Serendipity and Learning

Many years ago, Saru (as she is known) was my Master coach for all of one session. I can never forget how she handled her 'coachee'. And how meeting her left me thinking that I have miles (prefixed with thousands of) to go. And a few days ago when I learnt that she was running a session, I did everything I could attend the session. It was touch and go. With all the Bangalore bandh and all that, I somehow managed to get a seat on the session quite at the last minute. And was it worth it! She is, what I might call as a master facilitator. Gentle. Jovial. Stern. Knowledgeable. Even paced. Never hurried. No gimmicks - just sticking to the subject and taking people along. No comedy track. Very simple slides and material. Her knowledge did most of the talking. Slowly pulling people into the centre. Gently nudging them to think. Teasing thoughts out of them. Pushing them to think a bit more. Disagreeing at times. Rarely definitive, but when she spoke in definitives, she made he...

The economics of places where buses stop for night halts are usually very interesting. For a variety of reasons. Many a time the food quality is bad - like outrightly bad - but the bus staff get a good deal (usually free) so the bus stops there. They stop at random places sometimes - like a lime juice place or a tea place in the middle of the night. Or pick up boiled tapioca (this is a mind-blowing snack - try it sometime) sellers and then drop them off a kilometre or two away while getting their snacks in return. So, the bus passengers are dependent on the place and some often end up eating there. It was one such place the bus halted a few days ago. And this place, apart from the usual food - sometimes a 'pan' shop, sometimes a juice counter or an ice-cream counter or a general store had a few more things. One was a shop that sold pickles. One was a toy shop. One was pop corn counter. And one was a counter that sold 'Maths' books - a book that claimed to make Math...

I attended a heritage walk last week. (I have attended one before this - but that was in a different city and a different person and an underwhelming experience.) This walk was in a shortish area - a triangular patch of land - and it is an area I thought I know very well. After all, every Mumbaikar knows the area around CST - Metro - Crawford market. Firstly the walk was named Beyond Bazaar Gate - which I had no idea why - until I learnt that the Bazaar Gate was one of the gates of the original Fort. Heritage walks in places you have no clue about are well, a revelation - because you have no clue anyway. But a heritage walk in a city you know well are a challenge because there are some facts you already know - and thats a challenge for both the person who is attending and the person who conducts the walk. I learnt that Bhendi Bazaar had nothing to do with Bhendi (Ladyfinger), but it was a corruption of Behind the Bazaar - which became localised as BhendiBazaar (this is particula...

Zero to One by Peter Thiel is a nice read. (Yes - if I sit down to write a book review - the book has to be worth it - and usually good - so most of my book reviews are about good books.You can stop here if that's the information you seek.) Where this book scores is in contrarian thoughts and contrarian questions that make you think. It starts with a four big lessons learned from the 90s dot-com crash that is, Make incremental advances, Stay lean and flexible, Improve on the competition and Focus on product, not sales. Just as you warm up to it, he says, the opposite rules are more correct - which are: It is better to risk boldness than triviality. A bad plan is better than no plan. Competitive markets destroy profits. Sales matters just as much as products. And finally leaves with a simple definition of contrarianism - it is not to oppose the crowd (or follow a smaller or newer or older crowd) but to think for yourself. "All happy companies are different"...

Peter Thiels book lists down 7 questions that every business must answer 1. The Engineering Question Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? 2. The Timing Question Is now the right time to start your particular business? 3. The Monopoly Question Are you starting with a big share of a small market? 4. The People Question Do you have the right team? 5. The Distribution Question Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product? 6. The Durability Question Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future? 7. The Secret Question Have you identified a unique opportunity that others dont see? It made me think and is still making me think...

While interacting with a set of people recently, the discussion veered onto 'appreciation' of their teams. It is incredible how many people carry the thought in their head that too much appreciation will result in underperformance of the team. And most of my spot surveys have shown that 'appreciation' is a very very limited commodity in organisations. Now appreciation does not mean random appreciation - it means appreciating something that has been done well - even if it is routine. It does not mean false appreciation. This led to the thought that well, the team does not do so many good things that it needs to be appreciated. On the other hand, pointing out things to be done better  - seemed to echo rather well with everybody. It is reasonably well proven that motivating, inspiring and getting people motivated to achieve a goal higher than themselves is a far more motivating factor than pointing out faults. Now pointing out faults by itself is not a bad - and i...

Certain events have an effect on the psyche of a country or a place or even a company. 17 million people watched PV Sindhu fight Carolina Marin for the Olympic Gold in badminton . Sindhu may have lost gold, but she won a billion hearts. And all around us today - we see children play badminton - atleast in Bangalore everywhere. This is a moment to cherish - as children grow up they will be inspired by this moment. And I hope that India becomes a force to reckon with in badminton. For our generation, India winning the Cricket World Cup in 1983 was a huge inspiration. I am sure, many of us have such moments to inspire ourselves. Many companies have moments they cherish and replay and revisit as part of inspiring their teams. True, as a company one cannot have such moments every quarter to inspire the workforce - but what if they used one such great moment to pivot themselves into a different orbit. What if such a moment energised the workforce, generated learning opportunities?...