“The Advanced Leadership Clinic by Srikumar S. Rao is a unique program designed for exceptionally talented executives actively looking for exponential improvement in performance. It will enable you to smash all previous achievement records and take you to new highs of personal effectiveness. Expect it to turbo-charge your career and take you to a higher orbit of performance and accomplishment.
Admission to the clinic is highly competitive. It is only for driven individuals who are so drawn to it that they would, literally, be prepared to blast through brick walls to participate. DO NOT APPLY if you are not ready to disrupt your life considerably for the rare privilege of joining a group of highly talented managers in a collaborative life-changing experience.
There is no other program remotely like this one in format, intensity or effectiveness. Expect and be prepared for this clinic to completely take over your life for two months. You will be given, and learn to work with, transformation tools of great power. You will continue to work with them on your own after the formal end of the clinic until you have mastered their use. And you will find your life has altered beyond measure.
Read the program details below to determine if this clinic is for you. Pay particular attention to the clear descriptions of who should and should not apply and some of the possible outcomes of this concentrated happening.
This is not a program for the faint of heart or for those who are merely curious. The application alone will take you hours and there will be assignments you will have to complete before the first meeting. The clinic will take up virtually all your spare time while it lasts and it will seep into every part of your life. Embrace this intensity. This is what will enable you to make deep changes in your life.”
Recommend books about Experimetal Creativity by Srikumar Rao
1) FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Harper & Row, 1990
FLOW is a state of intense absorption where the distinction between you and the work you are doing practically disappears. Time appears distorted with hours feeling like minutes or vice versa. Peak performers achieve this state regularly and it has been extensively studied in champion athletes and sports figures as well as performers in the arts. University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has researched the phenomenon in other occupations and explored the conditions under which FLOW can be achieved by practically anyone. Extraordinary creativity routinely occurs in the flow state. You may also wish to explore The Evolving Self by the same author.
Inamori, the legendary founder of Kyocera, puts it beautifully, “I often tell a researcher who is lacking in dedication…unless he is motivated with determination to succeed, he will not be able to go past the obstacles…When his passion, his desire, becomes so strong as to rise out of his body like steam, and when the condensation of that which evaporated occurs…and drops back like raindrops, he will find his problem solved.”
2) Creativity in Business by Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers
Doubleday, 1986
Michael is the Stanford Business School marketing professor who was a pioneer in teaching creativity in a business school. The book contains many business anecdotes – now somewhat dated – and is very entertaining, but reading it like a novel will not do you much good. Practice the exercises he suggests, particularly those relating to the VOJ (voice of judgment) and in chapters 4 and 6.
3) Cracking Creativity by Michael Michalko
Ten Speed Press, 2001
The subtitle of this book is “The secrets of creative genius” and it is exactly that. The author is a creativity consultant with many Fortune 500 clients and the business examples he gives are highly instructive. I particularly like the layout of the book and its excellent graphics. Use this as you would a recipe book, to search for ideas when you don?t know what to cook. Pay particular attention to the strategies of thinking fluently and making novel combinations.
4) Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
Many editions. Try the one by Overlook Hardcover 2003 but others also work.
Many, including myself, believe Wodehouse is one of the greatest humorists of all time. There are few persons who will leave you with such belly bursting gales of laughter. Do not read this book on trains or planes unless you are OK with fellow travelers looking askance at you and silently questioning your mental stability. On a more serious note, evaluate the mental models used by Psmith and his cheery insouciance when faced with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This is the spirit to cultivate and I cannot recommend this cultivation highly enough.
5) A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton
Red Wheel/Weiser, 1990
Paul Brunton was a journalist on a quest and visited many parts of the globe. A Search in Secret Egypt is an earlier companion volume. The nature of his quest and the insistent questions that drove him may resonate with some of you. His observation is keen and his descriptions powerful. His matter of fact recital of some exceedingly strange experiences may leave some of you gasping. Suspend judgment and focus on the lessons he learned and would like to pass on.
6) The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
Penguin Books, 2000
Benjamin Zander is a conductor, so passionate about music that he literally sways audiences into rapture. He is legendary for his pre-concert lectures where he educates his audience about the music about to be played. He also offers to refund the admission of any member who is not emotionally moved. This is the kind of conviction that permeates this book. You, too, can be equally passionate about what you do. This book shows you how.
7) What Got You Here Won?t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
Hyperion, 2007
Marshall is perhaps the world?s leading executive coach and he has distilled a lifetime?s learning into this book. Successful persons tend to forget that there are many things they do which are dysfunctional and turn others off. They are successful despite this. Marshall points out the most common flaws of hugely successful persons and shows you how to identify and eliminate them from your persona. There is no question that you, too, have flaws such as attempting to “win too much”. Read this book to find out what else you are guilty of.
Sources:
Are you ready to succeed?
The Personal Mastery Program: Discovering Passion and Purpose in Your Life and Work (Audio Learning Course) by Srikumar Rao
Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us
Buzz