(BOOK REVIEW) 5 Minds For The Future

“5 minds for the future”, which falls under business & management category, is authored by Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A.Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in1981. And in 2005 and 2008, he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world.

The author’s approaches in this book are based on his background as a researcher in psychology focussing on human’s mind development, organization of mind, and what becomes of a mind at its fullest capacities. Studying mostly on how people learn, create, lead, and change the minds of others and themselves, the author also offered how we should use our minds.
The author emphasizes on five minds approach that are vital in nowadays life, and more importantly to ensure sustainability of mankind in years to come, namely:-
i) The disciplined mind – Distinctively mastered at least one way of thinking through the process of gaining knowledge and understanding through thought, experience etc.

ii) The synthesizing mind – Compilation and study of each source of information resulting to new combined sources that’s acceptable to the synthesizer and others.

iii) The creating mind – An innovator to new ideas and ultimately must gain acceptance from the knowledgeable audience.

iv) The respectful mind – Tolerance and respect among diverse individuals.

v) The ethical mind – Think beyond self interest and to do what is right under the circumstances.

In my opinion, these five minds have existed since the human civilization begins and have gone through significant changes over many years via modernization. However, most of the time each mind approach is practiced or at least being viewed individually. In the book, through study on existing ideas and thoughts, the author suggested that being well verse in the combination of these five minds shall equip us for the robustly changing environment and what’s interesting to me is educating readers of the importance of being an individual with well balanced thoughts.

At the earlier part of the book, the author has made its stance to oppose to the unrestricted free speech via mass media such as newspapers, in particular, the 2005 published cartoon by the Danish newspaper that ridiculed Muslim religion. According to the author, while there is no way to prevent harmful and hurtful materials being circulated, there is a need to distinguish between responsible press versus other medias like blogs, web sites etc., given the great diversity of human beings on earth.
I can relate the author’s statement to a book by Dale Carnegie titled “How To Win Friends And Influence People”, at one part suggesting that we should not criticize, condemn, or complain, in which to certain extent, complements the book “5 Minds For The Future”, to ensure our soft skill or humanity value is not jeopardized with the ongoing rapid growth and changes.

I find the book easy to comprehend, and can be read be anybody particularly educators and individuals at management level like trainers, motivators; leaders of governmental organization, religious group leaders, business leaders to name a few.

(BOOK REVIEW) The Source of Leadership

The Source of Leadership was written by David M. Traversi, a well known executive coach, entrepreneur, former corporate chief executive and investment banker. He uses his life experience, both successes and failures, as well as those of others he knows personally to illustrate how his Leadership Dashboard can be used to achieve results both organizationally and personally. Traversi explains existing leadership literature provides checklists of the traits that an effective leader should possess and the functions that a leader must perform, but they don’t explain how leaders and potential leaders can begin to embody the those traits and perform those functions. They describe the destination, but don’t address the means (the engine) to get them there.
The Source of Leadership written by Traversi has 9 chapters in total. Chapter 1 to 8 describes the Eight Drivers of The High-Impact Leader and chapter 9 is putting the entire driver together.

In chapter 1, the first driver is presence. Traversi used an automobile analogy to describe presence as getting the engine started. It is a solid foundation for the development of the other seven drivers of high-impact leadership. According to Traversi, when we live in presence moment, we understand that everything is connected. Everything matters, not only in our personal life but in our leadership roles as well. We absorb everything because we are highly focused, think more clearly and efficiently. We act more integrity and clarity. We are not burdened by unproductive thoughts of the past or future. We worry less and fear less. We will infinitely more creative.

Openness, the second driver in chapter 2, says most of us, have learned through difficult life experiences to resist "what is." If we once felt pain in response to something, we close ourselves to situations that might involve the same pain. In some cases, this may be a form of self-preservation or protection. However, we often close ourselves off from opportunities because of unrelated pain experienced long ago. Resisting "what is" actually causes more pain and drains our energy. Opening to "what is" becomes liberating and energizing. When we are open, we constantly seek to widen our mind for ideas, creativity and we will see possibilities is everywhere.

In chapter 3, Clarity means the clarity in thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Many people work hard to maintain a healthy, clear persona (the appearance they present to the world) and suppress the unhealthy characteristics of their shadow (the personality and behavior energies that have been repressed from consciousness, usually since childhood).
But they allow their shadow traits, such as rage and envy, to undermine their best intentions and drain them of energy. According to Traversi, when we choose clarity of thought, emotion, and behavior, we choose to honestly acknowledge our shadow traits and use the light of honesty and openness to manage them so they do not undermine our relationships and pursuit of happiness. When we are clear, we find it easy to define every element of who we are, both to ourselves and to others. We will be people oriented, open-hearted with a genuine love for people. We see the good and the potential in everyone, instead of a threat. We will have healthy, empowering relationships with others, ultimately, will be an effective leader.

Intention, the seed of possibility is the fourth driver in chapter 4 and it means employing intention to influence others’ opinions and behaviors, and to change the course of events and conditions. Intention involves a discipline of expressing our desired result in great detail, regularly visualizing it as a current reality, offering exchange for it, starting a "conspiracy" of people focused on helping us achieve our intention, and, ultimately, detaching from it, significantly helps us to achieve the results we want in our life.

In chapter 5, personal responsibility is the fifth driver which is complete ownership of "what is," as distinguished from openness, which is the unbounded willingness to consider every element of "what is." Once we learn to own "what is" on every front, and create the energy that results when you have the courage to say, "I am completely responsible for every positive and negative element that exists in my life," we will see a dramatic improvement in the integrity with which people view us, our courage, and our personal relationships. As a leader, it will significantly boost our credibility among those who follow us and every other constituent involve in our leadership role.

