How to Remain Human in the Age of AI

On September 29, 2026September 29, 2026 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn AI, Business, Communications, Conference learnings, Dehumanisation, Ecology, Environment, EQ, Humanness, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Purposeful Leadership, Purposefulness, Relationships, Team Excellence, Technology, ValuesLeave a comment

Artificial Intelligence is transforming our world at an astonishing pace. Tasks that once required human expertise can now be completed in seconds. AI can analyse data, generate content, recommend solutions to complex problems, and even engage in conversations that feel remarkably human.

While these advances offer tremendous opportunities, they also present a profound question: as machines become increasingly intelligent, how do we remain deeply human?

The greatest risk of AI may not be the loss of jobs or the disruption of industries. It may be the gradual erosion of the very qualities that make us human. As we become accustomed to outsourcing our analysis, thinking, decision-making, and even aspects of our relationships to technology, there is a danger that efficiency begins to replace wisdom, convenience begins to replace effort, and information begins to replace understanding.

Yet, when viewed through the lens of purposefulness, we see that the more capable AI becomes, the more valuable uniquely human capacities become.

One of these capacities is judgement. AI can process vast amounts of information, but it cannot fully understand psychosocial contexts, emotions, values, ethics, or the consequences of decisions in the way humans can. Much of this knowledge is unique to each individual and is shaped by lived experience rather than stored in a data centre. In an increasingly complex world, the ability to exercise sound judgement will become far more important than simply possessing information.

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Purposeful Leadership 12: The Three Branches Working in Concert

On February 1, 2026February 1, 2026 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, purpose, Purpose Quest, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Relationships, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Purposeful leadership is often understood as a progression: purposeful self-leadership, followed by purposeful people leadership, and eventually purposeful organisational leadership. While this sequence is a helpful entry point, it does not reflect how leadership is actually lived. In practice, purposeful leadership is not linear. It is cyclical, relational, and complex. Each form of purposeful leadership both shapes and is shaped by the others, forming a living system rather than a developmental ladder.

Purposeful self-leadership is the inner anchor of this system. It is the ongoing practice of aligning values, beliefs, intentions, and actions with a deeper sense of purpose. This inner work is not private or abstract. It shows up most clearly when leaders are under pressure, navigating ethical tension or difficult trade-offs. When leaders lack inner coherence, purpose becomes performative. When they are grounded in purposefulness, they are better able to act with integrity, resist expedient compromises, and hold responsibility with maturity.

Purposeful people leadership is where inner purpose meets relational reality. Purpose is tested not in declarations, but in conversations, decisions, and everyday interactions. The way leaders listen, build trust, address conflict, and hold accountability reveals whether purposeful self-leadership is truly embodied. Purposeful people leadership translates inner alignment into lived experience, shaping how people feel, engage, and commit to the organisation.

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Complexities of Purposeful Organisational Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 11)

On December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Leadership, purpose, Purpose Quest, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

In the previous article, we explored how to develop purposeful organisational leadership. In this post, we focus on the complexities of purposeful organisational leadership and potential remedies.

Organisations do not become purposeful by proclamation; they become purposeful by orchestration. And orchestration is complex. It asks leaders to conduct a score that balances markets and meaning, governance and grace, pace and patience. If purposeful people leadership is the dance with paradox at the human scale, then purposeful organisational leadership is that paradox amplified across systems. The stakes are higher, the variables multiplied, the pressure relentless. Yet the beauty is also greater, because purposeful organisations can hold the space where profit and flourishing meet.

The first complexity is when the purpose is only a brand. Organisations often craft eloquent purpose statements, then proceed to pursue them with methods that quietly contradict the message. Purpose is not merely narrative; it is action. When we violate this principle, people quickly learn that the banner on the wall is not the truth on the floor. To lead purposefully at the organisational level, we must ensure that strategy, structure, systems, and culture are not just aligned conceptually, but coherent behaviourally. This coherence is evident in how we behave, especially when performance pressures intensify.

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Purposeful Organisations (Purposeful Leadership – Part 9)

On October 31, 2025 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Leadership, purpose, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, societal, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

In the previous articles, we explored the first two branches of purposeful leadership: self and people. In this post, we turn to the third and final branch, purposeful organisations. If purposeful leadership begins with the individual and extends to teams, its ultimate expression is in organisations that are guided by purpose rather than vision.

Beyond Vision: Why Purpose Matters

Traditional organisations often define themselves through vision statements, aspirations of what they want to become. While visions can inspire, they are frequently inward-looking, focused on growth, dominance, or profitability.

Purposeful organisations, by contrast, start with a deeper question: Why do we exist? The answer is not about market share or shareholder value; it is about contribution to the flourishing of life. “Flourishing workplaces require the re-creation of organisations to give life to a truly postmodern era of collaboration in order to facilitate organisations to flourish on this planet for future generations” (De Silva, 2024).

Purpose is not an add-on, like corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is not a department or a project. It is the organising principle of the entire enterprise. Every policy, process, and decisions flow from the purpose. Every role is designed to serve it. Every strategy is evaluated against it. Purpose becomes the compass that guides the organisation through daily decisions, complexities and change.

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Complexities of Purposeful People Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 8)

On September 30, 2025 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, engagement., EQ, Leadership, purpose, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

In the previous article, we explored how leaders can intentionally develop purposeful people leadership, an approach that transforms teams and organisations by aligning individual purpose with collective contribution.

While this aspiration is noble and deeply impactful, it is not without its complexities. In this post, we examine the challenges, paradoxes, and tensions that arise when we choose to lead people purposefully.

Cognitive Aspects

One of the first complexities arises from how people cognitively make sense of the notion of purposefulness. The concept of “purpose” is often misunderstood or conflated with goals. While goals are specific outcomes we strive to achieve, purpose is the deeper reason behind those goals, the “why” that gives them meaning. This distinction is not always clear, and many team members may struggle to grasp its relevance. Some may view purposefulness as abstract or philosophical, disconnected from the practical realities of work.

Moreover, individuals interpret purpose through the lens of their own experiences, beliefs, and values. What feels purposeful to one person may seem irrelevant or even threatening to another. Leaders must navigate these differences with sensitivity, helping people explore and articulate their own understanding of purpose without imposing a singular definition. This requires patience, dialogue, and a willingness to embrace ambiguity.

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The Three Branches of Purposeful Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 2)

On April 1, 2025April 1, 2025 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Leadership, Personal Excellence, purpose, Purpose Quest, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Team Excellence, Teams2 Comments

In the first article of this series, published last month, we explored the two keywords of the concept of purposeful leadership: purposefulness and leadership. As I mentioned earlier, I allow the series to unfold as in the process of finding purposefulness. Being purposeful means creating a positive impact on the people and environment one encounters (De Silva, 2024). As I reflected on this series, the idea of writing about the three branches of purposeful leadership emerged.

I use the metaphor of ‘branches’ rather than categories, boxes, or containers because I see the three core areas of purposeful leadership growing in unison, but at different speeds and proportions, much like the branches of a tree. The bigger branches grow stronger but perhaps more slowly, while the smaller branches grow faster but are not as strong. However, all branches, big or small, have a purpose in the growth of the tree.

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Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Green (Purposeful Leadership – Part 1)

On March 2, 2025April 1, 2025 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, engagement., Leadership, Team Excellence2 Comments

A plant with the words *Purposeful Living* on the pot, given by my eldest daughter for Christmas 2020. This is a photo of it on the 1^st of January 2023. It has grown with the thesis.

Purposeful Leadership contains two ideas, purposefulness and leadership, which cannot be simplified or explained using a short definition. This is substance for a book or many. I commence this series of blog posts, not knowing the nature of articles nor the number of articles. I allow the series to unfold as in the process of finding purposefulness.

I must start somewhere, hence let me explain purposefulness in an over-simplistic manner. Purposefulness is a mindset that guides thinking, decisions and actions, with the flourishing of life being given importance. Flourishing of life begins with one’s own life, that of family, team, organisational stakeholders, environment, society, and the world at large. It’s simply for the flourishing of all forms of life. Being purposeful is a challenging aspiration, given the cognitive, practical, psychosocial and contextual complexities of the world we experience. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile pursuit as discussed in my doctoral thesis; Living Purposefully: An Inquiry into the Life of a Leadership Development Practitioner (De Silva, 2024). Leadership is about the intention and effort to influence oneself, and those connected with oneself in personal and work roles. Therefore, purposeful leadership is enacting self-, team- and organisational leadership for the flourishing of life.

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Values – The Compass of Morality

On January 28, 2021January 31, 2021 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Conflict, engagement., Knowing, Leadership, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Sales, Spiritual, Struggles, success, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Think of the last time you had to make a difficult decision. A time where options were difficult to pick from. A time where the more materialistically profitable option did feel right. I have faced many such situation. I would like to share my personal experiences to help shed some light on this dilemma.

When I have such a dilemma I reflect on my aspired values to find direction as per the quote by Idowu Koyenikan in the visual above. The five values I attempt to live by are summarised I the following statement.

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Developing Values

On December 19, 2020January 31, 2021 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, engagement., Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

We inculcate values during our formative ages, influenced by family, teachers, religion and the society we live in. I always found it is difficult to ‘train’ people to live values as they are already part of each person. I also agree with the above quote by Jennifer Cruise; values do not take us get anywhere, they define us. Therefore what is the point of having values in an organisation and developing team members to live by organisational values.

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Being The Person You Are Destined To Be

On September 27, 2020January 31, 2021 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, energy, engagement., happiness, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, success, Team Excellence1 Comment

Six questions you need to ask yourself to be the person you are destined to be – A presentation by Marshall Goldsmith.

Engage in this sincere presentation by Marshall Goldsmith and reflect on the six powerful questions he is prescribing. You may at-least start thinking in a manner that leads you to discover who you are meant to be. Enjoy the journey.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Continue reading →

Rays of Enlightenment

On September 25, 2020September 26, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Ecology, energy, Environment, happiness, hope, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, purpose, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

A photo taken at a rain forest in Kandy, the hill capital of Sri Lanka.

This is a photo taken during a nature walk with my team. I remember sitting down on this bench to take in the energy of the beautiful rain forest. As I reflected I felt the paradox of the place; the sounds of nature and the voices of people, the trees and the cement bench, the forest and the road, the cool wind and the warm sun rays. One of my colleagues had taken this photo at that time and I was fascinated with the rays of sunlight coming towards me, as if the universe was sending me rays of enlightenment.

The Inspiring Leader

On September 21, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Communications, EQ, happiness, hope, Leadership, Life, Soul Nourishing Poems, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Leadership – A poem by Spatula – Read by Mathew Coger

As you listen to this poem, reflect on your current attitude about leadership. Does this move you into thinking of doing what you are doing as a leader or to change your leadership approach? What baby steps would you take to reinforce your good leadership behaviours and/or transform.

Purposefulness in Team Members – Can It Be Developed?

On September 20, 2020September 20, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, energy, engagement., happiness, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Sales, service, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Developing Purposefulness in Team Members – My presentation at the Asian & African Retail Congress in Mumbai India,

A presentation made to leaders in the retail industry at the Asia & Africa Retail Shopping Center Congress. Practical application of leadership and personal develop ent methods delivered with powerful concepts and personal experiences.

As you watch this video, reflect on steps you are taking and further steps you can take to develop purposeful team members in Your organisation.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

Inspiring Online – Opening Up New Possibilities.

On September 18, 2020September 18, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn hope, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, purpose, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

A screenshot captured by a participant of the ‘Mastery of Self – NLP online’ session.

It was a common occurrence to have participants take photos during in-room sessions and publish it widely on social media during my work before the pandemic. After having taken my work online over the past 6 months and conducting various organisational and personal transformation webshops for leaders, teams and individuals, I was pleasantly surprised to see this photo on LinkedIn.

A participant from r-pac Bangladesh, Rakibul Alam has posted this photo with the message: I am not the best but I can be better. Yes I can do it in a better way, no one can hold me down! Special thanks to my Guru Ranjan De Silva.

This type of gesture gives me confidence to do this work, even online. This comes at a time when I have started conducting in room sessions for companies in Sri Lanka, with the mindset that my type of work requires and in-room experience for best impact. However due to travel restrictions I don’t see myself flying for a while and this gesture gives me confidence to innovate newer methods to make online learning experiences to my overseas clients in a more enjoyable and effective manner.

How To Create Delightful Self-Sustaining Service

On September 13, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, energy, engagement., happiness, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Sales, service, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Ron Kaufman discusses his New York Times bestselling book Uplifting Service,

A proven path to delighting your customers, colleagues, and everyone else you meet. The book exposes a massive wound in a subject area that has become buried in weak distinctions, inadequate practices, and popular but shallow clichés. Ron explains the 5 key elements to build a self-sustaining service culture that can uplift an individuals, transform an organization, and ultimately change the world.

