A great video that shows the ever lasting and ever relevant great theories of Harlow and Maslow in action...
Tuesday 21 October 2014
Fish in water
Each day we hear thousands of phrases and hundreds of a words. But we remember only a fraction of what we hear. Research suggests that we remember only 1/10th of what we hear every day. I suspect it is lot lesser than that... it's more like 1/25th for me!
So, with so many messages flying around and so much visual stimulation keeping our minds busy each day, how does one convey a strong message and most importantly how does one make sure that the audience remembers the message?
The trick apparently is to make your audience visualize your words by using stories and metaphors. Stories offer a consistent message with a clear beginning and an end and therefore is easy for the brain to comprehend and remember. Our great ancestors realized this centuries ago and encoded their messages in the form of fables. Story telling is a brilliant way of conveying messages - as anybody with kids would know the power of using fables to convey emotions and morals to young minds. You don't have to believe me, see it for yourself here...
https://www.ted.com/topics/storytelling
Story telling is a difficult skill to master and if you can't think of a story quickly, you can substitute it with a metaphor! Metaphor thinking provides a way to present complex information using simple examples. Metaphors provide specific frames or lenses for understanding the world and are central to the way we read, understand, and shape organisational life.
One such metaphor that has stuck with me is "Fish in water" - a metaphor used by one of my professors to describe how we limit our thinking. A fish in water swims happily in it's own world and tends to do the same things everyday without realizing what is happening beyond the fish tank. He used this metaphor to describe how we sometimes limit ourselves and limit our thinking. We tend to repeat the same actions and expect the same results. Every action reinforces the cognitive bias and strengthens the forces that tend to support the stereotype - of being a fish in the water. But then, the fish cannot live outside the water. So, the trick apparently is to jump above the water every so often and look below at the water we live in - then adapt accordingly. This by far is one of my favorite metaphors.
Metaphor thinking can help create powerful images and help solve complex problems. Several authors have written about metaphoric thinking. Here are some interesting books that talk about metaphoric thinking.
1. Images of Organizations - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Images-Organization-Gareth-Morgan/dp/1412939798
2. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metaphors-Analogies-Power-Teaching-Subject/dp/1571107584
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P.S - Next time, I'll be cheeky and rewrite this post as a story :)
Thursday 9 October 2014
Inspirational speeches
One of my favorite inspirational speeches... the true power of storytelling.
"I have a dream" by the great Martin Luther king is yet another favorite. You can find them here...
http://www.diresta.com/resources/articles/how-to-give-a-motivational-speech/
"I have a dream" by the great Martin Luther king is yet another favorite. You can find them here...
http://www.diresta.com/resources/articles/how-to-give-a-motivational-speech/
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Parkinson's law
I recently came across a couple of laws by a writer called Cyril Parkinson. His book called Parkinson's law - The pursuit of progress presents a very interesting view of organisations. I have not read the myself, but it is on my to read list.
One of his laws says that - work essentially expands to fill the time available. This means that if you have a piece of work that is estimated to take say three weeks, then the work somehow expands and takes the full three weeks to complete. The estimated time to complete primarily determines the pace at which you approach the task. In addition, it also gives you the ability to multitask and allow for interruptions during work. This law is quite an important especially when you are managing projects and it has considerable managerial implications.
If say a PM subscribes to this view, then it unlikely that he or she will believe when a employee gives an estimate for his work or updates the status of his/her tasks. It is a fairly thin line for a PM to tread by.I know some people who live by this rule. At the extreme end living by such a rule can drive behaviors that will be seen as pushy or un-trusting.
The second law of Parkinson called the law of triviality is even more interesting. It is also sometimes called the bike shed effect. Parkinson says that when people are put together in a room and asked to decide about a trivial thing such as the color of a bike shed, they can spend inappropriate time arguing and discussing what color would best work for the bike shed! Committee based decision making typically falls under this category. Imagine sitting in a room and discussing the color of a bike shed! Does it sound familiar? It does to me, I've been part of several such things that have added no value whatsoever. It is either irrelevant or something that is completely beyond the sphere of control.
The reason I remembered this today is because I am going to pick up a bike this weekend. And yes, it is for me. I was wondering if anybody wants to suggest what color bike I should pick up? And what color should I paint my bike shed ? :)
-Sandeep Kowshik
One of his laws says that - work essentially expands to fill the time available. This means that if you have a piece of work that is estimated to take say three weeks, then the work somehow expands and takes the full three weeks to complete. The estimated time to complete primarily determines the pace at which you approach the task. In addition, it also gives you the ability to multitask and allow for interruptions during work. This law is quite an important especially when you are managing projects and it has considerable managerial implications.
If say a PM subscribes to this view, then it unlikely that he or she will believe when a employee gives an estimate for his work or updates the status of his/her tasks. It is a fairly thin line for a PM to tread by.I know some people who live by this rule. At the extreme end living by such a rule can drive behaviors that will be seen as pushy or un-trusting.
The second law of Parkinson called the law of triviality is even more interesting. It is also sometimes called the bike shed effect. Parkinson says that when people are put together in a room and asked to decide about a trivial thing such as the color of a bike shed, they can spend inappropriate time arguing and discussing what color would best work for the bike shed! Committee based decision making typically falls under this category. Imagine sitting in a room and discussing the color of a bike shed! Does it sound familiar? It does to me, I've been part of several such things that have added no value whatsoever. It is either irrelevant or something that is completely beyond the sphere of control.
The reason I remembered this today is because I am going to pick up a bike this weekend. And yes, it is for me. I was wondering if anybody wants to suggest what color bike I should pick up? And what color should I paint my bike shed ? :)
-Sandeep Kowshik
The Countess of Chester
A few months ago I got a great opportunity to do a consultancy project with the Countess of Chester Hospital. I traveled to Chester with three other project mates and stayed in the on site accommodation provided by the hospital. The Countess is a fairly big hospital and has a staff of a few thousand people. Through the project I got to meet and interview quite a few people across the organization - radiologists, pharmacists, senior consultants and even the executive board members. Our final presentation to the exec board and the CEO went really well. Our work was highly appreciated and was very well received by the exec board. It was a great experience, a lot of learning and I thoroughly enjoyed working with my team at the Countess.
But the point of this post is really about the NHS. I have been in the UK for about five years now and touch wood I've never been admitted to a hospital. So my view of NHS in general was really colored by people around me. Some positive, some negative. But my experience of staying and talking directly to people across the Countess has completely changed my view. I found people at the Countess to be passionate, committed and very caring for the patients. People were very friendly, welcoming and always greeted each other with a smile. I don't know about the other NHS hospitals, but I was totally impressed by the professionalism and the camaraderie in the Countess. I am sure the other NHS hospitals are equally good if not better than the Countess.
NHS is really a great gift to the people in UK. In comparison, the Indian medical system is slowly heading the US way and soon the hospitals will become un-affordable for the poor in India. It is already very expensive in India and it troubles me to see the almost extortionist attitude in the medical system. It is appalling that the Indian system is failing to learn from the failures of the US medical system. NHS on the other hand is a great equalizer, it provides great medical facilities for the people irrespective of social class. Surely it has its own shortcomings and challenges. But I am certain that it can and should be addressed and fixed. I hope people support the services of NHS and help to preserve such a good medical system. And all I want to say is... I have new found respect for the NHS!
But the point of this post is really about the NHS. I have been in the UK for about five years now and touch wood I've never been admitted to a hospital. So my view of NHS in general was really colored by people around me. Some positive, some negative. But my experience of staying and talking directly to people across the Countess has completely changed my view. I found people at the Countess to be passionate, committed and very caring for the patients. People were very friendly, welcoming and always greeted each other with a smile. I don't know about the other NHS hospitals, but I was totally impressed by the professionalism and the camaraderie in the Countess. I am sure the other NHS hospitals are equally good if not better than the Countess.
