Book Summary | The Grand Weaver - How God Shapes us Through the events of our lives

Book Title: The Grand Weaver : How God Shapes us Through the events of our lives 

Author : Ravi Zacharias 

I have listened to many podcast of Ravi Zacharias, listening to his lectures brings a kind of eagerness as he relates the life with scriptures to get engaged for a Purpose.  I didn’t knew that Ravi would be called by God, on the day, I started reading this book “Grand Weaver”.  In the introduction of the book – Grand Weaver, the author simply asks “why has God made it so difficult to believe in him? This can be a common metaphor for many of the believers, especially in the difficult and struggling time.   This book is around Gods design and is mysterious intervention in our lives to know the specific purpose for each one of us.  The authors belief that God intervenes in the lives of everyone and God speaks to us in different ways and at different times. The book is about calling for each of us, designed to fulfil each individual uniqueness. Once you being to see Gods hand in our life, we will know that his workmanship within us and through you was tailor made, just for you. That’s why the title of the book Grand Weaver.

I have tried to summarize these 8 chapters.

Chapter – 1: DNA Matters:

Gods gifts are unique and these gifts even when in flaw has a great message to convey. It depends upon the way one view and treasure the gift. It reminds that each person is unique and special but not flawed.

# Accepting and celebrating the thread of your own personality is the first grasp of the Grand Weaver’s design in your life. You are not a number. He knows you by name. Every stage of the process may not look picturesque, but every detail will come into focus and possess its share of beauty.

Chapter – 2: Your Disappointments:

Every individual born in this earth will undergo pain and suffering and disappointments in their own way. There cannot be a measurement to know who suffered more main and who had highest disappointments. We always feel that we are carrying the heavy burden, compared to others and author narrates a beautiful story of Golden Window.  One can observe the patterns of the disappointments and take three distinct steps in this journey before the pattern becomes visible and we being to see the work of God.

The author suggests three steps in this journey before the pattern becomes visible to see the work of God

1       1.   Involves the heart:

Three things happen to heart: it will grow hard, it will be broken or it will be tender. God the grand weaver seeks those with tender hearts sothat he can put his imprints on them. Your hurts and disappointments are part of that design, to share your heart and the way you feel about reality.  A heart is close communion with God helps carry out through the pain, beyond the power of words.

2.   Involves the Mind

Brain is to the body and the mind is to the soul. Faith is a thing of the mind. The entire financial structure depends on credit, trust, confidence, belief and faith.

3.  Finding the road

Chapter -3: Your Calling Matters

Immense success does not always bring meaning or fulfillment.  A calling is simply God’s shaping of your burden and beckoning you’re to your service to him in the palace and pursuits of his choosing. It is God’s vital purpose in positioning you in life and giving you the vocation and context of your will to serve him with a total commitment to do the job well.

God trained Moses in a palace to use him in a desert. He trained Joseph in a desert to use him in a palace. Some come through winding paths, some through the nicely paved road of privileged birth or influential friends. Others come through the visitation of circumstances with wandering and sudden signposts. Finding one’s calling is one of the greatest challenges in life, especially when one has gifts that fan out in many directions.

One simply cannot know one’s call without coming near to God in prayer.  The purpose of prayer and of God’s call in your life is not to make you number one in the worlds eyes, but to make him number one in your life. The second significant clue - the willingness to be outshone while shining for God. Humility is the touchstone of serving God. The preparation for the call through prayer and the attitude of living out the call in humility, takes the final step.

Chapter – 4: Your Morality Matters:

The fundamental difference between a naturalist worldview and a religious worldview is the moral framework. The first four of the ten commandments have to do with our worship of God, while the next six deals with our resulting responsibilities to our fellow human beings. These commandments base a moral imperative on our spiritual commitment, first towards God and second towards humanity.  Morality is the fruit of your knowledge of God, conscious or otherwise. Morality can build pride as well philanthropy true spirituality will never submit to pride.

Chapter – 5: Your Spirituality Matters:

Jesus challenged three different types of spirituality; Traditionalism, legalism and superstition.

Spiritual seduction is the deadliest of all seductions because it barters away the soul. Truth is the thread that separates true spirituality from false spirituality.

Chapter -6: Your will Matters:

We must take hold of God’s promise to bless us. The gospel declares that the Holy Spirit brings about the new birth and that because of the Spirits power within us, we gain the ability to do God’s will.

