Month: February 2025

Rest assured. The caption of this blog post came to light after I read Greg McKeown‘s recent email newsletter with the subject line ” Breakthroughs begin with a break “. Simple yet profound. Thank you Greg.

While exhaustion might be the body language that our culture brandishes unabashedly as an acknowledgment to the perennial quest called productivity, let us take care to note at that time, our brain is as effective as our smartphone on 2% battery level. Sure it will work, but barely and certainly not for long.

There has been always something obscene about the cult of the hustle, the treadmill of alienated insecurity that tells you that the moment you stop running for even an instant, you will be flung flat on your face*.

Talk about self optimisation- as if human beings are search engines??

Can we flip the script? How about treating rest as a competitive advantage? Rest can be our secret weapon. The ace in our pack. Rest is not just about Netflix and naps( though, must admit those are glorious). It is about giving your brain and body the space to recharge so that it comes sharper, brighter and more creative. A classic example is that of Serena Williams, the tennis legend. She is an advocate for rest hard. Not just training hard. She has often spoken openly about downtime, rest, sleep, recovery. Sleeping for 9 plus hours only betters her cognitive sharpness, reaction times, muscle recovery as all of it are engineered through rest. And it has not in any way slowed her down. On the contrary, it has only propelled her forward. Just 23 Grand Slam haul– good enough?

We all are familiar with the coveted ” shower thoughts “. Increasingly we realise that some of our best ideas are coming in the shower. Why? It is because our brain is finally got a chance to breathe, step back, connect the dots which we fail to notice in the tyranny of chaos. Archimedes and Eureka anyone?

The perception that we fall prey to is that rest is reward. That myth has to be busted. Rest is like a Formula 1 Pit Stop. Much needed to keep all our engines running. It is like the Oxygen mask that we need to wear first before taking care of or helping others. It is the strategy that separates the amateurs from the pros. And rest certainly is NOT something you earn after climbing Mount Productivity.

The myth of the hustle culture has been selling us this lie that grinding 24X7 is the only way to succeed. That hustle culture is like the over hyped influencer on Instagram. Flashy, loud and ultimately exhausting. Sure, it looks good in the moment, but deep down you are aware that it is unsustainable.

Burnout is not a badge of honour. Though the zeitgeist will want us to believe that. A classic example is that of Ariana Huffington. After collapsing from exhaustion, she made rest her mission. She authored a book on sleep, started a company devoted to well-being and became the global advocate for the power of rest. And shall I add she is not exactly slacking in the metric of success.

When Microsoft Japan experimented with the 4 Day Work Week Rule, it was observed that productivity increased by 40%. Turns out that people work far better when they are not on caffeine fumes and regret.

Look at these examples for motivation:-

LeBron James, One of the GOAT in basketball– sleeps 12 hours a day. More time on c ourt. Less wear and tear.

Einstein slept for 10 hours a day. Follow the great ones. Theory of Relativity, not a coincidence.

Jeff Bezos: He prioritizes eight hours of sleep, claiming it helps him make “high-quality decisions.” And when you’re running a trillion-dollar company, a few bad decisions can cost billions. So yeah, sleep is a business strategy.

Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t create Hamilton by grinding nonstop—he was on vacation when the idea struck. “The moment my brain got a moment’s rest, Hamilton walked into it,” he said.

If top athletes, artistes, game changers and scientists do it, what’s your guilt? Because society has sold us the lie that exhaustion equals dedication.

Rest isn’t a reward; it’s like saying oxygen is a bonus for breathing. You need it to survive, let alone thrive. So, let’s stop pretending that taking a nap is something you earn after a long day of work. It’s time to acknowledge that rest is the unsung hero of productivity. Without it, you’re just running on fumes, waiting for your engine to seize up. So, go ahead, take that walk, or better yet, take a nap. Your brain (and your boss) will thank you.

Embrace slow productivity as Cal Newport articulates in his brilliant book of the same name. It is a book that challenges the myth that more hours equals more success. Nature does not hurry, yet everything gets accomplished.

“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” — Alan Watts

Now, go take that nap. You’ve earned it. (Wait, no—scratch that. You deserve it, not because you’ve earned it, but because it’s your strategy.)

Signing off- to go horizontal for a bit!!!

• From Wired article by Laurie Pennie

Probably we just did. With the above caption!

It’s tempting to be ” all things to all people “. That’s also the graveyard for all your uniqueness, sadly.

