Can anyone manage time?

Time is very subjective. For instance, a working professional is constantly chasing a deadline – that’s time for him. A house wife is waiting for the next episode of a serial – the wait is time for her. For a kid – time is always revolving around games. Everyone wants time. But for what? Everyone wants time to do what they want and be satisfied. ‘Oh! I have absolutely no time’ is a common expression, isn’t it? What are they actually complaining of? Did ‘time’ decide to give them a slip? Or, was it a mismanagement of activities? We all know time waits for no one - yet time is always the villain.

My son is supposed to watch television in the morning only when he finish his breakfast. However, by the time he manages to gulp everything down, it is time for school. You can imagine the cacophony one has to undergo, when a four year old misses his favourite ‘Looney tunes’ show. Well, there is no point discussing ‘time management’ with him but just urge him to focus on what he’s doing and finish it faster. Chew the food faster and refrain from pestering his kid sister, for instance. The point here is no one can manage time but everyone can manage the activities, tasks they undertake. Does it mean one has to multi-task and be efficient in doing it? Not really. One will be giving too little attention to too many things while multi tasking and more importantly - fail to do anything well. Like how my son missed his favourite show.

Time is subjective and is measured mostly in terms of satisfaction. A working professional will be satisfied only when his tasks for the day is complete – and to his satisfaction. What one should hence do to ‘manage time’ and to generate satisfaction is to identify the tasks that will create the most value and focus on those. By prioritizing value over the number of tasks; focusing on the things that really matter, one will increase the quality of work and obviously the value one extend. Am worried my son will find more value in watching television than the breakfast he is served.

Remember, time = satisfaction. No wonder then it’s said that a busy person is one who finds time for everything.

'Uncertain' lessons

I’ve been a victim of uncertain times. And, as a person notorious for snap decisions – my social medium is filled with posts reflecting uncertainty. It’s after all an established phenomenon that when the future is uncertain, functioning in the present becomes challenging. Obviously, I need to vent my frustration somehow. The good thing is that my network has friends who understand my situation and instill confidence. Then there is this quest towards optimism that enables me to assimilate positive thoughts. The last couple of days have been continuous learning despite the overwhelming negativity.

So, here’s the learning. According to ‘Human Motivation,’ a book by David McClelland, a Harvard psychology professor, Everyone is driven by three things – a) achievement (the desire to compete against increasingly challenging goals), b) affiliation (the desire to be liked/loved) and c) Power - the desire for influence and respect for yourself and the desire to empower others; to offer them influence and respect. The author states that people will remain motivated and engaged if they have the opportunity to do the above.

So, what am I doing? Am trying my best to engage myself with whatever work I have, get connected and try and influence those who need to be…From an organization perspective, employers should realize that people become political when uncertainty spreads, which could be unfavourable especially during challenging times.

Office is my home, err...is it?

It was one of those usual conversations between colleagues in the office but it raised questions about triggering assumptions based on earlier conversations and then ultimately leading to distrust amongst employees. While the parties sat together to try and resolve the matter, I made a gentle exit with the thought that it was just a case of social interactions getting complex. A little later, an ex-colleague called to say that he is throwing in the towel at his present job. He feels insecurity is ruling over everyday tasks. There is no word of appreciation, absolutely no care from his employer. Undoubtedly, he despises the very thought of heading for work, I could surmise. Yet another casualty of the downturn – how could I help him? Thought, I should spend some time to get more clarity on the situation, I reached out to him.

My doubts were proven right. While my friend was expecting the organization to cheer him up even when the going was extremely tough, he seemed to have been left to fend on his own. With the employee spending close to 12 hours in office, it is but natural to expect ‘care’ from his employer. A quick look at news reports generated in the recent past indicate that organizations are increasingly focusing on growth at the expense of employees instrumental in driving this growth. As someone said, human brain is a social organ. Its physiological and neurological reactions are directly and profoundly shaped by social interactions. A challenge at a professional level might evoke the same response as a challenge at the personal level as the distinction is blurring today.

