Faisal Hoque - Everything Connects: Cultivating Mindfulness, Creativity, and Innovation for Long-Term Value ()

PRAISE FOR
EVERYTHING CONNECTS

Management guru, Faisal Hoque, explains how
mindfulness can transform your business.

FORTUNE/CNN MONEY

The focus on mindfulness in Everything Connects sets
it apart to traditional, type-A thinking.

FAST COMPANY

Provides true framework

ENTREPRENEUR

One conversation with Faisal Hoque and you understand
why his new book, Everything Connects, is powerful.

CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP

Everything Connects is as much about business as it is about life.

DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, New York Times best-selling
author and the #1 leadership thinker in the world (Thinkers50/HBR)

By marrying the power of creativity and innovation, there is very
little we cant accomplish. Everything Connects shows where and
how this is happening and inspires us to join in this new era.

PROFESSOR MUHAMMAD YUNUS , Nobel laureate
and founder of Grameen Bank

Brilliant! Everything Connects helps connect the dots in ways
youve never imagined. Its full of powerful and useful ideas
on how to unleash innovation in your organization.

FRANK SONNENBERG , best-selling author of Managing with a
Conscience, former head of marketing for Ernst & Young,
and Top 100 Thought Leaders in America according to TRUST! Magazine

If the industrial era was about building, the social era
is about connecting. Everything Connects is a guide to
and a celebration ofthat connecting process.

NILOFER MERCHANT , best-selling author of
11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era

Everything Connects shows why sustainable
innovation begins with youyes, you.

DR. VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN , professor, Tuck at Dartmouth, and author
of New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller Reverse Innovation

Everything Connects provides you with a beginners mind, helping
you to see your company free of misleading preconceptions.

JASON L. BAPTISTE , founder of Onswipe
and author of The Ultralight Startup

Fast Company Press

New York, New York

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Copyright 2022 Faisal Hoque

All rights reserved.

Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright law. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

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Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-63908-020-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63908-021-2

Part of the Tree Neutral program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Second Edition

Previous edition published by McGraw Hill, 2014 (978-0071830751).

To my family, friends, colleagues, and partners for your love, inspiration, and support
and
To the readersthe dreamers of dreams

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I cant make it
through one door, Ill go through another dooror Ill make a door.
Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
Rabindranath Tagore

By Marshall Goldsmith

AS THE WORLD HAS become more globally connected, our personal interconnections have grown exponentially. The speed and pace of our days have greatly increased. In this busier, more connected world, it can be difficult to take the necessary time to reflect on our careers and our lives. While our opportunities and challenges seem to be growing, the time available to reflect on these opportunities and challenges seems to be shrinking.

My professional mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, lasting behavioral change. Over the years, I have seen how the leadership behaviors that have led to one level of success might not be the same behaviors needed to achieve a higher level of success. In my coaching, all my clients receive confidential, 360-degree feedback. This feedback comes from managers, peers, colleagues, and direct reports. In many cases, my clients also receive feedback from family members and friends. This comprehensive feedback enables us to see the blind spots that inhibit our growth. When leaders have a complete perspective, they can move forward with clarity. Buddha noted that right understanding leads to right action. One word for such a comprehensive view of life is holistic.

In problem analysis, the holistic approach takes into account the whole system of causes and effects that have an impact on the problem. If the problem were a knot, the holistic problem solver would review each threads direction and how they all fit togetherhow the many parts created the puzzling whole. After seeing how the tangling happened, it can be easy to untie the knot; the solution practically suggests itself.

Holistic problem solving helps us systematically review the messy knots in our lives and then create clear, ready-to-implement solutions.

This book helps us find holistic solutions to problems in our organizations and in our lives. To do this, it combines different disciplines.

While there are many books about understanding business and many books about understanding ourselves, few books address both issues at once. In addressing both of these issues, Faisal Hoque and Drake Baer have drawn upon knowledge from many sources, including organizational theory, neuroscience, and management theory, as well as psychology, spirituality, and self-improvement. Their holistic approach illustrates how these different views of the world can be connected.

The approach described in the book was shaped by the authors backgrounds. Faisal, the entrepreneur, innovator, and elder of the duo, was born in Bangladesh (near Buddhas birthplace) and found himself in the boardrooms of Fortune 100 companies by the time he was twenty-seven. Drake, the journalist, traveler, and younger of the two, was born in Illinois and found himself in Himalayan meditation retreats at twenty-four years old. Theres something disparate, united, and exciting about that combo, and their creative tension is found throughout the argument and adventure of the text. Together, theyve created a book thats as much about business as it is about life or as much about life as it is about business.

In todays rapidly changing world, leaders are constantly challenged with questions such as these: