Thought Leadership

Mind Sparkle Series MSS How To Start Career in Academics.. An Engaging Session by Prof Afroz Alam, HoD, MANNU Welcome to Mind Sparkle Series MSS where I am conducting a series of motivational and theme based lectures, Panel Discussions, Workshops etc on online platforms with expert individuals from all walks of life.  The idea of the program is to prepare the students, professionals etc for the future career and progress. This Mind Sparkle Series MSS is concieved and planned by Shahnawaz Qasim, IPS  The aim of Mind Sparkle Series MSS  is to provide inspiration, motivation and encouragement to uplift your life to a new level. The ideas, concepts and knowledge we would discuss will act as a catalyst for your change. We believe that positive changes are foundation stones towards societal change. It is the drop that ultimately create the sea. About the Speaker Prof Afroz Alam is presently working as Professor and Head, Department of Political Science at Maulana Azad National...

Do Not Sow in Parts   If you sow in parts you reap in parts. The harvest of the mind is always in doubt. This is the clarion call of the Wise At the elevated conciousness level, knowledge is a unified concept. Astronomy cannot not be separated from Mathematics, Mathematics from Philosophy, Philosophy from Medicine & so on All things are unified if seen from the perspective of Wisdom rather than mere Knowledge            picture credit : jean van der muellen from pexels  Leadership is Wisdom  A wise man is supposed to be the unifier of the knowledge. A solution provider The subject of leadership belongs more to the category of the Wisdom than to the Knowledge Wise leadership does not see problems only from the operational, technical, financial, resource, capacity etc perspective The Wisdom Deficit  They often visualize it at the Macro Level & try to find the “Wisdom Deficit” that led to the problem Wisdom to them is more than...

The Great Imbalance  Have you ever realised the great imbalance we have created in our Self Communication System . Though inadvertently developed but it has a profound & lasting impact on your leadership attributes Speaking, listening & writing are the core  Self Communication System   which connects your personality to the outer world. It's like the visa by which you enter the other people’s mind  But to avail the visa one has to first get the passport    Picture credit : Thought Catalog from Pexels  The Passport to Success  Reading is the passport of your personality. Without it your entire  Self Communication System    is an exercise in self deception  We must have read upteem articles about personalities & their reading lists. Their list is not so important. But the fact that they read is some pointer towards their success  Now the basic question is what to read. The answer is a simple formula which I have ...

The Two Wings  Have you ever thought about the two philosophical concepts that lets your Thought Leadership soar high.  They are like the two proverbial wings which are interconnected & inter dependent for the high flight  The Metaphysics of Leadership  The metaphysics is the art of thinking, visualizing, contemplating & defining of aspects beyond the physical. The Metaphysics allows your mind to probe the abstract & the unknown. It makes your intellect question the beings & the things along with the truth of existence. It lets you search for things that even do not exist in the realms of words & ideas  The metaphysics tests the capacity & the limits of your thinking abilities. It is the most potent tonic for your unharvested mind  The Physicalism of Leadership The “Physicalism” conception brings your mind back to the world of the seen reality. Sometimes Physicalism is casually understood as Materialism. This makes your senses obse...

The Much Debated Concepts  There are two diametrically opposite concepts in philosophy that have dominated the minds for ages  The “ Priori ” concept believes that the mind already has certain knowledge embedded in it much before it experiences the sensation of it  The “ Posteriori ” philosophy believes that the mind is like the blank slate on which knowledge is written only after it interacts with the sensation outside Ibn e Sina's influence on the western thought  Plato was to a certain extent a “Priori“ believer while Aristotle was for “Posteriori”  The West was influenced in favour of “Posteriori” by the work of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the father of modern medicine. His Magnum Opus “ The canons of medicine ” is the most celebrated book on medicine ever written. Ibn Sina’s philosophical outlook in favour of Posteriori settled the debate forever in Europe  Where does leadership belong to?  Now the question arises whether leadership belongs to the prior...

But Why ?  Some of the Boeing 747 planes still use the 3.5 inch floppy disc to upload the softwares related to navigation, way routes, airport details etc. Every month the SW is loaded via the floppy disc by engineers otherwise the flight won't be in operations  But Why ?  The Comfort Zone  The possible reasons for not transitioning from the floppy disc era to the latest methods are not far to seek. The hardware mechanics of the plane are so rigidly built that it does not allow the upgrade. The other reason could be that since it is serving its intended purpose there is no need to upgrade it  The later reason seems quite possible as it is nearer to our human thinking behaviour  Is necessity necessary for change ?  Most of the time we also do not update, upgrade & change ourselves simply because we feel that there is no necessity for it. Everything is going fine & we feel blessed to be cocooned maintaining the status quo in our own comfort zones...