According to a research done at University of California at Los Angeles, it was found that although a job is often regarded as a purely economic transaction, in which people exchange their labor for financial compensation, the brain experiences the workplace first and foremost as a social system. When people feel betrayed or unrecognized at work — for example, when they are reprimanded, given an assignment that seems unworthy, or told to take a pay cut — they experience it as a neural impulse, as powerful and painful as a blow to the head. Most people who work in companies learn to rationalize or temper their reactions; they “suck it up,” as the common parlance puts it. But they also limit their commitment and engagement. They become purely transactional employees, reluctant to give more of themselves to the company, because the social context stands in their way.

On the other hand when leaders take initiatives to understand their people, make them feel good, clearly communicate what’s expected from employees, give latitude to make decisions, support people’s efforts to build good relationships, and treat the whole organization fairly, it prompts a reward response. Others in the organization become more effective, more open to ideas, and more creative. They notice the kind of information that passes them by when fear or resentment makes it difficult to focus their attention. They are less susceptible to burnout because they are able to manage their stress. They feel intrinsically rewarded.

An organization is today more like an employee’s home where he fosters certainty, each and everyone is treated fairly, caring is a given, and where freedom is not a choice. Every leader or employer should keep in mind that ‘home is where the heart is.’ Where is your employees heart?

Are organizations conditioning employees to lose?

This is the time when employees are supposed to do ‘more with less.’ This is also the time when organizations come to terms with ‘productivity and efficiency’ that could have been and so prune resources leaving the rest to address clients clamouring for ‘more with less.’ The situation reminds me about the story of an eagle that was brought up with chickens. The story has it that an eagle’s egg was placed in the nest of a prairie chicken. The egg hatched and the eagle grew up thinking that it was a prairie chicken. It did what the chickens did. One day it saw an eagle flying majestically in the sky and asked the chickens, “what is that beautiful bird?” The chickens replied – “Oh! That’s the mighty eagle, who flies very high. We are prairie chickens – we cannot even think of flying like the eagle.” The eagle didn’t give it a second thought, completely trusting the chickens. He lived and died as a prairie chicken. Born to win but conditioned to lose.

Cut to the corporate nest. With ‘uncertainty and doing more with less’ as the focus, employees behave like the eagle. Am yet to hear someone talk about how organizations should be focusing on how it can make the most positive, possible difference in the future. Implying the future of employees, existing clients and itself. For this to happen, they should think beyond the present. With everyone discussing ‘downturn,’ most organizations today seem to have an installed base of thinking, a myopic view of opportunities – present and future- that compromise investment towards client satisfaction, employee satisfaction and there by growth.

Look at the pressure on listed companies today. It has become imperative for them to focus on numerator growth rather than tinkering their denominator-led strategy. As Wall Street makes it clear to them, “Go ahead, squeeze the lemon, get the inefficiencies out, give us the juice (dividends). We’ll take the juice and give it to companies that are better at making lemonade.” The point is that the focus should be on growth – of employees, clients and the company and that will certainly not be a result of doing ‘more with less.’ Management gurus say that the bus should have right people at the right place at the right time so as to move. Who would want to be in a stationary bus?

Lessons from 'Abhiyum Naanum'

a. Freedom – Give others the freedom they seek. They ‘know what they’re doing.’ While we might have a strong point against theirs – remember, it’s ‘our point.’ A tree doesn’t grow the way we want it to grow though we nurture it.
b. Trust – Life is a network of networks. And, trust is an integral part in ensuring that the network sustains. Everyone has a reason doing what they are doing. Trust their instincts.
c. Respect – It’s not important to visit a place of worship. Nothing counts more than the ‘respect’ we bestow on others irrespective of their age, profession and social status.
d. Contribute – Happiness is a result of providing something without expecting anything in return. When one is driven by ‘giving,’ it doesn’t really matter if someone else is trying to take advantage of the magnanimity.
e. Surprise – Be ready for surprises everyday. One could take this as continuous learning.

