoyable read. Was trying to recall the reasons why I felt like I wanted to become a CEO in the future, see if my imaginings about the job gels somewhat with what the reality demands, and to see if I am indeed slowly making my way there. I think I am indeed building some necessary skills, but the key issue now is that I might not have the depth of expertise and corporate experience that are critical to climbing the corporate ladder. This is something that I need to think about.

In the meantime, key learning points!

• Self reflection/ awareness are absolutely critical to getting to the top job. This enables one to continually improve, and is also important because there are very few people who will tell you your flaws/ mistakes when you get to the top.
  
• CEOs need to envision. Some say they spend 70% of their time envisioning. They need to show the company (the leadership team, the officers, the stakeholders, customers, shareholders) the "destination". In addition, they need to see opportunities and pitfalls where no one else can. This is something I don't spend enough time on, but I'm getting better. The key is to leave the operational details to the team - let them take ownership of it, and then set aside time religiously to think. I find going to all sorts of places - the library, the nearby cafe, or even hidden corners in the building, very effective.
  
• To do this, they need to have access to a vast array of information - social, political, technological, economical, ecological, etc. To obtain these, they need to constantly gather information from people, especially from gurus, mentors and teammates on the ground. From all these, they need to connect the dots and "see around corners".
• They then need to communicate this vision all the time, repeating it to people all over the place so that it permeates the organisation. This has to be done in short words, short sentences, and with no buzzwords.
• 9 out of 10 decisions are based on judgement, instinct, following your heart and going for it. This is interesting. Although I also think that to be this good, one has to build up a wealth of experience and knowledge - which comes from working darn hard, clocking the right experiences and reading like crazy.
• You need the inventor, builder, and operator on your team. As CEO, you can't be all three. This sounds a lot like LKY's team.
• Keep track all that's going on, but delegate the decision. Define the what, but leave the how to team. Lack of operations focus looks like a lack of interest! Let people fail, hold them accountable, but don't jeopardise their career. I think I have been doing both. I'm using a zero-inbox rule currently (although there is constantly a backlog of about 8-10 emails at any point in time), which helps greatly in ensuring that I know exactly what goes on in my team, even if I delegated the decision.
  
• Control the resources. My training so far has given me good skills in managing manpower resources - I try to ensure that the workload is manageable by the team. However, I think I need more training in financial management. Perhaps a CFA will be useful?
  
• Be a constant questioner.
• Praise people but realise they rely on different things. Job security, public recognition, material rewards, being seen as the expert.
• And I think this is one of the most most important points. Act like a CEO even when you don't feel like it, and project the right image and messages at every opportunity. The team looks at you to take bearings for their level of energy, optimism and drive. This takes a lot of practice and is not "natural". In addition, learn calmness. Look like you have all the time in the world when dealing with problems and talking to people. Need to practice this a bit more. Just did a friend's personality test and it suggests that my intensity could unnerve some people!
  

A really good read and serves as an inspiration for me at this point of time in my career.

Hard Truths - Lee Kuan Yew

This was a very fascinating book to read. And it was surprisingly also easy to digest. Lee Kuan Yew (or the scribes) had this ability to distil complex ideas into bite-sized concepts that are easy to comprehend.

I will divide my learning points into three parts: policy/political, personal development and relationship.

From the policy and political angle, I think LKY had very perceptive and accurate understanding of the world (as proven by history and our progress). A key theme that appeared many times in the book is the dearth of talent in a small country like Singapore, and the key role it plays in a nation's development. This even include the running of large companies - hence the limit to which Singapore can privatise our linked enterprises. This was a theme that fundamentally changed the way I look at many of the policies that are in place today, and it also affected the way I perceive talents - I think the ones that LKY is looking at to make a significant difference to Singapore is pegged at a very very high level. Not sure how many of the people I know today will pass LKY's muster, even though I think many of them are already very smart and capable. [Not covering other policy/political learning pts here as there are too many to cite. Other ones that struck me deeply were ones about nation-building, LKY's views about other countries and the changing landscape in Singapore politics.]

From the personal development angle, he highlighted several qualities that determined talents (whether in government or private sector): IQ, EQ, leadership, stamina, determination, resourcefulness, energy, drive, ability to interact with people, to get people to work in a team, etc. This set of qualities corroborate strongly with the qualities that I've observed in some of the leaders that I've come across. Stamina and energy are very key traits that allow people to work much harder than everyone else and scale higher peaks. To LKY, nurture plays a relatively less role in life - it's all in the genes. (That runs a little contrarian to my beliefs that hard work can surmount everything.) Other things that I picked up: he jogs regularly, 20 min each time. And he also meditate frequently too, after having been taught by a Buddhist Dr. He is so intensely focused that he almost doesn't read anything that contributes to his work (like Sherlock Holmes) and he hardly watches film. He respects De Gaulle, Deng Xiaoping and Churchill. Perhaps I should spend some time reading their biographies. He appears to be agnostic and doesn't think too much about the afterlife.

