Incite Your Month: July '24
Top Recommendations for the Month
Dear Uplevelers,
Welcome to our monthly edition of ‘Incite Your Month’, your go-to monthly collection of recommendations from our "Curiosity Diet", where we delve into a curated selection of recommendations for uplevelers and decision-makers. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Inciteful Book of the Month:
This month, we’ve chosen Gary Klein’s book “Seeing What Others Don't”. The book delves into the concept of insight and its rarity. As Ramanand puts it, we often overuse the term “insight” in our daily conversations, devaluing its true meaning. Klein’s research illuminates the conditions under which genuine insight occurs, acknowledging that recreating these moments consistently can be challenging.
Our regulars would know though that Gary Klein has consistently appeared in our "Curiosity Diet" and has earned a spot among our favourites. Gary Klein’s collaboration with Daniel Kahneman, despite their differing views in psychology, further underscores the depth and value of his work. Though the book can be a difficult read in parts, its fascinating stories make it worthwhile. If you're interested in understanding the core of innovation and creativity, this book is a must-read.
Article Pick:
Our article pick this month highlights an edition of the "Culture Shots" newsletter by Ria Shroff Desai, the lead of people and culture at Blume Ventures. In this edition, she shares insights from her experiments to disrupt the hiring process and enhance the candidate experience. Harish underscores two key takeaways which advocate for a more thoughtful, less stressful hiring process, benefitting both the employer and the candidate:
Have Difficult Conversations First: Address salary expectations early to save everyone’s time.
Prepare Candidates Thoroughly: Help candidates perform their best in interviews by clearly communicating expectations.
Smartcast of the Month:
For our Smartcast of the month, we’ve chosen an episode featuring Joe Templin, author of "Everyday Excellence." This episode explores the art and science of habit formation and the role of emotions in building habits. Joe, who has a background in martial arts and financial planning, applies the compounding philosophy to his practices.
Harish shares an interesting technique employed by Templin’s running group: participants must run the number of miles equivalent to the current year and are pre-awarded their completion trophy. This taps into the cognitive bias of loss aversion, motivating participants to achieve their goal rather than face the pain of returning the trophy.
Podcast of the Month:
This month’s podcast pick features Morgan Housel, the author of "The Psychology of Money," on The Tim Ferriss Show. This 2-hour episode, serves as a comprehensive overview of Housel’s book, blending psychology with financial planning. Housel reminds us that financial planning is deeply rooted in emotions, not just numbers and logical decisions.
His statement, "Money is not spreadsheets. It's dopamine and it's all really about emotion," perfectly encapsulates the essence of his philosophy. This conversation delves into both his writing and his broader insights on the psychology of money.
Smart Lever:
Our Smart Lever this month is focused on the concept of Culture Debt, discussed by Sirisha and Harish. Much like technical debt, culture debt occurs when organizations make short-term cultural compromises that eventually lead to long-term issues.
Harish explains that as companies grow, they often make immediate decisions to keep moving forward, sometimes overlooking the future cultural impact. Identifying and addressing culture debt early can prevent these minor issues from evolving into significant organisational problems later on.
As Ramanand aptly summarises, all our picks this month reinforce our mission of enabling continuous future relevance. From the power of genuine insights to understanding the emotional component of financial decisions, and from innovating hiring processes to addressing cultural issues, each recommendation carries its weight in significance. We look forward to bringing you more thought-provoking content and recommendations in the next edition. Stay curious and keep inciting your mind!
We are introducing a concept called “Subscriber of the Month”.
A 5-minute interview and you would feature on all our social media channels. The host would be the host of the #9 podcast pan-India by Spotify in 2022!
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