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The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck
Good luck isn't just chance--it can be learned and leveraged--and The Serendipity Mindset explains how you can use serendipity to make life better at work, at home--everywhere.
Many of us believe that the great turning points and opportunities in our lives happen by chance, that they're out of our control. Often we think that successful people--and successful companies and organizations--are simply luckier than the rest of us. Good fortune--serendipity--just seems to happen to them.
Is that true? Or are some people better at creating the conditions for coincidences to arise and taking advantage of them when they do? How can we connect the dots of seemingly random events to improve our lives?
In The Serendipity Mindset, Christian Busch explains that serendipity isn't about luck in the sense of simple randomness. It's about seeing links that others don't, combining these observations in unexpected and strategic ways, and learning how to detect the moments when apparently random or unconnected ideas merge to form new opportunities. Busch explores serendipity from a rational and scientific perspective and argues that there are identifiable approaches we can use to foster the conditions to let serendipity grow.
Drawing from biology, chemistry, management, and information systems, and using examples of people from all walks of life, Busch illustrates how serendipity works and explains how we can train our own serendipity muscle and use it to turn the unexpected into opportunity. Once we understand serendipity, Busch says, we become curators of it, and luck becomes something that no longer just happens to us--it becomes a force that we can grasp, shape, and hone.
Full of exciting ideas and strategies, The Serendipity Mindset offers a clear blueprint for how we can cultivate serendipity to increase innovation, influence, and opportunity in every aspect of our lives.
Many of us believe that the great turning points and opportunities in our lives happen by chance, that they're out of our control. Often we think that successful people--and successful companies and organizations--are simply luckier than the rest of us. Good fortune--serendipity--just seems to happen to them.
Is that true? Or are some people better at creating the conditions for coincidences to arise and taking advantage of them when they do? How can we connect the dots of seemingly random events to improve our lives?
In The Serendipity Mindset, Christian Busch explains that serendipity isn't about luck in the sense of simple randomness. It's about seeing links that others don't, combining these observations in unexpected and strategic ways, and learning how to detect the moments when apparently random or unconnected ideas merge to form new opportunities. Busch explores serendipity from a rational and scientific perspective and argues that there are identifiable approaches we can use to foster the conditions to let serendipity grow.
Drawing from biology, chemistry, management, and information systems, and using examples of people from all walks of life, Busch illustrates how serendipity works and explains how we can train our own serendipity muscle and use it to turn the unexpected into opportunity. Once we understand serendipity, Busch says, we become curators of it, and luck becomes something that no longer just happens to us--it becomes a force that we can grasp, shape, and hone.
Full of exciting ideas and strategies, The Serendipity Mindset offers a clear blueprint for how we can cultivate serendipity to increase innovation, influence, and opportunity in every aspect of our lives.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
270 people are currently reading
2635 people want to read
About the author
Christian Busch
5 books40 followersDr. Christian Busch teaches at New York University (NYU) and the London School of Economics (LSE). At NYU, he directs the CGA Global Economy program. He co-directed the LSE's Innovation & Co-Creation Lab, and is a cofounder of Sandbox Network, a community of young innovators, as well as Leaders on Purpose. When he’s not contemplating about serendipity, purpose, or community, falling prey to his inner introvert Christian can be found hiding behind spy novels in deserted coffee shops and parks across the city.
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February 26, 2021
A good idea, explained and explained and explained and explained and explained and repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until I no longer cared.
August 24, 2020
Be it to get a job, find a partner, or lead a company, is there a way to create good luck? How do we foster serendipity? That is what Professor Christian Busch, one of the most brilliant minds at New York University, wrote about in "The Serendipity Mindset."
I don’t write book reviews. Rather, when I find a great book, I review the parts that were useful to me. That way readers are exposed to the content. This is what I liked:
How to create good luck
I. Tips to foster serendipity at meetings
Busch has numerous tips on how to manage meetings. I liked these:
1. Ask people to introduce themselves not with their job title but with things such as “What are you currently most excited about?”
2. When you meet someone, think about how you can contribute to their life and to whom you could introduce them.
3. When you run an event that is about connecting people, ask people to share 1) what they are currently most excited about, 2) their biggest challenge, and 3) their favorite serendipity story.
I also liked the idea of “having a hype person" to ease tough meetings, using a “dining in the dark” experience for group meetings and how a L'Oréal executive drives serendipity, which leads to how to pick the location for Board meetings.
II. Getting a job. Through Serendipity
How to respond to the “What do you do?” question
"What do you do?" This is the question most frequently asked when we meet someone new.
Busch begins quoting Ovid, “Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” He then recommends increasing the number of “hooks” when responding to that question to at least four. It could be where we work, where we went to school, what our passion is, and what we enjoy doing.
The law of numbers
Over 75% of jobs are found through our network. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman points out that "we need to position ourselves for luck, to debunk the myth that some people are just in the right place at the right time." Busch goes on to say that “This is a numbers game, so be precise when sending Linkedin messages, and do it to as many people as possible.”
Inspiring stories from people who got jobs
Be it how someone who was going to be a priest ended up first as CFO of Nestlé; or how someone who missed a train got a much better job, there are numerous inspiring stories in the book. I liked the ones about Unilever, BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, Dyson, and Pret A Manger.
III. Good leaders foster serendipity. It’s good for business
How can leaders drive profitable growth by fostering serendipity? I liked the 8 stories about Mastercard, Procter & Gamble, Novo Nordisk, Medium, Haier, SEB, Turkcell, and TED
How can we reduce the time it takes to launch a product from 3 years to 3 weeks? Busch describes an interesting concept to achieve that.
I also found interesting his findings of Introverts who act as Extroverts and why open offices drastically decrease productivity.
Conclusion
Buy the book. Take the “Busch serendipity score test” on page 300. There are 38 questions in it. Over the next 12 months, get better at it. Then, share with others how serendipity helped you get a job, find a partner, or lead a company.
I don’t write book reviews. Rather, when I find a great book, I review the parts that were useful to me. That way readers are exposed to the content. This is what I liked:
How to create good luck
I. Tips to foster serendipity at meetings
Busch has numerous tips on how to manage meetings. I liked these:
1. Ask people to introduce themselves not with their job title but with things such as “What are you currently most excited about?”
2. When you meet someone, think about how you can contribute to their life and to whom you could introduce them.
3. When you run an event that is about connecting people, ask people to share 1) what they are currently most excited about, 2) their biggest challenge, and 3) their favorite serendipity story.
I also liked the idea of “having a hype person" to ease tough meetings, using a “dining in the dark” experience for group meetings and how a L'Oréal executive drives serendipity, which leads to how to pick the location for Board meetings.
II. Getting a job. Through Serendipity
How to respond to the “What do you do?” question
"What do you do?" This is the question most frequently asked when we meet someone new.
Busch begins quoting Ovid, “Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” He then recommends increasing the number of “hooks” when responding to that question to at least four. It could be where we work, where we went to school, what our passion is, and what we enjoy doing.