Willful walk with the lord – Ask without Pettiness | Being before Doing | Convictions without Compromise | Discipline without Drudgery.

Chapter -7: Your worship Matters

Worship is coextensive with life. Worship is ultimately seeing life Gods way. Three principal realities combine in worship; Mystery, Community and Liturgy.

Chapter – 8: Your Destiny Matters:

The cemetery new or old is not our ultimate destination; it is merely a place in which to remember the symbols of a farewell. The person is not there; only the last memory is there. The respect shown in a cemetery comes not becomes it is home, but because it is where we bid believing loved ones a temporary good bye.

A wonderful book, with a beautiful flow with real life’s stories that connects with present experiences or few heard stories make this awesome read and reflection.

Book Summary | The Ultimate Prayer Challenge: A Devotional That Will Change Your Life

Author: Adam Houge

There is an unseen force behind us which cannot be denied and this brings the hope in us at the times of uncertainties and in the period of difficulties. That force may be the God and it becomes vital to interact with God and the way we interact we define it as prayer. Prayer is a way of surrendering to God. Prayer is also a way of encouragement for hope.  The book is categorized into two parts.

-          The 7 most powerful prayers

-          The Prayer warrior’s 30 days’ challenge

First Part is on the most powerful prayers. These are the selected prayers from the author. It’s all about the reflections on life and insights taken from the scriptures. This being led by the spirit: an interesting insight to rebuild faith and works of holy spirit.   

The Second part of the book is the Payer warrior 3o day challenge an interesting narration and flow for 30 days helping in enhancing faith building and prayers.            

The uninteresting take on the first and second part is the authors response as the lord’s answers is really raw, making think differently as each person when he reads and meditates develops his own thoughts may not and will not resemble to the authors response.

If the rational on

-          Do we really need challenge for Praying and what will be the benefit?

-      Is there something called the best prayer and does God only listen to the best prayer and respond to those who will use the best prayers?

-     How one will ensure that there is continuity in prayer and does not get diverted from the prayerful life due to the challenging and difficult environment.

Then this book provides insights that one can meditate upon.

Book Summary | Giving Effective Feedback (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)

"Praise effort, not ability". Remember to praise those around you for their work, including failures.

Providing feedback an toughest thing in professional and personal positions, that has the ability to make or breaking a relationship. Feedback is often corrective, which means its intended to help the recipient change course or adjust practices when the current ones aren't working. Therefore giving effective feedback becomes critical. The objective of feedback conversation is to reinforce positive behaviour or improve performance.

The book is a ready reckoner that provides clear guidelines and difference between feedback, coaching and Performance Appraisal. Feedback discussion is an opportunity to share the observations with others about the performance and behaviour. It becomes very important to identify the right situation to provide the feedback. The best part of the book is the flow on feedback process - from planning to follow-up and tips that one should remember while dealing with feedback. The influence of feedback is easy in job skills, time and work management and knowledge but it is difficult to influence in the areas of  attributes, habits and personality traits, where one has to extra cautious.

Some of the points that needs to be followed during feedback are - Active Listening | Observe  Nonverbal cues | Monitoring the reactions | Paraphrase the recipient.

Feedback is not a cure-all for workplace ills. And feedback varies in case of difficult conversations, high performers and boss . 

"Praise effort, not ability" this easy to remember thought can become your daily mantra. Remember to praise those around you for their work, including failures.

A small book, very handy and helpful

Book Summary | Atomic Habits - John Clear

Book Title : Atomic Habits 

Author: John Clear 

The book touches about the habits and provides a framework on cultivating habits.

The surprising power of Atomic Habits : Habits are double edge sword. Habits are like the atoms in our lives. Each one is fundamental unit of that and contribute to the overall improvement. If we get 1 % better each day for one year, we’ll end up thirty seven times better by the time we’re done. This make habits as the compound interest of self-improvement.  Good habits make time as our ally, and bad habits make time  as our enemy. We witness people making few small changes, fail to see a tangible result and decide to stop. Mastery requires patience. All big things come from small beginning. The see of every habit is a single tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.

Goals are about results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that leads to those results. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

1: Winners and losers have the same goals: The goals had always been there. It was only when they implemented system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcomes.

2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change: Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment.

3: Goals restrict your happiness : Goals create an “either or conflict” either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointed.

4 : Goals are at odds with long term progress : The purpose of setting goal is to win the game. The purpose of building system is to continue playing the game. True long term thinking is goal less thinking.