Appealing to the lowest common denominator, the lowest hanging fruit, because it is the easy thing to do or the ‘ done thing ‘, is the default going around. But, nothing innovative, relevant, meaningful or exemplary came out because of such mindset.

It’s a new world of business. So, isn’t it time to ring out the old and bring in the new? A new mandate has to enter the fray.

Can we shake free of the past? Including(yes definitely) past successes! Can we re imagine an entirely new way of doing business?

Could we stop using these two traditional phrases( I will tell you why):

” Push the envelope “

” Think outside the box “

The problem with both the above(other than their gross overuse) is:

Both suggest that there is an intact envelope or a sturdy box from whose known (and identified borders) we can step out from. But remember:

The envelope is already torn and crumpled..and

The box has been run over by a speeding trailer truck.

So, the task at hand is to: Think “Weird“, however weird it may sound..be wired for it!

(Re)think ” excellence “

Re-Imagine ” leadership “

Get strange. Did you know that the No 1 source of innovation is ‘ pissed off ‘ people ? People who just cannot tolerate the mundane, the silly, the mediocre that is happening around them. That’s the origin of the best innovation you can ever lay your hands on. So, go ahead and seek pissed off people! HR, are you listening?

Fire the planners. Hire the freaks.

An “excessive cult of the consumer“- ” customer driven” also means being slave to demographics, market research and focus groups. So, ‘listening to customers ‘ might just be the No 1 sin in marketing...

Turn the cliched phrase on its head. ‘The customer is always right‘ to ‘ The customer is always late ‘

Who wanted Post It Notes? Nobody for a dozen years till 3M ‘ wrote ‘ history and we still keep ‘posting’.

Who wanted Fax Machines? Nobody for the longest time till a ‘ critical mass ‘ of users came along.

Who wanted CDs? Nobody or at least none of us who had just been through the transformation from phonograph records to tapes. Then the kids started using CDs and the awesome quality of sound made us go Ka-boom!

In the words of Doug Atkin, a partner at Merkley Newman Harty: ” These days you can’t succeed as a company if you are consumer led-because in a world of constant change, consumers can’t anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-led and consumer-informed”.

It’s time to re-imagine. At ISD Global we are constantly trying to be as future ready as possible, driven by the weird, motivated by the untried and fuelled by no fear. To generate ideas that can transform businesses and thereby quality of human life.

Your time starts now. The clock is ticking!

ENDS

Amidst a vast retinue of designations that already prevails in corporate circles (albeit with little regard to the actual job profile), here is a fervent plea for a new one to be introduced into the mix. The CSO: Common Sense Officer. 

Look no further. There is a huge Blue Ocean opportunity for corporates. Probably even a Green Swan opportunity. Where Common Sense is the next big  Competitive Advantage. With deep respect to a certain Michael Porter.

We have seen so many companies fall prey to fancy sounding management fads while ignoring obvious solutions. Missing the wood for the trees. Corporate jargon is like a buzzword bingo where the cherished prize is complete waste of time.

Then there are those Meeting About The Meeting About The Meeting. In the time that it took to align 12 executives schedules for a meeting to solve the crisis, the problem solved itself. If there is anything that defies common sense with a vengeance is the corporate meeting culture. Platforms like WhatsApp, Linked In etc are considering to have default settings for its users that state ” in a meeting “. So that you don’t have to offer any status updates. Status quo will do just fine.

Cubicle Logic is always at loggerheads with Real World Logic. In the real world if something is broken, we fix it. In the corporate land, a committee is formed to discuss the implications of acknowledging its brokenness. Then, you also have the 27 point approval process needed to change one word on the corporate website.

Some of the things you see, ie a collection of bizarre contradictions, you are tempted to call it the Corporate Paradox Zoo. The rallying cry is KISS(Keep It Simple Stupid)- Come see our exotic exhibit: the annual ‘Simplification Initiative‘ that requires 87-page implementation guides. CEO: ” We are establishing a Task Force and going in for a complete de-bureaucratization. Three new departments are being set up and twelve additional forms are being brought in to minitor and implement this”.

These are the settings where your onboarding and orientation include knowing ” How to nod thoughtfully while someone explains why a simple email requires six weeks “. And taking translation classes that will tell you what implementing agile methodology is (read “we realised that we should have talked to our customers”). Where “Leveraging existing capabilities for strategic advantage” simply means “Using what we already have“.