The law of numbers
Over 75% of jobs are found through our network. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman points out that "we need to position ourselves for luck, to debunk the myth that some people are just in the right place at the right time." Busch goes on to say that “This is a numbers game, so be precise when sending Linkedin messages, and do it to as many people as possible.”
Inspiring stories from people who got jobs
Be it how someone who was going to be a priest ended up first as CFO of Nestlé; or how someone who missed a train got a much better job, there are numerous inspiring stories in the book. I liked the ones about Unilever, BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, Dyson, and Pret A Manger.
III. Good leaders foster serendipity. It’s good for business
How can leaders drive profitable growth by fostering serendipity? I liked the 8 stories about Mastercard, Procter & Gamble, Novo Nordisk, Medium, Haier, SEB, Turkcell, and TED
How can we reduce the time it takes to launch a product from 3 years to 3 weeks? Busch describes an interesting concept to achieve that.
I also found interesting his findings of Introverts who act as Extroverts and why open offices drastically decrease productivity.
Conclusion
Buy the book. Take the “Busch serendipity score test” on page 300. There are 38 questions in it. Over the next 12 months, get better at it. Then, share with others how serendipity helped you get a job, find a partner, or lead a company.
November 20, 2020
- Serendipity is about connecting the dots - seeing through things that otherwise might have dismissed and capitalize on it. It's far from just "luck"
- When seeing something unexpected happen, never just leave it as is. Rather, formulate the best way to capitalize such occurrence
- It's tremendously fruitful to be in the right place at the right time. Thus, one should devote one's life to be as much "right" as possible - being an office slave diminishes such likelihood and would require significantly more serendipity effort to make up for it
- Tenacity is very important for serendipity to work - don't give up just because what you're doing doesn't seem to be conventionally fruitful
- Serendipity is a skill that one needs to be practiced - try to push further each time you see something seemingly not possible but probable until your body is comfortable enough of it, then push it more
- We tend to underestimate "unlikely" events simply they seem out of ordinary for a regular person since we think using a straight line method. But unlikely event happens very often can often can be life changing.
- Serendipity is about acceptance of we can't know for sure how our future holds but we're open to grab on to any opportunities that we might not otherwise foreseen
- Opportunity would not be given, but rather it would be grabbed by the person. Lots of times opportunity is nearby but one choose to not actively explore it based on one's understanding that such opportunity doesn't exists
- When seeing something unexpected happen, never just leave it as is. Rather, formulate the best way to capitalize such occurrence
- It's tremendously fruitful to be in the right place at the right time. Thus, one should devote one's life to be as much "right" as possible - being an office slave diminishes such likelihood and would require significantly more serendipity effort to make up for it
- Tenacity is very important for serendipity to work - don't give up just because what you're doing doesn't seem to be conventionally fruitful
- Serendipity is a skill that one needs to be practiced - try to push further each time you see something seemingly not possible but probable until your body is comfortable enough of it, then push it more
- We tend to underestimate "unlikely" events simply they seem out of ordinary for a regular person since we think using a straight line method. But unlikely event happens very often can often can be life changing.
- Serendipity is about acceptance of we can't know for sure how our future holds but we're open to grab on to any opportunities that we might not otherwise foreseen
- Opportunity would not be given, but rather it would be grabbed by the person. Lots of times opportunity is nearby but one choose to not actively explore it based on one's understanding that such opportunity doesn't exists
December 11, 2022
يستحق القراءة خصوصاً الثلث الأول منه... الفرص تأتي بخلق فرصة تزيد من تواجدها وكثافة حضورها
اكتشاف الأدوية مثل البنسلين والفياغرا هو مثال على ظاهرة الفرص غير المتوقعة مثل اكتشاف التصوير الإشعاعي والمطاط الصناعي وأفران المايكرويف، إنها مصادفة تظهر في حياتنا فنلاحظها ونوجه انتباهنا لها ونربطها بوضع آخر ونتابع بإصرار حتى نصل إلى حل لمشكلة قائمة أو لم نعلم بوجودها.
اكتشاف الأدوية مثل البنسلين والفياغرا هو مثال على ظاهرة الفرص غير المتوقعة مثل اكتشاف التصوير الإشعاعي والمطاط الصناعي وأفران المايكرويف، إنها مصادفة تظهر في حياتنا فنلاحظها ونوجه انتباهنا لها ونربطها بوضع آخر ونتابع بإصرار حتى نصل إلى حل لمشكلة قائمة أو لم نعلم بوجودها.
January 10, 2021
What a wonderful book, really well researched, and with the perfect mix of stories and actionable content.
It was impossible not to blaze through the book in under 24 hours, but I do believe this will be one of those to take out of the shelf every other year, as I get the feeling you might related diferently with each story depending on where you are in life.
It's a strange feeling of reading a book from someone you've known briefly (I was in the first sandbox global summit), but this one went directly to my must read recommendations for anyone looking to get some extra thinking frameworks for her/his life, no matter if an entrepreneur or not.
This book will also make 2021 birthday gifts really easy for me :D
Awesome read
It was impossible not to blaze through the book in under 24 hours, but I do believe this will be one of those to take out of the shelf every other year, as I get the feeling you might related diferently with each story depending on where you are in life.
It's a strange feeling of reading a book from someone you've known briefly (I was in the first sandbox global summit), but this one went directly to my must read recommendations for anyone looking to get some extra thinking frameworks for her/his life, no matter if an entrepreneur or not.
This book will also make 2021 birthday gifts really easy for me :D
Awesome read
December 20, 2020
What a wonderful book. Very well researched, with many personal examples and explanations of "how to find luck" in all areas: finding your true love, starting a business, getting a job... if you start from a good point, you have more chances of "getting lucky", but in the end by reframing your mindset and how you approach and interact with your surroundings, your luck is up to you. Perfect read to recover faith after this covid year.
July 12, 2020
For those who want to increase serendipity in their lives, Dr. Busch's book is a must-read! Blending storytelling with science, this book breaks down the ways in which anyone can improve their luck. I found the recommendations in the book to be very doable and immediately impactful in my life!
March 27, 2021
Serendipity Mindset: The Primer to the Sixth Sense of Smart Luck!
Serendipity is mostly given a passing, rather a fleeting, reference while analysing any success, achievement or accomplishment. But in reality, serendipity determines the course of it! In the current scenario, wherein emerging technologies & trends, and their dynamic collisions are leading to the second and further order chaos, which are getting accentuated by the once in a century disaster affecting the whole humanity! This book comes at the most opportune time. I wish I should have read it earlier!
The author, Dr. Christian Busch does an eminent job in defining Serendipity Mindset ground up. Serendipity isn't just a plain luck as the most would believe. Only the well prepared & highly competent & capable minds can identify & snatch the humongous opportunities from the jaws of the seemingly hopeless disasters. Serendipity Mindset is tenacity & sagacity applied to the chance luck! Thus Serendipity Mindset looks forward and finds lucky chances and converts them into great successes, through tenacity, sagacity and persistence.
This book is made deliberately more accessible to the large audience, the masses, peppered with anecdotes, initially. As the reader reaches the end of the book, it stresses & addresses deeper aspects of mechanics and dynamics of the Serendipity Mindset. Given the embryonic state of the study on Serendipity, the author has laid the foundation for the momentous movement forming ahead of us!
