Serendipity and Learning

This is the age of corporate printers. Where there are uniformed print assistants, token systems and what not. The friendly neighbourhood printer (FNP) has been all but replaced by corporate printers. And it has succeeded, because the FNP is often trying to ensure that you dont print from him. Either he wont print or cant print or wont cut or cant cut or doesnt have some equipment or quotes an exorbitant amount or some other reason. Such it goes. So the corporate printer is useful to have. And work gets done very well - especially when there is no FNP. And then through a referral I visited another printer. This is the antithesis of the corporate printer. He is your FNP dream come true. As the owner, he knows his workers, his team, his customers. As he states, his job is to enable you. He doesnt say no to any challenge - and works to solve your challenge instead of the customary 'shrug, I cant do it go somewhere else'. And it was a pleasure meeting someone like this. It is no...

Sometimes, an interesting problem gets thrown at you. And such it was that I found myself face to face with a team that had an interesting problem thrown at them. And I was called to help out. I first spent time understanding their business and the nature of it, the market. That conversation was an eye opener for me - for I did not know the existence of this industry in this context at all. I spent time knowing how the industry runs, what is the driver and so on and worked on my design. As I discussed the design with the leader, the leader suggested a set of interviews with the team. These interviews made me re-think the design and go back with a much more simpler model than what was envisioned in the early stage of the requirement. (I suspect strongly the interviews were suggested as the leaders way of telling me that the design needed a change) One thing led to another and the final design turned out to be very different from what we started out with. And the program was rec...

There are days when you feel valued as a consultant... When your ideas are received, even built on... When you feel you have made an impact... When participants walk up to you and bid goodbye... When you feel a part of the team that you are working with... When you feel you have contributed value and the client too feels the same... A lot of a times, a consultant life is transactional...There are times when it is not! These are some such days!

Such a meeting can be a very expensive proposition as I discovered recently! I met someone and while I consider myself a reasonably well read person - atleast in the business domain - this meeting was something else. One thing led to another and one of us asked what books do you recommend. And over the next 20 minutes, every book that was named was new to me (bar a few). And I went home and looked up at the titles - every single one was a thought provoking one, about new ideas, new approaches and so on. So, I had to spend money to buy many of those books... Spending money on books is not a big deal. Every book increases your knowledge exponentially, so we run with it and the money spent on books is not a cost, but an investment, in yourself!

Well, what motivates me? When I work with a client, what motivates me is Am I feeling valued? If my input useful for them or is just something that is a tick in the box for them? The fact that my inputs are valued motivates me. The fact that the client is invested makes a difference. When you are asked to come in with a template approach - that is far less motivating than it is when the client comes in with an open slate and is willing to work through the challenge. Sometimes, the client is not invested in solving the problem as you are, but thats for another day. The second thing that motivates me is the Impact I am able to generate. Greater impact means greater motivation. There are assignments when both dont happen - but thats for another day, but whenever the two happen, I as a consultant feel motivated to give my 100% and more.  I also feel that they two have to ncecessarily co-exist. Developing thought I suppose...

Working with leadership teams can be difficult. For mainly 2 reasons. One, they often come with a "been there done that" attitude. I say often because it is not so prevalent. And also because it is the lesser of the evils. And it is a solvable problem for a facilitator because they see themselves as experts in their domains not yours. They get to this stage if anything you bring (rather, much of what you bring) comes without any new perspective or insight. So if you see the audience get bored, distracted - most likely this is cause number 2. (How do I know? Because I have encountered facilitators who often come back with complaints about the attitude - and most likely this is one issue). The second issue is how much is the leader involved? invested? If the program/initiative is supported by the leader and endorsed, it is a win. But it is an even greater win if the leader is invested in it - and a part of it as well - actively participating, being a part of it without bei...

A bit of traveling across India - both for work and non-work purposes has left with a question. Why are all hotel rooms the same? Possibly across the world? They all look the same - change a few colour combinations, the paintings on the wall, but they are all the same. A bed, a TV (why?), A table, A chair (or three) or a sofa...They all look the same. The lower budget ones aspire to be high budget with heavy furnitures and heavy carpeting. The higher budget ones aspire to be chic and cool. Sure there are design constraints - with air conditioning and the need to stack as many rooms as possible in a space, but somehow, they are all boring. And while booking the current one, I tried my best to look for a hotel with 'character' - no luck. Have to be stuck in a box for 2 days. Maybe  I should try a pod? Or a homestay in a city (there arent many of them right?)