Mukesh Gupta's Blog, page 43

How to be Happily Busy

Time is the most precious commodity that we have. Attention is the second most important. And we need to trade both of these (depleting, non-renewable) with other people and organisations.

This is almost non-negotiable (of course, we can go to the Himalayas for a retreat or become a Buddhist monk, but I am sure people who read my blog have neither of those intentions). That being the case, we don’t have a choice if we want to trade our time and attention but the choice is what do we trade it...

Trade Wars and The Importance of Being Open to Persuasion!

We are living in a society where on every topic imaginable, every on-going debate, people are either for something or against something and at most times both at the same time. This is a condition which typically leads to more polarisation and alienation than consensus. We seem to have forgotten the art of debate. 

We only communicate to influence or nudge others towards our point of view. Others do the same to us. And all of us get frustrated and angry when none of us is able to influence ea...

Super Balls and Glass Balls

I am currently reading the book – Breakthrough: How to Harness the Aha! Moments That Spark Success by Scott Duffy and David Meltzer. So far the book has turned out to be an easy read and has some interesting stories to teach some very good (though not very surprising lessons). 

One of the thing that the authors talk about in the book is about the ability to manage different priorities as an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur. In this context they share the metaphor of super balls and glass balls...

Your Self – An Owners Manual

I came across this post by Dave Pollard that I found amusing, informative, exhaustive, fun and wise – all at the same time. I could not stop myself from sharing this on my blog. 

You can read the entire post on Dave’s blog – here. Go back and read some of his earlier post as well, while you are on his blog. A wealth of information and wisdom awaits. 

Dave and his work was introduced to me by Harold Jarche, whom I hosted on my podcast sometime back. His blog also has a wealth of information th...

The Subtle and Critical Art of Questioning

Lawyers have known all along that the way word their question to a witness, determines the response they get from the witness. They have used this practical knowledge for decades to both right the wrongs and wrong some rights. 

In a research paper titled, “Eliciting the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth: The Effect of Question Phrasing on Deception,” Maurice Schweitzer (Wharton professor) & his team of researchers discovered that subtle tweaks in the way a question is asked ca...

How Not to be Overwhelmed by Your Workload

Earlier today, I read this HBR post about 5 Things to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed by Your Workload. The author shares the following strategies about what we can do to not feel overwhelmed. 

1. Breathe. Slowly. And change your self talk. 

2. Track your time to understand how busy you really are. 

3. Check your assumptions about other people’s expectations. 

4. Examine your assumptions about what success requires

5. Start taking time off now instead of waiting for the “right” time

All of these are...

Yet Another Interesting Safety Announcement by an Airline

Here is another interesting in-flight safety announcement by Turkish Airline. With so many already fun ways to share the safety message already in play, I am surprised to see that this has still not become the norm. 

This proves to me the importance and impact that culture can have on an organisation. 

Enjoy the announcement here. 

It is always great to see brands and businesses having fun and collaborate with each other, just like the Lego team and the Turkish Airlines have done so for this...

Is it Worth It?

I just saw this video where the world’s best coach (arguably) shares his advice on trying to add too much value to a conversation or a relationship is not always a good thing. 

Firstly, take the 4 minutes and watch the video:

There are three things that I liked in the video: 

Quality of an Idea Vs Execution of the idea

There are two things to consider in a situation when someone comes to you with an idea – the quality of the idea and the commitment to execution of the idea. Most times, we en...

Constant Pursuit of Equilibrium

All things naturally move towards and want to exist in an equilibrium of sorts. So are we as humans. We seek out and continue to move towards a higher level of productivity until we reach an equilibrium when our capability matches the expectation from us.

Once we reach this point, we need to make a choice.

Do we settle at this level or do we want to take this to the next level of equilibrium? 

And then we need to make this choice again and again…. 

The challenge is that most of the time, we...

How the mind makes new ideas: Bending, breaking, blending

In this short video David Eagleman shares how all new ideas originate by bending, breaking or blending existing ideas. 

Watch the video here. 

Simple, yet profound. Once we know this, there is an amazing array of things that we can create. 

Also reminds me of a post that I had written long back – 3 Ways to Systematically Come Up with Breakthrough Ideas. That post talked about a similar 3 pronged approach to coming up with creative ideas. 

You can follow David on twitter here. 

PS: You can bu...