Serendipity is mostly given a passing, rather a fleeting, reference while analysing any success, achievement or accomplishment. But in reality, serendipity determines the course of it! In the current scenario, wherein emerging technologies & trends, and their dynamic collisions are leading to the second and further order chaos, which are getting accentuated by the once in a century disaster affecting the whole humanity! This book comes at the most opportune time. I wish I should have read it earlier!
The author, Dr. Christian Busch does an eminent job in defining Serendipity Mindset ground up. Serendipity isn't just a plain luck as the most would believe. Only the well prepared & highly competent & capable minds can identify & snatch the humongous opportunities from the jaws of the seemingly hopeless disasters. Serendipity Mindset is tenacity & sagacity applied to the chance luck! Thus Serendipity Mindset looks forward and finds lucky chances and converts them into great successes, through tenacity, sagacity and persistence.
This book is made deliberately more accessible to the large audience, the masses, peppered with anecdotes, initially. As the reader reaches the end of the book, it stresses & addresses deeper aspects of mechanics and dynamics of the Serendipity Mindset. Given the embryonic state of the study on Serendipity, the author has laid the foundation for the momentous movement forming ahead of us!
October 7, 2020
Here’s a good read for COVID-19 survival. I love the idea that you can create your own good fortune by reframing the world around you. This is an optimistic message that promotes creating “smart luck”. I’m all about finding ways to connect the dots that have previously remained elusive in my daily life. In order to be attuned and alert to serendipity, you have to let go of ingrained biases. Fostering serendipity involves creating a safe place for the mixing of new ideas and diverse minds. In 2020, we can trigger serendipity differently.
Take an active approach to managing uncertainty.
Set hooks: give people dots to connect with
Change the way you communicate:
I am... Working on x
Recently started y
Looking into Z...
Plan spaces for serendipity to occur. Don’t restrict your field. What are all of the opportunities open to someone with your skill set? Be there.
See serendipity triggers. Who are the people you admire? Connect with them in an honest and non/pitchy way. Take the long view. We can’t plan everything but we can look ahead (10 years). Grow, reflect, and change! That’s where serendipity lies.
Takeaway: stay alert and motivated
Remain focused on a meaningful North Star
Increase chances of serendipity in simple ways
Plant seeds for serendipity to occur
It can take time, be patient
Organization with serendipity mindset: RLabs
Take an active approach to managing uncertainty.
Set hooks: give people dots to connect with
Change the way you communicate:
I am... Working on x
Recently started y
Looking into Z...
Plan spaces for serendipity to occur. Don’t restrict your field. What are all of the opportunities open to someone with your skill set? Be there.
See serendipity triggers. Who are the people you admire? Connect with them in an honest and non/pitchy way. Take the long view. We can’t plan everything but we can look ahead (10 years). Grow, reflect, and change! That’s where serendipity lies.
Takeaway: stay alert and motivated
Remain focused on a meaningful North Star
Increase chances of serendipity in simple ways
Plant seeds for serendipity to occur
It can take time, be patient
Organization with serendipity mindset: RLabs
September 4, 2021
If I had to choose a favorite read from August, The Serendipity Mindset would be the winner. It’s part self-help, part inspiration, part common sense that most people tend to overlook.
The book helps you to open your mind and your eyes to the opportunities that surround us. We are only able to take in so much information at once, and a lot of our attention span is eaten up by negative sources like the news, past traumas, and personal insecurities.
In reading The Serendipity Mindset, you’ll be awakened and encouraged to engage in situations that will give you an advantage. The methodology won’t work the same for everyone. The author doesn’t shy away from the fact that our current circumstances are not all equal. However, all humans share this commonality: we each have infinite possibilities for growth.
This book was super inspiring and one I’d love to revisit. Tactically, it encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and pursue opportunities that I thought were out of reach. In less than a month, I’ve already experienced the positive fruits of those efforts. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who strives to live to the fullest.
The book helps you to open your mind and your eyes to the opportunities that surround us. We are only able to take in so much information at once, and a lot of our attention span is eaten up by negative sources like the news, past traumas, and personal insecurities.
In reading The Serendipity Mindset, you’ll be awakened and encouraged to engage in situations that will give you an advantage. The methodology won’t work the same for everyone. The author doesn’t shy away from the fact that our current circumstances are not all equal. However, all humans share this commonality: we each have infinite possibilities for growth.
This book was super inspiring and one I’d love to revisit. Tactically, it encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and pursue opportunities that I thought were out of reach. In less than a month, I’ve already experienced the positive fruits of those efforts. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who strives to live to the fullest.
October 10, 2020
Optimism. Open-mindedness. Curiosity. Perseverance. Adaptability. These are some of the core qualities of the serendipity mindset. With this mindset, you can seek out and embrace the unexpected and use these unusual moments to make new and exciting connections. When you begin to see the world with this frame of mind, you’ll begin to see that each and every day is filled with the unexpected, and chances to spark new serendipitous ideas and innovations. This holds true for businesses as well. With a few changes to culture and environment, you can begin to set the stage for more innovation and fortuitous events to transpire.
April 30, 2021
This book is truly the first time that I’ve seen an actual framework for how to create your own luck, and steps that you can take to position yourself for amazing things to happen. The changes are easy to implement, clear, and actionable. I’m surprised there hasn’t been anything like this before. It can really turn your life around—especially if you’re not always a positive person (like me, inadvertent Negative Nancy over here). Once you read about creating and strengthening a Serendipity Mindset you can’t really go back to how it was before. Highly recommend. Even if you don’t read the whole thing it will positively impact your life forever.
February 22, 2021
A thought-provoking and stimulating read, packed with examples about how to recognize opportunities, and illustrative applications where companies have seized the initiative.
This is a hugely uplifting book which everyone should read - I got loads out of it, and while checklists aren't necessarily my thing, the (long) one at the end has already been implemented and I have high hopes in seeing how it pans out.
A positive mental attitude and an openness to alternative thinking is what is called for - after all, who doesn't want to make the most of their opportunities?
This is a hugely uplifting book which everyone should read - I got loads out of it, and while checklists aren't necessarily my thing, the (long) one at the end has already been implemented and I have high hopes in seeing how it pans out.
A positive mental attitude and an openness to alternative thinking is what is called for - after all, who doesn't want to make the most of their opportunities?
August 18, 2020
Dr. Busch is an electrifying lecturer and he brings this same energy to the pages of his book. This is an essential read for anyone who wants to better their life by understanding that broadly speaking how your outlook on the world will shape life. Highly recommended to anyone looking to shake up their current routine and elevate their level of ability!
January 9, 2022
I just finished the audible version of Serendipity Mindset and would like to share my personal experience:
I think, it attracted me because I probably have a strong serendipity mindset and I occasionally thought about this attribute, without knowing it's an ability. It excited me that the author has connected plenty of dots in this book, which I had or would have connected too. What the author did was to precisely articulate those patterns and bring it together in this book. The way of creating luck in this book is definitely not magic, however a combination of attention, openness and putting things into action.