As you watch this video, reflect on steps you can take to engage the fickle minds of your children, team members and yourself.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

The Coin That Makes The Difference

On September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, Relationships, Sales, service, success, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

What can a coin reveal about your service mindset? Listen to Ron Kaufman and discover.

As you watch this video by customer service guru Ron Kaufman, reflect on the ‘coin’ that is preventing you from reaching specialness. What will it take to pick up YOUR coin and get rid of it today?

Can The Fickle Mind Be Engaged?

On September 6, 2020September 6, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn energy, engagement., EQ, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Engaging the Fickle Mind

A post-lunch keynote by Ranjan De Silva that kept an audience of almost a 1000 professionals entertain, energised and engaged at the National HR Conference of Sri Lanka, organised by the Institute of personal management (IPM). A real life testimony of how to engage the Fickle Mind.

As you watch this video, reflect on steps you can take to engage the fickle minds of your children, team members and yourself.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

Say ‘No’ to Distraction and Say ‘Yes’ to ‘Mastery’

On September 1, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, EQ, happiness, Health Care, hope, Inspirational Speechs, IQ, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Robin Sharma – on the dangers of your devise and other non-value adding addictions on your success and how to gain monomaniacal focus, using practical and neurological information.

As you listen to this powerful speech by Robin Sharma, reflect on steps you can take to kill the distractions of your life, build purposeful habits and give life and energy to your special talent … to achieve mastery purposefully.

Liberating Empathy

On August 29, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Compassion, EQ, family, happiness, Health Care, hope, Learnings that Matter, Life, Love, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, societal, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Can empathy be developed or Liberated? As you watch this video, reflect on this questions. Consider how important empathy is for leadership success. Is there an ideal amount of empathy? Could empathy be too much or two little? What steps would you take to liberate the ideal amount of empathy from within you for your leadership success.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

Getting Your ‘Adult’ into the driving seat of your life.

On August 22, 2020August 23, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Conflict, family, happiness, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, transactional analysis, ValuesLeave a comment

Eric Berne’s – Transactional Analysis presented.

This Video is created to learn the secrets of understanding Self and others. Eric Berne is the founder of the Transactional Analysis. In this video you will learn about Ego States and Transactions that will help you improve communications and relationships.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

The Pandemic & Money

On August 12, 2020August 13, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Cash Flow, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, purpose, Purpose Quest, Releasing, Spiritual, Struggles, Team Excellence, Values, World affairsLeave a comment

In the last 5 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted five important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational and health. Let’s explore the sixth pillar, the financial aspect in this blog post. The financial pillar consist of four aspects earnings, expenses, savings and investments. As in the past five blog posts let me describe my personal experience during the pandemic.

With the announcement of the pandemic, cases starting to rise and lockdowns getting implemented, many of my clients decided to postpone sessions that were scheduled. In addition some of the industries my clients were in, specially the apparel industry was having orders getting cancelled, resulting in impending reduction in their cashflows. In the past too, some companies first eliminated people development budgets when such challenges arose. All this made me realise that I need to focus on planning my finances. Continue reading “The Pandemic & Money” →

Joyous Humility

On August 7, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn energy, happiness, hope, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, Sri Lanka, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Mental Toughness for the Sri Lankan Cricket Team

This is a moment of Joy and Humility. The humility of being trusted to spend 3-days with the Sri Lankan Cricket Team in 2003 in helping them in developing mental strength. The joy of learning from this amazing team while been entrusted to share some essential mental techniques with them. The joy of liberating and galvanising the energy, passion and confidence of this team that makes a cricket loving nation of 20 million proud.

Childlike Learning – Is it a thing of the past?

On July 31, 2020August 2, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn EQ, happiness, learning, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

This is a moment from an in-room learning experience pre-pandemic. This a photo taken after an activity related to the ‘Six Thinking Hats’, conducted for one of my clients in Dubai. It now 4 months of online learnings using ‘webshops’, a concept innovated by my team to attempt to create an experience close as possible to the fun and interactive in-room experience.

While some participants who have experienced our in-room and online learning experiences say that they got a similarly impactful experience, my fervent wish, for the sake of the quality of learnings, is that we move back to physical venues as soon as the situation starts permitting us to. Given that life in Sri Lanka is limping back to normal, we have already conducted 3 days of in-room sessions and many more are lined up. I cant tell the impact these have had not only on the participants experience, but also on the quality of our contribution.

Pandemic and Relationships

On July 29, 2020July 29, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, EQ, family, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, Purpose Quest, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

When lockdowns happened in mid-march I got standard in Dhaka without flights to return home. Therefore my experience is quite different to those who were with families and had to spend a lot of time with them while working or not working from home. However since returning home about 2 months ago I have been largely working from home that gives me the experience to reflect on that reality as well.

Being away from home with the uncertainty of when I will return home increased the concern towards me by mother, wife and daughters at home as well as my siblings and other relatives from various part of the world. The 10 weeks in Dhaka resulted in more communications with all my close family and other relatives more than ever before. Conversations among relatives resulted in each one inquiring from others about how they are affected by the pandemic, the impact on livelihood etc. Therefore there was concerned among each other for each other, much more than usual. Continue reading “Pandemic and Relationships” →

What’s Your ‘One In A Million’ Long Shot?

On July 16, 2020July 20, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn hope, Leadership, Life, Personal Excellence, purpose, Songs for Growth, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

When You Put Your Heart In It – Kenny Rogers

As you listen to this song, reading the lyrics below if you choose to, reflect on those long shots you took, where you felt the chance of success was one in a million. Reflect on how those efforts played out.

Lyrics of the song:

We knew it was one in a million, It was such a long shot,

Somehow we’ve got here together, and who knows what will happen,

Anything can happen, If we keep getting better, And we keep on believing.

When you put your heart in it, It can take you anywhere,

Who’s to say that we can’t make it, It’s the same dream that we share,

When you put your heart in it, It can take you anywhere.

This road was so long and winding, It was such a hard road,

But we can’t stop once we had started, We were always getting closer,

Suddenly it happens, A chance in a lifetime,

Now we’re gonna take it, We can make it.

When you put your heart in it, It can take you anywhere,

Who’s to say that we can’t make it, It’s the same dream that we share,

When you put your heart in it, It can take you anywhere…

Do You Love Leading?

On July 14, 2020July 14, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, EQ, hope, Leadership, Love, purpose, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Empathy & Perspective, an inspirational Speech By Simon Sinek

Everyone can be a leader. Everyone don’t want to be a leader. Everyone don’t have to be a leader. You need to love your people to be a leader. As you listen to this inspirational speech, reflect on if you love being a leader. If not why not? What steps would you do?

Inspirational Speeches

Measuring What Matters

On July 4, 2020July 4, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

The Human Performance Index at Work

HPI is the sum total of the actions, interactions, behaviors and collaboration of leaders, teams and individuals at all levels of a business that have direct or indirect impact on business performance. HPI is the answer to measuring the quality of organisational cultures that is vital for performance improvement. It also works as a tool to help make strategic decisions that enable creating a winning work culture.

A presentation by Ranjan De Silva at the Bangalore HR Summit 2011, titled HPI at work at Agora, the leading supermarket chain in Bangladesh.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

learnings-that-matter-1

The Beautiful Paradox

On June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, hope, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Pictures the Speak, psychology, purpose, Team Excellence, Values1 Comment

coaching pic

This is one of my favourite pictures that depicts the essence of learning. This is an executive coaching process underway for senior executives of the John Keells Holdings at the Cinnamon Citadel Hotel in Kandy, the Hill Capital of Sri Lanka. A peer coaching process where peers who participate in the coaching process, becomes a part of the coaching team together with the coach.

The beanbags and the dress code signify the informality of the process, the blend of colours signifies the diversity of the aspirations, hopes, concerns, issues, methods and solutions of the participants. The disorderly nature of the white chairs in the background with bags thrown around signifies the messiness that needs to be experienced in the learning and growth process. The flip charts signifies the formality of the work to be done. The sweets, water, snacks and tea provided shows the care taken to ensure the comfort of the participants. The intense listening and focus of the participants shows the seriousness, rigorous and the respect show to each other and the process.

Overall a beautiful blend of the soft and the hard, the messiness and the orderliness, the informality and formality, the soft and the hard touching hearts and minds for real, purposeful transformation.

Pictures that speak

Healing for the Healers

On June 19, 2020April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, hope, Life, Pictures the Speak, psychology, purpose, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence, World affairsLeave a comment

IDH Session 15 June 2020

What else can be more gratifying and humbling than to be trusted by the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka with the nerve center fighting covid-19 in Sri Lanka, the Infectious Disease Hospital, popularly known as IDH. The team of 300 medical professionals led by the Director of Quarantine of the Ministry of Health – Sri Lanka, Dr. Mahendra Arnold benefited by this initiative.

These héros and heroines have contributed to the machinery of the Sri Lanka government that has eradicated the community spread of covid-19. The statistics speak for the amazing work they have done with less than 2000 infection in the Island, no community spread for 7 weeks, 74% recovery rate, 0.5% mortality and less than 1% infection rate (only from quarantined overseas returnees and a spread in a navel base that is now under control).

These healers were gifted with psychological first aid based on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Releasing to help them learn how to heal from inside out. The workshops organised by Intercontinental Institute of Human Resource Management (IIHRM) was delivered by my Team and me. We salute all the companies who supported this initiative.

We hope and pray that these healers will get mentally stronger to continue their noble cause.

Pictures that speak

Life is Worth Living

On June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn family, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Songs for Growth, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Life is worth Living – an inspirational song by Justin Bieber

As you listen to the song, reflect on the how you feel when you look at the long road ahead in your life, on who who gave you direction and help when you were confused, and on the mistakes you made and how you responded. Moving on reflect on how would you respond to such situations and how would you help others who are on the journey of life.

Songs for Growth

Abundance Magnet

On June 10, 2020April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Cash Flow, Leadership, Personal Excellence, purpose, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Values, World affairs1 Comment

Last week I started this series,’Purpose Quest’ to illustrate with narratives of how we search for purpose. We explored the question, Are we Searching for Purpose or is Purpose Searching for us? Today let me focus on one aspect of the story that I wrote last week, attracting abundance. Once the various social distancing norms were coming in to place and clients started postponing the various sessions that were planned, I was concerned about its impact on cash flow for my organisation and family. Therefore while starting to engage with government authorities in getting myself home and ensuring that my family back home in Sri Lanka was safe and comfortable, I started reflecting on the situation related to my practice. While there was some anxiety with regard to the situation, I was able to release such emotions using Releasing Techniques that I was learning and teaching since October last year. I will write about how releasing helped in an upcoming post. After having released the anxiety, my reflections reminded me of three principles and beliefs that could help; ‘God does not give challenges we cannot handle’, ‘focus on the process and let the outcome take care of itself’ (the 3rd principle of Mastery we teach during our Mastery of Self – NLP learning sessions) and ‘give and you shall receive’. So what steps did I take and how did it turnout? Continue reading →

Little Things to Big Things

On June 9, 2020June 9, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Values1 Comment

If You Want to Change the World, Start Off by Making Your Bed – William McRaven, US Navy Admiral

One little task leads to another and to another and to the big achievements. One little person can be the strongest link. One little hope leads to big hopes. One little bit of compassion leads to unlimited love.

As you listen to this inspirational speech, reflect on the little waves you can create now that will create ripples leading to waves that makes this world a better place.

Inspirational Speeches

Danger or Oppportunity?

On June 7, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Ecology, family, Health Care, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Quoates for Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Reflection Guide

Yes the pandemic has many dangers in the medical, economic, social and psychological fronts. While recognising and reflecting on it, do reflect on the opportunities you have already recognised and yet to recognise.

Unlocking the Power of Mind

On June 6, 2020June 6, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, family, Health Care, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Sales, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

An introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and simple steps on how to unlock the power of mind and unleash our potential. A powerful and thought provoking 27 minute presentation by Ranjan De Silva at the ‘Unleashing Your DNA’ seminar at Zayed University Convention Center, Dubai, UAE.

The following process can be used to create a learning experience for your team using this video.

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

Please send a message if you would like to receive a white paper that can help in your learning process.

I hope this learning process was useful in providing online learning to your team during the current down time so that they would be kept positive, motivated and sharp so that all of you would be geared to perform with excellence during the crisis and after.

A Tribute to the Champions

On June 4, 2020June 4, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Songs for Growth, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

This song ‘We are the Champions’ by Queen is dedicated to all the front line people such as medical care givers, military, pilots, cabin crew, delivery people, taxi drivers, hotel staff and numerous organisations such as the Rotary movement who is fighting the pandemic.

Please remember to smile and say a big thank you to any of the champions you meet. They need all the encouragement to keep fighting.