Habits shape our identity :  Habits are challenging for two reasons as (i) we try to change the wrong thing and (ii) We try to change our habits in the wrong way.

There are three layers of behavior change

•     The first layer is changing the outcomes : These are associated with Goals. Focus on What
•   The second layer is changing the process : These are concerned with changing habits and systems.
•   The third layer is changing the identity : These are associated with beliefs, assumptions and biases. Behind every systems of actions are the system of habits.  The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of the identity. Behaviour are usually a reflection of the identity.

The process to change in identity are

a.       Decide the type of person you want to be

b.       Prove it to yourself with small wins.

4 simple ways to build better habits: Behaviors followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and those that produce unpleasant consequence are less likely to be repeated. A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The process of habit formation begins with trial and error.

The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps

• Cue : The cue triggers the brain to initiate a behavior.
• Craving : These are the motivational force behind every habit.
•  Response: The response is actual habit that is performed which take the form of a thought or an action.
• Reward :  The reward serve two purpose – They satisfy the trigger and they teach.  Reward teach us which action are worth remembering in the future.

Point & Call: One of the greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “Point and call” system for our personal lives. Pointing and calling is a safety system designed to reduce the mistakes. Pointing and calling raises the level of awareness from a non-conscious habits to a more conscious level of verbalizing the action.

The best way to start a new habit : Diderot effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.  Habit staking is a special form of an implementation intention. Habit stacking increases the likelihood that you’ll stick with a habit by stacking your new behavior on top of an old one. This processes can be repeated to chain numerous habits together, each one acting as the cue for the next.

Motivation is overrated; Environment often matters most : People often choose products not because of what they are; but because of where they are.  Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior. Despite our unique personalities, certain behaviors tend to arise again and again under certain environment conditions. Behavior is the function of the person in that environment. B=f(P,E)

The secret of Self-control : Bad habits are autocatalytic; the process feeds itself. They foster the feeling they try to numb.

Steps to create Good habits

-          The first law : Make it obvious

-          The second law : Make it Attractive

-          The Third law : Make it Easy

-          The fourth law: Make it satisfying

How to break a bad habit

-          1^st Law: Make it invisible

-          2^nd Law: Make it unattractive

-          3^rd law: Make it difficult

-          4^th law: Make it unsatisfying

Habits are dopamine driven feedback loop. It plays an important role in neurological process. So when dopamine raises, so do the motivation levels. The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit formation.

The role of Family and Friends in shaping your habits : In the long history of mankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.  The habits are imitated in the following groups

• The close : imitating the close, proximity has a powerful effect on behavior.
• The many : Intimating the many
• The powerful  : Intimating the powerful

Habit Formation: Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. Repeating a habit leads to clear physical changes in the brain. Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when non-consciousness mind takes over. Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of our life.

Two minute Rule: When we start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. The idea is to make the habit as easy as possible to start. As we master the art of showing up, the first two minutes, simply becomes a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine.

Goldilocks Rule: states that the human experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard, not too easy. Just right. The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.

Book Summary | Eucharistic Miracles: And Eucharistic Phenomenon in the Lives of the Saints

Book :  Eucharistic Miracles: And Eucharistic Phenomenon in the Lives of the Saints

Author: Joan Carroll Cruz

The Roman Catholic congregation celebrates the institution of the Holy Eucharistic every year on Maundy Thursday which comes in the holy week in the season of lent. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples. On this day, Christians observe the Last Supper and Two commandments of Jesus. It is also the day, when Jesus washed the feet’s of his disciples and started the servant leadership. During the Supper, Jesus took bread and wine and shared them with his disciples and instructed to do this in memory. Christians believe that, transformation happens during the Eucharistic celebration and the belief that the bread and wine converts into the body and blood of Jesus. The book captures the miracles happened during the Eucharistic celebration and mishandling of the body.

This book is about Eucharistic miracles collection. This book is divided into two parts. Part - I dealing with the Eucharistic Miracles, , Part - II dealing with Eucharistic phenomena in the lives of the saints. This book begins with a photo of consecrated hosts that have remained fresh and in-corrupt for 250 years. From the Basilica of St Francis in Siena. They were stolen in 1730 and then recovered.

The author has captured stories of Eucharistic miracles going back to the first Christian communities. And some that extend right up into our lifetimes up to the 17 century.  There are stories of saints and saintly people who lived for long periods on just the Eucharist for sustenance.