Besides I felt confirmed in being good at connecting the dots, the book also inspired me in a different way. It made me reflect on my "foms" (fear of missing serendipity) and that creating too many opportunities can make them look ordinary and hold the excitement back from acting on them, eventually not feeling lucky anymore. On the other hand, it's not always up to ourselves; sometimes others have to connect the dots for us. In this case, it could also depend, on wether or not the society or culture we're living in has a higher level of serendipity mindset.
I'm curious about the new chapter (about turning crisis into opportunity) and am looking forward to getting the revised paperback version, coming out in January '22.
I think, it attracted me because I probably have a strong serendipity mindset and I occasionally thought about this attribute, without knowing it's an ability. It excited me that the author has connected plenty of dots in this book, which I had or would have connected too. What the author did was to precisely articulate those patterns and bring it together in this book. The way of creating luck in this book is definitely not magic, however a combination of attention, openness and putting things into action.
Besides I felt confirmed in being good at connecting the dots, the book also inspired me in a different way. It made me reflect on my "foms" (fear of missing serendipity) and that creating too many opportunities can make them look ordinary and hold the excitement back from acting on them, eventually not feeling lucky anymore. On the other hand, it's not always up to ourselves; sometimes others have to connect the dots for us. In this case, it could also depend, on wether or not the society or culture we're living in has a higher level of serendipity mindset.
I'm curious about the new chapter (about turning crisis into opportunity) and am looking forward to getting the revised paperback version, coming out in January '22.
September 1, 2022
The corporate world is aching for a paradigm shift in the way people on the job relate to each other. This is not only Christian Busch's thesis, but his life's work, creating NGO and other "disruptor" organizations where business is not conducted as usual. Bottom line remains paramount, but Busch, armed with a Phd from the London School of Economics, offers compelling reasons why the wealth of any organization depends on cultivating magically unexpected relationships and outcomes--what he calls serendipity.
Dr Busch shows in Connect the Dots how serendipity can be nurtured. That's a pretty radical idea, but one that he backs up with story after story about how people who unexpectedly crossed paths found commonalities that led to personal and even society-changing breakthroughs.
I find it fascinating that Dr. Busch holds that there's a strong psychological component to creating the right environment for serendipity to happen more often. "Research has shown that serendipity is higher in environments where blame is withheld and where people are open to a range of ideas."
He found, for example, that serendipity was more likely to happen in corporate settings where relationship-building events and even office design encouraged new faces to bump into each other and interact in welcoming public spaces.
Dr. Busch has coined many interesting terms in this book--such as the "well-curated" community, which--counterintuitively--thrives on bringing people of diverse backgrounds together to intermingle.
"Well-curated communities where people connect based on shared interests, develop a joint identity or vision and have a basic level of trust," he writes in Connect the Dots.
Serendipity has often been associated with luck. But Dr. Christian Busch blows the lid off the notion that one must be lucky for serendipity to happen. He emphasizes the benefit of bringing people together who don't think alike.
"When perspectives collide, (then) in the moments of collision, we can spark serendipity. Indeed, an effective way to embrace opposing thoughts, he continues, is through shared values that "create an atmosphere that supports serendipity.
Christian Busch addresses this big fascinating topic of serendipity, as it pertains to the corporate world. But as an intuitive art teacher and writer, and the creator of a deck of cards that trigger serendipity amongst artists, I had so many takeaways about why serendipity happens, that I have filled a notebook just full of Connect the Dot quotes and lists of his "serendipity triggers."
Serendipity alone makes for good stories, but the question that Dr. Busch challenges us to answer for ourselves is how we can cultivate it.
He gives suggestions, chief among them are playfulness-- to pursue activities that give us pleasure, on one hand, and make us focus, on the other. Make each day meaningful by allotting long blocks of time to focus on a particular activity, he says.
"Be tenacious enough to follow through. See serendipity as an opportunity we need to do something with," Dr. Busch writes.
But as he also wisely points out, don't be so hard on yourself when a project you were so excited about from the get-go, even a seeming act of Divine Providence, doesn't turn out as you hoped for. He offers the reader a deep and not-unfunny ritual of creating project funerals for the things that are better to abandon than drag on.
"A project is laid to rest, and those involved get to open up about how they felt, what they learned, what they gained, and what they regretted about the whole thing."
At the core of every process described in this book is a "connect the dots" mindset. "Notice and connect unexpected bits of information is the key step in the serendipity process."
Dr. Busch talks a lot about serendipity triggers. I love that term, for it implies that we puny human beings can actually co-create the coincidences that we might have ascribed to hallowed and random forces of nature.
"Serendipity is not a single event but a process that depends on creating and seeing triggers and connecting the dots, allowing us to turn chance into good fortune through our own efforts."
Love it: worth repeating. Serendipity can come through our own efforts.
Dr Busch shows in Connect the Dots how serendipity can be nurtured. That's a pretty radical idea, but one that he backs up with story after story about how people who unexpectedly crossed paths found commonalities that led to personal and even society-changing breakthroughs.
I find it fascinating that Dr. Busch holds that there's a strong psychological component to creating the right environment for serendipity to happen more often. "Research has shown that serendipity is higher in environments where blame is withheld and where people are open to a range of ideas."
He found, for example, that serendipity was more likely to happen in corporate settings where relationship-building events and even office design encouraged new faces to bump into each other and interact in welcoming public spaces.
Dr. Busch has coined many interesting terms in this book--such as the "well-curated" community, which--counterintuitively--thrives on bringing people of diverse backgrounds together to intermingle.
"Well-curated communities where people connect based on shared interests, develop a joint identity or vision and have a basic level of trust," he writes in Connect the Dots.
Serendipity has often been associated with luck. But Dr. Christian Busch blows the lid off the notion that one must be lucky for serendipity to happen. He emphasizes the benefit of bringing people together who don't think alike.
"When perspectives collide, (then) in the moments of collision, we can spark serendipity. Indeed, an effective way to embrace opposing thoughts, he continues, is through shared values that "create an atmosphere that supports serendipity.
Christian Busch addresses this big fascinating topic of serendipity, as it pertains to the corporate world. But as an intuitive art teacher and writer, and the creator of a deck of cards that trigger serendipity amongst artists, I had so many takeaways about why serendipity happens, that I have filled a notebook just full of Connect the Dot quotes and lists of his "serendipity triggers."
Serendipity alone makes for good stories, but the question that Dr. Busch challenges us to answer for ourselves is how we can cultivate it.
He gives suggestions, chief among them are playfulness-- to pursue activities that give us pleasure, on one hand, and make us focus, on the other. Make each day meaningful by allotting long blocks of time to focus on a particular activity, he says.
"Be tenacious enough to follow through. See serendipity as an opportunity we need to do something with," Dr. Busch writes.
But as he also wisely points out, don't be so hard on yourself when a project you were so excited about from the get-go, even a seeming act of Divine Providence, doesn't turn out as you hoped for. He offers the reader a deep and not-unfunny ritual of creating project funerals for the things that are better to abandon than drag on.
