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21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Having just finished reading Yuval Noah Harari’s latest book called ’21 Lessons for the 21st Century’ (following Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus), I am thinking about what I have learnt and what could be a central message about how we communicate and interact with each other. And I am left with a deep sense once again of how important it is to grow our personal resilience and to find meaning and purpose in this complex web of change and uncertainty which is (and seemingly always will be) our new normal.

Discovering our meaning and purpose is the first step towards happiness. A further challenge seems to be how to authentically live up to this in the midst of disruption, conflicting demands, information overload and fake news. How do we have the crucial and courageous conversations that enable us to show up and find our voices when the stakes are high, when there is conflicting opinions and when we experience the levels of stress that most people contend with on a daily basis in their work and home spaces.

Some people would argue that learning how to have a Crucial Conversation is a ‘soft’ skill, arguing that in this world it is about survival of the fittest and loudest (voice). There is nothing ‘soft’ about having a crucial conversation; it is hard and requires constant practise and reinforcement.