Incite Your Month: July 2021
At CTQ, we kick each month off with a 5 min collection of ideas & recos from the team’s recent curiosity diet. It helps us ‘incite’ the rest of the month. Here’s this month’s edition.
Read the shownotes below
Prefer an audio version of this edition? Listen below.
One intriguing article
“The next management model is from… China?” by Joost Minnaar
What: Chinese firms had been adopting Western ideas and philosophies of management and team structures. But in the age of IoT, Haier decided to create its own management model, which is best seen as an ecosystem of interconnected firms working on scenarios.
One takeaway: The Rendanheyi model is designed to adapt to fast-moving conditions and it is compared to a jellyfish-like autonomous being.
Check it out if: ...you are interested in the latest trends in organization design!
One insightful book
Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli
Since 2020, “resilience” has taken centre-stage. This book, from back in 2012, delves into varied domains like coral reefs, positive psychology, and military strategy to talk about why some systems bounce back. What are the new approaches to build a resilient world?
One takeaway: Adhocracy, the opposite of Bureaucracy, can be a useful system during disruptions.
Check it out if: ...you want to learn how to build better shock absorbers
One incisive Book Summary
Livewired by David Eagleman
Dr. David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and this book covers the inner workings of the brain in an easy-to-understand manner. Eagleman tells us how the brain is constantly in the process of reconfiguring itself, or 'livewiring'.
One takeaway: the brain adapts based on what's important to it.
Check it out if:...you like to learn about the world's greatest piece of technology.
One inspiring Smartcast
Lessons in Culture and Decision-making from the Indian Army, with Col. Vembu Shankar (retd.)
What: Col. Vembu Shankar is an Indian Army veteran. We spoke to him about decision-making, autonomy within a regimented structure like the Indian Army, his social engineering skills and his current passion, Project Sambandh.
One takeaway: Defining your 'area of influence' helps in making things clear to everyone in the team.
Check it out if: ...you are curious about lessons from the Indian Army and how Col. Shankar ambushed Pele and Magnus Carlsen!
One INTERESTING podcast
David Deutsch episode on ‘Conversations with Tyler’
What: David Deutsch fits the stereotype of the classic professor: he’s from Oxford, he’s a theoretical physicist, and he stretches our minds. This episode gets into quantum computing and physics, Star Trek, multi-worlds, and the philosophy of science.
One takeaway: Present-day science research suffers from too much standardization and rigidity. Encourage diversity of all kinds, and disobedience in schools.
Check it out if: ...you want to get into some crazy rabbit holes of science and also be optimistic about humanity’s place in the universe.
Closing with our favourite reflective ‘FutureRing’ question from last month
“Apart from the environment and investing, which fields can we study to understand upleveling and future relevance?"
[We also have a video version of these recommendations here.]