"A project is laid to rest, and those involved get to open up about how they felt, what they learned, what they gained, and what they regretted about the whole thing."
At the core of every process described in this book is a "connect the dots" mindset. "Notice and connect unexpected bits of information is the key step in the serendipity process."
Dr. Busch talks a lot about serendipity triggers. I love that term, for it implies that we puny human beings can actually co-create the coincidences that we might have ascribed to hallowed and random forces of nature.
"Serendipity is not a single event but a process that depends on creating and seeing triggers and connecting the dots, allowing us to turn chance into good fortune through our own efforts."
Love it: worth repeating. Serendipity can come through our own efforts.
October 11, 2020
I read this book thanks to Blinkist.
The key message in these blinks:
Optimism. Open-mindedness. Curiosity. Perseverance. Adaptability. These are some of the core qualities of the serendipity mindset. With this mindset, you can seek out and embrace the unexpected and use these unusual moments to make new and exciting connections. When you begin to see the world with this frame of mind, you’ll begin to see that each and every day is filled with the unexpected, and chances to spark new serendipitous ideas and innovations. This holds true for businesses as well. With a few changes to culture and environment, you can begin to set the stage for more innovation and fortuitous events to transpire.
Actionable advice:
Create a Serendipity Journal.
Preparing a serendipity journal can help you reflect on situations that were unexpected, how you reacted to them, what to do differently next time. It allows you to reflect on how to explore every conversation or meeting – virtual or in real life – as an opportunity for serendipity to happen.
Free up creative space.
You can reflect on your daily routine activities, especially meetings. Which meetings are truly necessary? Do they really need the amount of time they’re allocated? If they’re under your control, can you restructure them to free up creative space?
Get to know your key multipliers.
Have you ever mapped out your network? With pen and paper you can create a visual that can reveal the people in your social circles who are most connected. It may be worth your time to strengthen your own connection with these people.
But it isn’t just about the people in your contact list. Oftentimes, it’s the mailman, teacher, rabbi, yoga instructor, bartender, or hairdresser that carries the most social capital in your community. When’s the last time you said hello and struck up a conversation with these highly connected individuals? Let them know about your projects and there’s always a chance that they know someone else who may hold the key to your next serendipitous occurrence.
What to read next:
How Luck Happens, by Janice Kaplan
Are you feeling lucky yet? Maybe you’re still eager for more tips and techniques on how to increase the amount of good fortune in your life. If so, we recommend our blinks to How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life.
Whether you’re a student, a business executive, or a stay-at-home parent, everyone could benefit from knowing how to generate more “luck” in their lives. These blinks explain how you can start doing exactly that, so you can start to enjoy the perks of a more serendipitous life.
The key message in these blinks:
Optimism. Open-mindedness. Curiosity. Perseverance. Adaptability. These are some of the core qualities of the serendipity mindset. With this mindset, you can seek out and embrace the unexpected and use these unusual moments to make new and exciting connections. When you begin to see the world with this frame of mind, you’ll begin to see that each and every day is filled with the unexpected, and chances to spark new serendipitous ideas and innovations. This holds true for businesses as well. With a few changes to culture and environment, you can begin to set the stage for more innovation and fortuitous events to transpire.
Actionable advice:
Create a Serendipity Journal.
Preparing a serendipity journal can help you reflect on situations that were unexpected, how you reacted to them, what to do differently next time. It allows you to reflect on how to explore every conversation or meeting – virtual or in real life – as an opportunity for serendipity to happen.
Free up creative space.
You can reflect on your daily routine activities, especially meetings. Which meetings are truly necessary? Do they really need the amount of time they’re allocated? If they’re under your control, can you restructure them to free up creative space?
Get to know your key multipliers.
Have you ever mapped out your network? With pen and paper you can create a visual that can reveal the people in your social circles who are most connected. It may be worth your time to strengthen your own connection with these people.
But it isn’t just about the people in your contact list. Oftentimes, it’s the mailman, teacher, rabbi, yoga instructor, bartender, or hairdresser that carries the most social capital in your community. When’s the last time you said hello and struck up a conversation with these highly connected individuals? Let them know about your projects and there’s always a chance that they know someone else who may hold the key to your next serendipitous occurrence.
What to read next:
How Luck Happens, by Janice Kaplan
Are you feeling lucky yet? Maybe you’re still eager for more tips and techniques on how to increase the amount of good fortune in your life. If so, we recommend our blinks to How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life.
Whether you’re a student, a business executive, or a stay-at-home parent, everyone could benefit from knowing how to generate more “luck” in their lives. These blinks explain how you can start doing exactly that, so you can start to enjoy the perks of a more serendipitous life.
March 14, 2021
There are a lot of disclaimers to be aware of, before you touch this book.
Firstly, this book has a particular target group in mind - business men and women, striving for success. A vast majority of examples that are brought up are set in the corporate world
Secondly, this book should be read at the right time, in the right place with the right mindset. It's not a book where you'll read a lot about studies, it's a book that's meant to change your view on the world by showing you where to look.
Now for the review per se, I have attended a workshop of Christian Busch and was thus aware of many of his examples and his reasoning. The book can be a little of a tough read, especially in the middle part, with many of the examples recurring and thus, redundant. Nonetheless, the topic of this book - what you think you attract - is something I hold dear to my heart, and therefore would recommend reading this book if you've ever questioned what point it has to be an eternal optimist.
Firstly, this book has a particular target group in mind - business men and women, striving for success. A vast majority of examples that are brought up are set in the corporate world
Secondly, this book should be read at the right time, in the right place with the right mindset. It's not a book where you'll read a lot about studies, it's a book that's meant to change your view on the world by showing you where to look.
Now for the review per se, I have attended a workshop of Christian Busch and was thus aware of many of his examples and his reasoning. The book can be a little of a tough read, especially in the middle part, with many of the examples recurring and thus, redundant. Nonetheless, the topic of this book - what you think you attract - is something I hold dear to my heart, and therefore would recommend reading this book if you've ever questioned what point it has to be an eternal optimist.
November 16, 2020
The title caught my attention, but the fact that I was smiling while reading the entire book is what really made me love it. Granted some of the challenges and tasks are not possible to do while in lockdown, but they gave me much to look forward to for when this s all over and definitely put a positive perspective on a dim-lighted year. Quite serendipitous I came across it
June 19, 2021
Loved this book so much I invited the author, Dr. Christian Busch on my podcast. You can listen to the episode here. Just be warned you will absolutely want to read the book afterward!
https://joannetombrakos.com/podcast/h...
https://joannetombrakos.com/podcast/h...
November 11, 2020
This book is good for a professional or working/career person. I don't know what I expected. I think I wanted it more personal and broad based. It kept going back to people who started their own businesses. Should have read the book jacket better.
February 3, 2021
Interesting, but I found most of the practical advice was geared towards people in the corporate world, and thus not applicable to me.
May 23, 2021
Interesting thesis but the book is repetitive and should be much shorter.
