I am not I
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see.
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.
Juan Ramón Jimenéz
(1881 – 1958)
“If you want to change others, open up to change yourself” –Otto Scharmer, Theory U
Before leaving graduate school, the most important thing you can learn is NOT about business or policy or medicine, it is the stuff you need to know about yourself in order to start any organization, campaign, business, or profession. I’m starting my own “Guiding Compass” which is a compilation of compelling and thoughtful principles from friends, mentors, professors, Seth Godin and the likes and it’s starting with these 4 guiding principles:
My classes, community, and startup ventures are helping me break down all the systems from which I had been working in. In The Politics of Leadership, I am reminded that the work of a group of people is to interrogate reality by understanding conflicts in values and priorities, while embracing new practices that bring resolution to situations of irresolution and open up pathways for genuine progress. The exchange of ideas, weighing in contrary values, collaborative work, the testing of vision against competing views, and changing one’s mind are all relevant here. In the Art of Public Narrative, I’ve learned that an effective story allows the listener to re-create the story experience. There is a strong element in risk and a leap of empathy in this practice. Storytelling involves authenticity, to step away and just say what you want to say. Finally, Otto’s Scharmer’s Theory U has brought these principles together for me. Theory U focuses on deep listening and solidifies the importance of knowing oneself before you can bring oneself to others.
Some of my favorite links from the past few weeks:
During my first few days at Harvard Kennedy School, I’ve been meeting incredible people from all over the world who have held roles throughout the government, public, and private sector.
A highlight of orientation week was learning from others about innovations in various regions such as Latin America and East Africa and thinking about how I could translate them to other countries such as India. This sparked different ideas such as creating a portal of meaningful innovations from various countries and how organizations in other countries can learn from them across health, energy, agriculture, and water domains.
At the same time, I chatted with others over dinner about how we can tap into the social gaming phenomenon for social good, such as a Farmville that is actually doing good for farms across the world and appealing to the mass segment for gamers.
Just some new ideas to start off a great year at the Kennedy school…
The business game is changing in a profound way. Recently, I met John Hagel from the Center for the Edge, who discusses his radical proposition that management practices and institutions themselves are broken.
According to the Center for the Edge, asset profitability for US firms has fallen more than 75% in the last 40 years. John Hagel’s book, Power of Pull, builds on the concept that this changing landscape requires organizations to embrace informal and dynamic interactions. Push tools, such as static structures and defined relationships, fall short as problems become fuzzier making pull tools, such as dynamic platforms and ecosystems, much more useful.
The Western definition of innovation has been product and technology focused, wheares institutional innovation, which has been happening in emerging markets has remained invisible to Western executives.
For my own personal life this got me thinking about trends I see in my daily life:
I get this question a lot. People wonder why I’m fascinated by the food and agriculture space (former I-banker/Wharton student becomes agrarian..ok I kind of get it). But my answer is simple: Food is part of me and part of all of us.
As an MIT Legatum fellow, I spent this past year incubating ideas in the agricultural space. But I’m not ONLY interested in agriculture. I am passionate about women’s health, innovation in education, and sustainability. When launching any idea, you need to start somewhere. By focusing on agriculture, I’m thinking about how to bring sustainable food on dinner tables, raise farmer incomes to send children to school, and reduce the depletion of natural resources.
On a personal level, I believe in the sustainable agriculture movement, a closed loop process which is a self sustaining system in which waste is converted back into input. On a global level, I am energized by its high ranging impact: According to the World Bank Agriculture Plan, “GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in raising incomes of extremely poor people than GDP growth originating from other sectors.”
Those are my reasons on a high level, but there are plenty more. Bill Gates said it best: “Poor farmers are not a problem to be solved. They are the solution. The best answer for a world that is fighting hunger and poverty and trying to feed a growing population”
Green is no longer just defined as the color of a dollar bill. What surprises me most about working at Deloitte Strategy Consulting this summer is their emphasis on Sustainability (see Enterprise Sustainability and Center for Sustainable Performance.)
According to Wikipedia, in an ecological context, sustainability is defined as “the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future. In a social context, sustainability is expressed as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. When applied in an economic context, a business is sustainable if it has adapted its practices for the use of renewable resources and is accountable for the environmental impacts of its activities.”
When Lehman Brothers started its Sustainability Initiative in 2007, my colleagues cracked jokes about their launch email, dismissing the entire value of the initiative. 4 years later, now back in corporate America, I am surrounded by an entirely new emphasis on sustainability from corporate employees.
This trend has also emerged after CEOs are rapidly adapting their businesses to very different economic situations and the business case for sustainability is being proved. Leading companies such as Walmart and Patagonia evaluate every step of their supply chain against sustainability criteria such as energy efficiency, recycling, and low impact packaging.
Growing up, I always thought my “social” interests would have to be segregated from professional goals, but more and more I see the integration of them both becoming my complementary asset and my competitive advantage.
To read more about Deloitte’s work in Sustainability, click here.
TechCrunch Disrupt is a conference which brings together innovators in web technologies and media and executives to discuss navigating disruption to talk about turning change into opportunity.
What does disruption mean?
