Book Summary – Conscious business

• The first principle of accounting: information only value is how its interpreted through the mental models of the “listener”
• You cannot change how another person thinks. You can only give them a tool the use of which will gradually lead them to think differently – Buckminster Fuller

Conscious employees

• Character Trait
  • Unconditional response-ability – focus on aspects of situation that you can influence
  • Essential integrity –
    • you will never have total control on outcomes (success/failure) but you will always have total control on how you choose to react (aligned with values/misaligned with values)
    • integrity is about always reacting in alignment with your own set of values
  • Ontological humility
    • mentally models are limited representations of reality –
      • biases my perception
      • my beliefs are just hypothesis
    • be mindful that you do not have full ownership to the truth
    • when someone talks about a problem, she isn’t describing an external reality by a concern about her well being
• Interpersonal
  • Authentic Communication
    • seek to understand what he has to say
    • provide the necessary context
    • clarify to make sure message is clearly communicated
  • Constructive Negotiation
    • operational conflict:
      • limited resources,
      • conflicting positions
    • identify common underlying interest and negotiate from that position
    • consensus
      • process consensus – tie breaking mechanism
      • agree this is the best way though might not like the decision
    • levels of negotiation
      • Personal – identity
        • manage other’s fear of rejection
        • don’t try to make it alone
      • Inter-personal – relationship
      • Impersonal – object
  • Impeccable coordination
    • Impeccable commitment
      • The goal is to obtain some service from receiver by a specific time
      • Clarity of commitment: To expect and provide verbal acknowledgement of commitment with through well specified conditions
        • understand what is requested
        • have the skills and resources to deliver
        • convinced the opposite party can deliver
        • willing to be held accountable for anticipating potential breakdown
      • Missing commitments due – Golden Rule
        • treat others as you would yourself like to be treated
        • Inform them early as you see failure to deliver
        • Seek work around solution
    • Impeccable praise
      • state very specifically what was the action that was being praised for
      • state very clearly how his/her effort has helped you in terms of the results you want
      • do it publicly
    • Leaders:
      • walk the talk
      • hold subordinates accountable
• Emotional Mastery
  • Self-awareness – know what is happening within yourself
    • can be cultivated and increased at will
    • The center of a tornado is very still
  • competencies / working with others
    • self awareness / recognition of the other’s emotion
      • know its there
    • self acceptance / acknowledgement of the other’s emotion
      • without judgement
    • self regulation / influence how the other react to his emotion
      • have control over how its express
    • self inquiry / inquiry and find out his story
      • find out the root story
    • self expression / listening
      • articulate the emotion and help the other understand
  • unskillful styles
    • exploding outwards by blowing up at people
    • stoic repression leads to imploding beyond a specific threshold
  • skillful approach
    • acknowledge the existence of an emotion
    • examine what mental model you hold lead to interpretation and subsequent emotional reaction

Universal values

• truth
• happiness
• fullness
• freedom
• peace
• love

Universal virtues

• wisdom
• courage
• love
• justice
• temperance
• transcendance

Sacrifice

• Happiness is the highest good – Aristotle
• Other goods
  • money
  • fame
  • power
• Latin: To make sacred by always keeping in mind this hierarchy and consciously giving up on lower order goods for higher order goods

Mental Model

types of filters used

• biological
• linguistics
• cultural
• personal

Culture

• Definition: standard beliefs and expectations of how we do things around here
• What: develops from messages that group members receive and how they are expected to behave
  • shared goals
  • beliefs
  • routines
  • needs
  • values
• Highest point of leverage to influence any human system through conscious leadership