Serendipity and Learning

This is why the internet is great. Suddenly, sometimes, one gets to learn something new. And if you are on the right sites (really content pipeline), you get to learning something new everyday. Such it was that I bumped into reading about the Dunning Kruger effect , thanks to Seth Godin . I smiled reading about it, mapping my own journey and I can say that this resonates with me...Does it resonate with you!

Over the last few years, I have had the privilege of viewing learning and development from a ringside perspective as well as from the inside view. It is interesting to see how many myths persist in this space. This is just my perspective  - based on what I have learnt. The myth of Left Brained and Right Brained people. This myth refuses to die - despite being proved by research . Like many myths, there is a certain element of truth - the brain is indeed divided across hemispheres The brain is far more interlinked - this much is very well known-- but to categorise a person as Left (artist - yay cool) or Right brained (accountant - hence boring) is just laziness. The myth of multi-tasking. This was hight on the radar a few years ago - it still persists, but again, has been largely disproved. There is almost no such thing as multitasking - the changeovers during switching affect productivity - and all our devices make it worse. Read this piece for all collection of insights on i...

As the Leader of a reasonably large sized team, the team does have ups and down. Sometimes, an initiative we design does not see light of day or is rejected by stakeholders. Sometimes, it is a moment of frustration. Sometimes it is dejection. These things keep happening. One of my managers told me the other day, "The one thing I see about is a never say die quality. Whatever happens - be it the worst thing - you only see it as an opportunity and you always see the positive side" As a leader, we do not have a choice. You cannot be dejected or have a hang dog expression. It is important to keep the spirits up. It is important to show a positive direction to people. And when you go off on the entrepreneurial journey, some amount of optimism is needed. Well, correction. A large dose of unbridled optimism is required. And this time, there is no team. All that optimism is for you, with you, inside you. I have read all I can about this. How to handle rejection. How not to c...

530 am...wake up and plan to do a whole lot of work 530 to 6 - snooze all alarms 6 to 7...rush hour. Kids are sent to school...Wife is off to work 7 to 9...a morning walk, breakfast and just about time to open the laptop. What a beautiful day apt for working... 9 am...Wife calls. I am in a meeting. Please tell the maid what has to be cooked for lunch. 9 to 10...start work by checking email - click some random link and browse 71 sites in the name of research (but actually twitter, news, random social media) 10 am...Maid walks in complaining about traffic. Instructions are passed on to her on what is to be made. 10.01 am...Maid returns with a list, saying, unless these items are purchased, cooking wont happen for the day. 11 am...1 hour wasted in shopping for essentials. Day is saved. 11.05 am...Maid wants to share stories of her life - all pointing to how she badly needs a raise after last months raise. In the spirit of employee engagement, give her a patient ear. 1...

Science fiction can make you creative ? Of course it can... Anything can make you creative - including all the "40 ways to become creative" stuff that you see on Pinterest, but question is, are you open to the possibilities your mind creates? Is your mind trained to create those possibilities? And therein lies the answer... Any technique - preferably done over a reasonably regular timeframe - makes the mind attuned to more divergent thinking. But very often, instead of using those edges of divergent thinking, we end up softening them to make them convergent thereby negating the experience itself... Developing thought...

As part of an assignment - I got a chance to train students. A very different audience than my regular corporate audience and I took as a challenge. And it was fun. So what is the difference? Mind well, but these are the generation that will soon be in the corporate world - and some of them already are - the digital generation. Couple of things struck me... These kids are super articulate  - not that we dont know it... They were born with the internet - so it is second nature to them Awareness about the world is high - very high - but awareness around (state, city, culture) seems to be on the lower side If you are going to 'teach' them, you better add value (true in all cases) If they have a doubt/thought/comment/wisecrack - they will share it - accept it - and it makes the interaction richer They are hungry to learn - but only those who put in the time and engage in focussed effort will cross over the inflection point (pretty obvious at any point) The bell curve of ...

The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem views leadership through the lens of 9 stories - most of which I was not familiar with - because the stories are not the typical cliched leadership stories one mostly hears about. Except for the story of the Apollo 13, all the other 8 stories were new to me. And unlike many other books, it does not make the leader seem bad when things go awry - and that is an interesting lesson - because most leaders, like most human beings, do try their best given a particular circumstances. The way the book looks at the leaders and draws lessons from each story into different actions and ties it all together is unique. And it also takes a non-conventional approach to leadership - Mountaineering, Forest Fires, Non-profit and so on and with varying scales of problems and with human life costs involved - which are vastly different from corporate leadership - where the scale and costs are vastly different. This is a book that makes you pause and think. I ...