The Cyb3rSyn Kaleidoscope - Episode 1

Welcome to the very first episode of the The Cyb3rSyn Kaleidoscope - these posts will touch multiple topics along with some commentary on contemporary stories including updates to Cyb3rSyn Newsletter/Labs, if any. Here is what we’ll cover in this episode:

Table of Contents

• Cyb3rSyn App

• What is it that you do?

  • With X:

  • With Y:

• The most dangerous acronym 🤯

• Micromanagement comes in two flavors!

• The Psychology of India

  • The curious case of the Uber drivers!

  • The land of the Mahabharata!

Cyb3rSyn App

A cool update for all the subscribers of this newsletter - the Cyb3rSyn Newsletter App.

You can now enable mobile app installation for the Cyb3rSyn Newsletter. This will allow you to download a mobile app directly onto your Home Screen and thereby benefit from features like longer login sessions, push notifications, and more. Just follow the instructions here: www.Cyb3rSyn.com

(For the geeks: Yep, this is a PWA - the good folks at Beehiiv know what they are doing! I’m thoroughly impressed with their PWA implementation as a creator!)

What is it that you do?

I’ve been traveling a lot lately and meeting with so many people across the United States and India. Many folks were curious about what is that I do professionally and what I’m most excited about… I’ve structured these as conversations between X (a fictitious CXO level executive - not related to the social networking service of the same name), Y(a fictitious entrepreneur) and myself.

With X:

X: So, what is it that you do?
Me: Well, I would like to think of my work as something that’s on the frontier - not in the mainstream. But, it maybe best explained as the opposite of what you already know and are familiar with it.

X: Hmm… That’s mildly interesting. Say more?
Me: “Management consulting” is the norm today. The “bringing in” of some consultants that know how best to improve productivity or profit margin or whatever it is that they do. But, that can be viewed as outsourcing of thinking by management. The primary job of management is to think - from strategy to prevailing management systems. This core function has historically been outsourced to MBA-type kids out of college with some “training”, reusable templates and a “cheatsheet”.

X: Alright, enough! I get your point. But, what can be the opposite of that?
Me: The first step of any transformation is the transformation of the individual. I’m in the business of perturbing leaders/executives (who are sincere about their transformation) with well-crafted questions. I’m in the business of giving them a new way to think about their own organizations - a no-methods, no-frameworks, no-nonsense approach. Getting leaders to think, unlearn and transform themselves first and then go drive the transformation of their organizations - that’s the opposite. Having said that, I’d like to pay attention to and take pride in the second order implications of my work - the transformations that will be driven by these transformed individuals.

With Y:

Y: I’m jumping into entrepreneurship.
Me: Congrats! I wish you the best! But, be careful - you are most likely going to FAIL!

Y: I already know that >90% of startups fail. Don’t be such a pessimist.
Me: Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m talking about the remaining ~10% that are “successful”.

Y: Wait, What?
Me: Let’s step back. Why are you becoming an entrepreneur in the first place?

Y: Well, in my corporate job, I had an amazing idea for a new product. But, it went nowhere - I just ran in circles and it never got funded. Now, I have secured funding and am going to build it myself.
Me: Ah! That’s how Zoom was born! The story is very similar to what many other entrepreneurs have told me. Now, think about the founders of many medium to large corporations today. They were once frustrated like you and now their own creation has become the bureaucracy they ran away from. That’s how you are most likely to fail.

Y: Well, I don’t want to repeat their mistakes.
Me: Awesome! After working in the industry as an employee for 23 years and studying how to tame this type of entropy, I became an entrepreneur to help entrepreneurs like you build a new type of workplace where people are entitled to joy! It is the next-gen that excites me the most - the ones that want to escape from the mainstream and are ready to experiment with new approaches to management….

If this resonates with you, start your journey and escape the mainstream 👇🏾(I love connecting with folks that hit the “reply” button to my newsletter 🙂 ):