Serendipity and Learning

The brilliant jerk is of many types. Sometimes it is someone who is insanely brilliant. Sometimes, it is someone who is very good at relationship building. Sometimes it is someone who just delivers.  But the effect the brilliant jerk has is always the same.  They seem to leave a trail of destruction - sometimes attrition, discontent many a time. They seem to always be insecure about "something". If could be a customer, an important project or their own skill or their prized relationship.  The area that they own gets significantly good results (often way ahead of the pack) that the leader is forced to accommodate all their shenanigans. (This is not entirely true, the leader makes a choice to accommodate.) Word spreads very quickly about the "bad" culture in the team. People do not want to work with this brilliant jerk.  Certain decisions are taken which end up being regretted.  Everyone has to watch their back.  But what intrigues me, how much companies, tea...

 Worked with a bunch of talented technologists over the last few days. And gave them an exercise "Appreciate an intern" The majority of the responses were along the lines of "great job, good job". Some of them were "good job, great job" with a disclaimer. Some found it difficult to appreciate (is there any reason to appreciate?). Fairly common - I have written about this in my book as well - but what is funny is that they are saying this because they have received appreciation in much the same way.  So, we worked from there and asked - what is wrong with this? And they all got it right.  What is the purpose of appreciation - and they got that right as well.  If you know that this sort of vague appreciation is not helping the team, why are you not doing it the right way? And. how are you appreciating your team?

 Many years back I was (as usual) breathlessly presenting an idea to a colleague. I was relatively new in the firm and I thought I had found something interesting. The colleague listened to it calmly and said, "This is such a great idea, but hey, I have just submitted a proposal for exactly this to the boss." I was disheartened and stopped working on the idea.  Time passed and every time I spoke to the colleague about the idea - it was always round the corner. In fact it was round the corner till the time I quit. That was when I read the story of cookie-licking . This is a slightly old blog - it is all of 13 odd years old, but give it a read.  So, this colleague was indulging in cookie-licking by preventing my team from working on this idea. And as time passed, I discovered that the said colleague had many licked cookies and yet, no cookie was ever eaten.  Thoughts as I learnt that one of those initiatives was still "just around the corner"

There, I said it. Microlearning is useless unless it is accompanied by a macro learning. Unless Micro learning is a part of spaced repetition of a concept, it is as useless as homeopathy (i ts not me, its the data ). Imagine, learning better probing skills - one email or one podcast at a time for a long time without getting to practice, try it out, be coached on the skill? You might as well learn to fly by watching the birds fly each afternoon. Or swim by watching the fishes... Try learning a concept through mail - no not happening unless you practice. Unless microlearning is about practice - real sharpening of skill -  done after the real rubber hits the road in simulated or real conditions, it is fluff. Did you use probing skills today? Remember to use the 59AEF framework when you have that conversation! are both useless, unless they say, what part of the probing skills that you learnt last week are you going to use today? Or, use the 42 component of the 59AEF t...

I was talking to a friend who does a lot of work in the Diversity and Inclusivity space and she mentioned to me that a senior executive from a company (MNC) stated "All this diversity work we do here - where is India in it?" This is something I have experienced throughout my working career and now even more so as I interact with companies of different backgrounds. Not one company that I have come across is 'Indian' or has anything Indian. Be it start up, tech firm or captive. Yes, meeting rooms may be named after freedom fighters or Indian rivers or they may celebrate Indian festivals or wear traditional clothes a few times a year or they may have a sculpture in their lobby, but in general, we shy away from anything Indian. If at all there is any reference, it is fairly self deprecatory or apologetic. And I love that question posed by the senior executive. And it is a very good question to ask yourself as you put together your shining new diversity program. Is ...

I started reading Driving Honda by Jeffrey Rothfeder.  More about this book soon, but as someone who reads business books - it strikes me that Japanese companies have so much 'Japan' in their culture. Read about any Japanese company and there is so much Japan in it. To a large extent it is because a lot of manufacturing principles that are taken as granted today originated there. Having known and worked with a few companies - the French companies have a bit of France in them, German companies have a lot of Germany in them and American companies have a lot of America in them. But when we read about Indian companies - there is very little India in them. Yes, we have our own 'partha' system. But we have done precious little to make it our own. When I read 'Rokda' (refer earlier post - there definitely was a touch of Indianness in them - but nothing that makes you think.) And this from a nation that has a rich history of philosophy of over a thousand years. ...

A few weeks ago, in some context, I heard in a meeting - Let me play devils advocate here. And I was reminded of Seth Godins post - where he says, The devil doesn't need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics. Truth is, the self proclaimed devils advocates, never created anything - not a single creation in the world has come about due to a devils advocate - it has happened due to someone advocating a forward movement, not a block (like a devils advocate does). It is easy to be a devils advocate - it is difficult to stand up and try something different. Or support those who are. Why is that so? Possibly, because since the industrial age, there is this committee - managers, supervisors that sits on top of things, reviews things, asks questions, pushes things back but rarely contributes anything. Governments (especially the kind of hand me down governments that colonies like India got) are of the same type. Obstructionist, rarely contributing. And somehow, some m...

Through a series of coincidences, a book on philosophy landed on my reading list. And the book was not meant to be read, but to be returned. But in the process of returning, I decided to take a shot at reading it. And, while it did not change my life (if that was what you expected), I read through what are known as logical fallacies. Take a look at this list here... Seemingly sound arguments fall by the wayside when one looks at them from this perspective. The next time you are in a meeting, count how many logical fallacies are used by people while advancing their arguments. My favourite one out of all those is the argument from personal incredulity. Whats yours? Whatever else, you wont be bored!!