SV Notes for Illumine Team

Explorations on knowledge, work, personal evolution, institutional change and nation building

Theme

Srinivas Venkatram

  • Why Ideals matter for the future of humankind?

    1 Why are ideals important to humankind? To appreciate this question, we must first recognize where we are. Humankind has, over the past few centuries, worked on two interrelated strands…

  • The power of discernment

    Discernment is the foundation of human growth. Through discernment we are able to distinguish between good and bad, friend and foe, healthy and unhealthy, and so on. Without discernment we…

  • The new DNA of Technology

    Why is ‘enablement’ as a way of thinking so important to people in today’s society? To understand this, we need to appreciate the term ‘enablement’. Enablement means strengthening, giving confidence,…

  • Cartography of the mind

    I ‍The single most powerful capacity of the intellect is to “make sense” of the complex world around us. To “make sense” means that we are able to deal with…

  • How to build agency in the age of AI

    How do we want our young people to deal with a world that is changing in unprecedented and unanticipated ways, particularly in an AI world? Do we want our young…

  • Karma Yoga – the Contribution Perspective

    The contribution ideal is the intermediate stage between a life of self-centeredness and a life of unselfishness. This ideal is in itself valuable and inspiring for individuals who are presently…

  • Contribution Thinking: 6 key principles

    Contribution Thinking is a powerful paradigm for reconceptualizing our work and careers. This paradigm is built around six key principles: One, contribution thinking means making a positive difference to (i)…

  • The challenge of collective evolution

    For centuries, humankind has evolved through two mechanisms – one, the growth & evolution of a few individuals which has resulted in new products of a civilization (science, art, culture,…

  • Learning to Contribute – an approach to Karma Yoga

    Karma Yoga and ‘We’ Karma Yoga means attaining spiritual illumination by doing unselfish work. This is the highest ideal for work. However, most of us, who are struggling to break…

  • Future-creating Leaders

    I In a world full of accomplished people, great thinking is widely found. This is one of the causes of great accomplishment – be it in music, art or science.…

  • The quality of purpose

    Living purposefully has two aspects to it: (i) The depth of one’s own engagement with purpose (ii) The scope or range of one’s purpose Let us explore both dimensions. Scope…

  • The challenge of integrating purpose and context

    Holding on to purpose does not come easy, and takes many years of genuine struggle for both individuals and collectives. The central challenge is the context we live in –…

  • Purpose: A source of emotional maturity

    What brings emotional maturity?Being deeply resolved. How can one be deeply resolved?Through an intrinsic purpose.And by organizing one’s intentionality around this intrinsic purpose.

  • Creating sustainability in organizations– The centrality of purpose

    The design of enabling structures in organizations is to be seen as part of a fundamental “system” of intertwined perspectives. The resolution of these four dimensions or perspectives can be…

  • Designing a Strategy for Human Fulfillment

    I Emotion is the most primal energy in man. It is the source of all beauty, all passion, all pursuit of ‘meaning’ in existence. Emotion is also a product of…