What comes with the territory in corporate environments include corporate bureaucracy, legacy systems, red tape, and mindset issues.

Mindset traps allow smart( really smart at that) people to make dumb decisions. A brand like Apple removing the headphone jack on iPhones – forcing customers to buy expensive accessories, despite clear user inconvenience. Common sense signals that don’t fix what people love. But arrogance finds a way to over ride logic.

We are fixated to past decisions than we would like to admit. And therefore companies love doing the same thing, over and over and over again. Blockbuster(the pioneer in DVD rental business) rejecting Netflix‘s offer of buying them for US$50 Million because they believed that people would always prefer DVD rentals. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

Corporate Legacy is another Graveyard of Common Sense. Eg Nokia remaining adamant and sticking to hardware dominance while the world was moving towards software-driven smartphones.

If you ask me what is the rarest resource in boardrooms, my resounding response would be common sense. Coca-Cola ignored decades of brand loyalty and market intelligence, only to backtrack within months after its New Coke disaster of 1985. Blind spots created by over complication.

Common sense says(actually shouts) that if you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will. Look no further than Kodak. It invented the digital camera in 1975 but refused to commercialise it because film was their cash cow. Common sense would have dictated towards pivoting to the future but Kodak wanted to continue its romance with film. Clinging to film showed their corporate inertia9towards innovation) as they took the first step towards writing their own obituary.

Red Tape should be the Red Flag bearers and considered a devout enemy of common sense. The Volkswagen emissions scandal, where internal bureaucracy and a focus on short-term gains overrode common-sense ethical considerations, leading to massive reputational and financial damage. In India, the delays in implementing GST due to excessive red tape and political bureaucracy, could have been streamlined with a common-sense approach to collaboration.

Tata’s launch of the Nano car, which initially failed due to a lack of common-sense marketing (positioning it as a “cheap” car instead of an affordable, innovative solution.

Leadership has a key role in promoting common sense within organisations. Once Satya Nadella took over at Microsoft, he moved it from a know-it-all organisation to a learn-it-all organisation, an organisation that thrives on empathy and common sense rather than cut-throat competition.

Common sense is a powerful ammunition in crisis management. Very evident in Toyota‘s handling of the 2010 recall crisis where it relied on complete transparency and customer safety rather than aim for short-term profits, showcasing common-sense leadership.

Zomato in India focused on addressing key customer concerns through features like live order tracking and instant refunds, simple, logical solutions that have fostered customer loyalty and growth.

So, what is the CTA( Call to Action)?: Building a University of Common Sense. Where employees are trained to think logically, challenge defaults, and prioritize simplicity. This is a Blue Ocean opportunity beating the next best by several nautical miles.

If this is a subject that strikes a chord, I will encourage you to watch the interview in BrandKnew with Martin Lindstrom, author of the seminal book ” Ministry of Common Sense “.

The two lines are no different. Create a Viral Video and Make Me Win a Lottery. It is the equivalent of saying, ” Horse riding is a no-no but I do want to head a cavalry regiment”. If wishes were horses…

So, all the brand and marketing directors who are challenged not to look up from their Ledger of Lack( of viral content) and holding fastidiously onto their KPI sheets, the magical request that echoes at every client meeting ” Abracadabra–make us a viral video ” resulting in eyes that twitch non stop and ears that wax up(in defense?).

There is a thought that goes around: that viral video creation is like baking a cake – follow a recipe, put it in the oven and voila- 10 Million views later you have the next Gangnam Style. And it never surprises that this supposedly Steven Spielberg style production and Christopher Nolan style execution has to be delivered on a student film budget. And though we wanted this to go viral last week, tomorrow is fine( yes, with 18 revisions).

And all these czars of branding and marketing are well versed with what has worked and will drop case studies like a hot potato. Here are the more common ones(inspiration if you will):-

• We want something like the Dollar Shave Club viral video.  Yes, the 2012 masterpiece that everyone and their aunts references. All the time completely forgetting that their Founder( Michael Dubin) was a trained improv comedian, they shot that video for US$4500 when no one was doing any quirky DTC ads. And when everyone tries to copy it, it doesn’t go viral. The internet can’t see eye to eye with copycats.

