SANITY

These are extraordinary times.

This is the introductory sentence of Alan Webber in his book Rules of Thumb, a book containing 52 rules embedding the author’s experiences being the entrepreneur, team captain and player, communicator, and a politician’s friend. The central thought of his book is to rewrite the rules that we know because today is unpredictable and fast paced. He talks about a time that greatly needs sense making due to sudden and exponential rise of globalization’s and technology’s power.

He talks about our time.

One rule a week

 Some rules reflect insights about leadership, communication, change, and conflict management. Here are some of them rules:

Rule 1 When the going gets tough, the tough relax.

Rule 3 Ask the last question first.

Rule 5 Change is a math formula.

Rule 8 New realities demand new categories.

Rule 10 A good question beats a good answer.

Rule 11 We have moved from an either/or past to a both/and future.

Rule 12 The difference between a crisis and an opportunity is when you learn about it.

Rule 15 Every start up needs 4 things: Change, Connections, Conversations, and Community.

Rule 16 Facts are facts; stories are how we learn.