NHS is really a great gift to the people in UK. In comparison, the Indian medical system is slowly heading the US way and soon the hospitals will become un-affordable for the poor in India. It is already very expensive in India and it troubles me to see the almost extortionist attitude in the medical system. It is appalling that the Indian system is failing to learn from the failures of the US medical system. NHS on the other hand is a great equalizer, it provides great medical facilities for the people irrespective of social class. Surely it has its own shortcomings and challenges. But I am certain that it can and should be addressed and fixed. I hope people support the services of NHS and help to preserve such a good medical system. And all I want to say is... I have new found respect for the NHS!
Wednesday 24 September 2014
Dr. E. Deming - Out of crisis
Dr. Edward's Deming they say is the father of quality revolution. He is credited with the creation of Total Quality Management (TQM) - the industry buzzword before the Lean & Six Sigma movement.I don't know much about TQM, but I know it failed and people will look at you suspiciously if you use these words! Nevertheless, the principles of TQM and the words of Deming are highly respected in quality circles.
I found a brief summary of his book online and added his book immediately to my Amazon wish list! Here are some of the ideas discussed by Deming in his book - Out of crisis. It's a great read.
- Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and
service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to
provide jobs.
- Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western
management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their
responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
- Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the
need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the
first place.
- End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag.
Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one
item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
- Improve constantly and forever the system of production and
service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease
costs.
- Institute training on the job.
- Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8 of "Out of the
Crisis"). The aim of supervision should be to help people and
machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in
need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
- Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the
company. (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis")
- Break down barriers between departments. People in research,
design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of
production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
- Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force
asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations
only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low
quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the
power of the work force.
- a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor.
Substitute leadership.
b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership. - a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride
of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from
sheer numbers to quality.
b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia," abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis"). - Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
- Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the
transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.
The conveyor belt
I am a big fan of Lean, Toyota Production system & Theory-of-Constraints. It's a shame that I haven't written much about these things here! The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker and The Goal by Eli Goldratt are probably the best books I've read on Lean. These are life changing books. Certainly for me, it has changed the way I looked at a lot of things in life. For instance, day to day things like McDonald's drive through, queuing system in subway, visual guides in hospitals, pizza delivery, supermarket shelves, overflow hole in hand wash basin (poke yoke) are some simple day-to-day examples you see in daily life. Principles of Lean can also be used on the software floor. Agile for instance has its roots in Lean software development developed by Mary Popendieck .& Tom Popendieck.
I can go on and on about Lean, ToC and Agile because I have spent considerable time thinking, doing and implementing these principles. I have even attempted to bring it back home and use it in my house! For today, I wanted to share the video that started it all for me. I don't know about the origin of the video or the context in which it was shot. But this hilarious video can be used to explain just-in-time, constraints, kanban, conflict & even management styles! Hope you enjoy it too.
I can go on and on about Lean, ToC and Agile because I have spent considerable time thinking, doing and implementing these principles. I have even attempted to bring it back home and use it in my house! For today, I wanted to share the video that started it all for me. I don't know about the origin of the video or the context in which it was shot. But this hilarious video can be used to explain just-in-time, constraints, kanban, conflict & even management styles! Hope you enjoy it too.
Friday 4 July 2014
Mistakes
Somebody forwarded me this "tiny-teensy" list of mistakes to avoid!! Is sharing this online a mistake as well??