July 9, 2024
[shamrock emoji]
January 25, 2025
7.6/10- Some things are not just down to blind luck. They are moments of serendipity. Busch explains that when you have a trigger, which could be anything that you do that sort of opens the door. Then you have to actively connect the dots to get to that serendipitous result. A great example is creating a product for one purpose but have it be purchased and used incorrectly. Then connecting the dots that you could have an opportunity to innovate and create something designed for this other use. Basically once the trigger happens, you need to recognize that an opportunity is present and act on it. Nothing just happens for no reason.
February 16, 2022
Maybe I was too negligent with the structure of the book itself, but one of the things which was mentioned in the preface of the book was introducing a frame that we can look into and create serendipity, well, there wasn't. Basically, there are points of view that need to be taken into consideration in addition to constant conscious and sub-conscious awareness of what has happened and is happing to us. The result itself if we include the title of chapters is very eye-opening with was supported with myriad examples. On the whole, a very good book.
//
//
February 27, 2022
Also eternal thanks for writing your book on Serendipity. You artfully articulated an inspirational investigation into phenomena that have definitely been present in my journey and life thus far, and your words and stories have given me tools to help me better reflect, evaluate and 'create more luck' in my life and others :) thank you 🙏
December 21, 2025
6 stars. Amazing book about a concept that's really important to me - making connections between disparate things. This is something i'm always telling Roman my 15 year old. Ideas, like synapses are made when we make connections between apparently disparate concepts. Here are the best bits from the book:
Many of the most successful and joyful people that I interviewed for my research appeared to intuitively cultivate a force field - a serendipity field' - that allowed them to have more positive life outcomes than others who started out under similar conditions
In 1754, the British writer and politician Horace Walpole wrote to a friend about an unexpected discovery which he compared to the story of the three princes. In doing so, he coined the word serendipity, describing the princes as people who were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".
Serendipity is about the ability to recognize and leverage the value in unexpected encounters and information.10 Thus, it can be learned and facilitated at every step. We can develop a serendipity mindset - the capacity to identify, grasp and wield this powerful force.
Take the field of combinatorial chemistry, where manufacturing coincidences are at its very heart: tens of thousands of chemical compounds are created simultaneously and then sifted for valuable new uses.
Openness to the unexpected is key to being lucky - and to experiencing serendipity. People like Martin are lucky all or most of the time for a number of reasons, but among the most important is their ability to recognize the unexpected. This makes the unexpected more likely to be harvested - not necessarily because it happens more often, but because we start seeing serendipity once we start expecting to see it.
We all recognize this tendency in ourselves when it comes to visual images. But, in fact, it goes deeper. The larger phenomenon behind this is called 'apophenia', our tendency to attribute meaning to patterns or perceived connections that are unrelated.
One example is the work of the non-profit organization Oios que Sienten (which means "eyes that feel' in Spanish). Founded by Mexican social entrepreneur Gina Badenoch, it aims to transform the lives and role in society of the visually impaired. It does so by placing the emphasis not on their disability but on their abilities. It also invites those who are not visually impaired to consider their own abilities, which come to the fore only when their ability to see is put into question. The best-known Ojos que Sienten initiative is its dining in the dark experience, which is exactly what it sounds like. Blind waiters guide guests to their tables and the participants sit next to people they have never met before.
Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's ideas sparring partner, is renowned for his sharpness. His belief is that remembering isolated facts often does not help. Instead, we need a
"latticework of theory' to connect facts and make sense out of them.
As Richard Wiseman puts it, 'if bad things happen, take the long view'* Having realized that often the most challenging of situations can be the real treasures of life, I now ask myself for each situation that seems to be challenging, Will this really matter ten years from now? If not, why do you worry? If yes, how can you already now help shape it in a way so that it becomes a valuable learning opportunity? Whenever I need cheering up, I often think back to a quote I was introduced to by Grace Gould, founder of the School of the Digital Age (SODA). Her take on John Lennon's famous quip is: "Things tend to work out in the end - and if they haven't, it's not yet the end!"
Successful people often place a number of bets on new leas and then go with the one that feels right to them. They frequently do this while they are still working at their full-time jobs, which gives them the stability to experiment during their down-i time, which is often an important hedge against uncertainty.
The six types of Socratic questions are questions for clarification ('Why do you say that?'), questions that probe assumptions ('What could we assume instead?' "How can you verify that assumption?'), questions that probe evidence (What would be an example?), questions that question perspective ('What are the pros and cons?'), questions that probe implications (What are the consequences of this action?") and questions about the question itself (Why do we ask this question in the first place?").
My father used to say that 'whatever happens, with the right attitude we will always work it out. This always made me feel that things would be fine as long as I did something about them - and that I could do something about them.
Such eureka moments as Geneva experienced usually arise from a feeling of making sense, creating an Aha! effect.36 In cognitive psychology, it has been shown that this eureka moment occurs through a sudden gain in what's called 'processing fluency. In other words, the insights of eureka moments are evidence of people filling in gaps in their own thinking, gaps that they were not consciously aware even existed.
One example is what is known as the positive deviance approach.* This approach looks at a population (of people, companies, organizations) and identifies individual cases that deviate from the typical - in a good way. For example, if an organization's broad aspiration - its North Star - is to help a community in sub-Saharan Africa to improve the health of its families, then the strategy would be to focus on searching for families in the community that stand out as 'positive deviants' - in other words, they're particularly healthy. The underlying assumption is that those individuals will have somehow found a successful way to maintain their good health, and their approach might fit others in the community. Then you could try to understand what it is that these positive deviants are doing that might be linked to better health.
Given the choice, why on earth would we spend the majority of our life in a way that makes us unhappy and sick? Why have we focused on 'taking', while most research will tell us that giving makes us happier?
Our work at NYU and LSE has shown that, especially in resource-constrained contexts, the importance of being an agent of one's own luck, of being able to solve one's own relevant problems, the problems one cares about, becomes paramount. It permits a more dignified and joyful life, but is also a way to moderate mental health issues.
Fascinating research has shown that the willingness and motivation to engage in activities that nurture serendipity can be driven by adaptable (and trainable) traits such as proactivity, humour, openness to experience and willingness to pursue untested ideas. it is often dependent on our ability to attend to the unexpected, as well as to make unusual associations between ideas.
There is some truth in a Navy Seal's adaptation of Greek poet Archilochus's adage that in the thick of battle, you will not rise to the level of your expectations but fall to the level of your training.
Mattan Griffel, an entrepreneur and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, looks at it as setting thousands of little serendipity bombs'. This approach can include the practice of writing speculative emails to people we admire.
creative collisions between over 50,000 people.
You might think that the pub crawls during the event are just that. Not so. At Web Summit, they are machine-curated, and people are grouped based on their propensity to find commonalities.
The Wall Street Journal did a striking comparison between the Facebook feeds of Democrats and Republicans. The incredible self-referencing on either side reinforces belief systems and makes both parties' supporters feel confirmed and accepted - but often shuts us off from questioning our mental models and beliefs.
Grattage, for example, is a surrealist technique in which the artist flips her brush and uses the handle to scrape paint off an already painted canvas.
