On Mother’s Day

Not one for celebrating days, but this is one day that I truly believe should be on every one’s agenda – if not everyday at least today.

What comes to our mind when we think of ‘Mother’? Words care, love, selfless giving, nurturing, protecting, her smile, her patience and so on. All these words that we use to describe our mother if you see is true for those forces that create and protect not only us as individuals, but the whole wide world.

Let us take a look at Mother Earth.  You can see in her the same patience, the care, the selfless giving, her endless forbearance.  Look at Mother Nature. You can see every aspect that you enjoyed in the folds of your mother’s sari, to extend to include you and all other living creatures. Obviously just as your mother would remonstrate you gently when you become self-destructive, these forces also attempt to remind us of the right way to live our lives – that too in our own interests.

The word ‘Mother’ to me represents that force that creates protects and nurtures another life, selflessly. The word ‘Mother’ represents the reason for our life and living. In all humility today, I as a son would want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to all the manifestations of the force called ‘Mother’ – which is the reason for my very existence and sustenance.

Happy Mother’s Day!

World Book and Copyright Day!

Did you celebrate? What did you do? It is increasingly becoming a fun thing to find out what day of the year it is – Dad’s day, Mom’s day, Friend’s day and so on… In similar lines today is World Books Day and also World Copyrights Day (are we combining days because we are running short of them in the calendar?)

Being an author, a voracious reader and an avid collector of books, I was delighted to know that today was an important day for me. Thanks to the papers to let me know that and the Government to put out half page advertisements to highlight the importance of it! But usually if it was any other day I would have found great traffic on twitter or FB to know about it – but understandably it was not so today. Reading habit is on the decline even among students! Surprising but true! While all stakeholders are giving enough excuses why there is justification for such a trend – I beg to strongly differ. It is just that we are not encouraging the young minds to read more. We are allowing them to avoid it by providing alternate quick fixes (Example: Guides / Solved answers, etc) – but this is going to make almost a whole generation graduate with “half knowledge” – who is concerned?

When I work with entrepreneurs and small business owners without exception they have very poor reading habits. Most of them aver books. However everyone of them without fail talk about the super star entrepreneurs of the previous generation and also number of ones from contemporary life – all of whom had found reading as an important skill for not just success in business but also in life at large.

The excuse that I get to hear is that entrepreneurship is all about “doing” and business is about “getting things done in the field”. In both these activities there is no need to read books. Why did so many successful people identify reading as an important activity in their lives and also recommend it to so many others? Because reading widens an individual’s world view, it broadens his / her thinking, and allows liberal thinking to set in. This allows entrepreneurs / business owners and other successful people to seek avenues for inclusive growth (which is rare today!)

Copyrights – less said the better! Ask any artist, be it a writer, singer, musician, painter, etc and all of them detest reproduction especially ones that don’t even respect to acknowledge the original. I have nothing much to say here except the fact that if individuals are not allowed to open their minds towards giving credit to others – we cannot stop plagiarism and IP infringement!

Today being a day to celebrate these two aspects of an artist’s world, I thought I will use this opportunity to share the following two suggestions:

1. Read widely and voraciously – it helps you appreciate life! It enables you open up and grow as an individual.
2. Give credit liberally and openly – try to extend work and take it to the next level after giving the right credit.

If we do the above two, we will be able to collaborate and benefit mutually. Don’t you think?

Be Neutral Not Negative

This week’s discussions are around on the concept of positive thinking.  As I journeyed through the thoughts, numerous questions popped in my mind. And at times they were conflicting and contradicting each other. I have also been privy to numerous responses, opinions and questions from a variety of readers this week. Discussions across various forums till date have raised a strong and loud question whether being neutral or quiet (not positively responding to a situation) can turn a person cynical and negative? A couple of weeks ago in a lunch conversation, I happened to hear very similar thoughts from a senior professor as well. This blog is an attempt to put forth some thoughts in this very direction.

Being neutral does not mean the opposite of being positive. Ideally, the opposite of being positive must be being negative. It is the usual debate of the optimist-pessimist categorization.  Being neutral opens up a third possibility where neither of the options is very obviously practiced.

In a very broad sense, it can be thought of as the middle path proposed by Buddha. Staying neutral requires certain amount of development in the individual before he can put it to practice.  The lack of complete understanding of the state of ‘being neutral’ will lead to it being misconstrued as arrogance, cynicism or indifferent especially by many who observe the behavior.

