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    Sense-making
    Sense-making
    Sense-making
    Ebook176 pages2 hours

    Sense-making

    By Ron Immink

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    About this ebook

    ‘Sense-making’ is not about making sense about the exponential development in technology, as that is now a given, but about the impact and implications of technology on business and humanity. Here are the books: The Fourth Age: A book about how humanity has evolved and progressed - with some warnings, but with a very optimistic perspective on humankind; Life 3.0: We are playing with fire, as we don’t understand the law of unintended consequences. And because AI is developing at an exponential rate, it might run away with itself and with us before we realise it - with potentially some dark and dire consequences; Technology vs Humanity: A very interesting book about how machines and a winners-take-all approach are potentially destroying our humanity - killing emotions, mistakes, serendipity, creativity and ultimately not allowing us to be the messy, weird, compassionate, wonderful human beings that we are; What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us: Tim O’Reilly writes about moral choices of where we want to go; No Ordinary Disruption: About the hard statistics, such as demographics and climate impact, urbanisation, emerging economies, pension bombs, shorter company life cycles, job and skill gaps, capital shortage, shortages, boom and bust and the increasing cost base; Thank You for Being Late: We are now so advanced in technology that one lone wolf with a DNA sequencer can kill everyone on this planet; Leadership: Leadership and the Lindy effect (back to ancient values and principles); The New Leadership Literacies: The new leadership literacies are the old ones - combined with technology such as gaming, AR and VR, social media, big data, etc, but ultimately it is about storytelling, clarity, discipline, culture and authenticity; The Captain Class: If you do not lead from the front, you will not be a CEO or leader for long; Putting Stories to Work: Sense-making and all the traits and characteristics of good leadership come together in the ability to create and tell a good story; Capacity: Health is becoming an issue. Why not get people to bring their best self to work, by being healthy at all levels? Physically, mentally and emotionally. That also means that you need to be fit as a leader or CEO. Leading by example; Legacy: This book follows the All Blacks on how they developed a lasting winning culture, applying very old principles such as humility, no-assholes allowed, sacrifice, accountability, identity, character and legacy. Ensuring that everyone leaves their jersey in a better place; Fusion: Culture eats strategy; culture eats technology; culture makes you more agile and resilient. Culture is the last business battleground; Deep Work: Go deep. Go focused. Manage your attention span, and strive to do your best work. Focus on mastery. Quality always wins; Perennial Selling: A no-nonsense approach to long-term success, summarised in three words: Bloody Hard Work.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOak Tree Press
    Release dateNov 23, 2018
    ISBN9781781193730
    Sense-making

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      Book preview

      Sense-making - Ron Immink

      Information

      Introduction

      I am a book nerd. I love books. I even built a company around it, named Bookbuzz. That company is now part of StrategyCrowd, but the principles remain the same. Why reinvent the wheel and why not learn from the best business thinkers? And why not use that as a platform to make better business decisions? Alone or as a collective.

      Most of my work is briefing CEOs and their management teams on the latest business thinking, facilitating conversations to help to create solutions and ideas and increasingly speaking at conferences. This book is an example of what I generally do. It is a mini version of a briefing, unfortunately without the conversation.

      The book opens with a ‘book flower’ with all the images of the book. It is the map of the book. All these books are then referenced in the opening chapter where I link the books together. Each book is then covered in the subsequent chapters, so you can skip to the books that interest you.

      The purpose of this book (and the others in this series) is to make you think, wonder and reflect. Maybe get a new idea or a way forward. At a minimum, it is decision-making fuel and will make you more aware of what the best business thinkers think.

      Always love to hear what you think. Feel free to contact me. My email is ron@ronimmink.com. If you want to follow me, the Twitter is @ronimmink and you can subscribe to my ezine here https://www.ronimmink.com/newsletter/.

      Hope you enjoy the book.

      Ron Immink

      Founding partner, StrategyCrowd

      Sense-making: morality, humanity, leadership and slow flow – the 14 books

      Kevin Redmond, CEO of UseBecause, asked me: From the books you have read in the last say two years, if you had to pick two categories and three to five books in each category, which would you pick?

      Disruptor or disrupted: Leadership in turbulent times

      That made me think. It was also an excellent help for formulating the talk I was doing at the London Law Conference, with the title Disruptor or disrupted: Leadership in turbulent times.

      Not technology

      What is very interesting, particularly from a law perspective, is the move away from technology, innovation and disruption. Instead, business authors are asking some very pertinent questions about where this is all going. This is interesting for law practitioners as, from this, law and regulation follow. And opportunity.

      Sensemaking

      Call it ‘sense-making’. Not about making sense about the exponential development in technology, as that is now a given, but about the impact and implications of technology on business and humanity. Here are the books:

      The Fourth Age

      Covering how some things are still very far beyond our capabilities, particularly figuring out the complexity of the brain, and where the mind, consciousness or soul fits. So near and yet so far. There is hope for us yet. A book about how humanity has evolved and progressed. With some warnings, but with a very optimistic perspective on humankind.

      Life 3.0

      The warning that you keep on hearing is about AI. The potential of applying AI is enormous. Particularly in areas such as law, particularly if you combine that with near science, blockchain and IoT. We are playing with fire, as we don’t understand the law of unintended consequences. And because AI is developing at an exponential rate, it might run away with itself and with us before we realise it. With potentially some dark and dire consequences.