During COVID -19, pandemic, which happened during the season of lent, however the traditional celebration of the Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter were celebrated using digital technology where faithful attended the services from home. As the faithful couldn’t not receive the communion as they were not physically present in the Eucharistic celebration, they were asked to receive the bread spiritually. The last chapter of this book is on spiritual communion and prayer to receive it spiritually. The gifts of spiritual communion is jubilant of spirit, true charity, silence, joy in prayer and longing for God.

A good read to increase the faith and belief.

Book Summary | The Power of Business Process Improvements

Book : The Power of Business Process Improvements
Author : Susan Page 

Bill Gates wrote in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy that ‘‘A rule of thumb is that a lousy process will consume ten times as many hours as the work itself requires.’’ Improving business processes enables you to stay competitive and to increase your responsiveness to your customers, the productivity of your employees doing the work, and your company’s return on investment.

The objectives of BPI are:

·         Effectiveness: Does the process produce the desired results and meet the customer’s/client’s needs?

·         Efficiency: Does the process minimize the use of resources and eliminate bureaucracy?

·         Adaptability: Is the process flexible in the face of changing needs?

The Ten Simple Steps to Business Process Improvement

Step -1 : Develop the Process Inventory

-       Identify and prioritizing the process inventory

-       The process inventory is a list of the business processes that a department or area owns, and you have to build one if you find that such a list does not exist. You can identify business processes by reviewing the work done by a department, by scanning job descriptions, or by talking to colleagues to identify their roles and responsibilities

The following four general categories help you determine the relative importance of one business process over another

1. Impact: How much does the business process affect the business? | Numbers affected & Client

2. Implementation: How feasible is it to make the change? – Time to Market | Funding | Timing of N

3. Current State: How well is the process working today? – Client Satisfaction | Pain Level | Process Exists ?

4. Value: What is the benefit, or return, of improving the process? – Benefit score Total Score

Step – 2: Establish the Foundation

The scope definition document guides you through the exercise of establishing the foundation for a business process. It becomes your blueprint. Scope creep is the veering away from the original purpose of the work without an increase in time, resources, or money.

The Eight Sections of the Scope Definition Document – Process Name | Process Owner | Description or Purpose of the Process | Scope is the breadth or area covered by a process. | Process Responsibilities | Client and Client Needs | Key Stakeholders and Interests | Measurements of Success

Step – 3 : Draw the Process Map

A process map is a visual representation of a series of connected activities that, when strung together, deliver a meaningful outcome to the client/customer.

Process Maps – High Level and Detailed and either the standard or cross-functional process map. Creating the process map and detail document provides the business with a tool that can be used as a standard operating procedure to train new employees

Step – 4: Estimate Time and Cost

Process time is the time required to complete a single activity in a process.

Cycle time is the time required to complete an entire process, from its first to its last step.

Process Cost includes;

1. The cost of the people who do the work

2. The cost of technology tools used in the process

3. The cost of overhead such as space, air conditioning, and the like

4. Determine the FTE (full-time equivalent) number to use.

5. Determine the salary and employee benefit rate to use for the employees or process workers.

validate the accuracy of the process map with three groups of employees: - Process Owners | Stakeholders | Sponsor. The validation should focus on :  Accuracy of the process map | Points requiring clarification | Accuracy of the time estimates

Step – 5 : Verify the Process Map

Step – 6: Apply Improvement Techniques

Bill Gates is credited with saying, ‘‘The first principle for any technology you contemplate introducing into a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will just entrench the inefficiency.

The improvement technique wheel guides you through eliminating bureaucracy, evaluating value added activities, eliminating duplication and redundancy, simplifying the  process/reports/forms, reducing cycle time, and applying automation tools.

Bureaucracy is ‘‘productivity’s enemy.’’ Use SALT as a filter to eliminate bureaucracy (Statutory, Audit, Legal, Tax)

Keep it simple, silly.

Step – 7: Create Internal Controls, Tools, and Metrics

Identifying points in the business process where a mistake can occur provides the opportunity to introduce internal controls. Developing an internal control document, which contains the details about how to avoid common errors, provides an effective training tool for new employees. Creating metrics to support the measurements of success defined in the scope definition document allows you to evaluate whether the process works as planned.

Step – 8: Test and Rework

1. Create the test plan.

2. Develop the scenarios (or testing sheets).

3. Implement the test plan.

4. Summarize the feedback received and the challenges encountered,

then rework the process and tools.

