What's in the Context?

It was long back when I was in college, I think, in my 5th semester. I was involved in activities to lead the placement cell. With this of-course, I had a lot of opportunities to converse with the head of the placement cell. As a curious soul, I had a lot of questions regarding what lies ahead in life for me. One day, I asked him that I wanted to be a corporate trainer (though I must say, I had no bloody clue of what they exactly do besides some glamour of being the smartest one in the room...)

So I went ahead and asked him. I still remember, he had a God-like smile on his face, which made me think that this time (like always), I have asked something stupid.

But then he started to talk... and to what he said, became an underline philosophy of my life…

He said he had asked a similar question to his teacher once, about his aspiration to be a writer. The answer he got had a relevance to my inquiry. He answered in Hindi, Sau kitaben Pad, to ek panna likh"

For the larger audience, he said- "Read 100 books before you write one page."

The relevance to me was, to have a content of 1 page of talk, I need to have a CONTEXT of 100 books.

And that's what I want to talk about. How many of us build the right context? Are we even aware of what it is, and if we know, then how do we build it?

I had a Deja Vu moment some years later when I was in a town hall in adobe, and then head of global TA made a similar comment-

Content without context is irrelevant data

While now we know that context is essential, how should one build it? Below are five advice on how to build a strong context:

Read Read Read: This is the first advice I give to anyone. Read daily, even if ten pages, but read. Any topic, any breadth, fiction, non-fiction, history, geology, geopolitics, biographies, anything. Reading is one way we can create a vast wealth of knowledge and gain a different perspective. Neurologically, it helps the mind to relax and make more neural networks, which allows the brain to be sharper (as blood flow increases during reading). To a surprise, it lowers the risk of brain-related diseases (like Alzheimer & Dementia) by 32%. So what are you waiting for, pick up a damn book...

Write to self: We have so many thoughts rushing our mind; writing helps us consolidate, organize, and clear them in our head. Write about the book you read, the place you traveled, the fascinating experience you had, anything which is worth a memory. I have picked this up for the last some months, and I have seen some differences in approach. I feel when you write, your relationship with your memory grows from casual dating to a committed one. Pen your thoughts in a small notebook, put them in the notes app of your phone, or write them on your computer.

Network BEYOND: Have you ever felt (at least I have) that we have a vast network, but that's in our domain/function ONLY. We like being connected to people of similar interests or areas of expertise. And if that's correct, how will we get a "diversity" of thoughts. That's called a narcissistic principle of relationship formation, and there is some research done already (do a google!). Let me also take a genuine thought that its not easy to network outside the circle of job/domain/function, but to build the context, one has to do it, and that's where you will see some leaders are more successful than others.  

Watch Documentaries: We all have a lot of uncalled screen time, and this is one reason, by which I am an avid documentaries watcher. I resonate it with reading a lot. One can build such a breadth of knowledge through them and can help you be a conversation starter than just a side contributor. TED is one of my favorite apps, and Youtube & Netflix has a plethora of content about anything and everything. Again, like reading, it adds to the context & perspective we can use while conversing or at work.

Build a passion: I ask a lot of people a question that what do they do from 5 to 9? It helps you break a unidimensional approach, which is more controlled by your work and the same kind of people you meet. Passion not just add variety to your thoughts, people you meet, but also add a spark of creativity. Research shows that people who have passion/ hobbies are more successful in innovation & creativity and are looked upon as more holistic leaders.

One Bonus here…

Podcast: These are portable magic, which I have explored for some years now. They come handy when you cant utilize your other senses besides listening, like while driving, doing some household chores, etc. I am an avid listener to these while driving to work, much better than some vague content on FM. Personally, I prefer them over audiobooks because they come in small duration, and one can juggle between different topics and categories at the same time. In contrast, the audiobook will be a long commitment to one topic and can get boring to listen to.

Someone once said, Rome wasn't built in a day, and I am sure we cant build our context sooner.. but what we can do is start somewhere. So let's start with the first page...