=========================================
Mistakes
1. Jump to conclusions about other people’s motives.
2. Get caught up in competition. Strive for cooperation.
3. Describe yourself in negative terms.
4. Compare yourself to others to try and validate your results.
5. Violate your personal values or ethics for any reason.
6. Make excuses for telling lies. Just be honest and tactful.
7. Be rude to others regardless of how you feel about them.
8. Invalidate other people’s feelings.
9. Disrespect yourself or others.
10. Forget to be grateful.
11. Talk down to people.
12. Expect the worst or project negative expectations.
13. Speak in blanket generalizations.
14. Dominate conversations.
15. Try to assign blame. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault.
16. Focus on lack.
17. Put yourself or other people down.
18. Indulge in “pity parties.”
19. Think of yourself as smarter than, or better than everyone else.
20. Keep eating just because it tastes good.
21. Always insist on having the last word.
22. Look for other peoples faults. You don’t want them looking for yours.
23. Snivel.
24. Allow negative thoughts to dominate your outlook.
25. Imagine yourself as sick, poor, unworthy, or worthless.
26. Entertain or dwell on inappropriate thoughts or actions.
27. Harbor grudges or think about getting even.
28. Make lame excuses, just take responsibility.
29. Waste time trying to win an argument.
30. Say “I can’t” because you choose not to.
31. Expect TV to make you smarter.
32. Forget to take action every day.
33. Ignore the needs of others.
34. Say yes when you really mean no.
35. Dehumanize members of the opposite sex.
36. Over commit your time, energy, or resources.
37. Allow what you “have to do” to erase what you “want to do.”
38. Let the media or popular opinion make your decisions for you.
39. Buy things you don’t need just because they’re cool.
40. Forget to smile often and sincerely.
41. Stress over things you can’t control or change.
42. Let work dominate your days off.
43. Imagine you will do it someday. Do it now.
44. Expect others to make you feel happy, satisfied, or loved.
45. Tell yourself there isn’t enough time for a healthy lifestyle.
46. Blame your genetics for bad lifestyle choices.
47. Get trapped spending your free time doing things you don’t like.
48. Make decisions because you’re afraid you might miss out on something.
49. Worry over the personal decisions of others.
50. Focus on or talk about problems.
51. Get involved in things that are none of your business.
52. Avoid eye contact.
53. Say “I told you so” when things go bad because your advice was ignored.
54. Follow fads, trends, or allow others to dictate your identity.
55. Pretend that your reality is someone else’s fault.
56. Invent distractions to avoid responsibilities.
57. Shy away from new experiences.
58. Pretend you know something when you don’t.
59. Be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.
60. Forget to show appreciation to others.61. Allow your analytical mind to invalidate your intuition.
62. Ignore that little voice in your head.
63. Be too proud to learn from children
64. Worry about social standing, prestige, or popular opinion.
65. Talk yourself out of pursuing your dreams.
66. Think that ignoring a problem will make it go away.
67. Try to convince yourself that the things on this list don’t matter.
=========================================
Mistakes
1. Jump to conclusions about other people’s motives.
2. Get caught up in competition. Strive for cooperation.
3. Describe yourself in negative terms.
4. Compare yourself to others to try and validate your results.
5. Violate your personal values or ethics for any reason.
6. Make excuses for telling lies. Just be honest and tactful.
7. Be rude to others regardless of how you feel about them.
8. Invalidate other people’s feelings.
9. Disrespect yourself or others.
10. Forget to be grateful.
11. Talk down to people.
12. Expect the worst or project negative expectations.
13. Speak in blanket generalizations.
14. Dominate conversations.
15. Try to assign blame. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault.
16. Focus on lack.
17. Put yourself or other people down.
18. Indulge in “pity parties.”
19. Think of yourself as smarter than, or better than everyone else.
20. Keep eating just because it tastes good.
21. Always insist on having the last word.
22. Look for other peoples faults. You don’t want them looking for yours.
23. Snivel.
24. Allow negative thoughts to dominate your outlook.
25. Imagine yourself as sick, poor, unworthy, or worthless.
26. Entertain or dwell on inappropriate thoughts or actions.
27. Harbor grudges or think about getting even.
28. Make lame excuses, just take responsibility.
29. Waste time trying to win an argument.
30. Say “I can’t” because you choose not to.
31. Expect TV to make you smarter.
32. Forget to take action every day.
33. Ignore the needs of others.
34. Say yes when you really mean no.
35. Dehumanize members of the opposite sex.
36. Over commit your time, energy, or resources.
37. Allow what you “have to do” to erase what you “want to do.”
38. Let the media or popular opinion make your decisions for you.
39. Buy things you don’t need just because they’re cool.
40. Forget to smile often and sincerely.
41. Stress over things you can’t control or change.
42. Let work dominate your days off.
43. Imagine you will do it someday. Do it now.
44. Expect others to make you feel happy, satisfied, or loved.
45. Tell yourself there isn’t enough time for a healthy lifestyle.
46. Blame your genetics for bad lifestyle choices.
47. Get trapped spending your free time doing things you don’t like.
48. Make decisions because you’re afraid you might miss out on something.
49. Worry over the personal decisions of others.
50. Focus on or talk about problems.
51. Get involved in things that are none of your business.
52. Avoid eye contact.
53. Say “I told you so” when things go bad because your advice was ignored.
54. Follow fads, trends, or allow others to dictate your identity.
55. Pretend that your reality is someone else’s fault.
56. Invent distractions to avoid responsibilities.
57. Shy away from new experiences.
58. Pretend you know something when you don’t.
59. Be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.
60. Forget to show appreciation to others.61. Allow your analytical mind to invalidate your intuition.
62. Ignore that little voice in your head.
63. Be too proud to learn from children
64. Worry about social standing, prestige, or popular opinion.
65. Talk yourself out of pursuing your dreams.
66. Think that ignoring a problem will make it go away.
67. Try to convince yourself that the things on this list don’t matter.
In hindsight - 2
Heuristics and biases is a fairly vast topic and there are a plethora of cognitive biases that determine our behavior. What is interesting is that this individual biases can aggregate and manifest itself as a collective organizational behavior.
I came across a brilliant presentation from Deloitte that spoke about the impact of these different biases in organizations. The speaker called it human biases and gave great examples of how these biases adversely impact risk strategy execution. The image below shows the different kinds of biases that exist and threaten change management programs in organizations. So true! It's a great representation of all the challenges we see in organizations day in and day out!
Source: Deloitte DBriefs
I came across a brilliant presentation from Deloitte that spoke about the impact of these different biases in organizations. The speaker called it human biases and gave great examples of how these biases adversely impact risk strategy execution. The image below shows the different kinds of biases that exist and threaten change management programs in organizations. So true! It's a great representation of all the challenges we see in organizations day in and day out!
In hindsight
Remember orkut? I don't think the millennial's or the generation Z's would know about it. Orkut used to be the social networking site by google before the days of facebook. I used to be quite active on orkut about a decade ago.
In my Orkut profile - about me section, I remember writing about the character of Howard Roark the protagonist of the epic novel Fountain head. Ayn Rand, the author describes Howard Roark as a highly self-aware and highly rational individual. He knew himself very well and had rational reasons for why he liked somebody, hated somebody, what he wanted in life, what he wanted in a relationship and what to say and when to say some thing. In fact, the other characters in the book were also pretty strong headed, highly mature, rational and aware characters. Like every body else who has read the book, I too was heavily influenced by the characters, the story and the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Obviously, different people remember different things about the book and take away different things back into their lives. My world view and my needs at that point led me to admire the self-awareness of the characters which I believe eventually led me to chase "perfection". So, in my Orkut profile I had written some thing on the lines of experience - and I had written about not doing things right and giving it the name "experience"! And I wondered when will I get to the stage in life when I stop excusing myself by saying, okay I got it wrong this time and put it to down to a "learning from experience". In other words, for a long long time I was chasing the "be-perfect" dream. And I always pushed myself to get there.
Guess what? Turns out that there is a scientific explanation to this... and it is called "Hindsight bias"! Hindsight bias is an after the event rationalization where you get to the end of an event and tell yourself that you knew all the way along that the event was predictable. When you get to the end of the situation, you regret not noticing trends earlier and not adjusting your behavior accordingly. This belief that you could have foreseen the event is based on the premise that the world around is rational and behaves in predictable order. In a way, this core belief was driving me towards achieving the level of my heroes - the Howards Roark's and the the Dominique Frankon's of Fountain head.
And of course, the world is not as predictable as you believe it is and I never got to the level of my fictional heroes! I only wish I knew this earlier. I wish I had stopped to reflect and learned about this earlier. In hindsight, I wish I was a lot wiser :)
In my Orkut profile - about me section, I remember writing about the character of Howard Roark the protagonist of the epic novel Fountain head. Ayn Rand, the author describes Howard Roark as a highly self-aware and highly rational individual. He knew himself very well and had rational reasons for why he liked somebody, hated somebody, what he wanted in life, what he wanted in a relationship and what to say and when to say some thing. In fact, the other characters in the book were also pretty strong headed, highly mature, rational and aware characters. Like every body else who has read the book, I too was heavily influenced by the characters, the story and the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Obviously, different people remember different things about the book and take away different things back into their lives. My world view and my needs at that point led me to admire the self-awareness of the characters which I believe eventually led me to chase "perfection". So, in my Orkut profile I had written some thing on the lines of experience - and I had written about not doing things right and giving it the name "experience"! And I wondered when will I get to the stage in life when I stop excusing myself by saying, okay I got it wrong this time and put it to down to a "learning from experience". In other words, for a long long time I was chasing the "be-perfect" dream. And I always pushed myself to get there.
Guess what? Turns out that there is a scientific explanation to this... and it is called "Hindsight bias"! Hindsight bias is an after the event rationalization where you get to the end of an event and tell yourself that you knew all the way along that the event was predictable. When you get to the end of the situation, you regret not noticing trends earlier and not adjusting your behavior accordingly. This belief that you could have foreseen the event is based on the premise that the world around is rational and behaves in predictable order. In a way, this core belief was driving me towards achieving the level of my heroes - the Howards Roark's and the the Dominique Frankon's of Fountain head.
And of course, the world is not as predictable as you believe it is and I never got to the level of my fictional heroes! I only wish I knew this earlier. I wish I had stopped to reflect and learned about this earlier. In hindsight, I wish I was a lot wiser :)
Saturday 14 June 2014
Highway 350
Been a while since I wrote here. Without going into the excuses, because I have really have tons of them, here is the new thing I have learned a couple of months ago.
Apparently, the human mind can think at the rate of 500 words a minute. Which means you as a person can comprehend 500 words a minute. But the rate at which we speak is about 150 - especially my friends from the far far west. My friends from far far east probably speak much faster than that . (try listening to Ricky Ponting or Mark Taylor and you will know what I am talking about). Either way, lets assume that the average speed at which people normally speak is 150 words a minute. That leaves a gap of 350.
This my dear friends is called "highway 350" and we as humans have the tendency to ride this highway at every given possible instance. Why we do that, I have no idea.
So what?
Obviously, the hardest bit is to transfer our thinking from the highway to the slow 150 slip road. And as a consequence we get lost in thoughts and lose out on the words of the speaker. We tend to become poor listeners over a period of time. What's even more surprising is that it is not only when you are listening to somebody talk, it could also be when you are texting/chatting with some body. The suggestions seem to flow even before the problem is stated!!!
What next?
Over the last couple of months, I have been noticing this phenomenon and have noticed even people who are in the profession of listening falling short. The problem is that we tend to generalize and make judgments way too early and it takes some effort to stop ourselves from generalizing and jumping to conclusions.
