272: Zohran Mamdani. Tanitoluwa Adewumi. JM Coetzee.

Good morning dear friends
 
If you liked last week’s quotation from Joanne Joseph’s Children of Sugarcane you might enjoy this one from Wole Soyinka.
 
Today’s letter draws lessons from Zohran Mamdani’s victory, a 10-year-old chess master and Nobel laureate JM Coetzee.
 
/strategy
A few weeks, whilst attending the unbelievable Africa in the World Festival, I had the privilege of witnessing journalist Siddhartha Mitter masterfully weave a conversation with phenomenal Ghanian artist, Ibrahim Mahama.

It is a special skill to draw someone into the intimacy of real conversation and ensure that the audience feels included and connected. Mitter achieved that.

However, today is not about the festival or the conversation. I’ll return to that before the year ends. Today, is about Mitter’s reflection as NYC celebrated Zohran Mamdani’s victory.

He wrote, “As Zohran Mamdani advanced to the primary, it became apparent that the candidate and team, beyond their extraordinary communication skills and instincts, were doing something simple, even limpid: Addressing Actually Existing NYC.

Immersing in it, respecting it, mobilizing it, making its interests their compass. And analyzing it, with the granular data and street knowledge garnered from a host of local progressive campaigns, successful and not, since AOC’s 2018 breakthrough.

All this, led and embodied by a truly exceptional candidate — charismatic but studious, firm in his values while attentive to the genius of the public — has brought us to this remarkable moment, when NYC proposes not only a grounded rebuttal to Trumpism but a beacon of civic renewal for the world at large.

… Mayor Mamdani will face big obstacles, but his win will also shake new possibilities loose. Whether he succeeds, we will see. But it’s abundantly clear that he loves the people — he loves the city — he loves us —and that is the imperative start.”

The emphasis is mine. They are strategic levers we can all use.

Address the actually existing. Immerse, respect, mobilise. Know what worked and what didn’t. Be attentive to the genius of the public. Be a beacon of renewal. Know each win shakes new possibilities loose. Love.

Our analytical tools summarise vast amounts of data. However, they also lose texture. And it is texture that creates the friction that sparks insight.

Connecting with community, customers and employees is the quickest route to get unstuck. Immerse in ‘actually existing’.

When customers’ and employees’ interests are our compass, the details fall in place. The debate shifts from tactics to outcomes.

When we embrace exploring what went wrong, when, instead of simply celebrating success, we stop to understand it, we enable insight, innovation and intensity.

In every single moment, we can embody and express a way of living and leading that inspires other imaginations. Our actions can and do ripple. And each successful action creates more space, more possibilities.

Treat each moment as a mini-universe and watch the momentum build.  
 
//self
Tanitoluwa Adewumi, at 15, is one of the United States’ youngest chess masters. He achieved this status at the remarkable age of ten.

When he did so, he commented, “I say to myself that I never lose, that I only learn. Because when you lose, you have to make a mistake to lose that game. So, you learn from that mistake, and so you learn [overall]. So, losing is the way of winning for yourself.”

Don’t avoid the hard reflection, the hard conversation.
Curiosity is a superpower.
When we approach tough conversations inquisitively, looking for learning, not blaming or defending, we unlock a world of possibility.

(I first found Adewumi’s story in Amy Edmondson’s Right Kind of Wrong).  
 
/// soul
On Tuesday evening, I was lucky enough to be invited to a lecture by two of Africa’s Nobel Laureates in literature, J.M. Coetzee and Abdulrazak Gurnah. The lecture was part of Stellenbosch University’s Nobel Symposia Series.

Coetzee is known for his austere, often severe, prose.

The moderator asked him what he thought about translations of his work.

His, paraphrased, response was, “I like myself in German. My work feels clearer, crisper. And, in Dutch, I become more approachable”.

Different languages give different possibilities.

What language do you use to describe your world? What might happen if you changed it?
 
All the best
 
Karl
 
PS: You can learn about my executive coaching practice [here] and find me on LinkedIn. If you’re interested in creating space to strengthen your leadership team’s strategic, communication and reflective powers, I facilitate curated leadership journeys. The details are [here]. Please do share this letter with friends. They can subscribe [here].