5. Retest (if appropriate).

Step – 9: Implement the change

1. Change management: Impact analysis

2. Testing: Testing plan

3. Communication: Communication plan

4. Training: Training plan

5. Gain Sponsor Buy-in

Step – 10: Drive continuous improvement

The continuous improvement cycle confirms that the business process continually delivers effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility to the organization.

The four phases - evaluate, test, assess, and execute (PDCA) provide the necessary structure.

The Six Sections of the Executive Summary

Executive summary with an intriguing or compelling statement that grabs the reader’s attention, and shall have the following sections:

-       Project focus | Goals | Summary | Key findings | Deliverables | Appendix (if applicable)

Recommendation :

It is an good book to understand the process and process documentation for beginners. 

Book Summary | Awakening the leader within you

Book : Awakening the leader within you

Author : Mitesh Khatri

Publication: Jaico Publication House

The author is a trainer by profession and had the limelight movement with fire walking session with the team.  Something unbelievable – That’s how he motivated to walk barefoot on the burning coal. This book touches on the techniques to make sure we achieve the specific results without much of jargon's.

We are all born with infinite potential, still we can find two kinds of people – ordinary employees working with employee mindset and extraordinary leaders working with entrepreneur mindset.  The difference is ordinary people believe that they are just doing the job whereas the extraordinary leaders believe that they own the organization. The diffidence is Employee Mindset Vs Entrepreneur Mindset.  A leader always works with the entrepreneur mindset and takes ownership for the organization. Ordinary people are less productive because they are poor time managers; leaders are super productive because they master time management. Positive Attitude and High Energy are the two great forces that drive Great leaders.  People may or may not give up to their desires, but hey never give up on their expectations ! Expectations are stronger than desire. High expectations gives high energy to leaders. When things become must for human beings, it gives them unlimited energy to achieve what they want. High expectations lead to higher performance and higher results. The quality of life will depends on the amount of pressure you can handle. The lack of visibility can make life really difficult.  The quality of our life depends upon the quality of our communication skills.  The source of power and energy – taking 100% responsibility – positive or negative. Responsibility Formula is, Situation (S) + Response (R.) = Results (Re).

Leaders have a magnetic charisma that gets them huge following. Consistence results will be able to create the charisma. Charismatic leader keeps commitments.  Prioritization makes life simpler and less stressful. The leadership level is determined by the trust exhibited by people. The trust bank account has two ways of depositing and withdrawing trust; Cash = communication, cheque = commitments. 

Emotional intelligence is about having the power to manage your emotions by choice. The quality of our feelings is controlled by the quality of meanings we make. What we feel creates action and these actions produce results.  Focus refers to our thoughts and imaginations. There are three powerful ways of changing the emotional patterns – Meanings control feelings, physiology controls emotions and Focus control emotions.

Beliefs are vital for tapping into our inner potential and realizing our visions. Imagination is the power that fires our beliefs.  Success is not only by chance, it is also a science.

Value – The source of power. The source of unlimited power is consciously working as per our highest values. Whenever we work as per our highest values, we automatically have access to all our internal power resources like  - hard work, sincerity, Dedication, creativity, focus, confidence, inspiration, motivation, patience, sensitivity and abundant energy.

In each chapters the author has simple questionnaire to create awareness on where we stand, a very simple yet effective techniques  which can easily be adopted and implemented. 

This book is a good read.

Book Summary | Prison to Praise

Book Name: Prison To Praise

Author: Merlin R. Carothers

I didn't even knew that I had this book in the library until an friend requested and I searched the entire drive. That request generated interest to read this beautiful book. This book teaches the principle of Praise as a powerful spiritual weapon available to us. It shares the multi-dimensional ways of its working through catalogs of great life changing testimonies of encounters with God. Going through 150 pages, really throw surprises on the Gods power to heal the broken hearted.

The book is a story of Merlin, who dreamed about being rich and using any medium and enjoy the life turning to be a Chaplin and helping people. As a kid, I had listened to few stories, however I never knew that these were the real stories from this book.

Some of the astonishing stories, i found really inspiring were

1. Correction in Vision after the damaged right eye

2. Saving of the army general, who had lost his legs in the fight

3. Experiencing the joy of holy spirit

4. His experience in Vietnam.

I wonder how God can help ! But i also believe that it’s the trust and belief that makes God help the helpless.  

The primary message is "In all things give Thanks!"