Believe me or not, I really think I have managed to build a better professional relationship just by being open and by putting in the effort to contain my thoughts and holding my thoughts for a brief while... by being "in the zone" and listening intently. And all I had to do was listen intently, summarize the conversation and re-focus on the needs of my colleague.
Of course, it takes effort and it doesn't come easily. I have managed to repeat it a couple of times since the first experience, but failed quite a few times. I cannot summon the calmness in my mind always, but it is definitely more frequent and much better than before. The challenge ahead for me is to maintain that state of mind and stop myself from joining... the accident prone highway 350!
Apparently, the human mind can think at the rate of 500 words a minute. Which means you as a person can comprehend 500 words a minute. But the rate at which we speak is about 150 - especially my friends from the far far west. My friends from far far east probably speak much faster than that . (try listening to Ricky Ponting or Mark Taylor and you will know what I am talking about). Either way, lets assume that the average speed at which people normally speak is 150 words a minute. That leaves a gap of 350.
This my dear friends is called "highway 350" and we as humans have the tendency to ride this highway at every given possible instance. Why we do that, I have no idea.
So what?
Obviously, the hardest bit is to transfer our thinking from the highway to the slow 150 slip road. And as a consequence we get lost in thoughts and lose out on the words of the speaker. We tend to become poor listeners over a period of time. What's even more surprising is that it is not only when you are listening to somebody talk, it could also be when you are texting/chatting with some body. The suggestions seem to flow even before the problem is stated!!!
What next?
Over the last couple of months, I have been noticing this phenomenon and have noticed even people who are in the profession of listening falling short. The problem is that we tend to generalize and make judgments way too early and it takes some effort to stop ourselves from generalizing and jumping to conclusions.
Believe me or not, I really think I have managed to build a better professional relationship just by being open and by putting in the effort to contain my thoughts and holding my thoughts for a brief while... by being "in the zone" and listening intently. And all I had to do was listen intently, summarize the conversation and re-focus on the needs of my colleague.
Of course, it takes effort and it doesn't come easily. I have managed to repeat it a couple of times since the first experience, but failed quite a few times. I cannot summon the calmness in my mind always, but it is definitely more frequent and much better than before. The challenge ahead for me is to maintain that state of mind and stop myself from joining... the accident prone highway 350!
Sunday 4 May 2014
The dive
Last year, my wife gave me an unusual gift for my birthday. She said happy birthday, I wish you many many more such great birthdays and gifted me a dive with the sharks!
So we went to this place in Edinburgh and I jumped into a big tank full of sharks. The sharks were massive, they were about 9-10 feet each and they look magnificent. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of swimming with these amazing creatures and being a part of their serene world. The sound of silence in the water was pure joy.
..............
Fast forward, a year later a good friend of mine pointed me to a video called Blackfish. It is a documentary about the life of killer wales aka orca's in captivity. I watched the first couple of minutes and knew that the world has wronged these amazing sea beauties.
Remember Free willy? The orca in that movie was called Keiko. After the movie, keiko was sent to Mexico and it was used for live performances. The small tank in Mexico soon took it's toll on keiko - the constant exposure to air, the unclean water and the shallow tank started affected it's health. Keiko had caught the imagination of the world by then and there was a massive movement called free-keiko movement that raised 7 million pounds to move keiko to a bigger tank in Oregan. After 6 months in Oregan it was moved to Iceland and then released back into the wild. Keiko did not survive for too long, it was seen too close the shore line probably yearning for human touch. It died within 6 weeks at a young age of 27!
This is just one story, there are several such stories of orca's that have suffered the loneliness. There are cases of orca's committing suicide due to depression! Attacks on their trainers is another manifestation of their anger against captivity. Surely, we cannot provide them with some food everyday and claim that it is the same as living in the wild!
Here are some facts about orca's in captivity:
- Orca's live in the wild for upto 70 years, and in captivity for about 20-30 years
- The dorsal fin collapse is observed in 90% of captive orca's, the magnificent fin just falls apart because of the effect of gravity and the lack of water pressure in the small tanks
Anyway, the point of this post is that I have taken an intransigent position that I will never pay to watch these animals perform. I will never repeat the shark dive and will never support anything that puts animals in captivity. Coz, remember that at the end of the show you can always go back home... those beautiful animals cannot!
Friday 18 April 2014
Lie to me...
I am not a big fan of Tele and I don't quite enjoy following any TV series much. My fav channels are usually the news or sports channels and I struggle to follow the friends, the scrubs and the other tv series that people seem to like and follow. Not that they are bad or something, just that I've tried it a few times and I just don't seem to get it.
But, there is one TV series I've started following recently and I am just in awe of the series. It is called "Lie to Me" and is based on the work of Dr. Paul Eckman on human emotions. His book telling lies is a great read, I've probably spent a couple of hours reading the book and his explanation of physiological reactions to emotions is very interesting.
For instance, have you ever noticed people smile during an argument? And the other people involved in the argument get annoyed because they see it as a smirk and not a smile? Eckman's explanation is that for some people anger is a very strong emotion and during an argument, they may not be able to express it well and the body may react by camouflaging the anger with a smile! And the worst part is, the physiological reactions are sometimes beyond your control!! And then what happens is that the entire argument falls apart and the focus shifts to the smirk or smile - depending on who you are in the argument.
Interesting stuff, wish I had the time to explore this further. I would definitely love to get better at understanding and dealing with different people. Anyway, if you can't read the book, try and at least watch the TV series.
Links:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Ekman/e/B002FSXSVI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lie-Me-Complete-Season-1-3/dp/B005MI25C6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397864436&sr=8-1&keywords=lie+to+me
But, there is one TV series I've started following recently and I am just in awe of the series. It is called "Lie to Me" and is based on the work of Dr. Paul Eckman on human emotions. His book telling lies is a great read, I've probably spent a couple of hours reading the book and his explanation of physiological reactions to emotions is very interesting.
For instance, have you ever noticed people smile during an argument? And the other people involved in the argument get annoyed because they see it as a smirk and not a smile? Eckman's explanation is that for some people anger is a very strong emotion and during an argument, they may not be able to express it well and the body may react by camouflaging the anger with a smile! And the worst part is, the physiological reactions are sometimes beyond your control!! And then what happens is that the entire argument falls apart and the focus shifts to the smirk or smile - depending on who you are in the argument.
Interesting stuff, wish I had the time to explore this further. I would definitely love to get better at understanding and dealing with different people. Anyway, if you can't read the book, try and at least watch the TV series.
Links:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Ekman/e/B002FSXSVI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lie-Me-Complete-Season-1-3/dp/B005MI25C6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397864436&sr=8-1&keywords=lie+to+me
2052 - part 3
This is probably my last post about the projections for the world in 2050's. There is just so much data and so many inferences to make, that it is hard for me to keep myself away from it. It is very interesting though, interesting because the current powerful world economies know that there will be a change, a change in power structures and their influence over the world and that they cannot go overboard with their current power status - militarily and economically.
I've read a few papers on the projections for 2050s and all of them more or less paint the picture that in the next decade China, US and India will be the top three economies in the same order by 2050. China will overtake US in the next decade or so and it will be a slow gradual transfer of power to China. It probably will keep the media interested for a while, but the world will probably accept it without too much of a shock. Nigeria for instance overtook SA as the highest GDP nation in the African continent, but that didn't really shake the world. Did it? Not yet probably, not till the common man sees the money (GDP per person) and feels he is better off than people in SA.
Anyway, here is the data from one of the reports I've read (pwc). There are numerous such reports, I'll make a list in the end of this post. The world will be a different place in terms of GDP which equals power!