While the positive and negative thinking schools individually have contextual uses and areas of application, the being neutral school can be used more broadly across all situations and contexts. While the above is true in an absolute sense, being neutral tendency has areas of application where it is relatively more useful– like areas of analysis and decision making. I hope this post adds to the ongoing conversations on attempting to clarify the three approaches to handling situations. While I shall initiate conversation on contextual application of the above three in tomorrow’s blog post, I would love to continue hearing from all of you so that we can keep the thoughts evolving.

Go Ahead Fool Yourself !!

First April every year is celebrated world over as Fool’s Day.  I don’t know the origin of how it came into being, but from my youngest years I can recall this day has been used to fool people.  Children play pranks on each other and loudly declare “APRIL FOOL” and feel victorious at their effort. This joy remains till the act is reversed. Even elders who we can call us grown up children attempt to play pranks on their near and dear ones.  If you are yet to do something like this today, don’t wait – just unleash the child in you and live another moment!

As I saw people play soft pranks at each other, a lot of questions started storming at me. While the attempt to answer questions initially seemed philosophical and sombre, the more I stayed with them the more I started laughing at the answers that were emerging. I shall share my questions, answers and the resultant smiles with you over some other posts. But here I want to share just one thought on how FOOLs day can actually help achieve transformation within us.

I realised today fooling yourself is the easiest way to develop a positive habit.  This thought brought to my mind a book that I had shared with all of you recently – “The Power of Habit”. The author’s description of habit loop on the surface seems so simple that it can get easily rubbished as being silly.  It talks about how by creating a sense of reward, habits can be cultivated. But I understood the power of rewards best today!

What is stopping us from creating a habit around what we always wanted to do – let’s say exercising, studying, reading, walking, dieting etc? Most often it is the lack of conviction on the returns which most often remain elusive and far-fetched. But if we can fool ourselves to believe that with this day’s walk, all the fat accumulated in your arteries will dissolve, with this one piece of writing you can achieve greatness, with this one visit to the gym you can become size zero – you will willingly get onto to the activity. You keep promising yourself that at the end of this day’s practice lies the pot of gold!

Once you finish the activity, you will realise that you will have to do it again the next morning and probably all that will be left at the end of that day is also just an option to make one more attempt. You will be stuck by the stupidity of believing that today would be THE D-day.  But instead of getting cynical – go ahead and laugh at yourself for being gullible.  So tell yourself, fool yourself that result is there waiting for you at the end of this one attempt – and when you don’t get it; just wish yourself “Happy April Fool!” and repeat this all over the next day.

The funniest thing will be as you fool yourself into action repeatedly, the result will start blossoming. And when you experience the results – you don’t have to fool yourself anymore. The hope that the habit may do you good is changes to conviction. I have wished myself Fool’s Day today and I truly hope every one of you will do!

The Rot Of Routine

Yesterday, in my blog post I had recounted a recent experience of mine and shared thoughts around it. I’m sure many times in life, we have been like that group of young adults flying for the first time.  With every ‘First’ experience, we have had the exhilarating feeling of ‘Thrill of First’. If we would look back we can recount the first time we held a desired gadget, first time we drove a bike, first time we fell in love, first time we were offered a hand of friendship, first time we started up our business – each of these first time(s) have been truly unique.

But over time the sheen of the ‘first-ness’ fades.  In life, the rate of dissipation of the excitement is exponential. What appeared as life consuming passion begins to look more and more like – just another job. What seemed to start as a relationship that holds the key to our happiness turns out to be an obligation, an act of duty. What seemed to delight us at every turn seems to irritate us now by its sheer predictability.

When this happens, there are two routes that we all take – be it our personal and professional life.

When the ‘Thrill of First’ is all gone, what is left behind is a transaction of mere utilitarian value.  By trying to put a system around many of our habits, we begin to fill our days with predictable routines.  While initially it does seem to increase efficiency; over time our ability to get surprised ebbs away. Life in short moves from an adventure to a planned tour to just the same place over and over again.

The second approach few of us take, is seeking newer avenues to excite us. As we master one aspect, get comfortable and make it a routine, our mind instantly reaches out to something fresh that will give us the ‘Thrill of First’.  To avoid the pitfall of falling into a predicable aka boring life, we become restless in seeking fresh avenues of experience. This makes us to constantly move between options and choices. This constant moving does not allow us to leverage any aspect/opportunity to its fullest. Before we can establish ourselves in something, we have spotted something better. We are constantly running.

If we sit and examine our decisions at both the professional and personal fronts, we can see many points at which we have taken one of the following routes to combat what I refer to as ‘The Rot of Routine’

How can this be avoided? Can this be avoided at all?

From where can we get ideas for this? Is the bigger picture of our universe giving us some clues? More on this in the coming days….

Keep thinking… And reading!

The Thrill Of First

Last week I witnessed during my flight from Ahmadabad, what I have begun to term as ‘The Thrill of First’.

