Year that was — 2020 Reads
2020 was an unusual year in every sense. A lot changed with lockdowns and uncertainty. The medical community was fighting an unknown battle, security forces trying to keep us safe from the invisible. Practically everyone was forced to reinvent, including vaccine cycles and teaching.
In the heightened stress situations, unfamiliar work territory, and uncertainty, books were the constant source of wisdom as usual. Coincidentally, books I could find myself reading were also about uncertainty, ambiguity, and how to respond to situations. I am sure it is not a coincidence, but just that choices are beyond my understanding at this point in time. As Oprah Winfrey says
“Books were my pass to personal freedom.”
I literally experienced in the locked-down 2020.
Penning down some of the learnings which I remember(Possibly each of them can be a separate topic of detailed thoughts)
- Embrace uncertainty and ambiguity.
- Think systems and interactions. Breaking down problems aids thinking cleanly. While breaking the problems ease out the complexity in isolation, the overall complexity is still the same. Personally this was very helpful learning while trying to make sense of Covid pandemic situation and stay sane.
- Right measures for right outcomes, measures are lighthouse to cross the oceans. Never lose the sight of them.
- Chance is one of the most underestimated aspects of outcomes. Never forget it. It helps to explicitly think about the role chance plays in determining the outcome. It’s an excellent watchtower to dispassionately observe the trajectory of action and results.
- Dealing with people can be easy or hard, hard, hard things. Take a pause, and It’s important to let go thoughtfully.
- Early intervention makes things look ordinary. No-fuss things fall in place by default. Glory comes for the late intervention, it’s in the news every time, a rescue operation.
2020 reading list along with countless artciles, blogs and gartner/forrester reports.