But but, increase in GDP will mean very little to the poor man on the street. The GDP per person will determine how happy or how sad the people on the street are. In those terms I think the west will continue to do better, probably because there are too many mouths to feed in the east. The following image says it all. The marginal increase in the GDP per person (India for instance) will go away in paying for the high prices of goods and services, leaving the common man not very better off than where he is today.
The increased GDP in the east - particularly India and China will be driven and fueled by increased consumerism. The consumer market will continue to expand and companies will obviously benefit from the demand. But, just imagine the demand on our planet! The west will slowly lose control and I wonder if the growing east and the diminishing west will ever be able to reach a common ground on the impact of consumerism on the globe. It's time to explore the universe and look for another planet!
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_future_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita#Citigroup_estimates_between_2020_and_2050
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_GDP_(PPP)_estimates
https://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/world-2050/assets/pwc-world-in-2050-report-january-2013.pdf
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-world-gdp-projection-for-2050-2012-11
I've read a few papers on the projections for 2050s and all of them more or less paint the picture that in the next decade China, US and India will be the top three economies in the same order by 2050. China will overtake US in the next decade or so and it will be a slow gradual transfer of power to China. It probably will keep the media interested for a while, but the world will probably accept it without too much of a shock. Nigeria for instance overtook SA as the highest GDP nation in the African continent, but that didn't really shake the world. Did it? Not yet probably, not till the common man sees the money (GDP per person) and feels he is better off than people in SA.
Anyway, here is the data from one of the reports I've read (pwc). There are numerous such reports, I'll make a list in the end of this post. The world will be a different place in terms of GDP which equals power!
But but, increase in GDP will mean very little to the poor man on the street. The GDP per person will determine how happy or how sad the people on the street are. In those terms I think the west will continue to do better, probably because there are too many mouths to feed in the east. The following image says it all. The marginal increase in the GDP per person (India for instance) will go away in paying for the high prices of goods and services, leaving the common man not very better off than where he is today.
The increased GDP in the east - particularly India and China will be driven and fueled by increased consumerism. The consumer market will continue to expand and companies will obviously benefit from the demand. But, just imagine the demand on our planet! The west will slowly lose control and I wonder if the growing east and the diminishing west will ever be able to reach a common ground on the impact of consumerism on the globe. It's time to explore the universe and look for another planet!
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_future_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita#Citigroup_estimates_between_2020_and_2050
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_GDP_(PPP)_estimates
https://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/world-2050/assets/pwc-world-in-2050-report-january-2013.pdf
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-world-gdp-projection-for-2050-2012-11
Sunday 13 April 2014
Beyond CSR
Pepsico has adopted a great model of creating a supportive environment for the farmer community in India and has gained sufficient support from the farming community. The potato project as it is called - http://www.cropscience.bayer.com has taken their key suppliers (the poor farmers) of India and built a highly sustainable project that benefits both the company and the community. The farmer community gets the best support to grow their produce and a consistent buyer of their produce whilst pepsico has created a chain of highly dependable and happy suppliers. They have used this model in several other countries such as Chile & China.
This is a good example of how a company can go beyond the basic CSR act of using fair trade products or a voluntarist strategy for their employees to a deeper act of creating economic and social value. M. E. Porter would probably call this - "The right way" of creating economic value.
There is so much potential for such a model to thrive in the world today. There is so much that companies can achieve just by engaging with their most important stake holder - the community. Wonder what is stopping them?
Ref: http://hbr.org/2009/09/why-sustainability-is-now-the-key-driver-of-innovation/
This is a good example of how a company can go beyond the basic CSR act of using fair trade products or a voluntarist strategy for their employees to a deeper act of creating economic and social value. M. E. Porter would probably call this - "The right way" of creating economic value.
There is so much potential for such a model to thrive in the world today. There is so much that companies can achieve just by engaging with their most important stake holder - the community. Wonder what is stopping them?
Ref: http://hbr.org/2009/09/why-sustainability-is-now-the-key-driver-of-innovation/
2052 cont'd...
Continuing with the forecasts from the 2052 book....
The book uses a model called "The Deterministic Backbone" and includes some variables such as population, energy consumption and GDP which evolve sluggishly and move with a lot of inertia. The crux of the model is that population will peak around 8.1 Billion in 2040 and will not reach the UN forecast of 9 Billion by 2030. This is because of declining fertility rates, rapid urbanization and demographic distribution of ageing population. This change in population will drive other factors such as GDP, Consumption, CO2 and Temperature levels of the world. This model forms the premise for the forecasts made in book 2052 by professor Randers.
The change in population and GDP growth will have serious implications on consumption - which in turn will directly impact businesses in terms of volumes of sales made by companies. There are several interesting forecasts that emerge from this model and I have tried to summarize them in the table below.
The three key message for me from the book are: 1> The poor will continue to remain poor despite the GDP growth because of rising food and water prices. 2> World will move towards the poles - the Norways, and Icelands will become more habitable with access to food and water 3> The sixth wave of innovation will happen and focus on sustainability and saving what ever little we will be left with! Hope you can see the grim picture of the world in 40 years time and do your bit!
Ref: http://www.2052.info/
The book uses a model called "The Deterministic Backbone" and includes some variables such as population, energy consumption and GDP which evolve sluggishly and move with a lot of inertia. The crux of the model is that population will peak around 8.1 Billion in 2040 and will not reach the UN forecast of 9 Billion by 2030. This is because of declining fertility rates, rapid urbanization and demographic distribution of ageing population. This change in population will drive other factors such as GDP, Consumption, CO2 and Temperature levels of the world. This model forms the premise for the forecasts made in book 2052 by professor Randers.
The three key message for me from the book are: 1> The poor will continue to remain poor despite the GDP growth because of rising food and water prices. 2> World will move towards the poles - the Norways, and Icelands will become more habitable with access to food and water 3> The sixth wave of innovation will happen and focus on sustainability and saving what ever little we will be left with! Hope you can see the grim picture of the world in 40 years time and do your bit!
Ref: http://www.2052.info/
Consumerism
I recently read a great book called "2052 - A global forecast for the next 40 years" by Professor Jorgen Randers. He argues that current human lifestyle requires the support of 1.4 planets; humanity has overshot its use of planetary resources. He makes the point that it will be physically impossible to lift the material standard of living of all nations to that of current West. For example, there is not enough raw material, fuel, and space available for everyone to have their own car thus putting a limit to consumerism. The image below shows a comparison of GDP and consumption across different countries:
Businesses are seen to create profit at the cost of community rather than the profits benefiting the community. Increasing consumption and focusing on profits alone can alienate business from the community. But, creating economic value alone may lead to community (customers and people who are highly important stakeholders in the business) slowly losing faith in the business model. The solution therefore is to focus on a shared value between community and business - called the "right way" of creating economic value.
I've completely "bought" into the idea that consumerism is hurting us. I have reduced the stuff I unnecessarily buy and throw away. That's one person contributing less to the ill-defined "economic value creation" process!
Ref: http://www.2052.info/
Friday 28 February 2014
The sixth wave
After all the belittling statements in my last post about pollution in Beijing and how the world is not learning from others, here is something nice I have to say about policies in the east. China has the largest solar park in the world, they are investing heavily in wind and solar farms. They invest much more than the US and Europe in renewables and it is predicted that China will be the world leader in renewables.
India is far behind the rest, but it has started investing in solar farms. States of Rajasthan and Gujurat have invested heavily in solar, the south of India is yet to wake up. India is also predicted to increase its spending on renewables in the next decade or so. So, yes, the east is doing some things right with respect to energy needs and trying to build sustainable solutions.
The word "Sustainability" is important today, but soon it is predicted to be the most important word used in business. A great guy called Moody has written a book called the "The sixth wave". The author says that human kind has gone through five waves of innovation and each wave was started by a technological innovation. The next innovation he claims will be around Sustainability and Resource efficiency.
