Rebellious Thoughts #41 - 🤘 Leadership Hack: Why You Should Stop Talking and Start Doing

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game!


Let’s go!

Today:

• Awe: Why Actions Speak Louder

• Deal Flow: Better Housing Solutions

• Action: Sail Like an Ancient Egyptian

• Personal: The Power of Conscious Breathing

• Trend: Are Humanoid Robots Joining Your Team?

Read time: 3 min 16 sec

AWE

I was reading this paper in Cumulative Culture by Cristine Legare and it helped me make a connection that explains better the challenges we face in startups and corporations when humans gather and build culture.

~6-7 million years ago, we split away from our chimpanzee common ancestor - since then we have developed technologies of all types, as crazy and sophisticated as splitting atoms, landing on Mars and manipulating genes. Chimps on the other hand have stuck to the same tools, at best repurposing them. There are lots of theories as to why this particular monkey called human managed to achieve such a feat, one of them is Cumulative Culture.

When kids are born they are cultural novices. They learn by copying those around them. High-fidelity imitation is what makes us able to accumulate knowledge. We transmit instrumental skills and social conventions (tools to keep warm and a ceremony). If you left this to a human alone trying to learn through discovery or trial and error, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

In businesses, small and big, when a new person joins the organisation they are culturally novice, and through imitation, they learn the skills and rituals of the business.

Of course, when they arrive they are not “empty” so they also bring some cultural traits that blend in, but, because we are so good at high-fidelity imitation, new people will instinctively copy what everyone does.

The lesson: leadership is much more about what you do than what you say. We imitate, that’s what we are good at.

DEAL FLOW

There’s a huge issue in many countries when it comes to affordable housing.

Countries like the US and Australia for example, struggle due to regulation, industry inertia, cultural traits and other reasons that make it hard to solve the puzzle. But in countries like Japan and Sweden, the issue has been mostly solved.

Check out this company in Sweden called Lindbacks. Not a start-up, but inspiring dozens of startups worldwide (especially in the US) to build houses in factories effectively and ship them to location.

If you ever built a house in Australia you would know how much inefficiency exists in the process… weather, material availability, labour availability, all make it incredibly slow and inefficient.

ACTION

Have you ever sailed?

When I was young I used to race Optimist - a little tiny cute looking sailing boat.

Later, my parents bought a small catamaran which was endless hours of fun.

I have on my bucket list that one day I’ll cross an ocean in a sailing boat.

PERSONAL

Played with conscious breathing yesterday and it blew my mind.

I used to do a lot of free diving when I was younger, like obsessed with holding my breath and going deeper and longer underwater.

I remember breathing consciously making me feel healthy and fit, it has an amazing effect on our bodies.

Lucas (you might know him from the masterclasses and courses we organise together) has been telling me for a while the benefits of doing it, and yesterday Gonza, another friend, made me lie down on the beach and for 40 min walked me through an incredible exercise. It felt like 10min to me and it set me up for the rest of the day.

If you haven’t tried it here is a link to some breath work:

TREND

This has been coming for a long time but… before you know it your co-workers will be humanoid robots.

The new Atlas is electric, which allows them to shift into another gear.

Read up it’s time! https://bostondynamics.com/blog/electric-new-era-for-atlas/

That’s it for today! (are you enjoying my Saturday editions?? haha promise to get back to Thursdays!)

Love 

Gus

P.S. Whenever you're up for it, here are 3 ways I can help:

1/ At Neu21 we combine creativity, innovation and insight to create unstoppable organisations and products customers love. Book a Discovery call to learn how we can help you

2/ Book a 1-1 Coaching session with Gus

3/ Join our Career Rebellion Group 3 Waiting List!!

My recommendations:

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