Interesting tweak

'If today were the last day of your life, what would you be doing'. We've all heard that one, lots.

I liked this tweaked version I came across today:

What would you change about your life if you knew you would never die?

Pehli Baar

Love the Energy of the Song and Sequence :)

Fallacy of The Single Cause

The Fallacy of the Single Cause, is assuming one cause or reason, where actually there are multiple causes or reasons. 

It's a very common mental or thinking error; x occurred after y, so x must be the cause of y.

Example:

Vijay: I ran my car off the the road because that dog ran in front of my car.

Officer: You don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that you were trying to text your girlfriend, and drunk?

Explanation: While if it were not for the dog, perhaps Vijay wouldn’t have banged his car. However, if it weren’t for him texting while driving, plus being drunk, he could have almost certainly found a more efficient dog avoiding tactic.

I was myself guilty of one such.  I banged the SUV in front of me pretty bad, and squarely said he'd braked too suddenly. Well, that was true. What I also knew was that , that was the day I'd been told I'd gotten transferred on my job. Interesting to be aware.(my thinking then said I was using excuses for the accident...today I know it was reason too, not just excuse).

Almost any situation is driven by multiple causes, and such causal complexity underlies even situations or events that appear to be fundamentally clear-cut. There is always a mixture of factors that bring about an event. 

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy beautifully illustrated this point in his classic novel War and Peace; there is a complex cause even behind an apple falling from a tree or for Napoleon’s invasion of Russia :

When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or because the boy standing below wants to eat it? 

Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in which all vital organic and elemental events occur to enable an occurrence. 

Equally right or wrong is he who says that Napoleon went to Moscow because he wanted to, and perished because the Czar desired his destruction, and he who says that an undermined hill weighing a million tons fell because the last navvy struck it for the last time with his mattock. In historic events the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself.

Getting to grips with causal complexity is indispensible for effective strategic and analytic thinking, especially for our ability to diagnose the problem, to understand what factors are responsible for the problem and what prevents possible solutions. Yet, our minds are inclined to look for and settle on a single cause, neglecting any causal complexity. 

This fallacy is particularly easy to notice in the media. Political pundits will ask what the cause of a crisis is. Business analysts will ask what has been the cause of Apple’s success. Such discussions imply that there is a single cause responsible for the outcome. Many of the so-called strategy experts may be equally prone to this oversimplification bias, often suggesting that the sole cause of a successful political or marketing campaign is the leader’s strategic intent or a similar cause.

The First World War, cancer, a friends divorce, the worldwide success of a company, the invention of writing – any clear-thinking person knows that no single factor leads to such events.

Rather, there are hundreds, thousands, an infinite number of factors that add up. Still, we keep trying to pin the blame on just one.

This is not only wrong but also morally questionable. As long as we believe in singular reasons, we will always be able to trace triumphs or disasters back to individuals and stamp them ‘responsible’.

Good to be aware, as this is something we typically do even in day to day situations, where we could potentially end up taking, or putting responsibility on singular people or things way more than what needs. My personal takeaway? Don't waste too much effort and energy on trying to pin the cause of why we are where we are ....instead, focus on where you want to be or where you want to go :)

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is defined as :

a) the ability to recognize emotions, one's own and the others
b) ability to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and
c) to use that awareness to enhance thought and behavior

                                       

As a theory and as a term, it was introduced as recently as the mid 90s by John Mayer and Peter Salovey, and they have proven, not only that emotional intelligence exists, but that it is as established an intelligence as IQ .

Goleman in his popular book, 'Working with Emotional Intelligence', indicated that EQ accounted for 67% of the abilities deemed necessary for superior performance in leaders, and mattered TWICE as much as technical expertise or IQ. Studies have in fact shown that people with high emotional intelligence have greater mental health, exemplary job performance, and more potent leadership skills.

A Challenge.....Emotional Intelligence doesn't as easily translate across Different Personalities or Geographies 

There's folks who will let you in easy, and there are those who won't. Then there are the different expressions that come out of cultural contexts, more so Geographies

In the US, for instance, its totally acceptable and even expected and admirable to show enthusiasm, even in a business setting, whereas with Asians, especially Japanese or Chinese, individuals are not typically emotionally expressive. Even if they feel excited about their work, they will rarely show it explicitly. 

Then even in the west, the UK is so different from the US. A truly outstanding achievement, for example, is often characterized as 'not bad'. And when people ask how each other are doing, the typical answer is 'fine', which after the “Great!” or “Good!” of the US, starts to sound pale. Tough, huh?

An anecdote from Google comes to mind:

There was this colleague, Minsuh Sung, who'd moved from Korea to Mountain View. She'd had her six month performance review, and apparently a period she had thought was going great, turned out in the end to be a disaster....... and all because of extensive sugar coated feedback through the period.