Variety is the Spice of Life

On June 3, 2020June 3, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Economics, family, Health Care, Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, Learnings that Matter, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, purpose, Purpose Quest, Quoates for Reflection, Relationships, Songs for Growth, Soul Nourishing Poems, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Soul Nourishing Poems

Over the past two months I switched to a daily blog from the monthly blog I used to write. This was prompted by the pandemic and lockdowns that provided me the opportunity to spend more time indoors and online.

Learnings that Matter

I initially started with online learning videos and soul nourishing poems to share my life work for those needed to learn and those looking for inspiration while being at home.

Quotes for Reflection

Thereafter I introduced quotes for reflection and yesterday I added motivational speeches. Some of this work is from others who have inspired me, some from my colleagues and some my own presentations.

Inspirational Speeches

As I was reflecting on the purposefulness of my life yesterday, my mind went on to the online work I am doing. Something from within prompted me to expand my contribution to have one type of blog everyday of the week.

Songs for Growth

That prompted me to think of other types of work that inspired. Music and Art were two other areas that came to my mind and therefore I decided to experiment with ‘Songs for Growth’ and ‘Pictures the Speak’.

Pictures that speak

I needed one more. What is the seventh category? And then, ‘Purpose’ which is the core philosophy of my life, that I have been writing for the past 4 years, but have not focused too much on over the past 2 months popped in to my mind. Yes I miss writing those ‘purposeful living’ blogs. So the seventh category became ‘Purpose’ Quest’.

purpose quest-1

I invite you to join me in exploring the wonders of life through these seven categories. I welcome comments, feedback , life experiences, ideas and questions from you so that we can create ripples that makes this world a better place.

Need or Greed

On May 31, 2020May 31, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

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Reflection Guide

Reflect what you need in the minimum for sustain yourself and meet your commitments till the next assured cash inflow. Reflect on what you need and what you can give, how you can give and when you will give.

Quotes for Reflection

Potential in to Reality

On May 30, 2020June 3, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Potential Into Reality – The Leadership Challenge!

Your organization is a corporate leader. Your leaders reflect some of the best available global talent. Your aim is to of course optimise their individual AND collective potential. You also need to ensure that their priorities synergise, that they can leverage off each other to innovate productively, and that together they are creating a leadership and performance culture that will sustain your growth and progress in the years ahead.

The following process can help you get good value from this video: Continue reading “Potential in to Reality” →

People, Technology or Innovation?

On May 27, 2020June 3, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

People, Technology or Innovation – A candid discussion between Kamal Munasinghe and Coach Kamrul Hasan.

Learn about what is required for business success; people, technology or business? Kamal, a CEO of a leading Apparel Manufacturer in Bangladesh talks about business using his own industry experience, responding to thought provoking question from Coach Kamrul Hasan. Gain a practical perspective from people who have been there, done that.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video – let participants absorb, take notes and write down questions to ask later

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

Please send a message if you would like to receive a white paper that can help in your learning process.

The Road Not Taken – Soul Nourishing Poem

On May 26, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

The Road Not Taken – by Robert Frost

Has the pandemic given you the opportunity to take a road not taken? Imagine the positive difference it can make for you and your little world. What baby steps would you take today in identifying that road and the baby steps you need to take today.

Love and the Rose: A Poetic Definition

On May 22, 2020May 25, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, family, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Reflect what Love is to you. Is it River that drowns, a razor that leaves the soul to bleed or an endless hunger? Or is it nurturing – like a seed in to a flower.

Enjoy Bette Midler’s song recited in a poetic manner, defining ‘Love’ by Ranjan De Silva

Mindfulness Leadership – Learning Video

On May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Team Excellence1 Comment

Free Online Videos

For Leaders

at All levels

Mindfulness Leadership by Tanzi Usoof

Learn how to be a better leader by using mindfulness practices. This is a skill which is even more important during times of anxiety when your mind is full. Learn how to empty your mind of the anxiety, worry, clutter etc. so that you can fully focus on your teams and inspire them to perform at their optimum.

I hope this could be useful in providing online learning to your team during the current down time so that they would be kept positive, motivated and sharp so that all of you would be geared to perform with excellence during the crisis and after.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Continue reading “Mindfulness Leadership – Learning Video” →

Blurring of the Boarders

On May 16, 2020May 17, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Ecology, Economics, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

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Reflection Guide:

Reflect on the divisions in your life such as interests, beliefs, geographic boarders, status, economics etc. that has become irrelevant in your life due to the Pandemic. Reflect on how such blurring of the boarders are affecting you positively and negatively, in the short term and the long term. Reflect on baby steps you can take to power-up the positives and negate the negative.

Is the medical crisis curing the ecological crisis and causing an economic crisis?

On May 13, 2020May 17, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Economics, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence, World affairsLeave a comment

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Reflection Guide:

Reflect on what we have done to create the medical crisis that is curing the ecological crisis and causing an economic crisis. Reflect on the change in consciousness we need. Reflect on one simple step we can take to make this world a better place, medically, ecologically and economically.

Quotes for Reflection

Don’t Give Up – Soul Nourishing Poem

On May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Don’t Give Up recited Tushar Das

Poem that reminds us never to give up and never to give in as there is an answer for everything. Live your life with an attitude of gratitude.

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.

Soul Nourishing Poems

Interaction Personalities – Learning Video

On May 8, 2020May 11, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, Life-Insurance, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, Relationships, Sales, Social networking, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

For Leaders at all levels and Sales & customer service Professionals

Interaction Personalities (10 mts) by Ranjan De Silva

Helps understand your quality of interactions by understanding the five interaction personalities of yourself and others. This in turn helps improve the way they interact with others, especially when dealing with conflicts. Includes free self assessment to find out your interaction personality.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Continue reading “Interaction Personalities – Learning Video” →

Winners – Soul Nourishing Poem

On May 6, 2020July 6, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Winners: recited by Ranjan De Silva

A Poem dedicated for winners. This poem describes behaviours of real winners and appreciates them. This poem is an ideal gift for those in your life you consider real winners.

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.

Soul Nourishing Poems

A Better Way to Sell – Learning Video

On May 2, 2020May 2, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Retail, Sales, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s learning video – for those selling anything or service anyone … thats everyone

A Better Way to Sell (10 mts) by Ranjan De Silva

Helps you generate spectacular results by learning a better way to sell through Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). We All sell ideas, our talents, our brand image, our professional practice & products etc. Find out a better way to sell to generate better results.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Continue reading “A Better Way to Sell – Learning Video” →

The determination of an Extra-Ordinary man – Soul Nourishing Poem

On May 1, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

The determination of an Extra-Ordinary man: recited by Ranjan De Silva

A poem for all the men and the men in the lives of women who sees this poem. Reminds us of what it takes to be a real hero. Please share this as a thank you gift with the special men in your life such as your grandfather, father, husband, brother, son, friend, teacher and guide.

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.

Soul Nourishing Poems

EQ – IQ Balance – Learning Video

On April 30, 2020April 30, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s learning video – for people at all levels in organisation

EQ-IQ Balance by Ranjan De Silva (6 mts)

Helps understand the importance of having the right balance between our Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ). It helps understand the reason why we think, make sense, decide and act the way we do. It also helps in understanding others better and how they think, make sense, decide and act, thereby improving relationships.

Includes free self assessment to find out your EQ-IQ balance.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Continue reading “EQ – IQ Balance – Learning Video” →

Natural Abilities – Learning Video

On April 26, 2020April 28, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Sales, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Free Online Videos

Today’s learning video – for Leaders at all levels:

Natural Abilities (10 mts) by Ranjan De Silva

Helps understand the four natural abilities and how getting your team members in to their natural ability areas helps you to achieve near optimum performance. Includes free self assessment to find out natural abilities.

I hope this could be useful in providing online learning to your team members, family, friends and self during the current down time so that they would be kept positive, motivated and sharp so that all of you would be geared to perform with excellence during the crisis and after.

You can watch this alone or learn with others in-room or Online.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video,

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

In addition, we can also arrange online sessions or executive coaching for your current and future business needs. Please inbox if you would like to discuss options.

The Hero’s cry – Soul Nourishing Poem

On April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s Soul Nourishing Poem is: The Hero’s cry by – Eddie Pinero

Dedicated to all heroes in our lives. We remember their names not because of a lack of mistakes but because they looked the universe dead in the eye and dared to give what it takes”

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts. Soul Nourishing Poems

Anxiety Releasing Meditation – Online Learning

On April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence1 Comment

Free Online Videos

Today’s learning video is for anyone who is affected in someway by the crisis

Anxiety Releasing Meditation (17 mts) by Ranjan De Silva

Guided meditation, specially done to help release anxiety related to the Covid Pandemic. Follow it closed eyed or open eyed on a laptop watching the beautiful visuals of life. Do it in quiet place, using ear phones for best effect.

I hope this could be useful in providing online or in-room learning to your team members, family, friends and self during the current down time so that they would be kept positive, motivated and sharp so that all of you would be geared to perform with excellence during the crisis and after.

How to get best value from the video:

Continue reading “Anxiety Releasing Meditation – Online Learning” →

If You Think You Can You Can – Soul Nourishing Poem

On April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s Soul Nourishing Poem is: If You Think You Can You Can – recited by Ranjan De Silva

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.

Soul Nourishing Poems

Leadership Complexities -Learning Video

On April 18, 2020April 19, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s learning video is for those in Senior Leadership Positions;

Leadership Complexities (10 mts) – Helps understand deep-seated leadership competencies and tips to deal with it. Includes free self assessment to find out own leadership complexity.

How to get best value from the video:

Continue reading “Leadership Complexities -Learning Video” →

The Purpose of the Pandemic – Purpose of Living – Part 37

On March 30, 2020June 1, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, World affairs3 Comments

Animals and people near pond — Image Credits: Vectorstock.com

We are all in some way affected by the Covid-19 virus and wondering how it is going to affect our lives. Many of the conversations I read are about the materialistic impact such as health, economy, jobs, livelihood, etc. This is real and we need to first accept the reality and respond to it. The response needs to be at different levels; global bodies like the World bank and World Health Organisation, governments, business organisations, NGO’s, social groups, communities and individuals. It is heartening to see this happening at different levels, although much more still needs to be done. Once some of these immediate realities are responded to it could help to reflect on the bigger purpose of the pandemic.

Continue reading “The Purpose of the Pandemic – Purpose of Living – Part 37” →

Take a JUMP in to your purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 36

On March 1, 2020April 24, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams2 Comments

Jump-blog I have learnt that we keep discovering our higher purpose as we live life once we discover the notion of purpose and is conscious of its existence. This had got me in to the habit of reflecting, reviewing, refreshing and re-writing my purpose every month.
The first part of my current purpose statement is;

Inspire others to live a purposeful life based on their own evolving beliefs, values and methods.

This is based on my discovery of how my beliefs, values and methods evolved during my first-person inquiry and my discovery of how different people have different beliefs, values and methods that evolve as they attempt to live purposefully, during my second-person inquiry. First- and second-person inquiry are methods of action research that I adopt in my doctoral research into the notion of ‘purposeful living’. Continue reading “Take a JUMP in to your purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 36” →

Stress & Life Purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 31

On September 29, 2019June 1, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence1 Comment

Stress and Life Purpose — Image credits: lifealchemyblog.com

Managing stress was at the center of a coaching discussion I had with a CEO a few months ago. He was very successful and his success is attributed to the hard work he put in to his job. He gave his job first place and was willing to work late in to the evening, work on weekends and travel extensively for the success of his organization.

He had not adequately developed his team to take over responsibilities as he preferred to get things done on his own. While this worked for a while, it was taking its toll when the organization grew to a larger scale. He was also having issues at home as his two teenage sons had lost interest in studies and sports and preferred a lazy life engrossed in video’s and games using the expensive devises the father had purchased for them. His wife had given up trying to get him involved in family matters and was trying to manage on her own, but the absence of the father’s love, guidance and attention could not be compensated adequately by her. This is a source of stress when he returns home.

Continue reading “Stress & Life Purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 31” →

The Purpose of the Mens Cricket World Cup – Purpose of Living – Part 28

On June 30, 2019July 1, 2019 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Sports, Sri Lanka, Team Excellence, World affairs1 Comment

CWC-2019-Captains — Image Credits: http://www.cricketworldcup.com

Over a billion people have been engaged with the ongoing Men’s Cricket World Cup over the last month. It all started with everyone hoping the cricket teams of their respective countries will become the world champions. The fact remains that only one team will be the eventual world champions. This blog is not about trying to predict the eventual champs, it is to discuss the impact of such sports extravaganza has on the lives of people.

The International Cricket Council organizes the Men’s Cricket World Cup as well as other global competitions related to Cricket to propagate cricket as well as raise funds. I am not sure which comes first. Is it to raise funds to propagate cricket or propagate cricket to raises funds. Well it doesn’t matter, perhaps both ends feed each other. There could be other reasons, for example to raise the standards of the sport and of those who are involved in it such as the players, coaching staff, umpires, referees, cricket boards and administrators. These aims could have a higher purpose that impacts the lives of people and I would like to address such issues in this blog post.

