Month: July 2026

Your ears hear the noise. Your intuition hears the truth

 

The most dangerous phrase in business isn’t ‘We failed.’ It’s ‘I didn’t see that coming.’ Read the silence.

 

The Unspoken Symphony

 

We are drowning in noise. Our inboxes are battlefields, our calendars are prisons of back-to-back Zoom calls, and our Slack( or whatever intra organisation communication you use) channels are a constant hum of performative busyness.

 

Yet, in this cacophony of “Let’s circle back” and “Per my last email,” we are starving for connection.

 

Peter Drucker, the sage of management, said something that will happily trespass into most of our professional conscience: “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”

 

Food For Torque

 

If you are only listening to the words, you are managing at 50% capacity. The other 50%? It is in the pause, the tremor in the voice, the furrowed brow during a pitch, or the sudden silence when you ask, “Any questions?“

 

Consider the “Airline Pilot” Principle

 

Let’s look at the unusual. When a plane is in crisis, the pilot doesn’t just listen to the control tower’s instructions; they listen to the engine’s hum. A slight variance in pitch tells them more about a mechanical failure than any dashboard light could. Or consider a master sommelier; they don’t just taste the wine; they listen to the “pop” of the cork. A dull thud tells them the wine is corked before it even hits the glass.

 

In business, we are often too busy planning our reply to notice the emotional subtext.

 

Why is it that the most charismatic leaders often speak the least? Because they have realized that silence is not an absence of content; it is a presence of meaning.

 

Throwing Some Inspiration(Hopefully)Your Way

 

The 5-Second Rule: When someone finishes speaking, count to five before you respond. Let the silence land. You will be shocked at what they fill that space with—often the very truth they were hiding behind corporate jargon.

Watch the Eyes, Not the Deck: In your next presentation, ignore the PowerPoint. Watch the micro-expressions of your audience. Is that “interested” nod actually a “confused” tilt? Adjust accordingly.

The “Emotional P&L”: Just as you track revenue, track the emotional temperature of your team. Are they quiet because they are peaceful, or because they are disengaged?

 

Remember, trust is not built on what we say; it is built on what we notice. When you acknowledge the unspoken fear in a junior team member’s hesitation, or the unspoken weariness in a partner’s sigh, you move from being a colleague to being a confidant.

 

The greatest communicators are not the great orators; they are the great listeners of what remains unarticulated.

 

A Call to Action

 

This week, may I dare you to listen more than you talk. And when you do talk, speak to what you see, not just what you hear.

 

Yours in provocation,

Suresh Dinakaran

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below

Where You Are From Is Who You Are

 

How Brands Borrow From Places And Places Borrow Right Back

 

A brand’s passport matters more than you think.

 

Where a brand is born shapes how it walks, talks, and sells — long after it’s gone global. Heritage isn’t a footnote. It’s the whole plot.

 

This BrandKnew piece unpacks why origin isn’t just a “Made in” label — it’s identity, equity, and story, baked in from day one.

 

Where you’re from is who you are.

 

Every great brand has an accent.

 

You can hear it in how it speaks, see it in how it shows up, feel it in what it stands for. That’s origin doing its quiet, powerful work.

 

BrandKnew’s latest explores why domicile isn’t geography — it’s DNA. And why the brands that own their roots are the ones that grow tallest.

 

Where you’re from is who you are. Brands included.

 

More to read on in BrandKnew .

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Not every ending needs an ending

 

What if the most profound thing you can leave behind isn’t a mark—but an absence?

 

Mikko Harvey whispers: “Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it.”

 

We spend our lives clinging to people, places, and identities as if they were lifelines. We believe if we let go—even a little—the thread will snap. So we hold tight. We suffocate the very thing we love. But Harvey’s line is a gentle, devastating nudge: What if you left a part of yourself behind on purpose? Not out of carelessness, but out of trust.

Think about it. A scarf is intimate. It carries your warmth, your scent, your comfort. To “forget” it in another’s life is to say, I trust you to keep my warmth safe. To “come back later” is to say, I believe this connection can survive the distance.

 

The Reason We Never Say Goodbye Properly

 

Some people you meet, and something happens.

 

Not romance. Not friendship. Something smaller — and stranger. A five-minute conversation that refuses to end when the conversation ends.

 

Mikko Harvey knew this. So he wrote a line disguised as nothing — a scarf, forgotten on purpose — and hid inside it the oldest human wish: let there be a reason to come back.

