Serendipity and Learning

 Yes, the headline is supposed to say Future. But what happens when those who divine the future have no clue about the future? Well, actually most of us don't - but we claim to have clairvoyance.  Every now and then you hear about future of work predictions. Until the last few months none of them had AI anywhere on their list.  And then Chatgpt happened and Bard and Co-pilot demo - and now everybody is singing AI is the future.  Sometimes, it is better to keep your mouth shut rather than open it and remove everyones doubts. 

 Many of us receive unwanted notifications from the apps on our phone. And some of them take the cake.  Until recently, it was limited to mail and gmails spam filter neatly took care of it.  But now every app has 5 classifications (or more of notifications). Each of them wants you to see their app - probably some metric on the lines of "times app opened" is being tracked. So, obviously the geniuses who design the app have come up with downright stupid and irritating ways to make the user open the app.  Sample a few - most are real - a few are parody Connect with your latest corporate connect. (Why?) A year of being in touch with X (again, corporate networking site, god why?) Happy hours on spectacles (huh?) Three days since you purchased coriander (cringe) Credit card rewards app wants me to login everyday and has gamified it to a Pavlovian level.  Flight booking app of airline wants me to fly to random locations Travel site wants me to travel here and there Th...

 Yes, digitization has made our life easier (refer to the previous post), but we are facing a few issue. Filling digital application forms.  1. For one, it is not intuitive. It takes a lot of user effort to get it right. Mostly they are digital replicas of physical artefacts, so it is painful. 2. Scanning every document and uploading (there is no standard size, dimension, format) - so it is a circus getting it right for every form. In the physical world, it was simple, photocopy, staple and boom.  3. The servers aren't always available, so you have keep on trying.  Thoughts as we fill out form after form for college application! How to make the user journey easy? The forms aren't made on any user journey - they are made purely from a bureaucractic lens and user is an afterthought. 

 I happened to pass by a railway booking counter - the likes of which were abundant some years ago. Indian railway ticket booking is a good example of how technology changes how work gets done.  In the olden days (before 90s) one would have to go overnight, 90 days before journey, be perfect with the train number, fill out a form and present it at the counter. My father would go sleep in front the counter the previous night (like many others), rush when the gates opened at 7, only to find the first 4-5 places on each counter occupied every single time (touts/agents), some how get a ticket and ensure our travel tickets are "booked". And there were limited counters.  Post 90s, this became a little better as more and more counters opened - at one point erstwhile VT station had 100 counters for booking tickets. The forms were the same, but the process was faster. Agents still got tickets faster than ordinary people. But the overnight waiting was eliminated. And counters were ...

 Recently, I have faced this phenomenon of top rated cab aggregator drivers requesting a switch to cash after getting to the point of pick up. Ostensibly, because of high commissions and because of delayed payments.  And it left me thinking - imagine a situation where your best employees dont like you. And as an org, you seem to be either unwilling or callous to do anything about it.  Now, isnt that a market gap waiting to be filled?

As the sessions progressed and we spoke about appreciation, we asked the group - so what exactly are you appreciating someone for? And came the reply: Ownership Responsbility Accountability Problem Solving Planning Prioritizing Focus and so on. If the behaviour is identified correctly, the person might go back with a feeling, "this is what I need to repeat" or "this is my strength" and so on.  And we also heard - Communication, Collaboration, Helping and Timely Delivery. What is the problem with these 4 words? Communication and Collaboration are too vague and dont leave the person with something tangible.  Helping, unless it can be measured and quantified is often a lazy term to be used when appreciating or justifying your time.  And Timely Delivery is almost always an outcome - it is never the cause of appreciation. So, the next time you catch yourself using these vague words, pause and think, exactly what are you appreciating?

 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?