Too tempting to remain focused

I love the word focus. Unfortunately for me, the seriousness of this came pretty late in life and by then I was all over the place scampering for a share in the ‘me too’ market. And then, someone someday articulated the need to bring some ‘focus’ in life. Ever since that day, am relentlessly trying to integrate my initiatives to sharpen my focus. As an individual it’s pretty easy. Abhinav Bhindra, Sachin Tendulkar to name a few successful people wouldn’t have been where they are now without focus.
Moving over to the corporate jungle, can we recall a company that has a clear focus? Not many, heh! One would believe that organizations would narrow their focus in an intensely competitive global market where products get increasingly commoditized. A quick look at the Indian market would reveal that companies are diversifying, widening their focus to grab as much of the market share as possible. Coca Cola entered and diversified – from colas to drinking water to snacks. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a ‘Coco Cola Hotel’ in future. Unilever - the only thing I recall of the company is its continuous endeavor in reducing the number of brands – amassed over the years chasing existing and non-existing markets. Take the example of Maruti. As a potential customer, do you have a clue of which car to buy from their stable?
The point here is as companies diversify, their focus on extending values diminish. Growth becomes a constant in all strategic plans – straining the management as well as the people on ground. The values promised to customers through various brands, values for employees, values for partners etc. In a world where, brands or for that matter companies disappear within days, it is important for companies to ensure that customers reverberate its values. Recall Lehman Brothers? What happened?
Going back to why I love the word focus. It’s only because it’s an all encompassing word for a company. Focus on people, focus on customers, focus on partners, suppliers, market etc. Everything else will automatically fall into place if the buzz word is focus within a company.

Consumer electronic cos getting disengaged

Sony, the electronics giant has over the years built an indelible brand equity amongst consumers with its compelling products-price-performance value proposition. Many of its products have aspirational value that the burgeoning knowledge workers in India would vouch. ‘You got a Sony Bravia, wow!,’ ‘a Sony VAIO – Oh My God!!!’ are common expressions amongst youth these days. The question is whether the company is living to its value proposition? Well, recent events clearly indicate a perception – reality dissonance.
One of my colleagues had a harrowing time chasing the service engineers to replace a part on his Bravia so that he could enjoy the ongoing Champions Trophy. He’s yet to get a response after three weeks. Yet another colleague was figuring out contact details of LG for mending a two year old washing machine. These can be dismissed as one off experiences. However, the intense competition in the consumer electronics market seem to be forcing companies to get disengaged from its ‘fans.’ Can we imagine Sachin Tendulkar snapping at a young cricket fan in public? Do big brands lose customer focus? Can they afford to? A restaurant where am a regular stopped offering customers tea as it curtailed the possibility of selling their money spinners – kebabs, shawarmas and fruit juices. As I sat for my regular parota, chilly chicken and tea, the server informed me about his boss’s decision but offered my regular tea nevertheless. That for me was a ‘wow’ moment. I still go there and binge on parotas and chicken sans the tea.
There’s a lesson for big brands from this. As the business get commoditized, the need for customer focus and service should only increase. After all, customers are increasingly seeking ‘wow’ moments.

Employees will drive IT adoption

Saddled with years of investment into IT, maintaining the same and now making the ‘cob-web’ of IT effectively work - CIOs of today have a humongous task. And, when each employee is seen as a cost-center, the proposition of ‘what’s in it for the employee’ becomes the focus while deliberating on next investments. ‘Employee’ will become the center of focus for IT purchase. And, no doubt, industry will soon be abuzz with ‘end-user’ adoption.
Google, Salesforce.com, Citrix to name a few are possibly aiming at this market – the oversold market - where ‘simplicity’ is the norm. The market will soon revolve around what the employees prefer. Are they bothered about servers? Storage? No, not at all. They are only bothered about finishing their work fast and leveraging applications that will enable them to efficiently undertake their work. Google launched an operating system centered around the web as the company saw an increasing number of people relying on the web to carry out their work. Salesforce famous for simplifying ERP and hosting the same on the web is another example. Citrix seems to be simplifying ‘virtualization’ by targeting employees with an effective desktop virtualization solution. All these companies are targeting employees/users in an enterprise.
As more and more employees pull out convenient applications from the web or the ‘cloud,’ there is no doubt that the market will revolve around powering these applications. Remember, how we use electricity for various purposes. Be it powering the refrigerator, geyser or microwave – all it takes is a switch. Do we know where electricity is stored? Now imagine every employee as an equipment – refrigerator, geyser etc. IT should be able to power these equipments, i.e, employees. Like the equipments that decide the amount of power to be consumed for a specific purpose, employees will decide the type of technology they will use.