Relationship-wise, I like what he said about an Indian Minister who was matched-make and saying that he learnt to love his wife, while in America, people start out loving and learnt to unlove each other. I think sometimes putting the commitment first (and setting the constraints) can beget more love in a relationship than one where an individual merely watches the love ebb and flow passively, and decides where to peg his/her commitment. It is also very clear that LKY loved his wife deeply - it was very touching reading about their relationship, and I can only hope to be able to have a similar love story in the future.

Linchpin - Seth Godin

This is the first book by Seth that I've read. Seth makes a very persuasive argument, solidly built up paragraph by paragraph, for the key ideas in his book, and then eases nicely into explaining what these ideas are. I find the ideas very pertinent for me, especially at this stage of my career and life. I believe that the fundamental issue that Seth is tackling is that many of us office workers are gradually working ourselves into redundancy by not progressing to the next level in the knowledge revolution. The gap is that we don't tap on our artistic instincts and produce value that cannot be easily replicated by others, or worse, a very smart computer.

These are the key ideas that I've picked up:

1. Many of us office workers perform our work like what he calls "bureaucrats, note-takers, literalists, manual readers, TGIF labourers and fearful employees". These reflect many of the working styles that I observe around me: people sticking to rules and not exercising judgement, people living Mon to Thur waiting for Fri to come and living in dread in the meantime. This perspective towards our jobs leave us vulnerable to becoming redundant and dispensable.
   
2. The working class, which had so far been indoctrinated by the industrial revolution to follow instructions to the T and limit their creativity, needs to unlearn some of these practices and progress to the creative level to remain relevant. Otherwise, their salaries will constantly be chipped away by lower-wage workers as the world.
   
3. The key to becoming indispensable is to add value through creative innovation - not just incremental ones. My own interpretation is that incremental innovation would be, in the policy-making context, reacting and changing the rules in a narrow fashion to meet today's needs. Creative innovation requires the ability to see the future that does not exist yet, deep expertise, sound judgement and an innovative mind to create a fundamental change in policy.
4. Seth feels that schools should just teach two things, if nothing else: how to solve interesting problems + lead. I think I'm still struggling to learn these two things even after being 6 yrs out of school!
   
5. Creative innovation comes in short bursts, but are worth disproportionately more in value. For example, he quotes the example of Richard Branson - much of what he does everyday can conceivably be done by many other brilliant or good people. However, some of the "magic" that he does, particularly in seeing opportunities and capitalising on them, is what makes him a billionaire.
6. These magic moments require deep knowledge and sound judgement, which is a rare quality. But it sounds like it can be developed, based on Seth's book.
   
7. Emotional labour is another key ingredient - putting one's full emotional commitment and inspiration into one's work can add that additional edge.
8. I think 5,6 and 7 translates into moments of intense thought and meditation that one needs to cultivate and block into one's day. This is something that I've been thinking about for some time but haven't been able to do so diligently enough. This is time where a knowledge worker exercises his most significant leverage - to come up with creative solutions. Seth calls it "letting the silence into your life".
9. He contrasts this silence to the "busy-ness" that we try to immerse ourselves in non-stop everyday, which makes us feel gainfully occupied and less anxious (about the "absurd"? this might be the subject of another book review :p) but is of minimal value, because they can be done by many others. This includes checking email constantly, chasing every single details, etc. He says that there's a Tibetan name for it - shenpa - an itch that feels good when scratched but serves no other purpose.

So the question after all this is really: what do I need to do to become a linchpin? Am I gaining the necessary depth of knowledge, experience to build my judgement and also setting aside enough time to exercise my creative and innovative engines? I think one new thing I'll do is to being ten-minute "thinking blocks" where I focus on solving a particular task innovatively (rather than incrementally). This could be increased in the future, both in length and frequency.

Peter Guber - Tell to Win

Bought this book off Kobo as a continuation of my interest in public speaking and communications.

A few quick takeaways from the book. The more trivial ones first - Peter Guber seems to know everyone famous in the world. Perhaps that's a perk of working in his industry - film. He also seems to have great persuasive power and business acumen. I believe he will attribute the former to his power of story-telling.

The key premise of the book, as I interpret it, is that humans intuitively connect to stories. There is a deep desire in us to understand, satisfy our curiosity, share and retell stories, and it provides a strong channel through which we can convince other people of our ideas.

There are broad guidelines on what are good stories. They need to be logical, I feel, so that there is a strong momentum and understandable flow to its eventual conclusion. The powerful ones also tend to have themes on struggles and overcoming them. In addition, when trying to use a story to persuade someone, one also needs to understand what the underlying story of the recipient is - which would affect how well our stories resonate with them.

Seen this way, a story can be seen as a logical and emotionally powerful way to link up a set of facts and ideas. (Much like a submission, except that emotions are eschewed in submissions.)

Some applications that I'd try to explore: as themes for people's motivations (what is their life story and how does this drive them?), personal branding and career path (what is my story and how does it make sense to myself and others? how do i want to be able to tell it to other people?), and even the visions/ missions of organisations (what do these companies really mean?).