My blog post of the last two months addressed the impact of violence, religion and politics on the lives of people in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, one of the former world champions who are now at the bottom of the table, struggling for form. Yet the entire nation was hoping that they will become the champs again. Teams from other countries besieged by violence such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are also in contention. The founders of cricket, England, is amid perhaps their worst political crisis related to Brexit. They entered the tourney as one of the favourites. Countries such as South Africa, Bangladesh and the West Indies are besieged with their own political and economic crises. Continue reading “The Purpose of the Mens Cricket World Cup – Purpose of Living – Part 28” →

When purposes clash at the workplace – Purpose of Living – Part 25

On March 31, 2019May 10, 2019 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

collegue purpose conflits — Image credits: http://www.insperity.com

Have you ever faced a situation where you have a purpose that clashes with the purpose of a colleague, such as your boss, peer or a direct report? Has this situation led to misunderstandings, arguments, anger, click formation, politicking and even violence that starts affecting the business of the organisation? How did you handle the situation? Has it made you become disgruntled about the notion of ‘purposeful living’ and even resulted in discouraging team members in living purposefully. I will try to address this issue in this blog post from the experience I have had in dealing with such situations as a team member from within the organisation or as a consultant and coach from outside the organisation. Continue reading “When purposes clash at the workplace – Purpose of Living – Part 25” →

Purpose of Living – Part 21: Inspiring others to live a purposeful life

On November 30, 2018April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the next ten blog posts. I invite you now to reflect on the ninth aspect in the model of purposeful living– inspiring (the dark blue colour circle in the model). While this is the ninth and final circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine circles, it’s not necessarily chronological. There could be also other circles that are yet to be discovered. Once we gather momentum in living purposefully, we start inspiring others to live purposefully as well.

This blog-post deals with our responsibility to inspire others to live a purposeful life. We can inspire others by design or by accident. On one hand, others can get inspired when they see the improvement of our quality of life as we attempt to live a purposeful life. Living a purposeful life includes; living with a set of positive values, engaging in spiritual activities, looking after our health, building quality relationships, building financial stability, developing intellect and allocating time for purposeful activities. On the other hand, we could use our roles in life to inspire others. These roles include being a parent, sibling, relative, teacher, leader, colleague, author, speaker, and social figure such as a sportsman, entertainer, business leader, religious leader and social leader etc. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 21: Inspiring others to live a purposeful life” →

Purpose of Living – Part 15: Purposeful Choices

On May 31, 2018April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence2 Comments

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the last four blog post. I invite you to now reflect on the third aspect in the model of purposeful living– The choices (the orange colour circle in the model). While this is the third circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine steps; it’s not chronological in real life.

This aspect deals with making choices once we have a glimpse for the beginning of what our purpose might be. When I had a glimpse of my purpose 22 years ago, I made choices such as finding opportunities to improve my knowledge regarding personal development through Neuro Linguistic Programming and organisational development through continuous improvement by reading and conducting training for my team at Keells Super, and attempting to apply this knowledge in my work and personal life. I started spending more time with my family because helping them grow and see them grow gave me joy. They are the oxygen that energized my flame. These choices were relevant to my purpose, which was about helping myself grow to my fullest potential by helping others to grow to their fullest potential. I started going to the gym regularly as I wanted to keep my body in shape so that I am fit to do purposeful work. I started to pray and meditate regularly and felt peace of mind. I also started to be more helpful to others thereby building high quality relationships. I knew all these were in some way connected to my purpose as I really felt good doing it. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 15: Purposeful Choices” →

Purpose of Living – Part 10: The Action Logics (Post – Conventional) Viewpoint

On December 28, 2017May 4, 2026 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Environment, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Spiritual, Team Excellence8 Comments

Action logics - post con copy — Post – Conventional Action logics & Life Purpose

We explored the notion of purpose from the viewpoints of Abrahamic Religions, Eastern Philosophies, Early Sciences, Modern Sciences, Philosophy, Psychology, Ecology and Action Logics (pre-conventional) viewpoints in the past blog posts in this series. Let’s now have a look at this notion from an ‘Action Logics (post-conventional)’ viewpoint.

I started the previous blog post with an attempt to understand the notion of ‘Action Logics’, which tries to explain the ‘logic’ behind the ‘action’ we take. Most unspontaneous actions are based on decisions, which are rational, and therefore they could be based on an intention, reason or purpose. The four pre-conventional action logics; opportunist, diplomat, expert and achiever, explored in the last blog post was based on the degree of mutuality and expertise.

Let’s attempt to explore post-conventional action logics in this blog post based on the proposition by Greuter Cooke (2002). According to a research study in the USA of about 4300 adults, it was found that 18.2% belong to the post-conventional group. While it is difficult to define post-conventional, to me it seems like those who are more mature, wiser, selfless, seeking happiness through harmony, simplicity, generosity and spirituality, would fall into this group. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 10: The Action Logics (Post – Conventional) Viewpoint” →

How to change your habits with Action Inquiry

On February 28, 2017September 20, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

ranjans-reflective-model — Ranjan De Silva’s Reflective Process

Joseph tends to get angry when his wife Judy asks him too many questions? He notices this tendency and realizes that his response hurts Judy. But this thought does not come to his mind when he is angry. He feels this is not helpful for their relationship, which has been deteriorating gradually.

You may have faced similar situations with family, friends, colleagues or anyone else you have regular interactions or you may know others who are facing similar challenges. Have you ever wondered why it has been sometimes very difficult to change a habit?

While I have been using techniques of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Transactional Analysis (TA) to help myself and those who come for my guidance, to change habits, I was fascinated by the power and potential of Action Inquiry in achieving real and lasting change.

Continue reading “How to change your habits with Action Inquiry” →

Preparing for a fruitful 2017

On December 29, 2016December 30, 2016 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams, UncategorizedLeave a comment

2016 is almost over and I hope you made good progress during the year. Some of us would say it was an awesome year, some would say it was an average year and some others would say it was not a good year! The best we can do is to use the learning from 2016 so that we can make 2017 a better one.

I am pleased to present a simple four-step process to help you prepare for a fruitful 2017.

Step 1: Let’s start by doing this simple reflective exercise to take the resources from 2016 for a better 2017. Answer the following question in writing or in an artful form such as a picture, poem, collage, structure etc.

What were my biggest successes in 2016? What did I learn from it?
What were my biggest failures in 2016? What did I learn from it?
Who am I grateful for 2016? (Those who helped me and was tough on me)

Once the above is done, allow some time for the energy and learnings to settle in before starting the preparation for 2017.
Continue reading “Preparing for a fruitful 2017” →

Natural – Abilities: the new Success Mantra?

On August 1, 2016April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, Teams1 Comment

Unique ability — Image Credits: http://www.buzzel.com

Let’s first try to understand what is ‘Natural-ability’ before trying to understand what your Natural-ability is and how to use this potent idea in improving your effectiveness individually and as a team.

Natural-Ability is a description for a level of ability. To simplify it let me offer four broad levels of ability. At the bottom is ‘Inability’, where we just can’t do a particular task. The next level is ‘Learnt-ability’, where we can do a particular task. The third level is, ‘Excellent’ where we not only can do a particular task, but we can do it well. We can get up to ‘Excellent’ level through training and developing our skills. But to get to the fourth level, ‘Natural-ability’ we would not only be really good at doing a particular task, but we are passionate about, it energizes us and it inspires others. It is simply something natural in us. Therefore I believe we cannot get to the level of Natural-ability by training ourselves, it should be within us. It is a word used to describe your natural strengths. It also highlights your responsibility to put your talents to work for the shared purposes of those with whom you make a commitment of this tremendous energy.

Continue reading “Natural – Abilities: the new Success Mantra?” →

Why we do, what we do – Part 2

On May 31, 2016September 14, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

We examined why we do what we do from the Action Logic framework Introduced by Greuter Cooke (Cooke 2002) where we discussed the four pre-conventional action logics; opportunist, diplomat, expert and achiever. Click here to read the previous blog. This paper takes us to the post-conventional action logics; Individualist, Strategist, Alchemist and Ironist.

We need to remember that only about 15% of adult population, based on research done on a sample of adults in the United States, operate with post-conventional action logics. I suspect the percentage may not be too different in other parts of the world, but I feel the percentage may be higher in the east (countries around India and China) due to the long history of mindfulness practices such as meditation, yoga etc. that we adopt. It is also important to note that those in lower action logics may find it difficult to relate to and practice higher action logics, but those operating in higher action logics, finds it easy to relate to and operate in lower action logics as required.

Since the transition from pre-conventional action logic, let’s go back to the example of Sara, I wrote about in my earlier blog, who transitioned from a ‘expert’ action logic and learnt how to listen, take feedback and discuss different options presented by her colleagues. This approach not only helped her to make better decisions, as she is richer in perspectives, it has also strengthened her relationships with her colleagues.

Continue reading “Why we do, what we do – Part 2” →

Why we do, what we do?

On April 30, 2016September 13, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence1 Comment

Think of the last time you reflected upon an action you took? Remember asking yourself the question why did I do what I just did? Sometime we may not even ask this question, thinking it is the way it is or it is meant to be or you were too busy to do so. Even if we asked this question we may not think deep enough to reflect on the root causes. Sometimes, even if we thought deep enough, we may not reflect on alternate ways of responding to the same situation the next time. Sometimes, even if we thought of alternate ways of responding the next time, we may not reflect on alternate actions we could take the next time. Those who go through this whole process and take alternate action the next time, and continue to follow this process, will find tremendous personal growth.

Continue reading “Why we do, what we do?” →

Paradigm Prisons into Paradigm Prisms

On April 2, 2016September 12, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams5 Comments

Paradigm Prisons to Prisms We are one of seven billion people in this world and each one of us sees the world from our own paradigm. This short blog post will examine the dangers of getting imprisoned in a paradigm and the benefits of becoming a prism as prisons are restricting and prisms are reflecting.

For example, when it comes to a decision of buying a family car, each family member would look at the decision from a different paradigm. The father might look at technical performance and fuel efficiency, the mother might look at the spaciousness and colour scheme, the teenage son might look at how classy it looks and how fast it can go and the teenage daughter may not care about any of this. When each family gets prisoned in their paradigm, they will not be able to come out of it to look at the decision from other paradigms, leading to possible misunderstandings, conflicts and even permanent damage to the quality of relationships.

Therefore the question is, how do we get out of the paradigm prison?

Continue reading “Paradigm Prisons into Paradigm Prisms” →

Power of Purpose for Leadership Success!

On February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams1 Comment

Purposeful Leadership — Image Credits: salitabacchi.com

What makes a difference between an ordinary leader and an extra ordinary leader?

While there could be many reasons for this difference, I would like to propose the idea of ‘Purpose’.

I remember the time where I was responsible for business results in a company before I found my purpose. My primary focus is to achieve profit target of the company. This was pursuing a goal set by my company; it was not even a purpose. My life was about going to work every day, making decisions on how best to be better than competitors and using (yes using them without thinking of their growth & welfare) the people allocated to me in achieving these goals. Unknowingly I was neglecting my health, spirituality, my relationships, my financial health and I was squandering my time. I remember those days where I was hospitalized with stress attacks, struggling to pay my bills, gaining weight and working long hours. Fortunately I had a drive to educate myself, perhaps to overcome the fear of financial challenges and the passion to spend time with my children, perhaps because blood is thicker than water and, as they were such adorable children.

My life changed when I was fortunate enough to write a purpose during the first Mastery of Self playshop I attended. What was powerful about the purpose was it helped me to know myself deeper and to see the life I am designed to live. Formulating a realistic five year and Continue reading “Power of Purpose for Leadership Success!” →

Month End Booster!

On February 3, 2016February 3, 2016 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

I remember the time I used to be so enthusiastic about a new year and formulate an exciting plan. However after a few months there is disappointment realizing that I had made only insignificant progress in executing the plan.

Over the years I have formulated and refined a method of ensuring my plans get achieved by carrying out a month end (or next month beginning) booster and I would like to share it with you. As I always say, just because this worked for me, there is no guarantee it will work for you. Therefore I invite you to try this out and adjust it to suit your situation so that it works for you.

Continue reading “Month End Booster!” →

Passion Killers and Passion Ignitions

On January 16, 2016August 16, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

passion killers vs ignitions

We are born as passionate beings and somewhere down the line some of us started seeing the diminishing or absence of that passion. This piece of writing will attempt to identify the reasons for the diminishing of passion, the role we play in killing passion and what role can we play to ignite that passion. I have found that using the energy within the hearts and minds of our teams by igniting their passion as one of the most productive and cost effective ways of driving performance.

