Bob Rosen - Conscious: The Power of Awareness in Business and Life

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 3
3. Chapter 9
4. Chapter 17

Grounded

Leadership Journeys

The Catalyst (Jeanne Liedtka and Robert Wiltbank)

Just Enough Anxiety

Global Literacies (Patricia Digh, Marshall Singer, Carl Philips)

Leading People (with Paul Brown)

The Healthy Company (with Lisa Berger)

BOB ROSEN

New York Times Bestselling Author of GROUNDED

EMMA-KATE SWANN

Copyright 2018 by RHR Enterprises. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rosen, Bob, 1955- author. | Swann, Emma-Kate, author.

Title: Conscious : the power of awareness in business and life / by Bob Rosen, Emma-Kate Swann.

Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2018] | Includes index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018015050 (print) | LCCN 2018015996 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119508441 (epub) | ISBN 9781119508465 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119508458 (cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Awareness. | Organizational change.

Classification: LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | LCC HD57.7 .R6569 2018 (print) | DDC 658.4/06dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015050

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: aleksandarvelasevic/iStockphoto

To Jay, Kaye, Robin, and Peter

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin's visit to the Galapagos Islands in 1835 changed biology and natural science forever. Yet almost two centuries later, the true impact of Darwin's work has yet to be fully realized. Whether we recognize it or not, change is the only reliable constant of modern life. Change is the rule. Adaptation is survival. Being conscious is how you thrive.

Let us introduce you to the chameleon, an animal that can teach us how to adapt and survive in a disruptive and accelerating world. But first we need to rethink the chameleon and start viewing it for what it is: A powerful icon of change and a world champion of adaptation.

Evolutionary forces created an incredible paradox in the chameleon. They are one of the slowest and also one of the fastest animals in nature. In spite of their sluggish-looking exterior, chameleons possess the world's fastest tongue. While commonly standing on a tree branch moving just a few centimeters an hour, a chameleon's tongue springs upon its prey with astonishing swiftness. If a chameleon's tongue were a race car, it would travel from zero to 60 mph in 1/100th of a second. This speed and intensity exists almost nowhere else in the terrestrial world.

Chameleons also developed fully independent eyes, giving them a 360-degree arc of visibility around their bodies. Able to see in visible and ultraviolet light, their eyes have the highest power of magnification of any vertebrate. These adaptations were all essential to the chameleon's survival and growth.

Yet chameleons are most well-known for their ability to change color. Their base color is camouflage, enabling them to ambush their prey as they sway in the breeze. But that's just one of their colors. In fact, changing color is an adaptation that allows the chameleon to stand out and communicate with other chameleons. Brighter colors normally indicate aggression and darker colors indicate submission. They are essentially living mood rings.

Now, most of us don't want to be called a chameleon. To us that signifies devious, manipulative, or dishonest behavior. Yet, as science reveals the truth about the chameleon, it's time we become more conscious of the chameleon's true place in the world. Comfortable in its own skin. Always showing its true colors. Seeing in all directions. The chameleon teaches us what it takes to adapt and thrive in a constantly changing world.

We humans are not easily intimidated by the chameleon. In fact, we are the most advanced species on the planet. What distinguishes us from all the other species is our amazing brain. Weighing in at three pounds and large for our size, the human brain is a complex network of billions of nerve cells with trillions of connections with our bodies and the outside world. The human mind, as we like to call it, is the seat of our complex thought, the source of our language, the originator of our personality, and the home of our emotions. Our capacity to be conscious to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings is what makes us the talk of the animal kingdom.

Yet, as humans, we find ourselves living at a critical inflexion point in our history. Everything is changing around us, from technology and demographics, to geopolitics and climate, to lifestyles and marriages, and the list goes on. Our challenge is that the world is changing faster than our ability to adapt.