There was a group of young adults who boarded the flight at Ahmadabad along with me. Being one of the few early people to check-in I had the opportunity to observe this group right from the time they entered the airport, till the end of the journey.  For most of the seasoned travellers; a 5:00 am flight is a price that you pay to maximise your day, a necessary evil of having to get up at an unearthly hour so that the remaining day is productive. But this group seemed oblivious to any such discomfort.

Everything excited them – the line at the counter, the plastic wrapping of the baggage, the questions at the check-in counter, the security check and even the wait for the aircraft.  They had to inspect everything, pass opinions loudly for everyone’s benefit and chatter incessantly. On the flight, the steward had a tough time of reigning in the enthusiasm.  Right from not taking their seats, fighting for the window seat, ordering water during take-off, not fastening their seat-belts, paging the air-hostess continuously, insisting to gather into a single group to chatter loudly through the nearly 3 hour flight – one ought to agree they did seem to be source of mild irritation to all other passengers and in-flight team.

As I waited to collect my baggage one of them walked upto me, shook my hands and said ‘It was really nice travelling with you. Have a great day!’ . And all I could recollect was the fact that I helped them with some minor details at the airport and for no particular reason was awarded a seat which was next to their centre of activities. As I saw them leave the Chennai airport with the same unbridled enthusiasm even after the three hour flight – I felt that if anyone had a great morning that day – it was them!

‘The Thrill of First’- had provided a freshness to every point of their experience.

‘The Thrill of First’ – had made them embrace the mild remonstration of the stewardess, the glares of the co-passengers, the smile of a child, the spotting of the clouds all equally amazing and fun.

‘The Thrill of First’  – had led them to shed their inhibitions, adopt a curious attitude, gave them the joy of discovery and made every aspect however small or big an equally beautiful one.

As I collected my bags and pushed my trolley out – I felt refreshed and touched in some way by this freshness, by this ‘Thrill of First!’

Did this travel have a more poignant message for me in life and business? I am sure it does. though I am not sure of what. But I intend to find out. I hope to share them with you as they develop and crystallise in the coming days..

Have a great week!

What Is your Managerial Style?

Very often a Manager is faced with a situation of managing team performance to match the deadline pressures. They know their team is very hard working and committed. If it was within their perceptible limit they would get things done. But then comes along a situation where the team has to deliver just that little more than what they think is their combined potential. Now getting that extra bit of work done, calls for some new rules and ingenuity from both the Manager and his team. When they achieve this together a new performance bench mark gets set – and the team emerges truly a winner. But then while all of us as Managers realize this – how do we actually go about handling this situation, where you need to get your team to perform more than what they believe they can?

A common technique used by most of the managers is what we call as ‘You Just Do – I will take care’ approach. In this approach the Manager goads the team into first accepting the challenge and getting commitments against what seems almost impossible deadlines. He leads the team from front, constantly beating the drum and taking care of all aspects of the team comfort from food, to music at work, to pat on the back and motivational speeches. The team under his tight supervision and cajoling very often performs. At the end of the day there is the sense of sweet victory alongwith pleasant fatigue. The victory in this gets attributed first to the Managerial capability and then the team!

A more rare technique is what very few managers dare to practice. This is what we call ‘I will take care – You Just Do’ approach. In this approach the Manager first draws out with the team what is possible by their standards of achievement. Then by the method of challenge identification and resolution, works on removing all possible blocks that the team visualizes as reasons that stop them from giving more. For example commuting pressures, personal commitments, home cooked food etc. After addressing all these issues the Manager now leaves the team with the choice to use the time released to constructive use.

Now in this approach the Manager is not drawing the schedule. He is only making arrangements for the team to first work to 100% potential and then explore how much more each of them can contribute. All the time he continues to emphasize the importance for the organization to meet the deadline. Automatically this puts the onus of meeting the delivery on the team’s shoulder. With obstacle removed, they can decide how best to invest the new found time. It is now upto them to configure their routine so that they can give more to the project under consideration. The driver here is no more the manager but the team. And the success is first now attributed to the team which acknowledges inturn the Manager. The success when it comes is still as sweet, the team as strained but definitely less fatigued.

The reason why most Managers choose the first path is because in this situation they are in complete control. When it comes to delivery pressures, many of us prefer to have the person we trust in the driving seat – and who better than our own self to play that role? The second approach also requires a highly mature and committed team, which understands, appreciates and acknowledge the choice that the Manager had in choosing the approaches.

While the first approach is known to yield a greater % of results, it is the second approach that actually goes to build a team. And as Managers we all know nothing is the last war – once you have a winning team, you have won them all!

