KNOWLEDGE MINDFULNESS

Marouf sounds a motivational call for using the whole of your knowledge in this business guide.

In her nonfiction debut, the author, a professor and researcher, insists that her readers have more potential than they may realize, if only they would access what she refers to as the “totality” of their knowledge, which, she asserts, is multiplicative, not merely additive. Accessing this totality of knowledge, she writes, is “as transformative as knowing the meaning rather than just the sound of the words you use.” In both personal and professional life, she argues, “both rational and intuitive knowledge are vital.” All of this advice is in service of thriving in what she refers to (borrowing from military usage) as “the VUCA world,” one that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. Citing such recent events as the Covid-19 pandemic, she notes that dealing with such disruptions is difficult enough for anyone and is even harder for organizational leaders. In a series of well-designed and well-illustrated chapters featuring plenty of insets and illustrations, Marouf expands on the elements of emotion and psychology that go into forging a more global consciousness optimized for dealing with a world full of uncertainty. As in so many books of this kind, readers should brace themselves for banalities like: “To chart a way forward as both leaders and individuals, we need to work first on understanding the world we are living in.” Likewise, the author makes contentions that aren’t supported by psychological research, as when Marouf asserts that the more a person uses their intuition, the stronger it becomes. But her calm, global vision of personal development is consistently reassuring, and her overriding goal, to help people (and especially corporate leaders) become “personally wiser,” compensates for the more predictable elements of her book. Readers seeking to break out of old, stale ways of thinking will find much food for thought in these pages.

A smoothly readable argument for deeper and better thinking in a chaotic world.