• Make it like Old Spice‘s ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like‘!”- Sure, happy to. Just give us Wieden + Kennedy‘s creative genius along with Isaiah Mustafa and several months of research and preparation( remember this viral video the client is briefing you on is needed the day after tomorrow). And, if you own a time machine, go back in time to 2010 when this approach was unabashedly fresh. Old Spice did not ask for a viral video. Their core objective was to make their brand relevant to women who buy men’s products.

• Can we do something like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that melted the internet? Yeah, thats a piece of cake. Except that everyone forgets this wasn’t a planned campaign. It evolved organically and worked because real people (not brands) drove it. Yet every brand meeting since has included someone saying “let’s create our own Ice Bucket Challenge! Time to take this off the bucket list friends.

And just to balance things out, let me add a devastatingly real-world example- who can forget Pepsi‘s 2017 Kendall Jenner protest ad? Boy did it go viral. And how. Only as a masterclass in uniting the internet in collective outrage. They wanted to go viral, they went viral and ended up asking WHYral? So, be careful what you wish for. Don’t tempt fate.

No, adding a dancing cat won’t automatically make your B2B enterprise software video break the internet. Though I admit watching Mr.Whiskers explain cloud computing would be more entertaining than your current PowerPoint. What happened? Cat got your tongue?

The most viral things on the internet are usually accidents or authentic moments. Strong emotions!  Unfortunately, “mild interest in our new product features” isn’t one of them. Neither is “corporate-approved enthusiasm.”

But My Nephew said…” Expert

“My nephew said we need more memes. He’s 14 and really good at Fortnite.”

Ah, the nephew—the unsung hero of marketing strategy. Who needs data-driven insights when you have a teenager who once got 50 likes on a TikTok. Outrage on Planet Social.

So, the next time you get a brief that smells or sounds like this ” we don’t know what we want but we will know it when we see it” , you know what to do.

I am quite keen to know who invented metrics. Especially when I hear the brand say we will measure the success of the campaign by the number of likes metrics. That directly translates to ” if it doesn’t get a million likes, it is a failure “. Forget brand recall, sales, or long-term impact—let’s judge the entire campaign by how many strangers double-tapped on Instagram.

And last but not the least, as you are concluding the meeting – the one for the road( or trash you decide)-coming from the #Hash You Like It Brigade–  Just add #Viral and #Trending. That should do it.

All this has left me totally confused as to what should be the new pecking order:

” Pls make a viral video”—would this be a request that ranks right up there with “Make it pop,” “Use AI,” and “Can you make the logo bigger?”. Pray, tell me.

And we all thought that the credit goes to a certain Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who wanting to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance, kicked off the Non Cooperation Movement in India back in 1920. How remiss of us.

All of us have been at the receiving end of corporate jargon for a while now. The idea was to make communication slick but what it has ended up as a soul sucking black hole of meaningless hoity toity sounding phrases that add zero value(rest assured) except to those Death By PowerPoint HR Slides.

Let’s take a look at some of these jargon speak and see what we may interpret from each. So, here’s some plain speak on the most abused corporate buzzwords that are single-handedly responsible for turning meetings into hostage situations:-

1. Touch Base: Apart from sounding like a flagrant violation of moral ethics and privacy, and all the pandemonium stirred by the #MeToo movement, who on earth gives you the authority to touch someone’s base? You shouldn’t even contemplate doing that with a barge pole. Are you trying to be Ace of Base? Well, in reality, it is the well established corporate practice of ‘ doing nothing masquerading as productivity ‘.

2. Paradigm Shift: If Corporate were to be having a Vending Machine, this would be definitely be their top seller. Working multiple shift. The intent is to show that ‘ we are doing something unique, innovative and we want you to be impressed ‘. That translates to for eg in advertising– this campaign will be a pardigm shift on how retail brands do their communication. And what does the campaign say:- ” 25 to 70% on all items “. I dare call it ‘ paradigm shit ‘ and you are not getting one dime from me for that.

3. Low-Hanging-Fruit: Did you know there is a new fruit in town- it is called the low hanging fruit. Full of antioxidants sorry anti accidents and one a day will keep critical appraisals at bay(Lest there be a clash of ego, I didn’t want to bring the other fruit, apple into the picture). Deeper translation of this would be that my die hard lazy cousin Venkat would do this without battling an eye-lid. But we have to make it sound like a masterstroke. Re-targeting existing customers for example. Wow, simply genius.