When clients behave badly...

My colleague was upset the way our client spoke to him. Then there was yet another one complaining about an aggressive and hard-to-convince partner in Ahmedabad. Both the colleagues were going back home mentally pooped or sulking in office - forced to tolerate what they had to undergo. We are constantly shocked by the things other people say and do or by the things they don't say and don't do. How can my boss have ignored me? How can my colleague have taken the credit? How can my employee have made that mistake? How can my partner be so inconsiderate? As a leading management practitioner puts it - The problem is not us. And it's not them. The problem is our expectations. It's not that people behave well or badly. It's that we expect them to behave differently than they do. Even when they have proven our expectation wrong time and time again.

The Indian market is attracting lot of interest - it's expanding, integrating diverse interests, cultures and of course redefining tolerance. The likelihood of us interacting with people very different from us is increasing by the day. And of course, we should admit that people who are different do things differently. How often have we come across pople who don't look at us when we speak to them, people retorting, people absolutely quiet.
Have we forgotten the rule - 'Treat other people the way you'd like to be treated?'
It's important for us to take every interaction as an experiment that gives out a little bit more about the individual we are dealing with. It's easy then to change expectations to more accurately align with reality. Every interaction provides a clue to better yourself in dealing with the other. It's because we are automatically changing our expectation every time...

Let neurons fire

According to Carr’s recent article, throughout our lives our brains adapt to the way we gather and process information. Performing an action over and over changes the brain’s circuitry. The new firing patterns of neurons become more stable and push aside older patterns. If you give up performing an action, then neural circuits formerly dedicated to it get weaker and are eventually used for other activities. No wonder Management Gurus harp on the need to have ‘focus.’ As they say, ‘what you focus is what you get.’ The more you focus on something, the more neurons are fired towards realizing that task.
Anything we do on a regular basis rewires the brain. There’s a saying among neuroscientists that “neurons that fire together, wire together.” When you practice a certain skill, the circuits get stronger, and the area of the brain dedicated to performing the skill gets larger. Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers that it takes the brain 10,000 hours to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals," writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, "this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time."
Well, now the unfortunate part. With the Internet increasingly becoming our universal medium for gathering information, we’re training our brains to take in information in the way the Internet supplies it — that is, with an emphasis on speed and with continual distractions. There are some who do it for 2 hours a day and there are people who only do this. The point is that the extensive search – information overload- is making all of us more productive but with convenience we forget to exercise our thinking cells, losing the analytical bent. Does it impact our decision making abilities? It certainly does as we increasingly rely on web as a source for information. Imagine Gen Y - they might not even know what they are ‘losing’ as they get exposed to the ‘web’ at a very early age.

True leader

Was reading Navi Radjou's blog which had some interesting perspectives on leadership. The hard-hitting facts about leadership are unfortunately not taken seriously these days, which is increasingly evident in the collapse of many businesses across the world. Today, leaders focus on short-term goals - attaining leadership instead of 'creating a future' that will bring with it leadership. Example of Apple and how it changed the digital music industry is an example.

Dr Kalam, ex-President India, in a speech stated that corporations as well as nations desperately need what is called "creative leaders," a new breed of visionary and empathetic leaders who act less as commanders and more as coaches, less as managers and more as facilitators, and who foster self-respect rather that demand respect.

To illustrate his point, Dr Kalam cited leaders he has personally encountered who are/were imbued with these eight wisdom qualities. For instance, when India's first satellite launch mission failed in 1979, the chairman of the Indian space agency Prof Satish Dhawan took full responsibility for the failure, even though Dr Kalam was actually the mission director. But the following year, when they successfully placed the first Indian-built satellite in orbit, Prof Dhawan didn't attend the ensuing press conference; rather, he asked Dr Kalam to share the success story with the media, thus giving him full credit for the mission's success.

