Different Perspective

I have seen very few people who can logically think for both sides of the table.. Most people when they have power are more inclined to display/show/use the superiority than thinking about the person at the other end of the table. However, history and time have shown that tables do turn, nothing is constant. Those who did not think about others when in power, do not have anybody besides them when they loose it. Such people can be found more often cursing how the entire world has become selfish and is acting against them. An example of tables turning which i find funny is that the Britishers introduced Tea to India, and then an indian company -TATA ends up buying Tetley. This is in addition to Jaguar and Corus..

Our thoughts and sub conscious mind have much more power and effect that we credit it with. If you have a positive mindset, it is only a matter of time when it happens. It's important to be at it and put in the efforts. Similarly if you think negative, it is only a matter of time when it happens. Your sub conscious mind and fears will lead you to it. Time never stops and one can decide if you want to spend it thinking negative or positive. Doing good or bad. Remembering good people or bad people. Worrying or doing something about it. Something negative in the short run many times prove to be beneficial in the longer run, but we need to have patience and think positive. Hold on to our beliefs and values. It's simpler said than done, and it's even hard to practice. The negative magnet has much more power than the positive. Hitler was able to unite the people of Germany on the hatred against the rich Jews and winners of WW1. Had people rejected that and focussed on bu...

Many people talk about black and white money. Here is my understanding of the same - Black Money- this is the money which people claim to have spent (or not earned) but do not - So effectively this is the money they do not have. Like a businessman may claim that their sales and profits were lesser, to save on tax. So whatever amount that is under reported becomes black money. White Money - Money earned and accounted for. Like salary coming in the bank account. Now the interesting part, how to make your black money- white and vice versa. White to Black -  NGO donation - Donations to NGO are tax exempt. Many NGO just take a cheque of white money and give you cash. This is done at some service charge. Black to white Someone gives you a cheque against cash. This can be shown as payment received against some service or product. As the economy is one whole, so white to black is balanced by those wanting Black to white.

Recently i am hearing about lots of people who - Want to be spoon fed. - They would not do anything proactively, you need to make a personal request to them for official work, else they will not oblige and act busy. They can get away because of  dumb management. Lie with confidence - Not afraid to say anything even in official emails. When you confront more they act ignorant or have some even more lame excuses. As such discussions are fruitless and time wasting,   people just tend to ignore and people get away with this, further strengthening their resolve My dad was in government job, and though it had its fair share of people who belonged to the first category, the second category was very very less. The government job is still bound by some vigilance which can act in complete autonomy and thus even in all the chaos and size, there is some order.  The private organizations which have increased beyond a basic size and geography provide an environment...

There are two distinct theories which discuss when to act on a problem - Stitch in time saves nine - Act as soon as you see an issue, else it grows further and cause more problems later. Ripen the fruit before eating - wait till the issue evolves, Once a problem is evolved and becomes prominent, then dealing with it becomes easier and quicker. The decision to act or not is already out of the question, so it becomes easier to tackle with little opposition. Approach 2 is definitely a safer approach, but it takes more time and might takes up more resources.However for those whom resource conservation is less important than risk, this approach is advised. This approach is also safer as sometimes the problem gets resolved in its own way and you may not be required to do anything. Approach 2 is also something that rings more in the Indian way of things - Jo bhi ho raha hai acche ki liye ho raha hai, (There might be an unknown good in whatever is happening.)...

Here is the problem statements - Employees want something in office to heat food. 300 Employees approx. (not all being food from home) Existing microwave becomes faulty. Probable cause is people keeping foil and steel utensils. Solution Install a hot case. Benefits - Cheap Less fault prone - People can use foil/steel utensils. More space Less electricity consumption. A perfect solution, only problem is that the Hot-case is just not used. This is what happens when the focus is on the problem and not on meeting the objective.