The image below shows the waves of innovation in human history. As shown below, the 6th phase is forecast to be triggered by sustainability and increasing resource productivity.
Here are some examples he uses of innovation in business that promotes sustainability:
1> Resource efficiency by lower consumption:- Electrical utilities depend on high energy consumption for their profits. The more people use energy, the more the profits. But then, people don't need to buy energy, they don't really own it. So one business has moved from selling as much energy as possible to selling a service that makes sure consumers use as less energy as possible for the same level of comfort. This means the company is now making a profit by ensuring a quality of service provided to a customer rather than the volume of energy consumed (sold). So, as a consumer you will get energy 24 hrs a day, the house will be kept warm, but they will come to your house and check your roof, windows, devices etc so that you use energy optimally. For me that is a win-win situation.
2> Resource efficiency - One survey says that over 60% of cars stay parked for more than 16 hrs a day and people are tired of paying road tax, parking fees for hardly using the car. So one business has understood that people really don't need to own a car. They can share cars if there is a big enough pool of cars. It is like a taxi system, just that you drive around whenever you need it. Done deal!
I think the industry around "Have" vs "needs" - such as airbnb, fairshare taxis etc is also based on this concept. I am so looking forward to the sixth wave, hope it comes soon and hope it is a big wave to ride on!
India is far behind the rest, but it has started investing in solar farms. States of Rajasthan and Gujurat have invested heavily in solar, the south of India is yet to wake up. India is also predicted to increase its spending on renewables in the next decade or so. So, yes, the east is doing some things right with respect to energy needs and trying to build sustainable solutions.
The word "Sustainability" is important today, but soon it is predicted to be the most important word used in business. A great guy called Moody has written a book called the "The sixth wave". The author says that human kind has gone through five waves of innovation and each wave was started by a technological innovation. The next innovation he claims will be around Sustainability and Resource efficiency.
The image below shows the waves of innovation in human history. As shown below, the 6th phase is forecast to be triggered by sustainability and increasing resource productivity.
Here are some examples he uses of innovation in business that promotes sustainability:
1> Resource efficiency by lower consumption:- Electrical utilities depend on high energy consumption for their profits. The more people use energy, the more the profits. But then, people don't need to buy energy, they don't really own it. So one business has moved from selling as much energy as possible to selling a service that makes sure consumers use as less energy as possible for the same level of comfort. This means the company is now making a profit by ensuring a quality of service provided to a customer rather than the volume of energy consumed (sold). So, as a consumer you will get energy 24 hrs a day, the house will be kept warm, but they will come to your house and check your roof, windows, devices etc so that you use energy optimally. For me that is a win-win situation.
2> Resource efficiency - One survey says that over 60% of cars stay parked for more than 16 hrs a day and people are tired of paying road tax, parking fees for hardly using the car. So one business has understood that people really don't need to own a car. They can share cars if there is a big enough pool of cars. It is like a taxi system, just that you drive around whenever you need it. Done deal!
I think the industry around "Have" vs "needs" - such as airbnb, fairshare taxis etc is also based on this concept. I am so looking forward to the sixth wave, hope it comes soon and hope it is a big wave to ride on!
Thursday 27 February 2014
Anthropocene
Humanity they say is now influencing every aspect of the Earth on a scale akin to the great forces of nature. A growing number of scientists think the planet has entered a new geological epoch and it needs a new name – the “Anthropocene”. Our current lifestyle scientists say requires the support of 1.4 planets because 75% of things we buy ends up in the bin. Humanity has overshot its use of planetary resources. Consumption and consumerism is obviously hurting us and hurting the climate. You can see more here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvgG-pxlobk
If you watch Al gore's video called An Inconvenient Truth, you would probably relate to the impact of mankind on our planet. If you haven't watched it, I strongly suggest you do. Soon after that look up the news and see what is going in Beijing. It is unbelievable! The smog has engulfed the city and even the bright sun looks like a small torch light during the day.
Cops are distributing face masks on the streets of Beijing. Wonder how effective it is, it is after all a thin layer of cloth. That's fine for the humans, but what about the animals, how would they survive this. The pollution levels measured in pm count there is called "Crazy bad"! That is another story all together, look it up online. Now they are waiting for the winds to arrive and push the smog further east into the oceans.
The first time I heard about the word "Smog" was some time in 1990s when I read in the news papers that London was covered with a thick layer of Smog due to pollution by cars and industries. Then a similar thing happened in NY.
But now, I think London and NY have dramatically controlled their air quality. It definitely doesn't feel or smell that bad when you travel to these places. The west has been through this phase and has put it behind them long long ago. Point is, when these places have learned their lessons the hard way, why can't others proactively stop such a thing from occurring. Will Mumbai and Bangalore head in the same direction too? Will we ever learn from our mistakes and stop abusing our cities?
If you watch Al gore's video called An Inconvenient Truth, you would probably relate to the impact of mankind on our planet. If you haven't watched it, I strongly suggest you do. Soon after that look up the news and see what is going in Beijing. It is unbelievable! The smog has engulfed the city and even the bright sun looks like a small torch light during the day.
Cops are distributing face masks on the streets of Beijing. Wonder how effective it is, it is after all a thin layer of cloth. That's fine for the humans, but what about the animals, how would they survive this. The pollution levels measured in pm count there is called "Crazy bad"! That is another story all together, look it up online. Now they are waiting for the winds to arrive and push the smog further east into the oceans.
The first time I heard about the word "Smog" was some time in 1990s when I read in the news papers that London was covered with a thick layer of Smog due to pollution by cars and industries. Then a similar thing happened in NY.
But now, I think London and NY have dramatically controlled their air quality. It definitely doesn't feel or smell that bad when you travel to these places. The west has been through this phase and has put it behind them long long ago. Point is, when these places have learned their lessons the hard way, why can't others proactively stop such a thing from occurring. Will Mumbai and Bangalore head in the same direction too? Will we ever learn from our mistakes and stop abusing our cities?
Writer's block
There is a concept called writer's block. The concept basically says that when you start writing (Typing rather!), your brain goes into auto-correct mode i.e, you start a sentence, go back and correct the sentence and re-frame it till your convinced that it sounds ok. I have seen quite a few people struggle with it, especially when they are writing emails to people.
When I started my mba in 2012, the first thing we were thought was to get around the writer's block. So, instead of fixing each and every word/line, just write down your thoughts and go back and correct it later. That way you build the big picture first and then go back to correct the details. I quite liked the idea.
In late 2012, when I first started writing, I used to take about 3-4 hours to write 300 odd words. I was extremely slow. A couple of days ago, I wrote 1500 words in about four hours! I was happy. The words flowed fairly easily and the quality was pretty much to my expected standards. Of course, it depends on the subject you are writing and there is always scope for improvement, but feels like I am slowly winning the game over my writer's block :)
When I started my mba in 2012, the first thing we were thought was to get around the writer's block. So, instead of fixing each and every word/line, just write down your thoughts and go back and correct it later. That way you build the big picture first and then go back to correct the details. I quite liked the idea.
In late 2012, when I first started writing, I used to take about 3-4 hours to write 300 odd words. I was extremely slow. A couple of days ago, I wrote 1500 words in about four hours! I was happy. The words flowed fairly easily and the quality was pretty much to my expected standards. Of course, it depends on the subject you are writing and there is always scope for improvement, but feels like I am slowly winning the game over my writer's block :)
Friday 14 February 2014
I am 20
First, kindly watch the video...