So, it's about how much we know, how well we know, how well we tune in, and all of that. The issue however, is that this is emotional space.......dynamic space and so, we're pretty much functioning in potential minefield area. Rather, even when we are aware, in moments of emotional stress, we fall back into a pattern we know, and gauge based on our own impressions of acceptability and expectation. 

Given these differences and the importance of getting it right when communicating, what's the best thing to do? A first tip is to treat emotions like another language. If you’re moving cities, you’re bound to learn the language, or at least some key phrases, right. Treat emotions in the same way.

Try your best to learn the language of emotions. Observe whether people tend to express emotions readily or keep them to themselves. Diagnose any gaps between how you’d express emotions and how people you’ll be interacting with express emotion.

Emotions are tricky business, but paying attention to and understanding the language of emotions can be a simultaneously challenging, and fulfilling experience.

                     

Little Manhattan

A movie that will make you Smile.....

A super sweet, first crush, love story between 10 year old Gabe and 11 year old Rosemary. It's so refreshing, so tender, and so un selfconscious in expression, it makes you wonder.... and feel deep good, at the beauty and charm of the emotions

Watch it, whatever be the mood.....One of those that should stay in the repertoire, for views and re views :)

Can We Talk About This - 2

This is again from Seth, and he didn't call it '2'......I just did :)

"Can we talk about this?"

That simple question is the litmus test for a productive relationship.

If one professional says it to another, the answer is an emotion-free, "sure." There's no baggage. Talking is the point. Talking is what we do. We communicate to solve problems.

On the other hand, if the question brings with it fear and agitation and, "uh oh, what's wrong," you can bet that important stuff goes undiscussed all the time.

An Year with SELCO

A month into SELCO, and in a meeting I was asked to narrate how my experience of joining SELCO came about, and how it feels now.

A recount of that:

The story began almost an year before I actually joined SELCO, and when I was yet with Google. In Google, we have something called a speaker series, where once in a while, we have folks from different fields come and give short talks. I was a big fan of the project, as it gives you access and insights into so many different kinds of people, especially those who've broken off the trodden path so to say......wonderful tool to expand horizons.

One such talk was from Harish, and days after the talk I found it was still working on my mind. 33% of India not connected to the grid...... 400 million people in the country with not even access to electricity. 

At first I didn't even believe the statistic. I actually used Google to validate for myself .

Then the thought germinated, actualized and I knew it's what I wanted to be doing.  I called Harish and said, 'Give me a role.......any role..... any salary; I'll quit tomorrow and come'. And that's how it started.

It took us almost an year to actually work out the quitting, the move, the role and all those nitty gritties. But what I'd like to bring out here is that once you have that clarity on what you want, you'll find so many wheels start to whirr to enable that to happen. They did.

Clarity.. ...all nice sounding and true and all...... but I was for sure racked with doubt through the process. While one part of me wanted SELCO, the other didn't want to leave Hyderabad. So starts the gruelling process of lots of questions, lots of thinking, lots of doubt....... all that you have to go through for change, any major decision making.

I realized that Clarity will only tell you about the What of it. The How of it has to be the Leap of Faith.

There's three little stories or rather lines, which were huge enablers through that process:

Story 1: A quote from Bruce Lee:

When going into a fight, don't go with conditions; expect and be prepared for bruises and broken bones.

A friend said this, at the perfect moment I guess....because that's when I was toying with thoughts of ......should I take long leave and try, maybe a sabbatical...not throw up Google. But when that one line sinks in....  it just tilts the balance, and that's the only way to give your 100%.

Story 2: A quote from Mandela:

Courage is not the absence of Fear, it's Feeling the Fear and Yet going forward.

That again made a huge difference to me. Each time I was on the verge of major decisions, I'd be waiting for solutions all the way round....like having all answers, complete acceptance from within, ...and then I'd be confused on why all the questions were not going away, why there are still fears. In fact I think  I wasted a lot of years of my life, just waiting for that level of assurance before moving. Not anymore.

Story 3: Never Start with Constraints

Know that there will be constraints and obstacles. And that they will rush at you. It's that survivor instinct, it'll tell you that you are already in good place, give you justifications on why you should not move, show you all the difficulties. Totally worth remembering this. Look beyond the constraints. Look at what you want.

Now that's the story. Back to the meeting.......

Harish was like 'So, how has it been, have you been bruised?'. And my answer was a 'Yes'........and there are times it continues to happen. But if the goal is to get electricity to that 33% , one cannot be letting dusty district buses, six day weeks, or dingy rural  hotels stop you.

Know what you want, and you'll find what it takes !!

And know what's best?   Bruises and Broken Bones notwithstanding, Life becomes a blast :)