Progress. As the TechCrunch team described, “change challenges us to innovate faster and reinvent smarter. In upending the way things are done, it liberates us from costs and routines.”
What did I learn at TechCrunch Disrupt?
Technology is not just about the internet, it is about mapping the human genome, collective intelligence, and changing the landscape of how business is done. More recently, the IPad has shown the power of automating social networks. This product has potential to spawn a digital revolution in schools and online records for hospitals and doctors.
What do Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Jeff Bezos have in common?
They were all in their 20-30’s, male, college dropouts, and nerds. They didn’t have social lives but instead they chose to build a social revolution. They were missionaries not mercenaries. Missionaries seek partnership for the long run and are obsessed with culture. Mercenaries are obsessed with financial statements. It’s a difference between making meaning and making money.
TechCrunch Disrupt showcased many new disruptive technologies throughout the day (some featured below). Maybe I’m just not a “techie,” but I struggled with this conference especially when thinking about the new generation of Steve Jobs’ of the world. This happened especially after a Twitter post I saw by Semil Shah.
RT @semilshah: So many bright minds trying to build FB/Twitter apps. So sad. http://livestream.com/disrupt
It’s true, when we think of the possibilities beyond consumer internet, it’s hard to believe how much energy is going toward applications for Facebook and Twitter. But I guess there is the power of the mass use: 12 months ago 1,000 pieces of info were exchanged every second on Facebook; today this number is 10,000.
Some featured companies:
Airbnb.com
Snacksquare.com
Stayclassy.com
Thisorthat.com
Pinterest.com
Zazuba.com
Invisiblebracelet.org
Last week, I was fortunate to meet Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, who was the keynote speaker at the Sloan’s women celebration. She embraced a vision that I aspire for: having a meaningful life with meaningful work. In this post, I want to recount some of her “lessons learned” that have motivated me to do the same.
1) Follow your compass, not your clock. Do you want the company, the work, or the title? Many people find jobs but not careers. She advises to find passion by finding the work that brings you both passion and compassion.
2) Thank your parents. Andrea discussed her traditional Chinese upbringing (reminds me of my Indian-American childhood!) and the principles and values she learned along the way. This has counted to be most important in dark moments. At the end of the day, human values and human relationships are why companies survive and thrive.
3) Reinvent yourself. Every month, reflect on your decisions. Are you being objective and opening up to listen?
4) Innovation. George Bernard Shaw said “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” Be a transformative thinker.
5) Use technology. Social media is transforming business and the world.
6) Be open to stamping your passport. We live in a global marketplace now. China is the second largest consumer market in the world.
7) Social responsibility. It’s not an option anymore, it can be part of your job. Any private company can do good. It is not only for what we do that we are responsible, but also for what we don’t do.
Andrea reminded me to stretch myself and find balance between all sectors of my life: my work, my home, myself, and my community. When asked about work-life balance, she said “It can be done, but you need to make decisions prioritizing the two.” As an example, she spoke of a time she declined an invitation to meet President Bush at the White House in order to send her daughter off to Paris for summer camp because “she will remember forever that I wasn’t there… [whereas] President Bush would never have even noticed.”
This fall, I am forming a women’s entrepreneurship circle with a group of Sloan women to share ideas, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. If you know any great speakers or organizations we can partner with, please let me know.
Let’s support ‘farms that aren’t worlds into themselves, farms that restore instead of deplete, farms that farm extensively, instead of intensively, farmers that are not just producers but are experts in relationship’ –Dan Barber, TEDX Cambridge, May 17, 2010
TedX Cambridge brought together chefs, psychologists, writers, designers, and engineers for an intimate look at science, art, and the future of food.
Food is not just about sustenance; food is about building community and motivating higher service that can change the world. Currently, consumers and citizens have been subjected to arbitrary food norms. With self controlled mechanisms and greater transparency, consumers can become more rational, ethical, and environmental, making choices that are better for them and for the planet.
TEDX reminded me not only about how we eat, but also how we get the food we need to eat. This inspired me to look at new parameters on how consumers eat, whether local, organic, or fair trade. I was constantly reminded to not only look at how healthy our food is, but also how ecological and ethical it is.
The day’s event also brought up many challenges facing the sustainable food movement:
I’d like to end this post with a thought that came from David Gracer’s TED talk.
“Why are we not eating more bugs? They can’t give us pandemics (there is no cricket flu unlike swine or avian flu) & 2) their nutrition content can compete with any other food.” Yum…
Crickets & Toast below
“First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” –Thomas Kempis
Improvisation. What does it really mean? Today I had the pleasure to spend the afternoon with 7 other Sloan students for an improvisation through influence workshop. We practiced improvisation in a number of settings: being an expert in uncomfortable situations, balancing emotion and reaction, and approaching difficult conversations in the workplace.
I learned that dealing with my inner critic is really about dealing with myself. Sometimes we need to just break free from our thoughts and that means striking the balance of being authentic and being assertive.
This session reminded me that improvisation is a part of daily life. Everyday we are actors in a play, a theater where we strive to live up to expectations and meet certain goals. Sometimes we may find ourselves not being true to ourselves just for the love and attention of someone else. With more awareness, we realize this gap within and need to know when its time to let go.