 

We do this constantly. We just don’t call it poetry.

 

The book we lend and never chase down. The playlist we send “for later.” The “let’s continue this sometime” we half-mean and half-hope for. We are all scattering scarves — small, deliberate forgettings — across the lives of people we aren’t ready to lose.

 

Because endings are unbearable. But unfinished — unfinished is alive.

 

Here’s the provocation

 

What if you stopped trying to make every goodbye complete?

 

What if, instead, you left something behind on purpose — a question unanswered, a thought half-said, a door not quite shut? Not because you’re avoiding closure. Because you’re choosing continuation.

 

The people who matter don’t need a perfect ending. They need an open loop.

 

So the next time you leave a room, a relationship, a city, a version of yourself —

 

Don’t tie the bow. Leave the scarf.

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Great brands don’t happen. They accumulate meaning

 

Bet you didn’t know THIS about Ray-Ban!

 

How does a 1937 aviator brand stay culturally relevant in 2026? These trivia bits in the video shared here hold the answer.

 

Ray-Ban is proof.

 

From military gear to a $150B fashion empire — Ray-Ban’s origin story is a masterclass in reinvention.

 

From war zones to red carpets — the wildest journey of your favorite sunglasses brand!

 

Here’s to wearing a new lens to look at brand Ray-Ban!

 

This one fact about Ray-Ban will make you look at your sunglasses differently. Watch now!

 

Check the video here https://thesaurustristis141219.substack.com/p/great-brands-dont-happen-they-accumulate

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Have You Made Your 60-Second Commercial?

 

Picture this.

 

Before the world sees you, a commercial plays.

 

Not on television.
Not on YouTube.
Not on Instagram.

 

Inside your own head.

 

Every.
Single.
Day.

 

Sixty seconds. On repeat.

 

The question isn’t whether you’re running one.

 

It’s this: Who wrote the script?

 

Most people unknowingly air the same advertisement every morning.

 

“I’m not ready.”
“I’m too old.”
“Someone else is better.”
“This isn’t for people like me.”

 

Run that commercial long enough, and your life quietly becomes its most loyal customer.

 

Truth be told

 

Your brain doesn’t distinguish between a script and a sentence. It just executes.

Consider Wilma Rudolph. Polio at four. Doctors said she’d never walk. Her mother’s daily commercial to her: “You will walk, and then you will run.” Not hope. Not wishing. A script, repeated until belief. Rudolph didn’t just walk. She ran — straight into three Olympic golds.

Or take the Japanese rice-farmer study where researchers labelled identical jars “Thank You” and “You Fool,” spoke to them daily for a month. The insulted rice rotted faster. If words can shift mold on grain, imagine what your inner monologue does to sixty trillion cells listening every single day.

 

Stating the obvious

 

You are not lazy. You are not stuck. You are simply airing reruns.

 

Permit me a bit of provocation: what if you treated yourself like a brand about to launch? Brands don’t stumble into greatness with vague slogans. They obsess over every word, because they know perception becomes reality, and reality becomes results.

 

Your 60-second commercial isn’t motivational fluff. It’s the operating system your entire day runs on. Write it wrong, and you spend your life debugging a broken program. Write it right, and you become unstoppable — not because life got easier, but because you got louder than your doubts.

Elite athletes don’t just train muscles. They rehearse victories. Great founders don’t merely build companies. They build beliefs before they build balance sheets. Extraordinary creators don’t wait for confidence. They broadcast possibility until confidence catches up.

 

Your internal commercial becomes your external reality.

 

Think about it.

 

Before every iconic brand convinced the world, it first had to convince itself.

 

So did every visionary. So will you.

 

What if your commercial sounded different?

 

“I’m becoming impossible to ignore.”
“Every setback is rehearsal.”
“I create value wherever I go.”
“The future is already looking for someone exactly like me.”

 

The remarkable thing about the human mind is this: It cannot tell the difference between a script you’ve inherited and one you’ve consciously choose to produce.

 

Which means you are not just the audience.

 

You’re the writer.
The director.
The producer.
And the broadcaster.

 

Food for torque

 

Stop doom-scrolling your own doubts.

 

Tomorrow morning, before you open your email, your news feed, or your calendar…Ask yourself one uncomfortable question: What is the 60-second commercial I’m about to air for the rest of my life?

 

Because sooner or later…The world buys the story you’ve already sold yourself.

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below: