'MasterClass' at NIFL 2011

Dear Reader,

So, I've not been blogging for the last couple of weeks and hence I did catch up on my work that's been overdue and crying for some attention. I was privileged to do some research on the NIFL (NASSCOM India Leadership Forum) that was executed in the month of Feb 2011 for one of my projects and hence thought of sharing some of my knowledge and thoughts with you.

While I was burning the midnight oil, I landed up on this blogpost authored by Sudha Kumar, CEO and Co-founder, Prayag Consulting. I loved this discussion that was part of Day 1 of the Summit where the Grand Master did draw parallels between competitive strategy in business and the game of chess. I had never imagined the Grand Master to be someone with oratorical capabilities or brilliance. Anyway, to assimilate the discussion in Sudha's words -

Each competitor is different and so is each competitive face-off:
The takeaway from this is that you, as an individual or business, are always caught unaware in certain situations because no two circumstances are similar. Your ability to take risks, adapt and respond in the situation is what determines how successful you are going to be.

I personally think that this applies not just in competition but also in customer service. It is important to treat every customer differently since the needs are so distinct, isn't it? That's what brings in customer delight.

Failure teaches you more than success:
For this statement to hold true, you need to have two abilities, the ability to retrospect and the ability to learn. Failure could only teach you something when you acknowledge it to be a failure to begin with and then retrospect. Once you know what went wrong you will, in most probably cases, know what needs change. Bringing the change then is improvement.

Isn't there a saying that goes, "To be successful, double your failure"?

Preparation is the key:
Chess is really hand in glove with strategy. So I'm not surprised that Anand mentioned preparation being the key. Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of chess positions, setting up goals and long-term plans for future play. All of these hold true in business as well. As a business that wants to succeed, it needs to look at it's competitors, bench-mark their positions and strategize goals.

 

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Valentine's Special

Dear Reader,

Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentine's day has just gone by. As an afterthought, here's a post above love. So, did you tell someone in your life that you love them on the 14th? Often in the grind of our lives we forget to tell our loved ones that we love them. We wait for occasions like these. I think it is because we assume that they know.

Why don't we express love more readily? I read somewhere very recently that emotions are not a part of our conscious thoughts. Human beings are inherently selfish and hence we don't spend too much time thinking about how much we love our spouse, parents, siblings, kids, friends, etc.

Let's change that for a moment, now. Let's think about how much these relationships, these people mean to us. And let's take a few minutes out of our busy schedules to tell them that. Let's profess our love on the 364 days as well. Little actions of love goes a long way in nurturing a relationship.

I know of a friend whose husband offers her a foot massage when he knows she has had a tough day at work. Now, isn't that love? One of my colleagues made personalized notes for everyone in her team. The note says something that will cheer them up every morning. Guess what, most of them left the notes on their desks until they faded, curled up and fell off. Some of them are still there.

This tells me that words make a difference. They are powerful. So may be, you want to write a love note for your loved one. May be, that'll be the greatest gift cherished forever. I know I do!!

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Prayers will be answered

Dear Reader,

It was just another Thursday morning today, until the call came. The call that brought the news that I wasn't prepared to hear, the call that shell-shocked me out of my reality, the call that informed me of my friend falling prey to a stroke.

I've read some news about someone having a stroke in their 30s, it happened to my friend last night. So I hurry to the Holy Spirits Hospital battling Mumbai traffic to be there for the family when they need me the most, to be their strength. Thoughts sprint in my mind and my heart prays for his well-being. I reach the hospital faster than I thought, may be because I was slower in my mind. ICU, I need to find it. An arrow on the signboard asks me to take the stairs to the first floor. I can see his family outside the ICU, completely stressed out and tired. God, give em strength!! While I am with his wife, talking to her about the previous evening, I see one of my colleagues walk down the corridor with a bag full of medicines. He hands them over to her and smiles at me. God, bless his soul!!

After waiting for an hour, I finally see my friend. I'm at a loss of words to articulate what I felt at that moment. With mindful of questions and heart filled with prayers, I stand still. Not knowing what to say, I stand still. After a few minutes, I manage to ask the doctors about his condition. They tell me that he has a clot in his brain. His condition is stable and we are waiting for the neuro-physicist. I see him restless, moving his limbs, opening his eyes and shaking his head. In a way, I'm happy that none of his limbs are paralyzed. I walk out feeling week and helpless. God, make him better!!

Suddenly, life seems so impermanent!! Although Vedanta has been trying to preach this for many many years now, we seem to be convinced that life is fulfilling with materialistic achievements. Instances like these snap us out. While I dwell on that thought, let all your good wishes pour forth for my friend's well-being.

Pray for him!! Pray with all your heart and soul!!

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Miyamoto's fish

Dear Reader,

I read this article in the NewYorker today about Miyamoto.

There's this quote about Miyamoto's childhood.

____________________________________________________________________

“I can still recall the kind of sensation I had when I was in a small river, and I was searching with my hands beneath a rock, and something hit my finger, and I noticed it was a fish. That’s something that I just can’t express in words. It’s such an unusual situation. I wish that children nowadays could have similar experiences, but it’s not very easy.”
____________________________________________________________________

I think Miyamoto's lament holds true, not just for the Gen Y children, but for all of us. May be, these experiences are what made Miyamoto a successful video game designer. How do we recapture the 'wonder element' that is so missing in our everyday lives? The answer cannot be as simple as escaping from the urban grind and returning to the tranquility of nature. There has to be something more.

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Till Individuality Parts Us Apart

Dear Reader,

I came across this article today while browsing and thought of ruminating on it through this post. (Stop. Go read the article and come back to me.)

Now that you've read the article, you can relate to me better. Well, do you not think that we are obsessing over individuality and space a little too much now-a-days that I'm compelled to call these over-rated words? Weren't we taught in schools that sharing is good and especially with the one that you love? Love is defined as " A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person" by www.thefreedictionary.com. Then why in the name of Lord Jesus Christ are we trying to veil some parts of our lives with the one we love?

Doesn't it strike as odd? In the pretense of having space, are we not estranging the person from selective parts of our lives? As human beings, we have this innate fear of being judged and rejected. We seek approvals of our actions, our thoughts and our personality at all points of time. So, are we afraid that not all parts of our lives will be accepted 'as is' by the loved one and hence we end up creating space?

I'm a firm believer that you need to feel as "one" with the person you are in love. Two people, as individuals, need to feel as "one" to make a relationship. Harping over individuality and space only deters this feeling. There are places where we need to establish our individuality and love isn't in the list. What do you think?

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Evil of all Evils

Dear Reader,

I'm sure you've heard of the Pandora's box. According to Greek mythology, Pandora had a jar that was not supposed to be opened under any circumstances. Like it is in all stories, Pandora's curiosity got the better of her and she did open the jar and released myriad evils that haunt the world today - hate, ignorance, sorrow, envy, death, hunger, sadness and a lot more. She hurried to close the lid and the only thing that was trapped inside, since it was at the bottom, was 'hope'.

The evil of all evils - Hope. Something to hope for, isn't that our life? We hope for a better day tomorrow, hope for a better life, hope to achieve our dreams, hope to find happiness. Hope fights for you when the going gets tougher and consoles you when your eyes glisten with tears.

And as you cry, "Impossible", Hope gives you a way.

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Objective Setting

Dear Reader,

It's been a couple of weeks or so that I started writing my blog. What have I shared with you, well some random rambling, to be precise. Since that is the only achievement so far, I thought of sharing some views on setting objectives in training. "Why training?", if that's what you are wondering, then let me tell you - because that is what I have done through out my professional career and am under the misconception that training is my forte.

Anyway, if you are aspiring to be a trainer and take up any course related to training, you'll hear this "It is imperative to set objectives before every training program". No one bothers to tell you why and how. Well, here's the reason why. Have you ever attended a training program for a couple of days and were handed over the feedback form or "happy form" as they are called that had a question "How have you benefited from this program"? And you sat there, for what seemed to be eternity, thinking what should you put in there? That tells you that the trainer did you set the objectives well during the course.

Every student will embark upon any course with various aspirations and hopes. It is the trainer who translates those aspirations to objectives. It is one of the important parts of training, especially if it is a behavioural / skill training. So what's the way to set objectives? I'm going to suggest the usage of the SMART model here, something that is used for goal-setting. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Time-bound. So all the statements that the trainer puts down as objective should have all these characteristics.

Let's take an example... Hmmmm... Stress management class!!

"At the end of this 2 hour session, participants will be able to identify the two types of stress and their effects on human behaviour through the activities"

Specific - two types of stress and effects
Measurable - there are two things that are getting covered
Achievable - You need to be able to answer the question "is 2 hours good enough to cover the topic?" (you need to use your judgement with this, since you don't want a session that is either information overload or one without a value-add for the participants)
Realistic - you need to consider if you'll be able to cover those two aspects in detail, considering that there may be questions / discussions around them, in 2 hours
Time-bound - 2 hours or end of the session

Each objective that you write down as a trainer needs to be put through those filters. You could choose to have multiple objectives for a session or a program. If you do this exercise, it'll help you to focus your activities during the session to achieve those objectives and the participants will know what they are about to learn during the program as well.

Share your thoughts on this. Is there any other model / method that you use for setting objectives in your training program?

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Tribute to Music

Dear Reader,

"Markers on a journey
Soundtrack to a life
Snippets of sound
that echo a memory

Where words fail,
music speaks.
When God falls silent
music heals."

Today I heard "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong. It did bring back childhood memories for me because that's when I heard it for the 1st time. This song is really memorable cos Louis sang it around the Vietnamese war.

So folks, don't give up music ever in your life!! Keep ear-marking your precious moments with music.

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Articulation

Dear Reader,

A friend of mine once told me that I use this word atleast 5 times during the day. That makes it 35 times a week!! Ironically, I've been having trouble to be able to articulate my thoughts in the last two days. You would've guessed that from the date of my last post.

So why is articulation so dear to me? Apart from the fact that you are communicating your thoughts to another person, show your perspective, it also does provide some clarity to your own self. Don't you agree? When you put your thoughts, feelings in words, you give it a logical sequence. You get into the details and that provides you the clarity. So sometimes when you are not clear of what is it that you are feeling exactly, it helps to talk to someone who could listen to you. And at the end of the 'talking session', you feel better!! It is not the listener who actually gave you solutions, it's the process of articulation that did.


I recently read an article, "It's all about Perspective", that said how important it is to be able to focus on details while you write, to describe your characters, to provide their point of view and to be able to get the reader relate to them.
It inspired me to go on and write this post!!

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Irreplaceable Vs Indispensable

Dear Reader,

Today has been a very eventful day for me at work. Expecting to be hit and hit by the unexpected, I've had a pre-occupied mind with emotions hitting the highs and the lows.

In the course of the day, a wise man told me, "I don't believe that people are indispensable, however some are irreplaceable."

Do you agree with this statement? What makes one irreplaceable at work? Doesn't being irreplaceable make someone indispensable?

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