Diminishing differentiators

Walking down the Brigade road this weekend, it dawned upon me that with the world getting increasingly networked, it is also giving rise to homogeneity. Why Brigade Road triggered such a thought? The ‘on your face’ branding on both sides of the narrow road, which is not significantly different from the mellowed branding in now ‘under construction’ Indiranagar. KFC, Levis, Pizza Hut, Nike, Louis Philippe etc don the congested stretch. What’s more – most of these sought-after brands don the landscape of Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and other cities across the world. Didn’t we expect globalization to bring in diversity – heterogeneity? Does it also imply that the more differentiators we try building, the more homogenous we become?

Path to wisdom

The first thing the head of US army in the New Generals School tells his new Generals is: “Remember, as soon as you get those stars, everyone will laugh at your jokes, but you’re not that funny, and everyone will write down your comments but you’re not that smart, and women will want to have sex with you but you’re not that handsome. It’s just your title. Don’t let it go to your head”. While Marshall Goldsmith adopts these wise words while coaching CEOs, it's something for all. Whatever be the position, one ought to believe that people are not saluting him/her, they’re saluting the position and the second one thinks it’s all about him/her, its over. Each and everyone of us should keep listening, keep learning, make mistakes and apologise for them - that's the path to wisdom.

Law of Least Effort

Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they bloom. This is their intrinsic nature. In ancient Indian Science, this was called the Law of Least Effort. Nature’s intelligence functions effortlessly, frinctionlessly, spontaneously. It is non-linear, intuitive and nourishing.
In a similar way, in the conduct of our business, we are in harmony with Nature when our actions are motivated by values. When one seeks power and control over other people, we waste energy. When our actions are motivated by values, our energy multiplies and accumulates. So, what does it mean in practical terms to leverage the Law of Least Effort through actions that are motivated by values? There are three components to this Law of Least Effort:
accepting that things are the way they are at this point of time without blaming others, taking responsibility to change things for the better, and avoiding defensiveness of your view, your past actions
Count on your natural instinct for values.

Job losses - points to ponder

A nation's standard of living in the long term depends on its ability to attain a high and rising level of productivity in the industries in which its firms compete. This rests on the capacity of its firms to achieve improving quality or greater efficiency. It’s no different when it comes to individuals. More than ever, one needs to put in that extra bit to raise the bar so as to stay ahead of competition. As companies across industries looks at bolstering operational efficiency, there is no doubt that many would lose their jobs. TCS, Wipro, IBM, Infosys etc extended pink slips to non-performers who would have otherwise stayed on had the IT industry been bullish. Many of these youngsters would now be mulling over what went wrong. Venkata Narasaiah has some very important points for these aspirers which can be accessed through http://business.rediff.com/column/2009/apr/24/bcrisis-a-not-so-young-job-seekers-tale.htm.

Youngsters should learn to be adaptive innovators. As IT service companies compete – out-innovate for big deals, youngsters should work towards carving a competitive differentiator so as to attract work or let’s say better work. My key take away is the fact that in a society one ought to follow the management principle – simultaneous improvement of complementary goods. What it means is that if you wish to go up, ensure that the ecosystem rise up too. It’s worth reiterating the conclusion by Narasiah.
· Love your job and learn as much as possible. Learning comes primarily from your job. After fulfilling this requirement you can aspire for higher qualifications. If you don't respect the job you are doing who else would?
· When you are in a society you are not alone. You may have a family to support. You should not be a liability to the society or to your family.
· You can make mistakes. But don't repeat them. In important situations in life, ponder over other solutions also. But do not jump to conclusions.
· Save money for future. If you spend on unwanted things, you may not have money for essentials in the future. And, last but not the least, believe in God.

Politicians twitter, blog - does it really matter?

This election is very different with political parties trying to lower their center of gravity - trying to tap into the large and dynamic youth population in the country. Most of them have been pretty successful by leveraging various modes of communication - youtube, twitter, mobile phones etc. Does it really work? Am very skeptical. These are mostly one way communications and does not address or reflect what the youth want. Let's go back in time when the same politicians leveraged the advent of television for their campaigns. Do you recall any of the campaigns? Well, do you recall the old cinthol advertisement where Vinod Khanna tries to control a horse in a beach? Am sure many of us do recall the Cinthol ad but certainly not any of the political campaigns or rallies.