The dialectics  Friedrich Hegel, German Philosopher who laid the foundations of Historical Materialism. He believed that truth can only be known through the process of "dialectic” Hegel explained Dialectic as the process of development of thought where 1. Our first thought is regarded as truth and this becomes our Thesis 2. Then contradiction starts appearing in our Thesis. Counter ideas starts challenging our Thesis. This counter thoughts are our Anti- Thesis 3. This Anti- Thesis also seems equally true 4. Now we are faced with two mutually incompatible or contradictory ideas...The Thesis & the Anti-Thesis 5. But the truth must belong somewhere in the two ideas. 6. Hence out of thesis & antithesis comes out the “Synthesis” 7. This Synthesis is now our Thesis-the accepted truth for time being 8. Again out of this thesis, the anti thesis will come out and then the synthesis and so on and so forth 9. In this way the progress of ideas and thoughts of civilization moves on con...

Let's teach philosophy to children We teach history and literature in school. But one thing is missing. we do not teach philosophy in school. Why ? Some argue it is difficult for children to understand. But so is mathematics & science. Some say it is too abstract for children to grasp. But there are many concepts in science & mathematics which are deeply abstract Simplify it  we are simplifying others subjects to make it easy for the children to understand. Similarly we must simplify philosophy to make it understandable for the children In this age even school children are sharing quotes which are of philosophical nature. They enjoy doing it without even knowing that it is philosophy The children is the collective shared future  Our children are our future. We want them to question & speculate everything. They must be fearless to speak their mind. Our future leadership must be compassionate. They must understand that it is the diverse concepts of ideas, i...

Like Father is obviously not the son Pompey is a colossal figure in Roman history. He was a fine General and a leading statesman of the Roman politics of his time in the 1st century B.C. The rivalry between Pompey & Julius Caesar is legendary Pompey's father was a general himself but with a very bad reputation. Once his father massed his troops and camped outside the city to attack his rival. Pompey also accompanied him. But due to his haughty attitude, administrative inabilities and confused policies, the troops declared mutiny. They wanted to kill Pompey's father and defect to the rival camp. Morning shows the dawn  Pompey, then only 19 years old, immediately took control of the situation. He went to the main entrance and delivered his famous speech and said "over my dead body if you will". His speech was powerful & ultimately convinced his troops to return back. The troops withdraw the mutiny. The troops got the leadership they wanted This is perhaps the mo...

Freedom is an illusion You may be free from inside but not outside Rules of your engagements are mostly written before you are even born Your Large connections are already established even before you interact You way & style of communication is already decided before you spoke Your Do's & Don'ts are existing in the environment before you even act Someone has already tied you to your Belief & cultural moorings before you prayed Your Culinary taste has already been decided before you ate anything Your name is Just waiting to be registered before you are even called by your name You are already labelled socially before your personality arrived But still inspite of all this You have power to shape your destiny Within this illusionary freedom You still can have your freedom But remember always one thing Everything is Relative and some is deceptive

Alexander's tutor must be above suspicion We all know that Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. But we must also know that Alexander's teacher should be beyond suspicion too Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, was the teacher of Alexander the Great. It was he who gave Alexander the formal education of those days The mysterious death of Alexander Alexander's death is mysterious and suspicious. He remained in complete ill health with high fever. He showed all signs of poisoning and died 12 days after falling ill The greatest suspicion fell on Aristotle for poisoning Alexander. People believed that Aristotle took revenge for his nephew who was executed by Alexander for opposing his adoption of Persian cultural practices. Aristotle was closest to him and had all the resources and opportunities to poison him. After Alexander's death Aristotle fled Athens Alexander was perhaps the first multi-culturist. He adopted culture of places he conquered and encouraged inter ...

If AI is biased ?  I remember reading a news item about a beauty contest that was judged by the Artificial Intelligence(AI). The result was that all the winners were from one particular skin & color type The AI was biased because the algorithm & data was biased of what constitutes beauty. Whether the data was fed by accident or by design we do not know. But we know its decision were biased The importance of Technology Leadership TL This brings us to an important aspect of leadership. In the age of AI it is must for technology experts to be well versed in leadership than anybody else. They must have high level of leadership to prevent such biases from occurring Imagine such algorithmic bias in our justice, education, welfare system etc . The society will suffer beyond imaginations specially the poor, marginalized & the disadvantaged That is why PHL is so important That is why the teachings of Philosophy, History & Literature (PHL) is necessary for Technical Lead...

