Conscious Leadership

Now this is really topical - sounds like my PhD topic is buzzing - just got this invite today for a "3-Day MBA" learning program:

• Discover neuroscience: Understand how the brain can be shaped and changed.  
• Understand mindfulness: Acquire methods that will help you maintain focus and attention and deliver results. 
• Learn how to deal with emotions:  Master emotional reactions. 
• Become a wiser decision maker under pressure: Develop the ability to remain in the eye of the storm. 

All that I should master to write my thesis. 

PhD is the trickiest way to learn - you can't just think, and you can't just learn. First you learn EVERYTHING and then you think about it all the time.  I regularly find myself doing just that - thinking. I think this is the main reason I try to stay away from people quite a lot. Thinking takes me really long-long time. I was recently thinking that life is all about decision-making, but now I start to realise that it is actually more about thinking. I secretly contemplate some menial job like knitting so that I can just think

moral Dilemmas

How do you act when your world view is in agreement with an action, but it includes others whose moral views will be breached?
I am talking about some ethical laws that can be important in one society but unimportant in others. Mmm..i think the lowest common coefficient rule appkies, i.e. if it's not important to you but important to the other particioant, forcing the breach of his/her moral rule is immoral.

Back to Culture or to Myself

Starting my PhD I consciously decided thst it will be something different, meaning completely different from complex, vague, debatable nature of my master's dissertation. Of course, I have selected well-structured mathematical modelling with all quantitative proofs and no emotional nonsense. It was supposed to be clear and straightforfard. Yes, was..supposed to..
No matter where we go, we take ourselves with. In trying to identify the uniqueness of my study, i came uo with values. Yes, I want to connect inner values with decisions, help unveil those values that motvate the decision, make the decision makers aware of it. And - values again took me back to cultural values, my faviurite Hofstede, my faviurite diversity of cultural views, no black and white, just grey, just something working somehow, mixing up into this wonderful mash of expectatiins, norms and behaviors that somehow amazingly comolement each other comprising a culture. Well, the journey promises a turmoil..but also there will be splendour...

Leaders, including many good ones, come and go

Unless they are in politics :))))

Balance of Views

As I am reading "Value based leadership" more and more aspects of my PhD come to the surface. The author talks about Balance as one of the 4 principles of value based leadership. Balance is acknowledging different points of view (or even different realities!) and understanding their validity and importance to see the complete picture. In decision science this balance is represented as a group decision model with multiple alternatives. Is there anybody who is right and others who are wrong? Certainly we think so, but this thinking is rooted in our conceptual reality..

value based life

My PhD plans are shaping up: value based decision making.  That sounds like what I want to do and like something that means so much to me.
Is what I am doing in line with my values? This is the best question to evaluate any decision.  It seems that doing PhD on this topic - iS indeed.  But everything else?  There are things that are clear but some are vague.  It's difficult to get down to what values are underlying a particular decision.  I think this can be the methodology that I am looking for.
Value based and "want"-based decisions can conflict. I really want a big house with a swimming pool,  everything automated. I want to fly often.  I want to have many kids.  But. .thinking carefully,  these wants are conflicting with my values: non-destruction,  nature protection,  growing from within and not at the expense of others. However on the flip side - not pursuing "wants" can be also destructive. What would be the solution?

Creativity

1. Balance efficiency with creativity. Process management techniques, such as total quality management or Six Sigma, which can increase your growing company's efficiency and productivity, are also likely to decrease your ability to innovate. Don't let efficiency-enhancing practices act as barriers to exploring new ideas. Nurture your natural creativity. Continue to invest in new ideas as you increase operational efficiency.

Taken from here:

http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/174269/great-entrepreneurs-creative-thinkers.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=Monthly&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

 I think I am sometimes trying to be too efficient, it's boring. I need to waste some time

What if the Rules were Different?

What if what you are supposed to do, to be, to look like is changed? It changes all the type - behavior norms, preferences, fashions. Should you be fat or skinny? Should you be active or sedentary? Should you have a family or pursue a career? Follow a religion or be an atheist?
What if what you are struggling to achieve today, will be declared futile, stupid or even evil in the future? There are many ways..
According to Hofstede - only the values stay the same..and that means lots of freedom. Time to look out of the box?

PS. Found "Marriage: A History" book yesterday - the rules were so different before. Turns out we've just in the crisis of Love marriage. And Man-breadwinner marriage is a thing of 1950es - ONLY (I was always wondering why this thing still sticks up to everyone's minds - probably because it is so relatively new)!

Ok, I just need somebody comfortable to sleep with (cats are not comfortable, they push me off the bed and steal the blanket)

Essential Feature of a Great Speaker

Essential feature of a Great Speaker is Great Content. This idea came to me today as I was thinking of the last SANEA lecture and Brian Stratham presentation. He kept my attention for the whole 40-50 minutes of the lecture. I wanted to make so many notes, but was too scared to miss out on what he was saying. Only wrote down a few sentences after the lecture. And even these few sentences are full of meaning still.
Was his speech perfect? Not at all. Did he have a perfect clear voice? No, again. But the content was brilliant.
So the bottom line - if you have nothing to say - rather shut up. No beautiful words, perfect tone or immaculate language will save a speech without a meaning.

Sustainable Society

Met my supervisor on Monday - looks like my research is going to take a serious sustainability angle. I think it is great :) I keep thinking about that article I've read in UAE embassy last year. It was talking about how current economy model is not working - because of environmental damage that it causes and very unequal goods distribution. Further to that I've heard another discussion of the same topic, but in that case the underutilisation of the current youth was mentioned as a symptom of the economic model problem.
I certainly do not understand what is economic model in general and what is the current one exactly, that's why my thinking is so vague. But I think that is something that I must look into in my research as well. Economically sustainable society should also be able to function without environmental damage and allowing all its members to reach decent level of living..
It's getting more interesting :)