It's time for politicians to understand that they need to extend an impactful value-proposition to their audience through their communication. It can't be a one off communication - wooing them with hollow promises - which might still sell in rural India. According to Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, "The New Web, in the hands of a technologically savvy and community-minded Net Generation, has the power to shake up society and topple authorities in many walks of life. Once information flows freely and the people have the tools to share it effectively and use it to organize themselves, life as we know will be different." Politicians should realize that the world has transitioned to become an interactive and increasingly transparent market. Free televisions, tax sops doesn't really matter but address 'what's in it for me?'

Increase in social networking

Am given to understand that there is a spurt in social networking - especially since the advent of industry downturn. Well, no hard facts to prove it but am witnessing an increasing number of people very active in social networking these days possibly driven by the need of the hour to seek if anyone anywhere has anything for them. Tried a few names in twitter including jobless, jobsless, no work etc to see the magnitude of networking. Not surprisingly, 'no work times' had more than 240 following, jobsless had an equal number. What intrigued me was the messages in these profiles - free healthcare for the jobless, free software, free movies etc. So, no wonder why there is increased networking - freebies are ubiquitous.
Wonder how this network will evolve? Will it result into job-sharing? Will it give rise to new social-networking based business models?

Is Business Intelligence really Intelligence?

An interesting article in CIO.com reinforced my increasing skepticism that IT thrives on complexity. Companies worldwide invested in data warehousing – to store corporate data and structure them with rules and then adopted business intelligence to obviously get ‘intelligence’ from the data stored. What then is analytics? According to Scott Staples, Co-CEO at Mindtree – Business Intelligence is a misnomer. The gorillas in the industry coined the term – a concept possibly to create new avenues in the database market, targeting companies that were now seeking ways to slice and dice data and generate reports. That was intelligence ten years back – just churning out reports. The scenario is very different today with mobile workforce and an economy that warrants decision-making in a jiffy. Organizations are required to know themselves and the ecosystem better than others, implying analysis of ‘whatever information residing across the organization’ anywhere anytime. That’s where analytics come into play – empowering today’s organization with ‘intelligence’ at the point of action. Wonder why it’s not called Business Intelligence 2.0 – remember web 2.0? Well, it seems until and unless there is a new concept – technology adoption doesn’t gain traction. How is the concept of utility computing any different than today’s buzz word – cloud computing? Most technology firms today seem to have specialists who can churn out ‘buzz concepts.’

Poverty of attention

Was thinking about the plethora of information that's available today for carrying out specific tasks, when I was lead to an interview with Google's Chief Economist on McKinsey quarterly. According to him what's really scarce in the internet is attention. Well, isn't it true? He quotes psychologist Herb Simon - "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
That brings to me the theory of positioning. Am not referring to the marketing concept but positioning of self. Does having 500 people in your network of friends enable you achieve anything better than someone with just 50? Does quality of friends circle matter? Well, am trying to recall names of all my friends and what they do these days - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ....8 Oops! tough, am racking my brains for more.
As the world becomes increasingly connected, quality of friends-circle and positioning matters a lot. Bigger the circle doesn't make one effective.

Quest for prominence

Everyone wants to be first, everyone wants to be known - that's common across India. Be it on the roads in Bangalore or in the digital fast lanes -online, the quest for prominence is increasing by the day. An article in the Hindu corroborates this http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200904031878.htm. According to the Norton Online Living Report, Indians are more likely to make friends online and fall just behind the Chinese in seeking friends online. Be it film actors or technology companies, the quest for prominence is evident in their initiatives. Kareena Kapoor, a leading bolllywood actress dumped lesser known Shahid Kapur for an established and 'prominent' figure in the industry - Saif Ali Khan. Technology start-ups are more likely to come to Bangalore than other cities as they can leverage the existing ecosystem for technology in Bangalore. Their strategy would then be limited to gaining prominence in this existing ecosystem.
The undying quest for prominence is today attracting others to be a part of the 'prominence' ecosystem.