Reflecting on our childhood where we had all the energy to live life will confirm this. Observe a baby showing the need for affection with her passionate cry for attention. Observe children passionate about playing the games they love to play. Observe children passionately asking for the toy of their choice from their parents. We also carry this passion to our adulthood in areas that are important to us. Observe a young man passionately pursuing to foster a relationship with the woman of his dreams. Observe a musician singing his heart out entertaining his fans. Observe and entrepreneur passionately promoting his business.

Continue reading “Passion Killers and Passion Ignitions” →

Gearing up for an Awesome 2016

On January 1, 2016February 3, 2016 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams1 Comment

plan 2016 — Image Credits: dreamtime.com

Let’s make 2016 an awesome year! Trust you have already done the two activities recommended in my blog in taking the best of 2015 to make the best of 2016. Having done that would help in making this activity even more powerful. The first blog is about doing a gratitude list; people and happenings durign the year that you are grateful for. This activity makes us generate the positive energy required to gear up for the new year. See more details about this activity following this link. The second blog is about taking stock of 2015. See more details about this activity following this link. However if you are short of time you may do the activity in this blog post as a stand-alone activity and make a note to re-visit the earlier two activities if time permits.

We prepare our mind for success and failure based on how we programme, condition and prepares it. A positive mind will activate the ‘Reticular Activating System’ [RAS] to experience [see, hear, feel, smell, taste] positive situations if we are looking for it and open to it. Therefore if you are looking for the ideal ‘Masters Degree’ to pursue in 2016, once you see, hear and feel yourself enjoying pursuing the masters degree successfully in your mind, your brain will filter and pick up ides for the ‘Masters Degree’ from the millions of stimuli bombarding us every second of our life.

Gearing up for an awesome 2016

Given below are two processes. The first process will help you come up with an inspirational plan. The second is to take steps in implementing the plan. Given below are the steps in coming up with the inspirational plan; this can be done individually, with your family or with your team.

Step 1: List down three big goals you [or your family or your team] would like to achieve in 2016.

Continue reading “Gearing up for an Awesome 2016” →

Take the best of 2015 to make the best of 2016 (Part 2): Taking Stock of 2015

On December 30, 2015December 30, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Part 1 of this series, “The Gratitude List”, was published on the 20^th of December. Here is part 2 for you. Taking stock of this year helps generate the energy, creativity and aspiration to plan an amazing 2016. Here is a process that has worked for me. As I always say, what works for me may not work for you. So therefore there is no ‘Right’ process. However I invite you to test this out and improve it to suite your situation if required.

Step 1: List down the 3 biggest achievements during the year.

Step 2: List down the 3 biggest setbacks during the year

Step 3: Do some reflective writing with regard to each of the items list in step 1 & 2 above using the following process. Find a quite place, get a nice notebook and a pen that writes well and take your time doing it. First complete the biggest achievement and set back before going on to the next.

Describe the situation
What were you thinking/feeling before, during and after the situation
What was good and/or bad about your behaviour during each situation
What sense can you make about your behaviour and potential to change in each situation
What alternate action could have been taken during each of the situations?
What steps would you take to make each situation better if it arises during the next year?

You could also follow the above process with your life partner, family and/or team. It will be an amazing bonding exercises too.

I will be back with further guidance in helping you to do a spectacular transition from 2015 in to 2016.

Wish you purposeful living with happiness and excellence.

Wrong

On December 1, 2015September 10, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence2 Comments

you-are-wrong-and-i-am-right We may have heard this word tons of times from our childhood. You are wrong! That’s the wrong answer! You have wronged me! that’s the wrong way to do it! I have many times wondered about the meaning of this word. What impact does this word have on our lives? What impact does this word have on our relationships?

There are specific activities that need to be done in specific ways. An aircraft has to be flown in a specific way and needs to follow a specific flight path and altitude. If the pilot deviates it can put the passengers in danger. A surgeon has a specific way to perform a surgery. If the surgeon deviates it can put the patient in danger. A driver has to drive on a specific side of a road. If the driver deviates it can result in an accident. In this case it may be appropriate to use the word ‘wrong’. That the wrong flight path, that the wrong leg you are operating and that the wrong side of the road you are driving.

Continue reading “Wrong” →

Great Teams are made through Regular Team Evaluations

On August 30, 2015December 1, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

We don’t get what we expect, we get what we inspect! Things that are evaluated get elevated! Therefore measuring team effectiveness and taking improvement actions based on the feedback is an essential aspect of creating great teams.

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How great is your team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first ten aspects regarding Burning Platforms, Team Alignment Around Critical Goals, Clearly Agreed Way of Working, A Great Decision Making Process, Information Flow is Encouraged, Great Leaders Don’t Mince Their Words’, Positive Crisis, Great Conversations, Radical Conversations and Regular Team Activities, have already been posted in this blog (please search this website to find the earlier instalments). Here is the Eleventh and final installment, Team Evaluations.

Continue reading “Great Teams are made through Regular Team Evaluations” →

Team’s that Learn Together, Sticks Closer and Work Better

On August 3, 2015April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, Teams2 Comments

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How great is your team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first nine aspects regarding Burning Platforms, Team Alignment Around Critical Goals, Clearly Agreed Way of Working, A Great Decision Making Process, Information Flow is Encouraged, Great Leaders Don’t Mince Their Words’, Positive Crisis, Great Conversations, and Radical Conversations, have already been posted in this blog. Here is the Tenth installment; Team Learning.

Team’s, who learn together, stick closer and work better. While we learn every moment of our life, including when at work, great teams have planned processes to create that learning inside and outside the workplace.

Continue reading “Team’s that Learn Together, Sticks Closer and Work Better” →

Radical Action Conversations – Makes Great Teams

On June 28, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

Radical conversations — Image Credits: http://www.teeveetee.blogspot.com

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How great is your team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first eight aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’, ‘Team alignment around critical goals’, ‘Clearly agreed way of working?’ ‘A great decision making process’, ‘Information flow is encouraged’, ‘Great leaders don’t mince their words’, ‘Positive Crisis’ and ‘ Great Conversations’ have already been posted in this blog. Here is the ninth installment; ‘Radical Action Conversation’.

Radical Action Conversations are authentic. They go beneath the surface and deals with ‘adaptive’ issues that hinders real execution. Such conversations deals with engagement issues, honesty issues, relationship issues etc. that people may generally try to avoid to maintain false harmony. It encourages team members to be in ‘Adult’ mode rather than ‘Parent’ or ‘Child’ mode as described in ‘Transactional Analysis’. Such conversations are about identifying and dealing with assumptions team members make in their decisions, prejudices, actions, relationships etc.

Consider this. Your organization is working on a product launch that requires coordination between planning, manufacturing, marketing, sales, legal, finance and supply chain teams. The project is running late and at the current speed the launch could be delayed by more than 2 months. This can give a major advantage to the competitors who are working on a similar product to meet the same need of the customer.

The discussions at the management meetings are very technical. They speaks about the delay in finding the right raw materiel, delay in gearing up distributors and delay in configuring machines in the factory. The team discusses this and decides on some steps to speed up, but the situation is the same at the next meeting. The team resorts to unproductive conversations such as fake, dormant and aggressive conversations to avoid facing the real issues. See my blog post ‘Great Conversations’ for more details of unproductive conversations.

This becomes a radical conversation when the team starts talking about the adaptive aspects such as the trust issues between the marketing and sales manager, the integrity concerns of the supply chain manager and the competency concerns of the factory manager. The team starts focusing on facts, when the focus changes to transforming rather than debating reality, when there is willingness to challenge and explore assumptions, when tough decisions are made based on these conversations and when clarity of accountabilities and commitments are achieved. Discussions at future meetings focus on tracking actions decided, agreeing on course corrections required and ensuring execution with both discipline and speed.

Such Radical Action Conversations will see relationships growing rather than cliques being fostered and team capability clearly growing through the engagement. Radical Action Conversations requires skill and courage and it takes a lot of effort to develop team with this capability. However this is not just useful but essential for a great team!

Engaging the Fickle Mind

On June 17, 2015April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Conference learnings, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

How many times a week do we look at our smart phone? Do we look at it first thing in the morning? Do we look at it before 7.30 a.m.? Do we look at it during meetings? Do we feel lost without our devices? I am sure the answers to these questions might not only be interesting but it will start us thinking.

Study UK’s Daily mail (www.dailymail.com) surveyed 2,000 smartphone owners about their tech habits. They found the average user now picks up their device 1,500+ times a week, reaches for their phone at 7:31am in the morning, checks personal emails and Facebook before they get out of bed, use their phone for three hours and sixteen minutes a day and almost four in ten users admitted to feeling lost without their device. (see the 4 mts video below about these dangers)

Technology has given us so many options of interest that our mind keeps wondering from one to another at an alarming rate. We may be at a meeting and our smart phone alerts that it’s a friends’ birthday and we pick the phone to wish her. When we open Facebook to do it, we see a friend request from an old friend. As we start accepting it, we see a photo posted by another friend. Then we remember there is a customer meeting and we may be late to get home and we start messaging someone at home to pick up a child from school, and then she tells you to bring some extra cash as the plumber was coming to fix a leak the next day. All this happens in about one and half minutes. Therefore we live in a world where our mind gets more and more fickle.

Some feel this is beneficial as it helps us to do many things rapidly, become knowledgeable in many fields, be able to handle more things than ever before, be able to respond fast, be connected with more friends more often, find new opportunities be more efficient, smarter, successful etc.

Continue reading “Engaging the Fickle Mind” →

Great Conversations make Great Teams!

On May 31, 2015June 28, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams2 Comments

Image Credits: www.dailyhappyquote.com — Image Credits: http://www.dailyhappyquote.com

Remember the last time you were engrossed in a conversation? Conversation where real issues were discussed! Conversations that were authentic! Conversations that were value adding! Conversations that made time stand still! Conversations that made things happen! Conversations that got continued! These are the conversations that make great teams.

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How Great is Your Team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first seven aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’, ‘Team Alignment Around Critical Goals’, ‘Does your Team have Clearly Agreed way of Working?’ ‘A Great Decision-Making Process for a Great Team’, ‘Information Flow is Encouraged’, ‘Great Leaders don’t Mince their Words’ and ‘Positive Crisis’ have already been posted in this blog. Here is the 8th installment regarding the 8^th aspect; ‘Great Conversation’.

Continue reading “Great Conversations make Great Teams!” →

Positive Crisis – Makes Great Teams!

On April 29, 2015April 30, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

Image credits: www.matthewroda.com — Image credits: http://www.matthewroda.com

Have you ever wondered what makes a movie interesting? It is the crisis in the movie, even when it is a comedy or an animated children’s film there is some crisis and you will realise how boring that movie could be without that crisis. Similarly meetings become interesting when there is a crisis to deal with. A project becomes interesting when there is a crisis to deal with. A team becomes interesting when there is crisis between team members.

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How great is your team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first six aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’, ‘Team Alignment around Critical Goals’, ‘Does Your Team have Clearly Agreed Way of Working?’, ‘A Great Decision-Making Process for a Great Team’, ‘Information Flow is Encouraged’, and ‘Great Leaders don’t Mince their Words’ have already been posted in this blog. Here is the seventh instalment regarding the 7^th aspect; ‘Positive Crisis’.

Continue reading “Positive Crisis – Makes Great Teams!” →

Great leaders don’t’ mince their words!

On March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence7 Comments

Coming form an Asian background, we sometimes become over-cautious about the impact our communication makes on others, especially those senior to us. Therefore we end up saying things others want to hear, saying things that are not fully accurate or not saying things. This article tries to highlight some of the reasons behind this and some practical steps great leaders take to overcome it.

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2015 titled ‘How great is your team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first five aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’, ‘Team Alignment around Critical Goals’, ‘Does your Team have Clearly Agreed Way of Working?’, ‘A Great Decision-Making Process for a Great Team’ and ‘Information Flow is Encouraged’, have already been posted in this blog. Here is the sixth installment regarding the 6^th aspect; ‘Candour with Respect’’.

Great leaders do not just encourage candour with respect but they insist on it. Candour is a quality that is essential for a winning team. Jack Welch in his book ‘winning’ mentions that candour was a vital quality for any GE leader. Candour is about speaking out the truth with courage even if it would create conflict or hurt someone else. Good communicators also know how to select the right words, tonality and body language to make it as positive and productive as possible.

Great leaders insist on candour using the following mind-set, thinking and behaviours,

Continue reading “Great leaders don’t’ mince their words!” →

Great Information Flow to Make Your Team Fly!

On February 28, 2015March 2, 2015 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

Image credits: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/

We love to hear good news! When bad news comes our way some times we tend to get upset, our body language and tonality shows that we are not pleased with the information and some resort to further unproductive behavior of shooting the messenger! Shooting the messenger can be in many forms. Some would question the messenger and ask them to justify the information. Some others may ridicule them as being negative or incompetent. Some others may even resort to retribution in the form of impacting their rewards and recognition negatively. However great teams have great leaders who behave positively and encourage information flow! In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How Great is Your Team?’ I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that make a great team. The first four aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’, ‘Team alignment around critical goals’, ‘Does your team have clearly agreed way of working?’ and ‘A great decision-making process for a great team’ have already been posted in this blog. Here is the fifth installment regarding the 5^th aspect; ‘Information flow is encouraged’. Great information flow requires the following mind-set, thinking and behaviours; Continue reading “Great Information Flow to Make Your Team Fly!” →

Connecting & Connections!