Overall, a good and inspiring read, although it was a little short on the details side.

The Ten Faces of Innovation - Tom Kelley

My interest in design thinking was sparked off recently cos of a conversation with a former colleague who is rather involved in doing design consultancy. More recently, I attended a talk by the Dean of Rotman School - Roger Martin, where I got an upfront look at one of the leading thinkers in this area. In keeping with this sudden interest in design thinking, I picked up Tom Kelley's book to learn more about the topic. Had been wanting to read this book for quite some time now anyway.

The book makes use of "persona" to represent various archetypes of personalities involved in the design and/or creative process. While many of these persona are closely pegged to certain specific skillsets, I believe that they border on being mental states that we can all assume at one point or another in our profession. Taken in this light, I interpret Tom Kelley's book as stating that too many of us assume the devil's advocate persona when dealing with innovative issues, and risk killing off good but budding ideas. There are other mental states where we can adopt to boost our organisations' innovative capacities. If we are really keen, we could even pick up the necessary skillsets and become an expert persona (of sorts) in our own right.

Here's my take on some of the persona that stood out more for me.

1. Cross-pollinator. I think that it is very critical for managers/leaders to have T-shaped competencies, and the cross-pollinator role is actually one that many leaders can (because of their T-shaped competencies) and should play. However, I see too many of them, including myself, developing the tunnel syndrome and fail to see the linkages or potential knowledge transfers across many disciplines.
   
2. Hurdler. I often lack the "get things done" mentality. I think this is something that many of us share. Our society and education system seems to have placed a premium on the thinking as compared to the doing side of things - sometimes I have the illusion that simply having a good idea is 99% there. I think we need more people (and also more capacity within myself) to have the drive and will to bring a first order concept into implementation. I think the hurdler persona finds relish in leaping over the obstacles - seeing them as challenges rather than troublesome "operational" details.
3. Director. Seems like a natural role that leaders should play. A good play is "90% casting", and so identifying the right people and playing to their strengths is the key to being a good manager.
   
4. Story teller. This links to this other book that I'm reading right now about story-telling. I think stories have a powerful way of motivating, inspiring and guiding people. Much more than simply barking orders at people or sweet talking them. Crafting a good narrative is also key to creating a strong vision that people can understand and be guided by. In our current workplace where there is an overdose of information and strategic directions can change rapidly, the narrative needs to be constantly refreshed and rationalised so that people can remain united on the journey. Tom Kelley said that the best story tellers can make a simply issue sound like the most exciting adventure (not in these exact words). Believe this is an important skill that all managers/leaders will need.
   

As I try to incorporate these models of thinking into my work, will also try to encourage more innovation in the people around me. May not be an easy task, but the least I could do is to stop myself the next time I'm tempted to play the devil's advocate and risk paralysing my own ability to think creatively.

The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle

I started out looking for book on talent management in general, but stumbled upon this book by chance. The key theme is in line with Malcolm Gladwell's stories about the 10,000 hr mark and Colvin's "Talent is overrated" book. In gist, this is the idea that deliberate practice creates talent, which gives a glimmer of hope to all those who are aspiring towards goals much bigger than themselves.

There are some new learning points from Daniel's book, which are critical and will be incorporated into my learning methods. These are:

1. Deliberate practice is also about chunking. Talents perform at a very high and complex plane, much like the complexity of a symphonic band. To achieve this, aspiring people need to break the complex outcome into a series of small chunks and master each one, until they become subconscious and automatic. The way of practicing is much like breaking down a complex musical piece and trying to learn it line by line. The implication, I suspect, is that if one aspires to be a great CEO, one must first identify what are the ranges of skills needed to perform at that level, and work hard at each manageable sub-components of those skills, until one can execute them flawlessly. Colvin had suggested that the workplace is a great place to build these skills.
   
2. Failing and operating at the edge. To be able to improve quickly, the zone at which one needs to practice deliberate is the area that lies just outside your field of competency - where one is expected to fail, and fail often, but yet is within reasonable reach such that one can get there with repeated practice. I think this is the zone that has the most potential for creating flow-experiences and also gives the greatest satisfaction.
3. Long-term outcome focus. The fuel to enable people to keep plugging at a task in this zone comes from a strong desire that is targeted at the long-term outcome, e.g. becoming a world tennis champion, rather than short-term ones. It is a deeply felt desire to be able to belong to this esteemed group of people who are performing at a very high level.
4. Praising people for their struggles. Interestingly, Daniel's work showed that given the significance and sheer immensity of the effort that is needed to sustain these achievements, praise from external sources should target at the effort and the struggle, rather than the innate intelligence. In fact, praises targeted at people's intelligence (or some innate talent) diminishes their motivation and courage to test themselves further.

All in all, this is a very inspiring read, for people like me whose goals are often so far away and so hard to see that the affirmation of the very effort itself (according to a set of practice methods) as the surest way to reaching these goals feels very assuring.