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Books

What Is Wisdom?: A Collection of Practical Thoughts for Better Decisions in Life

Life is full of important decisions, and they all have consequences. Large or small, positive or negative, intended or unintended. Would you consider yourself wise when it comes to the choices you make?

With room to write down your own thoughts and ideas, What Is Wisdom? invites you to practice many ways of thinking developed by philosophers throughout history, helping you make better decisions in an uncertain world.

The ability to switch between these ways of thinking will lead you to clearer distinctions between what matters and what doesn’t and guide you toward regret-free decisions. It will give you the courage to take action when the opportunity arises, the prudence to pause when perspective is needed, and the diligence to follow through to get closer to where you want to be.

May you enjoy with each step the sense of mastery, freedom, and wonder that awaits you.

What Is Water?: How Young Leaders Can Thrive in an Uncertain World

We live in a world that feels increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). For young people, the sense of unease this world creates comes with serious difficulties. Many are asking: how can you lead, grow, and thrive in today’s world?

In What is Water?, Kayvan Kian shifts the focus away from this overwhelm and toward ways of thinking that will help you grow stronger through it all. Drawing on everything from ancient Stoic philosophy to contemporary examples, Kayvan delivers an approach for dealing with our VUCA world that is simple, pragmatic, and easily transferable to teams, families, and communities. You are not alone in this struggle, and with this book, you’ll be empowered with a strong sense of choice in life, no matter what kind of situations come your way.

Advisor

Senior Advisor to
McKinsey & Company

Helping organizations across the private, public, and social sectors to create the change that matters most to them

Supporting leaders and their teams, from the C-suite to the front line, to work better together during challenging times

Developing and teaching learning programs for senior and junior consultants to improve their leadership skills

Board Advisor

Guiding team members to improve their collaboration with each other and the broader organization

Creating a better shared understanding of the organization, its challenges, and opportunities

Coaching of individual team members on specific leadership skills

Personal Coach

Supporting individuals to learn how to lead, grow and thrive in today’s world

Helping leaders make their ideas happen within complex organizations and society

Developing tailor-made approaches to make better decisions in uncertain times

Testimonials

Kayvan's most remarkable strength is his dedication for the problem of each individual. His drive to understand the problem down to its roots makes him the best coach I ever had the pleasure to work with. This is so remarkable as Kayvan does this simply because he really cares about the best answer to your questions and your personal success.

Even though I got to spend only a week as a student in his session, Kayvan has left a lasting impression on me with his genuine interest in my development, clarity of thought and depth of understanding of some basic tenets of life. As a guide, friend and philosopher, Kayvan is one person I will always reach out to when I'm at a crossroad or when I need help in any decision.

As long as I can remember, I always liked very tangible and concrete solutions to solve problems, the simpler the better. What I really liked about this course is that we were provided with easy to put in place solutions to improve our lives and that of others.

This course pushed me to take a break, think about my past, reflect on the positive and challenging moments in my professional and personal life, and I think that I discovered myself more throughout the three days, from one side through the lectures, and from the other side through my colleagues in the breakout rooms.

Kayvan has the rare capability to have an eye for needs of each individual, while at the same time never losing sight of the broader goals of the group. He has enormous leadership capabilities and I feel lucky to have had him as a coach.

I enjoyed the combination of simple made theory with videos, good examples and time for practice & reflection.

I'm feeling energized, thankful, reflective and empowered.

The models and how they can be used in my team were most useful to me.

A million thanks for the best leadership course I ever had in my long life!

Thank YOU! People are still talking about our workshop! This morning they went over the empathy session again!

This program is very unique, and enables people to really change something for themselves, and their personal and business environment.

This forum was well organized, super interesting people, great atmosphere.

Great job facilitating, the tools were great, and the mix of delivery (interactive, informal, videos) made it come to life for me.

These foundational ideas and tools have been guiding me since the completion of the course in priority setting, communication, decisions, and actions.

The concepts covered during our time together were truly inspiring and touched upon subjects I never really took the time to ponder about or to dive deeper into.

These are important lessons that I will take with me through the rest of my life.

What a wise book this is! Each chapter reveals a different lesson. So far, the lesson by Socrates, closely followed by Bruce Lee’s lesson, are my favorites. This is a thought provoking, though easy to read ‘small’ book with ‘big’ life lessons to reflect upon. Thank you Kayvan for giving us another reading gem.

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On the importance of not letting fear keep you stuck doing only what you’re already good at, especially if it doesn’t give you energy.

How Young Leaders Can Develop Their Own Life Philosophies

Exposing yourself to different philosophies allows you to practice various tools and lenses to solve difficult problems…

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Welcome!

Books

What Is Wisdom?: A Collection of Practical Thoughts for Better Decisions in Life

What Is Water?: How Young Leaders Can Thrive in an Uncertain World