Book 10: Obliquity – Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

This book is one of my favorite books and somehow I found myself in this book. I am the kind of person that never makes plans, of course I have some alternative ideas (options) but not plans because not realizing them makes me sorry so I better do not plan. And similarly I never promise anything to anybody, I just say that I will try to do my best since the result is mostly not depending on me, it is God who makes possible the final result. As the author mentions in the book “there are no predictable connections between intentions and outcomes”.

The book explains the ‘why?’ and the ‘how?’ Obliquity is necessary because we live in an world of skepticism and intricacy, the problems we face aren’t always clear – and we often can’t locate what our goals are anyway; circumstances and conditions change; people change – and are hard to predict; and direct approaches are often self important and unimaginative.

Also related to decision making, as we discussed in the class “we deal with complex (perfect) systems whose structures we can understand only imperfectly”. And as the author argues “the mistake is to make inferences about the relationships between outcomes and processes when we cannot observe and do not understand the processes themselves”. He added that we often cannot solve problems directly because of their inherent complexity, the incompleteness of our knowledge, the interdependence of the actors and the environment, and the fact that most models designed to assist decision-making are highly imperfect descriptions of reality. . So we often get closest to our ultimate goal by pursuing intermediate objectives, or working towards some higher goal that may have the side-effect of delivering what we need, be it more profit, more market share, or success in politics or war. Moreover he argues that business success is not of course as simple to pursue or even to measure as some like to argue, of course the main thing that has the most significant influence is destiny, fate or as someone calls chance or luck. So as the moral of the book I think that we should broad are “plans” or objectives, give ourselves more opportunity, do what we like, and try to do are best then the rest is left to God.

Book 9: How to Change the World - Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

I liked this book because I found in it inspiration and motivation, it was about stories from the real life. While reading I think that this book will touch the hearts and minds of many people and it brings hope and courage through the examples of the power of these extraordinary men and women who change the world. We have mostly studied and heard talking about business entrepreneurs and I think that the fact that this book was about social entrepreneurs made it amazing and more attractive for me, the way that they measure success not by how much money they make, but by how many lives they change. May be this comes strange to many people but I found it adorable.

It tells us that you don't need to be a politician or rich to improve the lives of other people or even your friends. You just need the will to do it and the motivation and their motivation usually comes from a person or event in their life. They managed realizing their goal
not through professionals but through inspired individuals that use determination and innovation to make a difference. People who passed similar situations in their previous lives and wanted to contributed in helping the others.

Everyone can start giving its contribution even if it is small because as it is said “Small Is Good”. This is an inspiring principle which may lead to big things. They say that “if you are truly a social entrepreneur, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger” and I like this phrase vey much. But if we don’t think we can be a social entrepreneur we can consider working for a social entrepreneur rather than trying to be one. Regardless of the role we take in helping to change the world, our contribution can be significant, we just need to be determined and innovative.

To conclude as the author says the lessons of this book can be applied across all types of organizations and industries. Any organization can use these stories that address many of the most difficult issues facing people today to gain inspiration to solve problems where others have failed.

Book 8: Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization

I think that all of us sometimes want to change their behavior, but even after the strong desire and real commitment we fail in achieving it. This book gives us an explanation as to why it happens, why we find it so hard. It brings us the instruments we need to get out of the forces of inertia and transform our life and our work. It shows how the core problems of resistance to change stem from the critical gaps between what is required and a leader's own level of development. It may help leaders understand the commitment to change and how to put it into practice and helps to understand their own blockages and get them more successfully on their path of change. They try to show that individuals, groups and organizations are not blocked by fears for change but more by existing, hidden mindsets (attitudes). And, that most have not, yet, found ways to understand these mindsets and so have not learned to get rid of them. Instead of focusing on simply technical learning, i.e. developing new skills, they claim that the development of adaptive learning should be mastered too, i.e. human capacity to learn and grow which requires rationality and emotion. And I liked very much an expression they used “there is no expiration date in your ability to grow”. It means that people can develop themselves continuously and at any age, they are able, they have the capability to do so and this growth is not related to the age, that is only locked in our mindsets. In other words, mindsets must be unlocked and transformed towards shared mindsets. Firstly, we should understand deeply rooted and hidden mindsets that create a natural but enforcing immunity to change, because as they say “what is not understood cannot be changed”.

Book 7: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Sway reminds us of the tendency to place higher value on opinions from people in positions of power, authority or someone more important. It shows that the hidden psychological forces influence our decision-making. I enjoyed this book very much, the way it explains the dynamic forces including : Loss aversion (the form of playing not to lose), Commitment (tendency to hold fast tour course of action), Value Attribution (attribute value to people or things based on quick impressions), Diagnosis Bias (inability to reconsider initial values once we have made them), Fairness Perception(acting against our best interests if we feel treated unfairly), Altruism – Pleasure conflict (performing better for altruistic motives than for rewards), Group Conformity (going along with the group even if it is wrong).

I would like to share a personal example on how people do not accept loss and so can not cut it on time. I was playing FOREX (Foreign Exchange) and at the beginning you put some “get profit” and “stop loss” limit points after making some analysis, so that you do not have to stay all day long in front of the pc, watching how the trend goes. Once I did not put any profit/loss limits, staying and watching the trend, wanting to stop it manually at the desired level. Firstly I was getting some profit and then the trend went down immediately, against me, it was continuously going down and I could not stop my loss but I was expecting it to change in my favor. It did not and I understood that after some point it was not going to change but even after that point, I could not stop it, still waiting to change in my favor. After losing too much and after I noticed that it was my biggest loss in my trading experience I stopped. Yes it was too late and this was my unforgettable “Irresistible pull of my irrational behavior”. I like the moral of this book, so to observe things for what they really are and do not forget this at any moment. So think twice before acting…

Book 6: Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders

As we know there is no leader without at least one follower. I find very interesting and important her classification and distinction among five different types of followers: Isolates, Bystanders, Participants, Activists, and Diehards. She explains the significance not only of how they relate to their leaders, but also of how they relate to each other and this makes us think and may be even change our followership style. Followership tells us that followers are becoming more important than leaders. It shows us how people with relatively fewer sources of power, authority, and influence matter. They matter when they do something - and they matter even when they do little or nothing. Barbara Kellerman wants to show us that being a follower isn’t necessarily a bad thing. She has chosen her situations in order to get her point, but in fact the extent to which the influence of followers outweighs that of leaders and vice versa is dependent on the situation.