This video was shot in 1967 and all the people you see are 20 year old Indians. I was touched by this video and I was thoroughly impressed by the guy who is sitting with some books on chemistry and calculus. Towards the end, he refers to Kennedy and talks about being part of a great experiment, I thought that was brilliant. I was particularly amazed by their level of maturity, clarity and depth of their thoughts. Eloquence was another thing that stumped me.
I wonder what 20 year old kids of the current generation would say? Would they be able to articulate their feelings so succinctly and have such strong opinions about important things in life. I've heard that a lot of kids in their early teens dream about being on X-factor in the UK! I wonder if young people are dumbing down over generations.
I often argue that we (me rather!!) live in a sensationalizing era. We consume too much unnecessary information and use our brains like junk yards. We cater too much to our visual senses, as in watching gory videos, fb, news and what not and give very little time for deep thoughts. The older generation probably did not have as many distractions as much as we do now. They had time to tell stories to each other, to connect the dots and create meaningful ends. I think we struggle with too much breadth.
Confirmation bias being confirmation bias, what I've picked up from the video really is that you need to slow down and limit the number of sensations to be able to think deeply and build solid perspectives. Damn you my confirmation bias!!
This video was shot in 1967 and all the people you see are 20 year old Indians. I was touched by this video and I was thoroughly impressed by the guy who is sitting with some books on chemistry and calculus. Towards the end, he refers to Kennedy and talks about being part of a great experiment, I thought that was brilliant. I was particularly amazed by their level of maturity, clarity and depth of their thoughts. Eloquence was another thing that stumped me.
I wonder what 20 year old kids of the current generation would say? Would they be able to articulate their feelings so succinctly and have such strong opinions about important things in life. I've heard that a lot of kids in their early teens dream about being on X-factor in the UK! I wonder if young people are dumbing down over generations.
I often argue that we (me rather!!) live in a sensationalizing era. We consume too much unnecessary information and use our brains like junk yards. We cater too much to our visual senses, as in watching gory videos, fb, news and what not and give very little time for deep thoughts. The older generation probably did not have as many distractions as much as we do now. They had time to tell stories to each other, to connect the dots and create meaningful ends. I think we struggle with too much breadth.
Confirmation bias being confirmation bias, what I've picked up from the video really is that you need to slow down and limit the number of sensations to be able to think deeply and build solid perspectives. Damn you my confirmation bias!!
Thursday 13 February 2014
Enneagram
A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a personality test Enneagram test. I say stumbled because I read a poem written by two top thinkers on this topic and curiosity lead me to take the test seriously. For some reason, the test and the results did not stick with me for too long and it slipped out of my mind completely. Probably because the name is uncommon and is hard to pronounce!
The test gives you a type and then goes on to describe the type. I don't quite remember the results, but I think my responses tended more towards 5 and 3 and my type had some suggestions such as spend time alone to get to know yourself, learn to avoid over-identifying with your work, Acknowledge your weakness, shading etc.
Anyway, I will leave you with the poem that introduced me to this concept. I love it...
If we were to really observe ourselves,
we would become aware of our habits.
If we were to become aware of our habits,
we would let go and relax.
If we were to let go and relax,
we would be aware of sensations.
If we were to be aware of sensations,
we would receive impressions.
If we were to receive impressions,
we would awaken to the moment.
If we were to awaken to the moment,
we would experience reality.
If we were to experience reality,
we would see that we are not our personality.
If we were to see that we are not our personality,
we would remember ourselves.
If we were to remember ourselves,
we would let go of our fear and attachments.
If we were to let go of our fear and attachments,
we would be touched by God.
If we were touched by God,
we would seek union with God.
If we were to seek union with God,
we would will what God wills.
If we were to will what God wills,
we would be transformed.
If we were transformed,
the world would be transformed.
If the world were transformed,
all would return to God.
–from The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson
The test gives you a type and then goes on to describe the type. I don't quite remember the results, but I think my responses tended more towards 5 and 3 and my type had some suggestions such as spend time alone to get to know yourself, learn to avoid over-identifying with your work, Acknowledge your weakness, shading etc.
Anyway, I will leave you with the poem that introduced me to this concept. I love it...
If we were to really observe ourselves,
we would become aware of our habits.
If we were to become aware of our habits,
we would let go and relax.
If we were to let go and relax,
we would be aware of sensations.
If we were to be aware of sensations,
we would receive impressions.
If we were to receive impressions,
we would awaken to the moment.
If we were to awaken to the moment,
we would experience reality.
If we were to experience reality,
we would see that we are not our personality.
If we were to see that we are not our personality,
we would remember ourselves.
If we were to remember ourselves,
we would let go of our fear and attachments.
If we were to let go of our fear and attachments,
we would be touched by God.
If we were touched by God,
we would seek union with God.
If we were to seek union with God,
we would will what God wills.
If we were to will what God wills,
we would be transformed.
If we were transformed,
the world would be transformed.
If the world were transformed,
all would return to God.
–from The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson
Tuesday 4 February 2014
No comment - 2
I get the feeling that I'm relying on "No comment" strategy to avoid writing too much. But hey, in my defense, I created the following tables in the first place. I am only copy-pasting my notes from my wider readings of Briggs, Keirsey and Jungian theories as images below. No more comments!
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1>
2>
3>
4>
5>
6> J & P's communication breakdown causes
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No comment
My favorite news channel here in the UK is Euronews. I like it because it gives me good coverage of news in Europe and rest of the world. They don't sensationalize news too much and they present a fairly "unbiased" view of the world.
They do an interesting segment frequently on their channel called "No comment" TV. They only show live pictures and let the viewers make up their minds. For instance, in their coverage of the Middle east spring, the No Comment TV showed visuals of both sides and gave the viewers a chance to make up their own mind. I quite like that and would like to use that here.
The following images tell their own story. No comments!
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1> Gross external debt across nations
2> Happiness and average income
3> What makes us happy?
4> Well-being inequalities in UK
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They do an interesting segment frequently on their channel called "No comment" TV. They only show live pictures and let the viewers make up their minds. For instance, in their coverage of the Middle east spring, the No Comment TV showed visuals of both sides and gave the viewers a chance to make up their own mind. I quite like that and would like to use that here.
The following images tell their own story. No comments!
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1> Gross external debt across nations
2> Happiness and average income
3> What makes us happy?
4> Well-being inequalities in UK
Saturday 25 January 2014
Word cloud - 2
I've been reading two books which I guess I've already mentioned in the blog previously - Keirsey's - Please understand me and Briggs' - Gifts differing. I think I've also mentioned that my MBTI type is ENFP.
Based on my reading of the two books and some related journals, youtube videos etc, I did a SWOT analysis of the ENFP type. Obviously, the list was tailored to things that describe me best, things that I could relate to more closely. It is a SWOT analysis of the way I see things and the way I perceive myself.
I wanted to see how the word clouds come out for my strengths and weaknesses and see if they can tell me anything new. Strengths cloud I guess was fine and it did tell me a decent story, weaknesses cloud did not tell me much. Nevertheless, an interesting exercise and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
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Strengths:
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Weaknesses:
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- Sandeep Kowshik
Based on my reading of the two books and some related journals, youtube videos etc, I did a SWOT analysis of the ENFP type. Obviously, the list was tailored to things that describe me best, things that I could relate to more closely. It is a SWOT analysis of the way I see things and the way I perceive myself.
I wanted to see how the word clouds come out for my strengths and weaknesses and see if they can tell me anything new. Strengths cloud I guess was fine and it did tell me a decent story, weaknesses cloud did not tell me much. Nevertheless, an interesting exercise and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
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Strengths:
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Weaknesses:
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- Sandeep Kowshik
Friday 24 January 2014
Word cloud
I first saw a word cloud a few years ago and I thought it was a really smart idea. A word cloud takes a bunch of words and highlights the most frequently used words in different sizes.
