Not Being: The Art of Self-Transformation

For too long, we have bought into the myth of separation: the story that we each win or lose through the relentless pursuit of self-improvement, achieving personal and organizational goals and increasing consumerism. This has led us to being more lonely, exhausted, and disconnected than ever, with a devastating impact on our ‘personal’ lives, families, communities, organizations and the planet. Not Being invites us to be curious about a different way of life. It argues that beyond our actions and thinking, it is our very identities that need to transform. To be successful and thrive in this increasingly precarious, polarised, and interconnected world, we all need to become a bigger and bolder vision of who we are. Through a range of inspirational stories from people in many different walks of life, Not Being is the essential guide to a more dynamic, meaningful, and rewarding way of life. It completes the trilogy of Not Knowing and Not Doing by closing the gap on what we need to know, do and be.

About the Author

Steven D’Souza is an international educator with experience in the fields of HR, leadership and talent management, diversity and organisational development. He has trained in Gestalt psychology for groups and individuals, ontological coaching and is an experienced executive coach, working frequently with senior teams including at the CEO level.

He is a sought after speaker in many global companies and some of his clients included firms such as Accenture, AMEX, BT, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Eurostar, Goldman Sachs, Financial Times and PwC. He has also delivered workshops or talks for the United Nations ILO, On Purpose, the Hub Connections, TEDx and the Windsor Fellowship among several other social enterprises and government organisations. He has spoken in places as diverse as Tbilisi, Bucharest, Shanghai and Sofia.

Steven has held several roles, from training as a priest, to working in a start-up, an SME, an NGO, to top-tier banking firms.

He has had a portfolio career including being an Associate Professor at IE Business School and former Executive Fellow, Programme Orchestrator for their Global Executive MBA and IE Chicago Booth Global Senior Management Programme. IE is ranked as the #1 Business School in Europe (Financial Times 2013). He is also an educator for Duke Corporate Education (ranked #1 by the Financial Times for Custom Executive Education for the last 11 years) and he helped design, and serves as a faculty member, of the Barclay’s Leadership Academy. He has been a visiting lecturer on several programmes including at London Business School’s EMBA, the Masters in Organisations and Governance at the London School of Economics, and the IE Brown Executive MBA. Steven was also an Associate Fellow at Said Business School, University of Oxford and a Consultant and Coach at INSEAD.

Steven has a BA (Hons) in Theology, Philosophy, Religious Studies with History and an MSc in Organisational Consulting from Ashridge Business School. He has also has studied Adaptive Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, Appreciative Inquiry with its founders David Cooperider and Ron Fry at Case Western Reserve University and Theory U with Otto Scharmer from MIT. He holds a PG Dip in Gestalt applied to groups and individuals.

Steven is the author of five books. Two bestselling books on Diversity and Networking, published by Prentice Hall. His first book co-authored with Patrick Clarke, ‘Made in Britain’ featured role models from diverse communities in the UK and was sponsored free for schools. It was personally presented to HRH Prince Charles. His second book ‘Brilliant Networking’ is translated into several languages and was featured by the Independent in their ‘Success at Work’ series. His third book co-authored with Diana Renner, ‘Not Knowing’ by LID Publishing won the CMI Management Book of the Year prize. He has also co-authored Not Doing 'The Art of Effortless Action' and Not Being 'The Art of Self- Transformation'.

Steven has been featured in national and international media. He served as the Ambassador for the Australian Institute of Management in 2013 and in the past has been a Co-Chair of MERLIN (Business in the Community) and a Governor of the City of Westminster College.

Steven currently lives in London. He enjoys table tennis, being in nature, coffee and conversation, and exploring the relationships between psychology, philosophy, leadership, management and spirituality alongside social justice. His latest project is bringing ‘Contemplative Leadership’ into business education.

KHUYEN BUI is an author, speaker and sought-after facilitator who work with purposeful, impact-driven leaders and their organizations to help them transition into the next stage of their development (which is not necessarily bigger & faster but always WISER, KINDER and also more EFFECTIVE).

Graduated cum laude from Tufts University, where he studied Computer Science and Philosophy, he thrives on bringing analytical rigor into his inquiries of human messiness. Currently, he is doing his PhD in Management at City, University of London, Bayes Business School, researching founder’s identity change and emergent organizing.

Khuyen enjoys writing and storytelling and has won several awards, notably the Peter Drucker Challenge Essay Award and The Moth Boston StorySLAM Award. He is also a passionate Contact Improvisation dance practitioner and has been teaching in various places in Southeast Asia since 2018.

His eyes lit up upon beautiful questions. Find examples in his TEDx talk here https://www.ted.com/talks/bui_khuyen_questions_to_live_by

Contact him at www.khuyenbui.com.