Intuition, the sixth driver in chapter 6 says, each of us have a powerful source of an intuition. But fear often causes us to abandon too quickly in favor of a "safer" route supported by "facts" or the opinions of others. In doing this, we abdicate the crucial role that active intuition plays in life. The skilled and liberal use of intuition such as be self-defined and be inspiring enables our ability to build confidence and thus make good decisions in all areas of our life, adapt to uncertainty and changing conditions, and interact with others in a highly empathic and supportive way.

Creativity, the seventh driver in chapter 7 is a key element of innovation, the commercialization of creativity, upon which the survival and ultimate success of organization depend. According to Traversi life is binary, because there is only creation and destruction, growth and decay, life and death. Stagnation, which is just a stage of decay and death, is not a viable option. The key then, is stoking our creativity in every
possible way so that we remain aligned, and not at odds, with life itself. Every person has the potential to be a powerful creative force. When we have that creativity, we become highly energetic, we see possibilities instead of barriers, we see a better life for ourselves and everyone around us and we will see the path of achieving it.

Connected communication is the eighth driver in chapter 8. In this chapter, interconnected and relationships are paramount and communication is essential for survival. Once past mere survival, the better we communicate, the better our relationships will be. The better our relationships, the better our life will be. Better communication is a function of increasing the connection in our communication. "Connected communication" is an intensely powerful energy or a driver deep within each of us. On a connected path, we are present, mindful, and completely honest. We are clear and concise, acutely empathic, and in complete alignment with "what is." Everyone around us senses the integrity, the wholeness, of who we are and how we communicate; others gather strength in our presence. The system of connected communication, from clear expression of a purposeful message by an empathic speaker to an empathic listener, fuels our ability to be supportive of and inspiring to others and has productive, empowering personal relationships.

Chapter 9 puts all eight drivers together. It outlines a step by step program of The Source of Leadership to embody the traits and perform the function of a high impact leader.

Conclusion, The Source of Leadership identifies and instructs how to develop eight personal drivers, energies deep within such as, presence, clarity (of thought, emotion, and behavior), openness, intention, personal responsibility, intuition, creativity, and connected communication. Each of them drives several of the traits and functions of the effective leader. The leader who develops these personal energies will achieve maximum effectiveness as a leader, as well as a deep sense of contentment and fulfillment as a person.

(HOBBY) New One

Hi

Lately I guess I found a new hobby,  new idea to put into my blog..I think now I want to put all the book review I've done few years back to share with everybody in here..

So enjoice..

(BOOK REVIEW) A Sense Of Urgency

A Sense Of Urgency by John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School is about what a true sense of urgency in an organisation really is, why is it becoming an exceptionally important asset, and how it can be created and sustained within organisations. John Kotter has also written few other books such as Leading Change, Our Iceberg is Melting and The Heart of Change. John Kotter was rated as Kotter the # 1 “leadership guru” in America on October 2001 in Business Week magazine. He is also one of the bestselling author in America. J.Kotter has published sixteen books, twelve of which have been business bestsellers and six of which have won awards and honors.

This non-fiction book explains about the true sense of urgency. The real solution to the complacency problem is a true sense of urgency. True sense of urgency focuses on critical issues, not agendas with the important and the trivial. It is actually driven by deep determination to win, not anxiety about losing. With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish something important everyday.
John Kotter explains that a real sense of urgency is a highly positive and highly focused force. Because it is naturally directs you to be truly alert to what’s really happening, it rarely leads to a race to deal with the trivial, to pursue minor pet projects to larger organisations, or to tackle important issues in uninformed, potentially dangerous ways.

Complacency is common and very often invisible to people involved. Success easily produces complacency. Complacency here refers to satisfaction or a feeling of contentment. This book tells us that a false or misguided sense of urgency occurs at times. With a false sense of urgency an organisation does have a great deal of energized action, but it’s driven by anxiety, anger and frustration and not a focused determination to win. People constantly see the frenzied action, assume that it represents true sense of urgency, and then move ahead, only to encounter problems and failures.
To overcome these problems, the author suggests strategies and practical tactics. The strategies for increasing true urgency is giving people involved the important facts and winning their hearts and minds. He explains that an action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities are created all by focusing on the heart and not just the mind.

J.Kotter’s first tactic is “Bring the Outside In”. He explains that internal reality reconnects with the external opportunities and hazards. He suggests that bring in emotionally compelling data, people, video, sites and sounds. The second tactic is “Behave with Urgency Every Day”. We should never act content, anxious or angry. Demonstrate our own sense of urgency always in meetings, one-on-one interactions, memos and e-mail and do so as visibly as possible to as many people as possible.
“Find Opportunity in Crises” is the third one. The author emphasizes that we must always be alert to see if crises can be a friend, not just a dreadful enemy, in order to destroy complacency. Proceed with caution and never be naïve, since crises can be deadly. And the fourth tactic is “Deal with the Nonos”. The relentless urgency-killers should be removed or neutralised. These are those people who are not skeptics but are determined to keep a group complacent or, if needed, to create destructive urgency. 3
From my point of view, as a reader, A Sense of Urgency is a very informative, interesting and knowledgeable. The author’s words and sentence usage are simple and understandable. John Kotter explains facts very interestingly. His points and ideas make me think deeply and understand greatly. All his strategies and tactics are applicable in my field. I learnt a lot and highly agree with all his ideas and views about true sense of urgency and how complacency plays roles in an organisation. So, lets focus on quick and the easy ways and get started now.