Strips of paper...

I read some thing interesting about a great Italian scientist called Fermi and his work in nuclear physics. It was about Fermi breaking down a complex problem into small chunks, measuring the small chunk and then extending it to solve the larger problem.

In the mid 1900s, Fermi used strips of paper to calculate the impact of an explosion! He basically threw strips of paper from his hand, measured it and extended it to calculate the impact of an explosion in kilotons. Don't quite know how accurate it was, but nevertheless a great attempt and a great learning for all of us.

Anyway, about a couple of years ago I was in a meeting with my colleagues and the topic on the table was some thing related to morale issues and what people thought about working in my company. So here is the problem statement, if you were a rock star cool manager who was responsible for improving the morale of the org, what would you do??

I don't know about you, but I would have probably gone around talking to people and telling them how cool it was to work here! But how would you measure it?? Well well, that is when this awesome guy called CC (www.clarkeching.com) came up with this awesome idea of measuring it on a scale of 1 and 10 and tracking it over a period of time.

He called it iNPS or internal NPS and was a pretty cool way of measuring morale. I took the idea and implemented it in my team as well. If nothing else it at least tells you where you stand at a point in time and what steps can help you get some quick gains.

I also added a little bit of my own flavor by asking the top 2-3 reasons for a particular rating. I used a wee bit reading from Edward De Bono's six thinking hats to collect positives one week and all negatives the following week. It was interesting to see how the scores went up during the positives week and the scores going down during the negative week. Good learning anyway, I think it's a great way of measuring and tracking a complex problem in an org.

What next... well well well, I have been thinking about my mood swings from being positive to being a complete cynic. Strips of paper would probably not work, reckon I should iNPS my mood for the day??

Linda the Go(o)d(wo)man

Eons ago I read a book by Linda Goodman about Zodiac signs and I had completely bought into it. Loved it so much and could relate it so much that I almost self-indoctrinated myself with the science (or should I say art!) of zodiac signs. I remember following zodiac signs part of the news paper everyday and trying to understand life based on zodiac signs!

To be very honest, I still think a part of me believes in zodiacal signs and people behaviors. But then, "Confirmation bias" could be playing a huge role in convincing me that people are all about their zodiacal signs. For the uninitiated, confirmation bias is a scary new word I've learnt that says that in your zest to generalize and arrive at a pattern you interpret everything in a way that is in line with your belief. So, in my case, I probably wanted to internalize the concept so badly that everything I saw asked me to relate it to zodiacal signs.

Anyway, after all these years, I've got the same feeling again. I'm very very familiar with this feeling, the feeling that says.. "Aah, so true, this is what it is all about". This time around though, it's Myer-Briggs personality test. Myer-Briggs is a scientifically established test that describes people based on Extravertedness, Feelings, Sensitivity, Thinking , perception and a few more types. I'm an ESFP apparently and I was absolutely zapped by reading typical characteristics of this personality type.

It's hit me hard I have to say, hard as in wow what a cool theory! Hope I find the time one day to internalize it. But for now, love the feeling :)

The cycle of hype

Thoroughly enjoying my strategy assignment, reminds me of the days when I was part of the pre-sales team studying the content management space. Revisiting the Gartner reports, magic quadrants and bubble charts, so far so awesome. But the one thing that has really impressed me is the hype cycle.

Hype cycle is yet another Gartner tool that looks at the maturity of a technology. It describes the life cycle of a technology from inception to wide spread adoption and splits it into five cycles.

The first cycle talks about a technological breakthrough followed by excitement and immediate adoption. The technology then reaches a peak due to high expectations set by media and discussions. The bubble then bursts going through a phase called trough of disillusionment! This really must be a depressing phase for the all the entrepreneurs and businesses that adopted the technology. Pity them all!!

The next phase is awesome, this is the phase of ultimate human survival instincts and a true test of time. This is the phase in which businesses that did not lose the faith in the disillusionment phase continued innovating and using the technology. This phase is called enlightenment phase.

The final phase is when the technology is adopted by everybody, this is the phase when the technology has more or less proved itself and has reached the maturity phase.

Glad to see Corporate blogging in the final phase, blogging is also probably in the final phase... and I've finally finally finally caught up!!!




Image Source: Wiki

Ideas...

Had a great discussion today with my colleagues/friends today in the gym. It was centred around product release strategy, pricing, economies of scope , cash flows and staying competitive in the market. Got some great ideas from them. Glad we kept our pact from last week. Ohh the pact...

"Cheap people discuss people
Average people discuss events
Great people discuss ideas"

Events for us seem to be more about tv shows and movies, I'm not much of a movie or tv buff and get easily bored with such discussions. People is not an option coz it's deemed cheap now! Ideas is the way I guess... I'm loving it so far!!

P.S - the night ended on the note that discussing people is not ok, mentioning is ok :P