The equation of life  Everything exists to self destruct itself one day into oblivion. Nothing is eternal. Everything is ephemeral. Certainty of Permanence is antithetical to the existence of creation. The sun which sustains life on Earth is also destined to extinguish itself one day just like the lamp in the highway winds. Sun is nothing but a fading lamp of time. When our realities are not permanent our experiences also cannot be perpetual. High & Low are the processes of the ultimate equation of decay. When we understand the "Equation of Life" we acknowledge the solutions inherent in it Great leadership understand life  Great minds & exceptional leadership understand the Constants & Variables of the Equation of Life. They do not chase success nor do they understand failures. They only try & think about imprinting their ideas, thoughts, actions, behaviors etc on the impermanent canvas of their existence. They understand the limitations of the realities of th...

The Hunter & Prey Mindset Our way of looking at success & failure is primordial. We are still trapped in the Hunter and the Prey Mindset ( HPM). We visualize success as a prey that has to be hunted down through strategy & tactics . But this model is uni dimensional and severely individualistic in processes & effects Zero sum game model  Success & Failure has two dimensions. One is the somewhat Zero Sum Game Model (ZSGM) and the other is something like the Exponential Growth Model ( EGM). In ZSGM if someone has to win then someone has to lose. This is the individualistic personal development model. This model is purely the HPM scenario. We are more obsessed with this model The Exponential Growth Model  The EGM is the mass benefit model. It is a collective enterprise. In this the success is exponential and belongs to all. If vaccines & medicines for Covid19 are successfully discovered it will be the EGM of success. There is nothing wrong with the ZSGM per...

The 5 qualities of "Change Leadership" In my organisation & beyond I have observed successful leaders & their attributes specially their implementation of “Change”. The five qualities that were common among them to successfully implement change were 1. They have immense levels of conviction about the change they are bringing. They are well prepared, researched and do not fumble for response when asked about it. They are more than willing to take questions about it from every quarter and do not hide from the cynics 2. They have the ability to communicate effectively their vision of change to the last person in the organisation. Such leaders ensure the last mile connectivity as a priority 3. They fully engage with all the stakeholders and inform them continuously about the changes being brought. They clearly spell out the incoming benefits accruing to the different stakeholders 4. They start training their cutting edge workforce especially in mindset change from the fir...

It is the glow from inside that makes you fly high and yet keeps you stable. The whole journey is to get that "Glow" within ourselves. We all have Potential Glow inside us. But it needs some kind of spark to lighten the embers again. Let's search for that spark and start the Glow which enlightens you and all Sometimes that spark comes in the form of leaders and their leadership style. A leader is the one who stokes that glow of hope inside us.                                               Video credit: Taryn Elliott from Pexels

What makes a successful Leader different from the rest They too are mortal and prone to influence from the common ecosystem They also face difficulties what we all face The one quality that separates great Leaders from the rest is this.... They wear their "𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡" and that is why they can see their goals which others cannot Their sight becomes their "𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡" That is why they are called " 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗬"                                                    video credit  by   @ sound on at Pexels

Let us be bewitched... Let us be bewitched with Humanity It is in the nature of everything to fade & wither away into oblivion if not taken care of Every beautiful things exists because it is nurtured with love & kindness Relationships & our social existence Sits on the principle of Nurturing So, Nourish yourself with Tender Emotions Shower everybody with benign feelings Water the tree of humanity With Compassion Then see the Magic happen The musk of the flowers of togetherness will spread far & wide into the distant hearts & minds etched forever as memories " The Bliss in Solitude" by Shahnawaz Qasim                                                    Video credit  by  u_rjjehevu from Pixabay

𝗪𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 History is the formal and structured way of story telling based on verifiable facts. It is a form of story telling which has engaged us for thousand of years. Historians are trained story tellers The greatest stories  But the greatest stories are not buried in the history books. It lies in the consciousness of everyone. The common man is the greatest story teller. Billions of human stories lies unheard of from millions of such people Stories of love, emotion, faith, despair, hope, war, peace, turmoil, bond, separation, success, failure, life, death etc are all part of our common human heritage. We do not exist only to hear & celebrate stories of triumph. We are not here to gloat the achievements of few over many. We live to speak and converse about the stories of the ordinary. It is the ordinary wherein lies the spirit of extraordinary. We must tell the incredible untold stories of the common man Leadership tells hope s...

Let not the hope go down…. Pent up emotions thriving inside thousand cravings, desires beside days, months & years conjoin in distant world of consciousness alive Let not the hope go down…. Not all wishes would come true Nor all Plans may succeed Even the days can get somber And night will keep you awake Let not the hope go down…. You may desert, many will leave Your some thoughts may scream Fresh Longings, new laments to recite Your heart may seem an alien place to reside Let not the hope go down…. The world your enemy Existence the sorrow Victim mind compels to think Like there is no tomorrow Let not the hope go down…. We are the link to civilisation Carrier of the hope of fraternity The mortal who is destined to write The songs of human immortality Let not the hope go down…. ( By Shahnawaz Qasim )               Photo credit :  Anna Shvets from Pexels