Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best. It also enables you to draw a blueprint for what it takes to get extraordinary things done. You can share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation here.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession, to drive peak performance.
Hybrid Work Is Not The Problem — Poor Leadership Is.
In this article in the MIT Sloan Review, the hybrid work debate has been turned on its head, and the authors — Brian Elliott, Nicholas (Nick) Bloom, and Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury — emphatically make the point that return-to-office (RTO) is not a policy challenge but a leadership challenge. The authors highlight the fact that four factors determine hybrid work success:
Know Your Talent Edge: Companies that successfully manage hybrid work have a good understanding of their talent and what drives performance in their specific context, as well as how flexibility for talent supports broader business objectives. Different functions or departments manage hybrid work differently based on their talent needs and strategy.
Measure Results, Not Presence: A one-size-fits-all policy does not work. They mention that successful companies focus not on the number of logged hours, but on measurable results. Additionally, it helps address one of the most significant problems in workplaces today, which is proximity bias in promotions.
Let Teams Lead the Way: When companies provide the flexibility for teams to decide their hybrid working model, the results are significantly better. One of the reasons for their success was that teams chose patterns that matched their specific collaboration needs rather than following uniform mandates.
Invest in Getting Better - Companies that are successful in a hybrid work culture invest in three areas, according to the authors
Infrastructure redesign - More workspaces to collaborate, connect and discuss.
Resource allocation - Distributed teams must be intentionally brought together on a regular basis to ensure effective collaboration. Hence, budgets to support that are vital.
Skill development - Leaders and managers often lack training on how to effectively manage remote employees. There is a need to create playbooks for them and include them in their KPIs or appraisal process.
Making hybrid work strategic, rather than tactical, is what leaders need to understand and appreciate.
Read the entire article here.
Be Wilful. Go Astray. Feel Your Way – Adulting Rules for the 21st Century.
In this conversation on the ContraMinds Podcast, Jillian Reilly puts forth an important point that there is an urgent need to upgrade our adult operating system.
Here are some highlights of the topics that are covered in this conversation:
Replace fixed plans with curiosity-driven action.
Move from ‘I am’ to ‘I can’.
Transform anxiety about change into agency and adaptability.
Stop waiting for approval and start designing a life that’s responsive, alive, and truly self-directed.
You can listen to the entire episode on:
Apple Podcast | Amazon Music |YouTube
The 4 Types Of Careers, And How To Find Yours.
This video by Prof.Arthur Brooks discusses four types of careers and explains how to identify your own.
Here are the highlights from Dr.Arthur Brooks’ thoughts:
“I don’t like work-life balance. I like work-life integration where your job makes your life happier and your life makes your job happier because your job is part of your life.”
We need to break our own myths that we will have ‘linear career paths.’ That may not be entirely true. There are other types of careers too - Expert Career Path, Transitionary Career Path, Spiral Career Path.
“You deserve to have a career of your own design.”
“A lot of people burn out on their linear careers because they’re actually not linear. They’re spirals.”
“ One of the biggest predictors of liking your job is liking your life.”
You can click the above link and watch the video.
Moving From ‘I am’ To ‘I Can’.
If you really want to move into this zone, it requires a fundamental transformation in the way you think, behave and act. What’s powerful about this statement is that it has implications for how you need to look at your work-life as an integrated platform of choice and conviction.
As you think more deeply about what Brian Elliott, Nicholas (Nick) Bloom, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Jillian Reilly, and Prof. Arthur Brooks discuss, you will begin to observe them as a set of connected and intertwined streams of thought, principles and ideas rather than siloed concepts.
What does the mindset and an attitude of ‘I am’ really result in?
‘I am’ tends to create a fixed and closed mindset.
‘I am willing to do things only within what my role demands or is expected of me.’
‘I am good at this and not good at that.’
‘I am not paid to do that, while I know more must be done to achieve the intended business outcome.’
‘I am unsure and therefore don’t want to take any risk.’
‘I am worried about what others will think of me if I do this.’
‘I am unaware or ignorant and hence don’t want to expose myself to others.’
‘I am waiting for follow-ups and approvals’
‘I Can’ tends to open up possibilities and new perspectives which you hitherto may have ignored or paid less attention to.
‘I can take a different or an alternate career path that’s not traditional and normally taken by many.’
‘I can make mistakes, and it’s fine to be seen failing in front of others.’
‘I can do things my way and am willing to live with the consequences.’
‘I can expose my vulnerability and weaknesses to others. Does not make me any smaller,’
‘I can try new things even if I have not done it before, and results may not be apparent immediately.’
‘I can express my point of view or thoughts without inhibition.’
‘I can disagree and still maintain the relationship.’
‘I can work with people with differing points of view without bias.’
‘I can walk away from my past decisions if they have not worked.’
To do this, it begins with how you want to chart and redraw a plan for yourself continuously, irrespective of how you have done things in the past. You must develop the ability to be open, self-directed, and flexible in response to changing conditions, both at work and in your personal life. You must be willing to go beyond traditional boundary-led thinking and actions that you may have been accustomed to. You must desist from living and working to a template. Industries and skills transform every few years, and you must be prepared to learn and adapt as well. You must be ready to make peace with your decisions.
Try to develop your Personal API—Adaptability, Purposefulness, and Intent —tailored to fit your work and life aspirations and goals.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Measure Results, Not presence.
Learn to continuously upgrade your adult operating system.
Prepare yourself for spiral careers and not linear ones.