On January 31, 2015August 13, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Image credits: http://www.connections4children.com

Living in the Internet world we know the value of connectivity. When we go to a restaurant, cafe, hotel, hospital, airport or any other public place we look for Wi-Fi connections. The theory of ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and popularized by a 1990 play written by John Guare, is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away from any other person or thing in the world. Therefore a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.

Surekha Ahgir Yadev in a recent blog mentions that the most important phrase for expats in Colombo, Sri Lanka is; ‘I Know a Guy’. She says Colombo has a surprisingly sophisticated corporate scene, excellent Internet connections, an array of professional advertising and digital marketing agencies – but it has hardly any human headhunters and nothing much in the way of talent-matching services. Finally she discovered that everyone knew everyone else and if you asked someone for the right person for a particular job, the common term she hears is ‘I know a guy …….’. This again shows the importance of connections.

When reflecting on my insights during the month of January 2015 for my monthly ‘Team Leadership Newsletter’, I realized that I had been working on many connections during the month. These are the connections that built us, the connections that will sustain us and the connections that we need to give back to. Focusing on these connections helps us to live a happy, fulfilled and successful life. Let me explain how I connected during the month to give you a practical illustration.

Connecting with ourselves: Connecting with ourselves includes understand our deeper hopes, aspirations and fears as well as our strengths and improvement areas. It includes connecting with our higher self, the sub-conscious mind. Over the last month I paid more attention to my subconscious communications such as gut feel, aha’s and dreams and responded to them and found my decisions were better and I was more peaceful and happy.

Connecting with our family: The family is our base, our foundation and our support network. We need to be in touch with our family so that we are reminded of our roots [values] and support each other. During the month I had quality family time starting the new year with the family, attended the holy mass celebrated by pope Francis with the family, spending time with my immediate family at home, communicating with my daughters studying in the UK on What’s App and Skype, spending time with my brother who was staying with us during a short visit to the country and connecting with some other relatives. I found this quality time really nourishing for my being.

Connecting with our higher purpose: While I reflect on my purpose and plan my day in line with my purpose everyday, I continued to do this more intensely this month. This helped me to take decisive actions in spiritual, mental, physical, relational, emotional and financial aspects everyday so that my life was balanced thereby feeling great in body and mind.

Continue reading “Connecting & Connections!” →

Getting things done … Superbly!

On October 29, 2014November 1, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Conference learnings, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

Do you generally find that your email inbox clogged with unattended mail?

Do you find that there are many important things to attended to?

Do you find that some important projects don’t get your required attention?

Do you find that some important task are neglected or delayed?

Do you feel that there are some task that you need to attend but you get drained trying to do them?

Do you find you just don’t have enough time to do tasks you enjoy doing that energizes you?

Well, if the answer to one or many of these questions are yes, then many of the answers are with David Allen, the author of many books including, ‘Getting Things Done’ and inspirational speaker.

I was fortunate to be at David’s session today, organized by Right Selection, the company who also represents me in the Middle East. While I generally have an empty email inbox, have things quite well organized with most things done by the end of each week with, and adequate time to do things I am passionate about, I found David helps put things in perspective and provides concepts and a process that helps get things done.

Here is a summary of the learnings for you.

Continue reading “Getting things done … Superbly!” →

The Beauty of Diversity

On October 28, 2014April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

BOvcD6DCYAED207 — Image Credits: Leanin.org

A new client of mine recently requested me to design and run a workshop for their top team on ‘valuing differences’. I was excited about the prospect of doing this as this is at the core of my company and our mission statement also states it explicitly:

To be the best possible global catalyst in organizational and personal transformation. To help the world celebrate its diversity and re-discover its unity.

Inspired by our mission and the prospect of designing a new workshop that resonates so well, I named the workshop ‘The Beauty of Diversity’ which the client loved too.

The objective of the workshop was to help participants realize that we are very different from each other in many ways, that all the different versions of us add value in different ways, one person alone does not have all the different aspects and therefore we need to work with others who are different to ensure all angles are covered, that the diversity adds synergy and by celebrating the beauty of this diversity we not only add synergistic value but also re-discover our unity.

I approached the design of the workshop by helping participants look at 4 areas of differences;

The thinking and decision-making mode: technical or behavioural.
The working preference: quick start, fact finder, implementor or follow through
The brain activity dominance: left brain or right brain
The communication preference: Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic

The participants had an opportunity to do 4 assessments to ascertain their modes & preferences before the session and that helped us to have some interesting discussions regarding the diversity in the group and the richness and value of that diversity. Each area was learnt with the support of concepts, video’s exercises, discussions and soul-searching sessions that led to personal action plans.

After receiving an amazing transformation the participants left the session with a commitment to deploy their energy to value the beauty of diversity [rather than trying to change others to be similar to them] in order to enjoy personal and organizational growth, success and happiness as this approach helps not only synergize but also be a better closer knit team.

Better Team Leadership with ‘Adult’ Ego state!

On September 29, 2014September 29, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Transactional Analysis [TA] introduces the fascinating concept of the 3 ego states in us: Parent, Adult & Child. While TA is used extensively in relationship therapy, it is a powerful and potent tool for improvement of leadership.

The ‘Parent’ ego state has a positive side and a negative side. The positive side is nurturing and protective. The negative side is uses fear and force to control and is cynical. The ‘Child’ ego state also has a positive and negative side. The positive side is fun loving and carefree and the negative side is being a victim, looking for approval and whining. The ‘Adult’ state is the more mature, rational, long term, restraining and professional.

TA therapist recommend that we should develop an adult value system and be in that ego state as much as possible for more healthy relationships. Creator of TA Eric Berne in his book ‘Games People Play’ illustrate how two individuals get into a pattern of behaviour and continue to be in that pattern. These are referred to as ‘Games people play’. There are many games and they will continue if they are complimentary even though they may not be productive or healthy.

Let’s see how the ‘Adults’ ego state helps better leadership.

This is a conversation between ‘Tom’ and his manager ‘Joe’.

Continue reading “Better Team Leadership with ‘Adult’ Ego state!” →

Does your team have clearly agreed ways of working?

On September 18, 2014September 18, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

teamwork — Image credits: http://www.studenthousingmatters.com

In my blog post on the 7th of May 2014 titled ‘How great is your team?’, I promised to go into details of the 11 different aspects that makes a great team. The first aspects regarding ‘Burning Platforms’ and ‘Team alignment around critical goals’ have already been posted in this blog. Here is the third installment; ‘Does your team have clearly agreed way of working?’

In recent senior team strategic and leadership facilitations for a leading insurance company, I asked the question: what kind of work should you be mostly doing? The answer was: ‘Strategic Work’. Then I asked: what kind of work do you mostly do? The answer was: ‘Operational Work’. Then I asked what do you think the reason for that is?. After a short discussion it was clear to everyone that it was due to the absence of leadership that requires developing, delegating, engaging, energizing and create an environment for healthy interactions to get freed up from operational responsibilities to find the time to do the required strategic work.

There are 4 possible ways of working based on the responsibilities and roles of the team. These levels include strategic, tactical, operational and interactive. It is important for the team to have clarity and alignment regarding this and to know which other related teams operates in which way with clarity of the interface relationships.

Strategic work: Strategic work involves being able to predict the future business environment in the areas of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal, referred by the acronym PESTAL. They need to do this by having intellectual connections to various channels of information, being able to extrapolate current happenings to the future, being able to see strategic intentions of actions, behaviours and information provided by business movers and shakes. It involves planning for the long-term taking the strategic realities in to consideration. Being able to make investments in people, technology and business relationships in the present to prepare for the future. A large potion of senior leadership time should be allocated to strategic work. A moderate amount of next level leadership time should be allocated to strategic work. Junior team members should understand the strategic relevance of current decisions and plans and should provide information that has strategic implications to enable higher-level leaders to improve their effectiveness of their strategic work.

Continue reading “Does your team have clearly agreed ways of working?” →

Leading a Team is like Conducting an Orchestra!

On July 28, 2014September 18, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, Uncategorized1 Comment

Leading a team is like conducting an orchestra!

The quest for better leadership is still on and will continue to go on forever. One of the reasons for this is the ever-changing mindsets, expectations, challenges and demands presented by the ever-changing world around us.

There are many tools being used to create better Team Leadership and the next few blogs from me will analyse different tools and methodologies available to create better team leadership.

Let’s first see what is ‘Team Leadership’. Is it the same as or different to ‘Leadership’? Leadership can be used in many situations and ‘Team Leadership’ is an art of leading a team as against leading an individual or a set of individuals.

Team leadership has the following challenges that require the responses indicated.

1. Objectives of the team – The larger, more complex and the more challenging the objectives of the team, the type of ‘Team leadership’ differs. It will require skills such as making the team see the big possibilities, making the team believe in their collective ability to achieve the objectives, and it requires aligning the team under a common plan to achieve the objectives.

2. Size of the team – The larger the team is, the less time the team leader has to provide for each team member, the larger the team is, the more complex will be the relationship issues, the larger the team is, the more effort it will take to keep the team motivated. Appointing a few deputy leaders who take over responsibilities for smaller teams within the team and having more team interactions than individual interactions can overcome this.

3. Diversity of the team: The more diverse the team is, more the differences of opinions will be, more the potential conflicts will be and this will require more involvement of the team leader. Proactively helping team members understand each other through team building exercises and radical conversations, selecting the right mix of team members for various projects and investing more time on participative planning and briefing will help overcome this challenge.

4. Resources available (or not available): The resources available or not available for the team in relation to the tasks at hand can pose a challenge to the leader. The leader should use Continuous Improvement techniques such as Kaizen to get the team working together to make the most of existing resources.

5. Conflicts in the team – A team leader will lead different levels of conflicts in the team. Therefore it is important for the leader to be a good listener, mediator and counsellor using techniques from mainstream psychology, transactional analysis and Neuro Linguistic Programming to prevent, defuse or resolve such conflicts.

Continue reading “Leading a Team is like Conducting an Orchestra!” →

What is your teams burning platform?

On June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

Image Credit: http://www.businessleaners.com

The concept of ‘The Burning Platform’ was first introduced by Daryl Conner who used the metaphor of an Oil Rig worker who had to leap into the water to save himself when the platform of the rig was burning. In this situation if the worker did not jump there was certain death as he would have got burned on the platform and jumping into the heated water with debris was possible death if he was not rescued within 20 mts. So he took the call based on the odds of saving his life although both options he had had a high risk of death. What he essentially tries to say is that sometimes we need to take a call in a hopeless situation such as a burning platform and such a call can ignite and motivate us to unite as a team and do the impossible.

Therefore counties unify when there is a burning platform. A historic example is Japan after world war 2. Similarly there are many examples of people uniting when there had been a suicide bomb attack, sports teams uniting after a heavy defeat, companies uniting when competitors launch a game changing product etc.

However the concept of burning platforms, if taken literally can be misunderstood to mean that a team needs a disaster to unite. There are 4 Types of burning platforms as shown in the following matrix.

Lets examine each of these burning platforms;

The Platform is burning: This is a problem faced by the team in the present. This means we are in trouble and need to take immediate action. Examples of this situation are; competitor has launched a game changing product, one of our factories have been destroyed by fire, A quality issue that has put us in the danger of loosing our biggest customer, trailing 0 – 2 in a soccer game, civil commotion affecting the supply of vital raw materiel etc.

The leadership response: In this situation the leader needs to gather the entire team and collect information regarding the situation from all team members, asses the crisis quickly, show the team how it can affect each member and the team, collect ideas on how to deal with the situation, formulate a plan and assign team members to take action. Given the situation and its personal impact, the team will [at least temporarily] put aside their differences and work together to deal with the situation. This process can bring diverse team members together, generate creativity, ignite the passion and create synergy. Teams coming out of such situations are generally stronger and are geared to achieve greater results. In this situation the leaders challenge is to convert fear and confusion into confidence and hope.

Continue reading “What is your teams burning platform?” →

Leadership is inefficient!

On June 6, 2014June 6, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Sports, Team Excellence, Teams, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Leadership is about developing team members to carryout the important responsibilities in the organization. This is essential if we are to grow and take on higher-level responsibilities. Developing team members requires time. Therefore leadership is inefficient in the short run. However it is a great investment of our time and energy to reap near medium term to long-term results, as having a developed team will help produce more value and great results.

Given below are 10 common areas where this inefficiency can happen.