      Technology vs Humanity

      Gerd Leonard spoke at the Law Conference last year. He wrote a very interesting book about how machines and a winners-take-all approach are potentially destroying our humanity. Debugging us, to ensure we operate just like the machines. Being human is inefficient and cumbersome. Killing emotions, mistakes, serendipity, creativity and ultimately not allowing us to be the messy, weird, compassionate, wonderful human beings that we are.

      What’s the future and why it’s up to us

      Tim O’Reilly writes about lots of technologies and their potential applications and impact. He also comes to the conclusion that ultimately it is about making some moral choices of where we want to go. I picked up 36 questions you should consider, and there are many more in the book.

      No Ordinary Disruption

      No Ordinary Disruption is about the hard statistics, such as demographics and climate impact. Nothing fluffy. Urbanisation, emerging economies, pension bombs, shorter company life cycles, job and skill gaps, capital shortage, shortages, boom and bust and the increasing cost base. This book made me realise the true risks that companies are under, and if I can focus on climate:

      ○Circular is the only way to go to ensure future supply lines.

      ○Business will pay for past and future pollution (expect a lot of lawsuits, which should be music to ears of the audience at the Law Conference).

      ○Natural capital cost will become part of cost pricing.

      Thank You for Being Late

      Thomas Friedman’s books feels like dancing in a hurricane. Change is coming to us from every angle. What stood out in his book is the message that we are now so advanced in technology that one lone wolf with a DNA sequencer can kill everyone on this planet. We have to make sure that no one is left behind and that we take care of the immigrant, the stranger, and the loner and create an inclusive society with a place for everyone. Focussing on family, tribes and community development as the killer app to ensure a future.

      Leadership

      Leadership and the Lindy effect (back to ancient values and principles). Moral leadership is now becoming a thing. Helping organisations and people make sense of the mentioned technology, but also making sense of climate change, globalisation and in its core, purpose. As individuals and organisations, including your own purpose as a leader.

      The new leadership literacies

      Being a leader and a CEO is hard and getting harder. In some ways, it is also getting simpler. I wrote a book about books, suggesting that to keep up with the fast pace of developments, you need to slow down. The new leadership literacies are the old ones. Combined with technology such as gaming, AR and VR, social media, big data, etc, but ultimately it is about storytelling, clarity, discipline, culture and authenticity.

      The Captain Class

      Storytelling, clarity, discipline, culture and authenticity is also what captains of some of the most successful teams have in common. Leading by example and the realisation that effort is transferable. The importance of passion and emotion, driven by a common understanding of purpose. However, if you do not lead from the front, you will not be a CEO or leader for long.

      Putting Stories to Work

      Sense-making and all the traits and characteristics of good leadership come together in the ability to create and tell a good story. Without a good story that your staff believes and wants to be part of, you are on a hiding to nothing. Stories are also one of the oldest media in the world to convey information and knowledge and they cut through a lot of the social media distraction. A good story still sticks. It is the platform for leadership. What compelling story are you telling?

      Capacity

      Health is becoming an issue. We are increasingly aware of what bad work environments are doing with our health (another opportunity to sue!). Why not get people to bring their best self to work, by being healthy at all levels? Physically, mentally and emotionally. Combine that with a purpose and a compelling vision, and you will have a business that fires on all cylinders. That also means that you need to be fit as a leader or CEO. Leading by example. Make yourself believable. Potbelly CEOs will be a thing of the past.

      Legacy

      You can’t be unhealthy as an All Black. Physical fitness is a given, so that is no longer a competitive edge. This book follows the All Blacks on how they developed a lasting winning culture, applying very old principles such as humility, no-assholes allowed, sacrifice, accountability, identity, character and legacy. Ensuring that everyone leaves their jersey in a better place.

      Fusion

      Leaving the jersey in a better place. It says it all. Ultimately, it is all about culture. Culture eats strategy; culture eats technology; culture makes you more agile and resilient. Culture is the last business battleground. Companies with the best culture will be able to compete. Companies with the best culture will not be sued. Because they understand they have a responsibility to staff, customer, community and the planet. In a world where everything is going to be transparent, your culture and your staff are your brand. Robots and AI do not understand culture.

      And a few outliers about slowing down

      Everybody is trying to run faster. Reminds me of the race between the hare and the turtle. If billions of people are speeding up, what is the most sensible thing to do for entrepreneurs and CEOs who want to be distinct and different? You slow down. You hone your mind and your body. You go deep. You go focused. You manage your attention span, and you strive to do your best work. You focus on mastery. Quality always wins. Read:

      ○Deep Work .

      ○Perennial Selling .

      The Fourth Age

      An optimistic perspective on the future of humanity

      The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity is a combination of To Be a Machine, Life 3.0 and The Future of the Mind.

      How did we get here?

      The world today sometimes seems ablaze in chaos, without direction. But then step back, and realise this list is paltry compared with what humans have overcome on our road from savagery to civilisation. It is always good to look and realise where we have come from. It started with fire, followed by language. That allowed us to develop stories and imagination as the first multipliers to share knowledge, which resulted in agriculture, cities and ways to organise ourselves as a collective, followed by writing (an old version of blockchain) and the wheel (an old version of the Internet, allowing for ideas to spread quicker). These developments also helped our brains to grow.

      Our brain is amazing

      The brain weighs about three pounds, a bit less than a half-gallon of milk. It constitutes only about two percent of your body weight but uses 20 percent of your energy. It is 60 percent fat, meaning we are all a bunch of fatheads. Three-quarters of its weight is water, and it jiggles like gelatin.

      Complex

      The brain

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