4. Think Outside The Box: This one brings out my boxer’s instincts. And the least I want to do is haul them over George Foreman‘s grills. The brief goes something like this:- ” come up with something wildly creative, while making sure its ultra safe, universally liked and it is something that we have done multiple times in the past “. In our experience at ISD Global when we recommend something like ” how about putting a dog riding on a skateboard holding your product and balancing it with elan and not letting go”, the reaction we most often receive is “That is too risky.  Let us do a (boring ) customer testimonial video. So, you figure out- whether we are inside or outside the box.

5. Let’s Take This Offline: If pretense were to be given an Oscar, this one would take centre stage. Admittedly, the story is ” I have no clue what you are talking about but I don’t want to come across as ignorant in this meeting (considering that I am the Chief Experience Officer). We can always pretend that we will talk about it later and then I fervently hope that you will forget“.

6. Let’s Circle Back : Alternative for saying ” How do I not make this work as I have neither the expertise, the wherewithal or the intent to find a solution “.  It is the richer cousin of Let’s Take This Offline. Remember it takes two to NOT do.

7. Granular Approach: Mumbo Jumbo for ” Lets micro-manage this to it’s grave so that most in the team will start regretting they were ever born “. Boss: ” Show me the last 5 years marketing strategy, ad verbatim, but I insist that you show it in three different font sizes. No change AT ALL please “. And you end up muttering under your breath ” Why not I write a Suicide Note instead “. Justified, yes.

8. Bandwidth: The corporate experts on this will go to any length(and width of course) to drop this manna from heaven( or so they think). When I first heard this, I thought this was a reference to either the FM or AM frequency on the radio. I must admit that I suffer from AICOI(Auto Immune Curse of Ignorance). As you talk about an important project and expect support from the other side, prompt comes the response, ” I’d love to, but I just don’t have the bandwidth “. You see the last hour he( with his Lactose intolerance) spent was on Instagram researching the best Avocado Toast recipes. If he had the band with him, he sure would have blown his own trumpet, while blowing your request away.

9. Fail Fast, Fail Forward: I really I wish my Mom would tell me this when I was in School. I was(?) no good you see, but unfortunately she did not have the advantage of the hastily put together, crafted to deceive Mark Zuckerberg coinage. The real side of the story is that ” we have no clue what we are doing, so, the best thing to do is glorify failure, we have burnt out all our investors money( on the 17th Food Tech company coming out of East London), because we wanted to fail fast, fail forward “. So, this too shall pass. 

10. Data-Driven-Decisions: Now I know why they say ” data is the new oil ” though I was surprised that the grocery store I frequent did not have this new oil when I asked for it. He was graceful enough to give me a 2 litre pack of another brand and an inspiring afterthought “ Fortune favours the brave son “. What this actually means is that we can selectively pick data that fits into our scheme of things and ignore the ones that don’t. After all, ignorance is bliss. ” Me to CEO: data shows that our users hate this new feature, CEO to me: data also shows that our employees love the new feature. So, it stays “.

11. Synergy: The unholy communion of buzzwords. It is the corporate method of putting two things together, who have no business to be in the same boat but hoping for the best. Probably the linguistic equivalent of putting pineapple pieces on pizza and having the audacity to term it innovation. ” We have to have an omni channel strategy but our E Commerce site crashes far more often than it should especially when there is a sale, our retail stores are empty, so let’s find a synergy between the two “.

12. Ping Me: If you are not good at table tennis, this is something that will ostracise you and making a comeback is an uphill task. What you have to read between the lines here is that ” I am too important and busy to remember this, so, you remind me “. It is the digital equivalent of a nudge but with no sensitivity to subtlety. What you should also consider and be ready for that one line marvel ” Ping me if you need anything ” is that I will continue to ignore your message and you will need to remind me 38 times before I condescendingly decide to respond.

13. Boil The Ocean: This is a new one for me and still coming to terms with it. We just got used to swimming against the tide and get into Blue Ocean territory and if they expect us to be swimming in a boiling ocean, it is a bit too unfair. This comes hand in glove- ambition at happy loggerheads with delusion. We are unloading all ammunition at one go in a frenzy of carpet bombing knowing fully well that most of it will never find its target, but we will do it nonetheless.

14. Deep Dive: Destination Shallow End of the Analysis Pool. What it means is thorough research, diligence and validation. What actually transpires is a 10 minute skim of the Executive Summary, 6 hastily made Pie(in the Sky) Charts, before the profound landmark prognosis ” the data speaks for itself “. Even though the data is mumbo jumbo with a vengeance.