There are two sides to a conflict - It's  hard to get anything without a fight - Baby gets the milk when he cries. In a way it is also the best way (not getting into the medical science of it) The conflict leads to nowhere, people build higher and higher walls, or the negativity begets more negativity, To speak up or to shut up is a decision that has perplexed me many a times over the years. Most of my well wishers have always advised me to shut up than speak up. Most of "non well wishers" have used my words to attack my character than the thought. There are very few people who can have a meaningful and objective discussion while holding conflicting views. Conflicts many a times help in churning, which is sometimes needed to separate the butter and water from the cream. However if you want a to have fruit cream, it does not make sense to churn. Life is never about right/wrong, Black/white, but a lot in between. The many shades of grey between black a...

Many a times in my career i have seen the struggle between the process and the people. People do not like the process if it does not suit their way of working/style, but want it when they get stuck or in a mess. It's tough to make and implement a process, and most of the people/organizations make the mistake of picking up something from another organization and try to implement the same. This mostly ends up in failure and frustration as all organization culture and people are different. Generally the people in India seem to hate processes, partly because of our experience with the government/social infrastructure where everything is denied to the common man in the name of some process that takes years and never bears any results. Every process needs to define exceptions, but should not necessarily try and cater to every exception. That only ends up making it more complicated and hard to follow/implement. I have seen most of the failures happening when people try to make a...

It takes time to understand that its best practice to NOT keep a baggage on you when you have a fight or altercation with someone. Such baggage only increase with time and the burden is always increasing. One also then tends to make a perception which then influences any further interactions. We need to think if it is worth it? Isn't it much easier to try and get off the load and move much faster ahead happily? When you start keeping baggage's, people also start to keep theirs, and  then others interact with one another, collating their bad experiences making a harder perception against you and you end up more and more isolated. Instead of carrying bad memories it is always better to carry the good ones. It helps to take the lesson from bad ones so as to prevent it later. Also we have a fixed memory bank, why should we then spend on things we don't like? Why can't we make life simpler?

Theory X and theory Y - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I still find many companies and people still rooted in theory X. I am a strong believer in theory Y. I have seen people work exceptionally well and teams deliver some great work. However there are some people who are exceptions, and they need to be weeded out instead of managers or management to move to theory X. Theory X does not look democratic to me and does not look suitable for the knowledge industry. You cannot force people to do mind work force-ably or with fear. Force or fear may sometimes be the negative motivators that may have to be used, but it should be the last resort. What do other feel?

I read about the doom loop in Good to great by Jim collins. Found the doom loop to be very true. Organizations changing CEO often, new people trying for quick gains, and in the end the price is paid in weaker results and no momentum. The company becomes weaker and weaker with time. Something for all of us to think and prevent, Seeing doom loop i understand why some projects/companies just fail to take off even when all is right. Its funny how the basic are ignored...

I have seen managers shying away from appraisal discussion, and the every employee looking at the whole process as an unnecessary evil and suffering. Something that you have to do as your HR/manager has asked you to. In my experience I have given people, good, average and even bad rating, and never had an ugly discussion. The average and bad rating have to be given in a way where people understand, what they lacked clearly, and what they need to do to achieve better ratings. Appraisal discussion are hard on those managers that do not share the good and bad the whole year, but share the wisdom only at the appraisal time. Appraisal discussion is very important for development of people and the organization. I just hope that managers are better trained to do it, and understand the importance of it.

Here are some common reasons for people working late - Plain inefficient – Lacking logical thinking you spend loads of time on simple problems. Bad planning – Managers bad planning, leaving no time for the execution phase, so team has to slog. Bad process – Whole process is inefficient so lots of time waste. Managers perception – If people working late are assumed to be efficient, then you have to sit late.. Bad personal planning – people wasting time in initial phases and then scrambling in the end. We tend to have the last minute scrambling syndrome. Inefficient team – So you end up doing what you team was to do. This is probably fine in initial phases but sometimes it just never improves.  Office perks - Bachelors sit for free internet, coffee, dinner, comp off's, etc. I have had many instances where people working late as perceived as hard workers. The problem is big in software industry as this is a service industry. You can spend h...