It's a great technique and I've seen people use it in different forms in different situations. I've been fortunate enough to be part of several projects that have addressed things like work process improvement, communication improvement, morale improvement etc etc. And typically in such projects you collect tons of data and analyze it to death and come up with your suggestions.
But there was one guy who did something different and he came up with this word cloud. I was impressed. It basically summarized all the data we had in front of us and gave us a good feeling of the most prominent mood in the office.
I would say it's a nice and easy tool if you want to look at a lot of data in a short time. It obviously will not give you the results of a deep dive, but it's a quick and dirty summary if you are short of time.
You can build word clouds in http://tagcrowd.com/ or http://www.wordle.net/. The one you see below comes from tagcrowd and is a list of words I've used in my blogs so far. Glad to see words like leadership, knowledge, books, agile etc. Also looks like I use the word "lot", a lot of times. Interesting!
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It's a great technique and I've seen people use it in different forms in different situations. I've been fortunate enough to be part of several projects that have addressed things like work process improvement, communication improvement, morale improvement etc etc. And typically in such projects you collect tons of data and analyze it to death and come up with your suggestions.
But there was one guy who did something different and he came up with this word cloud. I was impressed. It basically summarized all the data we had in front of us and gave us a good feeling of the most prominent mood in the office.
I would say it's a nice and easy tool if you want to look at a lot of data in a short time. It obviously will not give you the results of a deep dive, but it's a quick and dirty summary if you are short of time.
You can build word clouds in http://tagcrowd.com/ or http://www.wordle.net/. The one you see below comes from tagcrowd and is a list of words I've used in my blogs so far. Glad to see words like leadership, knowledge, books, agile etc. Also looks like I use the word "lot", a lot of times. Interesting!
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Tuesday 21 January 2014
Social media, Lol :)
Lol, I love this one. Answers one of my previous blog questions, to tweet or not to tweet :)
Source: http://xkcd.com/1239/
Source: http://xkcd.com/1239/
Monday 20 January 2014
Top 100 websites
I found this on Ted blog, the top 100 websites that you should know and use. It is an interesting collection of websites and is characterized by themes. I have pasted some themes that interest me below. You can find the complete list here... http://blog.ted.com/2007/08/03/100_websites_yo/
I read hbr blogs frequently, I also have an app on my smartphone and I diligently read a tip everyday.
I have seen kickstarter.com and I think it is a collection of some brave ideas.
I have used coursera.org to do a couple of courses in finance.
I have seen khanacademy.org, but I didn't enjoy those lectures much.
Apart from that, I have never used the rest. Never heard of them. Considering the sluggish pace at which my money is growing, I definitely have to visit getrichslowly.org. Rest will have to wait, no chance of even clicking and opening them this year!
I read hbr blogs frequently, I also have an app on my smartphone and I diligently read a tip everyday.
I have seen kickstarter.com and I think it is a collection of some brave ideas.
I have used coursera.org to do a couple of courses in finance.
I have seen khanacademy.org, but I didn't enjoy those lectures much.
Apart from that, I have never used the rest. Never heard of them. Considering the sluggish pace at which my money is growing, I definitely have to visit getrichslowly.org. Rest will have to wait, no chance of even clicking and opening them this year!
BUSINESS + E-COMMERCE
- blogs.hbr.org
- fastcompany.com
- entrepreneur.com
- dealbook.nytimes.com
- thebillfold.com
- kickstarter.com
- indiegogo.com
- rockethub.com
- etsy.com
- kiva.org
- marginalrevolution.com
- learnvest.com
- getrichslowly.org/blog
- ritholtz.com/blog
- consumerist.com
- npr.org/blogs/money
- blog.priceonomics.com
- freakonomics.com/blog
AUDIO + VISUAL
- thisiscolossal.com
- creativetimereports.org
- designobserver.com
- hyperallergic.com
- transom.org
- atavist.com
- thirdcoastfestival.org
- nfb.ca/interactive
- woostercollective.com
- c-monster.net
- artfagcity.com
- pitchfork.com
- blog.largeheartedboy.com
EDUCATION
- edsurge.com
- khanacademy.org
- edx.org
- coursera.org
- udacity.com
- generalassemb.ly
- baeo.org
- edweek.org
- nces.ed.gov
- greatschools.org
- stand.org
- crpe.org
CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE
- reuters.com
- research.philips.com
- readme.cc.png
- podtropolis.com
- papertoys.com
- new7wonders.com
- lipsum.com
- thomasedison.org
- beelinetv.com
- useit.com
- submarinechannel.com/titlesequences
- visual-literacy.org
- cartype.com
- captology.stanford.edu
- bannerblog.com_au
- ge.com
- curiosityshoppeonline.com
- creativecommons.org
- lawsofsimplicity.com
- gnu.org
- digg.com
ONLINE RESOURCES
- infopresse.com/prixboomerang
- rjnet.com.br/2velocimetro_php
- vixy.net [redirects to jaksta.com/vixy-download-youtube-videos-free/]
- kuler.adobe.com
- wikitravel.org
- thinkingwithtype.com
- dominiopublico.gov.br
- madehow.com
- icp.org
- howstuffworks.com
- dafont.com
- dictionary.reference.com
- gutenberg.org
- nationmaster.com
- en.proverbia.net
- del.icio.us
- touchgraph.com
Top 25 books
I love my books and I thoroughly enjoy reading them. I have a small library of books in my house, not a lot, may be about 20-25 books. But then, this collection started only about 3-4 years ago. One fine day, I want to build my own wavy shaped book shelf and decorate the study room with my collection of books!
Today, I stumbled upon time's list of top 25 management books of all times. I'm so glad that I've read about 7 of the top 25 and I can tell you that they are all fantastic reads. I own three more that and I hope to read by end of this year. I'm tempted to buy some more from the list, but I think that will too ambitious for this year.
Here is the list. The books I've read are highlighted in Green, Blue is books I own and plan to read this year. The rest will have to wait :(
Today, I stumbled upon time's list of top 25 management books of all times. I'm so glad that I've read about 7 of the top 25 and I can tell you that they are all fantastic reads. I own three more that and I hope to read by end of this year. I'm tempted to buy some more from the list, but I think that will too ambitious for this year.
Here is the list. The books I've read are highlighted in Green, Blue is books I own and plan to read this year. The rest will have to wait :(
- The Age of Unreason (1989), by Charles Handy
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (1994), by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
- Competing for the Future (1996), by Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad
- Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (1980), by Michael E. Porter
- Emotional Intelligence (1995), by Daniel Goleman
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Business Don't Work and What to Do about It (1985), by Michael E. Gerber
- The Essential Drucker (2001), by Peter Drucker
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990), by Peter Senge
- First, Break All the Rules (1999), by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
- The Goal (1984), by Eliyahu Goldratt
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't (2001), by Jim Collins
- Guerilla Marketing (1984), by Jay Conrad Levinson
- How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), by Dale Carnegie
- The Human Side of Enterprise (1960), by Douglas McGregor
- The Innovator's Dilemma (1997), by Clayton Christensen
- Leading Change (1996), by John P. Kotter
- On Becoming a Leader (1989), by Warren Bennis
- Out of the Crisis (1982), by W. Edwards Deming
- My Years with General Motors (1964), by Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
- The One Minute Manager (1982), by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
- Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (1993), by James Champy and Michael Hammer
- The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989), by Stephen R. Covey
- The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola and other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance(2000), by Peter S. Pande, Robert P. Neuman and Roland R. Cavanagh
- Toyota Production System (1988), by Taiichi Ohno
- Who Moved My Cheese? (1998), by Spencer Johnson
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