It's a skill Steve Jobs mastered. He famously reflected that creativity is just connecting things - and that when you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a bit guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It just seemed obvious to them after a while.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his writings on anti-fragility makes a strong point: systems regenerate continuously by leveraging, rather than suffering from, unpredictable shocks and events. This is particularly important when it comes to emotions. We, often try to push away bad feelings, and see emotion as a negative in ourselves and others. But rather than avoid them, we can develop ways of dealing with negative emotions. We will never try something new if we are afraid of the negative emotions that might come with failure.
When you are in a difficult situation, imagine what your past self would have done. Often it makes you realize that you have new skills that help you cope better.
It was the early stage of an idea, one that would take another five years to be formed. He would go on to present it at numerous workshops and conferences and in one-on-one conversations to get feedback. This feedback helped him to develop the paper so that when it was finally published it was an idea worth reading about.
(reverse) Socratic method, along the following steps. First, make your mentee imagine a desired state (e.g. reconciling with a friend). Then ask, 'How/ why/what needs to happen?' Then visualize the potential paths.
Then help them believe in their dream/path, until they have a better idea of the potential puzzle pieces. Finally, ask, What would it mean now to go "all-in"?"
To get or spread an idea or opportunity across the LSE network (or any other network, for that matter), we do not need to contact everyone at the LSE. We target the key multipliers
However, well-curated interest-based communities, in the words of Fabian Pfortmüller, use weak ties as if they were strong ties. These communities combine the benefits of strong ties with the benefits of weak ties. There is a proxy trust that makes weak ties strong by affiliation.
Opening up to other groups can start with small actions. Groups that bring together people with diverse perspectives tend to nurture serendipity. But there needs to be a common denominator that helps people trust each other and have an incentive to share ideas. Diversity alone does not help if there is no glue to hold people together?
'tragedy of the commons'. This is when a shared resource such as a trusted platform is depleted and ultimately fails because no one takes responsibility for it. Many communities die because of this neglect, and many others have freeloaders who enjoy the benefits of the group without putting any work into its upkeep.
Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has shown, in her exceptional work over the last decades, how psychological safety is at the core of a healthy corporate culture and of good performance Her work gained momentum in the 1990s with a study showing that better-performing teams are ones that talk more about mistakes.
One method to help us increase psychological safety and the propensity for serendipity is the project funeral Although the phrase sounds bleak, it describes an incredibly positive process. A project is laid to rest, and those involved get to open up about how they felt, what they learned, what they gained and what they regret about the whole thing. Crucially, the funeral includes people who may not have been close to the project but who are, so to speak, paying their respects, such as project managers from other teams.
During the Second World War, two scientists invented the magnetron - a tube that produced microwaves - for use in Britain's radar system to spot Nazi warplanes. Percy Lebaron Spencer accidentally discovered that microwave energy could be used to cook food when the radar waves melted a chocolate bar in his pocket.
absorptive capacity' - being able to encounter new information and then turn it into relevant knowledge and action - is paramount.
Just like when Haie's maintenance people who were called in for repairs found that many complaints about their washing machine concerned dirt and debris collection, they realized some rural customers were using washing machines to wash root vegetables. Rather than dismiss these cases as invalid or as a worthless anomaly, Haier saw the potential value and developed a washing machine that could also process and filter vegetable dirt and debris. The potato washing machine was born
Or we can take inspiration from the ancient Greek and Venetian republics: they used random selection as a 'leveller'. Political leaders were chosen at random. They might not have been far off: recent studies have shown that random selection outperforms more sophisticated mechanisms of governance in financial markets and politics, because it is more resistant to nepotism, more robust, overcomes stereotypes and is perceived as fairer.
Take this slightly provocative example that a senior executive shared with me: 'I was in a meeting with an African president, who said, "All this bloody food help of you Western white-faces is not helpful. In the past, people were at least dying in my country.
Now you keep them alive with your carbohydrates and your stupid food help and all that stuff. And since the food help is carbohydrate-rich and not rich of vitamins and minerals, my people become ill but stay alive.
Many of the most successful and joyful people that I interviewed for my research appeared to intuitively cultivate a force field - a serendipity field' - that allowed them to have more positive life outcomes than others who started out under similar conditions
In 1754, the British writer and politician Horace Walpole wrote to a friend about an unexpected discovery which he compared to the story of the three princes. In doing so, he coined the word serendipity, describing the princes as people who were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".
Serendipity is about the ability to recognize and leverage the value in unexpected encounters and information.10 Thus, it can be learned and facilitated at every step. We can develop a serendipity mindset - the capacity to identify, grasp and wield this powerful force.
Take the field of combinatorial chemistry, where manufacturing coincidences are at its very heart: tens of thousands of chemical compounds are created simultaneously and then sifted for valuable new uses.
Openness to the unexpected is key to being lucky - and to experiencing serendipity. People like Martin are lucky all or most of the time for a number of reasons, but among the most important is their ability to recognize the unexpected. This makes the unexpected more likely to be harvested - not necessarily because it happens more often, but because we start seeing serendipity once we start expecting to see it.
We all recognize this tendency in ourselves when it comes to visual images. But, in fact, it goes deeper. The larger phenomenon behind this is called 'apophenia', our tendency to attribute meaning to patterns or perceived connections that are unrelated.
One example is the work of the non-profit organization Oios que Sienten (which means "eyes that feel' in Spanish). Founded by Mexican social entrepreneur Gina Badenoch, it aims to transform the lives and role in society of the visually impaired. It does so by placing the emphasis not on their disability but on their abilities. It also invites those who are not visually impaired to consider their own abilities, which come to the fore only when their ability to see is put into question. The best-known Ojos que Sienten initiative is its dining in the dark experience, which is exactly what it sounds like. Blind waiters guide guests to their tables and the participants sit next to people they have never met before.
Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's ideas sparring partner, is renowned for his sharpness. His belief is that remembering isolated facts often does not help. Instead, we need a
"latticework of theory' to connect facts and make sense out of them.
As Richard Wiseman puts it, 'if bad things happen, take the long view'* Having realized that often the most challenging of situations can be the real treasures of life, I now ask myself for each situation that seems to be challenging, Will this really matter ten years from now? If not, why do you worry? If yes, how can you already now help shape it in a way so that it becomes a valuable learning opportunity? Whenever I need cheering up, I often think back to a quote I was introduced to by Grace Gould, founder of the School of the Digital Age (SODA). Her take on John Lennon's famous quip is: "Things tend to work out in the end - and if they haven't, it's not yet the end!"
Successful people often place a number of bets on new leas and then go with the one that feels right to them. They frequently do this while they are still working at their full-time jobs, which gives them the stability to experiment during their down-i time, which is often an important hedge against uncertainty.
The six types of Socratic questions are questions for clarification ('Why do you say that?'), questions that probe assumptions ('What could we assume instead?' "How can you verify that assumption?'), questions that probe evidence (What would be an example?), questions that question perspective ('What are the pros and cons?'), questions that probe implications (What are the consequences of this action?") and questions about the question itself (Why do we ask this question in the first place?").
My father used to say that 'whatever happens, with the right attitude we will always work it out. This always made me feel that things would be fine as long as I did something about them - and that I could do something about them.
