TQM story...

Read a funny story related to TQM today. I don't about you, but I burst out laughing when I read such things. Don't know if it's a fact or a myth, it's a good one either way.

A company once ordered a batch of components from a Japanese manufacturer and specified that the batch should have an acceptable quality level of three defective parts per thousand. The parts were dispatched by the Japanese company along with a letter. The letter said something like this...

We found it extremely hard to believe that the customer would request for defective parts as well as good ones, but indeed we have managed to produce them all. These three defective parts have been manufactured and packaged separately for the convenience of the customer!

Gratitude...

 I'll start with a small story. I met an old friend from London recently. He had just completed his first full time corporate job and he was telling me all about the great experiences in his job.  He spoke in length about the good relationship he shared with his colleagues and his managers. The conversations and the work stories he shared sounded too pleasant to be true and the cynic in me dismissed it as that’s how you feel in your first job!

I probed him further and he told me about a ritual he followed every day. On his way to work, Rohit would always think about his firm. He would thank the firm for giving him this wonderful opportunity; thank his managers for sharing their knowledge and for patiently dealing with the novice in Rohit. I was impressed!

Coincidentally, my character strengths profile (From viame.org) highlighted that gratitude was one of my lower strengths. I found that it is often easy to be critical and look for things that are wrong and form opinions about what needs to be fixed (Rather who needs to be fixed!). Further analysis led me to understand that I find it harder to acknowledge people for giving me their time and patience and pass it off as something obvious that doesn't have to be stated.

Cons:

I was concerned that too much focus on a lower strength can negatively impact some of my signature strengths. I firmly believe that each behavior has a pro and con, so I explored the cons of too much gratitude. Studies have shown that too much gratitude goes towards indebtedness, which is an unpleasant feeling of obligation. Looking back at some experiences in my life, I've realized that indebtedness has had significant impact on some of my relationships. These bad experiences meant that gratitude slowly deserted me and I treated every interaction as a transaction – I give you something and you give me something back in return.

What next?

State it: I’d like to start with addressing my hesitation to show gratefulness. I would like to challenge myself and thank people for being nice and helpful. Of course, I would want to be mindful so that I should be authentic and only say things that I mean, and not say it when I don’t mean it. At the same time, I would also want to make sure that gratitude does not grow into indebtedness.

Further, I've decided to write at least two things each day about things I am grateful for and people/experiences that have made me feel good. I intend to do this for the next two weeks and see if it makes me feel any better and help me improve one of my lower strengths.

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P.S – Meanwhile, thank you all for reading the blog :P

The Ashes....

Have been following the Ashes - Eng & Aus fight it out in England this time.Two hilarious things from the Ashes I heard from the last couple of days...

1> Ashton Agar was given out caught behind by the third umpire. Michael holding couldn't believe that the decision, it was very poor considering the video evidence did not suggest a nick. Note that the ball was miles away from the pad!. So Michael holding goes...

"How is this given out? How is he out... LBW?"

2> This was piece written in an Australian news paper after the first innings Ashes defeat...

"Cricket Australia has been experimenting with Shane Watson for a while. They are trying to make him into a test batsmen, and the experiment is in it's 43rd attempt!!!"

Visualization

I recently came across something called Plato's Allegory of the cave - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave. I read quite a bit around the allegory and have tried to relate it to me and my thoughts. Read below...

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I realized that my understanding of the world, my interaction with people and my behavior with people is all determined by the story I create in my own mind. I started probing the mental image I have created of myself and of the people around me. I found it weird that some images of people are my own creations, an exaggerated static painting of my feelings towards the person. Try it, give it a minute, just think of a person you know and think about the image of the person that flashes in your mind.

But what we don't realize is that the person you knew yesterday is not the same person today. So, does that not make the mental image invalid? I heard a great adage which goes on the lines that the person who starts a sentence is not the same person when he gets to the end of the sentence. The person you were angry with yesterday is not the same person today. This analogy and adage to an extent opened my mind up about my behavior and attitude towards people. I realized that the image I leave in my mind can be detrimental to my personal and professional relationships.

And what about my own image of myself. Well, I realized that I sometimes (or most of the times) allow the image to be distorted by people around me. Rather, the perceived feelings of people around me, people I care about controls the image I carry. Doesn't sound like the right thing to do, does it? Probably not.

Co-incidentally, at the same time, I stumbled upon techniques used by sports people to train their mind and focus on the game (Cricketers to be more specific, Sachin to be even more specific!). I read that they use visualization techniques to visualize the game and to feel the environment before going into the game.

So, can I use visualization to mould images stored in my mind. Probably worth giving it a try I reckon, will let you know how I get on with it.

Observation...

Been a while since I was here! Work, study, travel, family and what not has taken a toll on my online life. Promise to get back into the zone. Not that the demand on my time has reduced, just that I have organized myself better by getting a weekly planner in place today! Obviously my daily planner has failed to deliver, hope the weekly one works for me!

Read an awesome quote on Espncricinfo from Sanjay Manjrekar during the first Ashes test match 2013.
"Indian TV Commentary is a lot about opinions, English TV Commentary is a lot about observations". What an observation Sanjay! Loved it.

All the more because for the last 8-10 months all I have heard about is reflection, reflection and more reflection. I remember Andy Murray talking about reflection in one of his interviews. My mindful manager course is all about self-reflection and learning from it. I went to an awesome talk last week and the speaker - spoke mostly about his experience and his learning's from his experience.

So what?

I have added "Reflection" as a task in my weekly calender. I rest my case :)

Hype cycle for Agile

I found a paper that talks about the Hype cycle for Agile methodology. It scares me that Agile is close to the "Trough of disillusionment". All the more because my Software project management role is all about implementing the Agile processes and integrating it with the heavy weight project management processes!

A new idea or technology hits the trough when the early adopters realize that the idea after all is not as good as it the initial expectations. It's like the bubble bursting on Agile! You can find some more details about Hype Cycle here http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1047223059457664714#editor/target=post;postID=638745433126602063;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=16;src=postname

If you are truly interested, you can read this well written paper here http://darkagilemanifesto.org/dark-side-of-agile-janes-succi-splash-2012.pdf

-Sandeep Kowshik

Cognitive dissonance...

Wow!! Just read the following examples:

1> Anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or like, as when one likes a person but disapproves of one of his or her habits.

2> You go to the store at lunch time when you're already hungry and a little cross. You snap at the sales person, perhaps calling her a really unkind name and use hurtful adjectives. Your belief about yourself, however, is that you're a good person, and good people don't hurt or belittle the sales help. You and many people--in fact most--solve the uncomfortable situation by demonizing the sales clerk. "She was stupid and not doing her job at all. She deserved it because she's a bad person. I'm still a good person, but she was awful and deserved my ire." You have self justified and made her the bad guy. Mistakes were made, but not by you.

There is a term to describe this feeling, and it's called Cognitive Dissonance. This is exactly what I've been looking for for a long long time. This just explains so many things going on in my personal and professional life! 

CD for me is a close cousin of Confirmation Bias. CB is when you read or like to hear things that confirm your beliefs. Believe it or not, CD and CB go beyond this, it's also used by marketing professionals to explain consumer behavior! More to follow soon.