So, how do we lesser mortals get our own back?

Time to come clean and admit that our corporate vocabulary that is ambiguous, elastic or inelastic( depending on which side you are pulling it from- giving or receiving) needs an overhaul. So, the next time you hear ” Let’s leverage our core competencies to realise synergestic outcomes “, you know what to do.

Time to come a full circle(back?)!

Circa 1930. Great Britain. The acronym ADHD did not exist. Gillian Lynne was considered the quintessential problem child. She did terribly in school. She couldn’t sit still, let alone focus. People called her Wriggle Bottom. Her mother, thinking that her daughter is a disorder, took her to the Doctor. And that visit would radically change the course of Lynne’s life.

What is important to note here is What the Doctor did not do. He did not label the child as difficult. He did not tell her to calm down. He did not automatically medicate her. Instead, he decided to follow a hunch. He turned on the radio in his room. And escorted the mother and himself out of the room.

The minutes the adults left the room, Lynne’s body began to move. As the music filled the room, Lynne couldn’t contain herself and danced all around, including on the Doctor’s desk. Through the transparent glass door both the mother and Doctor were watching this spectacle. A little later it was time for the Doctor to write the prescription. It said ” She is a natural dancer. Take her to dance class “. What followed was a lifetime of dance. Lynne danced in the Royal Ballet and choreographed Cats and Phantom of the Opera—two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history*.

*Extracted from Ozan Varol’s blog

Some games that we humans like playing include Scrabble, Sudoku, Monopoly, Poker, Chess and the likes. But, what takes the cake, along with the bakery and baker is a game called Find The Flaw. It is practiced with so much diligence as if it has to become an Olympic Sport. It could, you never know.

For all the unemployment and under employment that we talk about, I feel that most people are fully employed in a profession called ‘ judging others ‘.  And no, the jury need not be out on that. The default setting is fault-finding mode—high-definition, surround sound, and zero buffering.

The uncomfortable, inconvenience truth is that ” we are addicted to deficiency detection “. There is a difference between flaws and fire. Flaws don’t define people. Their fire does.

Finding flaws is a cultural epidemic. For eg when it comes to performance appraisals- the reverse of the Pareto Principle works here. 80% of reviews and appraisals are spent on finding areas of improvement and 20%(condescendingly at that) on celebrating strengths. Because by focusing on whats wrong, makes one feel more productive, more in, more serious and more professional.

Classic example is the marketing manager who takes a lot of time on client calls. The common corporate refrain is ‘ she needs to be more efficient with her time ‘. But where we miss the wood for the trees is those long calls help client retention rates significantly and boosts organic revenues. What was considered wrong was actually right.

When we start looking for ‘ what’s right ‘, remarkable things begin to happen:

The what is considered as a ‘ difficult ‘ employee who asks too many questions is the one who insulates against groupthink, echo chamber and multiple projects being salvaged. She is not difficult. She needs to be rewarded.

Or the overthinking analyst who spots the minor details( after all both God and Devil are in the details) which helps the company its next major innovation. Give her a standing ovation.

How many times have we heard this ” He’s too emotional, or sensitive ” – well he is the exact same person whose empathy makes him anticipate and understand customer problems before they become too complicated to handle.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to state that we humans have a PhD in nitpicking.

Image Courtesy: ISD Global

People call Elon Musk ( yes, The Corporate Weirdo Who is Laughing All The Way To Mars) as erratic, unpredictable and obsessed. Maybe true. But, ask what’s right with him and you find in the least the following:

• he made electric cars sexy and sought after (RIP Prius)
• he made space travel into a side hustle
• he breaks and bends every corporate rule in the book- yet, he owns categories, re-defines industries and of course prints more money than anyone else can fathom

And don’t forget he was almost written off in 2008 when Tesla was a few days away from bankruptcy.

Another brilliant example is Lady Gaga: considered by the purveyors of flaws as too eccentric, too over the top. The wrong end of the stick obviously. What if the right question to ask was ” Isn’t she a Creative Genius ?” And what is right with her includes:

-she owns her uniqueness and is unapologetic about it

-she made music more about self-love than about Instagram hashtag

-went from pop icon to Oscar winning actress– proving that reinvention is just not for iPhones

And finally another example closer home. Virat Kohli. The What’s Wrong brigade had lots to say- too aggressive, too hot headed..Doesn’t ‘play it safe’ like old-school cricket legends- what about  Just Too Damn Good ?