Such eureka moments as Geneva experienced usually arise from a feeling of making sense, creating an Aha! effect.36 In cognitive psychology, it has been shown that this eureka moment occurs through a sudden gain in what's called 'processing fluency. In other words, the insights of eureka moments are evidence of people filling in gaps in their own thinking, gaps that they were not consciously aware even existed.
One example is what is known as the positive deviance approach.* This approach looks at a population (of people, companies, organizations) and identifies individual cases that deviate from the typical - in a good way. For example, if an organization's broad aspiration - its North Star - is to help a community in sub-Saharan Africa to improve the health of its families, then the strategy would be to focus on searching for families in the community that stand out as 'positive deviants' - in other words, they're particularly healthy. The underlying assumption is that those individuals will have somehow found a successful way to maintain their good health, and their approach might fit others in the community. Then you could try to understand what it is that these positive deviants are doing that might be linked to better health.
Given the choice, why on earth would we spend the majority of our life in a way that makes us unhappy and sick? Why have we focused on 'taking', while most research will tell us that giving makes us happier?
Our work at NYU and LSE has shown that, especially in resource-constrained contexts, the importance of being an agent of one's own luck, of being able to solve one's own relevant problems, the problems one cares about, becomes paramount. It permits a more dignified and joyful life, but is also a way to moderate mental health issues.
Fascinating research has shown that the willingness and motivation to engage in activities that nurture serendipity can be driven by adaptable (and trainable) traits such as proactivity, humour, openness to experience and willingness to pursue untested ideas. it is often dependent on our ability to attend to the unexpected, as well as to make unusual associations between ideas.
There is some truth in a Navy Seal's adaptation of Greek poet Archilochus's adage that in the thick of battle, you will not rise to the level of your expectations but fall to the level of your training.
Mattan Griffel, an entrepreneur and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, looks at it as setting thousands of little serendipity bombs'. This approach can include the practice of writing speculative emails to people we admire.
creative collisions between over 50,000 people.
You might think that the pub crawls during the event are just that. Not so. At Web Summit, they are machine-curated, and people are grouped based on their propensity to find commonalities.
The Wall Street Journal did a striking comparison between the Facebook feeds of Democrats and Republicans. The incredible self-referencing on either side reinforces belief systems and makes both parties' supporters feel confirmed and accepted - but often shuts us off from questioning our mental models and beliefs.
Grattage, for example, is a surrealist technique in which the artist flips her brush and uses the handle to scrape paint off an already painted canvas.
It's a skill Steve Jobs mastered. He famously reflected that creativity is just connecting things - and that when you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a bit guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It just seemed obvious to them after a while.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his writings on anti-fragility makes a strong point: systems regenerate continuously by leveraging, rather than suffering from, unpredictable shocks and events. This is particularly important when it comes to emotions. We, often try to push away bad feelings, and see emotion as a negative in ourselves and others. But rather than avoid them, we can develop ways of dealing with negative emotions. We will never try something new if we are afraid of the negative emotions that might come with failure.
When you are in a difficult situation, imagine what your past self would have done. Often it makes you realize that you have new skills that help you cope better.
It was the early stage of an idea, one that would take another five years to be formed. He would go on to present it at numerous workshops and conferences and in one-on-one conversations to get feedback. This feedback helped him to develop the paper so that when it was finally published it was an idea worth reading about.
(reverse) Socratic method, along the following steps. First, make your mentee imagine a desired state (e.g. reconciling with a friend). Then ask, 'How/ why/what needs to happen?' Then visualize the potential paths.
Then help them believe in their dream/path, until they have a better idea of the potential puzzle pieces. Finally, ask, What would it mean now to go "all-in"?"
To get or spread an idea or opportunity across the LSE network (or any other network, for that matter), we do not need to contact everyone at the LSE. We target the key multipliers
However, well-curated interest-based communities, in the words of Fabian Pfortmüller, use weak ties as if they were strong ties. These communities combine the benefits of strong ties with the benefits of weak ties. There is a proxy trust that makes weak ties strong by affiliation.
Opening up to other groups can start with small actions. Groups that bring together people with diverse perspectives tend to nurture serendipity. But there needs to be a common denominator that helps people trust each other and have an incentive to share ideas. Diversity alone does not help if there is no glue to hold people together?
'tragedy of the commons'. This is when a shared resource such as a trusted platform is depleted and ultimately fails because no one takes responsibility for it. Many communities die because of this neglect, and many others have freeloaders who enjoy the benefits of the group without putting any work into its upkeep.
Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has shown, in her exceptional work over the last decades, how psychological safety is at the core of a healthy corporate culture and of good performance Her work gained momentum in the 1990s with a study showing that better-performing teams are ones that talk more about mistakes.
One method to help us increase psychological safety and the propensity for serendipity is the project funeral Although the phrase sounds bleak, it describes an incredibly positive process. A project is laid to rest, and those involved get to open up about how they felt, what they learned, what they gained and what they regret about the whole thing. Crucially, the funeral includes people who may not have been close to the project but who are, so to speak, paying their respects, such as project managers from other teams.
During the Second World War, two scientists invented the magnetron - a tube that produced microwaves - for use in Britain's radar system to spot Nazi warplanes. Percy Lebaron Spencer accidentally discovered that microwave energy could be used to cook food when the radar waves melted a chocolate bar in his pocket.
absorptive capacity' - being able to encounter new information and then turn it into relevant knowledge and action - is paramount.
Just like when Haie's maintenance people who were called in for repairs found that many complaints about their washing machine concerned dirt and debris collection, they realized some rural customers were using washing machines to wash root vegetables. Rather than dismiss these cases as invalid or as a worthless anomaly, Haier saw the potential value and developed a washing machine that could also process and filter vegetable dirt and debris. The potato washing machine was born
Or we can take inspiration from the ancient Greek and Venetian republics: they used random selection as a 'leveller'. Political leaders were chosen at random. They might not have been far off: recent studies have shown that random selection outperforms more sophisticated mechanisms of governance in financial markets and politics, because it is more resistant to nepotism, more robust, overcomes stereotypes and is perceived as fairer.
Take this slightly provocative example that a senior executive shared with me: 'I was in a meeting with an African president, who said, "All this bloody food help of you Western white-faces is not helpful. In the past, people were at least dying in my country.
Now you keep them alive with your carbohydrates and your stupid food help and all that stuff. And since the food help is carbohydrate-rich and not rich of vitamins and minerals, my people become ill but stay alive.
February 22, 2022
There’s two kind of luck, blind luck and smart luck.
blind luck is something that we cannot control, while smart luck (serendipity) is something we can control and we can work on.
to work on smart luck is to connect the dots, see things from different perspective, open to every opportunity, and to be more active socializing with others.
blind luck is something that we cannot control, while smart luck (serendipity) is something we can control and we can work on.
to work on smart luck is to connect the dots, see things from different perspective, open to every opportunity, and to be more active socializing with others.
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January 24, 2024Buchempfehlung von
Christoph Werner, CEO bei dm
Christoph Werner, CEO bei dm
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