Serendipity and Learning

One of the laments I heard in a gathering of LnD folks is that consultants are no good. I disagree. I have worked with consultants and been a consultant myself. Think of it. A consultant comes into to work on your problem. (I stick to an LnD context here). Who defines it? Who validates what the consultant brings to the table? Who has the chance to modify that consultants approach? If after all this your work comes a cropper, who is to blame? It is you, because either you chose the wrong consultant or did not define the problem or validate the solution clearly or you messed it up in the execution. Or when you realised the consultant wasnt working out - you decided not to cut the cord. So, if you see here the only real issue is getting the right consultant (and the right price). Therefore my view is that it is a supply demand issue. If you define the problem better, you will get people who will solve the problem better. I will enunciate the supply demand problem better in a l...

Caution: Amateur post Recently, we started playing 'Threes'. And while Clash of Clans was a favourite, interest on it is waning - though it is still in demand. Subway Surfers has long since been forgotten. For a short while Tiny Troopers ruled the roost. Some of the drawing and sketching apps are still in demand - but they are not addictive. And yes, for a while, we did play Dragon box. First phase, you heard about the app and there is immense curiosity. You want to know the mechanics and you want to get the better of it. This is also the learning phase. With most good apps, this would last a few minutes. If it is boring or 'not good enough' most likely, the interest level drops here itself. Flappy bird did not cross this phase - it was too difficult. If the interest level is good, one continues. Next phase, is to work through the challenges of the app. Here the experience of the app begins. As you cross the first few levels, life is good and one begins to enjoy ...

I stumbled upon this recently - on the Time Span of Discretion - a theory propounded by the Late Elliott Jaques . Jaques also noted that effective organizations were comprised of workers of differing time spans of discretion, each working at a level of natural comfort. If a worker's job was beyond their natural time span of discretion, they would fail. If it was less, they would be insufficiently challenged, and thus unhappy. Time span of discretion is about achieving intents that have explicit time frames. And in Jaques model, one can rank discretionary capacity in a tiered system. Level 1 encompasses jobs such as sales associates or line workers handling routine tasks with a time horizon of up to three months. Levels 2 to 4 encompass various managerial positions with time horizons between one to five years. Level 5 crosses over to five to 10 years and is the domain of small company CEOs and large company executive vice presidents. Beyond Level 5, one enters th...