Coherence
Last week was a bad week for all of us because of the tragic deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. An important reminder for all of us to take care of ourselves, our family and friends. Philosopher Alan Watts’s once said life is not a journey. He makes an important point that we should all enjoy our life more and make it playful.
One aspect of increasing happiness in life is how we approach our work. In the book ‘Happiness Hypothesis,’ the author Jonathan Haidt introduces an important concept called coherence. Coherence refers to a system whose parts fit together consistently. According to Haidt, a coherent worldview can explain almost anything, while an incoherent worldview is hobbled by internal contradictions. This concept can apply to nearly anything, but it becomes more interesting when used in life and work.
In this 3-minute video below, Jeff Bezos explains the thinking behind what it means to achieve coherence across multiple levels in life and work.
“I get asked about work-life balance all the time. And my view is, that’s a debilitating phrase because it implies there’s a strict trade-off. It actually is a circle. It’s not a balance. If I am happy at home, I come into the office with tremendous energy, And if I am happy at work, I come home with tremendous energy.”
We are multilevel systems with brains, bodies, societies, and cultures. For us to gain a sense of meaning, we need to achieve coherence across the three levels- physical, psychological, and sociocultural. According to Haidt, finding coherence across these levels feels like enlightenment, and is crucial for understanding the purpose and meaning of life. We achieve coherence when you align doing good with doing well in our work.
Here are a few things I thought were worth sharing this week:
Sheryl Sandberg’s 2018 MIT Commencement speech: “We become more creative when we ask “Could we?” And we become more ethical when we ask “Should we?” So ask both.”
In the five stages of tribal belonging, Sam Kyle talks about how attitudes become self fulfilling. His recommendation? “Change your attitude, change the people who are attracted to you, and change your outcomes.”
MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte just released their 2018 Digital Business Report. These three points from their executive summary caught my eye-
- Digitally maturing companies push decision-making further down into the organization.
- Digital business is faster, more flexible and distributed, and has a different culture and mindset than traditional business.
- Digitally maturing organizations are more likely to experiment and iterate.
Check out some new articles from my colleagues Deepika Goel and Angela Damaso:
My article from last week in case you missed it.
Thanks again to all of you, we’ve hit another important milestone of reaching 2000 monthly active readers.
