In a personal tone

Just a moment for something personal. Those who follow me will attest that it's been a while since my last post. That's true; the reality is that writing hasn't come easily to me in the past year. I felt I needed to understand what is happening to us, to try to establish internal insights first. We have been living in a turbulent time for quite a while. It’s a period where our fundamental assumptions have been challenged and reexamined. Beliefs, social perceptions, personal security, our hopes for ourselves and our loved ones, and the certainty about the beauty of the world we live in have all been shaken. Our identity as Israelis has been reexamined. Some would say that core values have been renewed, updated, or chosen anew. Alongside all this, we are witnessing a renewed social resurgence within us and expressions of immense strengths present in each and every one of us, in our ability to express solidarity, mutual responsibility, and mobilization for the forces of light. This is a strengthening testimony that comes from all age groups, raising hope and emphasizing that despite the arduous journey we are on, we will reach our destination and will live in a sane, democratic, and safe country and society for us and our children.

Following my studies in psychology at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and my research in the field of "willful ignorance," I decided to dedicate the upcoming chapters to this topic. I see a unique opportunity to bring a multidisciplinary perspective that combines pure high-tech with the world of psychology. The chapters I will present have a direct connection to the coaching process, and their content is based, among other things, on hundreds of hours of coaching I've conducted with employees, executives, and managers in high-tech. These hours exposed me to the challenges of the role and the strong desire of coachees to maintain continuous personal development. None of them chose to be "willfully ignorant," but some displayed signs of such behavior and dealt with it accordingly.

Here's the translation:

In the past, I published a short post on the topic, and recently I shared it in product management groups. The connection of "willful ignorance" to the management challenges faced by CEOs, VPs, team leads, and managers (in short – to the profession of management), as well as to interpersonal interactions and the field of product management, seems both appropriate and necessary. Therefore, I chose to use the world of product management as a platform for this connection and an opportunity to illustrate various situations through it. I will strive to continue providing examples from the coaching world to link theory to practice.

Sometimes we ask for pain relief quickly, like "Just explain the phenomenon to me, tell me what I have, and tell me what to do." I chose to present the research and experience a bit differently—in this series, I intend to start with defining the topic and the context, describing the challenges faced by managers and product managers in this regard, outlining phenomena in the field, explaining psychological aspects, and describing tools for dealing with instances of willful ignorance.

It's challenging to outline the scope of the field in short posts, but providing a taste is a worthy and achievable goal. Moreover, I would be happy if these posts spark your curiosity and prompt you to want to learn more. You are always welcome to write to me or invite me for a deep and meaningful conversation. I hope you enjoy the series, and feel free to respond and enrich the content with your personal experiences. It would be great if you could share with others in the comments, and let's use this platform for further learning.

It's good to return to writing, may we only know calm and good days. May we continue to swim upstream.