And whats right with him?

-he demands excellence not just from himself but from his entire team

-he revolutionised the fitness culture in Indian cricket making 6 pack abs more common than match-fixing scandals

-he wears emotions on his sleeve- because he cares that much

The default ‘ nice and safe ‘ wouldn’t have helped him help India have so many of the wins it has had.

We are wrongly trained(or hardwired) to see ‘ What’s missing‘ instead of What’s magnificent? ‘

But here’s the most uncomfortable truth of all: Our obsession with what’s wrong doesn’t just hurt others – it blinds us to the extraordinary mosaic of human capability that surrounds us every day.

So I’ll leave you with this challenge: For the next week, ban “What’s wrong with them?” from your mental vocabulary. Replace it with “What’s right with them that I might be missing?” The answers might revolutionize how you see everyone around you – and maybe even yourself.

Probably destined to be the three musketeers. The trifecta in your survival kit: IQ + EQ + AQ.

Growing up, our parents were all about growing your IQ(Intelligence Quotient). Enter the corporate bull ring, and your HR manager wanted the one with the EQ(Emotional Quotient). The new kid on the block, has come as a manna from heaven and is the glue that holds IQ and EQ together. Thy name is Adaptability Quotient(AQ). And in a zeitgeist where things can spiral downwards or move sideways, it just might be the ammunition for you to land your pot of gold.

Life does throw curveballs( far more regularly than we can anticipate or be prepared for) and when that happens, if you can’t adapt, you are nothing but a fancy car stuck in traffic like the lesser torqued ones. AQ is what helps us navigate the roadblocks, the detours and the occasional meteor strikes. It can be the difference between ” I’m a goner ” to ” I’ve got this “.

The future is as predictable as a toddler on a caffeine high. The only thing that we know for sure amidst the rapidly changing landscape of jobs, technology, society, is the fact that we don’t know anything for sure. The future happens gradually, then all of a sudden. If you don’t want to be caught like a deer in the headlights, embrace AQ. Because by doing that you can enhance your AQ. Where uncertainty and unknown are your comfort zones. Curiosity skilled the cat. Doubt and inquiry are the pillars of progress. Make them your partners in rhyme. And build your AQ muscles as you do that.

Linear journeys are a thing of the past. Life is part intellect, part emotions and part the ability to pivot when the ringmaster changes the act. The sooner we realise that human beings are rough drafts that continually mistake themselves for the final story, then gasp as the plot changes on the page of living.

In a world where trends become mainstream and then rapidly obsolete, where AI and related technologies are rewriting the rules of the game, when it is certainly not business as usual( and probably never will be), AQ is not a nice-to-have anymore. It will be the difference between you riding the wave or getting swallowed by it.

The journey up the corporate food chain will be less about what you know(IQ), or who you know (EQ). And it will be more about how quickly you can unlearn and relearn aka AQ. Counter intuitive. While people with high IQ and EQ are writing their Plan A’s obituary, those with high AQ have Plan B-Z sketched out.

Think of AQ as the yoga pose of life even though you might end up looking like a pretzel rather than a pro yogi.

AQ: The Intelligence Quotient Nobody Told You Need! Time to Q up!

The first person who convinced others to help move a really big rock probably invented management. Since then, we’ve only made it more complicated. Centuries later, the Harvards and McKinseys of the world decided to cash in.

I don’t mean to sound like Aesop’s Fables but once upon a time when we were full and truly into the cavemen era( long long long before the Mad Men one), we were the hunter-gatherer tribe, work was hunting, gathering was not getting eaten. Fight or flight was omnipresent. Work was…well not work. And mind you, the origin of work-life balance was to avoid eaten by a sabre toothed tiger.

No emails. No Slack(so, one had enough time to slack). It was just survival. No meetings. Just grunts and gestures. Performance appraisals meant- well, you have lived to see another day!  In the current context of JD( means Job Description I recently realised), hunter=risk-taker, teamwork, project execution and gatherer= detail-oriented, multitasking, risk-averse.

But, surprise surprise, we have moved on from cavemen to keyboard warriors. From hunting mammoths to arguing with chatbots.

After enough rebellion, we trespassed unknowingly into what would later be termed the Agricultural Revolution. Where work=farming; job titles could vary from farmer to plow inventor to the person who yells at sheep( now you know where we picked up the undying, timeless concept called ‘ herd mentality‘ ) and subliminally we saw the birth of the ‘ 9 to 5 ‘(read sunrise to sunset). We also made progress in the process – running from predators to grappling with back pain.