Everyone wishes the other person with whom they are dealing with have a clear thinking and decision making. We want to move ahead in life and not get stuck because of delay the other person is introducing by not giving the decision. However, we ourselves are guilty of sitting on many decisions? This needs some serious introspection. We are afraid of decisions, about being wrong. Suddenly, i see being wrong as something totally unacceptable by ourselves. We go to great lengths to prove we are not wrong . We can hurt people who dare say that we are wrong. People feel age or position/rank gives them the immunity or that innate power of never being wrong. We avoid confrontations and sit on decisions, hoping situations might just resolve itself. The pressure of always being right, is leading to people being more and more lonely, because they are afraid to share. The permutations that go into making any simple decision has increased many folds. Thus more depression and aggression. life u...

Reading “Winning” by Jack Welch and his thoughts on differentiation-- the person who introduced this idea, and also implemented it globally. One good point he made and that is clearly missed is before an organization goes this route, they need to have a robust performance appraisal system, that is free from bias. “Here is the background on what i am talking about ” Here are the reasons to hate differentiation and their answers. Most of the companies have embraced this system without actually understanding the strengths and weaknesses in their HR processes. I don’t even think companies look back to see if they are gaining anything implementing it or not. Personally small teams of less than 10-15 people can do away with this. Small teams cannot work if they have a less than average guy, and incase there is someone then it should not need waiting till the appraisal cycle. I have been asked to just implement the normalization curve many a times without anybody wanting to explain me...

Criticism is something I have been struggling with since a long time. Both in giving and taking criticism. Sometimes I am soft while criticizing others and then found that there was no effect, and sometimes I criticize too harshly on something very small. Criticizm helps people to grow, and is very important. Constructive criticism works like polishing on a rough diamond, but hard polish can break the diamond also. Some people fear criticism, specially managers, who are afraid that it might be seen as a negative trait. It might just make enemies. Those criticized might resign, or spread dissent in team. I feel its a great injustice to your team if you are not sharing criticism and working with one another on those, to build stronger teams and stronger bonds.

The last book i read compared the rational-emotional mind of person to the Rider-Elephant. So our rational mind is like the rider sitting on top of emotions or Elephant. Rider can think but move only when the elephant moves. Rider can force his will on the elephant, but not for very long and it is tiring. This synched with something i believed in since long time, that until you/others put emotions in the work, you won’t achieve much. The passion is required to achieve extraordinary. Some people have a thinking/rider problem, they keep thinking but don’t move. They think so much that they get jammed…Others have the elephant problem, react too early to emotions. It is important to have both the rider and elephant in sync and aligned.

There is a lot of things written on Anger and its management. I have heard lot of times, its not good to be angry, i feel differently. I feel anger is a basic emotion like happiness and crying, and thus should not be suppressed. It's good to be feeling and being angry, else we would just become vegetables. What is bad is how anger is handled. It is very important to hold your tongue and body when angry. It's important to not do anything irrational when angry. When angry, try to think more rationally about it..Like how a third person would think on the situation and on the anger. Channelizing your anger is very important. Sometimes physical exercise, long walk and chatting with a good friend helps you develop a deeper insight.

I am presently reading this another book by malcolm gladwell. The book is not as engaging as the outliers, still it has some interesting stories. Like how a marriage counceller can just listen to 3 mins of conversation and tell whether the couples wud stay or split. But it also validates something i also believe in, listen to ur inner voice. Also that first few seconds when you meet someone or start a ne engagement are very important. I always ask my team to carefully record their first experience with a web application. The best and most meaningful bugs generally come in those first few seconds. "The usability blocks", "the bad UI" impacts u most in the first initial seconds, and then as the time goes by u become used to that. Would love to finish this book quickly and move on to the next one...Am trying to find another good book to buy..

Amazon.com: Outliers: The Story of Success (9780316017923): Malcolm Gladwell: Books Picked this book from the bestsellers shelf, the title is somewhat cryptic, but it means that this book is about all those who lie outside/above the rest. This book in no uncertain way proves that hard work is the only thing that is in your hand to achieve success. Luck, family, economy and other factors play a part, but they are beyond your control. It also dispels the myth on high IQ/genius. It also clearly states that for job satisfaction 3 things are important - 1. Challenges 2. Autonomy 3. Relation between effort and rewards. A manager can create point 1 and 2, however point 3 is to be looked at an organizations level.