Category Archives: Leadership

#212 Splitting the atom

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Spoiler alert: this blog is perhaps more abstract than it needs to be.

The following two personal events will trigger profound discoveries and realizations in ourselves:

  • Acknowledgement of reality.
  • Change in behavior.

They both require separation of self from thoughts and behavior. If you can separate these three elements, you can see the “reality” that is independent of these elements. The separation is similar to nuclear fission. Fission does not normally occur in nature, thus if you want to achieve this separation, you will have to put in the effort.

After separation, it is necessary to combine these elements back together to form new thoughts, and new behavior, and perhaps a new self. This is similar to nuclear fusion. Fusion occurs in nature, as a case in point, look at all the combinations of thoughts and behaviors being tried out to reinvent ourselves. The social media simply amplifies these efforts, and thus can be said to give out a lot of energy.

While the difference between fusion and fission may look academic, it is interesting to draw parallels with leadership development. Developing the leadership bench requires both fission and fusion. The fission happens within each individual, and the fusion happens when organization policies are drafted to create synergy among its human resources.

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#200 Is leadership probabilistic?

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A quick gander at the Heisenberg uncertainty principle may convince you that events and people around us are inherently unpredictable. Your reaction may be, “What is the point of my efforts?”

Luckily, we humans are irrational. Use that irrationality to your advantage, and your reaction will be, “I must try anyway.”

Thus you will use the Heisenberg uncertainty principle as a mere data point, and not as a fatalistic decision taken for us by nature. Perhaps a lack of understanding and inability to change perspective is the reason for all cynicism we see around us.

Upon further reflection, you will realize that human irrationality is merely a variation of the Heisenberg principle. Thus the advice to try anyway has a solid basis in science, and by definition is not irrational at all.

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