Getting the right team member in to the team: We need to first ensure the team member with the right attitude and skills are recruited into the team. This requires spending time on determining the profile of the ideal team member, preparing the right evaluation techniques and spending quality time evaluate the candidates.
Taking time to direct: When a new team member is recruited or transferred in from another area of the organization to our team it takes time to induct and teach. Time needs to be allocated to introduce the new team member to the other team members, work environment, mission, vision, values, customers, products and work processes.
Listening: It is important to actively listen to the team member to understand his/her level of absorption, development, enthusiasm, motivation and concerns. This will enable us to ensure the new team member feels at home soon, ready to take on responsibilities that we are planning to delegate.
Handing over responsibility: It requires us handing over a task that may have taken us 1 hour to complete and it takes our team members double that time as he/she consciously and carefully does the job as requires. We need to have patience knowing that there is a natural curve of gaining efficiency as the skill and confidence improves.
Detailed briefing: It is important to provide a detailed briefing for the responsibilities to be delegated. It requires determining how much of authority needs to be delegated. It requires documenting the details, some of which is in our mind and we do as second nature. Sometimes we neglect to provide the finer points thinking it is common sense. Sometimes what are common senses for us is not so common for others.
Checking work done: We need to also invest time to check the progress of work and the quality of work. This requires reading weekly updates, walking into the areas of operation, speaking to those on the job, discussing variances and brainstorming solutions.
Praising: We need to lavishly praise good work. We need to praise the progress in the process, not only wait for the outcome. While this can take time, it is an important activity to reinforce good behaviour.
Improvement feedback: We need to also give improvement feedback for areas that needs to be better. Instant feedback can be detrimental as it can go packaged with negative emotions such as anger. Therefore it is better to give it some time to cool down, visualize how best to most productively provide the feedback and do so, so that this becomes an effective development activity. The cooling down periods takes time.
Dealing with demotivation of others: Delegating responsibility to one person can demotivate another team member. Therefore it takes time to keep others informed, engaged in other value adding activity and communicate consistently so that we keep the entire team motivated.
Dealing with conflict: It is quite likely for conflict to arise between team members as they work on projects and various tasks as they discharge responsibilities delegated. Therefore it is the leaders responsibility to defuse and manage the conflict to create strong team bonding. This of course takes a lot of time and the energy.
Reporting up: The leader is ultimately responsible for tasks delegated and the reporting responsibility lies with the leader. When we were doing the tasks ourselves it was easy to report in detail as we were at the thick of everything. However when it is delegated we need time to get all the details, ask questions to get clarifications and write the report.

Continue reading “Leadership is inefficient!” →

How great is your team?

On May 7, 2014May 7, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence2 Comments

You have just boarded a plane which is already 4 hours late after being given hope that it was going to take off earlier many times resulting in multiple visits to the boarding gate and back to the waiting lounge. Then you sit in the air craft for one more hour without the air conditioning working and no proper explanation from the crew for the reason for the delay. After one hour you are asked to de-plane as there is a technical problem in the aircraft. A further 3 hours wait biting into a sandwich provided by the airline with no clear apology for the delay. Attempts to find out about connecting flights falling on deaf years of annoyed ground staff. Back on the plane that thank fully moves. But it stops again. Pilot announces that we are waiting behind 7 other aircrafts to take off as we had missed our original slot. And finally the plane takes off after a 9 hour delay.

How some people think of teams — Image Credit: http://www.dilbert.com

In this situation why do you think things went wrong? Who could have fixed it? Check-in manager? Pilot? head of Engineering? The CEO? Perhaps not anyone of them! Could it be all of them, if they had worked as one team? There could be individual hero’s who would have tried to make the passengers comfortable, speed up the boarding process etc. but it takes a team to make the difference.

Therefore it is clear we need teams when it is difficult for a group of people together to deliver a goal.

If you see similarities of the above situation in your workplace, perhaps you need to assess the quality of team work. Given below are the qualities of a great team. Rate your team against each of these qualities on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being poor to 5 being excellent.

We have burning Platforms that unifies team. Rating: _____

A burning platform is a critical task that needs to get done before a crucial dead line that requires real teamwork. EG: Getting the ERP system running before the beginning of the next financial year. Getting the new product into the market before the heavy buying season. John F Kennedy created a burning platform when he said lets get a man on the moon safely in a decade from now!

There is clarity about our critical goals. Rating: _____

If our goals are clear we know what we should do and should not do. When the British rowing team was preparing for the Olympics and had to make a decision they asked the question, ‘will this make the board go faster?’ This helped them to turned down dinner invitations and even attend the opening ceremony.

We have clearly agreed ways of working: _____

Continue reading “How great is your team?” →

How credible are you?

On April 30, 2014April 30, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence3 Comments

One of the most valuable assets of a leader is personal credibility. Credibility is a perception and we are perceived as credible by our habits. A habit is formed when behaviours are repeated over a period of time.

Image credits: http://www.warriorforum.com

Here is an opportunity for you to do a self-assessment of your credibility. Given below is a list of 8 credibility habits and a brief explanation of each. In order to know your current level of credibility, read each value and mark a score from 1 to 5 [Poor to Excellent] in front of each habit. You could also give this list to your team members and ask them to rate you to see the difference between your self-assessment and the perception of others.

Show Up On Time: Rating: ____

Questions to ponder: Do I do things on time. Do I arrive at meetings on time? Am totally present, emotionally, mentally and spiritually in addition to just my physical self.

Do What You Say: Rating: ____

Questions to ponder: Do I make promises I can definitely keep even under pressure? Do I keep the promises I make? Do I under promise and over deliver? Continue reading “How credible are you?” →

Big Leadership Lessons from Little Sri Lanka

With the celebrations of winning the world T20 2014 Cricket title still riding high and the entire nation positively charged, it would be a good time to reflect on the leadership lessons.

Image credits: http://www.espncricinfo.com

Lesson 1: Never give up: After having won the cricket 50 over world cup in 1996, Sri Lankan cricket has had ups and downs. Ups, mostly because of the cricket infrastructure in the country producing brilliant talent and downs mainly attributed to cricketing politics and administration. Sri Lanka has come to the finals of many a world level tournaments and ended up runner-up. This time around too, many were having fears of another loss in a final, but things went Sri Lanka’s way, not by accident but by design. Therefore leaders keep learning from mistakes, growing with challenges until they reach the target.

Lesson 2: Team work : While Sri Lanka became the world T20 Cricket champs no Sri Lankan player featured in the top 5 run scorers or wicket takers in the tournament. This is due to all players contributing their very best when conditions required them. Therefore a player like Kumar Sangakkara who failed to score much during all the games during the run up to the final, showed up and became the match winner at the final. A player like Rangana Herath who bowled Sri Lanka to victory in the crucial match against New Zealand was not very suitable for the conditions in some other matches. The player of the tournament was from India, the runner-up. Therefore there are no individual winners, but the team wins. Continue reading “Big Leadership Lessons from Little Sri Lanka” →

On April 8, 2014April 11, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Team Excellence, Uncategorized, World affairsLeave a comment

Turning Stress in to Success – A practical Illustration

On March 16, 2014March 16, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence8 Comments

Image Credits: www.gvsu.edu — Image Credits: http://www.gvsu.edu

I had the fortune of helping out a person to overcome a highly stressful situation. Lets call him Frank.

He was quite a successful businessman and his success was partly due to a business partnership he forged with another individual who was more senior, who had more experience and who was more successful. Lets call him Robert. After awhile Robert had lost control of his lifestyle and had started to face some financial challenges too. Robert kept assuring Frank that it was a temporary cash flow issue that most companies go through.

After awhile Robert requested Frank for financial help and due to the gratitude he had for Robert, he responded. Frank was promised an early return of the loan. The loan amount was so big, it virtually wiped out all his savings; a part of it was reserved for his daughters’ higher education.

The promised day passed and Robert was not in a position to pay back. Many meetings with Robert and constant follow up did not help. Robert needed more financial help and mentioned that a new loan will help him seal a deal and get out of the financial mess, enabling him to pay back Frank. Frank gave the last bit of saving he had trusting his business partner who helped him to be successful.

Continue reading “Turning Stress in to Success – A practical Illustration” →

Galvanizing Your Team for a Great 2014

On January 1, 2014January 29, 2014 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Image Credits: marketzingsolutions.com — Image Credits: marketzingssolutions.com

Wish you a successful, growth giving and happy new-year of excellence.

New years every year brings so fresh hope to teams and leaders. This is the time we think of making the New Year the most spectacular year of all. While we start of with this intention we find it fizzles off really fast.

The reason for this is because a bigger mission or purpose does not support such efforts. This is because such efforts are not done with the engagement of the hearts and minds of the teams who are responsible to deliver such results. The reason for this is because such efforts do not have a disciplined approach.

Given below are a few simple steps that can help you to gear up for an amazing 2014.

Get together with your immediate team and go through the following process.

Continue reading “Galvanizing Your Team for a Great 2014” →

THE HEART AND SOUL OF REAL COMMUNICATION

On October 21, 2013April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Health Care, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Sales, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

‘Mastery of Self’, first introduced in Sri Lanka in the mid-nineties has inspired thousands of Sri Lankans to make ‘Lemonade’ out of the ‘Lemon’ in them. They are known as NLPers rather than HELPers as they HELP the world with the tools of Neuro Linguistic Programming [NLP] they mastered during this 4-day experience. Continue reading “THE HEART AND SOUL OF REAL COMMUNICATION” →

Attitude of Gratitude to my Alma Mater

On October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Sports, Sri Lanka, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

When I feel blessed about what I have achieved my mind automatically takes me to people and events that I am grateful about. Whilst having a deep sense of gratitude to my parents, family, friends and social contacts, one major aspect that made the difference to me is my Alma Mater St Anthony’s College Katugastota in the hill capital of Sri Lanka.

One can’t ask for a better place than St Anthony’s to shape up a young mind and body to become prepared to take on the world. I believe great products from college would have felt the same. Beneficiaries of our alma mater are old Antonians of the calibre of Sir William Gopallawa, the first President of Sri Lanka, Mr. T B Illangaratne, renowned politician and dramatist, Justice Asoka De Silva, World famous professionals such as Prof. Malik Peiries, Dr Patrick Nugawela, Dr C. R. Panabokke, Prof C Suriyakumaran, World class sportsmen such as Mr. Muthaiah Muralitharan, Entrepreneurs such as Mr. Sumal Perera & Dr Lawrence Perera, Musicians such as Mr. Rookantha Gunatilleke & Mr. Stanley Peiris, Military officers such as Colonel A C Lafir and hundreds of other Ministers, Officers of the armed forces and police, academics and business people.

As I look back with an attitude of gratitude to St Anthony’s, I get a deep urge within me to do what I can to help the college continue to do the good work it has done for me. This was further reinforced when I was honoured as one of the top 100 Old Antonians during the 150-year celebrations of the college. Therefore when the opportunity came for me to be a part of the Antonian Rugby Trust, I was delighted to take it; I continue to serve in the advisory committee. I also had the privilege of providing mental toughness training to the rugby team.

The motivations of different people are different. Some do it for the gratitude, some do it for the glory, some do it for social status and others do it to develop business networks. When the motives are different there is bound to be conflict. Such conflict can make those who do things with nobel motives disgruntled. When this happens some feel like walking away, minding there own business and not doing anything for the college and some others decide to persist. I always believe such obstacles helps us to further develop our goodness. Such opportunities help us to help others to become better people. Such opportunities strengthen our resolve to be more generous.

We all belong to various religions and philosophies and we learn the need to give back to the world, do good to others and do our part to make the world a better place. When we split due to differences we lose the opportunity to accumulate goodness credits. On the other hand when like minded people like us who have walked the nooks and corners of the college, who have sat in the same class rooms, who have listened to the same teachers and who have sung our college anthem proudly gets together we can do wonders. So lets get together re-energize ourselves with nostalgia and do what we can do to uplift the standards of our alma mater so that we can celebrate the successes from a far and accumulate stories of before, during and after our time to tell our children and grandchildren.

The Motto of our alma mater ‘Lux De Coelo’ means light from heaven and was taken from a prayer sent from the Vatican when college was inaugurated. I consider this true when it comes to my life. So let the light from heaven that has brightened our being continue to shine in us, our families and the generations of Antonians to come. May god bless you all.

Empathy – Key to Healthcare Success

On June 22, 2013July 26, 2013 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence5 Comments

I was moved by the ‘Empathy’ video on ‘YouTube’ [see the embedded video]. This is a video every health care provider, be it a medical practitioner or non-medical practitioner must watch. The CEO of Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, MD, showed this video during his 2012 state of the clinic address.

Dr. Cosgrove, who I had the fortune of meeting during a 2 week intense healthcare leadership course I attended in this magnificent hospital in April 2013 says; Patient care is more than just healing – it is building a connection that encompasses mind, body and soul. If you stand in someone else’s shoes, hear what they hear, see what they see, feel what they feel, would you treat them differently?

