Serendipity and Learning

The last year, as I embarked on my entrepreneurship journey, I ended up buying a ton of books. Being a book lover, it was easy to justify all the purchases.  All of them were important to my learning, my development and the development of a practice.  But what happened - as I observed - was that the range of books I purchased was narrow cast towards my work.  And my son asked me "You work and you read about work, why dont you read something else?" And that question prompted me to raid a few of his books...

Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath is a book on decision making. There are many books on decision making and a new book on a topic thats already written about quite a bit is not an easy task. Made to Stick by the same authors still remains my go to book when it comes to thinking of new campaigns and methods. The book starts with the four processes of decision making, the four villains that make the process go awry and then it goes on to say, how can one conquer the villains using a variety of methods and a framework that they have created... It is a lucid book, easy to read, peppered with examples. The cons is that if you read a few books on decision science, from the classic "Thinking Fast and Slow" to a few others, the examples  and stories tend to repeat...

The Indian team went to South Africa and had a tough time. This was not the first time. This has been a debate for 30 plus years now. Why doesnt the Indian team not perform well on overseas pitches? The answer is simple. There is no practice. There is no skill building. This answer is also nothing new. How does one build a new skill? By putting onself out there, trying, failing, learning, unlearning, relearning and finally bit by bit climbing the ladder of skills. So, if the team has to be play on fast bouncy pitches abroad - they need to play on fast bouncy pitches at home. And that means, when the next generation of kids grow up, they need to learn to play on fast bouncy pitches. In theory, all it means is to have every alternate match to be played on a different pitch. And you do this over a generation - even 5 years, you have a battle ready team. Cut to business. If you need to learn to handle a difficult conversation like a pro, you have to practice doing it. Simply becau...

Overall, what am I seeing as the trend in this year from where I see it? The big thing which I see is the reduction of age. Let me explain. Earlier, why, even 10 years ago, an average manager was in his or her early 30s, the average director at about 40 and so on it went... What I see now, is a far younger corporate India. People in their early 30s are handling entire businesses, people in their 20s are handling functions and people in their 40s are consultants (heh - that last one is a joke). And I also see average CEO age come down - mostly due to the startup rage I suppose, but then again why not. The second trend which I see as more pronounced is that many of these new companies - the hires are top class. In terms of their skills, confidence and sheer technical (or business) ability - they are second to none. What does this mean? It means a few things. If you are on the older side, you have to shape up to match these whizkids. If you are a consultant, you better add value....

It has been a great year of learning... Learning from about 15 different companies...Different cultures..working styles...levels of leadership and maturity...business...challenges...people... Putting myself into, no, out of my own comfort zone and working in very diverse environments - from students to startups to established global tech firms to large format workshops to introducing new concepts into the market... What did I learn? The biggest learning for me has been the learning of how to design better. This is no small learning because I am used to a typical school of designing learning interactions - so to be able to throw what I have learnt out of the window (well, not really) and learn another way of looking into it, has been, both, difficult and interesting. Difficult because I really have to activate Type 2 thinking and interesting because once you go that path, I need to still have my divergent thinking hat ON. Having worked with different people, firms as a consulta...

These are the best books I read this year - they may well have been published in 1900...but these are what I read and enjoyed... A Stroke of Insight - worth reading if you want to understand a little more on how the brain functions The Second machine age - has a very pertinent take on the age of machines - and it makes you think. I plan to read the sequel to this in the coming year. The Leadership moment - 9 stories on leadership - not your usual leadership stories and that makes it a rivetting read Alan Mullaly and the fight to save Americas Icon - has some good insights on corporate culture in the  fight to turnaround Ford The Box - is a fabulous story of the Container - yes, something as simple as a container and it is such a great story to read A man called Ove - a fictional bittersweet story about an old man from a different generation... Call of the wild - an old classic about a dog, but a heartwarming read Wonder - its a childrens book, but my, does it make ...

It is a pleasure to see a business try out a new model. Few weeks ago I had written about how new media is still playing by old rules . It is here that The Ken is breaking new ground. It is a purely subscription model - and it prides you on getting you hard to get, well researched information. And that means real work - more than writing marketing puff pieces or opinion pieces written in a cab ride. And it is not a ton of content - it is limited content - I think its about 5 articles a week, but each of them makes you think. This is a true digital adaption - a new form of journalism that is not ad dependent (as traditional media is), but depends on discerning users. So, yes, a fan of them - almost every article has been hitting the right notes for my kind of interest, but goes on to show that even in a crowded space, there is space for differentiation.