100!
The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. Edition 100.
This is the 100th edition of my thought letter!
For one hundred Sundays it has been offered as a “gift” that might be of some value by helping the reader see, feel and think differently about how to grow themselves, their teams and their business.
Like a gift, it was written in the hope that it would be shared freely and widely generating goodwill for the person who shared and for the writer in return for each reader’s valuable attention and time.
The thought letter has been 100% opt-in and its growth has been completely organic through its forwarding, sharing, re-posting on social media, re-printing on other platforms and word of mouth. No email lists were purchased and not a single dollar has been spent in advertising or promotion.
Beginning with about 100 readers the thought letter now enjoys a weekly readership of 25,000 people.
The most popular post “Re-Thinking Presentations” has been read over 100,000 times so far.
Other popular pieces reveal that there is a deep angst about the future of work (what is the future of the work? What is the role of offices? How does one manage a culture and what is culture in the first place? How does one balance the expectations and needs of different people and age cohorts? How does one adapt to distributed work? How will the next generation of technology change work?)
There is a great interest in the topic of career guidance in a transforming world (How to deal with change? How to manage a career? How to be a better leader? How to remain relevant and upgrade one’s skills in a world where knowledge has a shorter and shorter half-life? How to write a presentation or run a meeting?)
And there is a hunger for advice on how to grow as a person and get the most of time (What is success? How to become a better person? The importance of wisdom, dignity and connectedness.)
For this 100th post as a thank you to all the readers and to expose those who joined midway or later in the past two years to the topics covered, here is a curated list of the 40 posts that have resonated the most organized into a dozen key categories.
Have also created a page on my website so you can bookmark to it easily without needing to retrieve this email. As always thank you for your time and please feel free to share this post and/or the link to anybody you believe may benefit.
The rest of this post is best read and navigated on the web page below:
Here is the link: https://rishadtobaccowala.com/100
1. The Future
The future does not fit in the containers of the past. The future comes from the slime and not the heavens. The future threats and opportunities for most firms are outside their current industry definitions. While the future is hard to predict the broad trends are right in front of our eyes if we decide to look. Central to the future is connectedness…from the future of the Internet to the future of Organizations. Ten years ago, this author wrote a piece predicting the next 10 years and got each one right. Now read predictions for the next 10 years…
2. Managing Change
Change sucks but irrelevance is worse. We all must cure IDD (Inner Dinosaur Disease) by slaying our inner dinosaur. Change is easy when planned in the boardroom but then people and their emotions get in the way. Understanding and managing the new talent terrain is what successful companies are focusing on.
3. Upgrading Our Mental Operating System
The day we stop learning is the day we begin dying. One can learn to learn. The best people do not get defeated they defeat themselves so avoid self-defeat. Seek to understand people including the reality that it is hard to understand people completely.
4. Enhancing Effectiveness
To be memorable, remembered and to truly persuade one needs to think about “tattoo moments”. If one cannot reduce a presentation to nine slides the likelihood of successful meeting is low. Schedule more meetings versus less. To grow one must also be able to give and receive feedback. There are five keys to making the most of time.
5. Becoming a Leader
A leader is not the same thing as a boss. A boss is a title that give one a zone of control and the ability to make people genuflect. A leader is a role, and it is about a zone of influence. People follow people. Not titles. If you are a boss be aware of your “Bossy Traits”. Managing today and tomorrow is very different than even five years ago and most people can change to manage at the next level if they want to. But regardless of the era there are 8 timeless management lessons.
6. Re-Thinking Marketing, Media & Creativity
Marketing is being re-invented but we sometimes make it more complex than it need be. All the changes can be reduced to the back of an envelope! The future of media and creativity has been leaking and morphing and is about to take new shapes that will change the balance of power and bring about a new Creative Age. The power of new narratives and storytelling can be seen through the lens of how a new generation of media is complimenting and sometimes supplementing what came before. Identity is very misunderstood by marketers especially those who believe people have one identity! The potential of metaverses and more will be significant because they satisfy a human need for “God like Power”! and expressing multiple identities.
7. Selling Better
Every Customer, Client and Prospect have the same eight needs. If one knows how to take a photograph one can use the same skills to become a better persuader. Four letters S.A.V.E is all one needs to be better at closing a sale. The people who have impact focus on outcomes, scale and iteration.i
The Eight Things Clients and Customers Want
8. The Future of Work
We are all going to be the gig workers. In-person interactions will always be a key component of successful work, but offices will not for many industries. Most of what we do in many jobs will be replaced by a machine, but we will not if we learn how to augment the machine or have the machine augment us. The future will not be about “years of experience” but “experiences in a year”! Smart companies recognize they have only one key scalable asset which are its people and the best focus on Employee Joy!
9. Creating Great Cultures
Culture does not need a campus, but cults do. To offset “The Great Resignation”, remember that what matters are the factors that drive “The Great Attraction”. Enduring cultures marry “Roots and Wings”. Healthy cultures minimize fear and create an environment where people can call out the turd on the table by noting the brown thing in the middle of the table is not a brownie but a piece of shit! And the best cultures learn how to balance, unite and integrate the varied expertise and differences of the different groups in a company.
10. Managing Careers
Careers will last 50 years, and it is a journey that requires a map, a telescope, a compass and a first aid-kit. A distilled dozen lessons from my forty-year career. There is a simple free nine-word exercise that thousands of people have used over the past two decades to help them get better fitting and satisfying jobs. Before you stay or leave a job you may want to do the exercise “Should I stay? Should I go?”
11. Personal Growth
There are half a dozen things one can do to grow as a person. Go the extra mile it is never crowded. Success is being able to spend time in the ways that give you joy. One of the best ways to grow is to read a book.
Six Ways to Be and Feel Better
12. Wisdom
Life is about learning, love and loss. Generosity is a key to contentment and life satisfaction. Time is all you have everything else is a conveyor belt of distractions from what matters. Dignity is key in a polarized age.
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If you enjoy Rishad’s writing get his best selling book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data which has earned rave reviews from The Economist and is described by the esteemed writer and journalist Ken Auletta as “a brilliant how to book, one that belongs on the shelf next to In Search of Excellence. But this book also reaches beyond the business world. It contains more than a few traces of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, sharing universal wisdom”. To learn more about the book and different ways to access it click here: https://rishadtobaccowala.com/book
Rishad Tobaccowala is an author, advisor, speaker, and educator who distills four decades of experience to help people see, think, and feel differently so they can grow their companies, their teams and themselves. His book “Restoring the Soul of Business:Staying Human in the Age of Data” has been called by The Economist “possibly the best recent book on stakeholder capitalism” and Strategy Magazine named it one of the best business books.
Congratulations and many thanks for your generosity to share so much valuable insights which enlighten and inspire thousands of people worldwide. Wishing you best of health and looking forward to enjoying your writings for many more Sundays to come.
Thank you so much Sir