Sometime later clocks(or timepieces) came hand in hand with what in retrospect can be called the Industrial Revolution. Clock in, clock out. Rinse(if possible), repeat. The Henry Ford era, if you may. When the rallying cry was ” let’s make people work like machines “. When the grind of the ‘ 9 to 5 ‘ got re-enforced. Time was the currency, punch card the companion. Unions did everything but unite.  Humans as cogs-in-the-machine. Leading to efficiency: yes, happiness: debatable.

Before we move on, lets circle back to understand why should we even be interested in the distant past? Well, as William Bernbach(Member, Advertising Hall of Fame) said ” It took millions of years for man’s instincts to develop. And it will take millions more for them to even to vary. It is fashionable to talk about the changing man. A communicator must be concerned with the unchanging man, his  obsessive desire to survive, to succeed, to be loved, to be admired, to look after his own “.

We can see it in Milton Glazer‘s universally recognised ” I (heart) NY “. The heart symbol means that we do not have to speak the English language to understand it. He got the idea from initials carved into love hearts on trees or as grafitti sprayed on New York walls, the way it has been since Roman times.

With time, we seamlessly segued into the Corporate Era ( a jungle of another kind) where meetings are about discussing work, not doing it. Job titles go from Clerks to Chief Experience Officer to cater to inflated egos and same workload. I forgot to add office politics here which is where work gets done…or undone. And the SOS(Sea of Sameness) called the Cubicle Farm is the equivalent of a modern day prison with fluorescent lighting.

Enter the era of Digital: Where are we even working? Where we are typing angrily at our computers. The WFH-Work from Home and tackle the brief in your briefs era. Where we traded physical labour for carpal tunnel syndrome. An always-on culture where our productivity seems to peak just when we are about to go home. Where the unabashed use of lines like ” Let me play Devil’s Advocate ” brings out your worst homicidal intents. How “I’m having connectivity issues” became the modern “The dog ate my homework“.

It is time to take a deeper look. As Rory Sutherland mentioned ” We seem to be keen to understand how technology works, how product-market fit works, how targeting works, how social media works, we’ve taken our minds of a far more important question – how do people work? “

In a world made dumb by digital noise, what can individuals, brands and organisations do to make themselves relevant again?

Deep listening isn’t just an art. There is strong neuroscience behind it. When you take the effort to listen deeply, the brain enters into a state of heightened receptivity. As it engages multiple neural networks, it creates deeper understanding, distills the nuances and leaves memory imprints that are strong and relevant. Not just that- the ability for us to be heard goes up exponentially the less we talk.

Silence can be deafening- yes. But silence also helps you gather strategic intelligence, where missing the wood for the trees could be a distinct possibility. Silence helps us pick on the unspoken and the hidden opportunities. It helps us see around corners and avoid blind turns. Silence is a great conduit to understand human motivation, pain points and desires- traits that brands and marketers actually pay an arm and a leg to understand. In business, it can lead to innovative solutions, better customer experiences, and a competitive edge.

Listening is the trust building bridge that a lot of us do not take care to build.  When people are heard, they open up, place more confidence in you and work to foster a stronger relationship. Good listeners build an empathy advantage and in an increasingly automation driven world, it enhances emotional intelligence, your conflict resolution and leadership skills.

All of us are aware of the fact that most people are just waiting for their turn to talk and therefore pay sub-optimal attention to listening.  In a world addicted to noise, silence is a force multiplier. It is a power move. I say this because you would have noticed that silence makes the others around uncomfortable and they fill in the gaps and reveal more than they intended to. So, use it.

Ignoring costs a fortune. While silence is free of cost. The Titanic sank because no one cared to listen. Blockbuster( the Netflix predecessor) shut because it ignored Netflix. Listening isn’t just a nice to have. It is a vital survival strategy.

Your mouth is costing you money. Your ears can earn you millions. Train yourself to listen to what isn’t being said. Being the loudest in the room is already Red Ocean territory. Whereas being the most attentive is actually a vast Blue Ocean. Every time you really listen, you gain insight. You hear what’s beneath the words. You notice what others miss.

‘ Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough‘ – Karl Marx 

Listen. Let others chase attention. You accumulate wisdom.