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 and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
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.
The Silent Killer of Your Operating Practice: Fear
In this article, Amanda Schwartz Ramirez, COO advisor for emerging tech startups and who had previously spent a decade at PayPal as a strategy and BizOps leader, writes about the challenges of running operating practices in start-ups.
Here are some interesting points that she makes:
Start-ups require that teams put all their cards on the table and enter a space of reflection versus reaction. The teams must be comfortable expressing the underlying concern that is preventing them from buying in completely.
Behind pithy slogans like ‘Move Fast, Fail fast’ etc. is a dangerous assumption that everyone is on the same page in a start-up – and that they know what to move with urgency towards and what can break; And also that they know how the company is performing, and that they are interpreting and processing the events of the market in a similar fashion. Addressing this is very important.
Amanda highlights the need for intentionality and real alignment on what the start-up teams will be going after and what will matter. To achieve this, start-up leaders need to acknowledge and help mitigate fear. Finally, she outlines some rules for start-up leaders to follow:
Rule #1: Set the tone: Reinforce the expectation that everyone works together to reach the summit. Also, the importance of getting the specifics of definitions right is a great insight and a lovely perspective.
Rule #2: Create some structure: View structure as your friend, not your foe. Take turns. Document cross-team handshakes. Set up a monthly review.
Rule #3: Settle all turf wars: Before endeavouring to set goals, survey your leadership team and look for areas of ambiguity or conflict. You may not be able to resolve these completely but aim to achieve clarity on these.
Rule #4: Create a level-playing field: Cut through the noise and create a level-playing field by documenting your thinking to date and host intentional discussions to ensure the team understands (and has space to question) past decisions.
Rule #5: Address your elephants: Instead of allowing some topics to simmer below the surface, spend some time upfront deciding which of these you’re willing to explore and which you’ll punt on for the time being. Be clear with your team beforehand – write these down and share them alongside any company goals.
Read the full article here.
How The Food Industry Created Today’s Obesity Crisis with Marion Nestle
This a must-listen-to conversation from the University of Chicago Podcast Network.
Marion Nestle is an American molecular biologist, nutritionist, and public health advocate. She is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health Emerita at New York University
In the conversation, she breaks the myths about the widely held beliefs around nutrition and policies that led to the obesity crisis in America, which has also trickled worldwide. Then, she discusses what policy changes are needed—from funding food studies to offering nutrition education in schools to better regulating the food industry.
You can also listen to this conversation by clicking here.
The Inside Story Of ChatGPT's Astonishing Potential
In this TED Talk, Greg Brockman, Open AI Co-founder, explores the underlying design principles of ChatGPT and demos some mind-blowing, unreleased plug-ins for the chatbot that sent shockwaves across the world.
One of the points that Greg Brockman talks about is applying old principles from Alan Turing’s 1950 paper.
Greg also talks about words like collaboration, integration, and managed supervision of interaction between humans and machines, which will change our work.
According to Greg, it is essential for hard reality to hit our faces as we build such products rather than build secretively! Hence, being open to public failure accepting things that can fail and tweaking the mistakes as you go is an interesting perspective he shares when building such ground-breaking products.
Also, he finally talks about how significant breakthroughs happen through incremental interventions and development. So, again, he shares the idea that a co-created approach is worth considering rather than a big bang release.
Intentionality And Real Alignment: Start-Ups Vs Established Companies
Not much attention, value and importance are given to the point made by Amanda Schwartz Ramirez in her article or blog - Intentionality and Real Alignment.
This is such an important truth that has a bearing on the success or failure of a start-up. Start-up, by nature, is an unclear and risky path for the founders as they have a hypothesis of a business problem and put their might behind them to solve it. However, intentionality and real alignment of the team in getting things done profoundly impact how decisions are made, the agility of the decisions taken, and the acceptance of the humungous effort required to get things done. It’s like climbing a summit for the team.
However, when it comes to intentionality and real alignment in a large established company, it plays a less significant difference than in a start-up. There is an underlying business momentum in an established company. Therefore the environment, including the sense and feeling at work among employees, who by now are large in numbers, does not create a feeling of:
Fear of Failure
Fear of Losing Control
Fear of Conflict
Hence, there is no survival fear in these long, established firms among people. Therefore, even with a very poor intensity of intentionality and real alignment, the companies can coast along for many years.
However, in a start-up, this has enormous implications. There is a sense of insecurity, risk and volatility in the air. The teams have to bring to bear a very high intensity of intentionality and real alignment as the teams may be smaller, the product-market fit is being tested and changed every time as a few things work and a few others fail, frequent pivots in the business model may be needed etc. The only thing that makes the difference on the ground is the twin concept of intentionality and real alignment to rally people around the company.
Intentionality is the fact of being ‘ deliberate or purposive’ to the cause or mission of the company, and real alignment is being ‘in sync’ with actions being taken on the ground and getting them done. There has to be a perfect resonance between people and purpose alignment to move things in a start-up.
Most often, people join a start-up for the wrong reasons and without fully appreciating the effort and intensity it will take to move things in a start-up, as confusion, conflict, and chaos are the DNA of a start-up. Hence, when founders keep changing the goalpost based on their ‘best-informed’ instincts without having all the data in hand, the importance of intentionality and real alignment of each member of the team has a heightened impact on the way decisions are taken and changed, or when execution is done and redone.
Most often, founders can’t read this ‘sense of fear’ or ‘sense of lack of commitment’ or a ‘sense of lack of belief in strategy’ given their intensity and passion in driving the company to move forward.
Hence, every individual’s or team’s intentionality and real alignment in the company to the success of the mission or vision of the founder will make a big difference in a start-up vis-a-vis an established company. Moreover, teams in start-ups need to be explicit in their opinions or willing to try alternative approaches, but they cannot disagree in their minds and keep quiet.
Moving out of the way is better than being a bottleneck when people lack intentionality or real alignment in start-ups, as the overheads of this attitude or behaviour are a considerable cost that start-ups cannot handle or manage.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
The importance of intentionality and real alignment towards helping companies achieve their stated goals, vision and mission.
Facts about nutrition are in danger due to the influence of food companies on policymakers. Going back to basics and following old recommended nutrition practices seems to be a better solution than being influenced by current food charts and labels, which do little to solve the obesity crisis.
Learning to work with Chat GPT through integration and collaboration- between humans and machines- will be how tomorrow’s work will increasingly be transformed.