Is working from home really working?

Everything comes a full circle. A generation earlier – mark of manhood was in the head of the family going everyday for work. If the working place is a bank or a government office that much better. The leather bag in a man’s hand was the proof that he was working hard. This all changed when the era of working from home dawned on us.  With corporate encouraging this habit in an attempt to lower their overhead costs and to increase effectiveness of employees, this became a new trend. Many employees however today do feel, working from home is far from a dream. From a fixed work hour it has shifted to a 24*7 demanding routine.

Today we seem to have come a complete circle. Proof for this can be seen in Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer’s announcement http://bit.ly/15gjHVQ

Though there has been a heavy debate over the reasons behind this announcement, the key official reason that is being given is working in isolation is inhibiting creative capability of workforce. Yahoo fears working alone is not effective as it does not permit building of close knit teams. Something that has been considered a fundamental success factor in highly innovative environments.

We are too early in this arc of the circle to pass any judgement. There is still a lot of arguments for and against the practice of working from home.  Here is my take:

The whole idea of working in itself is a social activity. One creates a little network around themselves. This becomes an alternate circle of comfort. With the advent of internet and technology reducing the distance, it became easier for us to expand the boundaries of our workspace to our living room. What started as a sensitive allowance for special needs of employees, has now become an alternative work culture.

Working from office is a good way to meet others, stay updated, create a social network. In today’s gadget driven lifestyle it would be nice if people can get together to interact with each other face to face. The issues of travel time, overheads and infrastructure challenges are those that are real. But these need to be navigated intelligently not avoided. While I welcome working from home as a great HR practice, making it a norm and way of work life is not a healthy habit for either the employees or the company!

More thoughts on this as the debate continues…

Budget 2013: CSR and Incubation

You cannot miss the constant buzz around entrepreneurship in our country. There is a rush towards understanding it better, encouraging it, providing for and protecting it.

Incubation as a method is fast gaining ground in this context. Providing for a protective environment where aspiring entrepreneurs are given support and encouragement to experiment and try out their ideas is a primary responsibility of an incubator.  Government and its various ministries are constantly looking for solutions, schemes and policy to make incubation in our country effective.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a way by which firms give back to the society. A laudable mandate is emerging in the manner in which leading corporate are designing and executing their CSR initiatives.

While we may have many points in this budget that we can discuss, debate, predict, gamble on impact – there is one point on which most pundits seem to concur on as being positive in  policy making.

“On-campus incubators that provide money and mentoring to early stage companies will also have a new source of capital. The mandatory spend of 2 per cent of profits by companies in corporate social responsibility initiatives can now be routed to incubators – In a bid to seed innovation at the early stage” – ‘The Economic Times’

Sharing a % of profit with society is a good act. The government’s effort in providing some direction and channelizing it towards incubation is a positive policy decision.

In a recent conference on technology business incubation, there was a lot of discussion around industry—academia participation and access to capital. So there is little surprise on the positive response this point is receiving. I also agree and welcome this government mandate at the level of policy. However it did bring to my mind some questions on the implementation front:

• A key concern that I have heard from many incubators is the lack of quality of ideas and quantity of people approaching them for help.
• Very many times we have also heard personnel from the MSME ministry, DST and the rest talk about unutilized funds that are available to the colleges for providing support to innovative ideas.
• For existing incubatees, scaling out of the incubation fold is a major concern. They are unable to move from the protected environment of their incubation centres to the harsh competitive environment of real-time markets.
• A majority of our incubation centres are geared towards technology based products and services.  Should we be looking at developing incubation centres for non-technology based start-up ideas?

The intent of this writing is neither to doubt the intent of this policy nor poke holes in its implementation.  As a person deeply concerned and interested in the entrepreneurial ecosystem this just brought to the forefront some challenges we have right now on the ground.  If we fail to address these issues, this policy will fail to deliver its intended benefits!

Lofty Resolutions And The Smaller Resolve!

Its another first day of another new year. Time for a fresh set of resolutions and goal setting. While setting goals that too ambitious ones are important, what makes the real difference are the concrete steps that one takes towards them.

More important than having a list of lofty goals on the first day of the new year, is the small step that we take towards them. The best goal is one where the destination gets defined along with the determination that everyday we will take one step towards achieving it. No mountain was climbed through inconsistent leaps. They were all scaled by taking consistent steps throughout the climb. This resolve to keep moving forward each day is what makes a resolution of ours a reality. The resolve to plough through with a little action every day, towards the pre-set goal is the proven way to realizing results.

So here’s wishing all of you a great 2013 filled with lofty resolutions and the smaller resolve to act on them everyday!