Everyone needs a Strategy

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Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson

EVERYONE NEEDS a strategy. Leaders of armies, major corporations, and political parties have long been expected to have strategies, but now no serious organization could imagine being without one. Despite the problems of finding ways through the uncertainty and confusion of human affairs, a strategic approach is still considered to be preferable to one that is merely tactical, let alone random. Having a strategy suggests an ability to look up from the short term and the trivial to view the long term and the essential, to address causes rather than symptoms, to see woods rather than trees. Without a strategy, facing up to any problem or striving for any objective would be considered negligent. Certainly no military campaign, company investment, or government initiative is likely to receiving backing unless there is a strategy to evaluate. If a decision can be described as strategically significant, then it is obviously more important than decisions of a more routine nature. By extension, people making such decisions are more important than those who only offer advice or are tasked with implementation.

Strategy: A History
Sir Lawrence Freedman

Book of the Month – September 2022 : The Book of Freedom by Paul Selig

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‘You are accountable to all your choices, high, and low, and in-between.’

Paul Selig is a channeler, a man able to communicate with guides from the beyond, and in doing so provides important lessons for his readers. It has been said, ‘In a world of would-be psychics making great claims for themselves with little evidence to back them up, Paul Selig is the real thing. His books occupy a special place in the literature of channeled messages. THE BOOK Of FREEDOM is urgent, strong, always clear and lucid, and told with grace and wit.’

Well educated – both at New York University and at Yale – Paul experienced a spiritual experience in 1987 that rendered him a clairvoyant and his books on channeled literature are considered by many to be the zenith in the field. He maintains a practice as an intuitive in New York City.

In this fascinating and absorbing book Paul shows readers how to find full expression as the Divine Self through surrender and acquiescence to the true nature of their being. As he states, ‘Humanity itself is at a juncture now, and the reliance upon the old to solve your difficulties will not serve you in the ways that you hope it would. Reliance upon truth and the Divine within all things will give you the actions you require in the physical realm to withstand all change. When change comes, it may come quietly, or with thunder. It really matters not. The aspect of you that will withstand all change is the True Self, and your reliance upon her to give you ballast in the storm, to support you in change, will be the key to liberation from the net of fear that would seek to capture you within it.’ 

For doubters, simply read this book and by the end of the experience your life will be enhanced. 

Thought for the Week – 22nd August 2022 (3)

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“I think as one grows older, one is appallingly exposed to wearing life instead of living it. Habit, physical deterioration and a slower digestion of our experiences, all tend to make one look on one’s dear life as a garment, a dressing gown, a raincoat, a uniform, buttoned on with recurrent daily (tasks)….for myself I found one remedy, and that is to undertake something difficult, something new, to re-root myself in my own true faculties….for in such moments, life is not just a thing one wears, it is a thing one does and is.”


WILLIAM MAXWELL’S “THE LETTERS OF SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER

when you’re too focused on your historical wardrobe—rather than the person inside those clothes—you lose track of the authentic and special gifts you have to offer..

Thought of The Week – 22nd August 2022 (2)

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Obit: Lee Kuan Yew - The Gardener Is No More

My life is not guided by philosophy or theories. I get things done and leave others to extract the principles from my successful solutions. I do not work on a theory. Instead, I ask: what will make this work?
If, after a series of solutions, I find that a certain approach worked, then I try to find out what was the principle behind the solution.

Lee Kwan Yew

Thought of the Week – 15th August 2022 (3)

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Unhappiness is to the mind as sickness is to the body. It is a state of disharmony and imbalance. It is a signal that something is amiss and requires attention. However, in the absence of any understanding as to the real cause of unhappiness, our culture can only offer consolations and distractions.

We all feel that health is the natural state of the body. Why do we not feel that happiness is the natural state of the mind?

Rupert Spira

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Book of the Month – August 2022 : The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind by Jonah Berger

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“Jonah Berger is one of those rare thinkers who blends research-based insights with immensely practical guidance. I am grateful to be one of the many who have learned from this master teacher.”—Jim Collins, author Good to Great, coauthor Built to Last

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and internationally bestselling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. He’s a world-renowned expert on social influence, word of mouth, and why products, ideas, and behaviors catch on and has published over 50 papers in top-tier academic journals. He has consulted for a range of Fortune 500 companies, keynoted hundreds of events, and popular accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. His research has also been featured in the New York Times Magazine’s “Year in Ideas.”
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Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers’ minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way?

This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it’s not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it’s about being a catalyst. Catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers to change. Instead of asking, “How could I change someone’s mind?” they ask a different question: “Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?”

The Catalyst identifies the key barriers to change and how to mitigate them. You’ll learn how catalysts change minds in the toughest of situations: how hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up and how marketers get new products to catch on, how leaders transform organizational culture and how activists ignite social movements, how substance abuse counselors get addicts to realize they have a problem, and how political canvassers change deeply rooted political beliefs.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to catalyze change. It provides a powerful way of thinking and a range of techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you’re trying to change one person, transform an organization, or shift the way an entire industry does business, this book will teach you how to become a catalyst. 

( Recommended by Ashok M)