Continue reading “Empathy – Key to Healthcare Success” →

Anger – how we get it and how we get rid of it!

On June 7, 2013July 31, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence5 Comments

Anger is one of the most common negative behaviours in human beings. Anger makes people act in an irrational manner. And therefore anger causes tremendous amounts of unnecessary destruction. Many who are connected with me have asked me how to manage anger. While I teach many tools on how to manage anger in my learning experiences and in my books, I felt this is an issue where many people need help and I need to find faster methods of reaching more people, hence this blog post.

Firstly we must realize that anger is a behaviour we learn and therefore it is not something permanent in us. We learn new behaviours when we see benefits in such behaviours. Therefore for example at a tender age when we observe our dad getting angry and everyone else doing as per his demands in an attempt to make him calm down, we learn that anger has the power of controlling and we quickly learn to use anger as a tool ourselves.

Continue reading “Anger – how we get it and how we get rid of it!” →

Jack of all trades… Master of none …true or false?

On May 30, 2013August 26, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Spiritual, Team Excellence3 Comments

I first heard the saying; ‘Jack of all trades, is a master of none’ from my dad. While I took this as face value and later felt it is valuable mindset to have, I now wonder if this is true or false. On one hand it is humanly possible to be the best in all trades as there are millions of them. We would not have the time to master everything in a lifetime or just even explore them. Anyway I don’t think this statement suggests that anyone attempts to be a master of all trades.

We also don’t have the time in our lifetime to be a Jack-of-all-trades as well. But what do you think the original writer meant by the use of the word Jack. If it is the Jack from the pack of cards, then we are referring to the person who does all the work for the King and Queen. Therefore, by doing all the tasks required he learns many things, but will he ever be the master of any of those subjects.

Recounting my experience, I was in the collage rugby, athletic and chess teams. I was also a Boy Scout and I studied the subjects required to be an engineer. I believe I excelled in the engineering class when I lead a team of my classmates to make a electronic scale in the late 70’s. While it was very primitive and shabby we believe it was one of the first such attempts in Sri Lanka. It was viewed by the then President of the country J R Jayawardena and a later Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Continue reading “Jack of all trades… Master of none …true or false?” →

Leadership Lessons from the Clinton Bengazi Hearing

On January 25, 2013January 28, 2013 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Relationships, Team Excellence, World affairsLeave a comment

There was much to learn watching Hillary Clinton’s appearances last Wednesday to talk about the events in Benghazi that left the US ambassador and 3 others dead, in front of House and Senate committee.

Firstly it was a great example of someone in a senior position being held accountable for her decisions and actions. For her it was an opportunity to bring to a closure her 4 year stint as US Secretary of state on of the most important jobs in the world. Some also say it is the a prelude to the 2016 presidential campaign where she is expected to run for the presidency of the United States of America; an example of long-term planning and taking action now to create the future.

The disciplined approach of the hearing where every member in the hearing committee was given a specific window of opportunity to question Mrs Clinton and they stuck to time without going over-board. They did not continue to argue and go beyond time even if the answers given to the questions were not to their satisfaction.

Once aspect that was significant was the respect. Every senator who questioned her, even from the opposing Republican Party started her by congratulating her for a job well done. It is so important to respect others even if they are our bitter opponents.

In answering the questions thrown at her, Mrs. Clinton showed in-depth knowledge, composure, humility, emotion where relevant, the occasional loss of patience. She displayed good listening skills and was professional in taking responsibility.

As always there are those who think she did a great job and others who think she did some damage to her chances of becoming President of the United States of America. My attempt is not to make a verdict on it but to help us learn from this important event. Continue reading “Leadership Lessons from the Clinton Bengazi Hearing” →

How to master yourself and win in your life

On September 28, 2012April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

When I was first nominated for the ‘Mastery of Self [MS] through Neuron Linguistic Programming [NLP]‘ in 1995 by my employer John Keells Holdings, I never knew what an impact it was going to make in my life. When I first received the notice to attend the workshop I thought it was something to do with computer programming. I was right and wrong. I was right because it was about programming a computer. I was wrong because it was not the desk top or the laptop or the palm top. It was the neck top super computer the most powerful information processing system in the world.

I was fascinated learning about the potential of the brain. I was fascinated learning about the power of the NLP tools to release that potential. I was fascinated by the inspirational impact made on all the participants. It was not a seminar or a workshop but a playshop, an experience where we learn with fun and activity in a child like manner, exploring the wonders of our real potential and talent. Continue reading “How to master yourself and win in your life” →

Business/Donor partnership, the best formula for empowering the poor – The Agora case study

On August 14, 2012August 30, 2012 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Marketing, Relationships, Retail, Social Business, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

The Business/Donor partners working on the Agora SME development project.

Agora established in 2001 with an ultimate aspiration to be the Wal-Mart of the East is an expanding chain of retail outlets in Bangladesh, run by Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd. Agora now operates 11 outlets, a sourcing and processing centre for commodities and a state of the art distribution centre with 680 employees and 320 suppliers. With an aggressive expansion programme in mind Agora recently migrated to an end to end ERP system powered by SAP and WINCOR NIXDORF.

When Agora started its supermarket [providing food, personal care and household needs] business in 2001, the brand was positioned as the best solution for customers for the purchase of fresh produce [fish, meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy] of high quality at the right price as this was the predominant customer need in the absence of an organized modern trade [supermarket] system. This resulted in Agora investing in cold and chill storage, transport and display facilities. The absence of organized fresh produce supply chain resulted in Agora solely developing fresh produce suppliers. This included training perishable traders who operated in the unorganized wet market on proper sorting, grading, storing &transportation of produce and fundamental disciplines of running a business. We also formed partnerships with farmer associations toward this objective.

As Agora expand, the company realized the need to further build the capacity of small and medium fresh produce suppliers and develop robust supply chains and trading relationships. As Agora was looking for solutions for this important need, a meeting between Ms Parveen Huda of BIF [Business Innovation Facility] and Mr Niaz Rahim of Agora led to the signing of an MOU designed to address Agora’s needs while developing their SME suppliers ensuring the ‘inclusive’ aspect. The project was funded by DFID, BIF and AGORA and the capacity building expertise was received from one of the world’s leading business consultancies Accenture and PUM from Netherlands.

Continue reading “Business/Donor partnership, the best formula for empowering the poor – The Agora case study” →

Olympics 2012 – ‘Imagine’ the great manifestation of possibility

On August 13, 2012August 23, 2020 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Relationships, Spiritual, Sports, Team Excellence, World affairs1 Comment

A picture of the Olympic Logo on the Tower Bridge taken from the London Bridge during my visit before the Olympics.

The 2012 Olympics that just concluded was one of the greatest manifestations of possibility that I had experienced.

My family and I were in the UK just before and during the opening ceremony that made us fortunate enough to feel the energy in the country this great spectacle was taking place. We were not able to witness any sporting events at venues at circumstances required us to return end of July, but we were fortunate to be able to witness this great spectacle on TV and the internet.

The first possibility that was manifested was the participation of almost all the countries of the world, 204 in total and every country having both male and female sportsman. All sports had a women’s version as well resulting in some teams such as USA having more women Olympians. What a great equalizer.

It was amazing to see conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia who do not permit women to drive, having women participating. I was fortunate to switch on the TV to see the women’s 800 m heat where Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar was running. Although she came last, she got the biggest applause to show that this was a victory for humanity.

World records were many manifesting that there is no end to improving human performance and endurance. Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, Carmelita Jeter of the USA 4x100m relay team establishing a new world record at 40.82 destroying the 27-year old record and Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt of Jamaican 4×100 relay team establishing a new world record at 36.84 will remain in our memories for ever. These amazing human beings showed that we can be individuals stars and teams at the same time.

Continue reading “Olympics 2012 – ‘Imagine’ the great manifestation of possibility” →

Liberating Passion at Agora – Leadership lessons Learnt as CEO of Agora over the last 3 years!

On August 12, 2012April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Retail, Team Excellence4 Comments

Leaving the Agora team was one of the toughest things I had to do. The words, tears, flowers and gifts from the teams in various outlets, office, warehouse and distribution centre was simply heart-warming. I never realized I had made such an impact in the hearts and minds of over 700 team members over the 3 years I led them as their CEO.

After being in Team and Leadership Excellence consulting for 10 years, subsequent to 16 years in corporate life for 16 years as Director for Keells Foods and Keells Super, I took on a new interesting challenge as the CEO of the Agora Supermarket Chain [owned by the highly diversified Rahimafrooz Group] in Bangladesh in July 2009.

This was a 3 year assignment to prepare the company for Rapid expansion. I took over this assignment for 3 reasons; Firstly because Agora was close to my heart as I helped start it as a consultant in 2001 and hence I considered Agora my own baby and I wanted it to be successful. Secondly because I wanted to validate the guidance I give so many companies around the world as a consultant, by being in the hot seat for a while. And thirdly because I respect the Rahimafrooz Group and the family that owns it for running a company driven by ‘Values’ using ‘world-class’ management methods.

My dream was to make Agora a world-class company, the pride of Bangladesh and I write this blog with a mix of emotions that include happiness, sadness, fear, pride and hope.

Firstly I am extremely happy that we together created a company with a positive work culture that was built on the ‘Ultimate Aspiration’, ‘Values’, ‘Agora Aponjon Promise’ [Aponjon is the Bangla word for ‘dear one’ or ‘near one’ and this is the promise we deliver to our ‘guests’ or ‘Aponjon’], quality policy, good leadership, supportive team work and passionate team members. We also made the company profitable building on this culture and taking measures to improve the brand image, value to our guests, business knowledge, planning and execution. We also invested in a brand new state of the art distribution centre, new outlets and a new ERP system [SAP and WINCOR NIXDOEF]. All this helped the company to become profitable for the first time in my first year in office and become a leading revenue and profit contributor of the Rahimafrooz Group [the group that owns Agora an many other companies] providing better benefits and promotional opportunities to Agora’s team members.

Continue reading “Liberating Passion at Agora – Leadership lessons Learnt as CEO of Agora over the last 3 years!” →

Leadership Lessons from Sri Lankan Cricket

On March 24, 2012June 9, 2012 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Sports, Team Excellence3 Comments

As we take a short breather from the hectic cricket season where Sri Lanka played in South Africa, Australia and Bangladesh over the last 3 months with ups and down bringing joy and sadness to millions of Sri Lankans around the world, the leadership lessons have been tremendous.

The world cup loss to India on the 2^nd of April 2011, which was surrounded with controversy [that I will not comment on as I do not have the required information to do], the resignation of the captain and the financial crisis of the cricket board had left the team in turmoil.

Continue reading “Leadership Lessons from Sri Lankan Cricket” →

Marketers are great CEO’s in the making!

On February 4, 2012April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Team Excellence2 Comments

Yes, marketers are great CEO’s in the making. The level of success is dependent on the understanding of the complexity of the job and the steps that needs to be taken to get to the top.

Marketing is one of the most challenging, interesting and rewarding jobs!

The needs and attitude towards marketing is different from various perspectives; firstly the practitioner, who has taken the brunt of it, tasted the successes or licked their wounds, the practitioner’s boss, the CEO who calls the shots and the marketing consultant who brings a second opinion.

Let me speak from the vantage point of someone who has played all three roles. Firstly practicing marketing as the Marketing Director of Keells Foods & Keels Super and Pizza Hut in Sri Lanka. Secondly, as the Managing Director of my own company and next the Chief Executive Officer of Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd. Bangladesh. Finally, providing, strategy, marketing and leadership consultancy for companies in over 20 countries.

Continue reading “Marketers are great CEO’s in the making!” →

Hardware or the Software … in so many aspects of life?

On January 20, 2012April 7, 2024 By Dr Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team Excellence1 Comment

Recently I stumbled upon a TedX video of David Damberger titled: What happens when an NGO admits failure. It is a real eye opener for NGO’s who spends money in providing infrastructure such as tube wells. What they forget to do is investing some money on maintaining such infrastructure by employing people, training them and providing a source of funding and following up. David talks about how he saw this happening and making the same mistake himself. He sees how the tube wells provided were unusable a few years later due to this issue.

A success story in this aspect is the foundation for goodness run by Kushil Gunasekara in southern Sri Lanka. A village names ‘Seenigama’ he was fostering got completely wiped out due to the Tsunami on the 26th of December 2004. He got the support of various donors, well-wishers and those who were affected and re-built the village. He made it sustainable through various activities such as running 2 BPO’s and other industries and the village is a thriving one now. They have produced 6 national players for Sri Lanka in various sports among other achievements. It is a fascinating story and you can see their details at http://www.unconditionalcompassion.org/indexc.php.

Continue reading “Hardware or the Software … in so many aspects of life?” →

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Beyond Vision: Why Purpose Matters

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Empathy & Perspective, an inspirational Speech By Simon Sinek

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